Finally, a dose of good news in what’s been an otherwise grim year for those of us looking for signs of sanity among this nation’s public officials. Kudos to ALIPAC, as well as other immigration enforcement and reform activists in the Tar Heel State, for pressuring North Carolinian legislators to do the right thing! It’s a rare enough occurrence in the halls of power, but virtually unheard of when it comes to the issue of immigration. Kudos to Governor McCrory and his supporters for finally standing up to the treason lobby and asserting the rights of American citizens over the pleadings of criminal aliens.

It turns out that the Coulter-Kaus debate was broadcast on one of  C-SPAN’s many outlets yesterday, despite the unofficial CPAC ban on discussion of the most important domestic political issue. You can watch the full debate here. In addition to covering the political costs of amnesty and the legally and constitutionally dubious nature of the Obama administration’s administrative amnesty, they also explore the Democratic and Republican presidential fields and the political and economic consequences of Obamacare, as well as entitlement reform. 

How do you read the Constitution in a foreign language? It’s a question that I’m sure Samuel Huntington  can answer. On the other hand, I doubt the brains behind the seemingly inexorable tragedy engineered by the Gang of Eight could articulate a cogent reply. They’re too busy focusing on optics and ways to sell their new and improved crap sandwich.

As Mr. Levin says, it’s difficult enough to communicate the importance of this nation’s founding documents to  people whose native tongue is English. Just imagine how much harder the task will be once we add millions more who speak one of the 300+ languages other than English to the multilingual mix!

A sobering prospect to think about as we head into the weekend.

It turns out that this the arguments marshaled in favor of today’s amnesty are nothing new. But we already knew that, didn’t we? Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

One of the most frustrating aspects of the debate over illegal immigration is the inescapable sense that we’re watching the performance of an ever-recurring, yet interminable and tedious, play. The proponents of amnesty regurgitate a series of formulaic talking points that we’ve become inured to, beginning with the specious assertion that “we’re not going to deport 11 people,” and usually concluding with the declaration that we need to grant all of these illegal aliens American citizenship. Opponents feel compelled to respond with well-reasoned, amply documented rebuttals that are blithely dismissed by open borders advocates, if they’re considered at all.

Mark Krikorian has noted the groundhog day-like quality to these discussions, and Mickey Kaus has explored on more than one occasion the intellectual incoherence-or insincerity-of amnesty advocates who purportedly believe that we should begin enforcing immigration laws after the latest batch of illegal aliens is legalized and enfranchised. It worked swimmingly the last time it was tried, if I’m not mistaken.

Our good friend Anthony Bialy has a fantastic piece which explains once again why an old, bad idea remains a bad idea, even repackaged. I highly recommend reading it in its entirety.

h/t Anthony Bialy.

A must-watch video of testimony that explains how the Obama administration is fudging the numbers in its quest to implement amnesty, and why it will cost Americans dearly.

There are a number of problems with Thom Hartmann’s assertions, not the least being that approximately half of illegal aliens are not here because they overstayed their visas. Although he is correct in asserting that this group constitutes a growing portion of the illegal immigrant population living here, even if-like most things touching upon an activity that is illegal-accounting for specific sub-groups within this demographic cohort-much less pinpointing how they came here with any specificity-is nearly impossible. 

Putting aside that cavil, much of his monologue correctly identifies the fatal flaws of past amnesties such as the Simpson-Mazzoli Act, which served as the predicate for the disastrous amnesty proposals now being crafted on Capitol Hill and promoted by the White House. It should come as no surprise that the authors of the law which opened the spigot of illegal immigration during the Reagan administration also support these ill-conceived plans.

The fact that Republican officeholders have served as one of the chief impediments to immigration enforcement is an uncomfortable yet inexorable truth. As Roy Beck explained in painstaking detail during his speech to the Penn Club earlier this year, the main reason E-Verify-which the Obama administration had signaled it might eventually support-was not implemented on a federal level during the last session of Congress was due to obstructionism on the part of House Republican leaders such as Speaker Boehner and powerful committee chairman such as Fred Upton.

It’s something to keep in mind the next time you watch John Boehner punish wayward House conservatives for daring to stand up for principle, even as he schemes with like-minded confidence men in Washington intent upon continuing the strip-mining of American citizenship.

Tune in later today, at 3:30 PM sharp, to watch Numbers USA’s live webcast. It takes place every Thursday afternoon. Today Roy Beck & Co. will probably discuss his organization’s phenomenal TV ad campaign pressuring Congressman Dave Camp to free the E-Verify bill from his Ways & Means Committee. As I’ve pointed out in the past, this is the only significant immigration enforcement measure with a chance of passing during this session of Congress, which is why this debate is so pivotal. I urge you all to tune in later today to see what Roy has to say about it.

That, of course, is Roy Beck, the founder and executive director of Numbers USA, which-as I’m sure my readers are well aware-is the single most effective grassroots organization lobbying on Capitol Hill for immigration enforcement. I had the pleasure of listening to a fascinating address he delivered at the Penn Club in Manhattan last month, the penultimate in a series of lectures sponsored by the Center for Immigration Studies-events that attempt to cultivate journalists, writers, and intellects living and working in New York who share a common interest in the subject of immigration.

Mr. Beck’s speech focused largely upon the Sisyphean task he and his colleagues face in persuading resistant lawmakers to address our sieve-like system of federal immigration enforcement. Numbers USA was  created from the ashes of the Jordan Commission, whose recommendations-including that the number of immigrants return to its historical norm of 200 to 250,000 per year-were wholly ignored by both Congress and the president at the time, William Jefferson Clinton. The testimony of Congresswoman Jordan is worth revisiting, for it illustrates how far short the federal government has fallen of the goals laid out by  the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform. Contrast how she frames her first point:

Our goal should be zero apprehensions-not because aliens get past the Border Patrol but because they are prevented entry in the first place.

With the wholesale abandonment of enforcement at the border by the current administration, which coincides with ICE’s administrative amnesty for over 300,000 illegal aliens. One of the primary objectives of the Jordan Commission is as elusive as it was when first enunciated  nearly two decades ago.

The second plank in the commission’s recommendations, i.e. removing the jobs magnet that attracts so many illegal aliens-and which allows them to remain in this country indefinitely-is still relevant, however. In fact, the movement to eliminate this spigot of illegal immigration through E-Verify formed the basis of Roy Beck’s talk, which focused mainly on his organization’s attempts to move HR 2885, the Legal Workforce Act, through Congress and onto the President’s desk.

Although a contentious issue even among allies-mainly because it preempts statewide immigration crackdowns-the move to implement mandatory E-Verify on a federal level is the only enforcement-specific bill that has a realistic shot at being passed before the end of this session of Congress. That’s why Roy Beck chose this subject as his platform for his speech before the Penn Club. As someone who works Capitol Hill on a daily basis trying to impart patriotic Americans’ point of view to member of Congress, he is in the ideal position to see how immigration law is made, or in the case of E-Verify, thwarted.

The takeaway from his speech, unfortunately, is that the change in House leadership from Nancy Pelosi to John Boehner last year has been, if anything, a net negative as it concerns advancing legislation like E-Verify. The new Speaker has done everything in his capacity to see that enforcement measures die in committee, mirroring the open borders dogmatism of his predecessor. While his lieutenants, in this case Chairman Fred Upton of the Ways & Means Committee, obstruct the implementation of employer verification on parochial grounds, i.e. it infringes upon his committee’s jurisdiction over Social Security, Boehner’s opposition is rooted in ideology.

As hard as it is to believe that someone as politically calculating as Boehner could hold any deep philosophical convictions, his hostility to employer verification and enforcement is deeply ingrained. In fact, this longstanding opposition has been noted by many observers-not least by Numbers USA itself-and his superficial support for employer sanctions was merely a pretext to ingratiate himself with skeptical conservatives before attaining power. The remarkable aspect of his stance though is that he maintains it in spite of  Chamber of Commerce support  for E-Verify, a political breakthrough that Roy Beck  admitted would have been unthinkable in 2010.

Numbers USA has conducted polls that demonstrate a solid majority among all ethnic groups and political affiliations back E-Verify-most demographics supporting the measure in excess of seventy percent-but the political appeal of immigration enforcement among the general public has never been a strong selling point among GOP power-brokers. However, a creature of the Chamber of Commerce-which even  Boehner’s admirers would probably admit is a fair description of the current Speaker of the House-doggedly opposing a bill on which the Chamber has signed off demonstrates how committed he and his deputies are to preserving the status quo, i.e.  prolonged unemployment for millions of Americans and an endless stream of unskilled, cheap labor. Two problems that states which take this problem seriously don’t seem to be experiencing.

How, then, do Americans who care about this issue passionately change things? If the leader of a party that ostensibly cares about illegal immigration-or at least makes a pretense of caring during periodic election cycles-won’t do anything to advance a bill that has nearly universal support-even, rhetorically at least, from President Obama-what alternative remains? One of the bright spots of Beck’s talk was his insistence that grassroots citizen activism does have a tangible impact within the Republican Caucus, even at the leadership level.

Although it might not seem like it from public pronouncements, the faxes, e-mails, phone calls and letters sent to Republican congressmen-and to a lesser extent, responsive Democratic congressmen-exert pressure upon them to hold the line, which is why we were able to defeat the Dream Act when it came up for a vote during Harry Reid’s lame duck session of Congress in 2010. However, even Republican members with solid credentials on immigration enforcement are wavering on this issue-as are those GOPers with more opportunistic stances on immigration-so pressure must be constantly applied, even in those cases where you might not think it necessary.

I’m convinced that the fundamental lesson to be gleaned from the experience of Roy Beck and Numbers USA is that the mission of defending America is ongoing and requires extreme vigilance; an anecdote Beck recounted in which Frank Sharry lamented what seemed like the imminent passage of E-Verify during a forum in which they both participated is illustrative in this regard. The forces supporting unfettered immigration and defiance of the law never relent, even after repeated rebukes, because they realize that there is an extensive, well-funded lobby-furnished with copy by almost the entire news media-ready to push on a partially open door-in the form of Congress and this administration-in order to see their agenda enacted.

We have neither the seemingly endless coffers nor the pliant apparatchiks placed throughout media circles enjoyed by our opponents. On the other hand, we do have something that open borders advocates can not lay claim to. Namely, the enthusiastic support of the American public. We also have cadres of citizen activists in the truest sense of the phrase; these are people who are not rewarded with lavish endowments from the Ford Foundation, but rather seek only to protect the lives and careers of their fellow Americans.

This is why Numbers USA serves such a vital function to the immigration enforcement and reform movement. It amplifies our voice and pipes it into the ears of lawmakers who customarily refuse to hear anything that contradicts their shared assumptions about immigration. As Mark Krikorian said in his introductory remarks, while the Center for Immigration Studies has immeasurable work as the think tank of immigration realists, without Numbers USA we would be lost as a country. That’s why I urge all of you to enlist in the struggle and support the work of Roy Beck and his colleagues.

You can start by visiting the action center on their official website, where you’ll be able to reach out to lawmakers-including your own congressmen and senators-who are reluctant warriors-or in some cases, opponents-in this battle. Numbers USA does yeoman’s work, but it can’t do its job without the assistance of thousands of ordinary American citizens fed up with how Washington D.C. works.

In today’s Rattle, we cover everything from the Obama administration’s continued dismantling of border security and immigration enforcement, to the trivialization of the Civil Rights Movement by the open borders left, to congressional oversight into Attorney General Eric Holder’s obstruction of justice in the Fast and Furious probe.

But first, we look at the increasingly misnamed Southern Poverty Law Center, which continues its progressive slide into buffoonery with a report into the national security threat posed by purportedly misogynistic weblogs. As Mark Krikorian explains in The Corner, the SPLC has adopted new hate objects now that its demonization of patriotic immigration reformers has run its course. Notwithstanding the dearth of civil rights violations by non-government entities or white-on-black crimes-the ostensible raison d’etre for the organization, the SPLC continues to rake in millions of dollars from credulous liberals. Even so, the fundamental illegitimacy of Morris Dees’ operation hasn’t escaped notice, and its laughable mission is now the source of mockery on countless blogs and websites.

On a much more distressing note, yet another vicious attack by an illegal alien has been recorded in Lexington, South Carolina. In a case of life imitating art, Jose Hernandez Mendez has been charged with a string of brutal machete attacks against innocent South Carolinians and is being held on an immigration detainer. As those of you who’ve been following American Rattlesnake probably know, the dramatic spike of machete attacks inside of the United States correlates with the increase in illegal and legal immigration from Central America and Mexico, hubs for brutal criminal gangs like MS-13  and Los Zetas. Look for more such arrests-and less preventive deportations-in the future as this administration removes even the faintest veneer of immigration enforcement. What’s more, the exodus of emigrants from Latin America will increase as these organized crime syndicates go global, as this piece from InSight demonstrates.

As for the lack of enforcement stateside, there are several new, disturbing developments to report. Even as John Morton moves to expedite the administrative amnesty implemented by this administration last year, the process of eviscerating this nation’s border security and internal immigration controls has been expanded to include the United States Border Patrol. Not content to merely persecute dedicated law enforcement officials like Agent Jesus Diaz, and heedless of the lack of interagency cooperation between Customs and Border Protection and ICE, this administration seems bent on doing away with whatever remaining obstacles impede or deter illegal aliens in any substantive way. But you need not fear, because Angelenos are being protected from counterfeit sex drugs peddled by septuagenerian Koreans! What tax dollars aren’t being funneled into fake Viagra suppression sweeps are being redirected to hormone therapy for transgendered illegal alien detainees.

There are a few-far too few, unfortunately-members of Congress objecting to cuts in border security appropriations, but the vast majority of congressmen seem to be mired in a state of torpor that would be risible if these individuals hadn’t been elected in order to represent our interests. This administration is in the process of eliminating even the vestiges of immigration enforcement-while simultaneously engaging in political charades intended to mask its true intentions-and the one possible check on its exercise of unconstitutional power shirks its oversight responsibility altogether. What’s more, the leaders of the Republican House majority are actively thwarting attempts by backbenchers in their own caucus to advance E-Verify, a state of affairs so blatant in nature that Numbers USA feels compelled to run television ads taking Speaker Boehner to task for his inaction.

Congress’s dereliction of duty has had a deleterious impact across a wide spectrum of issues. For example, a new audit from the Treasury Department’s Inspector General for Tax Administration found that illegal aliens and immigrants ineligible to work had pocketed over 4 billion dollars as beneficiaries of the Addition Child Tax Credit. As if the serial manipulation of our tax code for social engineering purposes and squandering of tax dollars for economic “stimulus” weren’t enough, our federal government is now subsidizing the creation of more anchor babies.

Perhaps one issue where Congress-or at least, its Republican membership-has continued to press this administration for accountability is its ongoing probe into the Fast and Furious fiasco. Breitbart.com’s Big Government reports on the growing chorus of Republican congressmen who have called upon Eric Holder to resign, a group which now includes former presidential candidate Michele Bachmann-who has pushed for a no-confidence vote on the Attorney General in the House of Representatives. To discover what the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee is doing to bring this administration to account, take a look at Representative Jason Chaffetz grilling Holder for his serial evasion and obstruction of justice.

While Congress vacillates between dithering and actively holding this administration to account for its skewed priorities, the impact of the greatest recession-and most stunted recovery-in decades continues to be felt by ordinary Americans. Unfortunately,  many of those Americans who are unemployed are not able to find work at home. As CNN reports, American manufacturers are scouring foreign shores to find qualified factory workers that allegedly do not exist in this country. However, much like the purported dearth of qualified American engineers, this media narrative is a complete and utter fabrication.

There are more than enough factory workers and engineers to occupy vacancies within their respective industries, but the problem is that “tech titans,” as the Wall Street Journal so lovingly describes them, would rather fill them with illegal aliens and imported workers using the H1-B visa program, which-as we’ve pointed out repeatedly in the past-is rife with fraud and corruption. The reason being that American workers expect to command a salary commensurate with their level of training and education, whereas foreigners can be locked into contracts that even supporters of lenient immigration laws compare to indentured servitude. These policies obviously have devastating consequences for Americans seeking employment, as this Edwin Rubenstein analysis of last month’s job data illustrates.

The quest to replace the American worker continues at nearly all levels, as does the attempt to stretch the increasingly elastic immigration laws that do exist. For example, in the state of Massachusetts, Senator Scott Brown is attempting to expand the E-3 Visa-currently available only to Australian workers-to include nearly 11,000 Irish nationals seeking admittance to the United States. In the proud tradition of ethnic pandering carried out by his predecessor, the late Ted Kennedy, Senator Brown is attempting to curry favor with a mainstay of Massachusetts’ politics, i.e. Irish-American voters, by contorting American immigration law. It should be noted, however, that drastic changes to immigration laws often have unintended consequences.

On a statewide level, the fight for immigration enforcement plods along, encountering the same impediments that Arizona did when Governor Jan Brewer decided to stand up to the Obama Justice Department nearly two years ago. Even so, activists like D.A. King-president of the Dustin Inman Society-have begun to wield the law to our advantage. The Montgomery Advertiser has a story exploring how he has lodged a complaint with the Immigration Enforcement Review Board-an entity charged with applying Georgia’s new immigration law-over Atlanta’s decision to accept illegitimate Matricula Consular  cards as valid identification for the purposes of dispensing public benefits.

Mexican-issued identification cards are prevalent in many American cities and states, especially in the South. In addition to the mockery they make of our election laws-a threat this administration does not seem to be cognizant of, based upon its attempts to nullify voter i.d. laws-these fraudulent i.d. cards, through their wide availability, also invite domestic terror attacks, as the House Judiciary Committee pointed out nearly nine years ago! To appreciate the true scope of the damage inflicted by American institutions which have chosen to accept these cards, check out this CIS backgrounder, which explains how and why the Matricula Consular has proliferated in the United States.

Moving on to Georgia’s neighboring state, Alabama, we find open borders hysterics beclowning themselves once again. This time, by analogizing Alabama’s landmark immigration enforcement law HB 56  to Jim Crow Era segregation. Dr. Frank L. Morris, punctures this insipid, desperate comparison brilliantly in his Daily Caller column, which I urge you all to read in its entirety.

Finally, our fight against the negation of American immigration law shouldn’t let us lose sight of the courage and compassion displayed by the front line warriors in this nation’s battle to protect its borders. Officer Ross Goodwin is just one member of the Border Patrol who deserves our gratitude for his selfless devotion to duty, which has been recognized by the New Mexico Sheriffs’ and Police Association, as KOB reports. Officer Goodwin was accorded the honor of being named Officer of the Year  for saving the life of an illegal immigrant while in the line of duty.

In spite of the racist crudities heaped upon them by embittered Mexican nationalists, and the unremitting hostility open borders dogmatists exhibit towards them, our nation’s Border Patrol agents continue to risk life and limb in order to protect Americans, as well as save the lives of Mexican and Central American border crossers who have been left to their fate by coyotes wholly indifferent to human suffering. While this administration continues its predecessors’ policy of political prosecutions of Border Patrol agents, these men and women are putting themselves at risk in order to help their fellow human beings, something we should all keep in mind the next time we see or hear a know-nothing assault against immigration enforcement.

 Hat Tip: bcsco and Nafbpo