NEWS AND OPINION:
Stand clear, and maybe take shelter. An executive order launched by the White House on immigration reform is likely incoming, and soon. The Federation for American Immigration Reform warns of tactics and explains all.
“President Obama will use two methods to grant amnesty to illegal aliens: parole-in-place and deferred action, each designed to take advantage of loopholes and circumvent the broad intent of Congress,” the organization says in a new report. “Parole gives the president limited discretion to bring in an alien from a foreign country on a temporary, case-by-case basis for humanitarian purposes. The Clinton administration pushed that definition to grant parole to illegal aliens already residing in the country.”
Deferred action, meanwhile, is a discretionary determination to defer deportation as an act of prosecutorial discretion, the organization points out. “An illegal alien who has received deferred action is authorized by the Department of Homeland Security to be ’lawfully present’ during the period deferred action is in effect. Like parole-in-place, deferred action has no statutory basis.”
Both are meant for extraordinary and limited circumstances, the report says, noting that “Congress and the courts” have repeatedly warned against broad applications.
“The President has already made a number of unilateral changes in U.S. immigration policy with disastrous results,” Sen. John Cornyn said Tuesday, citing the influx of unauthorized immigrants with criminal backgrounds.
“What about the people who have been waiting patiently in line complying with our immigration laws to have these millions of other people jump right ahead of them and be given some form of legal status? It’s just not fair to them, and it certainly doesn’t encourage people’s compliance with the rules or the law,” the Texas Republican said. “Criminal organizations would be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the President’s executive order, which would make it even harder for our friends in Mexico to reduce violence and uphold the rule of law.”
SEE ALSO: Harry Reid urges Obama to act now on immigration
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT: ’CRAZIER AND MORE FREAKY’
“We operate on a kind of free-flowing-quasi-hierarchical-non-traditional-management structure that just sort of happened over the years. It’s essentially a cult, and thus a nightmare for most status-quo managers. However, the only thing in this world crazier and more freaky than Vice right now is the U.S. government.”
And so says one Shane Smith, CEO of Vice Media, upon hiring former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Alyssa Mastromonaco, 38, as chief operating officer. Founded two decades ago as an aggressive news organization for the young and restless, Vice has grown into a $2.5 billion enterprise in 36 countries, predicted by Business Insider to net $500 million this year, and $1 billion annually by 2016.
GRUBER-FREE NETWORKS
Over the past ten nights, ABC’s World News Tonight and NBC’s Nightly News have not mentioned the “stupid America” remarks of Obamacare pointman Jonathan Gruber at all. Nada. Zilch. This is according to Mediaite analyst Joe Concha, and it does not sit well with him.
“If ABC or NBC had plenty of room in their respectively nightly news programs, why not explore the Gruber story? It is, as Fox’s Charles Krauthammer correctly characterized it, a ’scandal of the first order.’ President Obama was caught making another invalid truth when he portrayed Gruber as ’some adviser who never worked on our staff,’ a claim quickly proven false by Gruber’s 19 White House visits. Even former Obama advisers claim Gruber was a significant player,” Mr. Concha says.
SEE ALSO: The 2015 CPAC countdown begins with gusto: Ted Cruz, Mark Levin among the speakers
“So why spike it? Is it because Gruber isn’t a household brand?” he asks, adding, “Bias is a term tossed around often in 2014. Oftentimes — not always — it’s a big reason in explaining why decisions are made around whether to cover a story aggressively or even at all.”
THE ’DIVERSIFIED ELECTORATE’
The national exit polls taken after the recent midterm elections shows Latinos made up an estimated 8 percent of voters this year. The share of Hispanics who voted remained unchanged from their estimated share in 2010 and 2006 — this despite the growing share of eligible Latino voters who are U.S. citizens ages 18 or older. So says an intricate new analysis of the trends by the Pew Research Center.
“Meanwhile, the national exit poll reports the estimated black voter share was 10 percent in 2006, 11 percent in 2010 and 12 percent in 2014. And the share of white voters has declined from 79 percent in 2006 to 77 percent in 2010 and now to 75 percent, reflecting growing diversity of the nation’s population and electorate,” the analyst reports.
THE CPAC COUNTDOWN
For those pining for the next Conservative Action Political Conference — their beloved CPAC — the countdown has begun. The big event is just over 100 days away, set to begin February 25, to be staged once again at the glittering National Harbor, seven miles south of the nation’s capital on the Potomac River. Organizers are working quickly. Already signed up to speak: Sen. Ted Cruz, radio host Mark Levin and Carly Fiorina, who seems to be everywhere these days.
“Ronald Reagan delivered one of his most important speeches at CPAC, uniting conservatives and ultimately restoring our country’s greatness. This CPAC will be decisive,” Mr. Levin observes, “I’ve been asked by the American Conservative Union to explain why our principles are just as important today as they were at our Founding. We must get this right.”
Also now underway:”The Road to CPAC,” a year-round online experience that includes a 100-day educational introduction to the issues and policy conversations that will be addressed at the four-day event. The content, incidentally, comes from The Washington Times, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the Independent Women’s Forum and TownHall.com. Find everything here: Conservative.org
ON THE RADAR
It is billed by organizers as “the biggest pro-Israel event of the year” — and Sen. Ted Cruz will be there. He will join philanthropist and friend-of-the-GOP Sheldon Adelson and his wife Miriam, media kingpin Mortimer Zuckerman, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, Pastor John Hagee, founder of Christians United for Israel; Home Depot founder Bernie Marcus, Harvard University law professor Alan Dershowitz and other luminaries in New York City at week’s end for the Louis D. Brandeis Award Dinner, organized by the Zionist Organization of America.
The aforementioned Texas Republican will receive an award, in fact, and is described by the group as “one of the greatest friends Israel has in Congress.”
POLL DU JOUR
• 80 percent of Republicans have a favorable impression of Mike Huckabee; 79 percent favor Mitt Romney.
• 76 percent favor Rep Paul Ryan, 70 percent favor Sen. Rand Paul.
• 62 percent favor Texas Gov. Rick Perry, 61 percent favor Jeb Bush.
• 60 percent favor Sen. Ted Cruz, 56 percent favor New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
• 42 percent of Americans overall favor the “Democratic candidate” if the 2016 presidential vote were today.
• 34 percent favor the Democrat.
Source: An Economist/YouGov poll of 983 U.S. adults conducted Nov. 8-10. The survey included 271 self-identified Republicans.
• Proclamations, words of wonder to jharper@washingtontimes.com.
• Jennifer Harper can be reached at jharper@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.