0 comment Sunday, November 2, 2014 | admin
Martinez Says He's Not Backing Down On Immigration Reform
Sen. Mel Martinez told the Tampa Tribune editorial board today that he�ll continue pressing for immigration reform, despite the criticism his prominent role in the issue got him from the conservative wing of his own party.
[...]
Martinez said he put heavy penalties and requirements for earned citizenship in his bill last year, hoping to prevent the "amnesty" accusation. But now, he said, he realizes he can�t stop that accusation, so he�ll proceed regardless of the critics.
He even appeared to say he would put lighter penalties into his new version of the bill. But a spokesman later said that�s not what Martinez meant.
"Dealing with the 12 million [illegal immigrants] here, we all want to say it�s not with amnesty," he said. "Unfortunately, we allowed those who would call amnesty anything other than deportation to sort of define amnesty."
Realistically, he said, the country can�t deport all illegal immigrants here now, so the question is what requirements to impose to bring them to "a regularized status."
In his previous bill, "We had so many penalties and what not on these people, by the way, and trying not to make it amnesty, and it still got called amnesty. So this time around I�m going to be a little lighter on the sentences and try to just say call it what you willl. We�ve got 12 million people, we�ve got a broken-down system, we�ve just got to find a way to come to some sensible outcome."
And of course, in Martinez's universe, a 'sensible outcome' is citizenship for all.
Is anybody surprised by this? When Martinez was named as the choice for RNC head, we all knew this was part and parcel of the amnesty push. Putting a Hispanic face in that position was an important gesture to the 'Hispanic community.'
This article perpetuates the by-now urban legend that 44 per cent of Hispanics voted GOP in 2004:
The Republican share of the Latino vote fell from 44 percent in 2004 to 30 percent this year, according to FOX News exit polling data. With the Hispanic vote making up 8 percent of the electorate in 2006 compared to 5 percent in 1996, the largest and fastest growing ethnic minority in America will be essential to winning elections down the road, say Republicans looking to recover from this year's losses.
"We can do better, we need to do better," said Danny Diaz, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee.
"We believe that the party that captures and motivates and gets the Hispanic vote to turn out is going to be the party who wins the White House" in 2008, said Brent Wilkes, national executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens, the nation�s largest and oldest Hispanic rights group.''
Steve Sailer debunked the '44 percent' myth, but that hasn't deterred the GOP from citing that phony figure again and again and again and again. As long as they can keep deluding the gullible GOP faithful into believing that Hispanics would be solid GOP voters, if only we cater to them, and pass the amnesty... And the dutiful media keep on repeating the falsehood of the 44 per cent, and speak of the GOP's need to 'win back' the precious Hispanic vote. Uh, you can only win back something you previously had, and neither the GOP nor George W. Bush ever had 44 percent of the Hispanic vote. And even if they did, (which they didn't) it would still mean that 56 percent of Hispanics did NOT vote GOP, doesn't it? But as long as they keep on exhuming that old lie, they can pretend that Hispanics are essential to the GOP's re-election and success. So on we go, with the amnesty juggernaut gaining speed.
But Martinez, Danny Diaz, and the rest of the Hispanic amnesty-pushers should be careful; they are weakening the argument put forth by the 'can't we all get along' crowd, who say 'Hispanic-Americans are just as angry about illegal immigration as the rest of us. They aren't in favor of amnesty.' Now this piece of propaganda was never persuasive to me; my own personal experience says otherwise. There might be the occasional Lupe Moreno who considers herself American first and foremost, but such pro-American Hispanics are the exception, it seems. For every Lupe Moreno, unfortunately there are many leftist Hispanics who call her and patriotic Hispanics like her 'coconuts' or 'racists. Speaking of those leftist Hispanics she said:
They've practically spit in my face. They called me a racist more than I can count. But you know what, it gets to the point where that word doesn't mean anything anymore. They are groups of hatred.''
How many elected Hispanics oppose illegal immigration and amnesty? Since supposedly most Hispanic-Americans oppose amnesty, it should be a piece of cake to name a few public figures of Hispanic ancestry who oppose it. Funny; I can't think of one, out of all the elected Hispanics, congressmen and women, mayors, governors, or whoever. Similarly with Hispanic pundits or journalists. Even those like Linda Chavez, who is half -Anglo, are pro-amnesty. Ditto Bill Richardson, the half-Anglo politician and seeming presidential wannabe, who is pro-amnesty.
Martinez's arguments are pretty hackneyed, such as 'we've got a broken-down system'. What a lame pretext for abolishing our borders. Our government deliberately refuses to control our borders, letting in millions of illegals, then says ''Woops! Oh look; our borders are broken, our system is broken! Guess we'd better abolish borders and give everybody citizenship, since obviously our system is broken and our borders are unenforceable.''
No; the solution is obviously to start enforcing our laws and protecting what is ours, instead of letting burglars and pilferers break in and run rampant, then recommending that we give away our prized possessions and heirlooms to the thieves 'because the locks are broken', and then give them the keys and the deed to the family homestead. But no; common sense won't prevail, with our current leadership; they are hellbent on not just giving away what our ancestors worked and fought and bled for, but giving it away to whoever can grab a piece of it, regardless of their merit , or their potential to appreciate it or make wise use of it.
And what kind of message is it when our elected officials say things like we 'can't' deport all those illegals who are here now (and by the way, Mel: there are way more than 12 million illegals here; we didn't all fall off the turnip truck, so don't insult our intelligence.) Any elected official who chants the 'we can't' mantra is a disgrace. America would never have come into existence if our forefathers had whined 'we can't' the way these weaselly politicians and party hacks do.
Martinez himself is an immigrant. So often we hear of how legal immigrants appreciate their citizenship, and don't support giving amnesty to those who cut in line and broke the laws to get here. But I just don't see much evidence of that.
There are and have been many worthy immigrants, among them my late lamented colleague, who blogged as 'Aussiegirl', and other patriotic immigrants like Balint Vazsonyi, the writer and concert pianist who truly understood and loved the American heritage and way of life. Vazsonyi and others like him understood that it was something of a privilege to be given residency here, and an even greater privilege to be granted citizenship. It's a truism that we seldom appreciate what we don't have to work for, or what does not cost us much in terms of effort or personal sacrifice. By giving American citizenship away to those who have proven their lack of regard for American laws and the American system, let alone for the American people, we are making it a thing of little value. Truly when we give citizenship away to virtually anybody who makes it across the finish line, we cheapen it immeasurably.
Sen. Mel Martinez told the Tampa Tribune editorial board today that he�ll continue pressing for immigration reform, despite the criticism his prominent role in the issue got him from the conservative wing of his own party.
[...]
Martinez said he put heavy penalties and requirements for earned citizenship in his bill last year, hoping to prevent the "amnesty" accusation. But now, he said, he realizes he can�t stop that accusation, so he�ll proceed regardless of the critics.
He even appeared to say he would put lighter penalties into his new version of the bill. But a spokesman later said that�s not what Martinez meant.
"Dealing with the 12 million [illegal immigrants] here, we all want to say it�s not with amnesty," he said. "Unfortunately, we allowed those who would call amnesty anything other than deportation to sort of define amnesty."
Realistically, he said, the country can�t deport all illegal immigrants here now, so the question is what requirements to impose to bring them to "a regularized status."
In his previous bill, "We had so many penalties and what not on these people, by the way, and trying not to make it amnesty, and it still got called amnesty. So this time around I�m going to be a little lighter on the sentences and try to just say call it what you willl. We�ve got 12 million people, we�ve got a broken-down system, we�ve just got to find a way to come to some sensible outcome."
And of course, in Martinez's universe, a 'sensible outcome' is citizenship for all.
Is anybody surprised by this? When Martinez was named as the choice for RNC head, we all knew this was part and parcel of the amnesty push. Putting a Hispanic face in that position was an important gesture to the 'Hispanic community.'
This article perpetuates the by-now urban legend that 44 per cent of Hispanics voted GOP in 2004:
The Republican share of the Latino vote fell from 44 percent in 2004 to 30 percent this year, according to FOX News exit polling data. With the Hispanic vote making up 8 percent of the electorate in 2006 compared to 5 percent in 1996, the largest and fastest growing ethnic minority in America will be essential to winning elections down the road, say Republicans looking to recover from this year's losses.
"We can do better, we need to do better," said Danny Diaz, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee.
"We believe that the party that captures and motivates and gets the Hispanic vote to turn out is going to be the party who wins the White House" in 2008, said Brent Wilkes, national executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens, the nation�s largest and oldest Hispanic rights group.''
Steve Sailer debunked the '44 percent' myth, but that hasn't deterred the GOP from citing that phony figure again and again and again and again. As long as they can keep deluding the gullible GOP faithful into believing that Hispanics would be solid GOP voters, if only we cater to them, and pass the amnesty... And the dutiful media keep on repeating the falsehood of the 44 per cent, and speak of the GOP's need to 'win back' the precious Hispanic vote. Uh, you can only win back something you previously had, and neither the GOP nor George W. Bush ever had 44 percent of the Hispanic vote. And even if they did, (which they didn't) it would still mean that 56 percent of Hispanics did NOT vote GOP, doesn't it? But as long as they keep on exhuming that old lie, they can pretend that Hispanics are essential to the GOP's re-election and success. So on we go, with the amnesty juggernaut gaining speed.
But Martinez, Danny Diaz, and the rest of the Hispanic amnesty-pushers should be careful; they are weakening the argument put forth by the 'can't we all get along' crowd, who say 'Hispanic-Americans are just as angry about illegal immigration as the rest of us. They aren't in favor of amnesty.' Now this piece of propaganda was never persuasive to me; my own personal experience says otherwise. There might be the occasional Lupe Moreno who considers herself American first and foremost, but such pro-American Hispanics are the exception, it seems. For every Lupe Moreno, unfortunately there are many leftist Hispanics who call her and patriotic Hispanics like her 'coconuts' or 'racists. Speaking of those leftist Hispanics she said:
They've practically spit in my face. They called me a racist more than I can count. But you know what, it gets to the point where that word doesn't mean anything anymore. They are groups of hatred.''
How many elected Hispanics oppose illegal immigration and amnesty? Since supposedly most Hispanic-Americans oppose amnesty, it should be a piece of cake to name a few public figures of Hispanic ancestry who oppose it. Funny; I can't think of one, out of all the elected Hispanics, congressmen and women, mayors, governors, or whoever. Similarly with Hispanic pundits or journalists. Even those like Linda Chavez, who is half -Anglo, are pro-amnesty. Ditto Bill Richardson, the half-Anglo politician and seeming presidential wannabe, who is pro-amnesty.
Martinez's arguments are pretty hackneyed, such as 'we've got a broken-down system'. What a lame pretext for abolishing our borders. Our government deliberately refuses to control our borders, letting in millions of illegals, then says ''Woops! Oh look; our borders are broken, our system is broken! Guess we'd better abolish borders and give everybody citizenship, since obviously our system is broken and our borders are unenforceable.''
No; the solution is obviously to start enforcing our laws and protecting what is ours, instead of letting burglars and pilferers break in and run rampant, then recommending that we give away our prized possessions and heirlooms to the thieves 'because the locks are broken', and then give them the keys and the deed to the family homestead. But no; common sense won't prevail, with our current leadership; they are hellbent on not just giving away what our ancestors worked and fought and bled for, but giving it away to whoever can grab a piece of it, regardless of their merit , or their potential to appreciate it or make wise use of it.
And what kind of message is it when our elected officials say things like we 'can't' deport all those illegals who are here now (and by the way, Mel: there are way more than 12 million illegals here; we didn't all fall off the turnip truck, so don't insult our intelligence.) Any elected official who chants the 'we can't' mantra is a disgrace. America would never have come into existence if our forefathers had whined 'we can't' the way these weaselly politicians and party hacks do.
Martinez himself is an immigrant. So often we hear of how legal immigrants appreciate their citizenship, and don't support giving amnesty to those who cut in line and broke the laws to get here. But I just don't see much evidence of that.
There are and have been many worthy immigrants, among them my late lamented colleague, who blogged as 'Aussiegirl', and other patriotic immigrants like Balint Vazsonyi, the writer and concert pianist who truly understood and loved the American heritage and way of life. Vazsonyi and others like him understood that it was something of a privilege to be given residency here, and an even greater privilege to be granted citizenship. It's a truism that we seldom appreciate what we don't have to work for, or what does not cost us much in terms of effort or personal sacrifice. By giving American citizenship away to those who have proven their lack of regard for American laws and the American system, let alone for the American people, we are making it a thing of little value. Truly when we give citizenship away to virtually anybody who makes it across the finish line, we cheapen it immeasurably.
Labels: Amnesty, Borders, Immigration, Politics