House Leadership Proposes Moving "Immigration Amnesty Lite"

“A new Pew poll suggests that illegal immigrants, if given citizenship, would vote for liberal, anti-gun candidates by an 8-to-1 margin.” - GOA’s Erich Pratt, commenting on Pew poll findings as reported in The Washington Post (7/22/13)

Just when we had largely won the fight to prevent 8,000,000 new anti-gun Obama voters from being added to the rolls, now comes a new development:  "amnesty lite."

According to Monday's Wall Street Journal, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor -- working with Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte -- proposes to give voting rights to about 2,000,000 young people who are here illegally because they were brought here by their parents when they were children.

We think this is a bad idea.

First of all, a Pew poll released this week shows that 31 percent of Latino illegal immigrants identify themselves as Democrat -- or with the Party that includes calls for more gun control in its platform -- whereas only 4 percent identify themselves with Republicans.

Barack Obama has already decided, by executive fiat, not to deport young illegals.  So the issue is not whether or not they can continue to live in the United States, but whether they will be given the vote.
To be sure, two million new anti-gun voters is "less bad" than 8,000,000 new anti-gun voters.  But that doesn't make it good.

But there are other problems with "amnesty lite."

We have largely won in our efforts to prevent 8,000,000 anti-gun voters from being added to the rolls.  "Amnesty lite" revitalizes Obama's agenda, energizes his base, and -- if passed by the House -- sets up a conference committee with the Senate in which the only question is how severely Obama succeeds in defeating pro-gun candidates, declaring victory over them, and getting what he wants.

Incidentally, once this happens, gun control will be on the table again.  And because of the expanded E-Verify provisions in the Senate legislation, we will be facing the implementation of a de facto National ID card, as noted in the June 15 edition of the New York Times.

Gun Owners of America has long opposed anything that smacks of National ID because of the danger that such data collection poses to gun owners’ privacy.  We agree with Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) who said:
“I am against government lists of those who own or have transferred a firearm for the same reason I oppose any pathway to a national ID [in the immigration bill]. I don’t think that government should have the awesome power of monitoring the legal activities of American citizens.”

If there’s a silver lining to the situation we’re facing, it’s this:  Given House Democrats' lack of enthusiasm for what they view as a "piecemeal approach" to amnesty, it may not take many Republicans to stop this bad idea in its tracks.

There are good ways to reach out to the Hispanic community and self-defeating ways.

Frankly, many conservatives and constitutionalists are thinking, increasingly, that Texas Senator Ted Cruz would make an exciting GOP nominee for the presidency.

But reshaping the political landscape in America to resemble the blue, anti-gun state of California is not the answer.

ACTION:  Click here to contact your Representative and urge him or her to vote against the "amnesty lite" proposal for 2,000,000 anti-gun illegals.