It looks like the Obama Administration and congressional Democrats are taking the tough talk beyond just BP and Matt Lauer. The problem, of course, is that Americans have learned something in the last 18 months: President Barack Obama and his Administration like to talk the talk, they just don’t walk the walk very well.
Politico reports that the liberals have realized the problem with getting traction on their amnesty proposal isn’t that the proposal is flawed; rather, the problem is they are using the wrong words to describe it.
Out: “undocumented worker,” “an earned path to citizenship,” and “come out of the shadows.”
In: “illegal immigrant,” “secure the border,” “crack down on employers,” and “get in line.”
Will this semantic sleight of hand work? Not likely. The fundamental reality is that the Obama Administration’s amnesty proposal isn’t gaining traction because Americans know it is a bad idea, no matter how much make-up gets lathered on the amnesty pig.
At the same time, the Obama Administration is planning to stick it to legal immigrants by increasing the fees they have to pay to come to America. Because fewer people are seeking to come legally to the United States, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) wants to fund its services by increasing fees on the remaining applicants.
Even worse, America’s broken legal immigration system is keeping the best and brightest from staying in America. In Ohio, Natalia Laschenova, a member of the Soviet Union’s 1988 gold-medal team came to the United States in the late 1990s and has been teaching gymnastics to scores of Americans with former American Olympic star Blaine Wilson. Her own daughter, Sasha, just got awarded a full ride to Auburn University for her gymnastics skills. Natalia has helped eight other gymnasts receive full scholarships to colleges and universities in the United States. Natalia has applied for permanent residency for almost a decade and her most recent petition as an “alien of extraordinary ability” was turned down, which means she and her talented daughter might have to depart for Belarus. Isn’t Natalia and her daughter the exact kind of immigrants America wants to attract and keep?
So, despite all the talk, the reality is that the Obama Administration and liberals in Congress want to make it easier to come to the United States illegally and harder to come here legally. Words matter, but actions matter more.