It is clear that border security and immigration reform are two separate issues. Yet the two must be linked together as we try to develop a responsible solution to both of these problems facing our nation. Today, in Houston, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is visiting to make a speech about border security and the job her department is doing. It is interesting that she chose Houston as the place to deliver this. Texans have been hammering her about border security from the day she took office.

The truth is, and we must acknowledge this, the border between the U.S. and Mexico is more secure now than it has ever been. One of the few good things the Obama Administration has done is to increase security along the border. Is it “secure”?  Few Texans, especially those living in South Texas, would say yes. But it is more secure. However, we still must continue to press the federal government to do more and to be more effective.

Yet, securing the border without fixing our broken immigration system is creating new problems of its own. The increased border security has turned human smuggling and human trafficking into an even larger cash cow for the drug cartels. Not only are they charging more to smuggle people into our country, especially from places other than Mexico and South America, they can use them to haul their drug cargo at the same time. A “slave labor” market if you will.

The difficulty in crossing the border has led to increased lawlessness in our nation. There is more corruption in law enforcement and administration because of the increased pressure of drug cartel money. But there is another unintended consequence of tighter borders – undocumented immigrants are indirectly encouraged to stay longer and to bring their families with them.

A guest worker program would help address this unintended consequence. If these workers were properly identified and documented, they would be free to travel back and forth to their home country as work plays out. This would let them keep their families at home and reduce the burden on taxpayers of education and healthcare. It would reduce the human rights abuses of these people who want to come here to work as they would no longer have to deal with the drug cartels and harsh conditions of sneaking into our country.

It would also reduce the abuse of workers by unethical companies who often work them at sub-standard wages, don’t pay overtime, don’t withhold taxes and child support and who don’t provide workman’s comp coverage, which increases taxpayer exposure for healthcare for work related injuries.

Many take the position of “we must secure the border first.” This is a short sided position as it allows the lawlessness along our border to continue. It also is a national security risk as we are doing nothing to identify the existing undocumented aliens who travel freely about our country.

We are a smart enough group of people to address two problems at once. We cannot reform immigration without securing the border because those who don’t qualify under a new program would still come here illegally. But we also cannot simply secure the border without reforming immigration as this creates the costly and abusive problems talked about above.

Senator Rand Paul told Sean Hannity that we should seek a “trust but verify” solution with our government. Sen. Paul is taking an aggressive stand on moving immigration reform forward along with border security. Take a look at his plan and let him know your support.

“Republicans need to become parents of a new future with Latino voters or we will need to resign ourselves to permanent minority status. The Republican Party has insisted for years that we stand for freedom and family values. I am most proud of my party when it stands for both. The vast majority of Latino voters agree with us on these issues but Republicans have pushed them away with harsh rhetoric over immigration.” – Rand Paul

There is a lack of trust that must be healed as we move forward. An immigration reform/border security combined solution could put measurable requirements on Homeland Security to continue securing the border and to force them to carry out the new programs as they come into practice.

After the Reagan amnesty, we went to sleep and did not monitor our government’s commitment to verify employees that are eligible to work. We allowed this problem to be created through our own complacency and perhaps the greed of cheap labor. We are asleep no more, and the companies seeking “cheap labor” are on notice that we will not tolerate their misclassification and abuse of workers. Texas laws need to be made tougher on employers who abuse workers, but we must also be ready to supply legally documented workers to meed the labor demands of industry and agriculture.

We can and must do both. Immigration reform and border security should both be addressed and it should be done this year. We cannot afford to wait and we cannot continue the de facto amnesty that is currently in place because of blind opposition to immigration reform.

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Bob Price is the Texas state leader for Cafe Con Leche Republicans, and a blogger for TexasGOPVote.com. Reposted with permission – original link.

by Bob Price (re-posted with author’s permission – original link)

Immigration Law

Immigration reform should be viewed as a matter of national security and not social engineering. Currently our immigration system is more about family reunification than it is about economic needs and national security. In fact, the current system is so broken that we have millions of undocumented people wandering around the country,  and we have no idea who they are, why they are here, or the history of their background. The current system must be reformed, not to pander to the voting block of one particular group or another, but rather because our national needs require it.

Many times groups try to label any attempt at immigration reform as amnesty. They dig their heels into the ground screaming “Amnesty, Amnesty” like it is some kind of honorable battle cry. The reality is, their blocking of immigration reform has actually granted a de facto amnesty to those who have entered the country illegally and those who entered legally but remained after their visas expired. Millions of people are allowed to stay without examination as to purpose or history. This is a dangerous situation to us all.

Furthermore, our current stance of increasing border security (which should continue) without correcting the problems of our broken immigration system have led to much lawlessness along the border and across the nation. While our borders have become more secure, we do not have any kind of guest worker program for people to come here legally, which has created a market for human trafficking and slavery. Instead of simply applying for a legal work permit, people who are starving for work to support their families are forced to engage in criminal behavior to come here. Not only do they spend thousands of dollars to human smugglers, they end up bringing their families because it is too difficult to come and go legally.

The revenue of human trafficking along our borders also helps fuel the armies of the drug cartels. A virtual civil war is going on along our southern border making parts of Mexico more dangerous than Iraq. Thousands of Mexicans are being killed because of this. Furthermore, once the human cargo has arrived in the United States, we have created more lawlessness as many unscrupulous employers will illegally hire these workers and improperly misclassified them as independent contractors, pay them sub-standard wages, steal wages from their workers and deprive the government of much needed tax revenue.

Most of the millions of people who are here and who come here illegally, do so without any evil intent. They come here seeking work and wages whereby they can support themselves and their families. But for those who do come here with criminal intent, our broken system enables them to hide in the shadows. Once they have committed crimes, they can simply change their names and disappear into the darkness, or they can simply move to another community and start over again. A reformed system should provide for a biometric identification system which would render annonymity much more difficult.

In addition to the national security needs of our nation, immigration reform is also needed for economic reasons. Despite the fact that our nation suffers from high levels of unemployment and underemployment, there is still a high and unfulfilled demand for manual labor workers. Our current education system is focused on sending people to colleges and universities for high-paying white-collar jobs. In the mean time, employers in the service, construction, agriculture and many other industries struggle to find workers.

Immigration Reform and Guest Worker Programs are not about providing cheap labor to employers. It is about providing workers who are willing to do the work. I remember hearing President Bush, in a State of the Union speech, say that we need immigrant workers to do the jobs American’s won’t do. I was angry – very angry. I thought that was a lie. But as I have studied this problem and talked with employers who want and can’t find legal workers in adequate supply, I have learned that it really is true. Groups like FAIR, the Center for Immigration Studies, and NumbersUSA claim that a guest worker program would create a slave-labor class of workers. The exact opposite is true. Our current broken system has already created a slave labor pool of unidentified workers who cannot compete in the open marketplace and who are afraid to report substandard wages and wage theft.

McAllen International Bridge between US and Mexico

Workers participating in a legal guest worker program would be able to compete in the open marketplace for jobs. If an employer attempted to abuse the worker’s rights either by paying substandard wages or comitting wage theft, the worker would be able to report the employer’s unethical and illegal behaviors as well as move to another job.

Immigration reform would also help legitimate employers in the marketplace. Under our current system, unethical employers are able to have an improper competitive advantage over companies who seek to follow the law. They do this by avoiding taxes through misclassifying workers as independent contractors, paying substandard wages and even stealing wages from a captive slave-labor market. In addition to unfair business competition, these unethical employers also place a burden on taxpayers. By misclassifying workers as independent contractors, they allow deadbeat parents to hide from the child support collection process thereby adding single parents not receiving child support to our welfare roles. Furthermore, by not providing workmen’s compensation and health insurance benefits to their “independent contractors”, workers who are injured on the job end up being dumped in emergency rooms adding to our expanding healthcare costs. Additionally, many of these employers hold these workers under hostile conditions where they are truly held as captors in a slave-labor market.

Border Security and Immigration Reform must both move forward. Not because it is pandering to one side or the other, but because it is the right thing to do for our nation’s security, social and economic needs. The current standoff plays into the hands of Democrats who want to keep the issue as a wedge issue to separate some conservatives from voting for Republicans. But more importantly, it is simply an ongoing amnesty for the people who are here and for those who illegally and improperly profit from this stalemate. We must continue to make the borders more secure, but we cannot wait until some date in the future to also address the issue of reforming our broken immigration system.

by Bob Quasius

Sharing this news release, with Arizona context. Much of Arizona’s border is remote, and as border fencing, security, etc. has been beefed up in other states, Arizona, in particular the Tucson Sector, has become a funnel for increased illegal border crossing.

The U.S. currently has seven million unauthorized immigrant workers, with the capacity to remove approximately 400,000 per year. Just 1.7 million guest worker and training visas were issued in 2011. In other words, less than 20% of ‘guest workers’ have a visa! Most guest worker visas are subject to strict quotas. In many cases the quotas are a small fraction of need, and across the board employers and employees encounter considerable red tape, delays, etc., and once a visa is issued, guest workers cannot readily change employers, which allows unscrupulous employers to exploit them.

For example, the U.S. has 1.5 million non-citizen agricultural workers, but only 12% have some type of visa. Many states that have implemented immigration crackdowns quickly experienced farm labor shortages. Even states that did not crack down, such as Washington State, are experiencing farm worker shortages. Some Americans are willing to take these types of jobs, but not in the numbers needed by agriculture. Georgia and Alabama experienced widespread crop losses after implementing SB1070 type laws, as immigrant farm workers fled but few Americans took their place. After SB1070 was passed, over 100,000 immigrants fled Arizona, and yet Yuma’s unemployment rate remains at great depression levels.

Fixing legal immigration and guest worker programs can be expected to reduce illegal border crossings by diverting the flow of migrant workers into legal channels, allowing the border patrol to focus on those who are truly dangerous, such as drug traffickers, gun runners, and terrorists. The grid lock on immigration reform remains in Washington, with Obama blaming Republicans when in truth Republicans are deeply divided on immigration reform, but don’t trust Obama! Read our release below for more perspective…

Marshall, MN – National pro-immigrant group Cafe Con Leche Republicans today slammed President Obama for failing to include immigration reform in his second-term economic plan titled “A Plan for Jobs & Middle-Class Security.” In May 2011 Obama described immigration reform as an “economic imperative” and yet incredibly Obama fails to include immigration reform in his economic and jobs plan!

During both presidential campaigns, Obama often promised to introduce immigration reform during his first year in office. However, Obama failed to put anything on the table during his first two years in office, despite a strong majority in Congress, and a cloture-proof majority in the Senate.

In a recent interview with Univisión, Obama again blamed Republicans for his own lack of leadership on immigration:

“My biggest failure so far is we haven’t gotten comprehensive immigration reform done, but it’s not because for lack of trying or desire, and I’m confident we are going to accomplish that.

What I confess I did not expect, and so I’m happy to take responsibility for being naive here, is that Republicans who had previously supported comprehensive immigration reform, my opponent in 2008 who had been a champion of it and who attended these meetings, suddenly would walk away.”

Obama’s biggest failure has been failure to work with Congress on a range of issues, not just immigration, and the second part of his answer to Univisión highlight his constant blame of others for his own leadership failures. Obama also failed to put immigration reform on the table during his first two years, and yet still blames Republicans for blocking it!

Obama’s actions as a Senator underline a different explanation of Obama’s failure to lead. Obama claimed he supported Bush’s immigration reform bill, then quietly worked with Harry Reid to sabotage Bush’s immigration reform through poison pill amendments and procedure to encourage moderate Republicans to drop their support, and then blaming Republicans for the bill’s failure. In a 2010 Wall Street Journal Op-ed, former Bush administration official William McGurn described Obama’s “immigration fakery”:

Earlier this month President Obama gave us his speech on comprehensive immigration reform.

Since then, observers have commented on its similarity to the Oval Office address given by George W. Bush four years earlier. As someone who had a hand in the Bush speech, let me point out two striking differences.

First, President Bush actually wanted an immigration bill, and indeed many of his conservative critics loathed him for it. Second, because he knew that such a bill required bipartisan support, he did not disparage members of the other party.

Wait a minute. Hasn’t Mr. Obama told us how he “reached across the aisle in the Senate to fight for comprehensive immigration reform”? Well, yes, those are his words. The back story, however, suggests another face to our president. For then-Sen. Obama also favored a series of amendments that were plainly recognized as bill-killers—spurning not only Mr. Bush and Mr. McCain but the Democratic architect of that compromise, Sen. Edward Kennedy (D., Mass.).

One such amendment was Mr. Obama’s own, which aimed to substitute family ties for education and skills when determining who gets green cards. That led to what the Associated Press called a “heated exchange” with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.). Mr. Graham accused Mr. Obama of undercutting Democrats and Republicans working for reform—contrary to his lofty campaign rhetoric about Americans coming together.

So when you are out on the campaign trail, my friend, tell them about why we can’t come together,” said Mr. Graham. “This is why.”

Mr. Obama’s mischief did not stop there. Though his own amendment failed, he supported another poison pill by Sen. Byron Dorgan (D., N.D.). Mr. Dorgan’s target was the guest-worker provision, another key to GOP and business buy-in.

There were 70 “yea” cloture votes to introduce Bush’s immigration reform, including dozens of Republicans. After Obama’s fakery and Harry Reid’s chicanery in not allowing debate on most Republican amendments, immigration reform failed to gain the required “yea” votes in two cloture votes to end debate and take up a final vote. Although the second cloture vote came closer to the required 60 “yea” votes, instead of allowing amendments and debate to continue until 60 votes were secured, Reid pulled the bill.

A constant narrative from Democrats ever since is that Republicans blocked immigration reform, when in fact Reid pulled the bill from the floor as “yea” votes for cloture approached the required 60. Not surprisingly, Republicans in Congress learned not to trust Obama on immigration and other issues, trust that is essential for bipartisanship. In fact, there has been almost no bipartisanship during Obama’s presidency, a problem that began during Obama’s tenure as a Senator, as described Bob Woodward’s book “The Price of Politics.” In our opinion, Mitt Romney demonstrated the ability to work across the aisle as Governor of Massachusetts, where he had to work with a legislature with 85% Democrat majority, and this, combined with Mitt Romney’s economic plan and immigration reform platform led us to endorse Mitt Romney. Mitt Romney can be expected to work with both parties in Congress, find middle ground, and pass immigration reform as promised, while Obama will either ignore the issue or continue to use immigration as a wedge issue as he has done now for years.

Obama campaigned in 2008 on a strong commitment to pass immigration reform during his first year in office, but during his first two years in office Obama failed to put anything on the table despite a strong House majority and cloture-proof majority in the Senate. He failed to even call Democrat senators in support of the DREAM Act, and Reid combined abortion measures and gay marriage with the DREAM Act to ensure that few Republicans would vote for the DREAM Act. Despite failing to put anything on the table, Obama has continued to blame Republicans for his own lack of leadership on immigration reform. Sadly, ‘hope and change’ has become ‘hype and blame’ and we have seen no progress on immigration reform during Obama’s presidency.

During the last year of the Bush administration, the H2A agricultural guest worker program was streamlined to help farmers obtain the guest workers they needed, while also enhancing accountability for hiring unauthorized workers. Upon taking office, Obama promptly canceled Bush’s H2A improvements, and then made the H2A program even more difficult for farmers. About 88% of non-citizen farm workers are unauthorized immigrants as a result. The H2A system remains broken to this day, although there is flexibility to reform this program administratively just as Bush did.

When Marco Rubio sought to find middle ground and introduce a new version of the DREAM Act, DREAM Activists and Democratic congressmen and senators were told not to talk with Rubio by the Obama administration, and soon afterwards came the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a ‘band aid’ approach to providing relief for deportation for DREAM eligible youth, was rolled out to undermine Senator Rubio’s efforts. DACA angered Republicans in Congress, who rightly felt Obama was circumventing Congress, and ended any hope of bipartisanship solutions during the present Congress. A lawsuit was filed by immigration agents and union leaders, which seems likely to prevail on some points. In the rush to implement DACA, the Obama administration’s failed to follow the rule making process mandated by federal law.
Though jobs and economy remain top issues with New Americans, immigration is important too, with Latinos in particular, since a large majority of Latinos are immigrants themselves, or first or second generation immigrants, and often empathize with unauthorized immigrants. Obama’s continued “fakery”, as evidenced by his omission of immigration reform in his economic plan though he has described immigration reform as an “economic imperative” speaks to Obama’s continued “immigration fakery.”
His opponent, Mitt Romney, supported Bush’s immigration reform bills, and has demonstrated the ability to reach across the aisle as governor of Massachusetts. If Obama is reelected, he’s welcome to surprise us by hitting the “reset” button with Congress, and on this issue we will work with anyone who will work with us, but so far Obama has done little to inspire confidence he can turn around his relationship with Congress. We cannot help but note Mitt Romney’s strong commitment to turning our economy around, and his immigration reform platform promises badly needed reforms in guest worker programs.

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About Us – Cafe Con Leche Republicans is a national organization of Republicans who welcome “New Americans”, defined as immigrants and family of recent immigrants. Our mission is to make America and the GOP, more welcoming to “New Immigrants” through political activism, “in-reach” and education within the Republican Party, and lobbying government to adopt more immigrant friendly policies. We also seek to bring more conservative and moderate “New Americans” to the Republican Party. These efforts will strengthen the GOP, and lead more Republicans to embrace welcoming policies for immigrants and their families. We have members nationwide, with chapters in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Texas, Oklahoma, Arizona, and California. Our members and leadership are predominantly Hispanic, though we define ourselves by mission and guiding principles, not ethnicity, and we welcome all who share our goals. Our leadership is 100% Republican.

by Linda Vega (re-posted with permission of the author and Latinos Ready to Vote)

Immigration touches on every facet of America.   It is embedded into economics, education, healthcare, and even in the Constitution of the United States. More significantly, “Immigration policy can affect trade, investment, tourism, and diplomatic relations for the entire Nation, as well as the perceptions and expectations of aliens in this country who seek the full protection of its laws.” See Arizona et al. v. United States, No. 11-182, Sup. Ct. (decided June 25, 2012). For the many benefits that legal immigration brings to this country, it also brings a myriad of confusion spread by politicians from both parties who force states to create their own laws that clash with powers clearly given only to the Federal Government.  As a result, this confusion has States trying to implement laws over issues that are fundamentally out of their reach.

The Constitution specifically delineates what powers the Federal Government possesses over federal issues and which ones states possess; and while we may disagree on this distribution of power, States cannot superseded this law.  They, therefore cannot write or enforce laws that are not within their authority according to  Article I Section 8: Clause 4, which states that the Federal Government governs those laws on Naturalization.  More importantly, the Supreme Court agrees.

In its recent ruling, The Supreme Court held that the Arizona lawmakers cannot overstep their boundaries especially if the laws are posed to create chaotic conflict with Federal laws.  Moreover, the Supreme Court ruling stated that even if federal laws are not written to exactly address an issue according to Article I, the States may not impose their version of enforcement or control over the issue of immigration because Federal law preempts it.

One hundred years after the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. enjoyed prosperity and worried little about the borders. In fact, one could say that it enjoyed an open border policy which helped it to grow and prosper. Those who were a threat to the nation were deported, without hesitation. Those who helped the U.S. flourish were allowed to remain. Throughout the years, immigration law has been amended, simplified, re-codified, so much that its application is contradictory at many times. Not even a sense of discretion by officials or judges can make sense of it. States, especially in our southern border, have had trouble controlling the inflow of some unwanted aliens such gangs and cartels who may indeed threaten U.S. populations.  This fear has culminated and given a hurried passing to more complicated laws.  States are reacting by taking matters into their own hands and enacting laws that are strictly reserved for the Federal Government.

In Section 3 of SB 1070, Arizona called for aliens to register into a database to keep track of immigrants present in the state. Failure to do so, would have charged immigrants with a misdemeanor. The Supreme Court ruled that alien registration  was not only unnecessary, it was already done so by the Federal Government.  SB1070, therefore, was overstepping its boundary.

The Court further stated that States cannot criminalize an alien who is soliciting work in the U.S.  Under Federal law, in the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986 and a court case of Hoffman Plastics, employers must already verify someone’s work status. The Arizona requirement would not only double the work but would be “unnecessary and unworkable” according to public policy. To apply this law would be a hindrance to the “accomplishment and execution of the full purpose and objectives of Congress.” Hines v. Davidowitz, 312 U.S. 52, (1941).

Further, the Court stated that contrary to popular belief, it is not a crime for a removable alien to remain present in the U.S.  In fact, the Federal government already has a procedure in place to arrest and have them appear in court and Section 6 of SB1070 would only interfere with this federal power. Additionally, state agents do not have the proper training that would help them discern what makes someone a “probable cause” nor would they know what makes someone “removable” from the United States without having to inquire about their legal status.  Moreover, without the proper training an error in requesting proof of this, would create an  offensive situation to some Americans which could be illegal as well.   The Federal Government, already has authority over those “policies pertaining to the entry of aliens and their right to remain here are…..entrusted to Congress.” Truaz v. Reich, 239 U.S. 33, (1915).  States can enjoin to help federal agents when there is a “cooperation” agreement with the Federal Agencies or there exists a joint task force. However, other than this, states cannot act unilaterally to apply Immigration laws.

What remained then of the skeletal version of the SB1070 was the 2(B) section that allows state officers to make a “reasonable” assessment to determine someone’s status, which includes anyone who is stopped, detained, or arrested. State police agents then have the power to determine if there is a “reasonable suspicion” to determine if that person is unlawfully present in the U.S.   However, logic would follow that if you are not properly trained, how would you know to assess what is a “reasonable” characteristic.  And if state police agents are to be trained, are they not once again overstepping the federal police powers already entrusted to agents of the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Patrol, and United States Customs and Inspections Services?   The Supreme Court did not state that this part was constitutional, but rather stated that this issue is not yet “ripe.”  “It is not clear at this stage,” was the wording they used.   In other words, the law has not been enforced to cause an injury where a court can remedy it.

It was a subtle warning by the Court to States including Arizona who now have options.  The manner of enforcement, then, will determine if SB1070 is to return again to be addressed before The Court.  States must be careful to ensure that state officers not infringe on the rights of U.S. citizens. Therefore, the  law must have a compelling state interest to achieve its purpose and must pass the following tests:

1.     it must be justified by a compelling governmental interest. While the Courts have never clearly defined how to determine if an interest is compelling, the idea is that it touches on something necessary or crucial, as opposed to something merely preferred. In other words, is it necessary to protect national security, preserving the lives of multiple individuals, while not violating explicit constitutional protections.

2.     it must be narrowly tailored to achieve that goal or interest of the law. If the state action is overbroad or does not pinpoint the compelling interest, then the rule is not considered narrowly tailored.

3.      it must be the least restrictive means for achieving that interest; meaning that there are not other means that are less restrictive way to effectively achieve the compelling government interest. The test will be met even if there is another method that is equally the least restrictive.

States who are considering implementing the 2(B) version of SB1070 must carefully consider whether they can write and enforce laws that are not targeting a certain class of individuals who are protected in this country. The court did not state that this portion was Constitutional as it was written, only that it could not determine whether its application violated any citizen’s rights since it was not currently enforced. If Arizona, then,  decides to implement this portion of the law, it should be careful. If the law cannot meet the strict scrutiny test it should consider the Court’s ruling as a warning.  If you pick on a certain class of people, the portion of the law cannot be upheld as Constitutional regardless of how loud you scream. States must carefully walk through the tests already in place via the Constitution. The law must protect before it can gain momentum of acceptance.  More importantly,  if  the law cannot seek to remedy injustices,  States should reconsider implementing something that could divide our country rather unite it.

By Bob Price (reposted with permission from TexasGOPVote)

Perhaps the most lawless act of the Obama Presidency has been its role in Operation Fast and Furious. The National Rifle Association (NRA) has been out front in keeping this story in the public’s eye. While in Washington, DC, last month, I spoke with NRA Spokesperson Jacqueline Otto about Fast and Furious. She told me the NRA got “furious fast over Fast and Furious”.

Operation Fast and Furious first came to public attention shortly after the murder of US Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was murdered during a firefight with Mexican gangsters in December of 2010. In the video below, I talk with Otto about the anti-gun agenda of the Obama Administration and how they created Fast and Furious to create a crisis in order to further their gun-control plans.

Watch the interview here.

Otto acknowledged TexasGOPVote’s role in reporting this scandal early on and keeping the story alive until picked up nationally by CBS reporter Sharyl Attkisson. Senator Charles Grassley and House Oversight Committee Chairman Daryl Issa led the way for Congressional investigations leading to Contempt of Congress  charges being levied against Eric Holder for his refusal to provide subpoenaed documents Congress required to carry out its Constitutionally mandated role of oversight.

On the political agenda of the Obama Administration, Otto explained, “Almost from the beginning there was a chorus of Administration officials using the term ’90% of the firearms that were used in Mexican violence”. 90% of firearms they said were coming from America.”

Otto continued, “What they didn’t tell us was that they were the ones sending them there – through Operation Fast and Furious. And, when that story came to light through the murder of Brian Terry and through the hundreds of Mexican citizens who have been murdered through this violence.”

The proof of the gun control agenda soon followed. Otto explained, “They used the 90% figure to justify their new regulatory schemes, their new registration requirements and forcing these federally licensed firearms dealers that are in the border states to jump through more hoops, and do more paperwork and follow more requirements when they weren’t the ones at fault.”

Many of the firearms dealers in Arizona and Texas asked to not participate in this program – fearing violence and death would result from this. They were coerced by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE, or ATF) to continue their participations. This was revealed in one of Senator Grassley’s earliest reports.

In my Feb, 2010 article titled, Agent Brian Terry Murder – DOJ Adds to the Cover-up, I wrote, “The licensed gun dealer who sold the weapons allegedly recovered at the scene of Agent Terry’s murder met with the ATF and the Assistant US Attorney as early as December 2009 to discuss his role as a licensed dealer during this investigation. Avila was allowed to continue his purchases, including two .50 caliber rifles as late as June 2010.”

The investigation continues despite an internal DOJ Inspector General report which whitewashed Attorney General Eric Holder’s involvement in Fast and Furious. Ask yourself this, if Holder and Obama are not directly involved, how and why did Obama give Holder Executive Privilege on this scandal?

SEE RELATED STORY FROM EXAMINER.COM - A journalist’s guide to ‘Project Gunwalker’

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Bob Price is a political commentator for TexasGOPVote.com. He is an expert about issues related to border security and illegal immigration and has expanded to cover stories of local, state and national interest from a Conservative Texas Perspective. He also volunteers with US Border Watch, a civilian volunteer border security organization, as Communications Director. He has been with USBW for over five years.

Recently, Price was invited to become the Texas Director of Cafe Con Leche Republicans. CCLR is an organization established to foster better communication within the Republican party toward immigrants.

Price is also a regular political commentator on Houston’s Fox 26 and KHOU, Houston Channel 11 where he regularly debates on a wide variety of political issues. He is frequently asked to speak to organizations on the topic of border security, immigration reform and 2nd Amendment issues.

He is a US Air Force veteran, having served overseas during the Cold War and is a retired Lt. Col. from the US Air Force Auxiliary, Civil Air Patrol where he served in command, public relations, emergency services and youth education capacities.

In corporate life, Mr. Price serves as vice president of Novum Solutions, Inc; a Houston based manufacturing company best known for its Blue Wonder Gun Care Products and Novum APR Advanced Pain Relief  brands. Novum also manufactures private label product for Connecticut Valley Arms, Bass Assassin Fishing Lures and Point Blank Body Armor. He is also an Independent Brand Partner for Nerium Age Defying skin care products.

Follow more of Price’s writing and commentary at BobPrice.com.

by Bob Price (re-posted with permission from TexasGOPVote.com)

There is no question that the lack of proper border security is a threat to our national security and to our national sovereignty. We must secure the border for a great many reasons. Not the least of which is to stop the flow of drugs across our borders that has led to a disastrous war on the southern side of our border. But securing the border is not enough. At the same time, we must address our broken immigration system that has led to lawless behavior by many Americans and foreign nationals.

Many people say “We must secure the border FIRST!” They are unwilling to even talk about the other broken parts of our immigration and employment systems that plague our country today.  Yes, we must secure the border.  But, at the same time, we can and must also address these other critical issues.

INTERIOR ENFORCEMENT

Currently there is little enforcement of our immigration law within the interior of our country. Every day, people who are in this country legally with visas of various types become illegal when their visa expires. Yet, because all of our resources are pointed at the border, little is done to track down these people.  And don’t forget, at least six of the 9-11 hijackers were illegally in this country because of visa overstays.

An article in Arizona Central says, “Visa violators represent nearly half of the 11 million illegal immigrants in the country. But they have been largely ignored amid a national clamor to secure the border…”  The article quotes Michael W. Cutler, a former senior agent with the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which became Immigration and Customs Enforcement as saying, “It’s not that we have too much emphasis on the border. We still need enforcement on the border. The problem is not enough attention to the other issue.”

We don’t need to wait till the border is secured to start enforcing our laws related to visa overstays. We must improve this process so we know who is still here and why.

UNIDENTIFIED IMMIGRANTS

Another problem with the “Secure the border first” mentality is it does nothing about the millions of of unidentified illegal aliens who are already here. We have absolutely no idea who is here, where they are from, or why they are here.  This is as big of a threat to public safety, if not a bigger threat, than the border being left as it is. Every day we wait for the border to be secure before addressing this problem is another day of millions of people with no form of identification can commit crimes and then simply change their names and move somewhere else to start all over again.

We must begin a process of identifying all immigrants who are in this country and issue them a biometric identification card so that, even if they change their name, we will be able to tie them back to prior crimes committed in this country. We must not wait for the border to be secured to begin this process.

EMPLOYMENT ISSUES
Our current immigration system is broken – especially in regards to non-skilled workers. We have great shortages of manual laborers in this country and need to find a legal way for more employers to find the workers they need to grow their business and expand the economy. There are jobs in this country we, as Americans, simply do not want to do. I used to hate it when people said that, but the more I have studied this problem, the more I realize it is the truth.

We need to develop a guest worker program that will meet the economic needs of our country and stop the current abuses of workers by some employers who currently take advantage of our broken system to misclassify employees illegally as subcontractors when they should be employees.

“The Texas Solution“, adopted by the Republican Party of Texas this summer, provides a blueprint for how a legitimate guest worker program might work. It provides for positive identification of foreign workers, a legal process for people to work and hire workers and restricts foreign workers to only work for companies who classify employees properly ensuring the collection of taxes, providing workmen’s compensation and compliance with child support collection processes.

Our current system encourages the lawless behavior that has been occurring in this country for many years. In the past, guest workers would travel back and forth between their home country and ours when work was available to them. It was not necessary for them to bring family with them as they knew they could travel freely when needed.

Our new system inadvertently forces them to bring families with them which increases the burden on our schools, hospitals and taxpayers. This is a negative outcome which needs to be corrected now and not wait until the border is first secured.

SUMMARY

Yes, securing the border is an absolute priority.  But we are a nation of many resources and many talented people. We can do more than one thing at a time. The federal government did not follow through on its promises after the Reagan amnesty. This is, in large part, because we did not stay on their backs to make certain it happened.

In our new Tea Party reality, the people are providing stringent oversight of our government. This is what we should, as citizens and taxpayers, be doing.  We must hold them accountable.

Let’s get the border secured and do it quickly. But let’s also move forward on much needed immigration reform and employment law enforcement. We can do all of these things and we can start now.

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Bob Price is a political commentator for TexasGOPVote.com. He is an expert about issues related to border security and illegal immigration and has expanded to cover stories of local, state and national interest from a Conservative Texas Perspective. He also volunteers with US Border Watch, a civilian volunteer border security organization, as Communications Director. He has been with USBW for over five years.

Recently, Price was invited to become the Texas Director of Cafe Con Leche Republicans. CCLR is an organization established to foster better communication within the Republican party toward immigrants.

Price is also a regular political commentator on Houston’s Fox 26 and KHOU, Houston Channel 11 where he regularly debates on a wide variety of political issues. He is frequently asked to speak to organizations on the topic of border security, immigration reform and 2nd Amendment issues.

He is a US Air Force veteran, having served overseas during the Cold War and is a retired Lt. Col. from the US Air Force Auxiliary, Civil Air Patrol where he served in command, public relations, emergency services and youth education capacities.

In corporate life, Mr. Price serves as vice president of Novum Solutions, Inc; a Houston based manufacturing company best known for its Blue Wonder Gun Care Products and Novum APR Advanced Pain Relief brands. Novum also manufactures private label product for Connecticut Valley Arms, Bass Assassin Fishing Lures and Point Blank Body Armor. He is also an Independent Brand Partner for Nerium Age Defying skin care products.

Follow more of Price’s writing and commentary at BobPrice.com.