Here at the Shot we received an e-mail blasting Sen. Lindsey Graham for his public support of the Senate immigration bill. The Senate is returning this week from its Memorial Day recess and is expected to vote on the bill. This e-mail, which came with the subject line “Lindsey’s Lies”, comes in the midst of the debate on the Senate floor. We are assuming numerous individuals received this e-mail from person “named” Chris Golden. We don’t know whether this is just one angry individual, part of an organized anti-immigration effort, or a potential challenger’s campaign.

UPDATE: We have been informed that Chris Golden is in fact a real person, who resides in Greenville, and he is known for sending out blast e-mails on conservative issues. So it appears that this is just one individual rather than an anti-immigration effort or rivial campaign.

I’m not condoning this short of activity, but did feel that is was worthy enough to merit a post on the Chaser. While I disagree with Graham on immigration, I do not feel that he is a “liar”. Overall I think Graham is a good Senator, and his willingness to reach across the aisle is a great complement to DeMint’s staunch conservatism. Sen. Graham will standup for what he believes in, and although he might be wrong about this bill, we doubt he is intentionally lying about it.

Anyways here it is:    

Dear Fellow Republicans, Conservatives, Constitutionalists, and other Patriotic Americans:
 
Below (as well as attached) is a seven page report, written by me and titled “Lindsey’s LIes”, which exposes Lindsey Graham’s lies concerning this Amnesty Bill. Please make copies and pass it to everyone you know. IN PARTICULAR, SC GOPers PLEASE MAKE COPIES AND DISTRIBUTE IT AT YOUR RESPECTIVE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETINGS!!!
 
We need to stop Amnesty and end Lindsey’s political career!
 
Chris Golden
LINDSEY’S LIES

HOW SOUTH CAROLINA’S SENIOR SENATOR DECEIVES AND DEMONIZES HIS CONSTITUENTS

THE QUOTES FROM SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM ARE FROM HIS OFFICIAL WEBPAGE

Lindsey Lie #1:“Amnesty is the forgiveness of an offense without penalty. This proposal is not amnesty because illegal workers must acknowledge that they broke the law, pay a $1,000 fine, and undergo criminal background checks to obtain a Z visa granting temporary legal status.”

TRUTH: If the definition of Amnesty is the absence of penalty, then I guess it wouldn’t be Amnesty if, in order to get the Z Visa, the illegal alien would have to pay a one-time fine of one-cent!

Also, as the Heritage Foundation report on this bill states, “The price of a Z visa is $3,000 for individuals—only slightly more than the going rate to hire a coyote to smuggle a person across the border. A family of five could purchase visas for the bargain price of $5,000—some $20,000 short of the net cost that household is likely to impose on local, state, and federal government each year, according to Heritage Foundation calculations.”
Lindsey Lie #2:“To apply for a green card at a date years into the future, Z visa workers must wait in line behind those who applied lawfully, pay an additional $4,000 fine, complete accelerated English requirements, leave the U.S. and file their application in their home country, and demonstrate merit based on the skills and attributes they will bring to the United States.” As well as climbing the Empire State Building and learning to play the Violin.

TRUTH: The agency that would be responsible for doing these background checks and processing these applications is the Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS). However, CIS currently has a backlog of processing legal immigrant applications while its Director admitted last year that it couldn’t handle a massive amnesty! In other words, any ’background checks’ under a broad amnesty program would amount to nothing but a rubber stamp.

Also, as the Heritage Foundation report on this bill states, “The problem is that there is no single, readily searchable database of all of the dangerous people in the world. While the federal government does have computer databases of known criminals and terrorists, these databases are far from comprehensive…The need for effective background checks is real. During the 1986 amnesty, the United States granted legal status to Mahmoud “The Red” Abouhalima, who fraudulently sought and obtained the amnesty intended for seasonal agricultural workers (even though he was actually employed as a cab driver in New York City). But his real work was in the field of terrorism. He went on to become a ringleader in the 1993 terrorist attacks against the World Trade Center. Using his new legal status after the amnesty, he was able to travel abroad for terrorist training.”

Lindsey Lie #3:“Border Security: Border security benchmarks must be met before the Z visa and temporary worker programs go into effect. These triggers include: constructing 370 miles of fencing and 200 miles of vehicle barriers at the border and increasing the size of the Border Patrol to 18,000 agents.”

TRUTH: According to the late, great Rep. Charlie Norwood (R-Georgia), 50,000 total agents would be necessary in order to seal the border. Congressman Norwood bases this figure on the fact that the Minutemen sealed part of the Arizona border using 18-24 Minutemen volunteers per mile - 24 agents x 1,951 miles = 47,000 agents. As far as 370 miles of fencing is concerned, again, it is a 1,951 mile border - in other words, the bills’ fence would only cover one-fifth of the entire U.S. - Mexican border. Besides, the “Fence” Lindsey, Teddy, Dubya, Hillary, and Johnny Mac have in mind is a virtual fence (I.e.: Cameras and lights) which won’t do a damn thing since by the time the Border Patrol (which, again, will be understaffed under this bill) get there, the illegal will be home-free!

Besides, we can have a MILLION Border Patrol Agents on the border but it won’t do any good since Border Agents are now gun-shy (pun intended) because of the persecution by the Bush-Gonzalez Justice Dept. of agents Ramos and Compean.

Lindsey Lie #4:“Employer Verification System: An Employment Eligibility Verification System must be ready to process new hires before the Z visa and temporary worker programs go into effect.”

TRUTH: Again, quoting the Heritage Foundation report, “Proponents of the Senate approach have consistently claimed that it would allow delayed amnesty only after certain law enforcement goals are met. The text of the bill, however, tells a different story. Section 1(a) allows probationary Z visas to be issued immediately after enactment, and Section 601(f)(2) prohibits the federal government from waiting more than 180 days after enactment to begin issuing probationary Z visas…These probationary Z visas could be valid for years, depending on when the government begins issuing non-probationary Z visas, according to Section 601(h)(4). Moreover, the “probationary” designation means little. These visas are nearly as good as non-probationary Z visas, giving the alien immediate lawful status, protection from deportation, authorization to work, and the ability to exit and reenter the country (with advance permission). These privileges are listed in Section 601(h)(1).”

Besides, the Employment Eligibility Verification System doesn’t catch those businesses that pay illegal aliens under the table in cash - which makes up about 50% of the illegal alien workforce! The bill has no provision to dramatically increase the number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. (ICE is the agency that does raids on illegal employers). There are tens of thousands (if not millions) of businesses that use illegal aliens. ICE currently doesn’t have the manpower to go after a significant minority of them - no less ALL of them.
Lindsey Lie #5:“Temporary Worker Program: A temporary worker program will relieve pressure on the border and provide a lawful way to meet the needs of our economy.’

TRUTH: As Senator Byron Dorgan (D-North Dakota) pointed out on the ‘Lou Dobbs Tonight’ program (5/23/07), “The supporters of this legislation said this: They said, no, no, we have to have this guest worker provision, because if we don’t, they will come in illegally…I said, wait a second. You told me that you were going to secure the borders. How are they going to get in? They said, no, no, they are going to come in illegally if we don’t have temporary workers. I said, what you’re just saying to me is that you’re not securing the borders. It’s the same false promise that we’ve had for 20 years.”
Besides, if the borders aren’t fully secure and employers are still able to pay their workers ‘under the table’, then, instead of using the Guest worker program, they will continue to hire illegal aliens. Finally, the whole refrain that we need foreigners to do the work Americans aren’t doing is the biggest lie of the whole debate. In short, if employers can’t get foreign workers, then they would have to RAISE WAGES AND WORKING CONDITIONS.

Lindsey Lie #6: “Employers who hire illegal workers will face stiff new criminal and civil penalties. For example, the maximum criminal penalty for a pattern or practice of hiring illegals will increase 25-fold, from $3,000 per alien to $75,000 per alien.”

TRUTH: If the employer is caught! See the holes concerning the Employment Eligibility Verification System described above. Besides, do we really think that the Executive branch (which has been dominated by the Open Borders-Globalist Council on Foreign Relations since, at least, the 1930’s) will enforce the illegal alien hiring laws even if they are given the manpower to do so? OF COURSE NOT!

Lindsey Lie #7: “The Secure Fence Act of 2006 – which authorized the construction of hundreds of miles of additional fencing; more vehicle barriers, checkpoints, and lighting; and increased use of advanced technology – will remain unchanged…At least half of the additional fencing authorized by the Secure Fence Act must be built before the temporary worker program and Z visa could go into effect.”

TRUTH: First of all, notice how Lindsey redefines the Secure Fence Act as ‘advanced technology and lighting’. In short, Lindsey is redefining the Act from a REAL fence to a VIRTUAL fence! (An explanation on why a ’Virtual Fence’ is bogus, refer to Lindsey Lie #3 above). However, the author of the Act, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif) states that the Act calls for REAL fencing. However, since the CFR Bush Administration is the one who would have to build it, you can be damn sure that Lindsey’s interpretation, and NOT Hunter’s, will be the one adopted.

In any event, notice how Lindsey states that the bill states that “At least half of the additional fencing authorized by the Secure Fence Act must be built before the temporary worker program and Z visa could go into effect.” TRANSLATION: One-half of the ‘Fence’ will NOT BE BUILT! - and, again, the half that will be ‘built’ will be of the virtual variety. In other words, NO FENCE AT ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lindsey Lie # 8: This amnesty bill won’t cause a ‘rush to the border’: “To be eligible to apply for a Z visa, illegal immigrants must prove they were in the country prior to January 1, 2007…Anyone caught crossing the border after the new law passes will be fingerprinted and permanently barred from receiving work or tourist visas from the U.S., creating a strong disincentive to illegal immigration.”

TRUTH: First of all, notice Lindsey’s circular logic: The bills Z-Visa and Guest Worker provisions won’t go into effect until the ‘border is secured’ via additional border patrol agents, more detention beds, etc. In other words, the border is NOT SECURED NOW! It will take at least a year to ‘secure’ it. So, if it isn’t secured now, and won’t be secured for AT LEAST A YEAR, then how can illegals rushing to the border be caught and “be fingerprinted and permanently barred from receiving work or tourist visas from the U.S.”? Answer: THEY WON’T!

As far as the illegals proving that they were in the country prior to 1/1/07 is concerned, I again quote the Heritage Foundation report, “To initially qualify for a Z visa, an illegal alien need only have a job (or be the parent, spouse, or child of someone with a job) and provide two documents suggesting that he or she was in the country before January 1, 2007, and has remained in the country since then. A bank statement, pay stub, or similarly forgeable record will do. Also acceptable under the legislation is a sworn affidavit from a non-relative (see Section 601(i)(2))…Expect a mass influx unlike anything this country has ever seen once the 12-month period for accepting Z visa applications begins. These provisions are an open invitation for those intent on U.S. residence to sneak in and present two fraudulent pieces of paper indicating that they were here before the beginning of the year…That is precisely what happened in the 1986 amnesty, during which Immigration and Naturalization Services discovered 398,000 cases of fraud. Expect the number of fraudulent applications to be at least four times larger this time, given the much larger applicant pool.”

Lindsey Lie #9: The bill will not hurt the wages of the American Worker: “The program protects American workers by requiring U.S. employers to advertise the job in the United States at a competitive wage before hiring a temporary worker.”

TRUTH: Competitive wage? What $7.25/hr for a meat packing job that paid $20/hr or a construction job that paid $15/hr?

Before 1965, LEGAL IMMIGRATION was tight and ILLEGAL immigration was non-existent. However, that all changed because of the 1965 Immigration Act passed by Lindsey’s buddy Teddy Kennedy. Since that time both legal and illegal immigration skyrocketed. What happened to real wages since that time? According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics and measured in 2005 dollars, overall weekly wages DECREASED from $629/wk in 1965 to $544/wk in 2005 - a 13.5% DROP! Real wages in construction, which increased from $556/wk in 1955 to $759/wk in 1965 (a 36% increase), have declined to $751/wk in 2005. In other words, were as real wages in construction had boomed by more than a third in the decade before 1965, it has slightly declined in the FOUR DECADES SINCE! Also, according to Harvard Professor George Borjas, low skilled immigration (illegal and legal) depresses wages by $200 billion, while economist Ed Rubenstein (using Borjas’s matrix) now estimates that immigration depresses wages by $300 billion. The reason why immigration depresses wages is simple supply and demand: If you increase the supply of labor (immigration) you depress the price (wage) of that labor.

Lindsey Lie #10: “Temporary workers are required to pay taxes on the income they earn while working in the U.S. They must also pay a State impact fee of $500, plus $250 for each dependent (capped at $1,500 per family), to cover costs of public services used…Z visa workers are not entitled to welfare, Food Stamps, SSI, non-emergency Medicaid, or other programs and privileges enjoyed by U.S. citizens and some Legal Permanent Residents.”

TRUTH: Lindsey, I know you think we’re bigots, I just didn’t know you also thought we were stupid! The fee is $500 per worker and, at most, a family fee of $1,500 - for a total of $2,000. The temporary worker would also pay taxes on the paltry sum he earns. The cost to educate a child in the public school system is in most States over $10,000 per pupil! If the guest worker and illegal alien has 3 kids (the Third World has very high birthrates), you’re looking at the foreign worker costing the public school system tens of thousands of dollars (also remember the ESL costs as well). Also, infrastructure costs for roads, sewers, water, electricity, sewage treatment plants, etc., etc. etc. will go up exponentially. This will cause taxes on the middle and working classes (who would also have their wages poached because of this bill) to skyrocket! Also, if anyone thinks illegals or guest-workers will be paying property taxes is living in Dreamworld. Most poor immigrants live in homes or apartments where they are packed in like sardines. Finally, according to the Heritage Foundation, the bill would also grant in-state tuition to the children of illegals as well as paying for the immigration lawyers of illegals! In short, according to Robert Rector, this bill will cost taxpayers TWO AND A HALF TRILLION DOLLARS OVER 30 YEARS!

Lindsey Lie #11: “Illegal workers who ignored deportation orders are not eligible for the Z visa program, except in exceedingly rare cases in which they can demonstrate their departure would ‘result in extreme hardship’…The determination of what constitutes “extreme hardship” lies entirely within the discretion of the Secretary of Homeland Security, who has no interest in allowing this exception to be abused” - yea, my foot!

TRUTH: According to the Heritage Foundation, “The Senate’s bill allows the government to grant Z visas to absconders. Though the bill appears to deny the visa to absconders in Section 601(d)(1)(B), Section 601(d)(1)(I) allows U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officials to give an absconder the Z visa anyway if the absconder can demonstrate that departure from the United States ‘would result in extreme hardship to the alien or the alien’s spouse, parent or child.’…This is a massive loophole because so many things can be construed to constitute “extreme hardship.” This might include removing a child from an American school and placing him in a school in an impoverished country, or deporting a person with any chronic illness. Attorneys representing aliens would also argue that if any member of an absconder’s family is a U.S. citizen, then the other members must remain in the United States, because the separation of family members would constitute extreme hardship…This would also be a reward to those who have defied U.S. immigration courts. Those who have successfully fled justice could receive the most generous visa ever created, but those who complied with the law and have waited years to enter legally would have to wait longer still. (Indeed, the massive bureaucratic load caused by processing Z visas would undoubtedly mean longer waits for those who have played by the rules.) Further, those who have obeyed the law and complied with deportation orders would not be eligible for Z visas…The effect of this provision may already be felt today. Why would an illegal alien obey a deportation order while this bill is even pending in Congress? If the alien ignores the deportation order, he may be able to qualify for the amnesty; but if he obeys the order, he has no possibility of gaining the amnesty.”

Lindsey Lie #12: The bill would help assimilation by requiring all Z-Visa holders to learn English.

TRUTH: Wasn’t Lindsey who told us that America is NOT a PEOPLE but an IDEA? If it is an idea, than why should an immigrant learn English? Besides, as stated above, the overloaded CIS would have to certify that the immigrant learned English -certified by a phony document in all likelihood. Also, the bill doesn’t mandate that English be the Official Language of the U.S. Government. In short, this “English Provision” should be seen for what it is: A FRAUD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lindsey Lie # 13: Speaking before the National Council of La Raza in March, Lindsey said, “We are going to solve this problem. We’re not going to run people down. We’re not going to scapegoat people. We’re going to tell the bigots to shut up, and we’re going to get this right.”

TRUTH: There is nothing bigoted about not wanting to be a foreigner in your own country - or to be a racial minority in your country for that matter. There is nothing bigoted for wanting to keep wages high, taxes low, and criminals/terrorists out. What is Orwellian ironic about that statement by Lindsey is that it was addressed to a group who’s name in Spanish means ‘THE RACE’! Also Orwellian ironic about Lindsey’s statement is that it was the GOP CONSERVATIVE BASE that Lindsey was “running down”! Also, notice Lindsey’s (the big “Let’s bring Democracy to Iraq” neoconservative) contempt for free speech in the public policy process!

Now, Lindsey told ‘Lou Dobbs Tonight’ that he was referring to the “rise of Klan and Neo-Nazi activity” in South Carolina. As evidence of this rise in skinheadism, Lindsey pointed to a march on the State Capitol by members of the American Nazi Party (a march that only had 25 kooks). The problem with this explanation is that the march took place in late April while Lindsey made his speech in March!!! So Lindsey is peddling more Clinton-esque BS. Call that lame explanation LINDSEY LIE #14.

Finally, for those of you who think Lindsey just had a “bad hair day” and that he didn’t mean it, currently on Lindsey’s webpage is a column by Robert Novak that states, “fear of foreigners is not new for Americans. This nation of immigrants has greeted successive waves of newcomers with apprehension stoked by demagogues. It has overcome such past xenophobic impulses. But that will be more difficult in an era of Internet bloggers and radio talkers……” So obviously, Lindsey still damn well means it.

IN SHORT, LINDSEY IS A DISCRACE TO SOUTH CAROLINA, THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, AND TO THE CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT. THE FACT THAT LINDSEY COULD BE CONSIDERED A REPUBLICAN, NO LESS A CONSERVATIVE, SHOWS HOW MUCH THE RIGHT HAS BEEN CORRUPTED BY NEOCONSERVATISM.

HOWEVER, IT IS UP TO YOU SOUTH CAROLINA CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICANS TO PUT LINDSEY INTO EARLY RETIREMENT. QUESTION IS: WILL YOU?

CHRIS GOLDEN