Italy and Migrant Shipping

Posted on 3 February 2019 by eehines

There’s a case making its way through the Italian courts that challenges the government’s policy of denying docking rights to migrant rescue boats. Critics are up in arms. The policy, they assert, would

leav[e] them in the Mediterranean Sea for days or even weeks—a campaign critics have branded as cruel but that has garnered support from many Italians.

The critics, though, are being disingenuous. To the extent that there is cruelty here, it’s on the part of the “rescue boat” captains and the ships’ operators who have chosen to spend those days or even weeks trying to force entry rather than moving promptly to other nations’ ports where they would be allowed entry.

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Progressive-Democrats and a Wall

Posted on 28 January 2019 by eehines

In a Fox News Online piece about a Fox News Sunday interview with President Donald Trump’s Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney from last Sunday, there appeared this gem from House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D, MS).

…Thompson…broke with some of his fellow congressional Democrats by acknowledging in an interview that he “would not rule out a wall in certain instances,” although he cautioned that the White House needs a better “plan” than simply using a wall as a “talking point.”

But then he said this:

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DACA and Walls

Posted on 25 January 2019 by eehines

When President Donald Trump made his latest offer and attempt at negotiation last Saturday, it already had been rejected by the Progressive-Democrats—yes, even before Trump spoke. In a Monday editorial, the Wall Street Journal was generous when it suggested the Dreamers (and TPS folks, I add) are pawns in the eyes of Progressive-Democrats. Reality isn’t that good. Dreamers and TPS folks aren’t even human to Progressive-Democrats—they’re just votes and potential votes, just marked ballots.

This is shown by Pelosi’s stated utter refusal even to discuss DACA recipients anymore.

Here, though, the WSJ‘s editors are wrong:

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A Telling Interview

Posted on 22 January 2019 by eehines

Progressive-Democrat from Texas, Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke gave a wide-ranging, disjointed, somewhat confused interview to The Washington Post. Here are some highlights.

Beto on the wall:

[It would] cut off access to the river, shrink the size of the United States and force the seizure of privately-held land.
[He] noted that most undocumented immigrants who arrived in the United States in the past decade came not over the border but on visas that then expired.
WAPO: So what should be done to address visa overstays?
Beto: I don’t know[.]

This is a preview of A Telling Interview. Read the full post (434 words, estimated 1:44 mins reading time)

What? Me Compromise?

Posted on 16 January 2019 by eehines

In a Wall Street Journal piece Sunday about the length of the current partial government shutdown—they’re touting is (as are most of the NLMSM) as the longest on record as though a partial closure is somehow comparable to a complete closure—Kristina Peterson, Michael Bender, and Rebecca Ballhaus closed with a description of a bill being developed by Senators Rob Portman (R, OH) and Jerry Moran (R, KS) that would pair DACA recipient legal status with funding for border security, which would include a wall.

However.

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For Whom Do They Work?

Posted on 15 January 2019 by eehines

Some Progressive-Democrats in the House are beginning to wonder about their Party’s strategy for dealing with the border wall funding question, immigration reform generally, and, proximately, the current partial government shutdown. For instance, here’s Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin (D, MI):

There’s a number of us on the Democratic side who are quite concerned that we’re not working on negotiated positions and taking the bull by the horns and trying to think about what it would look like[.]

Some are just irrational, like Harley Rouda (D, CA):

Next he’ll want a moat with alligators[.]

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Pelosi Abandoned DACA Recipients

Posted on 15 January 2019 by eehines

‘Way last December, now-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, CA) revealed the depth of Progressive-Democrats’ opposition to anything Trump or Republican.

[Then-]House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi…rejected the idea of partially funding President Donald Trump’s border wall in exchange for amnesty for “Dreamers….”

Recall that in President Donald Trump’s 2018 State of the Union address, he laid out his four pillars of immigration policy:

legal status for 1.8 million illegal aliens brought to the US as minors, including those who had not registered under DACA
a secure border
ending the visa lottery
ending chain migration

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Negotiate on the Wall?

Posted on 14 January 2019 by eehines

That’s what some Progressive-Democrats in the House claim they want to do. After the partial government shutdown is ended. Congressmen Eric Swalwell (D, CA) and John Garamendi (D, CA) have made such commitments.

However.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, CA) has told President Donald Trump she will not negotiate on a border wall, demanding no funding whatsoever, even after the partial shutdown is ended.

Some questions arise.

Was Pelosi lying when she said that to Trump?

Was Pelosi lying to her caucus when they elected her Speaker on the basis of her promise to a significant fraction of her Party that she always and forever would oppose border wall funding?

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Emergency Powers

Posted on 12 January 2019 by eehines

President Donald Trump is giving very serious consideration to declaring a national emergency so he can reallocate certain funding toward building the border wall that’s so necessary in various places and that the Progressive-Democrats are so dead set against funding, even though they’ve voted, within the last decade, an order of magnitude more money for a wall than Trump is requesting.

Trump clearly has the legal authority to declare such an emergency and to carry out the funds reallocation.

Trump, though, has another way to force the Progressive-Democrats’ hand. Here’s what Article II, Section 3 says, in pertinent part:

This is a preview of Emergency Powers. Read the full post (210 words, estimated 50 secs reading time)

Democrat Obstructionism

Posted on 10 January 2019 by eehines

Extending their perpetuation of the existing partial government shutdown, now the Progressive-Democrats won’t even allow the Senate to function.

Senate Democrats on Tuesday blocked the chamber from considering bipartisan foreign-policy legislation in a bid to pressure Republicans to reopen the government….

This is of a piece with their “rebuttal” of President Donald Trump’s Oval Office speech calling for negotiations on a border wall and border security generally, wherein the Progressive-Democrats reiterated their refusal to negotiate at all, and they denied the facts presented regarding our border situation while cynically declining to present their own facts.

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Category Archives: immigration