Obama’s Border Security Extortion

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Obama and the Democrats keep jabbering about “comprehensive immigration reform” as they refuse to secure the border.

This 90 second video will likely “go viral” this week:

Senator Kyle tells a town hall audience that President Obama told him:

The problem is, if we secure the border then you all (Republicans in Congress) won’t have any reason to support comprehensive immigration reform.

Gasps are heard from the audience.

While it is perhaps startling to hear in such frank language, this isn’t new information.  The President has made no secret of his determination to prevent any consideration of border security as a stand-alone issue.  Whenever the subject comes up he conflates border enforcement with immigration.

This Administration is now engaged in extortion, threatening to allow continued chaos at the border,  unless Congress and the voters submit to “comprehensive reform,” code for amnesty for some 12 million people who are already here illegally.  Last week the Obama Justice Department confirmed a bomb-shell leak from Secretary of State Clinton: it is preparing to sue the state of Arizona to stop it from implementing a new law that would empower local police to identify and arrest people who have crossed the border and entered the country illegally.

“Comprehensive Immigration Reform” will turn out to be another of those two-thousand page monstrosities from Congress, making hundreds of changes in the law all at once.  As with ObamaCare, there will be no way to predict how all the intended and unintended consequences will interact in the future, but unpleasant surprises are guaranteed.

Last month Mexican president Calderon visited the White House and during a joint appearance Obama made a pitch for his vision of “reform”:

…comprehensive reform means accountability for everybody: government that is accountable for securing the border…

Apparently, Obama hopes we’ll forget that the federal government is already accountable for securing the border. That responsibility is mandated in Article 4 Section 4 of the Constitution.  No “reform” should be needed for the Administration to obey the Constitution.

By willfully refusing to secure the border The Obama Administration stands in defiance of the Constitution.

Obama’s speech continued…

…[comprehensive reform means] people who break the law by breaching our borders being held accountable by paying taxes and a penalty and getting right with the law before they can earn their citizenship.

“Before they can earn their citizenship?”   Who decided they should become citizens?  Inadvertently, his real goal was revealed: that the 12 million illegals who  are already here not only be allowed to stay, but to become citizens.  So they can vote.  Democrat.

But the American people are increasingly resistant to immigration flimflam.  By wide margins the people tell pollsters that border security is a core responsibility of government to be addressed immediately, and by itself, not as a subordinate piece of  “comprehensive immigration reform.”

Since immigration policy is, at its core, about who should be permitted to live here and who should not, there can be no effective policy if the border is not secure.

How will Obama respond to Senator Kyle’s statement in the video?  Will he deny what Kyle said, even though his public statements support it?  Will he say or do something to try to convince us he’s a hawk on border security?  Most likely he’ll say nothing, hoping the oil gushing into the Gulf will distract us from the people gushing across the border.

UPDATE:

A White House spokesman was asked by reporters if Kyle’s account was true.  His response, in part:

No, that statement’s not true.  And, we’re going to continue to work and hopefully get the support of senators like Senator Kyle for comprehensive reform.  Because that’s the only way we’re really going to be able to address this problem.

So, the White House denies what Kyle said, but reaffirms the President’s refusal to “address this problem” outside the context of so-called “comprehensive reform.”  By insisting that comprehensive reform is the only way it will deal with border security the Administration just confirmed Kyle’s claim.