Republicans say Obama giving immigrants 'amnesty bonuses'

[Lite Beer]

Republicans say Obama giving immigrants 'amnesty bonuses'
By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER

WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of immigrants benefiting from President Barack Obama's executive actions could get a windfall from the IRS, a reversal of fortune after years of paying taxes to help fund government programs they were banned from receiving.

Armed with new Social Security numbers, many of these immigrants who were living in the U.S. illegally will now be able to claim up to four years' worth of tax credits designed to benefit the working poor. For big families, that's a maximum of nearly $24,000, as long as they can document their earnings during those years.

Some Republicans are labeling the payments "amnesty bonuses," one more reason they oppose Obama's program shielding millions of immigrants from deportation.

"I represent hard working, law-biding Texans," said Rep. Sam Johnson, a senior Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee. "I think these amnesty rewards, and that's what they are, need to be stopped."

Advocates argue that many of these immigrants pay taxes, so they should be able to claim the same tax credits as anybody else. Over the past decade, immigrants in the U.S. illegally have paid an estimated $100 billion in Social Security payroll taxes, even though few will ever be able to collect benefits, said Stephen Goss, Social Security's chief actuary.

Obama has issued executive orders shielding about 4 million immigrants from deportation. Some were brought to the U.S. as children; others are parents of children who are either U.S. citizens or legal residents.

Republicans in Congress oppose Obama's actions and are trying to use a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security to overturn them. Democrats are resisting, resulting in a stalemate that is threatening to shut down the department.

Funding for the department, which oversees immigration enforcement, runs out Feb. 27.

The dispute over tax credits illustrates the complicated relationship that many immigrants have with the U.S. tax system. Social Security estimates that immigrants living in the country illegally work at about the same rate as the rest of the population, even though federal law bars them from employment.

In general, they are less likely to pay federal taxes. Those who do have been boosting Social Security's finances for years.

How does Social Security know when it receives taxes from immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally? There is no foolproof method, Goss said. One way is by tracking reported wages in which the Social Security number does not match the name the agency has on file.

Some of these are clerical errors or unreported name changes, But Goss estimates that a majority of these wages come from immigrants who have made up Social Security numbers or used someone else's.

The numbers are huge.

From 2003 to 2012, the total was nearly $750 billion in wages. Tellingly, only 7 percent of these wages are ever claimed and credited to an actual worker, Goss said.

There are an estimated 11 million to 12 million immigrants in the U.S. illegally. By law, you must have a Social Security number to work in the U.S. But millions of people work without them.

Some work in the underground economy and do not report their income to the government. For those who work and pay federal income taxes, the IRS provides them with an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN).

Since 1996, the IRS has issued 21 million of these numbers. About one-quarter of them are still in use, the agency says.

The IRS accepts these tax returns without reporting the taxpayers to immigration authorities, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said. That encourages the workers to pay taxes.

"We don't enforce the Social Security laws, we don't enforce the immigration laws," Koskinen said of his agency. "In fact, the reason illegal immigrants file taxes with us is they know we aren't sharing that data with anybody. We treat it as taxpayer-protected information."

Even if these immigrants pay taxes, they are ineligible for most federal programs. They cannot legally get food stamps, unemployment benefits, Pell grants or federal student loans. They cannot get Medicaid, except for emergency medical services, and are ineligible for subsidies under Obama's health law.

They can claim some federal tax breaks, if they file tax returns.

But until now, they were not eligible for Social Security, Medicare or the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), one of the government's largest anti-poverty programs.

Obama's executive actions will offer Social Security numbers to these immigrants, something that eventually could make them eligible for Social Security and Medicare. For Social Security, you generally have to work and pay payroll taxes for 10 years before you qualify for retirement benefits.

More immediately, they can take advantage of the EITC. Last year, the credit provided low-income workers with about $70 billion.

This credit is popular among conservatives because it rewards work — the more you work, the bigger your credit, as long as your income does not exceed certain limits. It is popular among liberals because it provides cash payments to low-wage workers, even if they do not make enough money to pay federal income tax.

It is, however, a complicated program to administer that generates a significant amount of improper payments, according to the IRS's own estimates.

Once the immigrants in Obama's program get Social Security numbers, they can file tax returns claiming the EITC, as long as they meet the income requirements and can document their earnings.

There's more.

They also can file amended tax returns for up to three years after they were due, which means these immigrants can claim tax credits going back as far as 2011. (Tax returns for 2011 were due in April 2012).

The maximum credit for families with three or more children is about $6,000, so some families could get as much as $24,000 in credits.

Koskinen said these tax returns would be processed just like any other.

"You have to do the same thing any taxpayer would do, which is you're going to file a return, say this is what I earned, these are my expenses, deductions, whatever it might be," Koskinen said. "You have to have the supporting documentation."

Some in Congress are outraged.

"The administration may have blown open the doors for fraud with amnesty bonuses of more than $24,000 to those who receive deferred action," said Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb. "This program severely undermines the White House's lip-service to enforcing the law and would increase the burden on law-abiding taxpayers."

Advocates for immigrants say that if these workers are paying taxes, they should get the same benefits as other taxpayers.

"Let's not forget that these workers receive the lowest wages for what they contribute to their communities and local economies," said Ellen Sittenfeld Battistelli, policy analyst at the National Immigration Law Center. "What do we as a nation gain by further impoverishing them?"

-- (c) Associated Press 2015-02-15

[Publicus]

Good timing by the Congressional team that works at the White House, the Social Security tax credits.

House Speaker John Beohner continues to be the prisoner of the far right Republicans there while he and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell are each pointing at the other to get the immigration restrictions out of the bill that funds Department of Homeland Security, which includes border and immigration enforcement.

Prez Obama said he'd veto such a bill. The Congress doesn't have the votes to override a return veto by the prez.

Mitch McConnell said after the November election the R's are responsible and won't have any more shutdowns, yet that's what is coming for DHS as Congress has just begun a ten day holiday which will leave a couple of daze or so when they return. And now the R's in control of Congress are hollering about this too from back in their states.

R's want to screw immigrants and screw Prez Obama but they keep screwing themselves. Go to it boiz.

Edited February 15, 2015 by Publicus

[NeverSure]

What part of "illegal" don't you understand?

[Publicus]

A 13-year work program to become legal, as Prez Obama laid out in his immigration executive action.

[ezzra]

The Us can and will print more money to pay for those returned tax, like rewarding people for

illegal staying in the sate, all Obama want to do is to win over all those millions of immigrants

and their family to vote democrats for life....

[NeverSure]

The Us can and will print more money to pay for those returned tax, like rewarding people for

illegal staying in the sate, all Obama want to do is to win over all those millions of immigrants

and their family to vote democrats for life....

Nailed it.

[Chicog]

What part of "illegal" don't you understand?

What part of "Over the past decade, immigrants in the U.S. illegally have paid an estimated $100 billion in Social Security payroll taxes, even though few will ever be able to collect benefits, said Stephen Goss, Social Security's chief actuary." don't you understand?

Oh, I forgot. All of it.

[rotary]

Obama should be prosecuted for buying votes because thats all this is.

[ALLSEEINGEYE]

Keep fear alive!!!

[zydeco]

What part of "illegal" don't you understand?

What part of "Over the past decade, immigrants in the U.S. illegally have paid an estimated $100 billion in Social Security payroll taxes, even though few will ever be able to collect benefits, said Stephen Goss, Social Security's chief actuary." don't you understand?

Oh, I forgot. All of it.

I think NeverSure understands much better than you do. While paying into SS, the illegals were committing crimes (plural), including being in the country illegally, working illegally, and ID theft.

[Chicog]

What part of "illegal" don't you understand?

What part of "Over the past decade, immigrants in the U.S. illegally have paid an estimated $100 billion in Social Security payroll taxes, even though few will ever be able to collect benefits, said Stephen Goss, Social Security's chief actuary." don't you understand?

Oh, I forgot. All of it.

I think NeverSure understands much better than you do. While paying into SS, the illegals were committing crimes (plural), including being in the country illegally, working illegally, and ID theft.

Given that only those getting temporary relief are eligible for this, I think you can afford it.

And despite what you say about them "working illegally", they're still filling below-minimum-wage vacancies and subsidising foodstuffs for legal US citizens.

As for the identify theft stuff...

• About seven million illegal immigrants are currently using stolen SSNs and paying Social Security taxes.
• Their payroll tax contributions could be as high as $7 billion a year.
• Their contribution to the Social Security system added about 10% of last year’s surplus.
• Illegal immigrants see Social Security withholding taxes as a cost of working in the US.
• Each year, the Social Security Administration receives a very large number of W-2 forms with incorrect and sometimes fictitious SSNs; the withholding taxes from these incorrect SSNs are put in the “Earnings Suspense File,” which totals over $189 billion.

It is illegal for the SSA to notify victims that their SSNs are being used by someone else. Naturally, neither the illegal immigrant nor the rightful owner of the SSN gets the benefits of the taxes withheld — so billions of dollars are simply added to the general Social Security system each year.

I can see why no-one is rushing to fix this.

[mamypoko]

Oh Joy!!! super annoying U.S. political partisan news followed me all the way to my hiding place in Bangkok.

[Publicus]

Obama should be prosecuted for buying votes because thats all this is.

political spam

Immigration has been a central pillar of the United States since before there was a United States. The Democratic party, which is 20 years older than the Republican party, has always represented immigrants and has done so broadly, inclusively, effectively.

Prez Obama is no different concerning immigration to the United States than was the first of the predecessor party's presidents, Thomas Jefferson. Prez Obama is not different than the first literally speaking Democratic party Pres Andrew Jackson and others, to include Presidents Grover Cleveland, FDR, John Kennedy, LBJ.

The most prominent Republican party president that was open to accommodating illegal immigrants was Ronald Reagan who learned the explosive nature of the word "amnesty," which only the immigration snipers use today.

There is more to immigration than politics but immigration policies like any other policy includes politics. There are however aspects to immigration that transcend politics.....

If we look to institutional actors, racialized politics seems to play the largest role in determining whether those actors are pro or anti immigration. The question that arises is whether these coalitions will hold if our nation ever moves beyond anti and pro immigration to seriously debating the particular issues of immigration reform. Or will the racialized politics that drive myths about crime waves and conspiracy theories about a Mexican takeover of the Southwest, or Muslim’s preparing to enact Sharia Law, prevent the public from engagement with the specifics of immigration reform?

http://thesocietypages.org/sociologylens/2011/05/22/immigration-and-racialized-politics/

[chuckd]

Then there is this version of the executive order providing prosecutorial discretion to immigration officers.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Goodlatte: Executive Amnesty Contains ‘Sneaky’ Path to Citizenship

By Joel Gehrke

February 13, 2015 11:05 AM

President Obama’s recent executive orders on immigration include provisions that “place potentially hundreds of thousands of unlawful immigrants on a path to citizenship,” a top Republican revealed after a staff-level briefing from U.S. Customs and Immigration Services.

“Your Department’s recent changes to this deferred action program seem to be a sneaky attempt to place potentially hundreds of thousands of unlawful immigrants on a path to citizenship,” House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R., Va.) wrote in a Friday letter to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson.

The key is that DHS allows the illegal immigrants who enroll in the deferred action program established by Obama’s orders to apply for advanced parole status.

“As you know, when an individual receives advance parole, upon return to the United States the individual can then be eligible to adjust to lawful permanent resident (LPR) status,” Goodlatte writes to Johnson. “And as you know, lawful permanent resident status is the precursor to U.S. citizenship. A simple search of the Internet reveals that immigration reform advocacy groups and immigration benefits law practices are fully aware of the path to citizenship that is afforded to DACA recipients through advance parole.”

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/398548/goodlatte-executive-amnesty-contains-sneaky-path-citizenship-joel-gehrke

[rickirs]

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

Obama should be prosecuted for buying votes because thats all this is.

political spam

Immigration has been a central pillar of the United States since before there was a United States. The Democratic party, which is 20 years older than the Republican party, has always represented immigrants and has done so broadly, inclusively, effectively.

Prez Obama is no different concerning immigration to the United States than was the first of the predecessor party's presidents, Thomas Jefferson. Prez Obama is not different than the first literally speaking Democratic party Pres Andrew Jackson and others, to include Presidents Grover Cleveland, FDR, John Kennedy, LBJ.

The most prominent Republican party president that was open to accommodating illegal immigrants was Ronald Reagan who learned the explosive nature of the word "amnesty," which only the immigration snipers use today.

There is more to immigration than politics but immigration policies like any other policy includes politics. There are however aspects to immigration that transcend politics.....

If we look to institutional actors, racialized politics seems to play the largest role in determining whether those actors are pro or anti immigration. The question that arises is whether these coalitions will hold if our nation ever moves beyond anti and pro immigration to seriously debating the particular issues of immigration reform. Or will the racialized politics that drive myths about crime waves and conspiracy theories about a Mexican takeover of the Southwest, or Muslim’s preparing to enact Sharia Law, prevent the public from engagement with the specifics of immigration reform?

http://thesocietypages.org/sociologylens/2011/05/22/immigration-and-racialized-politics/

You can add Republican President G.H.W. Bush to your list of presidents supporting immigration amnesty.

[sanuk711]

What part of "illegal" don't you understand?

The part where you take their money (Tax's) & don't allow them the services that they are helping to fund.

[samran]

Tax minimisation should only be for the rich...clearly.

Edited February 15, 2015 by samran

[JDGRUEN]

Obama should be prosecuted for buying votes because thats all this is.

political spam

Immigration has been a central pillar of the United States since before there was a United States. The Democratic party, which is 20 years older than the Republican party, has always represented immigrants and has done so broadly, inclusively, effectively.

Prez Obama is no different concerning immigration to the United States than was the first of the predecessor party's presidents, Thomas Jefferson. Prez Obama is not different than the first literally speaking Democratic party Pres Andrew Jackson and others, to include Presidents Grover Cleveland, FDR, John Kennedy, LBJ.

The most prominent Republican party president that was open to accommodating illegal immigrants was Ronald Reagan who learned the explosive nature of the word "amnesty," which only the immigration snipers use today.

There is more to immigration than politics but immigration policies like any other policy includes politics. There are however aspects to immigration that transcend politics.....

If we look to institutional actors, racialized politics seems to play the largest role in determining whether those actors are pro or anti immigration. The question that arises is whether these coalitions will hold if our nation ever moves beyond anti and pro immigration to seriously debating the particular issues of immigration reform. Or will the racialized politics that drive myths about crime waves and conspiracy theories about a Mexican takeover of the Southwest, or Muslim’s preparing to enact Sharia Law, prevent the public from engagement with the specifics of immigration reform?

http://thesocietypages.org/sociologylens/2011/05/22/immigration-and-racialized-politics/

Illegal border crossing is not Immigration, overstaying Visas is not immigration. Illegal Aliens in America are not Immigrants - they are lawbreakers. Continuing to bend the language as you do it telling a lie ...

[Paulc01]

What part of "illegal" don't you understand?

The part where you take their money (Tax's) & don't allow them the services that they are helping to fund.

If an average illegal alien family has three children (not an unreasonable assumption), then the cost to US citizens for the education of their children for 12 years at an average of $9000/year is $324,000. That family will NEVER pay that much in payroll taxes. Never mind the cost that these people add for emergency hospital room uses, prisons, demand on on natural resources and public services such as water, electricity, ng, and roads. On top of that, the illegal can ALREADY use a tax payer ID to claim the Earned Income Tax Credit, in which case he/she would not only owe nothing on their federal taxes and get a refund for any amount paid in, they would also received several thousand dollars gratis, just for having dependents. They are moochers, pure and simple. Wish we had another president like FDR or Eisenhower who protected the borders.

[JDGRUEN]

A 13-year work program to become legal, as Prez Obama laid out in his immigration executive action.

Correctly stated... obama's unconstitutional and illegal action to grant a type of amnesty without any law passed by Congress... bending the language as you do is telling a lie

[Credo]

What part of "illegal" don't you understand?

The part where you take their money (Tax's) & don't allow them the services that they are helping to fund.

If an average illegal alien family has three children (not an unreasonable assumption), then the cost to US citizens for the education of their children for 12 years at an average of $9000/year is $324,000. That family will NEVER pay that much in payroll taxes. Never mind the cost that these people add for emergency hospital room uses, prisons, demand on on natural resources and public services such as water, electricity, ng, and roads. On top of that, the illegal can ALREADY use a tax payer ID to claim the Earned Income Tax Credit, in which case he/she would not only owe nothing on their federal taxes and get a refund for any amount paid in, they would also received several thousand dollars gratis, just for having dependents. They are moochers, pure and simple. Wish we had another president like FDR or Eisenhower who protected the borders.

Please provide us with the source of your information that the 'average' illegal is first of all married, secondly has a family of 3 children in the US and that they go to school.

[chuckd]

What part of "illegal" don't you understand?

The part where you take their money (Tax's) & don't allow them the services that they are helping to fund.

When they are using fake, stolen or imaginary Social Security numbers wouldn't have anything to do with that, now would it?

[sirineou]

Many simple replies to a complex issue.

Personally I am opposed to this "amnesty? solution, but would like to see a more comprehensive and equitable solution for all involved.

Reagan immigration act in 1986 did little to resolve the problem, Once this illegal residents became legal, they behaved as all other legal residents, they moved up the economic lagger leaving the positions they occupied before vacant, inviting other illegals to take their place. I see no reason why the same will not happen again.

-Aggressively go after those who hire them, if there is no work for them in the US, they will not come, and those already here will leave on their own, no deportations necessary,

The argument is, they do jobs Americans dont want, this is not true, Americans dont want this jobs because it pays so little, increase the pay and then those jobs will become more desirable to Americans,

Yes but it will increase prices, sure maybe it will some, but if people are making more money, the increase is a wash.

-Protect the boarders,

Once you make sure that others will not take their place, then you can deal with what you can do with the ones already here.

As far as the "bonus" is concerned,

they paid this money, it is theirs, giving them back what portion of it they deserve ,,is not a bonus , just as my tax return this year is not a bonuse, it is my money, and the goverment should thank me for letting them use it for a year.

Edited February 15, 2015 by sirineou

[Paulc01]

The part where you take their money (Tax's) & don't allow them the services that they are helping to fund.

If an average illegal alien family has three children (not an unreasonable assumption), then the cost to US citizens for the education of their children for 12 years at an average of $9000/year is $324,000. That family will NEVER pay that much in payroll taxes. Never mind the cost that these people add for emergency hospital room uses, prisons, demand on on natural resources and public services such as water, electricity, ng, and roads. On top of that, the illegal can ALREADY use a tax payer ID to claim the Earned Income Tax Credit, in which case he/she would not only owe nothing on their federal taxes and get a refund for any amount paid in, they would also received several thousand dollars gratis, just for having dependents. They are moochers, pure and simple. Wish we had another president like FDR or Eisenhower who protected the borders.

Please provide us with the source of your information that the 'average' illegal is first of all married, secondly has a family of 3 children in the US and that they go to school.

First of all, I didn't say "average illegal." You are intentionally misrepresenting what I wrote. Read it again. I said "average illegal alien family." Here is what the Pew Center for Hispanic Research says

Most unauthorized immigrant adults reside with immediate family members—spouses or children. About half of undocumented adults live with their own children under 18. Nearly half of unauthorized immigrant households (47%) consist of a couple with children. That is a greater share than for households of U.S.-born residents (21%) or legal immigrants (35%). This difference stems in large part from the relatively youthful composition of the unauthorized immigrant population.

http://www.pewhispanic.org/2009/04/14/a-portrait-of-unauthorized-immigrants-in-the-united-states/#families-and-children

As for family size, here is the Udall Center. It reports 2.29. Not the 3 I mentioned, which I said was an assumption. But clearly families do not have 2 and a quarter children. So, the overall point is valid, more than 2 children while native born are 1.96 and legal immigrants (which should also be limited, in my view) are 2.34. It's not difficult to see who is paying for whom, especially when comparative incomes (see same source) are factored in. http://udallcenter.arizona.edu/immigration/publications/illegal_immigration_overview.pdf

[Publicus]

Obama should be prosecuted for buying votes because thats all this is.

political spam

Immigration has been a central pillar of the United States since before there was a United States. The Democratic party, which is 20 years older than the Republican party, has always represented immigrants and has done so broadly, inclusively, effectively.

Prez Obama is no different concerning immigration to the United States than was the first of the predecessor party's presidents, Thomas Jefferson. Prez Obama is not different than the first literally speaking Democratic party Pres Andrew Jackson and others, to include Presidents Grover Cleveland, FDR, John Kennedy, LBJ.

The most prominent Republican party president that was open to accommodating illegal immigrants was Ronald Reagan who learned the explosive nature of the word "amnesty," which only the immigration snipers use today.

There is more to immigration than politics but immigration policies like any other policy includes politics. There are however aspects to immigration that transcend politics.....

If we look to institutional actors, racialized politics seems to play the largest role in determining whether those actors are pro or anti immigration. The question that arises is whether these coalitions will hold if our nation ever moves beyond anti and pro immigration to seriously debating the particular issues of immigration reform. Or will the racialized politics that drive myths about crime waves and conspiracy theories about a Mexican takeover of the Southwest, or Muslim’s preparing to enact Sharia Law, prevent the public from engagement with the specifics of immigration reform?

http://thesocietypages.org/sociologylens/2011/05/22/immigration-and-racialized-politics/

Illegal border crossing is not Immigration, overstaying Visas is not immigration. Illegal Aliens in America are not Immigrants - they are lawbreakers. Continuing to bend the language as you do it telling a lie ...

Earned legalization of undocumented immigrants has been the policy of the United States ever since Prez Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 as sent to him by the Congress.

Since then there have been six additional immigration reform and control bills or acts (of varying names) under Presidents Reagan, G.H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, G.W. Bush, Barack Obama. There have been several executive orders or actions by the presidents.

There will be more reform laws but not until the existing no-immigration law reform Republican party controlled Congress has been thrown out by the voters, which could begin to occur in the 2016 national election.

The US has said it could mass deport only 400,000 illegal residents yearly, which with 12m undocumented residents would require years of effort with police running all over the country and throughout the states to collect undocumented immigrants and anyone else the Republican party doesn't like.

No sensible American wants to repeat Prez Hoover's mass deportation fiasco of the late 1920s until he was defeated for re-election in 1932. No reasonable person wants to return to Prez G.W.Bush's no new immigration laws and decreased enforcement policies during the first 6 years of his presidency from which it had become too much to recover after that.

The current problems are being addressed by Prez Obama in the best ways possible legally and constitutionally, given the control the far right extremists have over the Republicans who run the Congress.

[Paulc01]

^^^

FDR, a great American and a good president, actually upheld Hoover's interpretation of the 1917 ban on allowing immigrants who would become a "public charge." He put the lives and livelihoods of American citizens first. Just as a truly patriotic president should do. A great man.

[sirineou]

political spam

Immigration has been a central pillar of the United States since before there was a United States. The Democratic party, which is 20 years older than the Republican party, has always represented immigrants and has done so broadly, inclusively, effectively.

Prez Obama is no different concerning immigration to the United States than was the first of the predecessor party's presidents, Thomas Jefferson. Prez Obama is not different than the first literally speaking Democratic party Pres Andrew Jackson and others, to include Presidents Grover Cleveland, FDR, John Kennedy, LBJ.

The most prominent Republican party president that was open to accommodating illegal immigrants was Ronald Reagan who learned the explosive nature of the word "amnesty," which only the immigration snipers use today.

There is more to immigration than politics but immigration policies like any other policy includes politics. There are however aspects to immigration that transcend politics.....

If we look to institutional actors, racialized politics seems to play the largest role in determining whether those actors are pro or anti immigration. The question that arises is whether these coalitions will hold if our nation ever moves beyond anti and pro immigration to seriously debating the particular issues of immigration reform. Or will the racialized politics that drive myths about crime waves and conspiracy theories about a Mexican takeover of the Southwest, or Muslim’s preparing to enact Sharia Law, prevent the public from engagement with the specifics of immigration reform?

http://thesocietypages.org/sociologylens/2011/05/22/immigration-and-racialized-politics/

Illegal border crossing is not Immigration, overstaying Visas is not immigration. Illegal Aliens in America are not Immigrants - they are lawbreakers. Continuing to bend the language as you do it telling a lie ...

Earned legalization of undocumented immigrants has been the policy of the United States ever since Prez Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 as sent to him by the Congress.

Since then there have been six additional immigration reform and control bills or acts (of varying names) under Presidents Reagan, G.H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, G.W. Bush, Barack Obama. There have been several executive orders or actions by the presidents.

There will be more reform laws but not until the existing no-immigration law reform Republican party controlled Congress has been thrown out by the voters, which could begin to occur in the 2016 national election.

The US has said it could mass deport only 400,000 illegal residents yearly, which with 12m undocumented residents would require years of effort with police running all over the country and throughout the states to collect undocumented immigrants and anyone else the Republican party doesn't like.

No sensible American wants to repeat Prez Hoover's mass deportation fiasco of the late 1920s until he was defeated for re-election in 1932. No reasonable person wants to return to Prez G.W.Bush's no new immigration laws and decreased enforcement policies during the first 6 years of his presidency from which it had become too much to recover after that.

The current problems are being addressed by Prez Obama in the best ways possible legally and constitutionally, given the control the far right extremists have over the Republicans who run the Congress.

removed post to allow reply

everything you say is correct, except for the last sentance IMO, You can deal with the curent ilegals in the best posible way, but unless the avelabilty of work for them is addresed, they will simply be replaced by a new crop of ilegals.

It has happened in the past, and I dont see why it will not happen again

[Publicus]

<<snip>>

Immigration has been a central pillar of the United States since before there was a United States. The Democratic party, which is 20 years older than the Republican party, has always represented immigrants and has done so broadly, inclusively, effectively.

Prez Obama is no different concerning immigration to the United States than was the first of the predecessor party's presidents, Thomas Jefferson. Prez Obama is not different than the first literally speaking Democratic party Pres Andrew Jackson and others, to include Presidents Grover Cleveland, FDR, John Kennedy, LBJ.

The most prominent Republican party president that was open to accommodating illegal immigrants was Ronald Reagan who learned the explosive nature of the word "amnesty," which only the immigration snipers use today. <<snip>>

Illegal border crossing is not Immigration, overstaying Visas is not immigration. Illegal Aliens in America are not Immigrants - they are lawbreakers. Continuing to bend the language as you do it telling a lie ...

A 13-year work program to become legal, as Prez Obama laid out in his immigration executive action.

Correctly stated... obama's unconstitutional and illegal action to grant a type of amnesty without any law passed by Congress... bending the language as you do is telling a lie

The accusation in each of the two posts of another poster "telling a lie" twice does not raise or elevate the quality of the discussion.

The claim is extreme, intemperate, radical so it says more about the accuser.

It is a bad road to set out on in any direction, to call a poster a liar.

Edited February 15, 2015 by Publicus

[Publicus]

A 13-year work program to become legal, as Prez Obama laid out in his immigration executive action.

Correctly stated... obama's unconstitutional and illegal action to grant a type of amnesty without any law passed by Congress... bending the language as you do is telling a lie

The constitution states the president has prosecutoral discretion over the executive branch, which includes the US Citizenship and Immigration Service which is a part of the Department of Homeland Security. The SCOTUS has confirmed the authority of the executive in these respects.

Prez Obama signed executive orders last November under the authority of existing laws on the books, Title 18 of the United States Code of Laws which pertain specifically to Immigration and Naturalization.

To say the president acted unconstitutionally and/or illegally is, shall we say, to be uninformed...grossly uninformed and with a great political prejudice.

[sirineou]

A 13-year work program to become legal, as Prez Obama laid out in his immigration executive action.

Correctly stated... obama's unconstitutional and illegal action to grant a type of amnesty without any law passed by Congress... bending the language as you do is telling a lie

The accusations in the two posts of another poster "telling a lie" twice does not raise or elevate the quality of the discussion.

The claim is extreme, intemperate, radical so it says more about the accuser.

It is a bad road to set out on in any direction, to call a poster a liar.

removed post to allowe responce

I agree, the word "Lie" should not have being used, a more corect word, would have being

"missrepresantation" though I dont think theintent of the word lie was used as to call you a liar.

the fact remains, that language can be used to misrepesent a situation

a strock of jenius was what the name of the Dept of War was changed to the dept of Defence.

say something long enough and in the mind of some it becomes true. it makes things more palatable, i

these people are not imigrants, and what is happening is not immigration reforme

there are plenty of immigrants comming to this country, my wife was one,

this has litle to do with her, or them,

what this is , is , ilegal immigration, and these people are, ilegal immigrands

Edited February 15, 2015 by sirineou