President Barack Obama will “greatly curtail deportations” of illegal immigrants unless the GOP legislators agree to end deportations by granting amnesty to 11 million illegal immigrants, New York Sen. Chuck Schumer wrote in an angry Facebook post.
GOP politicians can either “grow our economy by bringing in needed workers in high tech and agriculture areas, and provide a hard-earned path to eventual citizenship for the 11 million in the shadows, or they can sit idly by and watch the President greatly curtail deportations while 11 million continue to live in limbo here in America,” says the post, signed “cs” for Chuck Schumer.
The New York senator is the driving force behind the Senate immigration bill, which would grant green cards or work permits to at least 11 million illegals, 20 million new immigrants and 10 million guest workers during the next decade.
That’s roughly one worker or immigrant for each of the 40 million Americans who will turn 18 during the next decade. Immigrants tend to vote Democratic.
The amnesty and guest-worker bill was pushed by several Republican legislators, including Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.
Schumer’s bill has been blocked by GOP House leaders, partly because the measure is unpopular among the GOP base and the swing voters needed by GOP candidates in 2014 and 2016. It would triple the legal inflow of low-skill, government-dependent, Democratic-leaning immigrants, and would put money toward expanding E-Verify and increasing border security.
“It’s crystal clear where the issue of immigration reform is headed, and Republicans have only two choices to make,” Schumer said in his threatening post.
If Republicans don’t agree to the bill, they’ll “watch the President greatly curtail deportations while 11 million continue to live in limbo here in America,” he said.
The immigration bill “has the support of liberals, moderates, and conservatives and all we need is the courage of the Republican leadership to make the right and obvious choice. -cs,” said his post.
Schumer’s post follows a Thursday announcement by Obama that he had directed his deputies to develop plans for reducing the already low level of enforcement. Obama “told the members that he has asked Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson to do an inventory of the Department’s current practices to see how it can conduct enforcement more humanely within the confines of the law.”
But enforcement is already at a very low level. In 2012, for example, the Obama administration deported only 0.2 percent of the roughly 11.7 million illegals for violating immigration law. He also distributed work permits to more than 500,000 illegals during 2012 and 2013, despite high unemployment rates among Americans.
