The memory of civil rights leader Rep. Barbara Jordan was sullied yesterday as Texas Southern University presented cheap-labor enthusiast Hillary Clinton the first-ever "Barbara Jordan Public-Private Leadership Award". In the mid-1990s President Bill Clinton appointed former Texas congresswoman Barbara Jordan to chair the bipartisan U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform, which called for a reduction in immigration to protect the interests of American workers. The Center for Immigration Studies has produced a number of reports and blogs about the commission and Jordan's work, some of which can be found here and here. A helpful outline of the Commission's conclusions is available from NumbersUSA, while the commission's reports are at the University of Texas.
The award was presented to Hillary Clinton by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), another enthusiast of open borders and never-ending streams of foreign labor. If she were alive today, it is difficult to imagine that Jordan would find the immigration agendas of these two women anything but deplorable. Likewise, Clinton and Jackson Lee would likely condemn Jordan as a racist and a xenophobe based on her immigration principles.
One local newspaper sandwiched Jordan's image between those of Clinton and Jackson Lee, but the contrast between their respective views on sovereignty and the prioritization of the interests of Americans in immigration policy is profound.
Jordan explained that "immigration, like foreign policy, ought to be a place where the national interest comes first, last, and always." She explained that, "To make sense about the national interest in immigration, it is necessary to make distinctions between those who obey the law, and those who violate it."
Though Jordan's testimony before Congress is worth reading in full, Clinton and Jackson Lee should be specifically asked to respond to Jordan's findings. Reporters should ask them about how much legal immigration they believe we should have. As former Secretary of State, Clinton should be asked why she believes foreigners should be allowed to ignore the terms of their visas. Jackson Lee should be asked why she thinks businesses should be able to hire illegal workers with work permits from Obama's lawless DACA amnesty when there are plenty of unemployed locals within her district.
And there are philosophical issues about how Clinton and Jackson Lee have approached the issue. For example, Jordan explained:
[W]e disagree ... with those who label our efforts to control illegal immigration as somehow inherently anti-immigrant. Unlawful immigration is unacceptable.
Jackson Lee sure seems to believe that those opposed to illegal immigration are "inherently anti-immigrant". Someone should ask Clinton what she thinks.
Jordan explained that a key part of her "strategy is worksite enforcement", noting:
You will hear testimony today about visa overstayers. You will hear that roughly one-half of the nation's illegal alien problem results from visitors who entered legally but who do not leave when their time is up. Let me tell you in three simple words why that is: They get jobs.
Clinton has promised to expand Obama's controversial and lawless amnesty, thereby giving work permits to even more people who have overstayed their visas or entered the country illegally. Clinton openly rejects Jordan's principles on this point. No reporter has inquired into the philosophical reasons for her promotion of amnesty.
Jordan also explained that "deportation is crucial" if our immigration system is to have any credibility. She testified:
Credibility in immigration policy can be summed up in one sentence: those who should get in, get in; those who should be kept out, are kept out; and those who should not be here will be required to leave.
Both Clinton and Jackson Lee seem to completely disagree with Jordan on these points. Perhaps most important, though, is that Jordan believed that America's immigration policy should put the interests of Americans first — a concept that has never been voiced by Clinton or Jackson Lee.
Giving Hillary Clinton an award with Barbara Jordan's name on it is a travesty.