Gingrich fights back on immigration; signs pledge to build fence along Mexican border
Presidential Candidate Newt Gingrich. Despite his recent surge in national polls, the former Speaker of the House will not appear on Missouri's Feb. 7 presidential primary ballot.
DES MOINES, Iowa — Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich on Thursday shot back at criticism he’s faced over his position on immigration by signing a pledge promising to build a fence along the U.S.-Mexican border by the end of 2013.
“In 25 years, we haven’t been able to build a fence on the border because we’ve not been a serious country,” Gingrich told about 500 employees in the cafeteria of Nationwide Insurance. “It takes serious leadership doing serious things. This is an example. There are dozens of things like this that have to get done for us to rebuild this country.”
The pledge by Americans for Securing the Border, a national advocacy group dedicated to stopping the flow of illegal immigration and enhancing national security along the U.S.-Mexican border, calls for presidential candidates to support and speedily expedite the construction of a secure, multi-layered fence across the southern border by the end of 2013.
Gingrich is seeking the 2012 Republican nomination for president and is the front-runner in Iowa, according to two recent polls.
He said if elected president, America will have “absolute control” of its border by the end of 2013. He’d suspend all federal regulations that would prevent completion of the border in one year. If necessary, he’d move half of the 23,000 U.S. Department of Homeland Security employees from Washington, D.C., to Texas, Arizona and New Mexico to control the border.
But he also joked about the issue with Nationwide employees, by comparing the tracking of illegal immigrants to the online tracking of 24 million UPS and FedEx packages each day while they’re moving.
“You have the federal government, which cannot find 11 million illegal immigrants while they’re sitting still,” Gingrich said to laughter and applause. “So one of my proposals is that we mail a package to every person who’s here illegally and then when they’re delivered, you pull it up in the computer, you know exactly where they are and it was done at no extra cost.”
Gingrich later emphasized that was not a serious proposal.
Yet his signing of the pledge came as he is taking heat over his position on immigration. During CNN’s Nov. 22 foreign policy debate, he indicated that law-abiding, tax-paying illegal immigrants who had been in the country for a number of years should be able to become citizens.
In Cedar Falls on Wednesday, Minnesota U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, who was the first candidate to sign the pledge and has portrayed herself as the only true conservative in the race, characterized Gingrich’s position as granting amnesty.
“What Newt Gingrich proposes is to make legal, overnight, over 11 million illegal workers in the United States,” Bachmann said. “He needs to take the heat.”
Van D. Hipp Jr., chairman of Americans for Securing the Border, came to Gingrich’s defense. Hipp said Gingrich approached his group about signing the pledge before the Nov. 22 debate.
“Speaker Gingrich is no ‘Johnny come lately’ when it comes to border security,” Hipp said.
Former U.S. Rep. Duncan Lee Hunter, R-Calif., who was chairman of the U.S. House Armed Services Committee from 2003 until 2007, this week told Hipp that Gingrich “deserves credit” for his efforts that resulted in the first secure double fence being built along the 14-mile stretch south of San Diego along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Americans for Securing the Border is less concerned about illegal immigrants already in the country.
“Our focus is on securing the southern border,” Hipp told IowaPolitics.com. “There are a lot of other side issues that will have to be addressed. But right now, we’ve got to stop the hemorrhaging on our southern border. It starts with the fence. If we, as a people and as a country, if we had dealt with this issue before, we wouldn’t have the problems we’ve got today.”
The estimated cost of building a 700-mile fence along the Mexican border is $49 billion, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. The U.S.-Mexico border covers 2,000 miles, but Hipp said the focus is on the 854 miles along the nation’s major smuggling corridors. The ultimate goal is to extend that fence from Brownsville, Texas, to the Pacific Ocean.
Former Pennsylvania U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, former Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney also have advocated for building a border fence to stop the flow of people entering the United States illegally.
But Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Texas U.S. Rep. Ron Paul have said that a fence is not the answer. Perry has said that building a border-length fence would take “10 to 15 years and $30 billion” and would not be cost-effective.
Andre Carroll, 30, of Des Moines, who works in information technology at Nationwide Insurance, was among those who went to listen to Gingrich. Carroll said he’s a registered independent who voted for President Barack Obama in the 2008 election, but is considering voting Republican this time around.
“I voted for Barack. I don’t think I’m going to vote for him this time,” Carroll said. “It doesn’t seem like people want to work with him. It seems like he’s doing the same thing other people have done. I wanted to see this change — where was this change we were looking for? I didn’t see the change. I guess I missed it.”
Carroll said he knows that Obama inherited a huge problem, “so I can’t expect him to fix everything, but I just thought he would have made more progress than what we’ve made, especially when it comes to jobs and the economy. I would think that would be the first and foremost thing to worry about. It seemed like he was more concerned about health care.”
Nathan Payne, 33, of Ankeny, a Republican who plans to vote in the Jan. 3 caucuses, said he was favoring Cain because he liked the Atlanta businessman’s outsider approach, but is now taking a look at Gingrich.
“I was thinking about supporting Herman Cain, but I’m a little worried that he might be dropping out of the race, so I’m keeping my options open,” Payne said. “Newt’s definitely one I would consider. I’m not really interested in Mitt Romney or Rick Perry.”
Payne said Gingrich “seems like a very well-thought-out candidate. He puts a lot of research and thought into the ideas that he presents. I’d like to see what he could do in the presidency.”
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Posted by Iowa Politics on December 2, 2011. Filed under Iowa.
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ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION, GINGRICH, E-VERIFY, AMERICAN WORKERS AND YOUR TAXES.
Unless the former speaker’s supporters thrust him back from this plan of promising this even bigger amnesty, than the giant blanket amnesty of 1986 that was supposed to be the first and last one ever will be dwarfed in comparison. Probably the largest portion of the TEA PARTY membership; clearly recognized as the ‘American People’ of every racial persuasion, of every background, every age group and faith relationship are against a mass amnesty.
The most recent poll finds that Republican voters have elevated Newt Gingrich to presidential front runner status. But it is hard to consider that those supporting him concur with his amnesty agenda or are even alert that Gingrich suggestion sounds like it would give U.S. jobs and residency to approximately 3.5 million illegal aliens (according to a new Pew Hispanic Center study)
You can send an email to Gingrich by Google his site http://www.newt.org/contact. Click on the “Platform” option and make him aware of what you want him to change and how you feel about his immigration platform.
GINGRICH, BUSH & OBAMA SEE ONLY THE OPTIONS OF DEPORTATION OR LEGALIZATION (Attrition through Enforcement isn’t in their terminology) Go to NumbersUSA to study the damage of legalizing of at least 3.5 million will cause. Of course that is if you accept the ridiculous notion that only 11.5 million migrants and immigrants have settled illegal in America. More near the mark is somewhere over 20 million population figure.
Gingrich agrees with former President Bush and also Obama that the only major exceptions for illegal aliens are deporting them or legalizing them (choices that almost all Liberal mainstream press also insist on).
His official immigration proposal gives no tip-off of recognizing that there is a third option — ‘ATTRITION THROUGH ENFORCEMENT ‘ purges the jobs and welfare magnets for foreign nationals, thus that they will self-deport back to their homes in other nations. Hence, Gingrich is at odds with most of the other GOP candidates and most GOP Members of Congress, The Tea Party who favor the Attrition alternative.
PROBLEM IS since brazenly advocated his legalization agenda in the debate last week, he has informed his critics by telling them to read his official “TEN STEPS TO A LEGAL NATION “and his “7-Point Plan.” Those have read this roadmap to legalization and studied both and are more alarmed than ever.
We are in agreement with Gingrich and the Pew Center, that Gingrich is not suggesting– a blanket amnesty contrasting differently from Bush and Obama. There are two key opportunities in Gingrich’s proposals so far for limiting the harm:
• Because Gingrich would never tolerate his amnestied illegal aliens to become U.S. citizens, they would not be able to use the CHAIN MIGRATION CATEGORIES TO BRING INTO AMERICA UNCEASING LINES OF EXTENDED FAMILY MEMBERS from their homelands.
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• The 1986 President Reagan amnesty naturalized an estimated 3 million illegal aliens. But seeing as millions more of their relatives have been brought to this country, it multiplied the harm to American workers, infrastructure and taxpayers. The cost supplied by the Heritage Foundation for a blanket amnesty, was around the $2.6 Trillion dollars for processing. During the processing hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens were admitted through the use of fraudulent documents.
•
Currently, though, voters should not be misinformed by Gingrich’s public use of examples of illegal aliens who have been in the U.S. for 25 years. What about 20 years or even 10 years? Even 5 years is not mentioned? Nothing on his website or the ‘10 Step or 7 points’ limits that Gingrich Amnesty proposal to people who have been here 25 years or more. In fact, nothing puts any kind of time limit. To qualify for the Gingrich Amnesty right now, one need only have “deep ties” of “family, church and community?”
Gingrich supporters should require him to at least persuade a 25-year residency requirement in his website amnesty plan. Otherwise we could end up with millions more people attracted by his clemency and rising the costs to even higher layers of schools for their children, health care, the food stamps, WIC, Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC); WIC a federally-funded health and nutrition program for women, infants, and children. WIC helps families by providing checks for buying healthy supplemental foods from WICK-authorized vendors, nutrition education, and help finding healthcare and other community services. Low income housing, and even more supplementary programs, which our old, infirm and homeless are ineligible for?
This is your money the government is spending, taking it forcibly from your taxes. Go to any emergency hospital they are packed with foreign nationals with their children. Go to any border state school that has a present enrollment of 87 percent children of illegal aliens. It costs $113 billion dollars annually now Heritage Foundation), that is going to spiral to another astronomical figure in another year, five years or ten? Then go to Arizona, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, Utah and Indiana and observe the long lines of people—American residents and even more foreigners with huge numbers of babies in baby carriages and walking beside the mother, waiting to get in the Department of human services, waiting to get a charge card. God! American cannot even feed their own families or keep a roof over their head? THESE ARE ALL UNFUNDED MANDATES LEFT FOR YOU TO PAY?
The paramount problem is, if Gingrich wins and passes his idea of an amnesty to the Congress, then on being made law millions more will try and reach this nation? One the clarion call goes out from word of mouth, across the airwaves—unfettered numbers will be encouraged to come?
Sovereignty minded Americans should contact the Ways and Means Committee accountable for bringing ‘The Legal Workforce Act’, bill H.R.2885 to the House floor in Congress. Only the American voter or legal resident has a voice in this urgent matter, which will decrease large numbers of jobs procured by the 8.2 illegal workers, which is estimated to self-deport. The number to call for the Washington politicians is 202-224-3121. The legislators need to pay attention to the People, instead of misleading us anymore. If you have further questions read about the widespread corruption in the federal and state governments at ‘Judicial Watch.’ Be attentive that the TEA PARTY does not agree with any kind of Amnesty, Dream Acts or Sanctuary cities.