Jeff Flake: Fool Me Once, Shame On You...

Fool me twice, shame on me.


Jeff Flake gave us lip service when he first ran for Congress claiming he would term limit himself to three terms.

That obviously didn't happen. 


Now, Jeff Flake, who has spent the last decade leading the charge to pass comprehensive immigration reform (CIR) while in the House, claims to have SUDDENLY had a change of heart about CIR, now that he is running for the Senate.

Only this time, we aren't buying it.

We've covered Flake's flaky-ness on this issue before.  You have to suspect SOMETHING isn't quite right when Angela Maria Kelley, vice president for immigration policy and advocacy at the Center for American Progress, says this about Flake's recent 180 degree turnaround:

It's kind of hard for him to walk away from this when he has his fingerprints all over the issue.  It's not like he just gently engaged it - he was a full-throttle supporter of comprehensive reform. So it's hard for him to erase what in fact has been written in Sharpie pen.

Turns out, Ms. Kelley was right.  Flake was even more involved in CIR than we could have ever imagined.  She should know.  Prior to joining the Center for American Progress in 2009 (whose major funders include George Soros and Peter Lewis), Kelley was a director at the National Immigration Forum where she "headed its legislative, policy, and communications activities" and was "a frontline negotiator as Congress debated proposed comprehensive immigration reform legislation." 

Another former Executive at the National Immigration Forum is Frank Sharry.  We've discussed Sharry several times before, and we will mention him again later.

The current Executive Director of the NIF is Ali Noorani.  After the Russell Pearce recall election, Noorani tweeted on December 11th,

Ali Noorani‏@anoorani

Mesa Compact follows Pearce recall. AZ slowly comes to its #immigration senses. http://www.alternet.org/story/153375/after_recall%2C_arizona_moves_towards_humane_treatment_of_immigrants

(Who would have thought that Ali Noorani from the NIF would link to an article that discussed how Lewis used the LDS church and endorsed a Utah-style Compact?)

It's clear that with all of the various CIR bills that Flake was involved with over the years, he would have had the opportunity to work closely with Ms. Kelley.  We know at the very least, Flake was in the same room as Frank Sharry in 2003 when he, McCain and Kolbe all gave a press conference to introduce one of their CIR bills.  Sharry said, "This is huge!"  to have a Senator and two Representatives from Arizona, no less, behind a CIR bill.  Kelley was so instrumental in the immigration operation that Sharry referred to her as "The General".

Another close associate and policy director of Jeff Flake was his own Chief of Staff, Margaret Klessig.  Klessig played an important roll on an Immigration Task Force Committee as did her boss, Jeff Flake, along with Senator McCain, Leon Panetta, the late Ted Kennedy, Janet Murguia from La Raza, Tamar Jacoby and Frank Sharry in 2006.  This committee was organized by the Migration Policy Institute and funded through donations made by a slew of leftist slush funds such as the Open Society Institute, the Carnegie Corporation, JM Kaplan Fund and the Ford Foundation. Klessig has since joined a group called ImmigrationWorks USA as their Chief of Staff.  The founder of Immigration Works USA is Tamar Jacoby.  It was Flake who said that Tamar had "put out some really good work with regards to immigration reform."

See how connected they all are?

Now that you know who the players are, let's look at what else they have been up to over the years.

In 2003, prior to Flake, McCain and Kolbe pushing their immigration bill, a documentary fluff piece was put together titled, "Kids Across the Hill" featuring many of those who worked diligently behind the scenes.

(SEIU's Eliseo Medina)
Those interviewed for the film included
1. Margaret Klessig
2. Jeff Flake
3. Angela Kelley
4. Becky Tallent (aide to both McCain and Kolbe)
5. Frank Sharry
6. Luis Gutierrez (Flake's co-sponsor of the STRIVE Act)
7. Alfredo Gutierrez (co-chair of the Arizona Boycott Committee and founder of lafronteratimes.com.  He called on businesses to cancel their meetings and conventions in Arizona until SB1070 was repealed)
8. Tamar Jacoby
9. Eliseo Medina (SIEU)
10. Cecelia Munoz, one of Obama's Czars who has ties to La Raza, Campaign For Community Change (The action arm for Center For Community Change and who funded PAZ to canvass for Jerry Lewis during the recall.  They also supplied the sign at the Supreme Court protest above), Occupy, Moveon and ACORN

Young 20-something staffers for Republican Arizona Congressmen Jeff Flake and Jim Kolbe race Senator Ted Kennedy and his Immigration Counsel Esther Olavarria to introduce a strong, bipartisan bill to Congress.

Will Kennedy's staff rally the unions, advocates and business community in time to draft a bill? Will Kolbe and Flake find a Democrat to sign on first?

Who were the partners and supporters for the documentary?  We mentioned a few of them earlier.  They include:

Open Society.  This is just one of the many grant making organizations for George Soros.  The link to soros.org on the documentary's website is currently "under construction".  Also, Cecilia Munoz, one of Obama's czars who we mentioned earlier, was a member of the board for the Open Society.
**UPDATE** The Blaze.com recently reported on the Soros funded Open Society.

Unbound Philanthropy.  The philosophy of the Unbound Philanthropy grants is "we envision a world where they (migrants) are engaged in their new communities with respect, compassion, fairness, and justice."  One of the board members is a former member of the Migration Institute who sponsored the Immigration Policy Conference which Jeff Flake was not only a member of their Immigration Task Force, but was also a guest speaker in 2005.

The Ford Foundation.  Offers grants to countless leftist causes.  Since 2010, donations were made to:

$800,000 Frank Sharry's organization "America's Voice"
$400,000 Casa de Maryland
$350,000 Catholic Legal Immigration Network (we'll discuss them in another entry as well)
$900,000 Catholics for Choice (participated in the faux outrage during the Fluke story)
$8.6 million Soros' Center for American Progress
$5.5 million Center for Community Change (who helped with Jerry Lewis' campaign.  See photo above)
$2.8 million Gamaliel (IAF organization Obama worked with in Chicago)
$400,000 ImmigrationWorks USA
$2.5 million Interfaith Worker Justice (another IAF affiliate)
$4.0 million Planned Parenthood, $5.0 million to MALDEF
$2.4 million Migration Policy Institute
$10.0 million La Raza
$1.0 million National Immigration Forum
$3.0 million PICO (another IAF affiliate)
$3.5 million Proteus Fund (See Gilbert Watch's account of this organization)
$6.5 million Urban Institute
$1.5 million University of Arizona
$11.5 million Tides Foundation


So, we have to ask:

Why would Jeff Flake be so willing to participate in a task force and project that not only involved radical immigration reform advocates, but was supported and funded by both George Soros and the Ford Foundation who have spent billions funding radical leftist organizations?

As Angela Kelley said,

It's not like he just gently engaged it - he was a full-throttle supporter of comprehensive reform. So it's hard for him to erase what in fact has been written in Sharpie pen.

We'll explore Flake's own words that are written in a big, black Sharpie pen over the last decade and the suspected motivation behind it... next.

ALL ROADS LEAD TO RADICAL part 1

All Roads Lead to Radical part 1
by Karen Johnson
former Arizona State Senator

We will attempt to highlight pieces of this article.  You are encouraged to read through the whole article in order to better understand the lefts plan of attack.

The campaign to pass "comprehensive immigration reform," or amnesty, is charging like a speeding train at Congress. After the last major attempt went down to defeat in 2007, the open-borders advocates licked their wounds and regrouped, realizing they would have to reframe amnesty to make it look conservative and reduce the pressure on conservative Congressmen. The end result was the Utah Compact...

Although it was superficial and simplistic, the Compact was dripping with all the trappings of conservatism. It came from Utah, a very conservative state. It appeared to be the product of conservative politicians, a conservative think tank, Catholic and Protestant churches, and nonprofits.  The Compact spoke of humaneness, family values, and free markets.

...they began dancing the Compact in front of legislators all over the country to persuade them that the public had had a change of heart on immigration and that they now wanted amnesty. But the Utah Compact was a fake.  It was all propaganda. (See "Propaganda and the Utah Compact.") The Utah Compact was conceived by radical Hispanic advocacy groups and foisted on Utahns through a masterful facilitation process by Carter Livingston of the National Immigration Forum. (See "Who Wrote the Utah Compact.")

...many supporters of the Utah Compact included left-wing and radical groups in Utah and other states. The following are only a few of the liberal-to-Marxist groups which support comprehensive immigration reform and which all signed the Utah Compact:

• American Civil Liberties Union of Utah • Communidades Unidas
• Enriching Utah Coalition• Equality Utah (a pro-homosexual civil rights group)
• Human Rights Education Center of Utah (an anti-bullying, homosexual-tolerance group)
• National Council of La Raza• MEChA B Movimiento Estudiantil Chicana/Chicano de Aztlan• Peaceful Uprising•United for Social Justice

Notably absent from the list of groups which signed the Compact are conservative organizations.

...Another hint that the Utah Compact wasn't as conservative as it was cracked up to be came in the form of a conference held in Chicago a week before the Utah Compact was announced. The conference was co-sponsored by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and a group called "People Improving Communities through Organizing" (PICO) The title of the conference was "Justice for Immigrants." Its purpose was to train churches of all denominations to promote the passage of amnesty by Congress...PICO uses Saul-Alinsky-type techniques to promote an array of socialist programs, such as national health care, affordable housing, and amnesty.

The "Justice for Immigrants" conference in November, 2010, consisted of three days of workshops, all focused on comprehensive immigration reform. The speakers at the conference included the leaders of some of the most prominent pro-open-borders, progressive/Marxist/liberal groups on the left, including:

Ali Noorani, National Immigration Forum — NIF is the Godfather of the Utah Compact, which would be unveiled a week later. The Forum has ties to the Service Employees International Untion (SEIU), the Arab American Institute, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the National Lawyers Guild (a communist front organization).

Angela Kelley, Center for American Progress (CAP) Funded by George Soros, CAP is a Progressive think tank and supporter of the radical Left and the Democratic Party.

Michele Waslin, Immigration Policy Center. — The IPC is funded by George Soros, the American Immigration Lawyers Association, and other Leftist foundations and has ties to the National Council of La Raza and other radical groups.

Frank Sharry, Executive Director of America's Voice — Sharry is the former Executive Director of the National Immigration Forum. While with the Forum, he helped organize the opposition to Arizona's 2004 ballot initiative (Prop 200) which prohibits illegal aliens from receiving welfare benefits.

Helen Harnett, Heartland Alliance for Human Needs and Human Rights — Chicago-based housing, healthcare, economic security, and legal advocacy group which advocates for amnesty, homosexual rights, and government-supported social services.

The conference included instruction on immigration issues... comprehensive immigration reform (amnesty), administrative advocacy, the DREAM Act, and immigration enforcement issues. There was a session on "best practices in organizing," including how to organize in parishes and congregations, and sessions on how to oppose the arguments for enforcement, the rule of law, and SB1070-type bills in the states.

Once the Compact was public, the congregations were ready to launch grass-roots campaigns to adopt the Compact in their state.  Behind the scenes, the radical groups provided advice, talking points, and local Hispanic activists as foot solders for demonstrations. It was a battle on two different fronts. At the state legislatures, they were working to defeat "enforcement-first" legislation. In Washington, they were lobbying to pass comprehensive immigration reform, insisting that there was a new mood out in the states — a conservative mood. 

The results began to show in February.

On February 2, 2011  "Value Georgia."

February 7, 2011   Florida Compact

February 9, 2011   Indiana introduced their Compact.

February 10, 2011 Maine Compact was announced.

With a few state compacts in hand, the Chamber of Commerce, the religious Left, and the radicals were ready for the next step -- an American Compact. On March 8, 2011, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, who was one of the primary sponsors of the Utah Compact, presented his state Compact to a national meeting of Attorneys General in Washington, D.C.. During the meeting, he told the audience, "What I'm working for is to try and expand the Utah Compact and make it a national compact," he said.  KSL-TV, March 8, 2011

The next day Shurtleff met with White House officials to provide them with an overview of the Utah Compact and the concept for a national version. By the end of March, a draft of the national version of the Utah Compact, called the "America's Compact," was ready to go.

Utah's Attorney General Shurtleff headed back to Washington to present both versions of the Compact to the President and coalition leaders at an immigration summit at the White House. The summit took place on April 19, 2011. Approximately 70 people gathered...ONLY open-borders advocates were invited to the summit. No advocates for border security were present.