Pelosi Launches Amnesty Campaign

A week after ordering Catholic Church leaders to push immigration reform from the pulpit, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi promises to go full throttle with legislation that will extend amnesty to the estimated 12 million illegal aliens in the United States.

Congress will continue to work for a fairer, more compassionate, more just immigration system, Madame Speaker assured a Capitol Hill audience at the Asian-American and Pacific Islanders Summit this week. It will include a path to legalization and will honor family unification, Pelosi added.

The San Francisco Democrat also committed to creating “greater diversity” in the workplace and revealed a new Capitol Hill initiative to “increase House diversity and opportunities” for minority candidates at all staff levels. She then affirmed that “the beauty is in the mix,” evidently referring to mingling a variety of ethnicities.

Last week, in her ongoing push to legalize the illegal, Pelosi urged Catholic leaders to “instruct” parishioners to advocate for immigration reform. Clerics should “play a very major role” in supporting the Democrats’ amnesty plans, the Speaker said at a Catholic Community conference on Capitol Hill.

Some of the people who oppose amnesty for illegal aliens are sitting in those pews, Madame Speaker told church leaders, and they must be told that immigration reform is a “manifestation of our living Gospels.” She also claimed that immigration is included in the Bible’s teachings on the dignity and worth of every person.

Though it’s unusual for a legislator to openly encourage clergy to push a specific policy, the source of this fierce campaign is hardly surprising. Pelosi has long advocated for illegal immigrants and represents in Congress a sanctuary city (San Francisco) that proudly offers them public benefits and official government identifications.

Pelosi also opposes taking measures to secure the increasingly violent Mexican border. In 2006, she voted against legislation (Secure Fence Act) to fund construction of a 700-mile, reinforced fence along a dangerously porous stretch of the southern border. She has also long advocated for amnesty for illegal immigrants, claiming that temporary worker programs don’t work.