3:26 pm ET
Aug 26, 2009


On Immigration, Kennedy’s Death Leaves Leadership Gap

    • The 1965 Immigration reform bill DID NOT eliminate discriminatory national origin quoatas : they were just changed to a quote of 20000 per nation of origin (regardless of the relative size of nations). The goal continued to be reduced Asian immigration: The previous laws based on favoring nations that already had the most immigrants in USA, was producing out of control immigration from the Philipines as Europeans were chosing not to take advantage of their far larger immigration quotas. The new laws favored both family connections and education.

      Unexpectedly, the 1965 Immigration quota's were badly framed. The quotas are in effect only in alternate years since the quota only applies to countries that had 20000 immigrants the previous year. It is easy to figure out why this turns into an alternate year quota for countires like Philippines, India etc so in the long run the national origin quotas have no effect and hence are not very effective in achieving the unstated goal of reducing Asian immigration. Instead of fixing the problem, they added Immigration lotteries available only to immigrants from European and African countries regardless of their educational level. Given that most Africans are too poor to take advantage of the lottery, this is just a sneaky way to increase white immigration by prefering "white trash" from Europe over more qualified immigrants from elsewhere.

    • The weak Immigration reform lost the center pole now, Schumer will have to carry the weight it rerally hurt a lot of us to see Ted gone not witness the health care reform.We are confident he will be smiling from heaven when health care and immigration reform come to life.
      We love and miss you Ted "the legislator legend"

    • An ominous pattern is slowly emerging towards an inevitable power play on pushing another amnesty through Congress. We need to take the many consequences into consideration:
      1 We already had an enforceable 1986 law to stop the illegal immigrant invasion of our country, but it has been intentionally ignored? So--WHY--are they adamant in passing another immigration law?
      2. Most enforcement legislation has been crushed or weakened by many of the politicians we voted into office.
      3. That many of our own government members have pandered to the special interest lobbyists and not voters.
      4 For decades American taxpayers have been supporting, business welfare, who have never contributed to foreign national workers. That emergency hospitals, must attend any foreign person who enters its doors, illegal or legal? ICE should be on standby and demand who that individual is working for and subsequently make the employer pay instead of the taxpayers.
      5. That Democrats are downplaying that the 20 plus illegal immigrant families living here, will not have access to the health care reform package? But are not saying that if a new path to citizenship is enacted, they can automatically get health care?
      6. Should a new immigration reform package is passed, what's stopping millions more poor, uneducated people storming the border.
      7. Why did Sen. Harry Reid, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other members of the party try to dismantle E-Verify and under fund the border fence, so it was only a single layer instead of two tiers?
      8 That E-Verification is working and working well, so no wonder the US Chamber of Commerce, ACLU, Cato Institute and a large majority of anti-sovereignty groups have been involved in lawsuits, and questionable appeasement by politicians to kill the any enforcement laws.

      9. Why are we still inviting around a million new immigrants a year, when their are about 15 million jobless Americans? My health care experience was mainly in England, Germany and 15 months in Australia and prior to the mass European immigration invasion was positively first class. FIRST CLASS AND EXEMPLARY! THERE WAS NO SUCH THING AS RATIONING?

      Of all the states that--SHOULD--be using E-Verify, is the illegal immigrant sanctuary state of California. Illegal immigration attributed to the near bankruptcy of California and is a prime example of intentionally ignoring immigration laws. The U.S. Census Bureau projections issued in the year 2000, that the United States is precisely on track to have a population of 1.182--BILLION--in the year 2100. So much for future American population is OVERPOPULATION.


      PS: Least we forget that Ted Kennedy RIP--NEVER TOLD THE TRUTH--when he promised their would be no more AMNESTIES, after the 1986 immigration reform act?

    • This leadership gap is being filled by Sen. Schumer and Sen. Graham. It shows bipartisan support for immigration reform. Working together Sen. Schumer and Sen. Graham have a very good chance at passing immigration reform. Visit http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2009/08/26/immigration-reform-kennedy/ to get a more complete article about the loss of a great leader and the impact on immigration reform. By the way, you'll see a similar comment by the online troll "Brittancus." Deporting all illegals can never work; it would require immense amounts of money and will hurt the economy because of the loss of spending power of illegals.

    • I ask anyone interested in immigration reform to consider the followin harsh realities. From the end of th Second World War to sometime in the 1970s the bottom 20% of our economy made substantial gains and then this group not only stopped making gains but began to lose ground. Today this segment of our population is worse off than it was 30 to 40 years ago. In addition, the vast middle class of this country has not enjoyed the prosperity of the last thirty or forty years. Furthermore, if one adds the number of unemployed to the number of under employed to the number of people who no longer are looking for employment, one will arrive at a number somewhere north of 20% and probably closer to 25%. These realities raises the question of who in this society do we want to help and who do we want to harm. If we legalize illegal immigrants it will certainly damage the worse off in our society. On the other hand, if Adam Smith and the laws of supply and demand work, the removal of millions of illegal immigrants will almost certainly benefit the worse off in our economy. Therefore, before anyone advocates legalization of millions - and one does not know how many - they should consider its impact on the less fortunate in our society. There is after all no such thing as a free lunch.

    • The above statement from Brittanicus was copied verbatim on The Wonk Room -- in response to quite a different article -- 14 minutes later. Does the WSJ have any interest in copyright protection?

    • Kennedy is well known in Chile for his “Kennedy Amendment” in 1974, a law which froze the US sale of arms to Chile during Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s military dictatorship. The arms sale ban was lifted in 1990 when Chile transitioned back to democracy.

      The late senator visited Santiago in 1986 and was egged by Pinochet supporters. In 1990 Kennedy again visited Chile, but this time to attend the country’s transition to democracy.

      For his participation in Chile’s fight for democracy, Chile is “eternally grateful” said a statement from the government on Wednesday.

      Bachelet awarded Kennedy with the Order of the Merit, one of the nation’s highest honours, last September in the senator’s Massachusetts home.

      Thank you Senator Kennedy, Chile honours your memory and legacy.

    • Mostly because of Ted Kennedy's push to drastically change our immigration policy, the U.S. population went from less than 200 million people to now over 307 million! In the 1960's, the U.S. was the most prosperous nation on Earth and now the greatest debtor country on this planet. Does the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board and other immigration advocates still believe that population growth or immigration is needed to boost the U.S. economy? The Chinese leaders already realized 3 decades ago that population growth and immigration would seriously impeded its economic success! When will Americans learn from China?
      Americans must wake up and realize that we are no longer the prosperous nation we once were. Even many hosts and guests on CNBC are saying that it is China, and not the United States, which will lead the world out of the recession!
      Although some immigrants are great assets, President Obama and Congress must immediately adopt some sort of immigration moratorium if they are serious about reduce unemployment, health care costs and our budget deficits.
      Yeh Ling-Ling
      Alliance for a Sustainable USA

    • If one researches the history and true motives behind Kennedy's efforts as they pertain to immigrants/immigration it is easy to detect that this man, and subsequently both political parties, were/are more interested in recruiting and securing serfs for their big business donors and expanding their base via future voters.

      Current stats estimate that there are 30+million illegals in this country, costing taxpayers billions of dollars annually and, according to a Bear Sterns report, accounting for trillions of dollars in unpaid taxes as the result of employers paying illegal aliens "off the books." Ted Kennedy consistently violated our Constitution, his sworn oath of office, and our laws in his quest to ingratiate himself to illegal aliens who would expand his voter base while simultaneously betraying, taxing, and putting in harm's way citizens of the U.S.

      Just as the government's attempt to take over health care has "awakened a sleeping giant" so, too, will the majority of Americans reject Obama, Schumer, Graham, LaRaza's, unions, religious organizations, and other special interest groups attempts to bestow amnesty on people who have no right to be in this country - the same people whose first act upon arriving in this country was to break our immigration laws and who, the longer they have stayed the more guilt they accrue. Most offensive are those who blatantly violated our laws and then further insult our country by marching through our tax paid streets demanding "rights" in a foreign language to which they are not entitled and certainly do not deserve.

      My hope is that the end of Ted Kennedy's life will also represent the end of immigration - both legal and illegal - until such time as Congress is replaced with law-abiding, moral, and ethical public servants who work in the best interest of their constituents and our country.

    • Why not watch what Sen. Hatch and Sen. McCain said about Ted Kennedy? I was impressed by their testimonies about the man and how he had changed over the years and how much these two conservative men loved Sen. Kennedy.

      The people who write such vicious comments would benefit from a little humility and the moving witnessing of the wonderful humanity and greatness of Mr. Kennedy.

      (Kathleen @ 12:03 you have issues you have to confront, do it soon before your soul dies completely)

    • 7:34 you go back to china ok?

    • I hope other legislators will follow Kennedy's example of a guy who tries to get things done. I hope they realize his dream of an immigration bill passed into law. Pass CIR now!

    • Mass immigration is the single, preventable cause of urban spraw, natural habitat and farmland loss, as well as stress on the developed world's freshwater supply. Add to this a host of social ills: gang violence, terrorism, 'honour killings', doda and khat use.

      'Liberals' (the Democrats, Canadian and Australian Liberals, British Labour) favour mass immigration, because of their links to the construction, real estate and banking lobbies. These industries need a constant warm body influx in order to keep the real estate bubble inflated. Population growth is needed to justify housing construction, as well as associated infrastructure, like housing and schools. Endangering our food and freshwater supply and destroying natural areas isn't their concern.

      Essentially, the construction, real estate and banking sectors are traitors--willing to trade our futures to foreigners, for their own profits. Canada, the United States, Australia and Britain must get their countries back, by imposing hard population caps, deporting non-citizens and halting mass immigration, as well as prohibiting greenfied development. The Bush-era bans on third world family planing also have to be reversed: politically incorrect but true, people in developing countries have unsustainably-high birthrates.

    • Who cares about the spending power of illegals? It is part of the false economy. The citizens are not buying that load of bull crap!. Illegal aliens are called undocumented worker , but they are not undocumented workers, they are illegal aliens taking jobs that millions of Americans want.. Congress had a responsibility to secure our borders. Infact that is still their duty. Tax Payers have paid for that. Where did the money go to secure the borders in the first place????? A huge investigation must happen. Fraud??? The race card does not work anymore it has been used up. Who ever is responsible for the huge invasion of illegals did not do their duty to protect our beloved United States Of America. No one who enters this country illegally is intitled to any form of amisty. To give amisty to 30million illegal aliens is a total disrespect to those who followed the law and proper proceedure to come here and become a citizen.. It is wrong to have the citizens accept this lawlessness when the American people have stated no to amisty. Mass deportation can be done. But we all no the hidden agenda. We have so many police and intelligence agencies as well as a huge population that is un employed. Many of the unemployed will be honored to serve this county by helping to deport all the illegals. What an opprounity to put millions of our beloved citizens to work. They could round up and deport illegals. The unemployed could also be used to secure our borders. Massive deportation can be done and be done in a humaine way. This country was built on immigration and that is the beauty of this country. But to have 30 million illegals enter unlawfully and lieing about Americans will not do the job is just over the top. Americans have always worked hard and always do any job! Always!! No fine, No amount of I am sorry can ever make up for the illegal invasion. No touch back, No nothing. As for congress they should be held for treasion for allowing 30million illegals to enter our country. If they were a private company they would be fired. As for the illegals themselves, I feel for them. They come because they want a better life----and who can blame them? It seems as if Nafty has screwed everyone over. I think if the illegals went back, esp those from Mexico, they just might have the clout and power to fix their country. Can you imagine the fear in the Mexican's government if all the illegals were sent back? Maybe the curruption would stop! Also, look at the curruption that is involed with illegal aliens? Not the illegals themselves but with outr language. We call them immigrants, They are not, they are illegal aliens, We call them undocumented workers, they are not, they are illegal aliens. Our own language is now all lies. Don't you dare say the truth because it is offensive. To me lieing is more offensive! And as far as political correctness goes, screw it, if it means not telling the truth.Freedom of thought, expression and of speech will always be the law of the land, anything short of that is not of America and the United States. May God belss you and keep you Everyone. whataboutthelaw?

    • Yeh Ling- Ling thanks for your comments.

      As for Ted Kennedy he may have started off well meaning focusing
      on Irish immigrants but soon lost his way on immigration and became
      a Clownish Tool and Useful Fool for Illegal Immigration Open Borders anti-American
      advocates financed by International Socialists,Marxists and Anarchists
      as well as the Far left radical wing of the Democratic Party looking to
      tear down the USA. He was blind to the fact that Mexico is doing everything it
      can to continue to create an Illegal Insurgent Mexican Nation loyal to Mexico First
      composed of 20 million plus foot soldiers within the borders of the USA!
      Los Angeles...Bankrupt


    • 2:39
      and you go back to the slimy fascist hole you crawled out from

    • Ted Kenney did a service to the U.S. in 1965, but not it's 2009 and it has become counterproductive to try to sort our Mexican neighbors into legals and illegals when so many of them are in the U.S., as it is to keep trying to pretend that Mexico is a separate country. Instead, why not finally accept their existence and work to share the New World with them in peace by incorporating Mexico's 760K sq. mi. of territory into the U.S. as 10+ new states sans the corrupt Mexican federal govt., allowing it to finally be developed as a sector of the U.S. to alleviate poverty? Read my nonpartisan Megamerge Dissolution Solution proposal at http://go.to/megamerge showing how the Obama admin. can take the lead as early as 2010.

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