Update: Plot twist. 

The White House won’t immediately appeal this ruling. 

Josh Blackman has an interesting post explaining the possible paths going forward for the Trump administration. 

The temporary restraining order against President Trump’s executive order is still in effect, as you probably know. Josh Blackman has a good analysis of the ruling on his website, which I would recommend reading. There are a number of fascinating and disturbing elements of this decision, including the imposition of a “no evidence” standard upon the Trump administration. Although some are attempting to put the best face on what is a sweeping, unprecedented ruling, the truth is that we are entering uncharted waters. We have the largest circuit court in the federal system essentially erasing the plenary power doctrine as it relates to immigration matters.

The fact that the administration was intentionally hamstrung in its appeal is irrelevant in the larger context, i.e. we are dealing with a federal judiciary that’s unwilling to recognize Congressional and presidential authority to execute immigration law. What’s more, the reasoning, such as it is, behind this decision is so shoddy that it would be laughable if the consequences weren’t so dire. The idea that universities and colleges have a vested interest, i.e. continuing the flow of tuition dollars from the coffers of foreign students, which supersedes the national security concerns of the President and his cabinet would be an absurdity in any other era. Keep in mind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the defiant architect of the 9/11 massacres, was brought to the United States along with other Muslim students from abroad in order to pad the enrollment and keep afloat a struggling North Carolina college.

Even if the statutory and Constitutional rationales for enjoining the President’s executive order are incredibly weak-which they are-that doesn’t make the path forward any easier. Whether the administration decides to rewrite this EO from scratch, as some have suggested, or simply appeals to the Supreme Court, those of us who believe that American interests outweigh those of foreign nationals and international organizations have already been dealt a grievous blow by a judiciary which no longer recognizes itself as a co-equal branch of government.

How long before this quasi-ironic tweet becomes a reality? I suppose we’ll find out soon enough.

Despite the stream of propaganda spewed by the legacy media, the biggest fear the public had of a Trump administration had nothing to do with Vladimir Putin’s Russia or a white nationalist uprising. In fact, the main worry of Trump supporters was that his presidency would simply be business as usual. In other words, a White House dominated by globalist rope-sellers  and corporatist retreads who do not care about American identity. The idea of perpetual debt, unceasing third world immigration, and a continuation of pointless military interventions in Middle Eastern backwaters is something we all feared would come to pass.

Unfortunately, the most recent decisions and statements to come from the Trump transition have not done much to dispel these fears. The fact that Kris Kobach will not be nominated to oversee the Department of Homeland Security is disquieting, to say the least. The fact that he was paraded in front of the White House press corps, seemingly as nothing more than a sop to patriotic immigration reformers, reinforces the belief that President-elect Trump is not genuinely committed to this cause. Even though General Kelly is not the worst possible choice, he also isn’t a shaper of groundbreaking immigration enforcement policies, nor a brilliant immigration law scholar. What’s more, it’s doubtful that he will have the same commitment to prosecuting a national campaign against illegal immigration that Mr. Kobach would have. Coupled with the impending nomination of a Labor Secretary who is an open borders zealot, it makes one wonder what the point of this election was.

Another troubling indication of things to come is Donald Trump’s waffling on President Obama’s unconstitutional administrative amnesties. A central plank of his political platform was the elimination of DACA and DAPA, yet he seemingly left open the option of giving relief to millions of illegal aliens who fall under these 2 executive actions during an interview with Time Magazine. His use of the obnoxious euphemism DREAMer to describe these individuals, many of whom are fully grown adults with tenuous-if any-connections to the United States is particularly galling. Will a President Trump sign Leapin’ Lindsey’s amnesty bill if it passes Congress and reaches his desk? Only time will tell, but these are not good signs for those of us who believed Donald Trump would indeed drain the swamp.

The returns were barely in before the postmortems to this election were already being written. Naturally, the mainstream news media have completely misread last night’s results, continuing to ignore the electorate’s contempt for the open borders dogmatism which has guided American elite opinion on the subject of immigration for the past five decades. Thankfully, the invaluable Daniel Horowitz has come forth to shed some much-needed light upon what happened on Tuesday. 

I doubt that new Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will read his piece, but you should. It illuminates one of the most underreported and unappreciated political trends occurring in this country. Namely, the backlash against mass immigration among voters who should be the Republican Party’s most reliable constituents and supporters.

As the White House contemplates an expansion of its constitutionally dubious administrative amnesty, it’s worth taking a look at how the treason lobby’s Republican accomplices are dealing with the public’s repudiation of their most cherished legislative priority, i.e. opening the spigot to an endless stream of cheap, imported labor. A particularly revealing exchange happened a week or so ago on the Laura Ingraham Show during an interview with faux conservative Rep. Renee Ellmers, a woman who ran for Congress under the banner of the Tea Party.

Instead of listening to the concerns expressed by her constituents on the subject of immigration reform, i.e. amnesty,  however, she has decided to throw in her lot with the one of the most lavishly-funded, dense Capitol Hill lobbying networks. Which might explain why Tamar Jacoby and her allies are rallying around the embattled congresswoman even as conservative North Carolinians seek viable alternatives to the complacent incumbent.

While the Republican Party leadership doesn’t get it, Republican voters understand the necessity of preventing the implementation of another amnesty for which the GOP will (rightly) be held culpable. An amnesty that will make the election of candidates like Renee Ellmers an impossibility in the near future, something that open borders Republicans like her don’t seem to grasp.

Good on her! If only other ostensible Republican leaders had the same fortitude and clarity of vision.

If only.

The colossal stupidity of their current course is obvious, but it evidently won’t deter Boehner et. al. from committing collective political suicide. The only thing standing in the way of the naturalization and enfranchisement of tens of millions of illegal aliens is the American public, which still steadfastly opposes amnesty and ranks its passage somewhere below the war on bed bugs in terms of national political imperatives. 

The time when we can force the hands of the pathetic representatives who ostensibly represent the Republican Party is almost past, but we still have some time to make our voices heard. It’s time to repeat the rout of 2007. 

Here’s the roll call vote confirming Jeh Johnson as the next Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. There are a number of interesting inferences that can be made from the “nay” side of the ledger, which constituted a little over a third of the Republican Conference. While some of the votes  don’t require elaboration-such as that cast by immigration patriot Jeff Sessions-others might strike the casual observer as somewhat surprising.

The decision by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to oppose Johnson’s nomination has little to do with principled disagreement with the Obama administration’s illegitimate amnesty plans-as he is one of the chief reasons the Gang of Eight amnesty bill was approved by the Senate-and is likely tied to a home state Tea Party challenger whom he will face in next year’s Republican primary. 

Senator Rubio-the Republican veneer of the Gang of Eight bill-knows all too well the career-ending consequences posed by an ostensibly conservative challenger, which is why he’s spent the latter half of this year furiously running away from the legislative amnesty that he will be in large part responsible for enacting, should immigration reform be implemented in the coming months.

Whether these politically opportunistic decisions will matter in the end remains to be seen, but the fact that there is a glaring lack of leadership among Senate Republicans is indisputable. Don’t expect much in the way of critical oversight when Janet Napolitano’s drearily similar successor sets up shop at DHS.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:E_brownjr.jpg

While most of us would see intense wealth stratification, large pockets of third world poverty, and cratering academic achievement as poor indicators of future prosperity, the governor of the nation’s largest state begs to differ. 

Asked on National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered” about two negative indicators — the state’s nation-high poverty rate and the large number of Californians who are unemployed or marginally employed and looking for work — Brown said, “Well, that’s true, because California is a magnet. 

“People come here from all over in the world, close by from Mexico and Central America and farther out from Asia and the Middle East. So, California beckons, and people come. And then, of course, a lot of people who arrive are not that skilled, and they take lower paying jobs. And that reflects itself in the economic distribution.”

Ah, the philosophical sophistry that politicians will indulge in the name of political expediency. Yet another benefit of the beautiful mosaic.

One of the most cogent, meticulous refutations of the anti-enforcement mindset animating the Gang of Eight was written by Daniel Horowitz, a prominent blogger for Red State, during the initial Senate debate on this atrocious bill. Joseph Cotto provides an edifying summary of Horowitz’s work in Washington Times Communities, but I urge you to parse the original source.  

Whether Mr. Horowitz will be remembered as this debate’s Cassandra or will provide the impetus for the last great counterattack that thwarts the imposition of amnesty remains to be seen. However, as American citizens we  need to avail ourselves of the information at our fingertips and not allow ourselves to be led, once again, up the garden path.

As expected, the Senate Judiciary Committee officially rubber-stamped the Gang of Eight proposal through to the full Senate yesterday. With the assent of Mitch McConnell and other Chuck Schumer Republicans, it looks increasingly like patriotic opponents of this disastrous “reform” will have to make their stand in the House of Representatives. We will be keeping you apprised of developments-as always-in the days and weeks ahead, but today’s post is devoted to extending our condolences to the victims of the devastating natural disaster that destroyed large parts of Moore, Oklahoma on Monday. 

As rescue efforts reach their conclusion in the wake of the worst tornado to hit Oklahoma in over a decade, the recovery effort begins in earnest. Despite the immense damage inflicted upon the state, there are some hopeful stories, such as the rescue of over a hundred people from the rubble of their homes and businesses. There are already Facebook groups devoted to reuniting survivors with lost belongings, as well as drives helping them care for their no doubt anxious pets.

Large disaster relief and charitable organizations are also doing their best to help out the people of Moore as they begin the long road to recovery, including Americares and the always generous Salvation Army. Team Rubicon-whose heroic efforts at helping people both here and abroad we’ve documented in the past-is also actively assisting the victims of this horrific tornado, which still threatens the lives and homes of those in its path.

You can find numerous ways to volunteer, from fundraising to actively assisting on the ground, on Team Rubicon’s website. For those of you of a more religious mindset, I’m sure that prayers for the many Oklahomans devastated by this extreme weather event would be welcomed by many in the impacted area. In any case, I know that many Americans will be thinking of them as they begin their protracted struggle to restore some semblance of normality to their lives.