U.S. to Stop Deporting Some Illegal Immigrants

[Chris]

Nice way of bribing a certain target market - Hispanics, in this case - to vote Democrat.

WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama said Friday that his administration would let many young illegal immigrants legally live and work in the U.S., sidestepping Congress after years of stalemate over the nation's immigration policy.

Under the new rules, an estimated 800,000 young people brought to the U.S. as children could apply for work permits and enjoy a safe haven from deportation. Unlike with the Dream Act, a bill backed by Mr. Obama that has stalled in Congress, they wouldn't be eligible for citizenship.

The rules, which Mr. Obama announced Friday from the Rose Garden, may inject a needed jolt of enthusiasm for his campaign among Hispanic voters, who overwhelmingly support him but often turn out in smaller numbers than other groups.

Many Republicans criticized the rules as an amnesty for law breakers, an overreach of administrative authority and an election-year pander to Hispanics.

The new rules may complicate GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney's efforts to find a more nuanced position to appeal to Hispanics after a primary campaign in which he said he would veto the Dream Act.

Some Republicans have worked to soften the party's immigration approach, including Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who is pitching an alternative to the Dream Act that resembles the new Obama policy. But it isn't likely Mr. Romney will want to endorse an approach so close to Mr. Obama's.

The new policy was celebrated by young illegal immigrants and by many Democrats, who said it would provide overdue relief. In Los Angeles, more than 100 students cheered the announcement in front of downtown's federal building, waving signs that said, "Right to Dream."

"These are young people who study in our schools, they play in our neighborhoods, they're friends with our kids, they pledge allegiance to our flag," Mr. Obama said Friday. "They are Americans in their heart, in their minds, in every single way but one: on paper."

Read more: Wall Street Journal

[Nicodeamus]

here is a bit of an older article, but it does give more perspective on immigration, I'm personally in favour of immigration given that the taxpayers do not have to subsidise the immigrants, which isn't what is happening currently in the US.

Now that Newt Gingrich has become the latest in a series of Republican frontrunners, he is getting the kind of scrutiny and attacks that have done in other frontrunners.

One of the issues that have aroused concern among conservative Republicans is that of amnesty for illegal immigrants, especially after Gingrich said that it would not be “humane” to deport someone who has been living and working here for years.

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Let’s go back to square one. The purpose of American immigration laws and policies is not to be either humane or inhumane to illegal immigrants. The purpose of immigration laws and policies is to serve the national interest of this country.

There is no inherent right to come live in the United States, in disregard of whether the American people want you here. Nor does the passage of time confer any such right retroactively.

The Wall Street Journal, usually sober and thoughtful on issues other than immigration, outdoes Newt Gingrich’s claim that it would not be “humane” to deport illegal immigrants who have been living here a long time. A Wall Street Journal editorial says that it would be “psychotic” to do so.

“No one honestly believes the government should or will mount a nationwide manhunt to deport millions of people,” according to the Wall Street Journal.

What we have today is virtually the opposite of that. Cities that openly proclaim themselves “sanctuaries” for illegal immigrants put their own policemen under strict orders not to report illegal immigrants to the federal authorities, with the result that illegal immigrants who have committed crime after crime are free to stay here and commit more crimes, including murder.

You don’t have to launch a “manhunt” when a known criminal is also a known illegal alien. Many local policies have virtually put illegal aliens in a witness-protection program.

The more doctrinaire libertarians see the benefits of free international trade in goods, and extend the same reasoning to free international movement of people. But goods do not bring a culture with them. Nor do they give birth to other goods to perpetuate that culture.

Why do people want to come to America in the first place? Because America offers them something that their native countries do not. This country has a culture that has produced a higher standard of living and a freer life than in many other countries.

When you import people, you import cultures, including cultures that have been far less successful in providing decent lives and decent livelihoods. The American people have a right to decide for themselves whether they want unlimited imports of cultures from other countries.

At one time, immigrants came to America to become Americans. Today, the apostles of multiculturalism and grievance-mongering have done their best to keep foreigners foreign and, if possible, feeling aggrieved. Our own schools and colleges teach grievances.

http://www.nationalreview.com/articl...thomas-sowell#