Conservative Elites make it clear how they stand on amnesty during annual conference
Conservatives from across the country are descending on Washington this week for the annual CPAC convention hosted by the American Conservative Union. While immigration has been mostly scrubbed from the program's agenda, the list of invited speakers and the list of regular speakers who were not invited makes it clear that the organizers favor a pro-amnesty agenda.
Only one panel overtly focused on immigration - "Can there be meaningful immigration reform without citizenship?" CPAC did its best to hide the panel by holding it in a room at the end of a hallway that most conference attendees don't even know exists. Further, it was scheduled against a marijuana panel (popular with CPAC's younger attendees) and a main stage appearance by Donald Trump (popular with CPAC's older attendees).
Of the four panel members, only Derrick Morgan from the Heritage Foundation spoke out against amnesty even though the majority of the 100 or so attendees were more in tune with his positions than those of the other three.
Alfonso Aguilar was the most prominent pro-blanket amnesty voice. The former George W. Bush-appointee pushed for more foreign workers and misled the crowd on at least two separate occasions. He told them that no one uses the H-2A agriculture guest-worker program (183,860 H-2A visas were issued in 2012) and there is no "line" for legal immigration. The latter claim comes as news to the married sons and daughters of U.S. citizens from Mexico and the Philippines who have been waiting more than 20 years for their green cards, according to the State Department's March 2014 visa bulletin.
Rev. Luis Cortes represented the religious bloc that supports amnesty. He repeatedly told the group that this is the one issue that all the churches agree on. Recent polling from Pulse Opinion Research, however, tells a different story when church followers are asked for their opinions on the topic.
Helen Krieble pushed her Red Card program that would grant an unlimited number of guest-worker visas to anyone who wants one. It's worth mentioning that Red Card is a contributing sponsor of CPAC.
Absent from the main stage this year are Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) and the Eagle Forum's Phyllis Shlafly - both are outspoken champions of controlled immigration. Two other CPAC fixtures, Rep. Michele Bachman and Ann Coulter, were also snubbed by organizers at first. But both were late additions to the main stage program on Saturday, and it's a safe bet that immigration will work its way into their speeches.
On Thursday, Frank Gaffney (founder of the Center for Secure Policy) and Breitbart News organized an event in a nearby hotel to focus on the issues that CPAC avoided, including immigration. NumbersUSA's Rosemary Jenks participated in the panel along with Phyllis Shlafly, and Mark Krikorian from the Center for Immigration Studies. Rosemary made the case for America's unemployed who would be most impacted should Congress grant amnesty to 11 million illegal aliens and double legal immigration numbers.
While GOP Leaders have downplayed the chances for amnesty in 2014, it's clear from CPAC's agenda and the newest push by FWD.us this week (the Mark Zuckerberg/Facebook group) that the pro-blanket amnesty advocates aren't giving up their fight.
CHRIS CHMIELENSKI |
FRI, MAR 7th |
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