Tag Archives: immigration

The New Right-Wing "ObamaCars" Conspiracy Theory Is Heinously Dumb

by s1cx54s Posted on June 26, 2013

Mother Jones

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A new rumor is making the rounds—first on Breitbart, then Fox News and beyond—that the Senate’s immigration reform bill contains a provision that could provide free, taxpayer-subsidized cars, scooters, motorcycles, Segways, hovercraft, and god knows what to young Americans. The supposed nationwide government-sponsored “ObamaCar” giveaway would happen during a 15-month period following passage of the legislation. America will grow weaker and poorer; our enemies, foreign and domestic, will be emboldened.

I’ve reached out to the White House for comment on the existence of the government’s top-secret car-gifting plot, but have not yet received a response. Instead of allowing the Obama administration’s silence to fuel any suspicions you may have about the Far-Reaching ObamaCar Conspiracy, here’s a fleck of reassurance: There is absolutely nothing to this allegation. At all. You can add it to the long list of explosively wrong and heinously dumb conservative memes that have cropped up in the Obama era.

“An amendment by Sen. Bernie Sanders to the immigration bill would provide a youth jobs program that includes the possibility of transportation and child care services,” PolitiFact notes. “That prompted conservative news outlets to make claims such as, ‘New Immigration bill has taxpayer subsidized Obamacars for youths’…There is no proof to support the idea that the program would include free car, motorcycle or scooter giveaways. In fact, that such a process would end up allowing car giveaways seems laughable.”

And if PolitiFact‘s thorough takedown doesn’t convince you, here’s a fact-check courtesy of the office of Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.)—a man who isn’t exactly known for leaping to President Obama’s defense:

MYTH: The new Hoeven-Corker Amendment creates a special program with taxpayer money to give free cars, motorcycles, or scooters to young people 15 months after the bill passes.

…

FACT: There are absolutely no cars, motorcycles, or scooters for young Americans in the immigration bill, and no taxpayer dollars will be used to fund the new jobs program for American youth.

So there you have it. If you buy the vehicle-giveaway story, you might as well believe that Marco Rubio chows down on $16 muffins while using his very own Obamaphone to mass-text Friends of Hamas while driving his brand new ObamaCar to work.

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The New Right-Wing "ObamaCars" Conspiracy Theory Is Heinously Dumb

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Senate Zeroes In On Border Security Compromise

by Nomi Steen Posted on June 20, 2013

Mother Jones

The controversial border security amendment authored by Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), derided by Democrats as a “poison pill,” was voted down Thursday on the Senate floor. That leaves the door open for a less restrictive border security compromise brokered this week with the bipartisan Gang of Eight by Sens. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and John Hoeven (R-N.D.). The measure would require doubling the number of border patrol agents to 40,000 and expanding a southern border fence to 700 miles at a cost of $30 billion.

After his amendment was tabled, Cornyn told Mother Jones that he wouldn’t decide whether to endorse the Corker-Hoeven compromise until he saw the full text. “They have helped focus attention on border security and why it’s so important to the bill, but I’m going to reserve any comments, obviously, until I have a chance to actually read it,” Cornyn said.

“How much more is it going to cost?” Cornyn later asked Hoeven on the floor. Hoeven, citing Tuesday’s Congressional Budget Office report on the immigration bill that projected a $197 billion federal deficit reduction over 10 years, said that would more than pay for the amendment’s $30 billion price tag. (Cornyn’s bill just called for a reallocation of $6.5 billion of border security funds already in the bill.) Others, like Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.)—who introduced a multi-billion dollar proposal of his own that was rejected in committee—dismissed the Corker-Hoeven amendment as something that “will just throw money at the border.” (If recent history is any indication, Sessions is probably right.)

The Gang of Eight nevertheless believes that the Corker-Hoeven amendment will attract around 10 more conservative votes, but even if the Senate bill passes with the 70 votes the gang wants in order to pressure the House to pass a comprehensive companion bill, it’s not clear the lower chamber will move in that direction. Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), who chairs the judiciary committee, is opposed to a comprehensive bill; on Tuesday his committee began deliberations on a series of piecemeal bills on law enforcement issues. On Thursday, Goodlatte expressed skepticism about the Corker-Hoeven compromise, telling reporters that simply beefing up border security wouldn’t address issues such as immigrants who enter the country legally but stay after their visas expire. (Later, Corker said on the Senate floor that he hoped the House would add such a measure.)

“I think the House is a whole different animal,” Cornyn said, asked if he thought the successful passage of the Corker-Hoeven amendment might get a majority of House Republicans—the minimum level of support that House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said it would take before he allowed a vote on comprehensive immigration reform—to take up the Senate bill. “They’re going to produce their own bill. It’s all about getting to conference committee,” where differences between the House and Senate bills would be resolved.

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Senate Zeroes In On Border Security Compromise

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Ron Paul’s Immigration Conspiracy Theory

by bt88jtv Posted on June 19, 2013

Mother Jones

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On Wednesday, Ron Paul continued his push against immigration reform with an email promoting a conspiratorial video released in May by the Campaign for Liberty, the former Texas congressman’s 501(c)(4) non-profit. In the video, Paul warns, without evidence, that “it’s only a matter of time before ‘ID scans’ will be required to travel, attend public events, or even make routine purchases.” Paul also claims that the Senate’s bipartisan Gang of Eight immigration bill is a sneaky collaboration with President Barack Obama to create “by far the worst National ID scheme the statists have come up with yet.”

The video was first posted to YouTube in May, and Paul’s anti-immigration views are no secret. But the new email is notable given that Ron Paul’s son, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), has said he could support the Senate bill if it includes an amendment addressing Republican concerns about border security. Rand Paul has said repeatedly that he supports immigration reform, but has expressed concerns about a national ID system and wants the bill to include triggers that would restrict immigrants’ path to citizenship if certain border security goals aren’t met. But he hasn’t echoed his father’s most conspiratorial claims.

“Not only does this bill increase federal spending,” the elder Paul says in the video, “it mandates every American carry a National ID card with their photo and creates a new federal database containing biometric information on every American, such as fingerprints and retinal scans. The card would be required for all US workers regardless of place of birth, making it illegal for anyone to hold a job in the United States who doesn’t obtain an ID card.”

That’s not true. In reality, the Senate bill explicitly prohibits a national ID card. Some privacy advocates have argued the bill would create a de facto national ID system by requiring mandatory electronic employment checks against a federal database containing some biometric information, such as fingerprints and photographs. Ron Paul goes much further than the privacy groups, though, arguing, “This is exactly the type of battle that often decides whether a country remains free or continues down a slide to tyranny.”

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Ron Paul’s Immigration Conspiracy Theory

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Sen. Reid: "Poison Pill" Immigration Amendment Will Get a Vote

by LynetteF1 Posted on June 18, 2013

Mother Jones

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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has called an amendment floated by Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) a “poison pill” that, if passed, could kill the immigration bill. Nevertheless, Reid will allow the controversial border security measure, which his fellow Gang of Eighter Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) recently called “very reasonable,” to come to a floor vote as early as Wednesday before he moves to end debate and bring the full bill to a vote.

Cornyn’s amendment would require the implementation of four security measures before undocumented immigrants could be granted provisional legal status: complete surveillance of the southern border, a 90 percent apprehension success rate for people who cross the border illegally, a mandatory national E-Verify system, and an operational biometrics security system—typically fingerprint identification—at United States air and sea ports. The amendment is strongly opposed by Democrats, as well as some Republicans, who say it would be overly expensive and logistically difficult to implement, and would therefore effectively cripple the 13-year path to citizenship that is the centerpiece of the Senate bill.

“If the Gang of Eight doesn’t take reasonable measures to deal with the border security concerns of the American people, I don’t think we’re going to get an immigration bill,” Cornyn told reporters Tuesday afternoon. “So that itself will be a poison pill.” Reid said Tuesday that he believed the bill, as currently written, already has enough votes to surmount a filibuster. However, the Gang of Eight wants the bill to pass with at least 70 votes to put pressure on the GOP-led House to take action.

The current Senate bill already requires round-the-clock surveillance of the southern border, a 90 percent apprehension rate within five years, and a mandatory E-Verify system. But those measures don’t serve as triggers that would preclude undocumented immigrants from getting legal status before they are implemented. Republicans have clamored for triggers as part of a broader bipartisan compromise, although the conservative Heritage Foundation has come out strongly against Cornyn’s amendment, calling it a “fig leaf” that still puts legal status first and foremost.

Earlier, Cornyn said that his immigration amendment held true to “Ronald Reagan’s old adage: Trust but verify.”

“Trust but Verify” is also the name of a Reagan-inspired amendment authored by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) that would require the Department of Homeland Security to provide annual reports to Congress to show that the border is “provably secure” before undocumented immigrants would be given provisional legal status. Paul’s amendment is one of nine other amendments that will likely get a vote Wednesday. Both Cornyn and Paul have expressed some willingness to work toward a broader compromise, although many Democrats think Cornyn has been insincere.

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Sen. Reid: "Poison Pill" Immigration Amendment Will Get a Vote

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Supreme Court: Arizona Law Requiring Proof of Citizenship to Register to Vote Is Unconstitutional

by Billy Jobs Posted on June 17, 2013

Mother Jones

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The US Supreme Court on Monday struck down an Arizona law that required people to provide proof of citizenship when registering to vote. The case, Arizona v. The Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, concerned Arizona’s Proposition 200, which was passed by voters in 2004 during the fight over President George W. Bush’s immigration reform proposal. The now-defunct law required new voters to prove that they’re citizens during the voter registration process. That proof could be in the form of a driver’s license number, a copy of a birth certificate, a copy of a passport, copies of naturalization documents, a Bureau of Indian Affairs card number, a tribal treaty card number, or a tribal enrollment number.

Unfortunately, millions of US citizens—mostly poor and elderly people—lack documentary evidence of their citizenship. Because of that, thousands of US citizens who should otherwise have been able to vote—31,000, according to the American Civil Liberties Union—were denied access to the ballot box under Proposition 200.

The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 requires only that potential voters check a box on a form attesting that they are citizens and eligible to vote. During oral arguments before the high court in March, the groups challenging Proposition 200 said that the federal voter registration law and the stricter Arizona law were incompatible, and the federal statute should take precedence. Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne, defending Proposition 200, said the federal requirement was “essentially an honor system” and that the two laws should be allowed to coexist. The Supreme Court decided the anti-Proposition 200 forces were right, and the federal law trumped Arizona’s.

But voting rights advocates aren’t out of the woods yet. At SCOTUSblog, Lyle Denniston notes that although the justices ruled that the state’s requirements were out of line with federal election law, states that want to require potential voters to provide proof of citizenship may still be able to convince the Election Assistance Commission or Congress to implement such a requirement. The court also said that states could claim they had a constitutional right to require proof of citizenship for voter registration—an argument Arizona did not make in this particular case. In other words, there’s a strong chance that Arizona or any other state that wants to could eventually get strict proof-of-citizenship requirements into law.

“The opinion seemed to leave little doubt that, if Arizona or another state went to court to try to establish such a constitutional power, it might well get a very sympathetic hearing, because that part of Justice Antonin Scalia’s opinion laid a very heavy stress on the power of states under the Constitution to decide who gets to vote,” Denniston wrote.

Arizona voting rights advocates will also have to deal with a batch of election-reform bills sitting on Republican Gov. Jan Brewer’s desk right now that could derail mail-ballot collection drives and purge the state’s permanent early voting list.

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Supreme Court: Arizona Law Requiring Proof of Citizenship to Register to Vote Is Unconstitutional

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Senate Democrats Taking Cautious "Blumenthal Mindset" on Immigration Reform

by AnnaBest Posted on June 14, 2013

Mother Jones

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On Thursday, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), a member of the bipartisan Gang of Eight who crafted the Senate immigration reform bill, warned that he would withdraw his support for the legislation if a gay rights amendment authored by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) is added to the bill. The measure, which Leahy filed on Tuesday, would allow a citizen to petition the government for permanent residency for his or her same-sex partner. “If this bill has in it something that gives gay couples immigration rights and so forth, it kills the bill. I’m done,” Rubio said on the Andrea Tantaros Show.

Leahy spokesman David Carle said on Friday that Leahy has no plans yet to respond to Rubio’s comment—the day before, Leahy declined to comment, saying that he hadn’t seen Rubio’s statement. The Senate leadership hasn’t decided which amendments will ultimately get a vote, but even if Leahy’s does, it’s highly unlikely to pass. Still, the fact that it is even floating out there has concerned senators who don’t want to destabilize the fragile talks.

“Everyone’s got the Blumenthal mindset right now—keeping their amendments on the table, but don’t want to doom it all,” says a Democratic aide familiar with the talks. He was referring to Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), who is still considering whether to press for a vote on two controversial gun control amendments he’s proposed for the immigration bill. “I’m not going to doom or cripple immigration reform efforts to raise those amendments,” Blumenthal told Mother Jones on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the bigger threat to immigration reform in the Senate right now involves border control. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) introduced a “poison pill” amendment opposed by Democrats that would massively expand border security and could sink the bill if enough Republicans sign on. Republicans in the Gang of Eight hope to iron out a compromise with Cornyn, although Democrats are skeptical that he can be persuaded.

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Senate Democrats Taking Cautious "Blumenthal Mindset" on Immigration Reform

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Blumenthal: “I’m Not Going to Doom Immigration Reform”

by DorothyUn Posted on June 13, 2013

Mother Jones

Lawmakers and the families of Newtown victims held a midday press conference on Capitol Hill Thursday—the day before the six-month anniversary of the Newtown shooting—part of a renewed, day-long effort to revive the Senate’s failed gun background check legislation. Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat and key advocate for the victims during the gun debate, vowed to defeat the “schoolyard bullies” of the National Rifle Association in that effort, but he was less certain about whether to inject gun control into the ongoing immigration reform debate.

Blumenthal has proposed two gun-related amendments to the immigration bill being considered in the Senate. One would deny immigrants on visa waivers from buying guns; the other would require the US attorney general to alert the Department of Homeland Security when undocumented immigrants attempt to buy guns or when non-citizens attempt mass gun purchases. When the Senate judiciary committee considered the immigration bill, Blumenthal chose not to push for a vote the gun amendments. But he has considered filing them now that the immigration bill is on the Senate floor. Doing so would trigger a major fight, with NRAish senators likely to go ballistic.

“I’m not going to doom or cripple immigration reform efforts to raise those amendments,” Blumenthal told Mother Jones after Thursday’s conference, echoing similar comments he made earlier this week. But, he added, “The issue of gun violence belongs in the debate.” In other words, Blumenthal won’t doom immigration reform—but he might.

Last week, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) called Blumenthal’s amendments “problematic” because they would sidetrack progress on immigration reform with a gun debate. Democrats, unwilling to let immigration talks implode over controversial amendments, are also eyeing the amendments with caution.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who controls the amendment process, is in discussions with Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the minority leader, to determine which measures will get a vote. McConnell told Mother Jones Thursday that there is “nothing new” yet on which amendments will get floor time. Blumenthal said he is still discussing his amendments with Senate leadership and other colleagues to determine if they would be receptive.

At the press conference, Democrats claimed a renewed fight over background checks is possible. Reid said that he would reintroduce a background check bill in the Senate once he secures 60 votes in order to overcome a filibuster, claiming he has made progress with a couple Republicans. “The writing is on the wall,” Reid said. “Background checks will pass the United States Senate, it’s just a matter of time.”

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Blumenthal: “I’m Not Going to Doom Immigration Reform”

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Privacy Activists Worried About Immigration Bill

by london Posted on June 11, 2013

Mother Jones

For years, groups like the American Civil Liberties Union and Electronic Frontier Foundation have kept tabs on potential privacy problems arising from immigration reform efforts. Now that a big immigration reform bill has made it out of committee and reached the Senate floor, privacy advocates are focused on three big concerns.

1) Drone surveillance: US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) already uses Predator drones to patrol parts of the northern and southern borders, but the Senate immigration bill calls for surveillance “24 hours per day and for 7 days per week,” in the southwest and southern border regions. The bill would also fund additional border enforcement and surveillance, including more drones, to the tune of $4.5 billion.

A federal statute from the 1950s allows border patrol agents to stop and search people at checkpoints located in the US up to 100 miles from any international border; the Senate immigration bill would allow the surveillance drones to fly over the same areas in most states. But by law, border agents can only enter private lands within 25 miles of the border without a warrant to track down immigrants who have unlawfully crossed the border.

Although the Senate immigration bill would require border drones to be unarmed, they would still possess the same high-tech surveillance capabilities designed for Predator drones used by the US military in Afghanistan. That, privacy advocates say, blurs the line that limits border patrol surveillance of private lands to 25 miles within the border. Beyond that, drone use raises the question of what other data the feds are sweeping up in the process of watching the border. In a recent New York Times Magazine story, a reporter witnesses an Air Force training exercise where drones track civilian vehicles on the highway. Regulations prevent the Air Force from targeting specific people, but it’s okay for it to hand data collected “incidentally” in the course of a separate operation, such as training or observing illegal activity, to federal agencies. That same logic could apply to border surveillance, which could conceivably give the feds wide latitude on data collection because of the Mexican drug war.

In short, the bill “offers little protections or guidance on drones’ use and on the grave privacy implications they create,” explains Mark Jaycox, an EFF policy analyst.

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Privacy Activists Worried About Immigration Bill

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Immigration Bill Heads to the Full Senate, 200 Amendments Later

by kx0bq6uuw Posted on May 23, 2013

Mother Jones

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The Senate Judiciary Committee approved a sweeping immigration reform bill on Tuesday, but only after sifting through more than 200 amendments. The bill would give the nation’s estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants a 13-year pathway to citizenship, which would be the biggest change to the immigration system in years.

So, is it the same compromise that its authors, the so-called “Gang of Eight,” originally hammered out? The committee made a total of 141 revisions to the bill; here’s a quick look at a few of the most notable:

No protections for same-sex couples: Democrats reluctantly let this widely discussed measure die in order to keep Republicans on board. It would have allowed a foreign-born member of a same-sex couple petition for legal residency, just as straight couples may do. Because it was withdrawn by its sponsor, committee chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), it’s not technically a revision. “With a heavy heart, and as a result of my conclusion that Republicans will kill this vital legislation if this anti-discrimination amendment is added, I will withhold calling for a vote on it,” Leahy said. “But I will continue to fight for equality.”

Protections to keep families together: An amendment introduced by Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) would require officials to ask immigrants in detention centers whether they are the parents or guardians of children so that the impact of their potential deportation on their families can be assessed.

Additional benefits for DREAMers: An amendment introduced by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) would allow immigrants who arrived before the age of 16 to join the military and subsequently apply for citizenship as an alternative to deportation. Another amendment, introduced by Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), would give high school grads access to financial aid (with the exception of Pell Grants).

Limiting the use of solitary confinement: Currently, immigrants being processed through detention facilities are sometimes held in solitary confinement for weeks on end: The New York Times recently reported 35 cases of immigrants held there for more than 10 weeks. Another Blumenthal amendment would largely prohibit involuntary confinement exceeding 15 days.

Visa allowances: Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) won approval for an amendment backed by the tech industry that would allow companies to hire foreign workers with H-1B visas before first offering the jobs to qualified citizens, as it is now required, unless more than 15 percent of the current employees in a specific field within that company are already on H-1B visas.

Safer deportations: Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) authored an amendment to cut down on risky deportations. Mexican immigrants might still be dropped off in a border towns rife with kidnappings and gang violence, but Coons’ revision to the immigration bill would stop the practice of nighttime deportations.

Airport tracking system: Another amendment introduced by Hatch would set up fingerprint tracking systems in 10 major airports. Officials currently keep tabs on immigrants flying into the United States; this amendment would require immigrants to be fingerprinted upon both departure to a foreign country and arrival back in the US.

Overall, the immigration reform bill cleared the Judiciary Committee without any fundamental changes. But, in order to not upend the precarious bipartisan balance struck by the Gang of Eight, the committee rejected some more partisan amendments such as the LGBT protection measure and a border security measure from Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). Now it’s off to the full Senate, where senators will have the chance to offer even more amendments on the floor in June before voting on the final bill.

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Immigration Bill Heads to the Full Senate, 200 Amendments Later

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Electric Car Guru Elon Musk Ditches Mark Zuckerberg’s FWD.us Group

by Lou Bovee Posted on May 13, 2013

Mother Jones

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Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Motors and the private space travel company SpaceX, has parted ways with FWD.us, the tech-centric political group that Facebook cofounder Mark Zuckerberg launched last month. So, too, has investor and entrepreneur David Sacks, who created the social network Yammer and financed the satiric 2005 movie Thank You for Smoking. The tech news website AllThingsD first reported the departures of Musk and Sacks, and their names have been removed from the list of nearly two-dozen “major contributors” to FWD.us.

Zuckerberg and Facebook “Causes” creator Joe Green founded FWD.us to lobby on behalf of Silicon Valley firms in Washington. They quickly earned the endorsements of a host of other tech superstars. The group—which, as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, does not have to disclose its donors—has reportedly raised more than $25 million so far. The group chose the ongoing fight over comprehensive immigration reform as its first foray into Congressional politics, seeking to expand the number of visas available to engineers and other high-skilled workers that tech companies would like to recruit. By all accounts, FWD.us’ message has gotten a warm reception on Capitol Hill.

But the group caused a political firestorm recently when it ran TV advertisements praising Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska) for supporting more oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve. Another ad depicted Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) criticizing Obamacare and President Obama’s refusal (so far) to green-light the controversial Keystone XL pipeline. FWD.us ran the ads to give Begich and Graham some political cover on immigration reform, the theory being that by touting the senators’ conservative bona fides, they could give them the space to take a moderate position on an immigration reform bill. The Begich and Graham ads ran for a week and are no longer on the air. Liberal and environmental groups reacted furiously to FWD.us’ conservative and anti-environmental message, protesting at Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California. And last week, nine progressive groups, including MoveOn.org, Progressives United, the Sierra Club, and Daily Kos, pledged to pull down their existing paid Facebook ads or cancel future ad buys for at least two weeks.

It’s not surprising that Musk would break with FWD.us. Tesla Motors builds high-end electric cars; its entire business model is built around a clean-tech economy. Musk also sits on the board of SolarCity, a company that delivers, installs, and maintains solar panels powering homes, businesses, and government offices.

Musk sent this statement to AllThingsD: “I agreed to support Fwd.us because there is a genuine need to reform immigration. However, this should not be done at the expense of other important causes. I have spent a lot of time fighting far larger lobbying organizations in DC and believe that the right way to win on a cause is to argue the merits of that cause. This statement may surprise some people, but my experience is that most (not all) politicians and their staffs want to do the right thing and eventually do.”

FWD.us spokeswoman Kate Hansen emailed this statement to Mother Jones: “We recognize that not everyone will always agree with or be pleased by our strategy—and we’re grateful for the continued support of our dedicated founders and major contributors. FWD.us remains totally committed to supporting a bipartisan policy agenda that will boost the knowledge economy, including comprehensive immigration reform.”

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Electric Car Guru Elon Musk Ditches Mark Zuckerberg’s FWD.us Group

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