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The shell game, three shells and a
pea is a confidence trick used to perpetrate fraud.
The game requires three shells and a small, soft round ball, about the size of a
pea. The shell man
perpetrating the swindle begins the game by placing the pea under one of the
shells, then quickly shuffles the shells around.
Once done shuffling, the operator takes bets from his audience on the location
of the pea. The audience is told if a player bets and guesses correctly, the
player will double his money; otherwise he loses his money. However, in the
hands of a skilled operator, it is not possible for the game to be won. The
player must turn over any two shells saying the pea is under neither of these.
Since the pea is usually palmed, it is not under any of the shells and the
victim has no choice but to pay up.
The operator's trick is sleight of hand. A skilled operator can remove a pea
from under any shell (or shells) and place it (or not) under any shell (or
shells) undetected by the victim.
When the shell man has finished moving the shells around, he asks the victim if
they wish to bet on the play. If a victim agrees, they have to place their money
down before they can point to a shell. Using sleight of hand, the pea is
revealed to be under a different shell than chosen. |
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Barack Obama |
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In
its first year, Janet Napolitano's ICE deported
387,790
immigrants — far
more than during George W. Bush's last year in office.
If the trend line Bush’s enforcement structure set in
motion continues, Napolitano is on pace to deport around
half a million people a year by 2013. |
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Obama Plays Shell Game with Hispanic Deportations
WASHINGTON & SANTA FE, NM
(By
Jon Garrido, The Jon Garrido Network)
March 31, 2011
―
If there was
any doubt over the growing clout of
Hispanic voters,
last week the data released by the U.S. Census
put it to rest:
50,500,000 Hispanics were counted by the 2010
Census and in the future, Hispanics will be the majority population in America, even
if today, the border is completely sealed.
Hispanics
accounted for more than half of the U.S.
population increase over the last decade and now
make up the largest minority group in America
accounting for more than 16 percent of the
population.
As
the 2012 election nears, it appears President
Obama sees the writing on the wall and is taking
steps to begin a new start wooing
Hispanic voters
after a disastrous Immigration Reform strategy
failed on December 18,
2010, with the defeat of the DREAM
Act showing increased
deportation enforcement of
Hispanics
is a flawed approach.
At a
town hall
on Monday
on education at Bell
Multicultural High School in Washington D.C.,
Mr. Obama reaffirmed his commitment to a piece
of legislation critically important to many
young
Hispanics ― the
DREAM Act, which would give certain undocumented
youth a pathway to citizenship.
The high
Hispanic
dropout rate and the scanty proportion of those
young people who go on to college were issues
discussed but the deportation of students was
the primary issue at the town hall meeting
President Obama held Monday.
The videotaped question by a
student holding a deportation letter opened the debate that took up the main
part of the forum organized by the Univision television network and which was
attended by some 600 parents, students and teachers.
Karen Maldonado an
undocumented student holding up a deportation letter asked, "My question for the
president is why are we still receiving deportation letters like this one?"
Univision news anchor Jorge
Ramos, who was moderating the event, asked Obama if he could sign an executive
order preventing the deportations.
Obama Plays Shell Game
on
Hispanics
Obama said, "With respect to
the notion I can suspend deportations through executive order, that's just
not the case. There are enough laws on the books by Congress that are very clear
in terms of how we have to enforce our immigration system that for me to simply
through executive order ignore those congressional mandates would not conform
with my appropriate role as president."
Changes in the number of deportations
undertaken by President Bush and now Obama documents Obama has a tremendous
amount of latitude prioritizing deportation levels.
In an effort to obtain Immigration Reform, President Obama
followed a
non cerebral strategy of increased enforcement
to win bipartisan congressional support
for Immigration Reform but the Obama Immigration Reform
strategy failed on December 18,
2010, with the defeat of the DREAM
Act showing increased
deportation enforcement of
Hispanics
is a flawed approach
leaving countless Hispanic
families
in anguish and pain when a family
member is abruptly deported.
Hispanic
leaders with disbelief
voice the obvious,
"The Obama deportation strategy borne no
fruits whatsoever."
The Obama administration
unilaterally led the march on enforcement, yet,
Department of Homeland Security
Secretary Janet Napolitano, the head
of deportations for Obama, has
repeatedly denied
the Obama administration had increased
deportations in order to bring
Republicans to the bargaining table
to achieve Immigration Reform.
Obama has chosen to
significantly increase the number of
undocumented deportations exceeding
the deportations of former
Republican President Bush.
If Obama has the authority to exceed
President Bush's number of
deportations, Obama
has
the authority to set the level of
deportations at the same level used
by President Bush.
President Obama also has authority
to de-prioritize the level of
deportations decreasing deportations
below levels obtain by President
Bush.
To correct what Obama said he
has no discretion in setting the
number of deportations, there is no
federal law
mandating the magnitude and priority of
deportations.
When Obama said, "With respect to the notion I can not suspend deportations
through executive order....," Obama is playing a shell game with America's
Hispanics
to obtain voter support.
Hispanic
Democrats are faced with a paradox:
Support for Obama is identical to
supporting a Republican who pursues
enforcement deporting Hispanics a
major priority.
Obama's broken promises
To obtain
Hispanic
support in the
2008 campaign, Obama promised
Hispanics
Immigration
Reform would be a priority in the first year
of his office
—
a broken promise.
Obama then promised
Hispanics
he
would make Immigration Reform a
priority in the second year of his
office and again
—
a broken promise.
His 2012 campaign
message will be more of the same as used
in 2008 to again promise
to make Immigration Reform a
priority but Obama has shown us his
promise will be a broken promise. Obama will try
to use us as he did in 2008.
The Obama Immigration Reform strategy and
why it failed
Electing a Democrat to the White House
in 2008 was all about change.
For
Hispanics, change was the means to
obtain Immigration Reform to bring an
end to the deportation of undocumented
Hispanics. In 2008, Bush set a record
deporting 368,401 undocumented. This may
be a hard number to put your arms around
but put another way: 1,009 persons a day
were deported by Bush.
Hispanics
voted for change in 2008 never
thinking Obama would ratchet up Bush's
numbers
—
but
we were wrong.
With "change" in 2009,
President
Obama deported 387,790 undocumented
Hispanic immigrants — a 5 percent jump
over the Bush administration’s record in
2008.
Obama and Napolitano have become even
worse tyrants than the infamous Sheriff
Joe Arpaio of Arizona.
All to enhance "Law Enforcement" to
cater to the Republican mantra of
"Security First," euphuism for
blatant racism directed toward
Hispanics.
To achieve "Security First," Obama uses
Secretary of Homeland Secretary Janet Napolitano
who has become the key
player driving Immigration Reform via
"Securing the Border,"
euphemism for being tough using
law enforcement.
Napolitano under Obama's mandate has
expanded 297(g) partnerships with
local police that allow them to enforce
federal immigration laws. While
abandoning the attention getting raids
on businesses employing undocumented of
the Bush era, it has stepped up
electronic investigations of employee
records, which has led to lower-profile
but equally disruptive enforcement
efforts.
The Obama/Napolitano's tough-love approach to
immigration aims both to foster
Republican support for Immigration
Reform and to
avoid claims Obama is soft on crime
and security issues, but for some
advocates of reform, Obama/Napolitano's
right turn has gone so far it is
becoming a liability in the long fight
to pass comprehensive Immigration Reform.
“The political strategy Obama/Napolitano
is pursuing is a bankrupt
one,” said Deepak Bhargava, executive
director of the Center for Community
Change, "Tough enforcement was supposed
to give the president the 'bona fides' to push through reform.
Instead, it has only wet the
appetite of conservatives for more and
more enforcement.”
Frank Sharry, head of America’s
Voices, said, "Reform opponents will never
be satisfied. Republicans have been
moving the goal post on this
border-security-first issue for a
decade. It’s never enough and it never
will be enough. It’s a fool’s errand.”
Worse still, immigrant advocates charge,
in their zeal to demonstrate toughness,
Janet Napolitano's Department of
Homeland Security (DHS) and its enforcement partners have
dragged many law-abiding undocumented
immigrants and legitimate businesses
into the system, shattering Obama’s
promises of more humane treatment.
Seeking to reverse a steep drop
in deportations, Napolitano has set controversial new
quotas for agents. At the same time,
officials have stepped back from an
Obama/Napolitano commitment to focus
enforcement efforts primarily on
undocumented immigrants who are
dangerous or have violent criminal
backgrounds. Now, any one with a brown
face is suspect!
The moves, outlined in internal
documents and a recent e-mail by
Homeland Security Secretary
Janet Napolitano and ICE chief
John T. Morton, a senior U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement official, to
field directors nationwide,
differ from pledges by Obama to focus
enforcement on the most
dangerous undocumented
immigrants.
The shift is troubling to labor
strategists and immigrant advocates, who
for years have seen accepting tougher
enforcement as a concession that would
allow them to attain their goal of
bringing undocumented workers and their
families out of the shadows.
"Why would
a conservative Republican vote for something if
they are already getting what they
want?" said Ali Noorani, a lead
organizer of national
demonstrations to hold President Obama
to his 2008 campaign promise to take
action.
Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (D-Ill.) and
other immigrant-rights advocates
also questioned how President Obama
and Janet Napolitano could preside
over the greatest number of
deportations in any two-year period
in the nation's history. Obama's
answer, always the same,
"Deporting almost 800,000
undocumented immigrants might
antagonize some Democrats and
Hispanic
voters but stepped-up enforcement
is
the only way to buy credibility with
Republicans and generate bipartisan
support for an overhaul of the
nation's immigration laws."
On December 18, 2010, the
Obama/Napolitano Immigration strategy was in
ruins after Senate Democrats could
only muster 55 votes in support of
the Development, Relief and
Education for Alien Minors (DREAM)
Act, a measure that would have
created a pathway to citizenship for
undocumented immigrants who were
brought to this country as children.
Under Senate rules, Democrats needed
60 votes to overcome Republican
opposition to the bill.
Everyone believes
immigration overhaul is not possible in
the next two years, given the views
of many members of the incoming
Republican majority in the House.
Never-the-less, Obama/Napolitano
continue to ramp up deportations.
Again immigrant-rights supporters
are second-guessing the president's
efforts to woo Republicans but there
is no empathy from Obama.
"It is a strategy which has borne no
fruit whatsoever," Gutierrez said,
"This administration has
unilaterally led the march on
enforcement, yet the other side has
not given one morsel of
compromise."
Obama/Napolitano have pursued tough enforcement —
producing a record number of about
390,000 deportations last year — with an
effort to pass the overhaul, which would
open a path to legal status for an
estimated 11 million undocumented
immigrants. Now, with less hope for any
legalization measures since Republicans
have now take over the House, the
administration is left with just the
stick.
The 2012 Presidential Election
After the DREAM Act was killed, President Obama lamented the defeat as "An
incredibly disappointing vote... It is disappointing common sense did not
prevail today... Moving forward, my administration will continue to do
everything we can to fix our nation's broken immigration system so we can
provide lasting and dedicated resources for our border security."
To
Hispanic voters, President Obama's tepid words sounded like so much "blah blah blah." All pretty words, no heartfelt action, no
genuine commitment, certainly no empathy.
President Obama must do
more than provide cheap and easy talk to continue to draw
Hispanic voter support.
Obama must be seen walking the walk of humanitarian Immigration Reform,
not border security, to be re-elected in 2012.
Obama will have to persuade
Hispanics
―
who turned
out for him in record numbers in key
states in 2008
―
to do so again,
despite the lack of progress on
Immigration Reform.
As for
Immigration Reform, in 2008,
when Obama was elected president,
Democrats controlled both Houses of
Congress. if Obama could not win
Immigration Reform when Democrats
were the majorities in both houses
of congress, the probability of
Immigration Reform approval in 2013
will need much more than Obama.
Polls,
not to
mention
election
results,
indicate
Democrats
have
little
to worry
about
when it
comes to
voter
loyalty
among
Hispanics.
In the
2010
midterms,
strong
support
from the
Hispanic
community
helped
bolster
Democrats
in tough
races,
including
California
Sen.
Barbara
Boxer,
Nevada
Sen.
Harry
Reid and
Washington
Sen.
Patty
Murray.
Yet,
some
contend
Hispanics'
allegiance
to the
Democratic
party
stems
more
from an
aversion
to
anti-immigration
elements
of the
Republican
party.
"The
turnout
in 2010
was an
anti-Republican
turnout
and a
pro-Hispanic
turnout,"
Matt
Barreto,
pollster
and
associate
professor
of
political
science
at the
University
of
Washington,
told Hotsheet.
Hispanic
support
in 2012,
he said,
"is not
going to
be a
given
unless
Democrats
really
engage
that
community."
Alternatively,
he said,
"you
might
just
have low
turnout."
Meanwhile,
Barreto
pointed
out,
"The
only
thing
he's
done is
increase
the
number
of
deportations
and
raids."
As
Homeland
Security
Chief
Janet
Napolitano
told
Congress
earlier
this
month,
the
Obama
administration
has made
record
numbers
of
deportations
of
individuals
in the
U.S.
illegally
― both overall and
in terms
of
criminal
aliens.
Obama is simply not a good fit with
Hispanics.
Obama lacks empathy for
Hispanics
and
has little to show for winning
comprehensive Immigration Reform and
without
enthusiastic
Hispanic
voters voting for him in 2012,
Obama will not have a second term in
office.
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Obama said, "With respect to
the notion I can suspend deportations through executive order, that's just
not the case. There are enough laws on the books by Congress that are very clear
in terms of how we have to enforce our immigration system that for me to simply
through executive order ignore those congressional mandates would not conform
with my appropriate role as president."
In
its first year, Obama directed Janet Napolitano's ICE to deport
387,790
immigrants — far
more than during George W. Bush's last year in office.
If the trend line Bush’s enforcement structure set in
motion continues, Napolitano is on pace to deport around
half a million people a year by 2013.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, the head of deportations for Obama, has repeatedly denied the Obama administration has increased deportations.
If Obama has no control
over the level of deportations how could Obama and Napolitano increase the number of deportations
undertaken by President Bush? The increase documents Obama has a tremendous
amount of latitude prioritizing deportation levels.
To be quite candid, Obama lied stating he has no control over deportations and
Napolitano lied she has not increased deportations.
Obama is playing a
shell game with America's Latinos
to obtain voter support.
Regarding the 2012
presidential election with the present
level of Obama/Napolitano/Norton
deportations, I will not support the
re-election of Barack Obama unless
Obama does the following:
1.
Cut back the number of deportations
to the number deported under President
Bush.
2. Admits the increased deportation enforcement strategy to achieve Immigration Reform was a flawed strategy.
3. Fire Janet Napolitano and John
Norton.
More at
I will not Support the Re-Election of Barack Obama
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