Saturday, January 20, 2018

Immigration

Here's the "immigration" section of the 1996 Democratic Party platform.  Yes, that's from 22 years ago, but it's millenia away from where the Democratic Party is today, shutting down the government over the children of illegal immigrants (all boldface is mine):
Immigration. Democrats remember that we are a nation of immigrants. We recognize the extraordinary contribution of immigrants to America throughout our history. We welcome legal immigrants to America. We support a legal immigration policy that is pro-family, pro-work, pro-responsibility, and pro-citizenship, and we deplore those who blame immigrants for economic and social problems.

We know that citizenship is the cornerstone of full participation in American life. We are proud that the President launched Citizenship USA to help eligible immigrants become United States citizens. The Immigration and Naturalization Service is streamlining procedures, cutting red tape, and using new technology to make it easier for legal immigrants to accept the responsibilities of citizenship and truly call America their home.

Today's Democratic Party also believes we must remain a nation of laws. We cannot tolerate illegal immigration and we must stop it. For years before Bill Clinton became President, Washington talked tough but failed to act. In 1992, our borders might as well not have existed. The border was under-patrolled, and what patrols there were, were under-equipped. Drugs flowed freely. Illegal immigration was rampant. Criminal immigrants, deported after committing crimes in America, returned the very next day to commit crimes again.

President Clinton is making our border a place where the law is respected and drugs and illegal immigrants are turned away. We have increased the Border Patrol by over 40 percent; in El Paso, our Border Patrol agents are so close together they can see each other. Last year alone, the Clinton Administration removed thousands of illegal workers from jobs across the country. Just since January of 1995, we have arrested more than 1,700 criminal aliens and prosecuted them on federal felony charges because they returned to America after having been deported.

However, as we work to stop illegal immigration, we call on all Americans to avoid the temptation to use this issue to divide people from each other. We deplore those who use the need to stop illegal immigration as a pretext for discrimination. And we applaud the wisdom of Republicans like Mayor Giuliani and Senator Domenici who oppose the mean-spirited and short-sighted effort of Republicans in Congress to bar the children of illegal immigrants from schools -- it is wrong, and forcing children onto the streets is an invitation for them to join gangs and turn to crime. Democrats want to protect American jobs by increasing criminal and civil sanctions against employers who hire illegal workers, but Republicans continue to favor inflammatory rhetoric over real action. We will continue to enforce labor standards to protect workers in vulnerable industries. We continue to firmly oppose welfare benefits for illegal immigrants. We believe family members who sponsor immigrants into this country should take financial responsibility for them, and be held legally responsible for supporting them.
And here's President Obama, less than 4 years ago, saying things like:
"But today, our immigration system is broken, and everybody knows it."
 "All of us take offense to anyone who reaps the rewards of living in America without taking on the responsibilities of living in America."
"When I took office I committed to fixing this broken immigration system and I began by doing what I could to secure our borders."
"We will build on our progress at the borders with additional resources for our law enforcement personnel so they can stem the flow of illegal crossings and speed the return of those who do cross over."
"Even as we are a nation of immigrants, we are also a nation of laws...undocumented workers broke our immigration laws."
"Everyone planning to enter the US illegally, your chances of getting caught and sent back just went up."
And that's just in the first 9 minutes of the video.



Granted, he was trying to justify illegal actions on his own part by claiming authority to do something when Congress didn't--authority the Constitution doesn't give the President, by the way--but the words are his, he said them, and the video proves it.

In January of 2018, Democrats have forced the federal government to shut down over the issue of illegal immigrants. The Democratic Party is priortizing people who aren't US citizens over actual US citizens. Mull that over for a bit.  To me, that's the very definition of "un-American".

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