If Barack Obama was good at anything, he was exceptional at using loopholes and technicalities to push his agenda through. When Congress refused to pass his immigration bill, he put the program into effect by executive order... because he could.
When Congress refused to make it easier for illegal aliens to enter the United States legally, Obama took it upon himself to redefine the asylum qualifications.
Throughout our history, we have welcomed real asylum seekers fleeing communism, totalitarianism, and natural disaster. In order for an asylum claim to be granted, the applicant had to prove they were being individually targeted for their religious or political opinions, or fleeing a natural or manmade disaster. The bar was set deliberately high because there is never a shortage of people around the world yearning to breathe free.
The Obama administration, however, bastardized this program. They loosened the rules to allow asylum claims on the basis of "domestic abuse" and "gang violence."
Like clockwork, the number of illegal aliens showing up at the border and claiming to be victims of spousal abuse skyrocketed. The same for "victims" of gang violence. Migrants began making up these claims and liberal organizations began setting up in Mexico to teach migrants how to lie to border patrol agents.
Instead of prioritizing asylum applications from Christians fleeing persecution in the Middle East, Obama opened up the floodgates for asylum fraud from Central and South America.
When Trump took office, all of this changed. For all of his faults, Attorney General Jeff Sessions immediately went to work rolling back these Obama-era directives. No longer are migrants allowed to win asylum simply because they lived in an inner city with gangs in their neighborhood. Migrants can no longer get asylum simply by claiming that their spouse beat them back in their home country.
Liberals, not surprisingly, were furious. For the past year, they have been working behind the scenes to try to convince Establishment Republicans to restore the Obama-era policies.
They just succeeded.
Rep. David Price (D-NC) introduced an amendment to formally add "domestic abuse" and "gang violence" as justifications for asylum. Everyone expected the amendment to fail. After all, Democrats only held a minority of seats in the House Appropriations Committee.
But when the bill came up for a vote, Chairman Kevin Yoder (R-KS) did something remarkable. Instead of recording the Yeas and Nays, Yoder called for a voice vote. This lets each side yell their support or opposition to the amendment, allowing Yoder to decide which side is louder.
There is no record of how a Congressman or Senator votes during a voice vote. Republicans often use this tactic to pass liberal bills out of committee without forcing GOPers to have to go on the record. It's nothing but cowardice.
The amendment passed and was officially added to the House Homeland Security Appropriations Bill. Completely caught off guard by this betrayal, Senate Democrats and Republicans are now scrambling to add this provision into their version of the bill to make sure it reaches Trump's desk.
I have tremendous sympathy for real victims of domestic violence. But that doesn't qualify someone for entry into the United States and this plan is so broad, there is no telling how many illegal aliens would try to abuse it.
Already, migrants are showing up to the US border with scripts telling them how to game the system. In this new Democrat plan, all someone would have to do is tell Border Patrol that their husband or wife hit them, and they'd be welcomed in. This is ripe for abuse and the Left knows it.
This plan would open up the floodgates to make it even easier for illegal aliens and migrants to enter the US, and the GOP didn't even record the vote. They think they can get away with this. They think they can vote to open up the illegal immigration flood gates without consequence. We must prove them wrong.
Last month, Kevin Yoder was forced to defend his seat in the Republican primary in Kansas. His immigration betrayal offended so many Conservatives, that he received a paltry 68 percent of the vote in the primary against two opponents who spent next to nothing on their campaigns. The backlash against his amnesty vote has caused political strategists to flip Yoder's seat from "Safe" to "Toss-Up."
The GOP sees this and thinks that they need to go even farther to the Left on immigration. Now, the Leadership is planning to put this betrayal amendment up for a full vote this week!
If this passes, the country will be lost.
There will be no more illegal immigration. Instead, migrants will jus show up to Border Patrol checkpoints and claim to be victims of gang or domestic violence.
This proposal would not even require migrants to provide any evidence of their abuse. Simply saying the magic words would be enough to receive asylum. It's absolutely insane.
I warned you that the GOP was working on a behind-the-scenes amnesty surrender.
I regret to inform you that this is it.
Congress is moving to hold a full vote on this measure in the next week. But it is not too late to stop this!
Do not let them sneak this through!
Joe Otto
Conservative Daily
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