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On Thursday, the House Republican leadership waved the white flag and are now attempting to surrender America\u2019s sovereignty to the open borders lobby by officially endorsing amnesty legislation. Tellingly, the two-page document<\/a>, titled \u201cStandards for Immigration Reform,\u201d adopts the language of amnesty advocates by generically stating that \u201c[o]ur nation\u2019s immigration system is broken\u201d and even referring to illegal aliens as \u201cIndividuals Living Outside the Rule of Law.\u201d<\/p>\n The main component of the proposal is a large-scale amnesty for the 12 million illegal aliens in the United States. The plan calls for illegal aliens to \u201ccome forward\u201d and \u201cadmit their culpability,\u201d undergo \u201crigorous\u201d background checks, pay \u201csignificant\u201d fines and back<\/i> taxes, learn English and civics, and be able to financially support themselves so they can \u201cget right with the law.\u201d If this sounds familiar, that\u2019s because these eligibility standards are nearly identical<\/i><\/b> to the Senate Gang of Eight’s outline<\/a> last January before they released their mass guest worker amnesty bill! Perhaps wanting to sound tough on enforcement, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) & Co. added the adjectives \u201crigorous\u201d and \u201csignificant\u201d to prove they really, really mean it. The GOP leaders claim, much like the Gang of Eight talking points, that \u201c[c]riminal aliens, gang members, and sex offenders\u201d will be ineligible for amnesty. Of course, we know that the Gang of Eight lied about criminal aliens<\/a> and gang members<\/a> not being eligible for amnesty as well as lying about the requirement to pay back taxes<\/a> and learn English<\/a>.<\/p>\n In addition to this one-size-fits-all amnesty provision, the House GOP plan calls for an expedited path to citizenship for minors, or \u201cDREAMers\u201d as amnesty proponents refer to them.<\/p>\n Regarding enforcement, the Republican plan uses broad statements of \u201csecuring our country\u2019s borders, enforcing our laws, and implementing robust enforcement measures.\u201d Interestingly, the workplace enforcement point does not specifically mention the highly effective<\/a> E-Verify program. If you guessed that the Senate bill also gutted E-Verify in favor of building a new program from scratch, you would be correct. Moreover, the plan declares that \u201c[w]e must secure our borders now\u201d but does not specifically call for any border fencing. The proposal also includes a cursory statement on implementing a biometric entry-exit system which has been required by law for years.<\/p>\n Remarkably, the House GOP appears to have abandoned the American worker in favor of special interests. With only three percent<\/a> of American adults rating immigration as \u201cthe most important problem facing this country,\u201d and 52 percent of Republicans and 42 percent of independents saying they would be less likely<\/a> to vote for politicians who support a \u201cpath to citizenship for illegal immigrants,\u201d clearly the GOP is not listening to its constituents. Instead, they are listening to special interests like Facebook\u2019s Mark Zuckerberg\u2014who, for what he lacks in substantive knowledge of immigration policy, apparently makes up for with his checkbook.<\/p>\n Finally, given that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce clearly played a role in drafting these so-called principles, you would think their high paid lobbyists would know the difference between \u201cprinciples\u201d and \u201cprincipals.\u201d Apparently not, as the GOP document foolishly declares: \u201cThese are the principals<\/a><\/i> [sic]guiding us in that effort.\u201d (emphasis added)