Marshall, MN – Cafe Con Leche Republicans today praised the Republican Liberty Caucus for their immigration position. Bob Quasius, President, stated “The Republican Liberty Caucus deserves praise for taking a stand in support of a complete immigration overhaul, instead of largely replicating previous legislative attempts. We need “outside the box” solutions, in particular abolishing arbitrary immigration and guest worker quotas, which have so often proven disconnected from the needs of our economy and for family reunification. When quotas and needs are disconnected, historically the result has always been massive illegal immigration, which should be viewed as largely a symptom of an unworkable legal immigration system rather than the problem itself. RLC’s immigration platform is very close to our platform.”
“Employers should not be forced to play the role of immigration agents, and we believe that immigration flows based on free market labor needs rather than arbitrary quotas, will largely end illegal immigration. The federal government has been trying to make e-verify work since 1996, but e-verify is still easily circumvented by unauthorized immigrants and rejects too many legal workers, inconveniencing both workers and their employers, who must ‘jump through hoops’ to fix errors in government databases.”
“Reforming immigration and guest worker programs to reflect free market labor conditions addresses illegal immigration by removing the incentive to enter illegally or overstay a non-work visa. By diverting the flow of migrant workers from illegal to legal channels, our border security is enhanced, as the border patrol will be faced with far fewer illegal border crossings, and can focus on the criminal element and potential terrorists.”
“The current U.S. immigrant quota of just over one million actually ranks #22 among 34 OECD nations, as a percentage of population. Many legal immigrants to the U.S. face lengthy and unreasonable delays. For example, family-based immigrants in the third preference category from the Philippines who applied in 1989 are just now receiving immigrant visas. For years now the U.S. has been hemorrhaging immigrant entrepreneurs on H1B guest worker visas due to lengthy delays in adjustment to permanent resident, and bringing family members.”
“Other nations easily handle more immigrants, when viewed as a percentage of population. For example, Canada, #12 among OECD nations, admits 2-1/2 times as many immigrants as the U.S. as a percentage of population. Luxembourg, #1 among OECD nations, admits nearly ten times as many immigrants as the U.S.”
“The U.S. admits 1.8 million non-immigrants each year for work or training, but has another 7-7.5 million guest workers who lack visas. Granting visas equal to less than 20% of need virtually ensures widespread illegal immigration. Also, by providing fewer guest worker visas for the highly skilled than foreign graduates of U.S. universities ensures we educate the ‘cream of the crop’ from other nations, then send them home to compete against U.S. industry. This makes no sense at all.”
“More legal immigration would be a welcome economic stimulus for the U.S. economy, shoring up our technology sector, and welcoming more entrepreneurial immigrants to grow our economy and create more jobs for Americans. Arbitrary and rigid quotas historically have been problematic, and its time we rethink how we regulate immigration flows. Certainly government has a role to play in screening out criminals and potential terrorists, but government is particularly unsuited in telling employers how many guest workers they can hire, how much to pay them, etc.”
“We support a path to citizenship for those here illegally, after payment of fines and back taxes, passing a background check, and waiting a reasonable amount of time for permanent resident status, to ensure that those presently in line have received their immigrant visas first. Unauthorized immigrants who came as minors (DREAMers) should not be penalized with fines or additional wait time.”
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About Us – Cafe Con Leche Republicans is a national organization of Republicans who welcome “New Americans”, defined as immigrants and family of recent immigrants. Our mission is to make America and the GOP, more welcoming to “New Immigrants” through political activism, “in-reach” and education within the Republican Party, and lobbying government to adopt more immigrant friendly policies. We also seek to bring more conservative and moderate “New Americans” to the Republican Party. These efforts will strengthen the GOP, and lead more Republicans to embrace welcoming policies for immigrants and their families. We have members nationwide, with chapters in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Texas, Oklahoma, Arizona, and California. Our members and leadership are predominantly Hispanic, though we define ourselves by mission and guiding principles, not ethnicity, and we welcome all who share our goals. Our leadership is 100% Republican.
