The Republican Party is acting at its most mean spirited nature ever right now—wishing to bar all refugees from Syria, even 5 year old children and mothers, who are victims of one of the most horrible civil wars in modern history!
31 State Governors, almost all Republican, are trying to prevent any migration of refugees to their states, but that is illegal, as no one can prevent any migrant coming to the nation from settling wherever they choose, and to cut off all migration from Syria and the Middle East is outrageous bigotry, as many are saying only Christians and no Muslims should be allowed into the nation.
At the same time that we have thousands of gun deaths from domestic sources annually, now we are seeing hysteria and panic, and the belief that somehow, some terrorists will be admitted, when every day, we have domestic terrorists killing Americans, and nothing is done about that!
Of course, full vetting must be done of all migrants and refugees, but to shut the door completely is to deny the purposes of the Statue of Liberty and the so called “American Dream” that we keep on propagandizing.
Republicans and conservatives are forgetting that our land is founded on the basis of refugees and migrants escaping for a better life, and none of us who are not native American or African American would be here if not for an open mind over the generations toward people of all backgrounds escaping persecution and deprivation!
Barack Obama is right that we must not give up our principles, and must not repeat the horrible anti immigrant mentality that led to discrimination in past times against refugees and migrants of all racial and religious backgrounds, and caused the deaths of many, particularly in the time of pre World War II in Europe when Jews were denied admission and ended up dying in the Holocaust!
Very much agree. We need to err on the side of caution but not go overboard about it.
In an opinion Justice Scalia correctly reminds us, imagine yourself back at the time they are negotiating the country, trying to convince all the colonies to become part of the United States and ratifying the Constitution. If you tell these states that they’re not gonna have any say-so over who lives in their states, you think they’re gonna sign up for this country?
They’re gonna make fast tracks for the exits at the Constitution hall and they’re gonna be out of there. There is no way, Scalia writes, that this would ever, ever have been part of the founding of this country, that the governors, that the states have no say so. You people have forgotten, when this country was formed, the federal government ranked lowest on the totem pole. The states were supreme. The founders of this country were scared to death of centralized government.
The founders had spent their lives fighting centralized government, escaping it, and establishing a new country that deemphasized the federal government and promoted individual liberty and freedom and states and state sovereignty. It’s the concept called federalism. Now we’ve gotten to the point where everybody seems to want to anoint and empower the federal government power over everything, particularly when a Democrat president is in office.
Nowhere in the Constitution was the national government vested with an enumerated power, a specific power, over immigration enforcement. Congress was empowered only to set the terms for naturalization — to determine who qualifies for American citizenship.
The police power, the power to enforce laws within their respective territories, was left to the states — left to the representative governments closest to the people whose lives, liberties, and property were most affected by the manner of enforcement.This is exactly the way the country was founded. The Founding Fathers went to great lengths to avoid vesting all of this power in the federal government. They didn’t trust it. As a matter of fact the first 10 amendments to the Constitution limit the federal government.
Congress was empowered to set the terms for naturalization, to determine who qualifies for American citizenship. The police power to enforce the laws within their respective territories was left to the states, to the governors. If they don’t want these people here, there’s a clear argument they do not have to accept them. And the federal government can’t make them. Except, we live in a world where everybody thinks the federal government is all powerful and infallible and you have no choice but than to bend over and take it, and it’s simply not the case.
So as a practical matter I suggest the states get together and give Obama a taste of his own medicine, they should file a lawsuit and drag him through the court system, just like he does with all his illegal Executive Orders when he says, “Sue me, by the time this is over in court I am out of here”. Well the states should just sue, and drag this through the judiciary and stall everything until Obama is gone and we get a common sense President in the White House.
Ariel, if one is to allow 50 states to do their “own thing”, then you are advocating back to the Civil War era, and you are forgetting who won that hard fought battle, the federal government!
States cannot do whatever the hell they want to do, as all people are to be treated equally in all states!
You sound like a Confederate sympathizer, and also you forget that the Articles of Confederation were an utter failure, and were leading to chaos and anarchy!
It is the federal government that has promoted civil rights and civil liberties, not many of the corrupt state governments, and thank goodness for that!
By the way, if the United States is such a flawed place as the leftists have said.With so much racism and so much bigotry and so much torture and so many violations of human rights and civil rights — why the hell do these refugees want to come here in the first place? If this place is so rotten — and I’m just repeating the words of the Salon.com founder and a leftist author that was on Charlie Rose last night. I mean, we’re guilty of terrorism. We torture. Abu Ghraib. We take pictures of them while we’re torturing them, and we abuse them, and we violate human rights and civil rights and homophobic and so forth.
Why do these refugees want to come to this horrible, reprobate place?
And Scalia and Thomas are originalists, and forget we are in the 21st century, not the 18th!
Ariel, apparently, you endorse all of the shortcomings in America, and have no desire to work to improve them!
After all, as long as you are comfortable and secure, who the hell cares about anyone else, right? You demonstrate just how selfish and narrow minded you really are!
Good lord Ronald! Do you know what the police power is and where it lies primarily? Furthermore, I sense certain hypocrisy. I mean I never heard you complaining about “Sanctuary Cities” doing “their own thing” on federal immigration law enforcement!! Where did you stand on “Kate’s Law”? With your fellow leftist in Congress that voted against it? You do know who Kate Steinle is don’t you? Probably not, her tragedy just doesn’t fit the leftist narrative. Her death as well as thousands of other Americans killed by illegal immigrants are just not of your concern. As with Tayshawn Lee. I also bet you have no clue who this boy is. I am still waiing for Obama’s press conference saying that if “he had a boy he would be like Tayshawn”. Where are Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson? Tsyshawn’s tragedy just doesn’t fit the left’s narrative so screw him, correct? Now you can say all you want that you know who they are, but you cannot lie to yourself, you cannot escape your own bigotry and bias if you really don’t have a clue. So don’t accuse me of being selfish or a confederate, as matter of fact those were the Democrats, both liberals and dixiecrats!
There you go again, demagogue that you are, Ariel, ignoring the fact that the GOP is now the same view as the old Southern Democrats!
I well know the people you mention, victims, but not anywhere near the number of victims you claim, as all “good” nativists and bigots love to claim!
How are you any different than the KKK in your views, Ariel?
Tayshawn was not killed by an illegal immigrant! And if you know who he was you would never insult me implying I am like the KKK. See!!! You don’t know who he is! And you did not answer about the SANCTUARY CITIES!!!
Ariel, I know who Tayshawn Lee is, but of course you are the Know It All, who is ready to pounce on our courageous President, who is not ready to send massive numbers of troops to be sacrificial lambs for the oil industry in the Middle East!
Our GOP governors should be ashamed of themselves for promoting nativism and anti immigrant hysteria, and it is our sanctuary cities who offer some relief to innocent women and children who are being threatened in places such as Arizona with their vigilante posses!
Two Air France planes have been diverted after a bomb threat. http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/17/world/air-france-flight-diverted/index.html
Ronald: Here is the leading sentence from a 2011 GAO report (GAO-11-187, Criminal Alien Statistics, March 2011).
“The number of criminal aliens in federal prisons in fiscal year 2010 was about 55,000, and the number of SCAAP criminal alien incarcerations in state prison systems and local jails was about 296,000 in fiscal year 2009 (the most recent data available), and the majority were from Mexico.†http://www.gao.gov/assets/320/316959.pdf
(SCAAP is the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program and in this context means “illegal aliens†– a GAO term meaning “Noncitizens whom ICE verified were [or whom states and local jurisdictions believe to be] illegally in the United States at the time of incarcerationâ€.
Let’s take homicide as an example. The GAO estimates “criminal aliens†were arrested, convicted and incarcerated for 25,064 homicides. If non-citizens committed them over seven years, the annual rate would be 14.2 per 100,000 non-citizens. If illegal aliens committed them over four years, the annual rate would be 58.0 per 100,000 illegal aliens. Either way you compute, those are high rates.
By comparison, the FBI reports the murder rates for the entire U.S. from 2003 through 2009 varied from 5.0 to 5.8 per 100,000 inhabitants for an average rate of 5.5. To be clear, 5.5 is much lower than either 14.2 or 58.0.
Or look at the total number of homicides in those years. Per the FBI, there were 67,642 murders in the U.S. from 2005 through 2008, and 115,717 from 2003 through 2009. Per the GAO, criminal aliens committed 25,064 of them. That means they committed 22% to 37% of all murders in the U.S., while being only 3.52% to 8.25% of the population.
Conclusion: criminal and illegal aliens commit murder at much higher rates than all inhabitants of the U.S. – at least 3 to 10 times higher.
Illegal aliens committed 25,064 murders over four years. That is a rate of 6,266 per year, or over 17 per day.Illegals likely commit murder at about 10 times the rate of all U.S. inhabitants.
You might try to dismiss Kate Steinle as an “anecdote,†but the GAO estimated there were 25,064 such anecdotes over only a few years. So Ronald, when I say thousands I mean thousands. It is you who is out of touch with reality.
Ronald , so you do support lawless sanctuary cities! As long as it furthers your leftist destructive agenda, you don’t give a damn about the law. Thus you only prove me right when I sustain this is a lawless corrupt administration, that we are no longer a constitutional republic, that we are in a post-constitutional system. Therefore, anything goes, so brace yourself. People like you support this lawlessness for petty political gains.
I do not dismiss Kate Steinle as an anecdote, far from it!
Sanctuary cities are protecting innocent children and women, not criminal elements, as that is never acceptable, Ariel
Winning Progressive’s blog has several excellent articles this morning condemning the overboard panicking by the Chicken Little Party.
https://www.facebook.com/WinningProgressive
Common sense is not panicking. One has to be really blinded by ideological nonsense to think otherwise. Since when is it un-American to prevent people from coming into our country to protect us from terrorism? However, it is un-American to round up citizens and put them in internment camps as FDR did in 1942. Republicans don’t want to round anybody up, they just want to protect America by stopping a major threat from getting here before it does. Remember Executive Order 9066? The American/Japanese sure do, but I doubt leftist have any idea what is was. “In an atmosphere of World War II hysteria, President Roosevelt, encouraged by officials at all levels of the federal government, authorized the internment of tens of thousands of American citizens of Japanese ancestry and resident aliens from Japan. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066, dated February 19, 1942, gave the military broad powers to ban any citizen from a fifty- to sixty-mile-wide coastal area stretching from Washington state to California and extending inland into southern Arizona. The order also authorized transporting these citizens to assembly centers hastily set up and governed by the military in California, Arizona, Washington state, and Oregon. Although it is not well known, the same executive order (and other war-time orders and restrictions) were also applied to smaller numbers of residents of the United States who were of Italian or German descent. For example, 3,200 resident aliens of Italian background were arrested and more than 300 of them were interned. About 11,000 German residents—including some naturalized citizens—were arrested and more than 5000 were interned. Yet while these individuals (and others from those groups) suffered grievous violations of their civil liberties, the war-time measures applied to Japanese Americans were worse and more sweeping, uprooting entire communities and targeting citizens as well as resident aliens.” http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5154
The Chicken Little Party is not using any common sense.
Ariel,liberals well know about the Japanese American internment, and we condemn it, and I always have in my classes.
Stop acting holier than thou, as it is unbecoming of you, with your narrow minded views on so many issues!
French police conducted a raid this morning, capturing some more terrorists. A police dog named Diesel was killed during the raid. RIP Diesel. http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/social-media-reacts-police-dog-killed-paris-raid
I am just pointing out the Republicans do not want to round up anyone. We leave that to Democrats.
States refusing the refugees are OK with other safety risks, showing that they are hypocritical. http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/five-major-safety-concerns-states-refusing-syrian-refugees
Awww. Sad about the dog. RIP Diesel.
Ronald: “Sanctuary cities are protecting innocent children and women, not criminal elements” Tell that to Kate Steinle’s parents.
Info about vetting the refugees. http://www.politicususa.com/2015/11/17/paul-ryan-reveals-whats-isis-syrian-refugees.html
Thanks for that Leia. It’s a far more stringent process than conservatives want their sheeple to believe.
So much for any respect I had for Kasich. http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/kasich-proposes-new-government-agency-promote-judeo-christian-values-n465101
By turning away refugees, the Chicken Little Party is playing into ISIS’s hands. http://www.forwardprogressives.com/turning-away-syrian-refugees-exactly-isis-wants-us/
This is very ironic. http://leanleft.com/2015/11/18/the-gop-has-completely-lost-it-and-they-seem-proud-of-that-fact/
Normally, if someone wants to come into the United States, say, from France or Germany, our government can check with the French or German government to see if this person has a criminal record, or even is who he says he is.
But when it comes to refugees from Syria, what is called “vetting” relies mostly on one source of information: the refugee.
http://www.ibtimes.com/us-vetting-9000-syrian-refugees-weed-out-jihadists-granting-asylum-1749622
“The UNHCR referral is a crucial first step to gaining admittance to the U.S., but the candidate must then pass “the highest level of security checks conducted on any category of traveler to the United States,†a State Department official said.”
The highest level of checks! And then only after the United Nations has assured us that each refugee is okay! Very reassuring!
“The State Department will first collect biographical information about the candidate and determine whether they qualify for refugee status.”
Since there is no government to consult (unless the State Department wants to check with ISIS or Hizb’allah), there is only one source of information: the refugee. As long as the refugees don’t lie, I expect this system will catch all would-be terrorists.
“The case is then passed to the Department of Homeland Security, which will send a representative to conduct an in-person interview to further screen the applicant for security concerns and to determine whether the applicant is otherwise admissible, a State Department official said.”
You see? A terrorist would have to lie to not one but two branches of government to get into the country. So we’re perfectly safe.
And that’s the complete process. That’s all the vetting. As long as the terrorist isn’t an awful liar, anyone can get in.
Just like Christian fundamentalists, Daesh/ISIS wants to have an end-times battle in the Middle East.
This is not a war that can be won solely on military might, it is a conflict that can only be won when Christians and Muslims both reject extremism and refuse to live with fear and hatred.
http://www.forwardprogressives.com/isis-end-world-beliefs-influence-terror/
Excellent posts by all except for our Know Nothing troll.
Former : You are insane. Comparing ISIS with any Christian of the so called fundamentalist is completely nuts! Look I am in no shape or form a Christian fundamentalist, but for all their talk they don’t go out beheading people! You really believe Kim Davis would behead anyone? Good grief. Even Bill Maher can tell the difference. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpdGK3F4pC0
Nope. He’s definitely not insane.
They may not behead people but they definitely want their Left Behind movies to come true.
It’s not that you guys on the left are evil, you are simply incorrigible..hopelessly incorrigible. That’s so sad.
Nope. It’s the right-wing that’s incorrigible.
Since you hate it so much here, I suggest you leave.
Yep. I’m definitely not insane. As this CNN article says “As many scholars have noted, ISIS’s long-range vision is of an end-of-days battle with the West — what it calls “Rome.” It is the ultimate suicide mission, one that sees the entire world involved in a grand final conflagration.” http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/18/opinions/ghitis-isis-self-destructive/index.html
I second Pragmatic Progressive’s suggestion. Since you can’t take the heat, stop trolling here.
The refugee crisis is going to get worse because of climate change.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/27/world/persian-gulf-heat-climate-change/index.html
A new poll shows that the refugee debate is split by party lines but that the parties are more united on sending in ground troops. http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/poll-majority-americans-oppose-accepting-syrian-refugees