MELT THE PHONE LINES!
The issue of illegal immigration is once again before Congress and the American people due to a man-caused crisis at the southern border. The White House is demanding $3.7 billion in additional spending, while Senate Democrats are proposing to spend a billion less.
In the House, Rep. Hal Rogers (R-KY), chairman of the Appropriations Committee, introduced legislation today that authorizes only enough spending to see federal agencies through the end of the fiscal year -- about a fifth of what the White House wants.
In addition, it includes a number of policy changes that Democrats reject, such as amending a 2008 law in order to speed up deportations, lifting environmental restrictions that impede Border Patrol operations on federal lands and preventing certain criminals from applying for asylum.
It is unclear whether the House can pass this legislation. The reason for that is Senate Democrats are reportedly scheming to jam their entire comprehensive immigration reform bill into whatever the House passes. But the phones lines on Capitol Hill are reportedly melting down in support of other immigration-related bills.
A new poll found that 77% of Americans want individuals streaming across our border from Central America to be returned to their home countries -- and that includes 64% of Hispanics. Moreover, most Americans (57%) believe this "humanitarian crisis" is due to the belief that the government is granting illegal immigrants amnesty.
As we reported yesterday, President Obama is preparing to do just that. He is expected to issue new executive orders within weeks granting a mass amnesty to as many as five million illegal immigrants. Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) is warning that doing so would effectively gut immigration enforcement in America.
To counter that, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Rep. Marsh Blackburn (R-TN) have introduced bills (S. 2631 and H.R. 5160) that would prevent federal funding for any expansion of Obama's "deferred action" program. That was Obama's 2012 executive order that granted amnesty to more than 520,000 teenaged and adult illegal immigrants who were brought into America as children by their parents.
Senator Sessions said:
"The American people have begged and pleaded for years for our laws to be enforced. We have people in our own country living in violence, fear and poverty every single day. They have demanded an immigration policy that puts their jobs, wages and communities first. Every citizen should pick up the phone and ask of their congressional representative: Where do you stand?"
ACTION ITEM: Call your representatives right now at 202-224-3121. Urge your senators and representative to support the rule of law by supporting the Cruz/Blackburn bills.
Putin's Behaving Badly
Whatever happened to Hillary Clinton's famous "reset" of our relationship with Russia? We were told that the new administration would make the world a better place, where we could all hold hands and sing "Kumbaya." Obama even promised Putin he would be more "flexible" once he won reelection in 2012.
Since then, Putin seized the Crimean Peninsula and, after barely a whimper of protest from the West, he has set his sights on eastern Ukraine. After his separatist allies shot down a civilian passenger jet, you might expect him to cool it for a bit. But no, Putin doubled down, launching an artillery barrage from Russian territory into Ukraine.
Now there is news that Russia has violated a 1987 missile treaty negotiated by Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev. The New York Times reports that the violations began years ago, but it took the Obama Administration until last year to raise the violation with Russian officials.
Yesterday, President Obama sent Putin a sternly-worded letter in which he reportedly "underscored his interest in a high-level dialogue with Moscow." Another reset, Comrade Obama?