Both The New York Times and The Washington Post have recently published pieces where one conservative columnist and one liberal columnist get together and talk about issues to see if they can find some common ground. You'll never be able to guess what they could all agree on!
When it comes to debates over immigration, one of the common errors is distinguishing between aliens who enter legally as opposed to illegally. Often, we are told that legal immigration is beneficial, but illegal immigration is harmful. A recent Washington Times article highlights an extreme example of this by calling for admission of a million H-1B aliens while deporting the illegal alien population.
What is, and where is, the American Dream for you?
Is it Rural? Urban? Suburban? I offer that it doesn't matter. "Better, richer, and happier" can happen in all three so long as we preserve our ability to choose which lifestyle we want. Many economic and social factors can affect our lifestyle choices. But how often does one consider the additional effects of immigration-driven population growth on limiting choice?
Southern District of Texas District Court Judge Hanen finally ruled against the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program after years of legal back-and-forth. The short (by judicial standards) 40-page opinion is a bit anticlimactic, largely because the Federal government put up very little fight. In fact, if you examine the history of DACA closely, it never seemed like the Democrats who created it cared all that much.
Sen. Ted Cruz introduced the Senate companion to H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act. The legislation was passed by the House of Representatives in May and would require all employers to use E-Verify, close asylum loopholes, and end the Biden Administration's abuse of parole for illegal aliens, among other things. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), JD Vance (R-Ohio), Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), and John Kennedy (R-La.) are original cosponsors.
The CHIPS Act was hailed as bringing the vitally important semiconductor industry to the United States. Part of the benefit sold to taxpayers footing the bill on this $50 billion+ investment was that it would create jobs for Americans. While that sounds like a good bargain, the industries gaining tax credits and Federal grants have started singing the old “labor shortage” tune.
The polarization of both the House and Senate has made it largely impossible to pass legislative overhauls without some parliamentary chicanery. Obamacare, Trump’s tax cuts, and Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act were all passed under the budget reconciliation process which allows a simple majority in the Senate to bypass the legislative filibuster. For anyone serious about stopping the border crisis that is engulfing the nation in a state of emergency, it is time to use the coming spending fight to force broad reform of the immigration system.
A better system, in accordance with the concept of "self-control," would honor our immigration tradition and preserve Americans' - all Americans' - abilities to reach those serene places our nation has been blessed with.
The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) has a new report examining the free-fall in Department of Labor (DOL) investigations into farmworker abuse, which dropped to a record low of 879. 879 closed cases when hundreds of thousands of H-2A employees are working every year. This continues the trend of “see no evil, hear no evil” of the Trump Administration, when only 1,036 cases were closed annually.
Enrique Balcazar, 37, and Elizabeth Balcazar, 21, operators of Balcazar Nature Harvesting, LLC (BNH), were sentenced in Federal court for using the H-2A agricultural visa program to import forced labor. Enrique received 40 months in prison along with fines, and his daughter received time served and fines. BNH was fined approximately $508,000 in restitution to 55 H-2A employees.
