Here is a mailer from the Journal Star in the state capital in Nebraska running by the Nebraska Republican Party reported in a brief article. I am hesitant to show the ad – so click on the Journal Star instead! But it accuses Senator Laura Ebke of supporting open borders and benefits for illegals.
One of the items is driver licenses and benefits for illegals:
“Give taxpayer benefits to illegal immigrants”
“Allowed illegal immigrants to get American drivers licenses”
We need a clarification as to what this is all about. Let’s go to Reason magazine, a libertarian leaning journal of opinion and its “Hit and Run” blog on what Senator Laura Ebke stood for:
Ebke has cast votes to override several of the governor’s vetoes, including his rejection of bills to repeal the death penalty, authorize Nebraska driver’s licenses for young undocumented immigrants who have lawful presence in the United States and grant the right for those young people to acquire professional and occupational licenses to work in the state.
The issue is the so-called Dreamers – those children (some/many of whom are NOT children anymore) but there is a date limit (2012) that the original “Dreamer” could be given “deferred action”; the Dreamer act is called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.
No state but Arizona passed a law that says Dreamers could not get a drivers license (including Virginia) but due to in part Senator Ebke Nebraska removed their anti-Dreamer act. The Arizona act was declared unconstitutional by the Ninth Circuit and that decision the SCOTUS refused to review.
Nebraska was saved a similar embarrassment. The Dreamer act has skewed immigration law for sure. And I know this issue is controversial. I am very upset the Dems seem to care more for illegals than Americans. I am also concerned about illegal acts by Presidents to protect the Dreamers. But this is an issue that must be handled humanely and ethically; it is not a means to gratify hatred and prejudice. I favor a lifetime work permit for all Dreamers provided they obey the laws and pay taxes. But not a path to citizenship.
BUT let’s get the tarantula attention span back to the ad: The ad is misleading. It is complicated by the semi-McCarthyism of the ad – tying in Senator Ebke with this provision of the Libertarian Party platform:
LAURA EBKE holds the highest elected office for the Libertarian Party in America
Ebke’s party platform calls for UNRESTRICTED MOVEMENT ACROSS BORDERS!
The national LP platform DOES call for exactly that:
3.4 Free Trade and MigrationWe support the removal of governmental impediments to free trade. Political freedom and escape from tyranny demand that individuals not be unreasonably constrained by government in the crossing of political boundaries. Economic freedom demands the unrestricted movement of human as well as financial capital across national borders. However, we support control over the entry into our country of foreign nationals who pose a credible threat to security, health or property.
During her 1-1/2 years in office, Sen. Ebke has introduced a bill to prohibit local governments from having more stringent requirements for gun possession than the state has; co-sponsored a bill to legalize medical marijuana; and co-sponsored a bill to partially repeal asset forfeiture (“policing for profit”).
Sen. Ebke played key a role in advancing each of these bills.
In a letter to her donors to announce her switch, Sen. Ebke said she had become increasingly disillusioned by the GOP.
“My view of conservatism has always been [based on] smaller government, lower taxes, fiscal responsibility, personal responsibility, respect for constitutional rights,” she wrote. “And on the national scene, a strong military, but not an overly aggressive one. In other words, I believe in a constitutionalism which looks to the principles of our founders as a guide.”
Ebke for Legislature
1104 K Street
PO Box 387
Fairbury, NE 68352
About Elwood Sanders
Elwood "Sandy" Sanders is a Hanover attorney who is an Appellate Procedure Consultant for Lantagne Legal Printing and has written ten scholarly legal articles. Sandy was also Virginia's first Appellate Defender and also helped bring curling in VA! (None of these titles imply any endorsement of Sanders’ views)
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