In 2007, when Bob Corker went to D.C. as the newly elected junior Senator from Tennessee he was openly against illegal immigration until he switched over while trying to save the 2013 “Gang of Eight” amnesty bill.
During debate on the “Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007,” that would have ended chain migration, instituted a system of merit-based immigration, increased border security and interior enforcement, Corker said that to be “fair to American citizens,” illegal aliens should have to leave the country and then re-enter through legal channels:
One of the things we are trying to address in this bill is a situation where our immigration has been broken, the system has been broken for many years. In 1986, legislation was offered to try to solve this problem. What has happened is it has gotten even worse, so there has been, obviously, more thought put into this bill. I appreciate again the many amendments and the discussion that has taken place. Many of the things we have talked about have addressed the legalities, have addressed some of the technicalities in our immigration system. It seems to me, one of the things we have not addressed—while we have tried to address fairness to businesses, we tried to address fairness to immigrants, we tried to address fairness to families—one of the things I think we have not addressed is a sense of fairness to the American citizen.
What I mean by that is this. There is a sense of fairness that we see many times on the floor that is not addressed by the fact that we have about 12 million people in this country today illegally. People see this bill as straight amnesty, where all of a sudden we are going to make it legal that if you have been here working, for however long, you become legal in this country by virtue of being here. In many cases, people have talked about some of the draconian measures that require people to actually return home to their countries. Yet this bill, in some cases, does that. Certainly, to become a green card holder, somebody has to return home to their country before coming in. That is something Americans think is fair.
If you want to be a temporary worker in this country, according to this bill, what you would do is work here for 2 years, as the Senator from North Dakota responded, then you would leave and go back for a year, and then you would come back into our country. Yet that is not perceived to be draconian and I do not think it is at all. But the one provision that seems to me to hit at the essence of the American frustration that is not in this bill, is the fact that we have some triggers that are going to cause our borders to be secure and make us be able to track people in an appropriate way—the administration said this can take place over the next 18 months—but what we are not doing is asking the people who are here in our country illegally to actually return home and come back through legal channels. It is that point, I think, that has divided the American people, the fact that this bill does not address the inequity of allowing those people to remain here. These are people who came here obviously, to support their families, and we understand what the motivation is for many people to be here, but this bill does not address that inequity. What I propose tonight and I am working with other Senators to hopefully make happen after we come back from recess, is to actually have a provision in this bill that treats people who are here illegally like those who wish to have a green card, like those who would be temporary workers in this bill.
I would ask that other Senators work with me and others to create an amendment to this bill that actually would cause, over a reasonable amount of time, people who are working in this country to return to their home country and then come back through legal channels. I think that strikes at the very core of what so many Americans believe is so inappropriate about having illegal immigrants, illegal workers, automatically made legal.
I look forward to working with other Senators to try to ensure that if this immigration bill passes, it passes in a way that meets the sense of fairness the American public believes this bill ought to have; that it addresses that inequity of people who jumped in front of the line and came here, being here illegally and yet being able to benefit without, during a reasonable period of time, returning home and coming back through legal channels, once we have the mechanisms in place to allow people to do that.
The 2007 immigration reform bill addressed the same issues that in 2018 still lack Congressional action but which are now rumored to be ripe for “deal-making” since President Trump terminated Obama’s unconstitutional DACA program.
In 2013, Corker aggressively supported the “Gang of Eight” comprehensive immigration reform bill despite the fact that it put illegal aliens in the U.S. on a path to the voting booth before securing the border or achieving other stated immigration priorities and despite the fact that it contradicted Corker’s 2007 position.
Pro-American immigration groups are counting on voters to remind legislators seeking re-election in 2018, that the priority is not illegal aliens who received deferred deportation under Obama’s unconstitutional DACA program, nor any other “DREAMER.” Instead, the message groups like FAIR (Federation for American Immigration Reform), want voters to take to legislators like Corker, is that any Congressional action on immigration must align with President Trump’s stated principles and objectives:
Call your three Members of Congress and tell them that a DACA amnesty in exchange for token and ineffective immigration enforcement provisions is unacceptable.
Tell them ‘only support reforms that secure the border, increase interior enforcement, and address our highly dysfunctional legal immigration system by ending chain migration and the visa lottery.’ Failure to do so? It will come at a high political cost – tell them that!
FAIR is also urging voters to tell House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and “[r]emind them that a DACA amnesty for illegal aliens delivers nothing of significance to the people who voted for change in 2016.”
Of course, politicians like Bob Corker who are not seeking re-election will no longer be accountable for any vote or position on any immigration measure.
Corker had but one goal when he ran for Senate . . .get rich! From dead broke to $69M in the bank! reported by tennesseestar.com. I asked Corker some time back about the fact members of Congress was exempt from the “insider trade laws”.. He claimed it to be false. Apparently he lied! He made himself very wealthy while pretending to represent the people of Tennessee.
“Of course, politicians like Bob Corker who are not seeking re-election will no longer be accountable for any vote or position on any immigration measure.” This is very true but it is also quite true that removing an incumbent – even one as out of step as Corker – is a rarity because the uniformed vote for the recognized name and the incumbent has had many years to build a campaign war chest of sizable proportion. Too bad there is not a way to get term limits without holding a Constitutional Convention.
Corker drank the Kool-Aid between 2007 and 2013 and joined the ranks of the Swamp Monsters. Power went to his head and we peons back in Tennessee were long forgotten. DACA is an illegal load of BS. These “kids” – almost 50% of which can not communicate sufficiently in English, who drop out of high school at extremely high rates – need to be set on a path to deportation along with the rest of those who are in America illegally.
So come Monday, 1-8-18, Corker and President Trump will fly into Nashville.
I reckon Corker is too poor to get his own flight???? Reckon they need to save a nickel!!!??? How about Farm Bureau in the State of Tennessee, they were behind the wicked plan to give Illegals more “breaks” in the State of Tennessee in the last Legislative session. I hope Trump gives both Corker and the assembled Farm Bureau insurance company that endored illegal aliens a “scorching speech” on Americanism come Monday.
What is this??? More of this “go along to get along” “I’ll scratch your back, you scratch mine” “sweeter and kinder than God” Political Correctness that has destroyed Our Glorious Nation.
So we’ll see, “the proof’s in the pudding” come Monday.
For God & Country
The Farm Bureau put up a helluva fight against PETA ( Trump’s archenemy). If it weren’t for the TFB farmers in Tennessee would be criminalized for… wait for it…wait for it…FARMING! Sometimes the enemy of my enemy is my friend.