Oh. Bob…

SEE! The Marietta Daily Journal GA 11 candidate Q&A that was aswered by candidates last week and published on June 24,( Tuesday) HERE .

Bob Barr’s immigration page on his campaign website at 12:45 PM on Thursday, June 26, 2014. See the *bold paragraph on E-Verify (emphasis mine)

http://barrcongress.com/bob-barr-secure-americas-borders/

Bob Barr – Secure America’s Borders

Legal immigration has provided our nation since its inception with talent and diversity, and has strengthened America’s commitment to freedom and free enterprise. Bob Barr is proud to support and welcome responsible legal immigrants to the United States. However, Bob also supports the rule of law; and we have an absolute responsibility as a sovereign country to take those steps necessary to ensure immigration occurs lawfully – that is, persons seeking to enter our country must do so only at lawful ports of entry, and subject themselves to procedures to ensure they do not have a criminal record or other national security impairment, and that they not have a communicable disease.

Thus, the first priority in any consideration of immigration policy is to secure the border. This is a matter of national security, and is a responsibility of the federal government under our Constitution – power rooted, for example in Article I, Section 8 and Article 4, Sections 3 and 4. Pursuant to such authority, we have laws on the books that set forth the procedures whereby immigrants may become citizens; this is the “pathway to citizenship,” and Bob sees no reason to establish another, alternative “pathway” for persons who have entered or remain in this country unlawfully, regardless of how long they have been in that status.

While enforcement of our immigration laws is and should remain the primary responsibility of the federal government, this should not preclude procedures allowing for state and local governments to assist federal authorities in that regard; procedures such as those in the CLEAR Act (H.R. 100).

*It is important also for businesses to hire only those eligible to work in the U.S., not illegal aliens, and requirements that businesses take reasonable measures to ensure persons they hire are lawfully in this country are appropriate and necessary. This responsibility, however, should not in Bob’s opinion force American businesses to obtain permission of the federal government before they can hire a person; a concern that extends to the “e-verify” program which raises problems of a form of national identification card.

Upon his return to the House of Representatives, Bob Barr plans to join the Immigration Reform Caucus, which is dedicated to the strong enforcement of our immigration laws and the protection of our border.

Bob Barr supports the SAFE for America Act (H.R. 704), which eliminates the controversial Visa Lottery program. This program conducts an annual lottery, and awards legal permanent resident status to 50,000 foreign nationals each year based on pure chance. Our system of visas and work permits (including student visas) must be reformed so it is more rationally based on our country’s workforce needs. Bob also supports the HALT Act (H.R. 2497), which would prohibit the Obama Administration from granting amnesty to those who illegally entered the country.

Finally, Bob Barr supports legislation to make it a federal crime to be “unlawfully present in the United States.” The fact is it is unlawful under existing federal law to illegally enter the United States. The proposal would simply extend that authority to make it a crime if someone stays beyond their visa, and would eliminate a current five-year statute of limitations on prosecution of such crimes.
__

Bob Barr’s immigration page on his campaign website at 3:07 PM on Thursday, June 26, 2014. See the bold paragraph on E-Verify (emphasis mine) This was after I posted a note on Twittter (@DAKDIS) and my Facebook page – see bottom of this post.

http://barrcongress.com/bob-barr-secure-americas-borders/

Bob Barr – Secure America’s Borders

Legal immigration has provided our nation since its inception with talent and diversity, and has strengthened America’s commitment to freedom and free enterprise. Bob Barr is proud to support and welcome responsible legal immigrants to the United States. However, Bob also supports the rule of law; and we have an absolute responsibility as a sovereign country to take those steps necessary to ensure immigration occurs lawfully – that is, persons seeking to enter our country must do so only at lawful ports of entry, and subject themselves to procedures to ensure they do not have a criminal record or other national security impairment, and that they not have a communicable disease.

Thus, the first priority in any consideration of immigration policy is to secure the border. This is a matter of national security, and is a responsibility of the federal government under our Constitution – power rooted, for example in Article I, Section 8 and Article 4, Sections 3 and 4. Pursuant to such authority, we have laws on the books that set forth the procedures whereby immigrants may become citizens; this is the “pathway to citizenship,” and Bob sees no reason to establish another, alternative “pathway” for persons who have entered or remain in this country unlawfully, regardless of how long they have been in that status.

While enforcement of our immigration laws is and should remain the primary responsibility of the federal government, this should not preclude procedures allowing for state and local governments to assist federal authorities in that regard; procedures such as those in the CLEAR Act (H.R. 100).

*It is important also for businesses to hire only those eligible to work in the U.S., not illegal aliens, and requirements that businesses take reasonable measures to ensure persons they hire are lawfully in this country are appropriate and necessary. Bob’s hesitancy in the past to endorse a mandatory E-Verify system was based largely on the unreliability of the system. The system has been much improved and therefore now lends itself to such a requirement.

Upon his return to the House of Representatives, Bob Barr plans to join the Immigration Reform Caucus, which is dedicated to the strong enforcement of our immigration laws and the protection of our border.

Bob Barr supports the SAFE for America Act (H.R. 704), which eliminates the controversial Visa Lottery program. This program conducts an annual lottery, and awards legal permanent resident status to 50,000 foreign nationals each year based on pure chance. Our system of visas and work permits (including student visas) must be reformed so it is more rationally based on our country’s workforce needs. Bob also supports the HALT Act (H.R. 2497), which would prohibit the Obama Administration from granting amnesty to those who illegally entered the country.

Finally, Bob Barr supports legislation to make it a federal crime to be “unlawfully present in the United States.” The fact is it is unlawful under existing federal law to illegally enter the United States. The proposal would simply extend that authority to make it a crime if someone stays beyond their visa, and would eliminate a current five-year statute of limitations on prosecution of such crimes.

D.A. King ‪@DAKDIS‬
·
2h
TheBobBarr campaign website has bn updated to reflect his latest position on E-Verify after my earlier post.2FUNNY! ‪http://barrcongress.com/bob-barr-secure-americas-borders/ …

D.A. King ‪@DAKDIS‬
·
4h
Bob Barr tossed his anti-everify position for now ‪http://tinyurl.com/nqtua3p But forgot to remove it from his imm page. ‪http://tinyurl.com/q87svxe

Georgia Congressional District 11 Republican candidates respond to three question on immigration

The Dustin Inman Society GA11 GOP candidate issue questionnaire.

(Un-edited version)

Bob Barr
Barry Loudermilk

Sent to the candidates campaigns on June 17, 2014 at 12:39 PM

Response from Loudermilk campaign received on June 19, 2014 at 4:17 PM
Response from Barr Campaign received on June 20, 2014 at 6:24 PM

1) Driven mostly by illegal employment, illegal immigration is costing Georgia taxpayers and the state budget about $2.4 billion dollars a year according to Gov. Deal in 2011. Georgia contains more illegal aliens than Arizona, according to DHS.

In 1996, congress created what is now known as the federal E-Verify employment verification system. Free to use, internet-based and mostly a voluntary program today, the system was originally proposed as a nationwide, mandatory-use program for all employers. Use of E-Verify uses Social Security numbers and other data already available to the federal government to offer employers guidance on the employment eligibility of already-hired new employees.

Rather like the concept that no one would break into Disney World if they know they can’t ride the rides, most experts on both sides of the debate agree that mandating use of E-Verify would go a long way in reducing illegal immigration and protecting American jobs. E-Verify is already required for many federal contractors. Georgia has had E-Verify use law on the books since 2006.

Q – Given that it is a federal offense to knowingly hire and employ illegal labor, as a member of congress, would you work to pass federal legislation that mandated use of E-Verify for all employers, nationwide? *Note: this is a “YES” or “NO” question.

Barry Loudermilk: “YES”

Bob Barr: “YES”

2) Traditional levels of (legal) immigration is around 250,000-300,000 annually. The U.S. currently takes in more than one million legal immigrants each year, more than any other nation in the world. The Pew Center, the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies and other authorities report that most immigrants tend to vote big-government Democrat. A coalition of activists on the left who are in search of new voters and business interests looking for higher profits dominate the immigration debate in Washington and are pushing hard for not only another legalization program, but a doubling or tripling of legal immigration and huge expansion of the various existing guest worker programs. The general proposal is to add about 33 million permanent job seekers through legalization and immigration increases over the next decade. Thirty three million is almost the equivalent of California. This does not count the proposed doubling of guest workers that some in Congress are calling for.

Using the logic of natural laws of supply and demand, many voters make the observation that, importing even more foreign labor, legal or not, would surely result in lower wages and more desperation from American workers in the search for jobs.

Q – Are there any circumstances under which you would vote to increase legal immigration and guest worker levels as the people’s Rep from the 11th District of Georgia? *Note: This is a “YES” or “NO” question.

Barry Loudermilk: “NO”

Bob Barr: “NO”

3) In the U.S., there are correctly severe penalties for parents leaving their children alone in a parked car. These penalties are enforced.

Estimates are that by the end of the fiscal year ending October 1, about 90,000 children between the ages of 17-4 will have been brought to and dropped off at the southern border of the USA. because People have been told by news outlets in Central America that congress will soon pass another amnesty or that President Obama will unilaterally grant them and the parents who bring them parents free passage into the country and supply them with benefits and schooling. These illegal aliens are searching for and confidently turning themselves in to American Border Patrol Agents. Many of the illegal crossers are pregnant. President Obama has awarded taxpayer funded legal assistance to these illegal aliens, although there is no requirement that Americans pay for this legal assistance. Reports from Texas alone show that about 1000 illegal aliens are coming over each day.

Q – As a member of congress, what action would you push for regarding these children dropped of at our borders and the people who bring them in to the USA illegally? *NOTE: Please limit your responses to 100 words.

Barry Loudermilk: “The root of the illegal immigration crisis in the United States is twofold. First, the Southern Border is not secure and the Federal Government has not taken steps to secure our nation from illegal entry. Our Border Patrol is underfunded, undermanned and has not been given the technological tools they need to ensure the safety and security of residents who live along the border. Secondly, our legal immigration system and work visa program is broken. Furthermore, the Federal government is not forcing the immigration laws we have on the books. Before we can have any relief from the influx of illegal aliens entering into the United State we must secure the borders, enforce our current immigration laws and reform our legal immigration system.

The current influx of children into the United States is placing a tremendous burden on Border States. My heart goes out to these children and families who are being brought across the border, but the Federal government and especially the current administration have not only avoided preventing this travesty, but are encouraging it by providing legal services for these families, at taxpayers’ expense.

While these families are here and under the authority and care of our immigration and naturalization service, we should provide for their immediate medical and basic needs, but only until they are returned to the authorities of the nation from which they originated to be reunited with their families.”strong>

Bob Barr: “The mass border crossings by “children” reflects a deliberate policy by this Administration to encourage people to enter the U.S. illegally. The Congress must take action immediately – through its oversight responsibility and the power of the purse – to stop this Administration from spending taxpayer dollars dispersing these children around the country.

It is one thing to provide sustenance to the children in the immediate area of the border; beyond that, they should be placed on buses and sent back to Mexico. We must demand Mexico take action to stop this illegal migration, instead of condoning if not encouraging it.”

Note: As I write, it occurs to me that maybe there should be some kind of local or state opinion column – maybe in a ‘compelling’ newspaper – that would have curious and neutral journalists who keep watch over powerful people who invent their own facts in working toward a political goal…

Ag lobbyist Bryan Tolar outside of formerly smoke-filled rooms and in the AJC:

A fixture in the Georgia state Capitol, most Georgians have never heard of Bryan Tolar, but they should pay attention to him and his willingness to hide the truth on the current push for another amnesty for illegal aliens.

Tolar, (for Twitter users, @BTolar) is not just another integrity-challenged lobbyist. He is also president of the Georgia Agribusiness Council , which is the immensely powerful advocate for the growers in the state. We have been following his antics for years.

Neither is it Tolar’s first anti-enforcement expedition in the AJC. Here is a 2011 guest column desperately pleading with Georgia state legislators to kill the 2011 E-Verify section of Georgia’s illegal immigration law that year. In it he tells us that pay and benefits totaling $14.00 and hour is too much for the Ag masters to pay farm workers. At least he put a number on it.

Last week, Tolar was able to get a plea for readers to contact their congressmen (“Farm labor shortage costly to state”) urging passage of “immigration reform” in the June 18 edition of the Atlanta Journal Constitution. He offered the usual goop about the shortage of farm labor, the concept that when it comes to workers wages, “money is not the issue” and the need for legalization – again – of illegal alien farm workers.

In his guest column, Tolar is selling the 2013 U.S. Senate amnesty bill and the component in it written by the Ag lobby to create a “guest worker” program for the illegal farm workers his industry hires and employs. The scheme is called a “Blue Card” program.

Tolar didn’t disappoint those of us who know his work. But we have to give him credit. He did mention that there already exists a federal visa – H2A – for the Ag industry to bring in legal farm workers. But he overlooked telling readers that the H2A visa has no limit to the number of workers who can be imported. Or that agriculture is the only industry in the nation with its own un-capped visa process for foreign workers.

Or that according to CNBC net cash farm income rose from the record high in 2010 of $99.4 billion to a then record high of $134.7 billion. Only 35.5 percent profit growth! Not bad for a struggling industry, eh? (taken from CNBC “Phony Farm Labor Shortage: We Need to Talk About It” CNBC, September 2012.)

But what he did write on the Blue Card was worth noting so that you can decide if anything this character says in the future is worthy of acceptance?

From Tolar’s AJC column:

“Recent federal legislative proposals would have met the labor needs of farmers through a “blue card” proposal. The program would not allow for amnesty; it would only allow foreign farm workers to apply for the card if they pay a fine, undergo background checks and prove they have farm work experience. A blue card would certainly not grant citizenship. It would only allow the applicant to legally remain in the country to do farm work for a limited time.”

Pro-enforcement Americans who haven’t read the Blue Card proposal in the senate bill should have access to some facts on this sales pitch. And should remember the old Latin warning: “Caveat Emptor.”

• “Amnesty” is any process that allows any illegal alien to shed that illegal status and/or remain in these United States. The Blue Card scam is amnesty. The fine prescribed in the senate amnesty bill? It’s $400.00. MORE HERE.

* “A blue card would certainly not grant citizenship.” Um, no, that is more goop. A blue card grants “Lawful Permanent Residence” – known as a green card. It is the green card status that allows the lucky former illegal alien to then obtain U.S. citizenship. Odd that Ag lobbyist Bryan Tolar didn’t make that clear, huh?

• HOT PANTS! Tolar then gets deep in the weeds on the blue card with “It would only allow the applicant to legally remain in the country to do farm work for a limited time.” Complete, indefensible nonsense. Having obtained a blue card, the formerly illegal alien recipient is now on his way to a green card (lawful permanent status) and then to the jackpot: U.S. citizenship. And the ability to vote. “Limited time” indeed.

See what we mean about Bryan Tolar? The section of the 2013 Senate amnesty bill (s744) that deals with what becomes of blue card holder is section # 2212. The first sentence explains that the holder can access permanent legal residence. The first sentence! That section reproduced HERE.

We are grateful to the AJC letters editor for the space involved in running my June 20, 2014 letter exposing Tolar and the blue card scheme, which I paste below.

Farm column skirts immigration reality

The “Blue Card” amnesty program for illegal alien farm workers that Big Agriculture lobbyist Bryan Tolar is pushing (“Farm labor shortage costly to state,” Opinion, June 18) would eventually make it easier for beneficiaries to move one step closer to obtaining American citizenship — the same end result as the failed 1986 amnesty.

Work requirements include seven years of agricultural employment, rather like 21st century indentured servitude under the Ag bosses for whom Tolar works. After that term, lessons learned from the Ag amnesty of 1986 show us that the former illegals, now on a path to U.S. citizenship, migrate to work in an air-conditioned warehouse and leave the miserable field work — and the grower’s preset wages — to the next wave of black-market labor. Blaming a 2011 worker shortage for profit losses in his sales pitch, Tolar omitted any mention of the damaging drought that produced a crop shortage that year.

It is clear the agriculture masters are unwilling to pay wages for which Americans will work. Updating and streamlining the existing H2A agriculture visa — along with real immigration and employment enforcement, so that the Ag industry would be forced to use genuinely temporary, legal and protected foreign workers — is the solution the powerful agriculture lobby works to ensure never happens. So far, they have nothing to worry about on that one.

D.A. KING, MARIETTA

Fox News Latino

View this content on Fox News Latino’s website http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2014/06/09/white-house-addresses-border-crisis-trend-is-larger-than-anticipated/

White House Addresses Border Crisis: Trend Is Larger Than We Anticipated

Children who have come to the United States unaccompanied by adults as part of huge influx from Central America tell immigration authorities they were sent here by their families because of the surge…

The CSIS Americas Program is pleased to invite you to the launch of our newest publication:

North American Regionalism
Can we awaken the sleeping giant?

Featuring a Panel Discussion with:

Carl Meacham
Author, and
Director
CSIS Americas Program

Carlo Dade
Contributing Author, and
Director
Centre on Trade and Investment Policy
Canada West Foundation

Pamela K. Starr
Contributing Author, and
Director
U.S.-Mexico Network
University of Southern California

Followed by a discussion with regional media representatives:

Paul Koring
Correspondent for the Washington Bureau
The Globe and Mail

Jaime Hernandez
Chief Correspondent in Washington
El Universal

Tuesday, May 6, 2014
4:00 – 5:00 p.m.
212-C
CSIS 1616 Rhode Island Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20036

Twenty years after it entered into force, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) remains the only institutional framework for trilateral cooperation among Canada, Mexico, and the United States. And with innovative and highly successful trade blocs emerging around the world, regionalism seems to be a defining tenor of modern international affairs. But North America isn’t moving forward in kind, with the administration’s pending decision on KeystoneXL and the U.S. Congress’s long-delayed immigration reform among the key issues still unresolved. This thought-piece explores North Americanism – its history, its current context, and its potential moving forward, unpacking the fundamental benefits all three countries will derive through revitalizing their trilateral relationship. Join the report’s authors and representatives of North American media for a discussion of the future of North Americanism in the changing global context.

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