Month: February 2021

On his first day in office, Joe Biden sent a mass amnesty bill to Congress.  Known as “The U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021,” the bill not only grants legal status to millions of illegal aliens, but also lays out a path for them to obtain American citizenship (in addition to liberalizing and expanding mass immigration).

This may sound like a pragmatic solution to finally “wipe the slate clean” and a compassionate way to give people who are here unlawfully a “break,” bringing them “out of the shadows.”  However, a deeper dive exposes numerous serious problems associated with mass amnesty, for it will harm both native-born Americans and legal immigrants.  Indeed, even the beneficiaries of amnesty will likely not benefit as much as they may hope.

Common Interests

As a naturalized citizen, I have looked at amnesty through both an American and a legal immigrant lens.  In numerous areas, native-born Americans and legal/naturalized residents have overlapping interests in this and other immigration-related issues.  Immigrants come to the U.S. searching for a better life and generally desire the same things as native-born Americans, such as good schools, the rule of law, increasing wages and a rising standard of living, and upward mobility.  Unfortunately, a massive amnesty/pathway to citizenship will work at cross-purposes with these aspirations, thereby making it harder for both native-born Americans and legal immigrants to achieve the American Dream.

Amnesty Means More Illegal Migration

The sweeping amnesty that President Biden and the congressional Democrats envision is certain to be counter-productive and encourage further illegal migration.  Absolving almost 15 million people living in our country unlawfully of their illegal behavior, and rewarding them with eventual U.S. citizenship, will incentivize more people to come here illegally in the hopes of benefiting from yet another amnesty in the future.  This is borne out by history.

The 1986 amnesty that President Ronald Reagan signed was a failure in “wiping the slate clean” and stemming illegal migration.  The unauthorized population grew steadily from about 3 million post-amnesty to 14.5 million now.  That’s almost a fivefold increase!  Why should we believe that Biden’s much more sweeping and generous amnesty won’t encourage another massive rush for our borders and the arrival of millions of new illegal migrants?

This is a particularly relevant question since the new president seems to be quickly doing everything to invite more illegal migration, as evidenced by moves such as halting border wall construction and reversing policies aiming to stop mass asylum fraud.

The High Costs of Amnesty

An amnesty-inspired influx of even more illegal migrants will certainly impact average Americans – native-born or immigrant – because illegal migration is costly, destabilizing, depresses the wages of lower-income people or deprives them of jobs, and brings in its wake increased crime. Legal immigrants will be disproportionally affected since many have settled in metropolitan areas where illegal aliens tend to gravitate.

Legal immigrants will also not be exempted from paying the costs of amnesty. First, at a time of COVID-19-inflicted unemployment, they will face competition in the labor market from millions now able to work legally. This, in turn, will likely make employers even less willing to raise wages for those who do manage to find or retain jobs.  And newly amnestied workers will feel the pinch of wage stagnation as much as legal immigrants and native-born Americans do.

Second, since amnestied individuals will become eligible for numerous taxpayer-funded social services, amnesty will lead to increased government spending, thus increasing taxes and the national debt.  For example, in 2007, a Heritage Foundation study estimated that amnesty would cost at least $2.6 trillion, and in 2016 Heritage pointed out that amnesty would require an immediate tax increase of $1.29 trillion.  Although those are admittedly lifetime costs, they still represent large sums of money that could be spent on other things or given back to the taxpayers in the form of tax cuts.

Unfair To Legal Immigrants

Last but not least, it is unfair to legal immigrants to reward those here illegally with “papers,” citizenship, and all the privileges and perks that this entails.  Amnesty means that those who came here the right way are being put on the same level as those who cut in line and broke American laws.  This would be similar to students who studied hard for an exam receiving the same grade as those who cheated.

The reality is that mass amnesty will not solve the United States’ illegal migration headache.  The new administration is currently gutting the only policies that can help do that — such as border security, measures against asylum fraud, and serious internal enforcement.  Because amnesty and soft borders are an invitation for more illegal migration, we will certainly find ourselves back at square one in the future.  What is more, amnesty will also mean that we will be passing down to future generations a diminished and weakened version of the American Dream.

Pawel Stryna is an immigrant from Poland and works as an immigration policy analyst at the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).

Image: Another immigrant caravan.  YouTube screen grab.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) announced a major push to curb Big Tech’s political bias and censorship today, with measures including a ban on the censorship of political candidates and mandatory opt-outs of content filters for citizens of the Sunshine State.

In a 45-minute speech, the governor identified Big Tech companies as the leading threat to American democracy and freedom of expression today, and pledged that Florida Republicans would take action.

The new regulations announced by DeSantis include:

• Mandatory opt-outs from big tech’s content filters, a solution to tech censorship first proposed by Breitbart News in 2018.
• A private right of action for Floridian citizens against tech companies that violate this condition.
• Fines of $100,000 per day levied on tech companies that suspend candidates for elected office in Florida from their platforms.
• Daily fines for any tech company “that uses their content and user-related algorithms to suppress or prioritize the access of any content related to a political candidate or cause on the ballot.”
• Greater transparency requirements.
• Disclosure requirements enforced by Florida’s election authorities for tech companies that favor one candidate over another.
• Power for the Florida attorney general to bring cases against tech companies that violate these conditions under the state’s Unfair and Deceptive Practices Act.

This is the widest and most aggressive range of regulatory and legislative solutions so far proposed by any U.S. state to tackle the problem of tech censorship.

At a press conference earlier today, DeSantis highlighted the importance of the issue.

“What began as a group of upstart companies from the west coast has since transformed into an industry of monopoly communications platforms that monitor, influence, and control the flow of information in our country and among our citizens, and they do this to an extent hitherto unimaginable,” said DeSantis.

“These platforms have changed from neutral platforms that provided Americans with the freedom to speak to enforcers of preferred narratives. Consequently, these platforms have played an increasingly decisive role in elections, and have negatively impacted Americans who dissent from orthodoxies favored by the Big Tech cartel.”

DeSantis accused the tech giants of “clear viewpoint discrimination,” highlighting the censorship of Donald Trump and the removal of Parler from the internet and Apple and Google-controlled app stores.

“The core issue here is this: are consumers going to have the choice to consume the information they choose, or are oligarchs in Silicon Valley going to make those choices for us? No group of people should exercise such power, especially not tech billionaires in Northern California.”

Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. His new book, #DELETED: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election, which contains exclusive interviews with sources inside Google, Facebook, and other tech companies, is currently available for purchase.

Oscar-winning actor Denzel Washington made his support for America’s police and soldiers clear in a recent interview in which he called out people who “put down” America’s law enforcement and military, men and women for whom Washington said he has “the utmost respect.”

“I have the utmost respect for what they do, for what our soldiers do, [people] that sacrifice their lives. I just don’t care for people who put those kind of people down. If it weren’t for them, we would not have the freedom to complain about what they do,” Denzel Washington told Yahoo Entertainment.

Washington, who has portrayed law enforcement in 13 movies, was promoting his latest film, The Little Things in which he stars as a Los Angeles County Sheriff with a checkered past who sets out to nab a serial killer (Jared Leto).

Watch below: 

The Glory star went on to explain that his respect for law enforcement was also shaped from first-hand knowledge after an incident he witnessed during a ride-along in 1991, while researching a role for the film Ricochet.

“I went out on a call with a sergeant. We got a call of a man outside his house with a rifle that was distraught,” Washington told the news outlet. “We pulled up and did a U-turn past the house and came up short of the house. He told me to sit in the car, which I was gonna do. I wasn’t getting out. He got out. As he got out, another car came screaming up, and two young people jumped out screaming. As it turned out, it was their grandfather. This policeman defused the entire situation by just remaining calm.”

The officer was able to defuse the situation without resorting to any violence, Washington said.

“But it showed me in an instant how they can lose their life,” Washington said. “He didn’t overreact. He could’ve pulled his gun out and shot the people that came up driving real fast. He could’ve shot the old man that was distraught and a bit confused; I think he was suffering a little bit from dementia. But in an instant, it taught me, and I never forgot it, what our law enforcement people have to deal with moment to moment, second to second.”

The veteran Hollywood star recently earned praise in his private life after being captured on video in what appeared to be an effort to help a homeless man during an encounter with police in Los Angeles.

TMZ posted a video last May showing Washington appearing to mediate a tense situation between the homeless man, who is black, and two police officers. The video shows Washington placing himself between the man and the police in front of what looks to be Barton G, a restaurant in the West Hollywood area.

Watch below: 

One of the L.A. police officers publicly thanked Washington, calling him a good Samaritan, and even gave the homeless man a mask for protection. “So Denzel helped us today,” the officer said.

Washington, who has also portrayed a U.S. soldier several times during his stellar career, will next direct a film about a soldier who “makes the ultimate sacrifice.”

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook at: facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston.

Via The Hill:

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has been authorized to fine passengers who fail to comply with the new mask requirements on public transportation systems.

The TSA will require travelers to wear masks through airport screening checkpoints and throughout all public transportation systems beginning Tuesday. TSA workers are authorized to deny entry or boarding to passengers who refuse to wear masks, and those passengers could be subject to fines.

“Depending on the circumstance, those who refuse a mask may be subject to a civil penalty for attempting to circumvent screening requirements, interfering with screening personnel, or a combination of those offenses,” TSA announced on Sunday.

Keep reading…