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A Classic Political Compromise Might Be Too Extreme These Days
Sound like a classic compromise. You get some of what you want @realDonaldTrump gets some of what he wants. https://t.co/xSB010A2tq
— LoughlinRI1 (@LoughlinRI1) December 29, 2017
Population Change: The Government Plantation in Action
Every year, Rhode Island replaces its residents (who leave) with foreign nationals (who immigrate), revealing the short-sighted decision of the state’s political elite.
More Opportunity for E-Verifying
.@wwwCISorg: How About E-Verifying Tax Refund Recipients? https://t.co/bVaYZgCFkN
— Terry Gorman (@TerryRiile2) December 20, 2017
Illegal Immigration Not a Victimless Crime
The High Cost of Illegal Immigration https://t.co/dyKSou7yZ4 via @YouTube
— Terry Gorman (@TerryRiile2) December 15, 2017
So… Still No “REAL ID” In RI?
The Providence Journal has a small article on a procedural matter (Rhode Island receiving an extension to comply with federal standards for drivers’ licenses), but this paragraph is interesting:
In 2005, the federal government passed the REAL ID Act in response to the 9/11 terror attacks to establish minimum security standards for state-issued driver’s licenses and identification cards. The act prohibits federal agencies, such as the Transportation Security Administration, from accepting licenses and identification cards for official purposes from states that do not meet certain standards. Those standards include requiring applicants to provide proof of identity and lawful status in the United States, and states to use counterfeit-resistant security features in the IDs.
So, do we know if the DMV is adequately checking identity and/or lawful immigration status?
E-Verify in the Senate Immigration Bill
E-Verify on page 459. Says only "A State or local government may not prohibit a person or other entity from verifying the employment authorization of new hires or current employees through E-Verify".
— Andrew Morse (@CAndrewMorse) December 5, 2017
E-Verify…. Popular, Yet Still Not Law
"A September 2017 Washington Post-ABC News poll shows that 82 percent of voters favor requiring business owners to check the immigration status of employees they hire. E-Verify receives the most public support of any proposed immigration reform." https://t.co/WDV7z4bfUy
— Andrew Morse (@CAndrewMorse) November 25, 2017
The Odd Conclusions of a Sanctuary State
Our "Sanctuary State" policies have let a multi-time convicted drug ring kingpin, Fentanyl dealer to walk out a free man because "we don't want to pay to detain him for the Feds", but we will pay $50+K/yr to jail him in RI… makes sense. https://t.co/sn40syoZzG
— Rep Mike Chippendale (@MikeWChip) November 13, 2017
Luis Vargas: A Conservative Case for DREAMers
Luis Vargas argues that free market and traditional principles should give the so-called DREAMers a place in a conservative immigration reform policy.
An Alternative Rationale to Bigotry
Serious Q: If a place has a policy of giving "free" benefits to everyone who meets some set of qualifications X.. 1/
— Andrew Morse (@CAndrewMorse) October 24, 2017
..and many people move to that place to be able to collect those benefits.. 2/
— Andrew Morse (@CAndrewMorse) October 24, 2017
..is bigotry the only explanation of why the people who pay for the "free" benefits might think there need to be limits.. 3/
— Andrew Morse (@CAndrewMorse) October 24, 2017
..on the number of people that can move to said place and begin immediately collecting the "free" benefits? 4/x
— Andrew Morse (@CAndrewMorse) October 24, 2017
DACA and a Back Door to Gubernatorial Favors
Governor Raimondo gets to know who helped fund her DACA-fee-payment campaign, but her office says the public cannot.
Last Impressions 33: Tolerance of Wealth and Difference
Accepting luxuries for those who can afford them and freedoms for those who disagree.
Sam Bocetta: Louisiana Settlement Sets New Precedent for U.S. Workforce
Immigration, automation, and outsourcing are hitting the American worker, but Sam Bocetta suggests that some reforms and a sense of patriotism can improve conditions.
State House Report with John DePetro, No. 26: Resurrected Legislation and the Ghost of Failures Past
For my weekly call-in on John DePetro’s WADK 1540 AM show, last week, the topics were the likelihood of an evergreen veto override, whether the DCYF would haunt Gina, PawSox, DACA, and Rhode Works transparency.
The Governor’s Inappropriate Blurring of Roles with DACA Initiative
A larger percentage than I’d like of recent posts, in this space, have to do with the actions of Democrat Governor Gina Raimondo, but the hits just keep on coming, as they say.
We can offer wry quips, as John Loughlin deftly did, about Raimondo’s initiative to pay the $495 filing fees of applicants for federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) status. Loughlin imagines the governor paying off the minimum corporate tax for small businesses in the state as an alternative. Put aside, though, the specific policy (and questions about why the governor wants to create more incentives for illegal immigrants to locate in Rhode Island) and look at the process.
Data point 1: As Kim Kalunian reports on WPRI, the governor announced this program with at least the trappings of her official office, holding a PR event in the State Room of the State House, at a government podium. Additionally, in a fundraising appeal (see below), Raimondo blends this initiative with various official programs of the State of Rhode Island as if they’re of the same nature.
Data point 2: The governor’s statement notes that “the Rhode Island Foundation is coordinating contributions and making grants to community agencies that have stepped up to do this work.”
Data point 3: A fundraising appeal for the initiative that the Providence Journal’s Kathy Gregg tweeted out was sent courtesy of the PAC, Friends of Gina Raimondo.
This blurring of public and private sector is absolutely inappropriate, but it’s a regular practice of Raimondo’s. Recall, for example, the overlapping interests of Wexford Science and Technology (of I-195 Redevelopment fame), Raimondo, the RI Foundation, and the Brookings Institute. Or consider her “hiring” of a chief innovation officer for her cabinet one step removed from government by being housed in the RI College Foundation.
It would be one thing if the governor were merely expressing support for some private-sector initiative, but instead, she’s acting through a shadow government serving unknowable interests and a far too obvious ideology.
Last Impressions 31: Stranger in the Homeland
All about directionless immigration policy and maybe a little bit about driverless cars.
State House Report with John DePetro, No. 24 and 25: Voter Fraud, Pawsox, Dreamers, and DACA
I neglected to post my August 30th appearance on John DePetro’s WADK 1540 AM show, so this week, you get twice the audio.
On August 30, the topics were Elorza’s Dreamers, Pawsox, and District 13 follow up. On September 6, the topics were official silence on Ken Block’s voter fraud report, the start of the Senate’s PawSox road show, and local response to the DACA.
DACA Activism, Not Journalism
The mainstream news media isn’t providing Americans with information about DACA; they’re passing along propaganda, raising the question of how much they value journalism and, for that matter, democracy.
And When Automatic Voter Registration Goes Wrong?
Broad and confusing language in Rhode Island’s new automatic voter registration law makes fraud and future corruption more likely.
Updated: Identification Cards in the Campus City
Providence’s proposed citywide IDs give away the progressive game… to turn reality into a college campus.
Maine Tourism: Jobs Americans Will Do When Immigrants Aren’t Available
A few days ago, I noted that Maine’s waiters and waitresses had actually organized to fight against a minimum wage increase. Now Jazz Shaw has spotted a story out of Maine that messes with another mainstream narrative. Apparently, when the number of available immigrants for low-end work hits a ceiling, employers will find ways to make the positions into jobs that Americans will do:
The article describes some of the “creative ways to attract local labor” and they include things such as offering flexible hours and even… (gasp) higher wages. If your business is booming all summer to the degree that you can’t hire enough workers to meet the demand, then in a normal capitalist system the demand for labor would drive up the cost. Higher wages attract more and better workers… it’s really that simple. And if that enhanced compensation package is attracting more employees locally, why are you relying on the H-2B program to begin with?
The economic questions with immigration are not simplistic. Fluid immigration is arguably a subsidy to employers; rigid immigration is arguably a subsidy to workers. (Although, of course, a sense of fairness does seem to make the former argument more natural than the latter.)
As we work through these policies, though, deceptive rhetoric is kind of like a subsidy to those who dominate the media. Ultimately, there’s no such thing as a “job Americans won’t do.” There are just jobs that Americans won’t do for the compensation that employers want to pay. Immigration policy, in this regard, should balance the needs of employers who can add to the economy if they have lower labor prices with an appropriate aversion to allowing global poverty to drive down salaries in the United States.