Goodbye America, Heather MacDonald on Amnesty Bill

June 16, 2013
By Sara Noble

This post is about a Mark Levin interview with Heather MacDonald which you must hear. Heather MacDoanald, a Manhattan Institute scholar, is a John M. Olin fellow and a Contributing Editor to City Journal. She is a journalist and a political commentator who advocates for secular conservatism.

Mark Levin interviewed her on Friday and it is one interview every American should hear, particularly if they want to understand more about the immigration bill.

Mark Levin played a recent clip of Jeb Bush speaking before The Faith and Freedom Coalition as a basis for discussion because Bush repeated all the soundbites on why the amnesty bill is so good for America.

Bush said he wants to fix the immigration system and that the immigration bill is a Conservative idea. We must do it, he asserts, because we need their young people who work hard, will learn English and who play by our rules.

Heather MacDonald was asked to respond and said, they come here “by not playing by our rules and this amnesty bill allows illegals with criminal records, endless arrests, and two misdemeanor convictions.”

Is this “Rove’s strong proof of moral character?” She continued. “We already have discredited enforcement.” At the back of every deportation hearing are protestors with signs that say, no more deportation. Under this bill, “deportation is not going to happen.”

MacDonald addressed the claim that the people here illegally will learn English though nothing in the bill “requires actual acquisition of English.” An attempt to enroll is all that is required. We will have another 30 million people who have failed to adopt our language.

She brought up the fact that Rubio told a Spanish-speaking audience legalization comes first while he is telling English-speaking audiences the opposite. This “a shocking betrayal.” [Read about that on this link]

Senators Sessions and Grassley have called their bluff and offered amendment after amendment that would require border security first – right now, they are legalized from day one – and every amendment was voted down. The bill can only have plans to shut the border, no actual shutting of the border.

Jeb Bush referred to immigrants having intact families.

MacDonald explained that there is no difference between immigrants and American citizens in general. Bush is conflating low skilled and high skilled workers. There is a culture bifurcation among South American immigrants and those from Mexico and Central America which she was reluctant to admit.

She said that she went to a Democratic Latino pollster and asked him to give her the best people in the Latin community to interview – the ones who were the best example. They were all Colombian, Ecuadorian, and Cuban. This immigration bill completely “ignores differences among Latino groups.”

[They are not all the same people because they are Latin]

She said they are not all Sergey Mikhaylovich Brin, the brilliant computer innovator. He came here with a high level of education.

Jeb Bush said he wanted to bring in high skilled workers in his book but he is bringing chain migration instead which brings an even more low-skilled population.

The pro-illegal immigrationists describe immigrants as virtuous, noble, entrepreneurs and put down the natives as inferior to immigrants, especially inferior to illegal immigrants. [Natives are the ones who put them in office] Illegals are supposed to be nurtured – they are so much better.

Is that the case?

Who leads in poverty in the US?

Hispanics have a twice as high poverty rate with second and third generation receiving much higher welfare. They are working but their skill level is too low. We don’t have engineers sneaking across the border. It is the poor and uneducated escaping the cronyism in their own country.

It is very unusual that among the Hispanic immigrants, their poverty rate goes up in the second and third generations. They are assimilating to the underclass.

We have those who claim (Aiken for one) they will pay for the entitlements such as healthcare.

They will not earn enough to pay for entitlements. More than half are now eligible for the earned income tax credit. The idea that the poor and uneducated will pay is a flawed one.

Paul Ryan claims the bill is not amnesty because it does not wipe the slate clean. Amnesty makes them legal instantly. They were illegal, now they’re legal – that is a pardon – it’s amnesty. Amnesty is not defined as only occurring when the slate is wiped clean, it is legalization which they will have instantly.

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