Grassley ties Boston to immigration debate
The Washington Times reports that Senator Charles Grassley brought up the relationship between the Boston bombing and our immigration laws and the reforms being proposed in the Senate;
“Given the events of this week, it’s important for us to understand the gaps and loopholes in our immigration system,” the Iowa Republican said. “While we don’t yet know the immigration status of people who have terrorized the communities in Massachusetts, when we find out, it will help shed light on the weaknesses of our system.”
He was speaking at a hearing called to examine the new Senate immigration bill, which would legalize illegal immigrants and expand avenues for overall legal immigration — though it would eliminate the diversity visa lottery and cut the ties used to bring in siblings of immigrants.
Before the trolls start calling me a xenophobe, my wife has a green card, so does my step-daughter and her daughter, so I’m pretty familiar with the immigration process since I’m their sponsor. The difference between my family immigrating and the illegal aliens is that we went through the process three times, and we pay for renewing that whole process periodically.
When my wife first came here, we had to report to the Immigration authorities every year, until Jimmy Carter changed that, for some reason. We have complied with every regulation and kept up with the regulations – because, just like gun regulations, immigration regulations only burden those who abide by the law.
But, yeah, we need to be more careful about who we let into this country as the string of crimes committed by illegals become more well-known during the current discussion, crimes that cost legal residents their lives. And, certainly, this whole thing in Boston illustrates too clearly that we need a process to track these people.
And how much is this search in the Boston area costing taxpayers, you know, the legal residents.
Category: Illegal Immigrants
It’s relevent and should be discussed, but not now. Just like with Sandy Hook and the NRA, if we try this political conversation too soon, it’ll backfire on us. We need to get the situation in Boston under control before we go there.
Pinto Nag beat me to it. Funny how they want to discuss things only when it seems to become an issue, when it’s ALWAYS been an issue in the first place. (No, I’m not trying to start a gun debate here – trust me.)
Lets politicize everything, shall we?
Here we go again, never let a crisis….:(
It would certainly please me no end to have this used as an excuse to finally close the borders. Some of us had hopes that 9-11 would be a sufficient reason, but were disappointed.
We *DO* need to talk about this *NOW* – the Senate held a hearing today (that Napolitano had to back out of because of Boston). They need to slow down and not “ramp it down our throats”, and telling us we have to “pass the bill to find out what’s in it”.
The bombing in Boston has zippo to do with illegal immigration, as far as we now know. What about decades cf rapes, murders, thefts DWI car crashes and countless other crimes committed by Mexicans here illegally? What about frightened American citizens in twons bordering Mehico? Shouldn’t they count for something? No? Okay, I guesss not.
@ #6: So? While I agree that illegals are creating havoc all across the country and that it desperately needs to be addressed, I am just grasping here that perhaps immigration in general could become a focus.
This kid was just granted citizenship this past year – on Sept 11, 1012. The older brother was still operating as a guest. One question is why should anyone here for asylum continue in that status when they travel back and forth between here and the country from which they seek asylum??
Crazy stuff. Sufficient in my mind to call a halt to ANY new laws on the subject.
they are saying now that the brother(s) in question legally immigrated and received their citizenship (ironically 9/11!) a year or so back. Maybe we need to treat it like gun control: enact painful regulations and feel-food nonsense on the people who follow the law, and ignore the law-breakers.
(snark off)
Every time someone jumps in the middle of one of these things and demands a “debate about XXX” it reminds me of Sundance telling Butch “you picked a hell of a time to bring that up!”
As in the Gun debate, I have to ask what specific proposals do you have in mind, and would they apply to this actual incident?
In the gun “debate” the pro-control side continually puts forth proposals that would do nothing (and would have done nothing) about whatever actual incident they are upset about. Let’s not do the same here.
@7. The “so” is that Grassley’s focus is myopic. ALL efforts shouild be made to halt illegals at the border NOW. Then, turn to enforcement, which includes hearings and deportation. That’s the so. I don’t think we disagree.
Thing is, these brothers weren’t illegals. They were granted asylum. More scrutiny needs to be given to people we allow to enter the United States through legal channels, in addition to stop the flow of people into the US illegally (border-jumpers, visa-overstayers, etc.).
@11. I trust NO sources of info on these clowns. I’ll wait until this is ended and the frantic talking heads whose copy is written by interns are off the air. Then, maybe, we’ll learn what we would like to learn about these guys.
Quoted from Air Cav’s post #6: “The bombing in Boston has zippo to do with illegal immigration…”
Precisely. And that’s why Grassley attempting to link the two is wrong-headed. It will backfire, and the folks in charge are all for us stepping on our anatomy right now. It needs to wait.
It IS an immigration issue:
http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2013/04/boston-bomber-could-have-been-deported-after-2009-conviction/
Older brother has a domestic violence conviction and should have been deported in 2009.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2311809/EXCLUSIVE-The-middle-class-student-married-Boston-bomber-daughter-secretly-converting-Islam-college.html
The dead terrorist brother is also married to an American woman who converted to Islam and has a 3 y.o. daughter by her. Apparently, he has or had another woman who converted to islam as well. Our ruling class cares not about who is allowed into this country and it’s time to raise hell about it.
@14. Did he come here legally? If so, it’s not an illegal immigration issue. It’s anenforcement issue, post-visa.
@16
Enforcement is a big umbrella. It covers deporting legal residents arrested for/convicted of a crimeas well as the problem with illegal aliens (people who don’t go home when their visa expires AND people who enter the country illegally. You can’t just take about the first item and ignore the others if you want real enforcement. I don’t want a repeat of 1986 when we got all the amnesty in the new law and none of the promised enforcement.