Do You Believe Amnesty Is Dead?

House Speaker John Boehner has all but ruled out passage of immigration legislation before this fall’s elections, saying last Thursday that it would be difficult for the Republican-led House to act on the issue that President Barack Obama has made a top domestic priority.

Why is it that no outside observers of the process appear to believe Boehner?

From talk radio powerhouse Mark Levin, to Senator Jeff Sessions and other conservative supporters of the rule of law and American exceptionalism, to Victor Davis Hanson and other conservative commentators, to NumbersUSA, the Eagle Forum and other organizations that do policy work on immigration and amnesty, you can’t find a major voice saying, “Wow, Boehner sure saved us on that one, guess we can fold our tents and stop worrying about amnesty for the rest of the 113th Congress.”

Our friend Chris Chmielenski at NumbersUSA pretty well summed-up the state of play on Capitol Hill when he noted that just this week, a subsidiary of Facebook tycoon Mark Zuckerberg’s pro-amnesty FWD.us, Americans for a Conservative Direction, launched a $750,000 television ad campaign to sell the “Immigration Principles” revealed by Republican “leaders” at the recent House GOP retreat. 

If immigration “reform” and amnesty are dead, why is FWD.us and Americans for a Conservative Direction spending $750,000 on an ad buy promoting “dead” legislation? 

Interestingly, the ad doesn't even mention their call for more foreign workers; it instead focuses on the enforcement and amnesty provisions in the principles. But both FWD.us and Americans for a Conservative Direction list amnesty and foreign worker increases as part of their objectives.

Chmielenski is right on target when he noted that while President Obama continues to talk about income inequality and the shrinking middle class, he and Speaker Boehner, among others, are helping the tech tycoons protect their cheap workforce and servant class by advancing amnesty and a vast expansion of the H-1B business visa program.

Mark Levin was equally skeptical last week during one of his hard hitting radio programs on illegal immigration and amnesty. 

As Levin put it, since the Republican Party has given up on fighting Obamacare, they have now moved to amnesty as they clearly don't mind that in doing so they are tearing apart the foundation of the country.  

Seeming to anticipate Speaker Boehner’s comment: “The American people, including many of my members, don’t trust that the reform that we’re talking about will be implemented as it was intended to be,” citing executive actions by the Obama administration that have changed or delayed the carrying out of the president’s health care law, Levin said we have a lawless President who refuses to secure the border and can't be trusted on the immigration issue.

Mark Levin’s take is that we need a new Republican Party - Boehner, Cantor, McCarthy are all lost causes.  If the House GOP “leadership” gets its way and amnesty passes Levin says that the federal courts will find a way to grant citizenship and once they do, political pressure will greatly expand and eventually we'll have blanket amnesty. 

We’re with Mark Levin and Chris Chmielenski of NumbersUSA on this, but we have a slightly different take on Boehner’s comments about trust.

When Boehner said “The reason I said we need a step-by-step common-sense approach to this is so we can build trust with the American people that we’re doing this the right way, and, frankly, one of the biggest obstacles we face is the one of trust” everyone thought he was talking about trust in President Obama. 

Judging by the commentary since the House GOP “leadership” announced their immigration “principles” it isn’t Obama whose trust is at issue – he lost that a long time ago. What’s at issue is the last remaining vestige of trust the American people have in the House Republicans.

The push for “legal status” for illegal aliens (amnesty by another name) is rapidly eroding what little trust the House GOP “leadership” retains because no one believes that amnesty is dead for this Congress, and they don’t trust Boehner, Cantor and McCarthy not to bring it back once the Republican primary season is over.

Here's the list of the 80 House Republicans who still haven't firmly opposed amnesty for illegal immigrants. Call them now.