Conservatives Unite Against Immigration Bill

A group of conservatives that includes Paul and me have signed a letter opposing the Gang of Eight’s immigration bill. I didn’t contribute to drafting the letter, but I was proud to sign it because it sets out the key arguments against the proposal in a powerful and easily understandable way. The group is called the Coalition Against S. 744, and the letter is titled “The Wrong Way to Reform Immigration:
An open letter on the Senate immigration bill.” Here it is:

We write to express our serious concerns regarding the Gang of Eight’s immigration bill, S. 744. We oppose this bill and urge you to vote against it when it comes to the Senate floor. No matter how well-intentioned, the Schumer-Rubio bill suffers from fundamental design flaws that make it unsalvageable. Many of us support various parts of the legislation, but the overall package is so unsatisfactory that the Senate would do better to start over from scratch.

We have a variety of concerns; some of us share only one, others share all. Among these concerns are that the bill:

* Is bloated and unwieldy along the lines of Obamacare or Dodd-Frank;
* Cedes excessive control over immigration law to an administration that has repeatedly proven itself to be untrustworthy, even duplicitous;
* Legalizes millions of illegal immigrants before securing the borders, thus ensuring future illegal immigration;
* Rewards law breakers and punishes law enforcement, undermining the rule of law;
* Hurts American job-seekers, especially those with less education;
* Threatens to bankrupt our already strained entitlement system;
* Expands government by creating new bureaucracies, authorizing new spending, and calling for endless regulations;
* Contains dangerous loopholes that threaten national security;
* Is shot through with earmarks for politically connected interest groups;
* Overwhelms our immigration bureaucracy, guaranteeing widespread fraud.

Reforming our immigration system is an important priority. But S.744 is such a defective measure that it would do more harm than good.

We urge you to vote against it and against any cloture vote to bring up the bill. Only then can a constructive, measured debate take place on how to improve America’s immigration policy.

The bill is signed by a number of “national conservative leaders,” a group that includes many of our friends:

Barbara Anderson, Citizens for Limited Taxation
Gary Bauer, Campaign for Working Families
Rev. C.L. Bryant, One Nation Back to God
Howie Carr, New England Talk Radio Host
Ann Corcoran, Refugee Resettlement Watch
Monica Crowley, Ph.D., Nationally Syndicated Radio Host
Glynn Custred, Professor Emeritus CSU East Bay
Jim Eagan, Sumner United for Responsible Government (Tennessee)
Elaine Donnelly, Founder and President, Center for Military Readiness
John Eastman, former Dean Chapman University Law School
Ken Eldred, CEO, Living Stones Foundation
Erick Erickson, Editor of RedState
Maria Espinoza, Houston Eagle Forum, The Remembrance Project
T. Willard Fair, President & CEO, Urban League of Greater Miami, Inc.
John Fonte, Hudson Institute
David Frum, Frum Forum
Brigitte Gabriel, President and Founder, Act for America
Frank Gaffney, President Center for Security Policy
Victor Davis Hanson, Hoover Institution, Stanford University
Donna Hearne, Constitutional Coalition, St. Louis, Missouri
Roger Hedgecock, Nationally Syndicated Radio Host
John Hinderaker, Powerline.com
David Horowitz, David Horowitz Freedom Center
Laura Ingraham, Nationally Syndicated Radio Host
Mickey Kaus, Columnist, Daily Caller, author The End of Equality
Roger Kimball, Encounter Books and The New Criterion
Cliff Kincaid, President, America’s Survival
Mark Krikorian, Center for Immigration Studies
Stanley Kurtz, Senior Fellow, Ethics and Public Policy Center
Kelly Monroe Kullberg, Christians for a Sustainable Economy
Lars Larson, Radio Host, Compass Media Networks
Mark Levin, Author and Radio Host
David Limbaugh, Lawyer and Author
Herb London, President, London Center for Policy Research
Dr. Gina Loudon, Nationally Syndicated Radio Talk Show host and Author
Rich Lowry, Editor, National Review
Michelle Malkin, author of Invasion and syndicated columnist
Ed Martin, Chairman, Missouri Republican Party
Jenny Beth Martin, Co-Founder and National Coordinator, Tea Party Patriots
Ken Masugi, Senior Fellow, The Claremont Institute
Andy McCarthy, Executive Director, Philadelphia Freedom Center
Eric Metaxas, Author and Speaker
Paul Mirengoff, Powerline.com
Frank L. Morris, Sr., Ph. D.
Mike Needham, CEO, Heritage Action
C. Preston Noell, President Tradition, Family, Property, Inc.
Peter K. Núñez, Former U. S Attorney, Southern District of California; Former Assistant Secretary for Enforcement, Department of the Treasury
Rev. Rick Scarborough, President, Vision America Action
John O’Sullivan, Editor-at-Large, National Review
Daniel Pipes, President, Middle East Forum
Judson Phillips, Founder Tea Party Nation
Andy Ramirez, Law Enforcement Advocate and Journalist
Sandy Rios, Vice-President, Family PAC Federal and Morning Host for AFR Talk
Phyllis Schlafly, President and Founder, Eagle Forum
Dimitri K. Simes, President & CEO, Center for the National Interest
Smart Girl Politics Action
Carol Swain, Professor of Political Science and of Law, Vanderbilt University
Tea Party Nation
Peter Thomas, The Conservative Caucus
Virginia Thomas, Liberty Consulting
Brad Thor, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author
Phil Valentine, Nationally Syndicated Conservative Radio Host
Richard Viguerie
Former Congressman Allen West
Tom West, Professor, Hillsdale College
Tim Wildmon, President of the American Family Association and American Family Radio

It is also signed by an even longer list of “activist leaders.” I think this effort is one of many signs that conservative opinion has hardened in opposition to the Gang of Eight’s proposal, in part due to the great work Jeff Sessions has done during the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearings on the bill.

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