Obama's Shadow Immigration System

A bombshell report by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) reveals the Obama administration is involved in another massive scandal. More than 5.5 million new work permits were issued to aliens from 2009 to 2014 in addition to the the green cards and temporary worker admissions over that same time period. The CIS further reveals this “huge parallel immigrant work authorization system” operates “outside the limits set by Congress” and “inevitably impacts opportunities for U.S. workers, damages the integrity of the immigration system, and encourages illegal immigration.”

Thus, President Obama’s overt contempt for the American worker and Congressional authority goes a long way towards explaining why all net jobs growth from 2007-2014 has gone to both legal and illegal immigrants. During that time frame, native-born employment declined by more than 1.45 million, while the number of employed immigrants increased by 2 million – along with a rapid growth in immigrant population. "Native employment has still not returned to pre-recession levels, while immigrant employment already exceeds pre-recession levels,“ revealed the report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) in December. "Furthermore, even with recent job growth, the number of natives not in the labor force (neither working nor looking for work) continues to increase.”

The latest numbers from the CIS report are even more infuriating. Approximately 1.8 million work permits were issued to aliens with temporary visas or those who entered under the Visa Waiver Program that provides eligible citizens or nationals of designated countries the ability to travel to the America for tourism or business for stays of 90 days or less without first obtaining a visa. Yet a whopping 67 percent, or 1.2 million, of those aliens had a visa status that does not allow for legal employment. Instead hundreds of thousands of work permits were issued to aliens on tourist visas, to foreign students, to dependents of students and to guest workers “all in categories not authorized for employment by law,” the CIS reveals.

It gets worse. Approximately 982,000 work permits were issued to illegal aliens or aliens otherwise unqualified for admission. An unconscionable 97 percent of those permits were issued to aliens who illegally crossed the border, for which the technical term is “Entered Without Inspection.” Even more inexplicably 1,200 new work permits were issued to “aliens who were denied asylum, were suspected of using fraudulent documents, were stowaways, or were refused at a port of entry.”

And we’re still not done with the outrage. “A huge number of work permits, 1.7 million, were issued to aliens whose status was unknown, not recorded by the adjudicator, or not disclosed by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the agency that processes the applications," CIS explains. "This should be a concern; work permits are gateway documents to driver’s licenses and other benefits, and if the government agency issuing them does not know or will not disclose how the bearer arrived in the country how can others rely on the authenticity of an individual’s identity? It is equally disconcerting if the government does know and chooses not to disclose it.”

USCIS is the agency inside the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) tasked with issuing work permits. They are also responsible for processing applications related to President Obama’s executive action that deferred deportation for as many as 4.5 million illegals. Obama wants them to get work permits as well, but Republicans ostensibly have other ideas. Today the Senate will hold a vote on a House-passed budget measure that will determine how much funding the DHS will get following the expiration of its current support on Feb. 27.

Quite unsurprisingly, the reliably leftist Washington Post – which thinks the DHS should receive its full budget regardless of the reality that it would facilitate Obama’s de facto amnesty – is in a dither, wondering how far “Republicans in Congress take their reckless flirtation with undermining government this time.” They further insist that “holding hostage an entire department of government that is critical to the nation’s security … is as irresponsible as it is politically ill advised.”

Really? Compared to what? USCIS handing out permits to unknown entities, including possible terrorists? How about an administration that has made border security a laughingstock, illuminated by the decision to allow hundreds of thousands of illegal children entry into the United States over the summer? Children that may have brought the deadly and crippling EV-D68 enterovirus with them. How about a Department of Justice announcing that deportation hearings for thousands of illegals will be delayed until the day after Thanksgiving – in 2019? How about an investigative report by a Houston television station revealing that, despite Obama administration claims that returning the aforementioned children to their home is a “priority,” only a fraction actually are? Even the vast majority of deportation orders that were issued were done “in absentia,” meaning those who got them, along with the thousands of others who now face no court proceedings for at least five years, are free to come and go as they please.

Anyone think those realties represent a national security threat – one aided and abetted by every agency in this utterly corrupt administration?

CIS policy director Jessica Vaughan illuminated the level of that corruption and its chief perpetrator, Barack Obama. “The true magnitude of how often he has evaded the limits set by Congress on foreign workers has never been known until now,” she told The Daily Caller.

And it’s about time Congress stepped up and did something about it. Imagine a resolution mandating that every dollar withheld from the DHS budget be used to fund immigration courts and judges. Right now the nation has approximately 230 immigration judges handling more than 375,000 cases, and the average time to resolve a case takes almost 600 days. Is there any doubt this new delay will be exploited by the same American Left that wrings its collective hands regarding the “cruelty” of deporting the millions of illegals who have lived here “in the shadows” for years? Make no mistake: They will shamelessly make the same argument about those who wait five years for their day in court – if they show up at all. Don’t give the Left the opportunity to do so. Moreover, imagine another resolution taking even more of the DHS budget and spending it directly on the capture and the automatic deportation of those who fail to show up for those hearings, even if it means creating a system wholly outside a tainted DHS to do so.

If Obama can create a “shadow” permit system, Congress can at least try to return the favor and begin protecting the American worker and the rule of law. And when Obama vetoes those resolutions, make it known where he, his administration and the American Left stands – loudly and often.

Decent, law-abiding American are completely disgusted by an administration led by a president who promised his followers in 2008 he was going to " fundamentally transform the United States of America.“ Like every radical leftist before him, Obama has made it clear he will do so by any means necessary, and one of the key pillars of that transformation is the wholesale legalization of millions of illegals, many of whom could care less about American traditions, customs, language, culture and laws. Furthermore, he will do so even as it makes an utter mockery of those who have taken the time and the effort to emigrate to America legally.

We are long past the time where the GOP should endeavor to find "common ground” with Democrats and Obama on illegal immigration. It’s time the GOP realizes that what’s going on here is a fight for the fundamental character of our nation. And if they can’t bring themselves to stand on the side of American exceptionalism and the rule of law, they are as feckless and corrupt as the Left. America will descend into the Third Worldism treasured by those who believe the nation is fundamentally racist, and imperialistic and must pay for its "sins" as a result. There’s no redemption whatsoever is such pernicious garbage, and it’s time the GOP stood for something other than abetting cultural suicide. A democratic republic is a terrible thing to waste.

The Patriot Post® · Obama's Shadow Immigration System