Hey, Jeb! Here’s Your Compassionate Immigration
Can somebody call Jeb about the immigration file, and ask him if he’s lost his mind? (And the other GOP capitulators, too.)
It should be easy (if they liked common sense, better than politicking) with a quick juxtaposition of some news stories to underscore how Jacked the priorities have become. You’ve got the Romeike family, DOMA, some Mexican “refugee” kids, an innocent woman on death row, some guilty people walking free and the Gitmo exchange. Think I can pull this off? Let’s find out.
Obama’s army of flunkies are showing us a thousand new ways to heap contempt on the rule of law, and what was formerly a system of checks and balances. “Fundamentally transform” America? Indeed.
Remember the Eric Holder who tried so very hard to overturn the asylum that was applied for (lawfully) and granted to the Romeike family? This is the same Eric Holder who intentionally chose not to enforce DOMA, in an immigration case.
Whether the law was good, was not the question. Whatever his political opinion of the law, he independently decided NOT to enforce it. Which seems to be a serious red flag that this man takes activism more seriously than either his office or his oath.
To rephrase: launching a witch hunt to eject a family who had already been granted asylum? So worth it. Enforcing the PREVAILING laws that disqualified the immigration of a same-sex partner? Meh, no thanks.
No surprise. We’ve seen the same thing in Sudan.
Right now, a woman is on death row. She gave birth in prison (it is reported) while chained to a wall. Meriam Ibrahim’s crime, is failing to be Muslim. Her father is Muslim, even though she never was. Therefore, she’s “legally” a Muslim. Since she was raised as a Christian, that means she’s now officially an apostate Muslim. This means her lawful marriage to her husband (more on him shortly) is invalid. Thus, the children she has with him are proof of adultery (sentence: 100 lashes). Her husband had a chance to recant his Christianity, as did she. But neither has done so. And so… she must die. Unless…
Her husband, (I told you I’d come back to him) is an American. Steyn tells that story succinctly and well. Immigration could have allowed her to move. Perhaps if she was not Christian, or had big money to donate to the party, or maybe if she violated DOMA, Eric Holder might have personally championed the case. But, sadly, she’s just a lawfully-married black mom about to leave two children motherless because she won’t be bullied into converting to Islam. Why should Eric care about her?
The same administration working so hard to keep that promise of emptying Gitmo (yay we got an America-hater back in the bargain!) hasn’t lifted a finger to help the wife of an American citizen. (Paging that pen and phone… where are you now?)
Not that they care about helping American Citizens. Threw open five cells in Gitmo for one lousy deserter? No problem! Better yet, threw open the prison cells of 36,000 illegals for nada! Did they bother to ask if Mexico would at least (por-favor) reciprocate by releasing Tahmoressi to (if nothing else) have his case tried at home?
Of course not.
Top priority is throwing open the gates to a flood of people from the South. Let them in. It’s “compassionate”.
To whom is it compassionate?
Is it compassionate to the children played as pawns in the sneak-across-the-border game, whose journey to get there exposes them to hazards and people willing to exploit their vulnerability? Is rewarding people for doing that to kids “compassionate”?
Is it compassionate to people like Meriam Ibrahim? Her husband wants his family to come LEGALLY into the country, before the State kills her, and takes the kids. Is it compassionate to let people swarm over the border, unrestrained, but turn them away?
What about the busted immigration system itself, that makes it hard for people who want to play by the rules? I should know. I’ve seen it first-hand.
I came, as a Canadian, on a student visa, while my father-in-law was ill. All my paperwork was to go through the hands of one woman, and her only. This particular woman was handling the paperwork for the one-year work visa that followed my schooling. I had three different employers express interest in hiring me, once the paperwork was ready.
She said she’d filed my paperwork. Turns out, it never left her desk. The law (as I now understand it) gives a 60 day window from the last day of school to sort out any immigration appeals. This woman told me to wait a couple of months, because these things “take time to process”. Don’t bother calling her until after that long. (You can see where this is going.)
The work visa, that would have (my immigration lawyer told me) put me over the top and qualified me for a green card never came though. But once that window closed, there was nothing to do but leave.
I tried to do it the right way, but was denied because of one person’s ignorance, incompetence or worse.
Do you want to fix something, Jeb? REALLY fix something?
Fine. Try this: Make it easy for honest immigrants. But then make it damned hard for the dishonest ones.
That’s compassionate.
Image: Courtesy of: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gageskidmore/8570145056/