Newspaper: Thom Tillis Wants More Visas for Workers | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: This post, by Jim Tynen, was originally published in the immigration section of Civitas's online edition.

    I have to hand it to the N&O, it's had some stories recently that made me sit up at the breakfast table and say, "What the ...?"

    Like this one about Sen. Thom Tillis, who is considered a Republican. The paper reported:

• Tillis ... placed a hold on Lee Francis Cissna's nomination to be director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services - a department within Homeland Security whose 19,000 employees and contractors deals with naturalization, green cards, visas for temporary workers and the e-verify program that checks job applicants for legal residency in the country.
• Senate custom allows a single senator to block legislation or presidential nominations through the use of a hold. ... Tillis took the action to pressure Homeland Security to speed up a decision on making available more H-2B visas - a program that allows American businesses to hire seasonal foreign workers for non-agricultural jobs.

    Golly gee. I remember Tillis' run for the Senate and I don't recall one of his main talking points being: "I'm going to bring more immigrants here to get jobs." That would be fun to see at his next race, though, wouldn't it?

    I do remember Donald Trump campaigning in North Carolina, and my recollection is that he was less enthusiastic about immigrants taking American jobs. I also recollect he won NC and the election.

    Also, I was happy to be reminded about the awesome power of senators to block anything they want.

    Conservatives are rightly unhappy that one (or a few) federal judges can block elected legislatures, Congress or the president from executing their duties.

    I forgot we had an oligarchy - rule by a few powerful people, such as judges, bureaucrats, and in this instance one senator.