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"Likely illegal immigrants found working at defense contractor"

From this:

Federal authorities have taken 41 suspected illegal immigrants into custody after they were found working at a Department of Defense contractor at the Port of Brownsville.

Luisa Aquino, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said today that the Wednesday raid came after an investigation found AMFELS Inc.'s subcontractors were hiring undocumented workers. She said AMFELS was not part of the investigation and had alerted federal officials to false Social Security numbers...

"These companies [apparently the subcontractors mentioned below --LW] were hiring undocumented aliens and providing them with fraudulent documents to have access to very secure areas that are critical to our infrastructure and national security," Aquino said...

Wednesday, Gilbert Elizondo, AMFELS' vice president for human resources, told The Brownsville Herald the company has 40 to 50 contractors who hire their own workers. He said AMFELS has about 1,000 employees and "they have to meet the legal requirements to work here"...

Previous coverage of illegal aliens in highly secure military facilities starts here.

Posted to Immigration_terror at 10:32 PM | Comments (2)

" Muslim freed by US issues terror threats"

OK, enough debate coverage.

From this:

Danish authorities said yesterday they might have to return a recently-released Guantanamo Bay prisoner to US custody after he said cabinet ministers were fair targets and vowed to travel to fight Russian forces in Chechnya...

Mr Abderahmane said the Danish prime minister and defence minister were targets...

"I urge the government to pack him off back to the Americans," said Pia Kjaersgaard, the leader of the Danish People's Party, the minority government's coalition partner.

Earlier she described Mr Abderahmane's statements as "high treason" and called for his imprisonment...

Posted to Terrorism at 09:15 PM | Comments (0)

9/30 Debate thread

Bush decided to go to the U.N. all by himself?

"[long list deleted...] Does that make you feel safer, America?"

Bush doesn't know how we're going to pay for homeland security...

Bush is modernizing our border protection... [false]

Bush: We have to stay on the offense [and neglect the defense]...

Kerry: Bush isn't doing everything he could to keep America safe [tax cut more important, etc.]

Kerry: brings up GHWB's book... discusses not guarding things in Iraq after the first phase other than the oil ministry...

Didn't they prep Kerry on answering the "I voted for it before I voted against it" thing? Geez...

Bush: "I've seen on the TV screens how hard it is [in Iraq]"

Rip van Winkle: "This guy is president of the United States?"

"love [Missy Johnson] as much as I can..." WTF?

Bush: "[Kerry's] plan [for Iraq] won't work." Bush before: "Kerry's plan is the same as our plan."

Kerry a few times now: Bush didn't think through the after-invasion...

So far, at least four Vietnam references from Kerry, albeit two or three obliquely...

Bush: "There's a hundred thousand troops trained" I'm pretty sure that's false

Bush: "They attacked us" While there's the possibility that Iraq attacked us via WTC1 or even 2, I don't think so...

Bush: "We use diplomacy every chance we get" It just doesn't work for Bush...

Kerry nails Bush on the "they attacked us" line, and discusses Tora Bora again...

Kerry says Bush has greatly weakened America's credibility...

Bush didn't understand what everyone else understood when Kerry defined the "global test"...

Bush is diverging into the International Criminal Court... [America asks: why didn't he want to join?]

[I hope the BushBots stocked up on Kool-Aid. Take big swigs during Bush's long pauses.]

Let's not discuss their daughters. Who gives a fsck? Get to the frigging point both of you...

Kerry brings up "character", but says he's not going to discuss it...

Kerry: I know exactly what we needed to do in Iraq, and my position has been consistent... we didn't need to rush to war w/o a plan to win the peace

Kerry: most serious threat is nuclear proliferation. Uh oh, gotta add the terrorism in there. He just did, kinda. Now he's attacking Bush securing less loose nukes after 9/11 than before...

Oops! Kerry shouldn't have talked about shutting down any U.S. nuclear programs...

Bush says he's increased funding for nuclear proliferation...

Bush is supporting Kerry's naming of nukes as #1 threat, so everything's OK on that score...

No one's going to understand the difference between bilateral and six-way talks with NoK...

Bush himself said Putin's actions were wrong? Actually, I thought it was Colin Powell. Perhaps he did so privately...

He can't even pronounce Vluh DEE muhr. They must laugh at him behind his back over there...

Kerry bringing up his foreign policy experience vis-a-vis Russia...

Kerry should have kept talking about Russia, not switching to NoK...

Oops... Lehrer fed Bush a laugh line at the end, and Bush took advantage of it. That's a bad thing to happen, making Kerry's response now look shrill... Kerry should have followed with a light joke of his own...

There is no doubt that both Bush and Kerry love this country, of that I have no doubt...

Kerry look America in the eye...

Bush says the military will remain volunteer...

Bush inserts a Biblical quote, I assume...

-------

Summary: If you trust Bush, and you appreciate all of his platitudes that weren't backed up by hardly any facts and figures, vote for Bush.

If you want a wonk, vote for Kerry, who seems to have dispelled many of the myths about his commitment to protecting America.

Clear win to Kerry.

Unfortunately, only about five minutes was devoted to homeland security. As I've continually pointed out, Kerry could score huge points talking about things like possibly allowing terrorists to infiltrate the U.S. via our porous borders. Perhaps during the domestic or townhall debate someone will bring that up, and to that we'll have two minutes of sputtering from Bush.

Misrepresenting the "global test" looks to be the major BushBot talking point. Look, he was saying we need to make sure that we look good to the world about the things we do, something that I and many other greater pundits on all sides have said. Expect this to be used to call Kerry a "globalist." They're both globalists, it's just that the globalism of Bush is barely covered in the press.

UPDATE: The AP transcript is here. It'd be nice if someone would provide one with HTML links to each question and answer.

UPDATE 2: I discuss "global test" here in an easy-to-understand fashion.

Posted to Politics at 05:17 PM | Comments (3)

Sheriff Lee Baca says sales tax hike still needed

I haven't been following this story, but, from "Baca says Measure A still needed":

Sheriff Lee Baca said Wednesday he was surprised to learn that Los Angeles County government suddenly found a $309 million surplus, but he still urged voters to pass Measure A, a sales tax increase on the Nov. 2 ballot.

Baca, at a news conference with Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton and Mayor James Hahn, said most of the surplus cannot be spent for ongoing costs of hiring more deputies.

If approved by two-thirds of voters countywide, Measure A would raise $560 million a year for law enforcement, anti-terrorism and other public safety needs. Officials have promised to use the money to hire 5,000 more officers...

Posted to Los_Angeles at 02:12 PM | Comments (1)

'I can't ... I'm Mormon' T-shirts too hot

BYU newspaper yanks ad as some perceive desire to sin

T-shirts proclaiming the message "I cant ... I'm Mormon" are apparently too hot for Brigham Young University, as the college newspaper has yanked all advertisements.

According to the Deseret Morning News, the paper halted the ad campaign after complaints from students, professors and administrators who felt the slogan implied a desire to engage in "objectionable" behavior...

Posted to WackyHumor at 01:31 PM | Comments (0)

Organizations Supporting Amnesty for Illegal Aliens

For reference, here's a list of such organizations from FAIR.

Posted to Immigration2004 at 12:10 PM | Comments (1)

"New ID Cards Help Immigrants Keep Their Money Safe"

The following is an alleged news report from Austin TX's KXAN:

The Mexican consulate has announced a program which puts a face, literally, on thousands of Mexican immigrants.

Authorities say something as simple as an identification card will save money and lives.

It's an important day for immigrants. Many of them live and work in the shadows, with no formal identification card and no place to put their money.

"People carry their money, their savings, in their pockets because they were unable to open bank accounts," said Javier Alejo Lopez, Consul General of Mexico...

[... several heart-warming paragraphs deleted ...]

"Before Wells Fargo came, they were using unconventional ways of sending money back to Mexico, and it was high risk," said Henry Moreno with the Austin Police Department. "The people are not carrying around a lot of money now."

...The additional banking service is possible because of an agreement between Wells Fargo and the Banorte Financial Group in Mexico.

Even though Wells Fargo will accept the matricula card as identification, Governor Rick Perry continues to oppose the use of the cards as legal ID in Texas. He says Mexico still lacks a formal birth registry system to keep track of its citizens.

Like I said, the preceding is alleged to be a news report.

Now, go read "Consular IDs help illegals evade immigration law" or Their Money or Your Safety for the real story.

Posted to Immigration_consul at 12:04 PM | Comments (2)

"Consular IDs help illegals evade immigration law"

The WashTimes reports on the GAO telling us something we already knew:

Foreign nationals illegally in the United States are using identification cards issued by the governments of Mexico and Guatemala to avoid apprehension and deportation, a government report said.

According to the Government Accountability Office, weaknesses in U.S. government policy regarding the issuance of the cards, also known as matricular consular cards, failed to prevent their delivery to and use by illegal aliens...

As pointed out Their Money or Your Safety, the consuls who distribute these cards freely admit they aren't concerned about the recipient's immigration status. That post also discusses how the Bush administration worked to allow banks to accept those cards.

Posted to Immigration_consul at 11:57 AM | Comments (0)

Boston Globe: The silence about immigrants

From an editorial by Tufts University's Lawrence E. Harrison:

...We have to find ways to legitimize immigration policy as an issue of high national interest and open debate. We must insist that the candidates develop clear positions on what to do about immigration policy. Do they support open borders? If not, what criteria would they use in establishing limits? What specific levels of immigration would they endorse? Should visas be issued on the basis of skills or family connections?

The rest of the editorial has several population-related data points and discusses the left-right coalition that opposes the great majority of Americans' wishes.

Posted to Immigration2004 at 11:01 PM | Comments (1)

Q. Why is there Kool-Aid sprayed all over my monitor?

A. Because Blogs For Bush has been nominated for 'Best Republican Party Coverage' by the Washington Post in their 2004 Best Blogs -- Politics and Elections Readers' Choice Awards!!

Perusing that site occasionally, I'm forced to ask, "is this a satire?" While it's apparently a group site, they all seem to speak with one unswerving messianic voice preaching the coming dominion of a second Bush term. While there are no people who call themselves "Kerryacs," and even the most ardent Deaniac would occasionally question some of Dean's policies, the bloggers at that site seem to be a bit "committed" to their candidate.

Even worse is the apparently related site PardonMyEnglish. As you scroll through the entries, the smiling visage of the George Bush wallpaper constantly drags your eyes away. My gawd.

Posted to Bloggage at 10:53 PM | Comments (0)

Complaint filed about L.A. County seal

From a press release reprinted here:

Dr. John C. Eastman, director of the Claremont Institute's Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, will be filing a civil complaint in the Los Angeles Superior Court this afternoon challenging the removal of the cross from the Los Angeles County Seal. The civil suit, styled David Horowitz et al. v. County of Los Angeles, et al., alleges that the County's decision to remove the cross is an illegal waste of taxpayer funds and violates the "No Preference" Clause of the California Constitution and the Establishment Clause of the United States Constitution...

Also named in the complaint as defendants are Los Angeles County Supervisors Yvonne Burke, Gloria Molina, and Zev Yaroslovsky, who voted to remove the cross from the County Seal...

UPDATE: The press release is here.

UPDATE 2: The AP report has a little additional background, but most of its information is already in the press release.

Posted to Los_Angeles at 10:42 PM | Comments (0)

Ridge: no sign of terrorists trying to cross border

From the AP:

NOGALES, Ariz. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge says he's seen no sign of terrorist efforts to cross the U-S-Mexico border.
Speaking in Nogales, Arizona, yesterday, Ridge said the United States is not going to start militarizing the border.

Ridge says nothing from intelligence reports has suggested that terrorists have tried to cross the border...

Now, go read up on all that chatter about terrorists coming over the border and decide whether Ridge is telling the truth or not...

The longer version of the AP report is titled "South African Woman Pleads Guilty In Altered Passport Case". It concentrates on the matter discussed here and includes Ridge's comments. It contains this priceless quote from Ridge:

"We have a long tradition with our friends to the north and south. We're very fortunate that we've never had to assign military to our borders, and we're not going to start that now"

Ridge's remarks are unhistorical both specifically and in the general context. Surely, no one could forget Texas, or the Alamo (except Bush that is), or the Mexican-American war, or Pancho Villa? Specifically, see the PDF linked to from here. On Page 2 we find the following discussion of events just before the U.S. entered World War I:

German agents also sought to generate ill-will towards the United States among Mexicans and Mexicans resident in the United States. [9] As part of this effort, Germany encouraged Pancho Villa’s actions against the United States. [10] There were other raids and acts of sabotage into the United States from Mexico both before and after Villa’s spectacular night raid on Columbus for which no direct evidence of German involvement exists [11]— however, on at least one of those sabotage raids, American authorities took prisoners that included a Japanese saboteur and Mexican soldiers apparently operating under orders from the Carranza government. [12]

In the short-term, these border skirmishes did what the German government had hoped. The Army assigned half the mobile armed forces in the continental U.S. to guard the South Texas border. [13] A total of 184,000 soldiers, in Regular Army and National Guard [14] units from every state but Nevada, were moved to the border to prevent further intrusions, consuming equipment and ammunition. [15]

Did Ridge not know this, or did he just choose to forget it?

That PDF also discusses the "Plan of San Diego", an early 1900s attempt by some Mexican officers at cleansing the Southwestern U.S. of "Anglos."

Posted to Immigration_terror at 11:37 AM | Comments (7)

Bill O'Reilly asks some semi-tough questions

Bill O'Reilly interviewed President Bush, and the first part of the interview was broadcast on Monday. I didn't see it, but a transcript is here. I couldn't find an official transcript, but since that agrees with the quote printed in Bush: Militarizing Border Won't Stop Illegal Deluge I'm going to assume it's largely accurate.

O'Reilly brings up the recent Time Magazine cover story Who Left the Door Open? where it's revealed that up to three million illegal aliens will cross our borders this year.

Many of O'Reilly's viewers will have read that Time Magazine cover story, and many are also readers of the Washington Times and World Net Daily, two sources that frequently provide clear-headed discussion of immigration matters.

Many of O'Reilly's viewers will be aware that workplace enforcement is a tried-and-true method to stop illegal immigration, and that there's been almost no workplace enforcement for the last several years. For instance, in 2002 just 13 companies were fined for immigration violations in the whole U.S., and in the first five months of this year just one company was fined.

With that in mind, O'Reilly allows Bush to give the impression that the only real way to prevent illegal immigration is at the border. That's certainly a necessary part of stopping illegal immigration, but so is workplace enforcement and stopping incentives such as the acceptance of Mexican ID cards. *

While O'Reilly does raise the topic of illegal immigration, he didn't ask the tough questions that would have brought all the facts of this matter into sharp focus. For that, we'll have to wait for the debates or a better interviewer. Or, we might be waiting for a long time.

In the interview, Bush attempts to excuse illegal immigration, falling back on platitudes and compassion and sounding uncomfortably like an AILA advocate: "Now look. People are comin' 'cause they wanna work ya' know. Family values don't stop at the border... If you can make fifty cents in the interior of Mexico and five dollars in the interior of the United States, you're comin' for the five bucks and, therefore ... and so long as moms and dads feel the necessity to feed their children, they're gonna come and try to make a livin'."

Bush goes on to state that he won't be placing the military on the border and he discusses free trade and his egregiously bad "guest worker" plan. For more on that plan, see Analysis: Bush temp worker plan open-ended and Bush "guest worker" program to be "open to any type of employee". From the first link, we learn that the only wage-related restriction on the plan would be the minimum wage, and from the second we learn that the program would be open to "nurses, teachers, high-tech workers" and others. Combining those two facts results in the disastrous scenario I outlined in my third comment here. Maybe one of these days someone somewhere will ask Bush about that plan or about our lack of workplace enforcement, but apparently O'Reilly won't be that person.

UPDATE: I listened to the section of the O'Reilly interview that deals with immigration and border control, and the transcript at the first link is almost exactly correct except for two insignificant changes that almost don't bear noting but just for completeness:

"cause they wanna work ya� know. Family values"
->
"cause they wanna work... ya� know, family values"

and
"five dollars in the interior"
->
"five bucks in the interior"

---
This was previously cross-posted at redstate.org/story/2004/9/28/115557/290

* Link was originally to redstate.org/story/2004/9/19/225351/640

Posted to Immigration2004 at 11:02 AM | Comments (4)

"Out of our way, gringos!"

Here's a quote from the leader of a small Hispanic extremist group:

"Go back to Boston! Go back to Plymouth Rock, Pilgrims! Get out! We are the future! You are old and tired. Go on. We have beaten you. Leave like beaten rats. You old white people. It is your duty to die. . . . Through love of having children, we are going to take over."

With that quote in mind, read the L.A. Times (guest?) opinion piece "Pouty White People".

It discusses how "Anglos" were once optimistic about California's future, but they're now mostly pessimistic. The author supposes this might be because:

a majority of Anglos clearly believe that their best days in the state are behind them... The newcomers [new immigrants] have punctured the idea of California as a middle-class utopia... Whites don't easily identify with the aspirations of these emergent groups... the Anglo myth that dreams should be achieved without struggle is gone.

The piece ends with:

...Like individuals, bodies politic must have a modicum of faith in the future if they intend to plan constructively for one.

California's crumbling infrastructure can be rebuilt, and its broken education system can be repaired. But that's not going to happen until we re-create the social contract that built postwar California. That contract must be founded on a shared vision of the future. If Anglo California is not willing to provide one, then at the very least it should make way for those who do.

While there's certainly a story here, this piece's treatment of it is marred by its not-so-subtle racism and its similarity in spirit to the first quote.

Please send a polite letter to Readers.Rep@latimes.com

Posted to Immigration2004 at 02:12 PM | Comments (7)

"Woman with altered passport pleads guilty"

From this:

A South African woman whose arrest raised fears of terrorists crossing into Texas from Mexico pleaded guilty today to illegal entry, lying to a federal agent and using an altered passport...

Despite the alarm expressed by several officials, the U.S. Attorney's Office found no reason to handle the case as anything other than an immigration matter.

Prosecutors have not made public any connection between Ahmed and any terrorist organization...

Officials searched her baggage and discovered wet, muddy pants, $6,300 in U.S. currency and 550 British pounds. An Emirates Airline itinerary dated July 8 showed travel from Johannesburg to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, then to London. A second itinerary showed travel from London to Mexico City on British Airways.

Previous coverage starts here.

Posted to Immigration_terror at 01:40 PM | Comments (1)

"Conferring Legitimacy, This Card Draws a Crowd"

In "Conferring Legitimacy, This Card Draws a Crowd", the L.A. Times discusses a visit of a friendly Mexican consul to south Orange County to pass out ID cards that the FBI considers a security threat.

It has the standard bits, ending with a heartwarming vignette about one of the new ID cards ("Matricula Consular" cards).

It even contains yet one more reason to boycott CitiBank:

...while waiting for their cards, hundreds listened as Citibank employees gave out banking information. Calculators, mugs and fans with the Mexican flag were given out too.

"Even if you don't open it today, open a bank account," Lorena Maae, Citibank's assistant vice president for community relations in O.C., told one group in Spanish...

However, the L.A. Times must be feeling the heat because they devote no less than three paragraphs to sobering information. That's a full three paragraphs out of 21 total, a whopping 14%:

Sunday's event came just days after a measure that would have prohibited banks from accepting the matricula consular failed in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The matricula consular stirs the ire of illegal-immigration opponents who see the card, and the Mexican government's promotion of it, as a well-orchestrated campaign to bestow quasi-legal status to those who have entered the country illegally.

Although more than 1 million people in California carry the cards, which resemble driver's licenses and display the bearer's U.S. address, the FBI does not consider them a reliable form of identification...

They actually called them a security threat, but I congratulate the L.A. Times on their baby steps to somewhat accurate coverage.

For much more on this issue, including excerpts from newspapers that didn't even include that 14% dissenting content, see "Their Money or Your Safety".

Posted to Immigration_consul at 09:21 AM | Comments (2)

"Mexican official seeks open border"

In June, I posted a similar article about Mexico's new "border czar." He repeated his dream recently:

"I would like to see a border similar to the one that Europe has right now ... where they have common, very common objectives," [Arturo Gonzalez Cruz, a Tijuana businessman named in April by President Vicente Fox as the Mexican Foreign Ministry's institutional liaison for northern border affairs] recently told reporters in Tijuana. "They have a common economy. They have policies that transcend their borders where they work with them to get it."

...[Vicente] Fox has said he favors open borders across North America and has proposed removing all immigration barriers between Mexico, the United States and Canada, allowing the three nations' citizens to live and work in the country of their choosing.

At a rally in California after his surprise 2000 election, Mr. Fox said his government would "use all our persuasion and all our talent to bring together the U.S., Canadian and Mexican governments so that in five or ten years, the border is totally open to the free movement of workers."

In January, shortly after President Bush proposed a temporary guest-worker program for illegal aliens living and working in the United States, Mr. Fox said a North American "bloc" of countries could be the leading and most competitive group of nations in the world "by working together and, through that, be able to keep increasing the quality and the level of life of our citizens..."

Will there be a vote? Or, will this grand plan just be imposed?

Posted to Immigration2004 at 09:09 AM | Comments (7)

"Daniel Weintraub: Governor should lead debate on immigrants"

CalInsider offers a must read opinion piece. He gets just about everything right, which is close enough.

Posted to Immigration2004 at 10:53 PM | Comments (0)

Do you know the way to [cheat] San Jose?

Duh duh duh duh duh d'duh:

As one of the broadest probes of wrongdoing in the history of San Jose government begins, ethical and legal scholars are questioning if the independent investigator assigned by the city to conduct the inquiry is fit to do so -- especially if it means looking into the actions of City Attorney Rick Doyle...

..."The investigator should not have any ties at all to the principals being investigated. That's Ethics 101," said Bill Allison, spokesman for the Center for Public Integrity in Washington, D.C., which tracks government ethics issues. "You would think San Jose would want to avoid at least the appearance of a conflict."

Earlier stanzas start here, duh duh duh d'duh.

Posted to California at 10:51 PM | Comments (0)

Small-market possible PIIPP spotted

A possible PIIPP ("pro-illegal immigration puff piece") has been spotted in the Lincoln (NE) JournalStar. Here's the first paragraph of "Dozens rally to support proposed immigration law":

Oscar Rios Pohirieth dreads the conversation he's had again and again with some of Lincoln's Hispanic high school students.

Yes, it starts like other PIIPPs. However, apparently Oscar is not an illegal alien, and he's not the subject/victim of the story, he's just an external agent designed to introduce the story.

Nevertheless, I'm tentatively naming this a PIIPP-at-least-in-spirit.

The rest of the advocacy piece/article goes on to advocate for the explicitly anti-American DREAM Act:

[With the DREAM Act, Orrin Hatch] and his colleagues are literally taking opportunities and tuition assistance away from the children of citizens and giving them to illegal aliens... Supporters of this bill are unabashedly placing the interests of illegal aliens above American families who have paid taxes and played by the rules..."

While the advocacy piece/article does contain a quote from FAIR (also the source for the above quote), just two paragraphs out of 23 are devoted to any sort of dissenting voice. And, the advocacy piece/article doesn't mention that FAIR is currently helping the suit in Kansas that opposes that state's version of the DREAM Act. The remaining 21 paragraphs advocate for the DREAM Act.

Please send polite emails to:
mhansen@journalstar.com and feedback@journalstar.com

Posted to Immigration_piipps at 10:39 PM | Comments (2)

"DHS has a different view of reality"

The WashTimes editorial "Undermining border security" first discusses their report "Illegals detained at border released onto U.S. streets". If you haven't yet read that, you should.

The editorial ends with this:

But DHS has a different view of reality. In its responses to Mr. Grassley's questions, Homeland Security said it was "not practical" to detain all non-criminal non-Mexicans during immigration proceedings...

Unfortunately, much of the discussion of immigration in recent days was hijacked by groups like the National Council of La Raza, the AFL-CIO and the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which staged a series of demonstrations and media events on Capitol Hill and across the country to lobby for "immigrant rights." A central goal of these groups is defeating the Clear Law Enforcement for Alien Removal, or CLEAR Act, which would strengthen the authority of the nation's 600,000 state and local police officers to assist in the enforcement of federal immigration law. CLEAR is a critical law enforcement tool. It should be taken up and passed by Congress next year.

Posted to Immigration2004 at 10:24 PM | Comments (2)

The Arizona Republic has a lesson for you

The Arizona Republic - which has just about publicly announced its biases against Proposition 200 - has yet another fisk-worthy article: "Calif.'s lesson: Reforms don't stop illegal immigration."

Rather than provide a full-on fisking, here's the summary. The first few paragraphs of the article match the headline. It looks like they're about to discuss "reforms" that didn't work, specifically California's Prop. 187.

However, after the first few paragraphs, the article starts meandering as they realize that only a couple minor provisions of Prop. 187 were ever enacted, and they may have never been enforced. So, I guess "reforms" that aren't enacted or aren't enforced don't work. Thanks, I already knew that.

Continuing: ...probably takes a hate crimes statistic out of context... includes a quote from MALDEF... FAIR is "anti-immigration", etc. etc.

Oh, did I mention that the major, fundamental reforms of Prop. 187 were never enacted, and thus those reforms can't be said to have failed?

Another thing worth mentioning is that one of the writers of this advocacy piece/article is Elvia Diaz. She was reportedly at the press conference where it was announced that Grant Woods - spokesman for the anti-200 forces - had been fined for hiring an illegal alien nanny. To the best of my knowledge, that fact has not yet appeared in the Arizona Republic.

Please send a polite email to these folks suggesting they do a better job:
Ward.Bushee@arizonarepublic.com
Randy.Lovely@arizonarepublic.com
jleach@azcentral.com
llevitt@azcentral.com
jeff.dozbaba@arizonarepublic.com

Posted to Immigration2004 at 10:13 PM | Comments (1)

Nina Bernstein: Old Skool NYT

Nina Bernstein, the NYT's immigration reporter, is truly "Old Skool" NYT. As in: "Meteor to hit Earth; Women, Minorities Hardest Hit."

Her latest piece is "New York Considers One-Year Driving Permits for Immigrants".

From the piece, we learn the following "facts":

- "an immigrant without legal status" is a cute euphemism for the legally-accurate term "illegal alien"...

- there is no difference between "noncitizens" and "illegal aliens"... (of course, a noncitizen might be a legal immigrant or a visitor, but, hey, who cares about accuracy?)

- the associations of Republican-oriented advocacy groups is important; that of left-leaning groups is not. They're apparently "normal"...

- presenting sob stories is a great way to drive your point home...

- "Since 9/11, many states have struggled with conflicts between efforts to tighten requirements for licenses, which increasingly serve as a national form of identification, and efforts to protect the driving privileges of longtime immigrant workers, despite their illegal status." Of course, some people are opposed to illegal immigration and incentives for it, but, hey, they don't count...

- any discussion of terrorism (aside from the oblique reference to "9/11" above) would simply cloud the advocacy piece... er, article...

And, last but hardly least, she discusses how someone fraudulently obtained another state's license:

...many New York drivers facing license suspension for lack of a Social Security number are already obtaining licenses fraudulently in states with lesser requirements.

One such driver, Jose, who would give only his first name for fear of deportation, described the method in a telephone interview. About three months ago, he said, he rented a post office box in Michigan, drove to Detroit and, claiming to have moved to the state, turned in his New York license for a Michigan one.

In the same situation, a reporter who wanted to present an unbiased report would have done at least two things. First, they would have identified "Jose" as an illegal alien.

Second, and much more important, they would have asked "If Jose can do this, can't a terrorist do the same thing?"

Please send a polite email to public@nytimes.com suggesting they find a reporter who can do a better job.

Posted to Immigration_piipps at 09:37 PM | Comments (1)

"Swiss reject citizenship reform"

BBC: Swiss voters have rejected plans to relax the country's strict naturalisation laws...

The government had said it wanted to make procedures easier, saying too many people were left out of the country's system of direct democracy...

Early polls indicate that the majority of voters were against a plan to give citizenship to Swiss-born children of immigrants.

A second poll on granting citizenship to foreigners raised and schooled in the country was also rejected.

Posted to Immigration_euro at 09:12 PM | Comments (1)

More lame attempts to diss Samuel P. Huntington

From the Boston Globe's "In Mexico visit, enmity greets Harvard scholar":

Ever since the release earlier this year of his book "Who are We?: The Challenges to America's National Identity," (excerpt online here)which argues that Mexican immigrants pose a threat to American culture, Samuel P. Huntington has been the US academic Mexicans love to hate...

The Mexican press seized on remarks he made Tuesday during a panel discussion at a three-day business conference in the [Mexican state of Veracruz], depicting him as alarmist and anti-immigrant. "Illegals: terrorist threat: Huntington" ran a frontpage headline in El Universal, the country's largest daily. Cronica, another Mexico City daily, led its culture section with a quote attributed to Huntington: "Mexicans could transport weapons of mass destruction."

...The governor of Hidalgo State, Manuel Angel Nunez Soto, called Huntington a racist, while challenging the facts behind the Harvard scholar's thesis that Mexican immigrants receive more than they give back to the United States. And Jesus Silva-Herzog Marquez, a political columnist who participated in a panel discussion with Huntington, described him as "the Stephen King of political scientists," in reference to the dire predictions of his recent books...

Huntington was more concerned by the way he said the Mexican press had misquoted him to suggest he was singling out Mexicans as posing a terrorist threat. Instead, he said, he was noting the potential of a terrorist attack perpetrated by people sneaking into the United States through the porous southern border with Mexico...

..."I think Huntington makes us see our own stupidity, like the prohibition against McDonald's in Oaxaca," [Silva-Herzog] said, referring to a recent campaign to block the American fast-food chain from opening a new branch in one of Mexico's most historic cities. Silva-Herzog challenged Huntington to propose solutions to the alleged threat posed by the higher birthrate of Hispanic immigrants, as well as other perceived problems. Huntington cites figures showing Hispanic women have an average of three children, compared with 1.8 for non-Hispanic whites and 2.1 for blacks. "What does he recommend? That they sterilize the Mexicans? That they prohibit Spanish from being spoken on the street?" said Silva-Herzog.

Previous lame attempts to diss Huntington start here.

Posted to Immigration2004 at 12:32 PM | Comments (3)

Left and Right, working together against the rest of us. Part 2

The article MVD bust labeled 'gift' for Prop. 200", as one might expect from the source, tries to make the most of a poor choice of words by a Prop. 200 supporter. The more important statements in the article come from the spokesperson for the anti-Prop. 200 forces, former AZ attorney general Grant Woods:

...Woods said the entire Arizona congressional delegation, the governor, mayors and business groups with diverging ideological interests all oppose Proposition 200.

"Can you think of anything else that all of these people agree upon? I can't," Woods said...

..."We can't get our own people to vote in elections, much less get someone else to come here and vote," Woods said, before making a joke about recent conservative triumphs in recent legislative primaries.

"By the way, if they are voting, they're voting very conservatively," he added.

Ka-ching! And, remember, we've got the loosest slots in Laughlin!

Hey, and thanks for pointing out where the problem is: it's the people against the elites.

This post has more links about Prop. 200, including the news that Grant Woods was fined for hiring an illegal alien nanny.

Posted to Immigration2004 at 11:55 AM | Comments (1)

"Report: California a leading port for forced labor"

From this:

More than 10,000 foreign-born people are working under slave-like conditions in the United States, and California is a major port of entry for them, a new report said Thursday.

The study by the Human Rights Center at the University of California, Berkeley and the non-profit Free the Slaves said that about half those brought into the country for forced labor end up in the sex business, many as prostitutes... [followed by domestic servants...]

"Forced labor persists in these sectors because of low wages, lack of regulation and monitoring of working conditions, and a high demand for cheap labor," said the report...

The report drew its analysis from published accounts of criminal cases brought against captors, interviews with service providers and eight case studies...

Posted to Immigration2004 at 11:38 AM | Comments (1)

AZ Gov. Janet Napolitano gets asked a tough question

As previously posted, 26 Arizona DMV workers were caught in a driver's license scam

The report Scam spotlights smuggler savvy discusses those arrests, and ends with this bit that would be funny if it wasn't so scary:

...The arrests Thursday mark only the latest in a history of problems at the agency and questions about the ease of getting a state driver's license - problems that Gov. Janet Napolitano has known about for years. As recently as last year, investigators from the General Accounting Office, now the Government Accountability Office, reported they got genuine driver licenses from Arizona and six other states using fake identification. That report to Congress did not surprise Napolitano.

"I know that getting a false ID is not difficult in Arizona," the governor said at the time.

"I suspect you can ask almost any 16-year-old, and they would tell you how to get a false ID. The question is what was done here and what can we do to tighten up as much as possible to make sure that, particularly when we're issuing a driver's license, we know to whom we're issuing it."

Napolitano, speaking to reporters when the new arrests were announced Thursday, said changes in the way the agency operates were made in the wake of that report.

But the governor had no answer when asked how, with those changes, this kind of fraud still could occur at several MVD offices.

"Well, I hope we're not sitting here tomorrow with that situation," she said. "But in point of fact, the plan that we are implementing today is much broader and deeper than anything that has, to my knowledge, been attempted with MVD before."

Gubernatorial aide George Cunningham said many of those details were still being worked out.

Insert the hand gesture of your choice here.

Last year, this fine American vetoed a bill that would have required voters to show identification when voting: Bill on voter ID is vetoed. Those who couldn't show ID would have their ballots set aside while their ID was verified, so, as long they were verified their vote would not have been lost.

It sounds reasonable, but Janet and the Race Industry played their cards:

...Napolitano told the audience [in front of whom she was demagoguing her veto] that combating voter fraud "was not the real reason that bill was passed, and you know that I'm right about that."

Napolitano later told reporters when asked that she did not know what the bill was designed to do. "This bill is not designed to prevent voter fraud, I'll tell you that,"

Earlier, Rep. Steve Gallardo, D-Phoenix, told the audience that the bill's "sole intent is aimed solely at the Latino community" and the right to vote.

"I don't begin to understand why showing an ID would keep people from voting," said Rep. Linda Gray, R-Phoenix. "Every other place you have to show an ID - you go to the doctor, you sign up for videos."

Thankfully, Napolitano might soon have met her match. Proposition 200 would require ID when registering to vote, and that proposition has very widespread support. Needless to say, Napolitano opposes it, along with other fine Americans.

Posted to Immigration2004 at 11:29 AM | Comments (1)

"Advocates: Illegal immigrant drivers need documentation"

From the Palm Springs Desert Sun's License veto questioned:

Sonia Dinorah Davila and Juana Raya are having a hard time understanding why Gov. Arnold Schwarz-enegger vetoed a bill that would have made undocumented immigrants in the state eligible for driver’s licenses.

"It’s not fair," said Davila, a legal assistant at Coachella Valley Immigration Service and Assistance Inc. in Palm Springs...

Say what now? Their reporter went to a commercial company that makes its money off immigration matters and got some quotes (all apparently spoken in Spanish) from the workers and clientele? What would you expect them to say, that Arnold was right? If you want to read - yet again - the brain-dead, disingenuous talking points in favor of DLs for IAs, have at it.

Posted to Immigration_dls at 11:16 AM | Comments (1)

Will they be boycotting public services as well?

From the AP's "Hispanics threaten state boycott over license bill veto":

Angered by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's veto this week of a bill to allow illegal immigrants to drive legally in California, Hispanic leaders and pro-immigrant groups are organizing protests and a national boycott of the state in their campaign to win the licenses...

"If this is the posture the governor wants to take, then our community is going to be forced to kick it up a notch," said Nativo Lopez, president of the Mexican American Political Association and Hermandad Mexicana, based in Southern California...

Mike Wilzoch, San Diego director of the Service Employees International Union, which has 30,000 workers statewide, said his organization likely would begin protests after the November election...

The National Council of La Raza said Friday it would consider canceling its planned 2008 convention in San Diego if a boycott proceeds...

[Gil "One Bill Gil"] Cedillo, who plans to introduce a new version of the bill in December, said those opposed to Schwarzenegger's veto should take action...

As this is an AP report, they provide the party line that driver's licenses for illegal aliens is all about "public safety." And, they fail to mention that Nativo Lopez was recalled from the Santa Ana School Board. There are more links than anyone can read about him here.

Especially note this link from the WSJ:

[Lt. Gov. Cruz] Bustamante campaigned for Mr. Lopez even though the entire Santa Ana City Council, which has a Latino majority, supported his recall. Beatriz Salas, who immigrated from Mexico 20 years ago, says she was appalled when she and other parents attended a meeting with Mr. Lopez in 1999, where he admitted that his goal was to make Spanish the primary language in California.

If you want to suggest the AP does a better job, send a polite note to: feedback@ap.org

Posted to Immigration2004 at 03:43 PM | Comments (0)

Understanding Boxer

In the article "Boxer says U.S. less secure, ties Jones to Bush policies", Sen. Boxer tells us:

"The direction we're going in is not the right direction, is not the good direction, either in foreign policy or domestic policy... Bill Jones likes this direction and wants to join with Bush and (Vice President Dick) Cheney and be their partner and work with them... If you agree with Bush and Cheney, then you need a Republican in that seat... If people want an anti-choice senator, a pro-gun senator and a friend of Dick Cheney, yes, vote for Bill Jones."

...Boxer also called for tighter security at the nation's borders and suggested that Bush had gone "really off course" in the effort to protect the country from terrorism.

"It's important to stop illegal immigration at the border," she said. "We're not doing a good job of protecting our borders."

It sounds good, but her record is mixed, to say the least.

She gets a C grade on immigration matters here (Her recent actions merit a C+).

Of particular note, she hasn't done much for immigration recently except for co-sponsoring the horrible AgJobs bill (plugged here). AgJobs is described in "Immigration lawyer industry funding Tancredo's opponent". Despite the title, there's only a teaser about that funding, most of that article is about AgJobs. See also Guest Worker Residency Bill Is Taking Root in the Senate and "Miami Herald "endorses indentured servitude".

Posted to Immigration2004 at 03:25 PM | Comments (0)

That's a bit odd

From this:

[Lt. Col. Asad Khan, 44, of Avon, Conn.,] who commanded 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment with the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit in Afghanistan was removed from command Friday, a military spokesman said... No other details were released. No specific reason for the action was given...

From just nine days ago:

While hunting insurgents in Afghanistan, members of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit benefited from someone with a personal understanding of the people and the land.

Lt. Col. Asad Khan, a Pakistani-born Marine officer, commands a reinforced version of the 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment. Called a battalion landing team, it's the 22nd MEU's ground combat element.

In 1972, Khan's parents emigrated from Pakistan through Afghanistan, and he has since returned to the area as a Marine Corps foreign area officer...

(Despite the category in which this post has been placed, his removal might have nothing to do with terrorism or supporting jihad, etc. He might have gotten a bit too "close" to the natives. Or, it could be entirely innocent or entirely unrelated to what he did in Afghanistan.)

Posted to Terrorism at 03:12 PM | Comments (4)

"Saudis eliminate al-Qaida at home, fund abroad"

From WND:

"Saudi Arabia is working hard to shut down the facilitators and financial supporters of terrorism, and they have captured or killed many first-tier leaders of the al-Qaida organization in Saudi Arabia," the White House said in a Sept. 11 statement. "Today, because Saudi Arabia has seen the danger and joined the war on terror, the American people are safer."

...But U.S. officials said Saudi Arabia has failed to stop financing to al-Qaida. Despite U.S. appeals, Saudi charities continue to relay funds to al-Qaida abroad, particularly in financing Arab operatives in Africa and Chechnya...

Posted to TheSaudis at 02:56 PM | Comments (0)

"Ignored In Open-Borders Debate: Rising Cost Of Second Underclass"

Heather MacDonald offers "Ignored In Open-Borders Debate: Rising Cost Of Second Underclass". This appears to be a condensed version of her previous article "The Immigrant Gang Plague".

See also "The Illegal-Alien Crime Wave" and "Hillbangers".

Posted to Immigration2004 at 11:29 AM | Comments (3)

Guess the candidate

Dana Milbank in the WaPo writes about a certain candidate's web site. Can you guess which candidate he's referring to?

On the [CANDIDATE'S] campaign's Spanish-language Web site, prominent display is given to a translation of [THE CANDIDATE'S] Jan. 7 speech proposing an immigration plan involving "guest workers." But the speech was mysteriously missing from the [CANDIDATE'S] campaign's English-language Web site, which includes almost every speech [THE CANDIDATE] gives.

...[and,] on the Spanish-language site the Mexican flag was displayed prominently in the main photograph.

A [CANDIDATE] campaign official said last week that missing immigration speech was "a complete oversight" -- and quickly posted the Jan. 7 speech on the English Web site. The Mexican flag remains on the Spanish-language site. A [CANDIDATE] spokeswoman also pointed out that [OPPOSING CANDIDATE'S] Spanish-language Web site has numerous Spanish sections -- such as Contribuya al DNC and Sea Voluntario that link to English-only pages.

The CANDIDATE in question is, of course, President Bush. One has to wonder about the mindset of people who think not pointing to English-only pages is a good thing.

As pointed out by Milbank, this discrepancy was first pointed out by ProjectUSA in the article "Divided USA, divided GOP, divided Bush-Cheney website".

Milbank quotes the following from ProjectUSA's article:

"[Bush is] dividing the nation's voters into two groups and appealing to one under the flag of some other nation."

UPDATE: A commentator says Dana is a he, not a she as I originally pronoun'ed above. Assuming that's correct, I changed "she" to "he."

Posted to Immigration2004 at 11:25 AM | Comments (3)

"Little to stop illegal aliens from voting"

The Washington Times has an overview of the possibility of illegal aliens voting, but they don't provide any evidence of how many illegal voters there might be. They also provide background information on how little verification is made of voters in Maryland and Virginia.

The article closes with a representative from the worldwide Voice of Stupidity organization:

Peter Rubin, professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center, said many groups are "interested in suppressing the votes of minorities and using illegal tactics as a way of scaring people from coming out to the polls."

"That has happened in many elections," he said. "These tactics are real, continue to be used, and are underreported. It should be of concern to everyone, especially now, when everyone's vote matters."

Posted to Immigration2004 at 12:41 PM | Comments (1)

One of these really happened

Can you guess which of the following really happened?

BERKELEY — State Rep. Miroslav "Mike" Wise recently received one of the Soviet Union’s highest honors for civilians, in part for his work in trying to secure driver’s licenses for undocumented workers... The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics gave Wise the AgitProp Award, awarded to people or organizations that impact the lives of Russian nationals living abroad...

HAMTRAMCK — State Rep. Ahmed "Mike" Wise recently received one of Saudi Arabia’s highest honors for civilians, in part for his work in trying to secure driver’s licenses for undocumented workers... The Republic of Saudi Arabia gave Wise the Jihad Award, awarded to people or organizations that impact the lives of Saudi nationals living abroad...

AUSTIN — State Rep. Miguel "Mike" Wise recently received one of Mexico’s highest honors for civilians, in part for his work in trying to secure driver’s licenses for undocumented workers... The Republic of Mexico gave Wise the Ohtli Award, awarded to people or organizations that impact the lives of Mexican nationals living abroad...

AUGUSTA — State Rep. Pierre "Pete" Wise recently received one of Quebec's highest honors for civilians, in part for his work in trying to secure driver’s licenses for undocumented workers... The Republic of Quebec gave Wise the La Separatisme Award, awarded to people or organizations that impact the lives of Quebec nationals living abroad...

The answer won't shock you: "Mexican government honors local politician":

..."It is a pleasure to present this incentive to a person who has devoted an important part of his legislative career to the betterment of the Mexican community that lives in this country," said Francisco Javier Alejo, consul general of Mexico in Austin...

At the end of the year, Wise will surrender his seat in the Legislature, having lost to Armando Martinez in the Democratic primary. Wise practices law in Weslaco.

He hopes to continue working to help undocumented immigrants get driver’s licenses, as well as pushing for the Legislature to recognize the Mexican-issued matricula consular identification card as a valid form of photo identification in business and government transactions, he said...

As can be expected, there's nothing in there about the impropriety of a politician receiving an award for working if not at the behest of then certainly in the interests of a foreign power.

Posted to Immigration2004 at 12:20 PM | Comments (1)

Reaction to Arnold's veto from south of the border

From this:

A top foreign relations official on Thursday lambasted California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's veto of legislation that would have allowed undocumented migrants to obtain a driver's licenses in the state...

Juan Bosco Martí, general director for North American affairs with the Foreign Relations Secretariat (SRE) said in a press conference the Mexican government is very concerned by the action.

Bosco said the inability of undocumented workers to obtain a driver's license hurts all migrants in California, not just Mexicans.

"The Mexican government will continue to defend the interests of the Mexican community residing in California within the realm of the laws of the United States and California," he said...

Bosco said the Mexican government would continue to promote the use of consulate-issued I.D. cards to help give migrants in the United States a means of identification that they can use to obtain U.S. drivers' licenses, bank accounts and other services.

The SRE says the cards are accepted as valid identification in 33 U.S. states, 1,180 police departments and 178 banks, and that it has issued 2.2 million of them since March 2002.

See also "California legislators ask Mexican Senate to intervene [in driver's licenses for illegal aliens]"

For more on the Matricula Consular cards, see "Their money or your safety".

Posted to Immigration_dls at 12:01 PM | Comments (2)

"Driver's license bill belongs in the dumper."

From the Long Beach Press-Telegram's "Another proper veto":

There will be no driver's licenses for illegal immigrants anytime soon. And that is plenty soon enough...

The real debate isn't about driving, it's about an attempt to "legalize," as much as possible, the immigration status of people who are here illegally. A driver's license is the primary tool of identification in California, and it can be used for many purposes other than driving...

The San Jose Mercury News weighs in with Driver's license muddle. They also support differentiated driver's licenses, rather than making the correct choice of no licenses at all.

Posted to Immigration_dls at 11:53 AM | Comments (1)

26 Arizona DMV workers caught in driver's license scam

From this:

Federal and state agents Thursday charged 26 state workers with illegally issuing driver's licenses to human traffickers, undocumented immigrants and drug dealers, calling the actions a threat to national security.

Immediately, Gov. Janet Napolitano detailed a plan to prevent further fraud at the Motor Vehicle Division, but she said the measures likely will make getting a driver's license more complicated...

"All the undercovers [who conducted the sting] represented themselves as drug dealers or human traffickers, so the DMV employees' participation was to further criminal activity," Gray said.

Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik said, "They've sold national security, in what I consider to be a very traitorous fashion, a despicable fashion, for 30 pieces of silver."

As an aside, Gov. Janet Napolitano - along with others - opposes Prop. 200, that would seek to prevent illegal aliens from voting and obtaining non-federally-mandated services.

This post discusses how the 9/11 hijackers obtained driver's licenses.

Posted to Immigration_dls at 11:42 AM | Comments (1)

Bbbbut, I'm for schools and education!

From WND:

A school district that participated in a terrorist-attack response drill apologized for using a scenario in which children were threated by a fictitious radical group that believes everyone should be homeschooled.

The made-up group, called Wackos Against Schools and Education, was invented by the local government emergency services director.

Ha ha, very funny.

See also Michelle Malkin's "Anti-homeschooling bigots strike again".

Posted to WackyHumor at 09:44 PM | Comments (1)

Arnold might need to find a new excuse

In "Maybe It's Time for Cedillo to Let Arnold Take the Wheel", the L.A. Times suggests that Gil "One Bill Gil" Cedillo stops trying to get the current version of his driver's licenses for illegal aliens bill passed. Instead, he should allow the mark Arnold wants that would distinguish the bearer as an illegal alien.

Being the L.A. Times, it includes this bit: "Give Schwarzenegger credit: He's not one of these demagogic nativists who considers a driver's license a "benefit" — a "reward" for border-sneaking — and therefore should be denied to anybody here illegally." Let's ignore that; it is the L.A. Times after all.

What's worrisome is this bit:

Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez (D-Los Angeles) seems to see the larger picture.

"The way I look at it," he says, "is you can keep pushing the issue, but you've got to find common ground with the governor. Or it's just going be an exercise in civics.

"We're going to have to come back and have a serious discussion with him about 'the mark,' if that's the only way he's going to sign a bill. It's a tough pill for me to swallow, but at the end of the day, the need for the driver's license outweighs it.

"I look at it as a scarlet letter, to be honest with you. But we need for people to get to and from work."

Could those who push these bills live with the marks, and therefore call Arnold's bluff? Let's hope not.

Thankfully, SaveOurLicense might make all this moot by forbidding illegal aliens from ever getting a license in California. I see the bigger picture too, and it's closely related to our supposedly American representatives asking the Mexican Senate for help with this bill.

UPDATE: The DailyNews article "Nunez relents on licenses" seems to have much the same information as that above, with the expected addition that Nunez would prefer a mark that's visible only to "authorities."

Posted to Immigration_dls at 02:43 PM | Comments (1)

And all the ships in drydock

From the Hampton Roads Pilot Online article "Shipyards, military bases face security breaches":

A Mexican worker used forged documents to obtain work in Hampton Roads and was caught.

Normally, such an arrest wouldn’t warrant headlines. But when the illegal immigrant is cuffed on the deck of a Navy amphibious assault ship, the story takes on a more urgent meaning.

Since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, at least 52 illegal workers have been arrested at Hampton Roads’ ports, shipyards and military installations, according to court records and news accounts. The number could be higher, because law enforcement agencies don’t keep count...

The article goes on to provide a summary of many of those cases, and it includes more information on what those who want to hire legal workers are up against.

See also "[Navy] Base security scrutinized over illegal-immigrant workers" and "Doing the high security jobs Americans won't do". In the first article, a contractor might have hired people who were not just illegal aliens, but were members of a Central American gang. The same gang featured in "Al-Qaida meets with Central American gang, lawmaker says."

Posted to Immigration_terror at 02:28 PM | Comments (1)

Two years?

Yes, two years.

Yes, yes, you heard that right. Two years.

Posted to Bloggage at 10:41 PM | Comments (1)

Arnold vetoes driver's licenses for illegal aliens bill

As expected: "Schwarzenegger vetoes driver's licenses for illegal immigrants." The text of his nice letter vetoing the bill is here.

Also as expected, State Senator Gil "One Bill Gil" Cedillo, perennial sponsor of these bills, says he will keep on trying.

Although there's been much coverage of Cedillo here, the most telling bit is his barely-noticed rationale for giving DLs to IAs: "they were here first." I attempted to parse that phrase here. That was, of course, soon replaced by him constantly repeating "it's for public safety, it's for public safety."

See also the attempts by some of his putatively American co-workers to seek help with this bill from the Mexican senate.

As for the report linked to above, note that this is written by Jim Wasserman of the AP. There seem to be two forms of this report: a short version and a long version. The long version is linked to above and here. The short version is here.

From the long version, we learn two surprising facts I had not heard of before.

1. California's "neighbors" include "Utah, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii." I guess I'm just old-fashioned, thinking as I do that "neighbor" implies contiguousness or not being separated by thousands of miles of water. (Perhaps the AP reporter is thinking forward to that bridge they're building or something.)

2. "Lawmakers passed the ban [on DLs for IAs] in 1993 as anti-immigrant sentiment swept the state, culminating in 1994's passage of Proposition 187, which aimed to deny public services to illegal immigrants."

#1 I don't mind so much. However, #2 is inaccurate and internally inconsistent. Send your emails to: info@ap.org

Posted to Immigration_dls at 10:33 PM | Comments (1)

"The Terminator vows to terminate licenses for immigrants"

This article in Kansas City's Dos Mundos offers a standard story on Gil Cedillo's "public safety" bill to give driver's licenses for "immigrants" (actually, illegal aliens).

What's interesting is the photo from an anti-Arnold protest. It features two masked protesters wearing... Che Guevara T-Shirts. Keep those protests coming!

Posted to Immigration_dls at 01:38 PM | Comments (0)

"Questionable Sources for Bush and Kerry Proposals for Undocumented Mexican Workers in US"

From a press release, presented for amusement purposes only.

In 1999 a US Senator was approached by a novelist for help with a US-Mexican immigration plan for the novel "Estados Unidos/United States" (pub. 11/03). In 2004 Bush, then Kerry, proposed plans duplicating the fictional amendment...

Posted to Immigration2004 at 01:22 PM | Comments (0)

"Illegals detained at border released onto U.S. streets"

From this:

The government has no idea how many of the thousands of illegal aliens from terrorist-sponsoring states it has caught at the U.S. border and released back onto America's streets were terrorists or had ties to terror groups.

...more than 4,000 people from countries identified by the State Department as terrorism sponsors or national security concerns [Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iran, North Korea, China, Pakistan, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Afghanistan, Yemen and Somalia] were apprehended since 2000 and that "an unknown number" were released back into the United States...

"The Department of Homeland Security's answers about border security and enforcement do not inspire confidence," [Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-IA)] said...

Mr. Grassley, who said the department did not provide any information to show "any serious or meaningful effort" to remedy the problems, said Homeland Security officials also maintained an "alarming" policy of releasing thousands of OTMs after their capture.

Posted to Immigration_terror at 11:30 AM | Comments (1)

"Just 30mm guns to protect 300lbs of weapons-grade plutonium on open seas"

This page has the details which are rather scary: [This ships that will transport the plutonium across the Atlantic] each boast three 30mm cannons capable of tackling attacking boats and aircraft. Armed officers from the UK Atomic Energy Constabulary are also on guard against boarders... Jane's Foreign Report concluded that even with their 30mm guns the freighters were "capable of repelling only a lightly armed attack".

30mm is just over an inch, and, while there might be other ships in the convoy, the Coast Guard will not be among them. Whether our Navy will be is not stated.

Posted to Terrorism at 12:52 AM | Comments (7)

When Multiculturalists seek to understand!

Let's start at the end and work towards the headline with this one:

"Most of the people on the team are there to get a positive experience and to play soccer," Bruun-Hanssen said. "Now Djerv has to present its view of the case, and then we have to evaluate possible sanctions against players and the club afterwards. But at the same time as it is important to send a clear message, we are also forced to try to aid Djerv as a club so that they can incorporate persons with multicultural background into the club in the most sensible way."

What ever could Norwegian (professional?) soccer "section leader" Roald Bruun-Hanssen be referring to?

From "Players threatened to decapitate and rape":

One player was knocked down, and several members of the audience were threatened with decapitation and rape when several of the players in the 7.division game flew of the handle...

Several of the Djerv 2 players acted aggressively towards both other players and the audience. According to the local paper Bergensavisen, one person was injured after being knocked to the ground by a Djerv player.

The sudden outburst of rage was also directed against several audience members, several received death threats and several were threatened with decapitation. Some of the women in the audience were threatened with rape...

"These are threats of aggravated violence and we don’t want anything like this on the soccer filed," Bruun-Hanssen said to TV 2 Nettavisen. "I haven’t either heard to anything like this before."

However, he does not want to condemn the entire team which mainly consist of immigrants.

[...quote above follows...]

See also the previous post: Sweden enjoying the wonders of massive immigration, "multiculturalism"

Posted to Immigration_euro at 12:34 AM | Comments (2)

Sweden enjoying the wonders of massive immigration, "multiculturalism"

I don't entirely trust this site or the translation, but here are some articles about how part or all of Sweden's third-largest city (Malmo) has apparently descended into a multiculturalist's paradise. For example, this one from the Afton Bladet (Swedish version here):

Malmø, Sweden. The police now publicly admit what many Scandinavians have known for a long time: They no longer control the situation in the nations's third largest city. It is effectively ruled by violent gangs of Muslim immigrants. Some of the Muslims have lived in the area of Rosengård, Malmø, for twenty years, and still don't know how to read or write Swedish. Ambulance personnel are attacked by stones or weapons, and refuse to help anybody in the area without police escort. The immigrants also spit at them when they come to help. Recently, an Albanian youth was stabbed by an Arab, and was left bleeding to death on the ground while the ambulance waited for the police to arrive. The police themselves hesitate to enter parts of their own city unless they have several patrols, and need to have guards to watch their cars, otherwise they will be vandalized. "Something drastic has to be done, or much more blood will be spilled" says one of the locals.

Other summaries are provided at the link. Note that these are summaries, not full and exact translations. In a later post, the translator responds to criticisms about him providing summaries rather than full translations. He says if anything he understated the matter.

While I tend to believe him, I'd also like to see word-for-word translations. I'd also like to see the justifications for this from the MultiCultiCult establishment.

Posted to Immigration_euro at 02:19 PM | Comments (3)

"Welcoming arms put squeeze on U.S."

From John O'Sullivan:

Last week Time magazine breached an important taboo in the establishment media. It published a powerful indictment of America's current immigration policy -- and in particular the U.S. government's scandalous tolerance of illegal immigration -- under the striking title: "Who Left the Door Open?"

...Given the potentially disastrous results of terrorists strolling through our porous borders, you might suppose that the Bush administration would be cracking down on border incursions. Far from it. Not only is the president proposing amnesty for illegal immigrants already here, he also wants to reform the law so that U.S. employers can import as many foreign workers quite legally -- by the simple tactic of offering jobs at wages no American will accept...

Furthermore, in an interview with the Washington Times, Asa Hutchinson of the Homeland Security Department wrung his hands and regretted that a compassionate administration could not possibly deport large numbers of illegal immigrants. In making that argument, he confirmed that the administration has essentially decided to keep the borders porous...

Posted to Immigration2004 at 02:04 PM | Comments (1)

What should Bill O'Reilly ask President Bush?

Bill O'Reilly will be interviewing Bush next week, and he wants to know what to ask. Send your "pithy" questions to Oreilly@foxnews.com.

I've only seen his show once or twice. But, I've seen "Internet rumors" that he's gone soft on immigration matters. In the past he's had exposes of extremists and the like, but apparently he's been drinking from the GOP Kool-Aid of late and supporting Bush's amnesty plan or similar. In the past he's supported some forms of guest worker programs. But, I haven't compiled his latest thoughts on the subject and since my Fernsehen only works locally, I don't watch his show.

Posted to Immigration2004 at 12:46 PM | Comments (2)

Bill Jones makes right noises, seeks support

From Senate candidate campaigns for reform of immigration system:

U.S. Senatorial candidate Bill Jones praised the role of immigrants in building California, but called for a reform of the state's and the nation's immigration system during a campaign stop here last week...

...He does not support giving illegal immigrants driver's licenses.

"This country has not spoken with a clear, precise message (on illegal immigration)," Jones said. "Amnesty by itself will only incentivize illegal immigration."

...In a recent poll taken by SurveyUSA, Boxer leads Jones by 48 to 42 percent. In an earlier Field poll, Boxer held a 17 percent lead over Jones.

Given Bush's "amnesty by any other name" amnesty plan, Jones could be supporting Bush's plan at the same time as he's opposing amnesty. Or, he might be against Bush's plan. Nevertheless, he appears to be somewhat on the right track and his poll numbers are certainly better than I would have expected.

Posted to Immigration2004 at 12:35 PM | Comments (0)

"Campaign cowardice"

From Lou Dobbs' Campaign cowardice:

The national media's focus on President Bush's National Guard service, or neglect of duty, and Senator Kerry's heroism, or opportunism, 35 years ago has been a boon to both candidates' efforts to avoid concrete discussion of the most important issues facing middle-class Americans...

...And while Bush maintains that our borders and ports are secure, Kerry maintains they are not. But both candidates, because of hypersensitivity to the important Hispanic vote, choose not to offer real and specific proposals to deal with what is nothing less than an invasion of our country by illegal aliens. In poll after poll, Americans by an overwhelming majority say they want illegal immigration ended. Study after study shows the crushing burden on our economy and taxpayers created by the influx of somewhere between 1 million and 3 million illegal aliens into the United States this year...

...One has to wonder why both candidates obviously fear dealing with the issues most critical to the nation they want to lead over the next four years. Timidity and disingenuousness in confronting these critical issues are hardly the character traits of the leader we should elect on November 2. One can only hope that character and the right stuff will emerge in either or both of our candidates in the weeks ahead. Let's hope so, for the sake of us all.

In expectation of Open Borders advocates starting another round of Dobbs bashing, here's the technorati and daypop searches. At post time, no other blogs are commenting.

Posted to Immigration2004 at 12:29 PM | Comments (0)

Arnold signs "pointed" legislation

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed needle-exchange legislation. While I would generally support this on public health rather than ideological grounds, the devil is in the details.

My casual read of the bill in question reveals there are no safeguards to ensure or at least encourage that those who get these needles are in fact already addicts and that the needles are only for their personal use. Because of that, expect a (brisker) black market for needles as non-addicts acquire needles to be sold to addicts who can't get enough.

The bill also makes it a crime to dispose of a needle at places like public playgrounds. Great idea. Now, we just need to station cops in sandboxes at public playgrounds throughout the state.

A better idea would have provided some form of deposit like soda cans. That would have encouraged addicts to dispose of their needles by bringing them into a pharmacy. Pharmacies (I'd imagine) already have bio-hazard boxes that could be used.

And, the other downside is this:

the signing marked a personal triumph for the termed-out Vasconcellos, who had steered two other versions of the measure through the Legislature only to have it rejected by Davis, who had agreed with opponents' concerns.

Any personal triumph for that fine legislator is in some ways a defeat for everyone else. In addition to authoring the racially-subtexted bill to give partial votes to teenies, he also said this: "Since [the U.S.] stole [the southwestern U.S.] from [Mexico], why do you say it’s unfair to steal [the southwestern U.S.] back from us?".

Posted to California at 12:25 PM | Comments (2)

Who is the FDIC? And, why are they working with a foreign government to subvert our laws?

The FDIC - "an independent agency of the federal government" - is working with the Mexican consulate in Chicago, banks, and community groups to give home loans to "immigrants." If they're legal immigrants, and thus American citizens (or on their way), why is a foreign government involved?

The article "NWI banks offer home loans to undocumented immigrants" explains why:

TCF Bank is the first bank to open the door to home loans for undocumented immigrants in Northwest Indiana; Fifth Third Bank plans to follow suit this month.

TCF and Fifth Third will be among the largest banks in the United States to offer the new loans. They join about 15 other banks in the Midwest to do so...

"[David Creel, TCF Bank vice president for marketing says] Most of these folks want to become U.S. citizens, so there is a good intent here... We believe everyone should have the opportunity to own a home. It's as simple as that."

Both banks are part of the New Alliance Task Force, a consortium of banks, financial institutions and the Mexican Consulate in Chicago. The consortium was formed in May 2003 to expand banking services to immigrants.

The consortium has concentrated on undocumented immigrants...

"[The Mexican consul says] This is a very important part of the culture of Mexican people to own a home... We want our community every day to become more and more of what the Midwest is about."

If these people were "immigrants" in the Ellis Island sense, isn't it counterproductive to get a foreign government involved? Shouldn't we be trying to ween these "immigrants" away from the government to which they have (presumably) dropped allegiance? And, why is our government helping defeat "Ellis Island-style" immigration?

An FDIC spokesman serves as a source in that article; in the Chicago Tribune article "Mortgage Plan Open to Illegal Immigrants; 35 Banks, FDIC Seek to Ease Loans" the same spokesman is quoted as saying: "A home might be the ultimate dream, as with any other family. The important thing is that they have access. There might be some criticism, but immigration issues are not our purview."

There's more in this shocking Economist article. It starts out with the word "nativists" and goes downhill from there.

Posted to Immigration2004 at 04:01 PM | Comments (1)

Then why did I have the bowl, Bart? Why did I have the bowl?

If voting by illegal aliens is not a problem, why are "immigrant advocates" so vehemently opposed to people having to show proof of citizenship when voting?

From "Critics blast Horn's bid to reduce fraud":

Californians would have to show proof of citizenship when registering to vote and photo identification when voting under a proposal San Diego County Supervisor Bill Horn is pushing.

Horn, who said the requirements would help prevent voter fraud, will ask the Board of Supervisors tomorrow to sign a letter to the secretary of state endorsing his proposal and advocating a change in state law.

Civil rights advocates, the San Diego County Democratic Party and the San Diego League of Women Voters say the proposed requirements are burdensome and would discourage people – especially minorities – from voting. The Legislature has rejected similar recommendations before, they said.

"We have not seen a rash of voter fraud taking place in California, certainly not in San Diego County, that I've been made aware of," said Jess Durfee, chairman of the county's Democratic Party...

From "Voting by noncitizens hard to find":

Concern that illegal immigrants vote regularly in Arizona has become an emotional hot button for proponents of Proposition 200, but election officials say there is little or no evidence that voting by noncitizens is a problem.

Those officials, including Republican Secretary of State Jan Brewer, say they know of no cases in which a noncitizen was convicted and few if any instances in which anyone was prosecuted for voting illegally. Pima County Recorder F. Ann Rodriguez, in fact, says the illegal-immigrant voter is an urban legend...

Here's a tonier allusion than Milhouse: methinks they doth protest too much.

Posted to Immigration2004 at 01:18 PM | Comments (0)

"Basayev Says He Was Behind Beslan"

Bearing in mind this is the Moscow Times relying on a Chechen website:

Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev claimed responsibility for the Beslan hostage-taking and four other recent attacks and defiantly threatened to carry out more.

Basayev said in a statement posted on a rebel web site Friday that the attacks -- which include two plane bombings, a Moscow metro suicide blast and a Moscow bus stop explosion -- were part of a campaign to end the Chechen conflict, start the withdrawal of federal troops from Chechnya and force President Vladimir Putin to resign if he "doesn't want peace."

As previously posted, this page says:

"[The DHS has just granted asylum to someone who's] the foreign minister-in-exile of the secessionist Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, and a former military adjutant to Chechnaya's generalissimo, Shamil Basayev."

Posted to Terrorism at 01:02 PM | Comments (1)

Ja, aber wo sind die Foto?

Von Oben ohne bei den Deckenleuchten: Der Berliner Elektromarkt Innova lockt mit entblößten Brüsten - und der Kunde schaut weg:

...Foto: Was für ein Empfang: Bei Innova am Alexanderplatz begrüßten gestern halb nackte Aushilfen die Kunden...

Pfhwoar! Aber, gibt's nicht das Foto! Gebe mich das Foto, du schweinhund!

There aren't any photos in "Blase Berliners shrug off store's topless sales staff" either. There's a photo in "Berliners are so blasé they shrug at store’s topless staff" but it's of two Bavarian gents. Ich mich fuehle let down by the world media.

Posted to WackyHumor at 11:48 AM | Comments (0)

Their money or your safety

[cross-posted at the-lonewacko-blog.redstate.org/story/2004/9/19/225351/640 and the Command Post]

From August 28's edition of the CPUSA's house organ People's Weekly World (cache used because site down):

U.S. Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas) has introduced controversial legislation to sharply curtail the rights and daily activities of immigrants [sic; only illegal immigrants would be affected --LW]. The legislation would block undocumented workers in the U.S. from opening bank accounts and deny them any access to Social Security payments.

Culberson has cloaked this reactionary legislation, an amendment to a House appropriations bill, as a measure to enhance national security. Attempting to exploit the fears generated by the Bush administration rhetoric about terrorists, Culberson claims that Middle Eastern terrorists have disguised themselves by using Hispanic names and that his bill will help keep such terrorists out [see Congressman: Terrorists are infiltrating the U.S. via Mexico --LW].

Among other things, the amendment would make it much more difficult for immigrants [sic; illegal immigrants --LW] to use foreign IDs, such as the matricula consular issued by the Mexican government, to open bank accounts...

Those "Matricula Consular" cards ("MC") are only of use to illegal aliens. And, Culberson does have a point:

Last June, before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Steve McCraw, assistant director of the FBI's Office of Intelligence, said that the bureau and the Justice Department have concluded that the card is not a reliable means of identification. McCraw warned that the "ability of foreign nationals to use the matricula consular to create a well-documented, but fictitious, identity in the United States provides an opportunity for terrorists to move freely in the United States without triggering name-based watch lists that are disseminated to local police officers. It also allows them to board planes without revealing their true identity."

Given that, you might expect Culberson's legislation to have passed, but you'd be wrong. From House Backs Bush on Mexican ID Cards:

The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday voted to support a Bush administration plan to allow the use of Mexican identification cards to open U.S. bank accounts.

The House voted 222 to 177 remove language in an $89.9 billion bill funding the Transportation and Treasury Departments aimed at preventing the use of the cards. The House has yet to vote on the overall bill...

According to data from the Mexican foreign ministry, over 2.2 million of the cards have been issued since March 2002 and 178 financial institutions and 1,180 police departments in the United States accept them as proof of identity.

The Inter-American Development Bank and Treasury Department have backed the matricula as a way for Mexicans to open bank accounts and send billions of dollars in remittances back to their families in Mexico.

Before the vote, Treasury Secretary Snow said this:

"The Administration believes as a general matter that Americans are better protected if consumers of all nationalities are invited into the financial mainstream"

After the vote, Culberson had this to say:

"The Treasury rule is an embarrassment and a danger to national security, and so I will continue to work relentlessly to do away with this rule," Mr. Culberson said Wednesday.

In that last link, Nancy Pelosi weighs in with a quote in support of MC cards. In case you weren't confused already.

See also 222 House Members Put Interests of Banking Lobby Ahead of Homeland Security and the extensive backgrounder "IDs for Illegals: The 'Matricula Consular' Advances Mexico's Immigration Agenda".

But, there's more. And, you might consider it even worse...

If you were an illegal alien living in, say, Sherwood Arkansas, would you need to travel to the Dallas TX Mexican consulate to pick up your MC card? Not if the consul comes to you. Recent news reports detail how Mexican consuls travel to various outposts in the U.S. exchanging an MC card for the $26 fee. And, most of the reporters who cover the consul coming to their town do so in either a gullible or a disingenuous manner.

In almost all of these reports the sales job given by the consuls is presented without comment. In most cases, nary a dissenting word is heard. And, in some cases local churches or banks are involved.

Some reports are provided below, along with contact information for the editors involved.

· Sherwood [AR] Voice
Arkansas needs Mexican consulate; new documentation
by Warren Watkins (editor)

(church is involved; gullible local leaders provide quotes; no dissenting voices)

includes this consul quote: "[I came to Arkansas to] continue the negotiations with the state and city authorities for making sure that we are going to inaugurate a Mexican consulate in the coming year in Little Rock... Governor Huckabee was a large part of this... He went to Mexico City and met with President Fox and proposed this... [when you get your MC we] don�t care if you are documented or undocumented... I like Arkansas... It is so green. It�s so clean, nice, with very warm, open people, and many friends of Mexico."

· Hilton Head SC's Island Packet
Mexican Consulate issues IDs
by Noah Haglund
Fitz McAden, executive editor fmcaden@islandpacket.com

(mentions that social security number is required for a driver's license in SC and NC, but no terrorism mention; includes FAIR quote)

includes this consul quote: "[The consul] also said he didn't like seeing illegal immigration because it hurt his national pride to see so many compatriots living far from home."

· That report generated the letter to the editor "ID cards a cash cow": "The consulate, as well as the matricula and the cash remittance sent by illegal alien laborers, are cash cows to the Mexican government... Our local governments should avoid being a party to this travesty and refrain from aiding and abetting illegal aliens who seek to arrive and remain illegally in the United States. That too is a federal crime."

· Naples [FL] Daily News
Mexican nationals flock to mobile consulate for passports, ID cards
by Tracy Miguel
editor: Phil Lewis pplewis@naplesnews.com

(event was co-sponsored by Bank of America; MC's "acknowledge [a person's] presence in the United States"; a church is involved; alludes to stricter DL procedures after 9/11; MCs "can be issued whether or not the holder is legally in the United States... The Mexican Consulate will provide the matricula and passport if the person who is requesting the document can prove that he or she is a Mexican national"; article ends with the phone number of the Mexican consulate for those who want more information)

· WKYT (via Paducah News working for AP?)
Mexican government helps immigrants acquire passports, identification cards
Contacts: rclark@paducahsun.com, Jim.Ogle@wkyt.com, info@ap.org

(no mention of terrorism risks, no quotes from consul; church involved; minister says: "These are illegal and legal people... This has nothing to do with immigration.")

· Racine, WI Journal Times
"Mexican Consulate helps locals with their papers"
by Julio Urdaneta
editor Randolph Brandt: rbrandt@journaltimes.com

(no downsides mentioned; includes this: Alberto Martin, North Shore Bank branch manager in Milwaukee [said] "This is our third venture with the Mexican Consulate. We have participated in activities like this before in Milwaukee and Green Bay and now in Racine... "I believe we are creating a union, a joint work with the Mexican consulate to help Mexicans to obtain matriculas consulares.")

Contact the North Shore Bank's president, Jim McKenna, at 1-800-236-4672 or through this complicated form.

If that's not enough, see Pressure on to support immigration measure. Althoug not directly related to MC cards, that article concerns how banks are forming together to oppose the Protect Arizona Now initiative.

And, for more information on Mexican consulates, search for maus here or consider this quote from 11/02:

[Mexico's foreign minister Jorge] Castaneda said Mexican officials will begin rallying unions, churches, universities and Mexican communities... "What's important is that American society sees a possible migratory agreement in a positive light," Castaneda said. "We are already giving instructions to our consulates [in the U.S.] that they begin propagating militant activities -- if you will -- in their communities."

Posted to Immigration2004 at 09:49 PM | Comments (3)

"My understanding is this isn't ID for illegals"

The titular quote is from none other than St. Clair (MI) County commissioner Pamela Wall, discussing Matricula Consular cards in the article "County to decide on Mexican ID card; Consul: Document should be accepted as legal identification".

Mexico's consul in Detroit wants the fine St. Clair county commissioners to accept those IDs.

You know, the ones mentioned in "IDs for Illegals: The 'Matricula Consular' Advances Mexico's Immigration Agenda" or "FBI Official Says Matricula Consular Card Is Security Threat".

Thankfully, someone there has some sense:

The cards have sparked controversy in various communities. Critics said the cards grant legal status to illegal aliens.

Commissioner Patricia Anger, R-Clyde Township, wants to make sure that's not the case.

"I would not want to make something available that would help illegals get services our residents need," she said.

Her email is panger@stclaircounty.org. Please send her the two links above as well as any other useful information.

Posted to Immigration_consul at 02:47 PM | Comments (1)

Evasion of our laws, threats to our sovereignty go mobile

From Lexington, KY's TV station WKYT comes "Mexican government helps immigrants acquire passports, identification cards":

MAYFIELD, Ky. -- The Mobile Mexican Consulate visited Mayfield over the weekend to help Mexican immigrants apply for passports...

"These are illegal and legal people," [a Baptist minister] said. "This has nothing to do with immigration..."

[A Mexican citizen visited] the center while she presented documents needed for a Mexican government-backed ID, or matricula.

[She] said being able to receive her matricula in Mayfield was "muy facil," or very easy...

The matricula cards are issued by the Mexican government to its nationals living in other countries. Kentucky is not yet one of the thirteen states that accept the cards as valid identification...

This article does have one small mention of "illegal," so at least it's a small step up from the other recent report that had no mention of illegal vs. legal.

This appears to be an AP report written by or published in the Paducah Sun. It'd be nice if the AP would expand their style guide on the Matricula Consular card to include some of the information presented in "IDs for Illegals: The 'Matricula Consular' Advances Mexico's Immigration Agenda" or "FBI Official Says Matricula Consular Card Is Security Threat".

Please contact these people and suggest they provide more detailed information on these Matricula Consular cards:

rclark@paducahsun.com
Jim.Ogle@wkyt.com
info@ap.org

Posted to Immigration_consul at 02:15 PM | Comments (1)

The losing battle to deport criminal aliens

The AP has an article about the attempts to catch "the nearly half-million immigrants who have ducked deportation orders or are targets for removal because they were convicted of a crime."

The article is by Elliot Spagat and Laura Wides: "Drive to deport illegal fugitives 'a losing battle'":

Even as the government pours millions into enforcement, each year the number of new fugitives far exceeds the number of immigrants removed...

Federal agents will have detained nearly 10,000 fugitives during the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30. It's impossible to know how many of those deported have already returned to the United States. During the same period, an estimated 40,000 new fugitives were added - so the list has actually grown longer.

The explanation is straightforward. Homeland Security has only about 19,500 detention beds nationwide. Although local jails hold some of the overflow, overwhelmed immigration courts often release immigrants who are challenging their deportation and trust they'll show up for court...

[...new ways to track people using ankle bracelets, etc...]

Co-author Laura Wides was featured in the older post Does "AP" stand for "AgitProp?" - Part 2 of a long series. While this article isn't that bad, note the following:

1. The article has 31 paragraphs.

2. Two of those are devoted to "Doris Meissner, former President Clinton's top immigration official", starting at paragraph 23. (See Meissner's Gift to Criminal Aliens and Thwarting Homeland Security)

3. A National Lawyer's Guild (!) spokesman gets 1.5 paragraphs starting at the second sentence in paragraph 27. (Apparently the CPUSA spokesman wasn't available)

4. Only the first sentence in paragraph 27 is devoted to the obvious problem:

Some critics say the government relies too much on enforcement instead of addressing the fundamental reasons immigrants come.

Well, duh. You don't have to deport people if they aren't allowed to come here in the first place.

Perhaps in a future article Laura Wides might want to ask why Bush spends so much money on enforcement at the same time as he's encouraging as many illegal aliens as possible to come here.

Posted to Immigration2004 at 01:45 PM | Comments (0)

"Shut The Sanctuary"

From Investor's Business Daily:

Is America's establishment finally waking up to the fact that the country has a serious, dangerous border problem? One sign of raised consciousness, currently on newsstands, is a Time magazine cover story that sounds the alarm about illegal immigration and blasts the federal government for failing to enforce its laws, especially those against the hiring of illegals...

[...discussion of the Protect Arizona Now initiative (Prop. 200)...]

Every one of the interests lined up against Proposition 200 has some reason to favor the status quo. Businesses like the cheap, compliant labor. Unions have long since abandoned their old resistance to low-wage foreign workers and now see them as potential members. The Democrats see them in much the same way, as future Democratic voters.

The GOP is split. There is significant unrest in the ranks, but party leaders, including the president, think much like the Democrats.

State and local governments don't want to be bothered with the unpleasant task of screening people and turning many away. Hispanic activists and their media cheerleaders readily distort measures such as Proposition 200 as "anti-immigrant" when what they really do is show a much-deserved preference to immigrants who are obeying the law...

Without such [all the incentives to be here illegally], the human tide would surely drop to a more manageable level. That truth is beginning to penetrate at least some minds in the mainstream media, and the voters of Arizona may soon do what they can to shut the sanctuary down.

Posted to Immigration2004 at 12:42 PM | Comments (0)

"Mexican Consulate helps locals with their papers"

PIIPPs ("pro-illegal immigration puff pieces") don't just appear in the NYT, they also appear in smaller papers like the Racine, WI Journal Times.

Here's the first paragraph of "Mexican Consulate helps locals with their papers":

Yara Duran wants to open a bank account to start saving money for her 1-year-old daughter, Ashley.

It gets much, much worse:

[Duran obtained] her "matricula consular," a form of identification issued by Mexican consulates all over the world that identifies her as a Mexican citizen. With that document, she will be able to open a bank account.

"In the bank they told me I needed that," Duran said. "And here I am."

...Alberto Martin, North Shore Bank branch manager in Milwaukee [said] "This is our third venture with the Mexican Consulate. We have participated in activities like this before in Milwaukee and Green Bay and now in Racine.

"I believe we are creating a union, a joint work with the Mexican consulate to help Mexicans to obtain matriculas consulares."

As you might imagine, nowhere in the article does it mention that the only people who have any use for Matricula Consular cards are illegal aliens. So, in effect, the bank is working with a foreign nation to enable illegal immigration.

According to the Bush administration, that's OK.

What do you think? Contact the bank's president, Jim McKenna, at 1-800-236-4672 or through this complicated form. The editor of the Racine Journal Times is Randolph Brandt: rbrandt@journaltimes.com

Posted to Immigration_consul at 11:53 AM | Comments (0)

Homeland Security making "extraordinary progress"

That's according to our borders czar, Asa Hutchinson:

Hutchinson also gave a lukewarm response to last week's report by the ranking member on the House Select Committee on Homeland Security, U.S. Rep. Jim Turner, D-Texas, who says the border needs a $1 billion infrastructure investment fund and a doubling of law enforcement on the U.S.-Mexico border. Turner also said there is need to screen all cargo trucks for weapons of mass destruction.

"The country is fighting a war against terror, but nowhere is the gap between rhetoric and reality greater than on our southern border," Turner said.

Hutchinson said the report "failed to recognize the extraordinary progress that has been made under Homeland Security."

"We recognize that more needs to be done, but we don't want simply to, for example, double the number of Border Patrol agents without looking at what technologies can be used," he said.

If you haven't already, you might now want to read this interview with Hutchinson: "Rounding up all illegals 'not realistic'"

Posted to Immigration2004 at 01:38 PM | Comments (1)

"California legislators ask Mexican Senate to intervene [in driver's licenses for illegal aliens]"

This is a MexiData translation of a Mexican newspaper story from 9/7/04. I couldn't find this mentioned anywhere else:

Mexico City -- Members of the Assembly of California have asked the Mexican Senate (sic) to beseech Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to sign the bill so that almost 2 million undocumented Mexicans can obtain driver's licenses that would serve as identification...

...Marco Antonio Firebaugh, said that the governor "is the one who has the ability to make it law, to give this right to Mexicans, whether they have settled in California or not... We want the Mexican people to know that the measure is on his desk... However it is now September and he has not responded whatsoever, although we will insist on approval of the bill, basically so that illegal migrants can have access to education and health services in the U.S..."

Assemblywoman Cindy Montanez, from the San Fernando Valley, said that it is vital for Mexico to ask Schwarzenegger to approve this legislation "so that he would know that not only people of California, but an entire country is asking that he sign the bill."

MexiData adds a note that a fulfillment of these requests would be against Mexico's constitution.

(Via SaveOurLicense.com's latest news)

UPDATE: Now see "U.S. code 18 U.S.C. 953". What they did might have been illegal, not that anyone would have the guts to do anything about it.

Posted to Immigration_dls at 02:04 PM | Comments (4)

"A Day Without Misrepresentation?"

National Review associate editor Meghan Clyne has a review of the film A Day Without A Mexican: "A Day Without Misrepresentation?"

Back in May when this first came out, I pointed out on a comments thread on another blog that this was the ultimate strawman film. As Clyne says:

Therein lies the movie's first flaw — but there are many others. Mexican's very premise — suddenly, a mysterious fog clears the state of all Hispanics, and anything remotely Latino — is alarmist, and based on stereotypes that equate reasoned support for stricter immigration control with irrational bigotry. In fact, the film itself is one long parade of stereotypes — ill informed and offensive, tired and trite...

She broadens the discussion to include many topics other than the movie. She also points out that not only are los gringos caricatured as lazy racist incompetents, but the movie caricatured los negros with "particular scorn." Where's Jesse Jackson when you need him?

Posted to Immigration2004 at 01:53 PM | Comments (2)

"Report: Mexico is al-Qaida route to U.S."

From WND:

Al-Qaida plans to use Mexico as a key infiltration route for sending operatives into the United States, according to a Mexican newspaper.

Mexican intelligence agencies have identified at least two routes for al-Qaida infiltration, the Proceso newspaper reported last week...

Two of three suspected al-Qaida terrorists recently arrested in England and Pakistan had passed through Mexico with South African passports...

Their itinerary: South Africa -> London -> Mexico or South America -> U.S. How the newspaper found out this information is not revealed.

Posted to Immigration_terror at 01:31 PM | Comments (2)

Small town police blotter, potential big problem

Athens, Texas is a no doubt quaint small town 75 miles southeast of Dallas:

Athens Police contacted the FBI office in Tyler Tuesday after a routine traffic stop led to a national security concern.

In the course of the stop, several forms of identification for the same individual were discovered...

At approximately 8:30 a.m., APD Patrolman Ron McCurry stopped the male suspect, 48-year-old Qamar Abbas Syed... Syed was driving a minivan with Wisconsin plates...

Agents with the FBI conferred with the Department of Homeland Security, which in turn identified the individual as someone they wanted to question...

McCurry searched the vehicle and found narcotic paraphernalia, which resulted in a misdemeanor charge and Syed's arrest and incarceration. He was then taken into FBI custody for questioning.

"We're trying to determine where he's from," said FBI officer Garret Floyd. "Any individual like that we have to do some research on."

Syed was still in the Henderson County Jail this morning, but was expected to make bail today.

Maybe he's just a druggee, maybe not. One shouldn't base conclusions just on his name, and it appears he's been cleared by the FBI.

Posted to Immigration_terror at 01:24 PM | Comments (0)

At least the Pasadena Star-News is covering it

If radio hosts hold a rally designed to "fire" one of the most powerful congressmen, and hundreds of people showed up, don't you think the L.A. Times or the L.A. Daily News would have a little bit of an obligation to cover the story?

Unfortunately, news.google.com shows that the only newspaper that covered yesterday's rally was the Pasadena Star-News:

GLENDORA -- Two radio talk show hosts held a "Fire Dreier' rally Thursday, criticizing a local Republican Congressman for doing nothing to keep illegal immigrants from coming into the United States.

KFI AM-640 listeners came to the rally next to the office of Rep. David Dreier on Route 66 armed with protest signs and bullhorns. Many honked their horns in support of the rally, which lasted from 3 to 7 p.m. Police said several hundred people came and went during the rally...

Their previous coverage is in "Radio personalities to hold 'Fire Dreier' rally". I believe Noticiero 52 did a live shot at 6PM, but I don't know if any other stations covered this.

Time to get Patterico on the case!

In related news, Jane Chastain suggests taking this national.

UPDATE: The Daily Bulletin reports on the rally in Demonstrators seek to "Fire Dreier" over immigration stance. However, there's nothing at the L.A. Times.

Posted to Immigration2004 at 01:10 PM | Comments (1)

"Americans for Legal Immigration"

A new PAC has been formed: Americans for Legal Immigration PAC:

Americans for Legal Immigration (ALI-PAC) has formed to address the disparity between the public's desire for more control of illegal immigration and the actions of lawmakers. Varied polls indicate that over 75% of America's legal citizens want more done to control illegal immigration, yet the elected officials who are willing to address this concern constitute a minority of members in the US Congress and Senate at this time. This must change.

Even more alarming is the disparity between our current laws and what is actually happening in the country. Illegal immigration is exactly as the title implies; it's illegal. If three fourths of America's legal citizens want illegal immigration curtailed and laws are in place to facilitate their wishes through a constitutional democracy, then why is America experiencing the largest population increase through illegal immigration in our history?

We are taking action and we need your support. ALI is dedicated to supporting candidates who make illegal immigration reduction a top priority. We are a nonpartisan political action committee and your contributions and membership will go to candidates that will work to reduce illegal immigration. We also plan to educate lawmakers, the media, and the public about the wishes of the vast majority of legal citizens to control illegal immigration and point out the negative impacts illegal immigration is having on our society...

Their founder appears to be a political consultant from North Carolina, but they don't seem to have any widely-known names involved. And, they've just started so their web site is a bit devoid of content. Nevertheless, hopefully they can move this issue forward.

Posted to Immigration2004 at 10:59 PM | Comments (0)

"Time to Take Illegal Immigration Seriously"

In City Journal, Heather MacDonald comments on TIME Magazine's recent cover story:

...Time magazine just may have started a revolution in the mainstream press’s attitude towards illegal immigration.

For decades, public outrage over illegal immigration met only scorn or indifference from the elite media. The New York Times recently dismissed opponents of border trespassing as the
“ ‘what part of illegal don’t you understand’ crowd.” But with its September 20 cover story, WHO LEFT THE DOOR OPEN?, Time magazine has crossed over to the other side. The 9,000-plus-word article meticulously documents the destruction wrought by illegal aliens. More important, it seethes with indignation at the Bush administration’s unwillingness to stop that destruction. The story’s tone—calling border trespassers “invaders,” who seek to “mask their unlawful presence”—was once confined to the ghetto of talk radio. No longer. And if Time—that venerable voice of the establishment—can fume that it is “outrageously easy to sneak in,” maybe politicians will start to pay attention when the public voices the same complaint...

UPDATE: The other side is organizing a letter-writing campaign complaining about TIME's "inaccuracies." If you've scanned the Immigration category here, you know that the TIME article was right on the money. So, you might want to send TIME an email of thanks: letters@time.com

Posted to Immigration2004 at 10:48 PM | Comments (1)

Hey, I was just joking!

When the "news" broke that the Rathergate documents had been traced to the Abilene TX Kinko's, I posted the following comment:

It'd be nice if we could discuss the issues rather than what happened over three decades ago. Yes, I know about press bias, etc. etc. it's still three years ago [yes, I meant decades --LW].

Nevertheless, I'll try to complicate this matter even further:
1. Just because it has markings like the Abilene Kinko's doesn't mean it was sent from there. (Can bloggers issue subpoenas? Get those receipts!)
2. Even if it's from the Abilene Kinko's, there's still the possibility it was sent by someone other than the supposed key suspect. Red herrings and all.

Crikey!

Lest any funny business happen, I'd like to publish that INDC has made sure that the Kinko's video tapes for the Abilene branch are pulled and saved from deletion in order to guarantee future scrutiny. Kinko's assures us that they will be saved from the erase button, which is typically pressed every thirty days...

To actually supeona the tapes we'll need a civil or criminal case or investigation, but that's not hard; initial research efforts reveal the following (thanks to Left Coast Winemaker):

Forged Military Records Law
10 United States Code 932
Sec. 932. - Art. 132. Frauds against the United States...

There's a reason why bloggers don't have subpoena powers.

Here's a suggestion for my fellow bloggers. After - or even during - Rathergate, could you attempt to move a story that has much more importance for the U.S. as a whole? Here's an example.

Posted to Bloggage at 11:45 AM | Comments (1)

AZ Republicans rally for Protect Arizona Now

From the WashTimes:

An immigration initiative in Arizona that would require secure identification to vote in elections and to receive public benefits was endorsed yesterday by more than two dozen Republican state legislators and candidates at a rally outside the statehouse in Phoenix.

Arguing that illegal immigration in Arizona is out of control, the lawmakers and candidates said passage of Proposition 200 was a crucial first step in reducing the problem and would send a message to Mexico that illegal immigration is not condoned...

Sounds good! Who ever could be opposed to such a pro-American plan?

The Arizona proposition has drawn strong opposition from several organizations, including the 1.6 million-member Service Employees International Union, National Council of La Raza and the Mexican-American Legal and Educational Fund...

OK, that's to be expected.

But, wait!, you say. "McCain seeking ways to help defeat Prop. 200"

U.S. Sen. John McCain will meet with opponents of a controversial immigration ballot question in the coming days to see how he can help defeat the measure...

McCain, the rest of the state's congressional contingent, Gov. Janet Napolitano and the Arizona Chamber of Commerce are among those opposed to PAN. They contend that border security and immigration are not state issues. Critics also worry that if PAN passes it will stall federal guest worker and immigration reforms next year...

Former attorney general Grant Woods, lobbyist Steve Roman and state chamber officials are leading the effort against PAN... [Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon is also anti-PAN... anti-PAN forces are meeting with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce...]

See also "Left and Right, working together against everyone else." So far, none dare call it what it is, but that might have to change.

UPDATE: From this:

Grant Woods was cited and fined $1,400 in 1993 on two charges relating to knowingly employing someone not in this country legally as a nanny for his children... [he was AZ's attorney general at the time...] ... [Woods] did not deny continuing to employ Alison Basher after finding out she was in violation of immigration laws...

Don't read the following while drinking water:

...Woods also said he paid neither Social Security taxes nor unemployment insurance for Basher, saying she was an independent contractor...

Woods is trying to claim this is a personal attack. Partially it is. However, it's mainly an illustrative example of why people like Woods would be opposed to PAN.

Posted to Immigration2004 at 10:46 AM | Comments (1)

"222 House Members Put Interests of Banking Lobby Ahead of Homeland Security"

From FAIR:

Responding to the 222-177 vote by the House of Representatives last night, adopting an amendment introduced by Representatives Michael Oxley (R-OH) and Barney Frank (D-MA), allowing banks and other financial institutions to accept the Mexican matricula consular document in lieu of valid U.S.-issued documents, FAIR issued the following statement:

“Once again, Congress has placed the priorities of a powerful special interest ahead of homeland security interests. In this case, the full House overrode the decision of the Appropriations Committee barring the acceptance of these documents and sided with the powerful banking lobby, which mounted an all-out campaign to have the ban against acceptance of the matricula card stripped from the final Treasury Appropriations measure.

“The House capitulated to the demands of the banking industry in spite of the fact that top law enforcement and homeland security officials have publicly stated that these documents are not secure and can be easily used by terrorists and criminal organizations to engage in money laundering. The desire of the banking industry to do business with people who are in the U.S. illegally has won out over the imperative to close the loopholes that have already been exploited by terrorists and criminal enterprises...

The voting breakdown is here. And, there's now overtaken-by-events backstory in "Texas lawmaker wants Mexico's ID cards barred from U.S. banks".

And, see "FBI Official Says Matricula Consular Card Is Security Threat".

And, for the view of the non-liberal press on these matters, see the example presented in the L.A. Times article "Barriers to Latino Home Buying". Despite its general title, it's partially about illegal aliens:

[A] study released Tuesday by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute... favors the creation of a nationwide secondary market for mortgages sold to customers who do not have Social Security numbers...

...many undocumented Latinos believe they cannot open a bank account without a Social Security number.

In fact, in many states, including California, banks are allowed to accept the matricula consular, an identification card issued by the Mexican government through its consulates in the United States. Many banks also accept taxpayer ID numbers as a valid form of identification.

Posted to Immigration_terror at 08:27 PM | Comments (1)

"Die Welt: Syria used chem weapons in Sudan"

Berlin, Germany, Sep. 15 (UPI) -- Syrian special forces used chemical weapons in June to kill dozens of people in Darfur, Sudan, the German newspaper Die Welt reported...

The Die Welt article is here (in German). It wasn't on their front page for some reason.

Posted to Terrorism at 03:54 PM | Comments (0)

"McGreevey Fund-Raiser Pleads Guilty in Farm Case"

From this:

A fund-raiser for [New Jersey] Gov. James E. ["I'm a Gay American"] McGreevey pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges he solicited $40,000 in cash and campaign donations as part of a shake-down scheme in which the governor has also been implicated...

The indictment also said an unidentified state official used the code word "Machiavelli" to show that officials were helping with the scheme.

McGreevey acknowledged he is the state official referred to. But he insisted he did nothing wrong, and said the mention of Machiavelli was an offhand literary reference. He has not been charged...

If this had succeeded, it might have resulted in a private landowner getting an additional $4.4 million for the property New Jersey wanted to buy from him...

But, enough sordid tales you say.

Herewith, enjoy this picture of Dina Matos McGreevey Lonewacko jumping rope. Whee!

Posted to Politics at 02:20 PM | Comments (0)

A Nigerian scam from the frozen north

Received via spam:

We are a web designers/programmers team. We locate at Moscow, Russian Federation. Currently, our team works for several US companies and we feel difficulties in getting our wages. They're to pay us but they don't send money directly to Russia, because companies we work for pays us by direct deposits available in USA and Canada only. Reasonable question: why don't they pay you by checks? Yes, they could, but here in Moscow is really hard to collect on the American checks (enormous commission fees and it takes 2-3 months). We realize that you can't provide your current bank account. So, if you are ready to help, would you be so kind to open a new zero-balanced checking account where they could send our wages.

So, when our employers are getting the account information they will initiate the transfer. When the bank transfers are completed your assistance is needed once again to transfer the money via Western Union or Money Gram (it is not the best (profitable) way but it's the fastest one).

Finally, we have to solve the problem regarding your interest in this deal We suppose you should get an interest in this business and we can offer you a good compensation for your help. If you are ready to help, please, send your reply at the following email address [deleted].

The sum is variable but usually no less than 800-2,500 a week (approx.). Any suggestions?

Sure. But, it involves the word "khui."

UPDATE: I found a few references to this from the end of last year, so this isn't a new version. But, I'm trying to figure out where the "take" is. Are they trying to get your account information to write bad checks? Are they going to ask for your additional identifying info to facilitate that? Could this not be a scam so much as an attempt at money-laundering? Are they going to put money into the account and make this look legitimate until you trust them, then they're going to ask you to put your own money in there and take it? Are they going to ask you to put up money upfront in order to start the riches flowing?

Posted to WackyHumor at 01:27 PM | Comments (0)

"DOJ Official: Zero civil enforcement actions taken against document fraud, illegal hiring this year"

The SteinReport has the scoop:

In a stunning revelation, the Office of the Chief Administrative Hearing Officer (OCAHO), a division of the Executive Office for Immigration Review staffed by highly paid senior adminstrative law judges, says that enforcement actions against illegal immigration have bottomed out - at zero...

Posted to Immigration2004 at 01:14 PM | Comments (0)

I have no idea what he's getting at

Steve Lopez of the L.A. Times has a two-parter on illegal immigration: Sunday's "She Wants a Fair Policy on Migrants" and today's "Illegal, Yes, but He Dislikes the Label".

The first interviews someone who's opposed to illegal immigration, and the second interviews an illegal alien who's also, in some respects, opposed to illegal immigration.

There isn't that much grist for the ol' Lonewacko mill here, but they seem like interesting articles. And, they're both fairly straightforward about the matter rather than being on the PIIPP level.

Posted to Immigration2004 at 12:59 PM | Comments (0)

"Tancredo presses White House on control of border"

From this:

The chairman of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus [Tom Tancredo R-CO] yesterday questioned the commitment of the nation's border czar [Asa Hutchinson] to track down and deport the 8 million to 12 million illegal aliens in the United States, asking whether he had "any real interest" in getting the job done.

[...his statement was based on Hutchinson's recent interview "Rounding up all illegals 'not realistic'"...]

...Mr. Tancredo said Mr. Hutchinson said, in a message left with a staff aide, that he had been "misrepresented" in The Times article, and the three-term congressman said he was "anxious to discuss" the matter with Mr. Hutchinson.

"If the statements attributed to him are accurate, then this administration has got some major problems," he said.

Neither Mr. Hutchinson nor his representatives have made any claims of misrepresentation to The Times concerning the luncheon interview, which was attended by editors and reporters and was recorded with Mr. Hutchinson's agreement. A copy of the tape was sent to Mr. Hutchinson's spokesman, Dennis Murphy, on Monday at his request.

Mr. Murphy did not return calls yesterday for further comment or elaboration...

Posted to Immigration2004 at 12:39 PM | Comments (0)

"U.S. Fears Terrorism Via Mexico's Time-Tested Smuggling Routes"

The L.A. Times offers a round-up of stories about terrorists coming from either Canada or Mexico.

According to "U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officials" there has been a "security crackdown in recent months as well as new levels of official cross-border cooperation." As with other stories in which U.S. officials are used as a source, this could perhaps be considered an attempt at CYA.

Here are the incidents that may or may not have already been enumerated in Tucson Weekly's "Other Than Mexicans" article:

In August, U.S. authorities issued an alert for a Middle Eastern man who paid what officials said was an unusually large amount of money to be smuggled into the United States near the border town of Tecate, Mexico. He was last seen getting into a waiting black pickup and driving off into the night. Authorities have declined to release further information, or say how they learned how much he paid to be smuggled into the United States...

Of all the leads about the smuggling of potential terrorists from Mexico into the United States, the most intriguing may be the case of a young Lebanese man who was dropped off at a Chula Vista hospital in June 2002.

The man, near death, showed signs of radiation poisoning, suggesting work with a radiological "dirty bomb."In the end, the radiation symptoms were discounted and the man died of undetermined causes. But the case led to the arrest of the owner of a Lebanese restaurant in Tijuana who last year was convicted of operating a smuggling ring, in league with a Mexican diplomat based in Lebanon. U.S. officials estimated that he arranged for the illegal entry of 80 to 200 Arabs into the United States over a period of months.

Then, in July, federal agents arrested an Egyptian man in Miami on charges that he ran a smuggling ring based in the Middle East and Latin America. Ashraf Ahmed Abdallah, 34, was charged with directing migrants from Egypt and neighboring countries to travel to Latin America, and from there to Guatemala, the base of the smuggling operation, where they would be transported through Mexico for entry into the United States.

I think the Lebanese restaurant owner may be the same person discussed in Chapter 3 of the 9/11 Commission Staff Report: "One smuggler, Salim Boughader-Mucharrafille, smuggled Lebanese nationals sympathetic to Hamas and Hizbollah into the United States and relied on corrupt Mexican officials in Beirut, Mexico City and Tijuana to facilitate their travel. Specifically, Boughader obtained Mexican tourist visas from an official at the Mexican embassy in Beirut to facilitate the travel of humans to Mexico..."

The LAT article also includes this (once again remember to consider this might be CYA):

a recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement memorandum obtained by The Times says that the Drug Enforcement Administration developed intelligence that Al Qaeda operatives had been in contact with human and drug smuggling rings in Mexico to gain entry into the United States. Homeland Security officials said they had been unable to confirm the information but took it seriously.

Posted to Immigration_terror at 12:31 PM | Comments (3)

"How Many Illegal Aliens are Registered to Vote in North Carolina?"

FAIR has filed a formal request with NC's Board of Elections.

This is similar to the formal request they made of New York.

Posted to Immigration2004 at 12:14 PM | Comments (0)

Bread, circuses, Rathergate!

In a letter Tuesday night to Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., chairman of the Subcommittee of Telecommunications and the Internet, Rep Christopher Cox, R-Calif., called for a probe into what he described as "the continued use by CBS News of apparently forged documents concerning the service record of President George W. Bush intended to unfairly damage his reputation and influence the outcome of the 2004 presidential election."

Once again, I'm all for slapping down the non-liberal media, but aren't there much much much more important things Chris Cox and our other fine representatives could be worrying about?

Posted to Politics at 10:14 PM | Comments (1)

"House Backs Bush on Mexican ID Cards" (FBI calls cards a security threat)

America's amigos in the Bush administration have scored another partial victory:

The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday voted to support a Bush administration plan to allow the use of Mexican identification cards ["Matricula Consular" cards] to open U.S. bank accounts.

The House voted 222 to 177 remove language in an $89.9 billion bill funding the Transportation and Treasury Departments aimed at preventing the use of the cards. The House has yet to vote on the overall bill...

I believe the language was inserted in the bill by Rep. John Culberson (R-TX), as discussed here.

To give you a little insight into the problem:

The FBI and the Department of Justice say that the cards are not a reliable form of identification and pose "major criminal threats" and a "potential terrorist threat."

So, to summarize: the FBI and the DOJ say they pose a potential terrorist threat, but the Bush administration supports them. I guess we can see the kind of tradeoffs they consider acceptable.

You can contact your congressman here. It might be too late, but at least you can find out how they voted and let them know what you think of their actions.

(Via this)

Posted to Immigration_consul at 09:27 PM | Comments (1)

Crack jokes! Stat!

Lettermen, Leno, lesser gabbers' staffs now searching computers for old crack jokes:

Marion Barry is back.

The former mayor of Washington, D.C. who served prison time on a drug charge more than a decade ago claimed the Democratic nomination for a City Council seat on Tuesday, a spot that almost assures him of victory in November's general election.

Barry took 61 percent of the vote, based on preliminary results from 62 percent of precincts, beating the incumbent and five other challengers in the Democratic primary...

"It's not only a victory for Marion Barry but for God and the people of Ward 8," Barry told cheering supporters. "There's a new Ward 8 a-coming."

(Via TalkLeft)

Posted to Politics at 08:54 PM | Comments (2)

"Tancredo furious with Hutchinson comment on immigration"

From The Hill:

Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) considered calling for a top Bush administration official to resign after reading his recent comments on enforcing immigration laws, according to sources...

A spokesperson for Tancredo said the lawmaker was “fairly angered” with Hutchinson’s comments. The staffer added that Tancredo and Hutchinson were scheduled to discuss the remarks last evening [i.e., 9/13 --LW], with the expectation that the matter would be resolved and Tancredo would not call for Hutchinson’s resignation at today’s press conference...

According to this, they haven't yet spoken.

Posted to Immigration2004 at 11:38 AM | Comments (1)

"[Rep. Chris] Cannon [R-UT] drums on immigration despite voters"

From the Salt Lake Tribune:

He has been accused of promoting mass immigration, terrorism and amnesty for illegal immigrants.
Utah Republican Congressman Chris Cannon has paid a political price for his efforts to "fix" the nation's "broken" immigration system - not to mention mowing through 92 percent of his $472,000 campaign stash in a primary faceoff with Matt Throckmorton, an ardent advocate of immigration restrictions.
And though Cannon beat Throckmorton and is favored to glide past Democratic challenger Beau Babka to a fifth term, that alone doesn't account for his persistence as an immigration reform maverick who backs legislation apparently out of step with Utah voters - begging the question: Why?

The answer won't shock you:

...a survey of Cannon's financial disclosures since 1996 shows Washington, D.C., and out-of-state interests steadily replacing his Utah support. Eight years ago, 85 percent of the individuals backing Cannon hailed from Utah; today locals comprise just 16 percent of his donor base.

A close look at who is giving also shows a sudden jump in contributions from immigration attorneys - 23 of whom have poured $20,900 into Cannon's war chest... At least five of the attorneys serve on the executive committee of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, which helped Cannon draft the "AgJobs" bill...

Previous coverage of this great American here and here.

Posted to Immigration2004 at 11:28 AM | Comments (0)

"U.S. Social Security Ties with Mexico is Bad for America"

Insight Magazine has a roundup of the latest Bush giveaway:

Those in Congress who really want to protect Social Security should put some action behind their bluster. They should add language to the Labor-Health-Education Appropriations bill prohibiting funds from being spent to carry out an expensive Social Security giveaway to Mexico...

U.S. Social Security Commissioner Jo Anne Barnhart signed an agreement June 29 that will allow Mexicans who have worked in the United States, their dependents and survivors to tap into Social Security.

This could spell trouble for American seniors and for baby boomers as they approach retirement.

To hear proponents tell it, this agreement is all about saving some 3,000 U.S. workers and their employers an estimated $140 million on taxes over five years. But actually, American taxpayers could be out hundreds of billions of dollars over coming years...

That references a GAO report (warning: PDF file) and Joel Mowbray's 2003 article "Social Security Heading South of the Border." More links in this post.

UPDATE: See also the somewhat related story "Bush's agenda could top $3 trillion" concerning the cost of all that "compassion."

Posted to Immigration2004 at 11:13 PM | Comments (4)

"America's most urgent crisis"

Joseph Farah of WorldNetDaily discusses the TIME cover story "Who Left the Door Open?" He offers a summary of the article and has several good suggestions and a few not-so-good suggestions. One of the good ones: "the firing of all top immigration officials who do not enforce the laws – beginning with Tom Ridge and Asa Hutchinson."

Posted to Immigration2004 at 10:56 PM | Comments (1)

NYT PIIPP spotted; awaiting processing

My offshore PIIPP processing team is still being trained, so I'm not able to process this article immediately. However, I'm presenting it here for readers who would like a preview. (For those who aren't familiar with the term, a PIIPP is a "pro-illegal immigration puff piece." Several example PIIPPs are presented starting here. You'll be shocked how similar they all are.)

The newest PIIPP is entitled "No Number, No Ride" and it concerns the attempts New York state to the revoke driver's licenses of those who aren't here legally.

This PIIPP starts with: "Hector Maldonado received a letter recently that threatens to turn his life upside down..."

The PIIPP also recycles quotes, "experts", and arguments from past NYT articles on the topic of driver's licenses for illegal aliens. And, naturally, it doesn't once mention things like the fact that 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers had a combined total of 63 separate drivers licenses, issued by Virginia, Florida and New Jersey.

Previous coverage of illegal alien driver's licenses in NY state is here and here.

I sent an email about this and previous NYT PIIPPs to Daniel Okrent (public@nytimes.com), and I encourage you to do the same.

Posted to Immigration_piipps at 10:49 PM | Comments (1)

Radio hosts line up 'sacrifices'

The Washington Times offers this summary of Political Human Sacrifice:

A Los Angeles radio talk-show duo has targeted two House veterans for defeat as "political human sacrifices" because of their records on illegal immigration.

California Reps. Joe Baca, a Democrat, and David Dreier, a Republican, were deemed the "winners" after last week's vote by listeners of KFI-AM's "The John and Ken Show," a top-rated radio program in Los Angeles.

By attempting to take down the two congressmen in this fall's election, the talk-show hosts said they hope to send a message to national Democrats and Republicans about the growing frustration over the virtually unchecked wave of illegal immigration from Mexico...

Posted to Immigration2004 at 10:35 PM | Comments (0)

A letter from Americaland

A letter to the Washington Times editor:

Regarding "Rounding up all illegals 'not realistic'" (Page 1, Friday) by Jerry Seper: Asa Hutchinson has once again clearly demonstrated that he is not up to the task of protecting the U.S. borders. His statements and inaction show that rich bureaucrats have little view of reality from the gated communities in which they live. Mr. Hutchinson speaks of a lack of will on the part of the American people to uproot illegal aliens in the United States. How did Mr. Hutchinson arrive at such a conclusion? The only lack of will is on his part. He speaks of the American people not wanting to cover the cost of searching out and capturing the illegals. This ploy is just a smoke screen to take the pressure off of his shoulders so he can return to his country club for a round of golf. Illegal aliens, and there are far more than the 8 million that Mr. Hutchinson acknowledges, cost the American taxpayer more than September 11, the Iraq war and every natural disaster each year. Our medical, legal and educational systems are cluttered with them. Our streets, not Mr. Hutchinson's, are plagued by illegal alien gangs. He speaks of "compassion" for illegal aliens, yet he never mentions compassion for the American citizens who pay his salary with nothing to show for it. Mr. Hutchinson is supposed to be working for the American citizen, not for some illegal-alien front organization. We need to replace Mr. Hutchinson and replace him with a hard-nosed realist who wants the job and will do it.

WILSON L. FARIS Gaithersburg

The letter isn't that good in some respects, but one of the reasons this is here is to showcase the fine work performed by "bayourod" (comment #5 at the link). He's what's referred to in some quarters as a "BushBot."

Posted to Immigration2004 at 10:31 PM | Comments (0)

It's the small things, innit?

Moscow Times: Men [sic] trying to bring down the statue of [KGB founder] Felix Dzerzhinsky on Aug. 22, 1991. The sign "Khunte Khana" says "The junta is finished."

-------------------

9/11/2004, BBC, "Russia KGB founder honoured": A new statue of the founder of what became the KGB, Felix Dzerzhinsky, has been unveiled in a small town outside Moscow.

The monument was commissioned by the town authorities.

Some believe the event is part of the gradual rehabilitation of the once feared Russian secret service under President Vladimir Putin, himself a former officer of the KGB...

No need for airbrushes this time around, they've got Photoshop and the GIMP and they no doubt will use them to full effect.

Posted to Miscellania at 10:17 PM | Comments (0)

"Hutchinson's Remarks Indicate Cheap Labor Bias of Administration"

FAIR lays into our "border czar" over his interview with the Washington Times. "Hutchinson�s Remarks Indicate Cheap Labor Bias of Administration":

In a startling interview in the Washington Times, Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Border and Transportation Security, Asa Hutchinson, admits that the immigration enforcement agency that he oversees is not doing its job at the border or in the interior of the country, and that he believes that enforcing our immigration laws are "unrealistic." Serving as the Bush Administration's point man to sell a massive illegal alien amnesty and guest worker program, Hutchinson is trying to convince the American public that our only options are massive round-ups of illegal aliens, or legalization of 8 to 12 million illegal aliens.

"The only thing 'unrealistic' are the choices the Administration is presenting to the American public," said Dan Stein, executive director of FAIR. "The idea that the alternative to a sweeping amnesty and an open-ended guest worker program is mass deportation is a nothing more than a political straw man. What they have wanted since the day they took office is to ensure an abundant and steady supply of taxpayer-subsidized labor. Since that idea has been soundly rejected by the American public, they are now sending the Border Czar out to convince us that we really have no choice but to declare an amnesty and open the doors to millions of new guest workers."

The timing of Hutchinson's remarks - coming on the eve of the 9/11 anniversary - indicate that the Administration views access to cheap labor as a higher priority than homeland security, and certainly more important than protecting the jobs and wages of middle class workers...

Posted to Immigration2004 at 08:21 PM | Comments (1)

Why Bush must take action on illegal immigration and why Rep. David Dreier must be sacrificed

Justin Levine - who works at KFI (640AM Los Angeles) - has a long post explaining why Rep. David Dreier (R-CA) needs to be "politically sacrificed" for failing to take action on illegal immigration.

As previously posted, KFI's John & Ken are encouraging their million or so listeners in SoCal to vote for Dreier's opponent. The fact that she's a Democrat gives some BushBots (and I use that term lovingly) the willies. CalBlog explains why it needs to be so.

Posted to Immigration2004 at 11:13 AM | Comments (0)

September 12, 2004

One less peak to climb

BBC: N Korea says it blew up mountain:

North Korea has given its first explanation for the huge blast last week which prompted speculation that it had carried out a nuclear test.

The country's foreign minister, Paek Nam-sun, said the blast was in fact the deliberate demolition of a mountain as part of a huge, hydro-electric project...

Posted to Terrorism at 10:02 PM | Comments (1)

"NEW REPORT REVEALS NATION'S GROWING DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN IMMIGRANTS SINCE 2000"

From a July 2004 press release from Northeastern University ("in the heart of Boston"):

After making up nearly half of the overall growth in the nation’s labor force during the decade of the 1990s, new immigrants have been responsible for 60 percent of civilian labor force growth between 2000 and 2004 and captured all of the net gains in employment over the past four years, according to a new report from Northeastern's Center for Labor Market Studies.

“The share of national labor force growth accounted for by new immigrants is historically unprecedented,” said Andrew Sum, lead author of the report, "Foreign Immigration and the Labor Force of the U.S.," which was co-authored Ishwar Khatiwada and Sheila Palma, also of Northeastern.

During the 1990s, new foreign immigrants made up nearly half of all the labor force growth experienced in the nation, an all time historical high for the United States. Now, according to this new analysis of the past four years, reliance on the foreign-born in the labor market has grown dramatically over the past four years, between 2000 and 2004, despite the recession of 2001, the jobless recovery of 2002-2003 and post-September 11 restrictions of immigration. At no other time in history, the report finds, has the U.S. been so dependent on foreign immigrants for our growth in labor force and employment... [bolding theirs -- LW]

A copy of the full study can be downloaded from the link above. The press release has a few more stats.

A January 2004 press release from Northeastern seems to be about the same report, and it contains the following from one of the study authors:

"The continued high levels of new immigrant employment at a time when job prospects for native-born workers have dwindled represent an issue that should be part of the national dialogue among all candidates for president, Democrat and Republican," [study co-author Andrew] Sum said. "All candidates must take a stand on this crucial labor market issue. The nation needs a comprehensive, carefully thought through national immigration policy that takes labor market impacts into consideration."

In May, Northeastern released on report on bleak summer job prospects for U.S. teens:

Andrew Sum, the main author of the report, says that young people who lack high school diplomas, those living in low income families, those who are minorities, and those who live in low-income neighborhoods are at the greatest risk of not finding work.

"Heart of Boston," key Democratic constituencies, hmmm... Maybe Kerry will see the light sometime before November 3.

Posted to Immigration2004 at 09:46 PM | Comments (1)

Guess the substance!

...Dyna-Tek Industries, a company bought by Kevin Dyches and his wife Sandra, five years ago, has developed synthetic [*****]... for the research industry. One of their first customers is the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, which has hinted it could be a major future buyer...

Researchers, drug-testing labs and other institutions buy thousands of gallons of the real stuff, but [*****] decays rapidly if not kept refrigerated.

What is the mystery substance, denoted above by "*****"? Answer in the extended entry.

Ireland OnLine titles their report about the mystery substance "Wee success story". The Corvallis Gazette Times weighs in with "Synthetic urine getting a warm response." The AP takes all the fun out of things by naming their report "Company makes profits from fake urine."

Posted to WackyHumor at 09:20 PM | Comments (0)

Los Angeles: not fully as bad as originally feared

Remember the story about half (or 53%) of the working-age population of Los Angeles being functionally illiterate (or similar)?

When I originally posted that, I said there might be some observer bias involved, as the people who wanted to provide the services also did the survey. However, that wasn't the big problem with the survey, and my lack of bothering to read the executive summary [warning: PDF file] was to blame.

As it turns out, Los Angeles' illiteracy rate isn't that very far ahead of the country as a whole:

I don’t know anything about the study’s methodology, but the magnitude of the result isn’t surprising. The last national study was done 1n 1992, where the (national average) illiteracy rate was 48%. The data include citizens and other residents, both legal and illegal. Whatever the national stats are now, California has to be ahead of the curve. In Los Angeles County the bulk of the illiteracy problem (though not all of it) is due to our high concentration of non-English speakers. Of these, a high percentage are functionally illiterate in their native languages as well (5% to 15% of the Latino immigrant population, reported in the Times article.) They speak it, but can’t read or write it. The same conditions that make it easy for these immigrants to live—huge parts of the city where Spanish is the primary language—also makes the illiteracy problem difficult to eradicate. People can live pretty functional lives (if they have suitably low expectations for their economic futures) speaking only Spanish. Coping with the problem is costly for businesses. Low wages can justify the cost in some industries, but other businesses relocate to places where they can tap a better-educated labor pool. This is one of the trends that’s creating a two-tiered economy here. Illiteracy also places huge burdens on public services. Schools serving large immigrant populations enroll kids performing far below grade level in English and math...

There are several shocking stats at that post, and from this we learn that "24.5 percent of public school teachers in the Los Angeles/Long Beach area send their own children to private schools, compared to 15.7 percent of the general public."

So, Los Angeles county isn't as bad as first thought, but, we're still #1.

Posted to Immigration2004 at 09:09 PM | Comments (4)

Look, no one said not voting for Bush was going to be easy

CalInsider directs us to "Hey, Guys, the Action's Down There":

Look at Kerry's chief supporters and you see a new kind of elite, a veritable "hip-ocracy" of high-tech tycoons, Hollywood moguls and celebrities, and a bevy of Wall Street financiers. This group is bolstered by Americans with graduate degrees and a growing number of college and university faculty members.

These core Kerry constituencies, the technical and professional intelligentsia, increasingly show signs of seeing themselves as a new social elite, what urban guru Richard Florida has anointed as the nation' s "creative class." Most make their homes in the peculiarly elitist economies of post-industrial metropolises such as greater Boston, Manhattan, San Francisco and the west side of Los Angeles, where the definition of middle class often comes with a million-dollar-plus mortgage, a PhD and, often enough, more than a few pence handed down from the parents. Kerry, a Yale graduate identified by Burke's Peerage as having more royal blood than any presidential candidate in U.S. history, educated in Swiss boarding schools and married to his second heiress, is an almost-too-perfect representative of this new class...

Posted to Politics at 08:29 PM | Comments (1)

3 MILLION ILLEGAL ALIENS TO FLOOD THE U.S. THIS YEAR

From Drudge:

The U.S.’s borders, rather than become more secure since 9/11, have grown even more porous and the trend has accelerated in the past year. Based on a TIME investigation, it’s fair to estimate that the number of illegal aliens flooding into the U.S. this year will total 3 million, enough to fill 22,000 Boeing 737-700 airliners, or 60 flights every day. It will be the largest wave since 2001 and roughly triple the number of immigrants who will come to America by legal means, TIME reports in its cover story , "Who Left the Door Open?" (on newsstands Monday, Sept. 13th).

In a single day, more than 4,000 illegal aliens will walk across the busiest unlawful gateway into the U.S., the border between Arizona and Mexico. And many will obtain phony identification papers, including bogus Social Security numbers, to conceal their true identities and mask their unlawful presence. TIME’s Pulitzer Prize winning investigative team, Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele, takes a look at the damage, the dangers, and the reasons America fails to protect itself as millions of illegal aliens pour across the U.S.-Mexican border this year, many from countries hostile to America...

Law-enforcement authorities believe the mass movement of illegals offers the perfect cover for terrorists seeking to enter the U.S., especially since tighter controls have been imposed at airports...

Investigations targeting employers of illegal aliens dropped more than 70%, from 7,053 in 1992 to 2,061 in 2002. Arrests on job sites declined from 8,027 in 1992 to 451 in 2002. Perhaps the most dramatic decline: the final orders levying fines for immigration-law violations plunged 99%, from 1,063 in 1992 to 13 in 2002. In 2002 the old Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) issued orders levying fines on only 13 employers for hiring illegal aliens, a minuscule portion of the thousands of offenders.

Both political parties and their candidates pay lip service to controlling the borders. But neither President Bush nor Senator Kerry supports a system that would end the incentive for border crossers by cracking down on the employers of illegals, TIME reports.

(That's a permalink above, the original link was to drudgereport/flash1.htm I'll provide a TIME link when it's available.)

After reading the above, read the interview with our border czar: "Rounding up all illegals 'not realistic'".

UPDATE: Here's the TIME link. Additional excerpt:

The argument is getting stronger, however, that [serf labor] is a short-sighted bargain for the U.S. Beyond the terrorism risks, Washington's failure to control the nation's borders has a painful impact on workers at the bottom of the ladder and, increasingly, those further up the income scale. The system holds down the pay of American workers and rewards the illegals and the businesses that hire them. It breeds anger and resentment among citizens who can't understand why illegal aliens often receive government-funded health care, education benefits and subsidized housing. In border communities, the masses of incoming illegals lay waste to the landscape and create costly burdens for agencies trying to keep public order. Moreover, the system makes a mockery of the U.S. tradition of encouraging legal immigration...

Oh my. I haven't read the whole thing, but based on that someone should start up a fund to reprint this article and distribute it to our "leaders."

Posted to Immigration2004 at 01:40 PM | Comments (1)

"Congressmen propose border investment for national security"

From the AP:

The U.S.-Mexico border remains susceptible to terrorist infiltration and needs more investment for homeland security, a Texas congressman says.

U.S. Rep. Jim Turner said he and Rep. Silvestre Reyes want to create a $1 billion infrastructure investment fund aimed at closing the security gaps and bolstering the economy along the 2,000-mile border...

"We cannot pretend that our homeland is secure if our borders are not," said Turner. "We firmly believe that America is at risk if we do not immediately take action to close these security gaps."

Doubling law enforcement personnel along the border, deploying technology for constant monitoring, screening cargo trucks for weapons and expanding detention operations for illegal immigrants are among Turner's proposals.

Last year, 24,000 undocumented immigrants from countries other than Mexico were apprehended by the Border Patrol, but released on bond in the United States because of lack of detention space," Turner said.

"Although we're hearing a lot about taking the fight to the terrorists in the war on terror," said Reyes, "we also know that in practical terms, we have got to do a better job of defending the homeland."

Posted to Immigration_terror at 01:35 PM | Comments (2)

Our only coverage of Rathergate

Source: this.

Posted to WackyHumor at 01:19 PM | Comments (0)

September 10, 2004

Breaking hard exclusive: stunning, earth-shattering world-changing news about Rathergate!

Oops, sorry. Our breaking news about Rathergate has been interrupted by a story that actually matters.

From "A 9/11 Anniversary Primer: A neglected report shows how the U.S. government was a travel agency for terrorists:"

A report explaining how that horrific 9/11 attacks came about, and why something similar will likely happen again, has received little attention, apparently by design.

"9/11 and Terrorist Travel: Staff Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks on the United States" [warning: PDF file] was released on August 21, a Saturday and the same day the 9/11 Commission disbanded. In a strange disclaimer, executive director Philip Zelikow says the report "does not necessarily reflect" the views of the commissioners. Zelikow leaves readers to speculate about the details, but there can be no doubt on one score. Had this document been released as part of the larger 9/11 Report (the bestseller), it would easily have been the most damning passage. "9/11 and Terrorist Travel" confirms that government ignorance, incompetence, and arrogance facilitated Islamic terrorists in their quest to murder Americans.

"It is perhaps obvious to state that terrorists cannot plan and carry out attacks in the United States if they are unable to enter the country," explains the preface. "Yet prior to September 11, while there were efforts to enhance border security, no agency of the U.S. government thought of border security as a tool in the counterterrorism arsenal. Indeed, even after 19 hijackers demonstrated the relative ease of obtaining a U.S. visa and gaining admission into the United States, border security still is not considered a cornerstone of national security policy..."

A couple of days after it was released, I discussed the most revealing parts of Chapter 3 of the above report, and I provided some excerpts from Chapter 4 here. Those chapters are part of the larger PDF report linked to above.

Posted to Immigration2004 at 09:26 PM | Comments (2)

"Why conservatives must not vote for Bush"

From the Cato Institute's Doug Bandow:

George W. Bush presents conservatives with a fundamental challenge: Do they believe in anything other than power? Are they serious about their rhetoric on limited, constitutionally restrained government?

...A few high-octane speeches cannot disguise the catastrophic failure of the Bush administration in both its domestic and its foreign policies...

...Quite simply, the president, despite his well-choreographed posturing, does not represent traditional conservatism -- a commitment to individual liberty, limited government, constitutional restraint and fiscal responsibility. Rather, Bush routinely puts power before principle...

...[Kerry] could spend only whatever legislators allowed, so assuming that the GOP maintains its control over Congress, outlays almost certainly would rise less than if Bush won reelection. History convincingly demonstrates that divided government delivers less spending than unitary control. Give either party complete control of government and the treasury vaults quickly empty. Share power between the parties and, out of principle or malice, they check each other. The American Conservative Union's Don Devine says bluntly: "A rational conservative would calculate a vote for Kerry as likely to do less damage" fiscally.

For some conservatives, the clincher in favor of Bush is the war on terrorism...

Yet Bush's foreign policy record is as bad as his domestic scorecard. The administration correctly targeted the Taliban in Afghanistan, but quickly neglected that nation, which is in danger of falling into chaos. The Taliban is resurgent, violence has flared, drug production has burgeoned and elections have been postponed.

Iraq, already in chaos, is no conservative triumph. The endeavor is social engineering on a grand scale, a war of choice launched on erroneous grounds that has turned into a disastrously expensive neocolonial burden.

...Those who still believe in Bush have tried to play up comparisons with Ronald Reagan, but I knew Reagan and he was no George W. Bush. It's not just that Reagan read widely, thought deeply about issues and wrote prolifically. He really believed in the primacy of individual liberty and of limited, constitutional government...

A subscription or a free day pass is required, but it's worth sitting through a commercial.

Even if you subtract out that this is at Salon and penned by someone from the Cato Institute, it's still quite a searing indictment.

(Via this)

Posted to Politics at 12:02 PM | Comments (2)

Do you want four more years of this?

In order to avoid sending my blood pressure through the roof, I'm not going to quote from the Washington Times interview with our so-called "Borders Czar" Asa Hutchinson. The article is called "Rounding up all illegals 'not realistic'" and it includes a picture of a thoughtful Hutchinson as he presumably ponders ways not to do the job Americans want done.

First of all, very few Americans are suggesting putting illegal aliens on cattle cars. And, most Americans realize that there will always be some illegal aliens. However, we'd like to think that those who run the government are doing their jobs and trying to reduce the flow of illegals as much as possible. Especially since there are politically doable, time-tested ways to do that. The argument presented by our "Borders Czar" is both a false choice and a strawman.

What serious, patriotic Americans are suggesting is that the Bush administration should consider enforcing our laws.

For example, in the first five months of this year, just one company in the whole country was fined for immigration violations. If, say, a thousand companies had been fined, there would be far fewer jobs for illegal workers, and hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens would simply deport themselves. There are other measures that could be employed, but just that would work wonders. That would greatly reduce the flow into the U.S., making the job of the Border Patrol much easier.

So, why doesn't the administration do that? The answer is simple: because they don't want to. Can America stand another four years of this administration?

The argument for Bush - seemingly one of the few pro-Bush arguments remaining - is that Kerry would be worse. How exactly could he be worse in this specific case?

Posted to Immigration2004 at 11:35 AM | Comments (2)

66% of Arizonans support PAN

In 66% in state favor anti-migrant issue the Arizona Republic reports strong support for the Protect Arizona Now initiative. PAN would attempt to reduce illegal immigration. It would also attempt to end voter fraud by requiring voters to prove they're U.S. citizens. It has "widespread support across party lines" in the poll conducted by the newspaper. According to the poll, "Republicans favor the measure by an 8-1 ratio and Democrats favor it by an almost 3-1 ratio." And, "91 percent of those surveyed favored Proposition 200's requirement that individuals submit evidence of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote."

The article also lists a few of the organizations opposed to PAN:
Arizona Chamber of Commerce
Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association
Arizona Interfaith Network
Phoenix Firefighters Union
Service Employees International Union

This is good news on the poll, but it's bad news on the Left and Right working against the rest of us front. Note that John McCain is also going to be an anti-PAN spokesman.

And, if you'd like to complain about the "anti-migrant" headline, please send a polite email to:
ward.bushee@arizonarepublic.com
jeff.dozbaba@arizonarepublic.com
randy.lovely@arizonarepublic.com

Posted to Immigration2004 at 11:22 AM | Comments (1)

September 09, 2004

Are the CBS memos fake?

Was John Kerry in Cambodia at Christmas?

Did John Kerry get a hat from a CIA operative?

Did George Bush fail to show up for his scheduled physical of April 5, 1968? Did he in fact postpone it until April 7, a Sunday?????

Was John Kerry's first purple heart the result of a self-inflicted wound with a grenade launcher or a bowie knife or was it in fact caused by the enemy?

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD. THE YEAR IS 2004, NOT 1969.

BACK AWAY FROM THE JEFFERSON AIRPLANE RECORDS. YOU HEARD ME! PUT DOWN STEPPENWOLF'S GREATEST HITS!!! NOW!!!!

LOOK AT THIS CALENDAR!!!! TELL ME WHAT YEAR IT IS!!!! THAT'S RIGHT, IT'S 2004.

Thank you.

Posted to Bloggage at 10:23 PM | Comments (1)

"Forging a New Use for Civil RICO"

Lawyer? Like money? Look here:

Despite a string of defeats before federal trial judges, Howard W. Foster has doggedly pressed on with a type of litigation he pioneered: using RICO to target companies that allegedly hire undocumented workers for the purpose of driving down wages...

[He's brought] five Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act suits since 1999, usually on behalf of employees with valid work authorization. Four were dismissed at an early stage by trial judges. But in three of those cases, Foster has persuaded federal appellate courts to reinstate his suits.

Last month, for instance, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals gave the green light to Foster's lawsuit against poultry giant Tyson Foods Inc. of Springdale, Ark. Trollinger v. Tyson Foods Inc., No. 02-6020.

In April, Foster won his first victory in a district court. Judge Harold Murphy of the Northern District of Georgia denied a motion to dismiss brought by Mohawk Industries Inc., a Calhoun, Ga., maker of rugs and carpets. Williams v. Mohawk Industries Inc., No. 04-CV-0003...

There are more legal links here and here.

Posted to Immigration2004 at 08:42 PM | Comments (1)

"Sri Lankan gangster gets to stay"

News from the frozen north:

TORONTO - A Sri Lankan gangster caught in Toronto with an AK-47 assault rifle and sawed-off shotgun that police believe were meant for a murder has won the right to stay in Canada after a refugee judge ruled the man's family would suffer if he were sent home...

After setting aside a deportation order, the judge told Kathiravelu to stay away from gangs and guns, and instructed him to return to the refugee board on June 18, 2010, at which time his case will be looked at again...

Posted to Immigration_euro at 08:34 PM | Comments (1)

"Other Than Mexicans"

Tucson Weekly has a long, interesting article about the situation down at the border. It offers a round-up of the chatter about al Qaeda infiltrating the U.S. There's too much to quote, so here it is.

Posted to Immigration_terror at 11:56 AM | Comments (1)

"The message at the border"

In the previous post there was a quote from VP Cheney about the massive flow of illegal immigrants over our southern border. Perhaps he should read this TownHall column:

...al Qaeda may have come to the same conclusion as many economically driven illegal immigrants: The U.S. is still not serious about securing its southern border.

...the massive number of people arrested at our southern border in each year since 9/11 means we are still sending an unmistakable message to the world: The backdoor to the U.S. remains unlocked.

If some of the people who get through that door turn out to be al Qaeda killers, the damage they may do here could change America forever.

That’s why even if no one else does, President Bush should take very seriously the tough-minded Border Patrol language in his own party’s platform.

Posted to Immigration2004 at 11:52 AM | Comments (1)

Cheney on amnesty

At a town hall meeting in Iowa, VP Cheney was asked about immigration, and here's his reply:

Well, we've tightened up significantly on the borders since 9/11. We've had to. We've significantly beefed up our border security and so forth. But it continues to be a problem. Part of the difficulty that we're faced with, and one of the things that the President talked about with respect to the immigration policy is that we've got so many people coming across illegally -- primarily for economic reasons, that want to come to work in the United States. But we have no idea who is here. We have no idea what they do once they get here. We have no idea how long they're going to stay, and that there was a need to try to regularize this process. And what he has suggested is that we ought to consider the possibility of having what, in effect, would be a guest worker program so we'd know who was coming in, and that once here, then, they'd stay for a specific period of time. And they [sic] they'd have to go back home once their period of time was ended. They could not become citizens. But we would have track of who, in fact, was in the country. That's been proposed. Now, it's just an idea, a concept.

It hasn't gone anyplace legislatively at this point. And the problem we're faced with is that we need to find ways going forward to make sure we do, in fact, have knowledge of who is in the country and whether or not they've stayed, and how long they've stayed and what they're doing while they're here. And at present that's a very hard thing to do because of the enormous flow of people we've got back and forth. We've improved our system with respect to those that come in legally by visas and so forth. But we still don't have as good a grip as we need on all of those who come into the United States illegally, stay for a period of time, and then go back home.

And we need to do a better job than we are to make certain we screen out terrorists to the maximum extent possible. So it's an attempt to try to address that problem. It's not clear yet exactly how it ultimately gets sorted out or gets resolved. But that's at the heart of what is being talked about here.

Uh, why not just enforce the laws? That's one sure way to reduce the flow.

Perhaps if enough people attended meetings like this and asked tough questions - perhaps a follow-up to the answer above - some progress might be made.

Posted to Immigration2004 at 11:46 AM | Comments (2)

Snopes confirms existence of giant burgers

Earlier I blogged about a giant burger being offered by a Pennsylvania eatery.

Snopes has not only determined that the report was accurate, they have more pictures and details.

Posted to WackyHumor at 11:39 AM | Comments (0)

September 08, 2004

Proposed L.A. County seal lacks cross, sense of place, balls

Our doughty L.A. County board of supervisors have released the proposed new L.A. County seal. The AP reports:

A proposed new seal for Los Angeles County has been unveiled_ minus a controversial gold cross, oil derricks and a goddess.
County supervisors voted in June to remove a tiny cross, which has been part of the seal since 1957. This, after the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California threatened to sue on grounds that the symbol was a government endorsement of Christianity...

The new seal also replaces the central image of the goddess Pomona with an American Indian woman holding a bowl and swaps out oil derricks representing Signal Hill for an illustration of the San Gabriel Mission.

The cross atop the mission is not depicted.

I believe the last sentence is what we in the media refer to as a "zinger."

The L.A. Times' report has a before and after picture, as well as this:

"This is not going to end," vowed Tony Bell, spokesman for Supervisor Mike Antonovich, a fierce proponent of keeping the cross. "If you look at any drawings of the San Gabriel Mission, it's got a cross on top. I mean, you could put a picture [and the proposed seal] side by side, and go, 'Hello?' "

Others liked the design. At the ACLU, attorney Ben Wizner praised the new images as more inclusive and even "pretty."

"As far as we were concerned, they could have satisfied their legal obligation by simply removing the cross," he said. "But they went a step further and tried to devise a symbol that would really reflect the diversity of the county."

Crikey!

Posted to Los_Angeles at 10:17 PM | Comments (1)

Half of you won't understand what these squiggles mean

Hi. I'd like to speak to the approximately 50% of Los Angeles County residents who can read this. Did you guys (and gals) know that the other half of Los Angeles County's 16-years-and-older population might be unable to read these here squiggles?

For those of you who can read English, read this:

Los Angeles County has millions of adults who struggle to read and write English - yet only about one in five enrolls in a literacy program and half of them promptly drop out, according to a study released Wednesday.

The survey documented a situation the county has faced for decades: A large population of immigrants struggling to learn a foreign language...

Among the findings:

_ About 3.8 million people 16 or older in the county had "low-literacy" levels, based on 2000 Census data. That included those who, for example, couldn't read a prescription bottle or bus schedule.

_ About 592,000 adults were enrolled in literacy programs between 2002 and 2003. Of those, 50 percent dropped out after three weeks.

_ Two-thirds of the programs offered evening classes. None offered classes on weekends.

_ Los Angeles, Long Beach, Glendale, Pomona and El Monte had the largest populations of people considered "low-literate."

To put those numbers in perspective, here's the census data for L.A. County. County population in 2000 was 9,519,338 and 28% were under 18 years old. If we assumed that 25% were under 16, and we do the math, that works out to 53% "low-literate." My figure of 50% is close enough.

Note that there may have been some observer bias involved because those who want to provide the services conducted the survey, nevertheless this is probably fairly accurate.

And, this is not exactly good news for democracy or our society. Don't live in Southern California? Just wait, it's coming your way.

This survey is good news for those who want a pool of cheap, exploitable labor and racial demagogues, but it's not good for the rest of us. Perhaps in the interest of the Republic we should slightly raise our qualifications for entry.

UPDATE: The Daily News weighs in with "Illiteracy shockingly high in L.A." The subtitle "Half of workers unable to read" is wrong; the more accurate would be "According to study, half are functionally equivalent (or similar technically-correct phrase)." It contains a few quotes from people who presumably think we can continue to educate the Third World:

"It's an emergency situation," said Mayor James Hahn, adding that poor literacy rates could jeopardize the region's economy by driving out high-tech businesses and other industries that pay well...

And despite hundreds of millions of dollars spent in public schools over the past decade to boost literacy rates, functional illiteracy levels have remained flat because of a steady influx of non-English-speaking immigrants and a 30 percent high school dropout rate, authors of the report said...

"This is a ticking time bomb, a dirty secret we don't want to talk about. We are losing the battle," said Mark Drummond, chancellor of California's community college system...

Note that the Daily News report was written by Rachel Uranga, who six months back penned a happysmiling article about Mexico sending the LAUSD "free" Spanish-language textbooks. I entitled my entry about her report "Mexico joins hands with LAUSD, inserts tentacles". If you want to suggest she ties the two reports together, send a short polite email to rachel.uranga@dailynews.com

Posted to Immigration2004 at 09:42 PM | Comments (2)

"Three Michiganians charged with smuggling Middle Easterners to U.S."

From the AP:

Three Sterling Heights, Mich., residents have been charged with operating a smuggling ring that transported more than 200 illegal aliens from the Middle East to the United States from 2001 on.

Those charged include Detroit Assistant Ombudsman Basima Sesi.

[...those transported were Jordanians and Iraqis... they were given visas to enter an unnamed South American country... no word is given on how they came to the U.S. after arriving in that unnamed country...]

L.I. Newsday, CNN and ABC have an AP report very similar to that above. However, the latter version is rewritten and adds this:

There was no indication in the indictment that terrorism was involved in the case. The charges indicate that the defendants used the alleged smuggling ring simply to make money.

The page for the Detroit ombudsman has this soon-to-disappear blurb:

Basima Sesi, Assistant Ombudsman, received her B.S. in 1981 in Data Processing from the Detroit Institute of Technology. She previously worked for the Detroit Water & Sewerage Department as a Systems Analyst from 1982 to 1994.

Posted to Immigration_terror at 08:02 PM | Comments (1)

"Coroner discussing gun safety shoots self"

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Monroe County Coroner David Toumey was hospitalized with a leg wound after accidentally shooting himself while trying to demonstrate gun safety.

Toumey told The Herald-Times for a story published Saturday that he was demonstrating gun safety to some people at a Lake Monroe boat ramp about 11 p.m. Wednesday when he accidentally shot himself...

Posted to WackyHumor at 12:12 AM | Comments (0)

Let them come and seek asylum!

The DHS has just granted asylum to someone who's "the foreign minister-in-exile of the secessionist Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, and a former military adjutant to Chechnaya's generalissimo, Shamil Basayev." The Beslan school massacre may have been ordered by the latter named individual. Don't you feel all safer now?

Much more here.

(Via redstate.org/story/2004/9/7/1740/62840)

Posted to Immigration2004 at 12:10 AM | Comments (3)

September 07, 2004

Rep. David Dreier (R-CA) "wins" Political Human Sacrifice

L.A. talk jocks John & Ken (KFI 640AM) have announced the results of their Political Human Sacrifice poll:

Congressmen David Dreier (Rep.) and Joe Baca (Dem.) are the choices to be Politically Sacrificed. KFI listeners are encouraged to tell everyone to vote these two hacks out of office...

You might be saying, but, isn't David Dreier a Republican? Why would they encourage people to vote for Dreiers... gasp!... Democratic opponent? Because, if he hopefully gets voted out it will send a message to the GOP that they shouldn't be as bad as the Democrats on illegal immigration.

If you think this is unlikely, you might want to bear in mind that John & Ken were one of the driving forces behind the Gray Davis recall.

Posted to Immigration2004 at 04:07 PM | Comments (1)

The fix is in, Part 2

As previously posted, Wal*Mart is in talks to settle the case alleging it hired illegal alien janitors:

The discount chain did not reveal details about the talks but, in documents filed with Securities and Exchange Commission, predicted that any settlement would not significantly affect its earnings.

Even if the settlement amount was $10 million, it would represent the revenue Wal*Mart receives in an average 15 minute period...

Posted to Immigration2004 at 12:41 PM | Comments (0)

A trip inside the smuggling infrastructure

The San Diego Union-Tribune has a recount of how one Honduran illegal alien was smuggled into the U.S. Allow me to summarize:

Used an altered Mexican ID card to board a Southwest flight with five others... Subject of story had paid for his ticket, but the tickets for the other five were paid for by Southwest's frequent flyer program...

Got shaken down by Mexican police... the smuggling outfit was efficient and experienced... some illegal aliens "often [work] more than a year to repay loan sharks or relatives for their journey..." Article's subject has fourth grade education, one of the others had just six months of education... None of them had been on an airline before... description of prestamistas [loan sharks]... they crossed the border in Arizona and never saw nor heard the Border Patrol...

Posted to Immigration2004 at 12:36 PM | Comments (0)

"Flow of migrants puts border's agents on alert"

MCALLEN [Texas] - A late-night tip led U.S. Border Patrol agents to five rooms at the Matador Motor Inn, where human smugglers had abandoned 22 men from China.

Although the Chinese nationals were economic migrants, their discovery Aug. 16 in downtown McAllen left many with an uneasy feeling. If a large group of men seeking work could be moved across the Rio Grande undetected, why not a squad of terrorists?

...Gloria Chavez, a representative at Border Patrol headquarters in Washington said the agency has responded to reports that terrorists will infiltrate the Southwest border, reportedly part of an effort to disrupt the national elections in November with other terror attacks.

''We have been preparing for the possibility and are taking appropriate action to better secure our border against the terrorists, such as increased personnel, technology, infrastructure and equipment," Chavez said...

But critics contend little has changed on the border since the 2001 terror attacks.

T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, the union that represents 6,500 agents, said the government needs to bring additional personnel, equipment and training on line to secure the vast border region. The union official claimed no agents have been hired since March, and next year's budget cuts $19 million from the agency and moves $75 million from operations to technology.

''It's only a matter of time before we are attacked again because, incredibly, nothing has changed. We are doing business on the border as usual," said Bonner, a Border Patrol agent who is stationed near San Diego, Calif.

Agency officials denied the budget was reduced, and said 50 agents are in training at the agency's academy...

...[Democratic U.S. Rep. Solomon Ortiz], who fears terrorists can mingle with economic migrants, has demanded the government halt [releases of Other-Than-Mexicans] but he acknowledged it will add ''billions " to the detention budget. He said the [illegal alien detention] camp contained undocumented migrants from Iraq, Egypt, Pakistan, Jordan, India, Panama and Sri Lanka.

Posted to Immigration2004 at 12:20 PM | Comments (1)

September 05, 2004

"Tancredo Says Some In Government Want Open Borders"

Here are some quotes from Tom Tancredo:

A Colorado congressman who has led the charge for better border protection says he doubts even a terrorist attack on the U.S. Congress itself would change the minds of some of his colleagues about the need to shut down the flow of illegal aliens across America's southern border...

Congressman Tom Tancredo says he doubts even a terrorist attack will change some of the minds in the U.S. government. "You have to understand that there are people who are committed to the elimination of the concept of nation-states, for all intents and purposes. There are people who are so committed to that," he says, "that a terrorist attack doesn't affect that theory."

The Colorado Republican, who chairs the House Immigration Reform Caucus, is hoping that many of the "open borders" advocates will be defeated in November. He says some members of Congress appear to be committed to the elimination of national borders altogether -- people who aspire to a world that is not "encumbered with things like nation-states and loyalties and patriotism, and stuff like that... They think that's where we've got to go, and that we can handle terrorism once we get there."

Don't believe him? Read through this category, you'll probably change your mind.

Posted to Immigration2004 at 09:17 PM | Comments (2)

Open Borders, Closed Debate

NRO wins with the quote of the week in this article:

The White House's heavy hand on [illegal alien amnesty, etc. being mentioned at the GOP convention] might stem from the understanding that their side would lose in an intramural GOP debate on immigration. No one criticizes the White House for having its own agenda distinct from the party's, but the process is frustrating. While bringing democracy to the Middle East, Bush might consider trying it within the GOP.

The rest of the article is similar to previous reports about Tom Tancredo's failed attempt to get pro-American planks added to the GOP platform.

Posted to Immigration2004 at 09:11 PM | Comments (2)

"Divided USA, divided GOP, divided Bush-Cheney website"

Why is the Bush-Cheney website displaying the Mexican flag? This page wants to know.

Sure, it's from a TV commercial that apparently makes the point that people from all (Latin American) countries come to America, and that page unfortunately fails to point out that it's from a commercial, but even so...

That page also includes this bit that might be worthy of additional research: "[Bush] needs to direct the State Department to begin proceedings to expel Mexican diplomats from the United States who, by gross interference in state legislative battles, have violated the terms of the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations." There's an example of Mexican consuls meddling in our local laws here. Lobbying of state and local officials generated a letter of complaint by several congressmen, but, of course, nothing was done. The worst case is this; if a statement like that had been made during the Eisenhower administration it probably would have been considered a declaration of war.

Also, the first page linked to above directs us to the article in the following post.

Posted to Immigration2004 at 09:03 PM | Comments (1)

An NWO flashback

From April 17, 2001's "Bush envisions Western Hemisphere free trade zone":

President Bush pledged to representatives of nearly every nation in the Western Hemisphere Tuesday that he would press Congress for fast-track trade authority to help create a free trade zone throughout the Americas.

Bush, in his inaugural address to the Organization of American States in Washington, said high-level operatives of his administration would lay the groundwork for the trade zone at this weekend's Summit of the Americas in Quebec, Canada...

Somewhat related: there are interesting viewpoints from questionable sources here and here.

Posted to Politics at 08:57 PM | Comments (1)

"GOP slams Bush policies at retreat"

This is from Feb. 5 2004, but since I didn't link to it at the time:

Growing frustration over President Bush's immigration plan and lack of fiscal discipline came to a head behind closed doors at last weekend's Republican retreat in Philadelphia.

House lawmakers, stunned by the intensity of their constituents' displeasure at some of Mr. Bush's key domestic policies, gave his political strategist Karl Rove an earful behind closed doors...

Many House critics of the Bush immigration plan said privately that the proposal was created to win Mr. Bush a larger share of the Hispanic vote in November and to mollify Mexican President Vicente Fox. Mr. Fox has supported relaxed U.S. immigration laws as a means to alleviate economic problems in Mexico.

[White House spokesman Trent Duffy] said the president delivered a passionate defense of his immigration plan, telling the Republican caucus that his policy is not a political ploy.

"He said he didn't do it for politics [but] because that's what he believes is good for the country," Mr. Duffy said, adding that Mr. Bush drove his point home by saying, "I'm from Texas and I know this issue."

Posted to Immigration2004 at 03:13 PM | Comments (1)

Border Patrol agents fear coming retribution

From this:

A new policy close to adoption by the Department of Homeland Security will effectively muzzle any dissent within the U.S. Border Patrol by making agents fear for their jobs if they speak to the media, said local and national union officials Friday.

Agent Ron Zermeno, a union official at the Border Patrol's Temecula office, was the one who informed local media last month that some controversial immigrant sweeps had been stopped by officials in Washington, D.C., triggering a public outcry and a "town hall" meeting that drew nationwide attention.

Zermeno's candor resulted in management threatening to fire him, he said Friday. Once the new rules go into effect, it would be easier for management to do so, and he will not be so forthcoming with the press, he said...

A final decision on the proposed policy changes is pending. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge is slated to meet with union officials one last time, on Friday [presumably 9/10/04 --LW], and the new policy should take effect in mid-October, department spokesman Orluskie said.

[Richard Pierce, executive vice president for the agents' union, the National Border Patrol Council] said it's a near certainty that the changes allowing the agency to muzzle agents will be part of the new agreement. The only hope of preventing that from happening lies with the people, Pierce added.

"People should be notifying their elected representatives and saying this isn't right ---- this is America," he said.

See also "Border Patrol union says new rules 'muzzle' critics of the agency".

Posted to Immigration2004 at 03:01 PM | Comments (1)

Instapundit is still confused

He was confused a couple months ago, and with his link to the WashTimes guest editorial "Where is the debate on homeland security?" he's still confused. It's not that there shouldn't be a debate on homeland security, and it's not that that editorial doesn't bring up some very important facts, it's just that that editorial seems to offer some incorrect information about the current situation:

We also do not know what happened to Mr. Bush's immigration reform proposal. Although one could argue with the outlines of that proposal, its homeland security rationale is unassailable: Even with significant increases in Border Patrol funding, we cannot readily detect and apprehend potential terrorists smuggled into the United States unless we also take steps to decrease substantially the people who try to enter the United States illegally each year. These steps could include increasing the annual ceiling on lawful Mexican immigration, creating a temporary worker program, deporting rather than releasing people who enter the country illegally, linking our economic aid to Mexico directly to its ability to exercise greater control over its southern and northern borders, and focusing our investigations on smugglers rather than domestic employers...

Saaaay what? We certainly should greatly reduce the numbers of illegal crossers. And, yes, that would greatly benefit our attempts to stop terrorists from entering. However, the last phrase is completely wrong.

In the first five months of this year, just one company in the whole U.S. was fined for immigration violations. I'd hardly call that "focusing... on domestic employers."

If we fined hundreds of companies, those companies would stop recruiting and employing illegal aliens. It just wouldn't be worth it. Without all those illegal jobs, few illegal aliens would come here. Any amnesty proposal - even coupled with promises of strong enforcement - would simply lead to more illegals coming here.

Posted to Immigration2004 at 02:49 PM | Comments (0)

September 04, 2004

Do you know the way to San Jose?

Duh duh duh d'duh:

Seeking to end a searing, months-long controversy, San Jose City Manager Del Borgsdorf on Friday concluded his investigation into the city's bungled City Hall technology deal with Cisco Systems by laying all blame on three administrators who already have resigned or been demoted...

But the report released Friday by Borgsdorf will not be the final word on the subject. Santa Clara County District Attorney George Kennedy has launched a criminal investigation of the Cisco deal, and council members have said they may want an independent probe of city management...

I previously posted a wacky humor-style bit about San Jose's new luxurious $45 million city hall. That prompted a commentor to provide a laundry list of links to corruption in San Jose, which those interested in such matters are invited to check out at the last link.

Posted to California at 12:54 PM | Comments (0)

September 03, 2004

"Cantor Fitzgerald accuses Saudi Arabia of aiding al-Qaida prior to 9-11 attack"

From Long Island's Newsday:

Cantor Fitzgerald Securities, a bond trading firm that lost two-thirds of its workers in the World Trade Center attack, has sued Saudi Arabia for allegedly supporting al-Qaida prior to the Sept. 11 attack through financing, safe houses, weapons and money laundering.

The company, in a $7 billion lawsuit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, also named dozens of other defendants, including numerous banks and Islamic charities, in a bid to hold them accountable for its losses in the terrorism attack.

That report references the earlier, larger suit against our allies in Saudi Arabia. Details on that start in 'CIA's Woolsey Tells Court: Iraq Involved in 9/11'; that post links to excerpts from the earlier complaint.

Note the headline to this AP report; the original AP report's headline appears to be "Cantor Fitzgerald Sues Saudis for Losses". Reuters (also in USA Today and CNN) doesn't include the Saudis in their headline, only al Qaeda.

And, remember, Citizen, the Saudis are now conducting raids so we don't need to worry about them anymore.

Posted to TheSaudis at 08:51 PM | Comments (0)

"Talk is Cheap: President Bush Can Act Now To Implement Some of the 9/11 Commission�s Recommendations"

From last month, FAIR has a list of recommendations Bush could implement (but most likely won't).

Posted to Immigration2004 at 04:41 PM | Comments (1)

Press 2 if you want me to promise you everything for nothing

In an attempt to show that he might be worse, John Kerry recently made more pro-illegal immigration promises in Fresno. Well, he wasn't really in Fresno, he just phoned his pandering in:

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry capped a recent farm workers convention by promising to propose "comprehensive immigration reform" within his first 100 days in office if he defeats President George W. Bush.

Kerry made the promise in a seven-minute telephone call to delegates last Saturday at the 17th Constitutional Convention of the United Farm Workers in Fresno, California.

He also vowed to immediately sign the bipartisan AgJobs bill, which would allow undocumented farm workers to gain legal residency status.

"Within hours of being sworn in, there will be health care for all Americans," said Kerry...

"[Bush] sure turned his back on the American people," said [AFL-CIO President John] Sweeney during prepared remarks at the convention. "He promised us 5 million jobs and he's off 7 million because he's lost 2 million jobs."

...Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, addressing the audience in Spanish, warned of a "new anti-immigrant wave."

Perhaps instead of encouraging a nation within a nation, John Kerry might give some thought to being the American candidate. And, it seems odd that on the one hand Kerry wants to invite millions of illegal aliens here, but at the same time a union president is complaining about jobs being lost.

Posted to Immigration2004 at 04:31 PM | Comments (1)

No Social Security for Illegal Aliens

From a 2003 entry on Dana Rohrbacher's website:

The federal government is thinking about giving away Social Security benefits to illegal aliens.

Various interest groups are pushing for the Social Security Administration to sign a "Totalization Agreement" with Mexico that would entitle illegal aliens to Social Security benefits. With Social Security and Medicare in crisis, this is so irresponsible it takes the breath away.

Congress must act, and act now. I have introduced legislation, H.R. 1631, that would forbid any Social Security credits for illegal aliens or work in violation of the terms of a visa. This would emphatically not affect those who have a legal right to work, such as legal permanent residents or those who have valid work visas.

Estimates vary, but even the lowest figures show adding illegal aliens to the Social Security rolls will cost the Social Security Trust Fund billions and billions of dollars. Seniors should ask why anyone would want to give those dollars to illegal aliens, draining funds available for Social Security and Medicare benefits, and reward those who break the law...

A couple months ago, the Bush administration decided to give Mexico yet another gift. From this official fact sheet [PDF file]:

On June 29, 2004, the Commissioner of Social Security signed a totalization agreement with the Director General of the Mexican Social Security Institute. This is the first step in a process that requires review (in order) by the State Department, the White House, and the Congress to enter into a formal agreement. In addition, the Mexican Senate must approve the totalization agreement...

According to the GAO, the proposed agreement will likely increase the number of unauthorized Mexican workers and their family members eligible for Social Security benefits. Mexican workers who previously lacked the required 40 quarters of coverage could qualify with as few as 6 quarters of coverage...

Now, back to near the present day. Lou Dobbs Tonight had an interview last week with Rohrbacher about this here.

You'll recall that one of the planks Tom Tancredo tried and failed to get added to the GOP platform opposed the "totalization agreement" with Mexico. Here's more from Tancredo on this topic.

Rohrbacher links to Joel Mowbray's 2003 article "Social Security Heading South of the Border." (Like some of the other following links, that's not a recent article.) Congressman Ron Paul has "Return of the Great Social Security Giveaway." From 2003, "Mexico benefits accord rapped" From FAIR: Social Security Funds for Illegal Aliens? and U.S., Mexico Approve Deal on Social Security Benefits. And, from Feb. 2003, "Counting On Social Security?"

There are steps you can take here and here.

Posted to Immigration2004 at 03:54 PM | Comments (1)

"Cost of illegal-immigrant labor exceeds benefits"

The president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association has a guest opinion in the L.A. Daily News:

No matter how one feels about minimum-wage laws or the underground economy, there is little disagreement that illegal immigrants, who make much less than Wal-Mart employees, are overwhelming public services in places like Los Angeles County...

Public services throughout the state are under pressure because low-paid illegal immigrants rely on these services -- including education -- in numbers proportionally greater than the general population. In short, it is the taxpayers who end up paying to subsidize the low-wage jobs of the undocumented.

Some suggested that without illegal immigrants, the nation would face a recession. But would we?

No one is suggesting that government mandate a six-figure income for dishwashers. But if we stopped importing an underclass willing to take starvation wages for hard or unpleasant work, market forces would force the pay rate up to a level American workers would accept. These wages would be declared for tax purposes and these wages would be spent here in the U.S. instead of being sent home, as is often the case with undocumented workers. The result would be more jobs and income for Americans while this "above- the-table" economic activity would produce additional revenue for government. Pressure on social services would decline.

Yes, without an illegal-immigrant labor force the price of a hamburger might go up a dime, but it is just as likely that the reduction in the tax burden would more than compensate for any increase in consumer prices.

Posted to Immigration2004 at 03:02 PM | Comments (2)

"Dan Walters: Schwarzenegger pleases neither side in fight over licenses"

Arnold's actions in the driver's licenses for illegal aliens matter so far are not as good as they could be, but it's the end result that matters.

Dan Walters thinks he won't please either side:

NEW YORK - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger won boffo reviews for his prime-time Republican convention speech that extolled the virtues of fellow immigrants, but he returned to California on Thursday to veto a bill granting driver's licenses to illegal immigrants.

Schwarzenegger has not been coy about his intention to veto the licensing bill, easily the most controversial of the hundreds of measures enacted in the final hours of the legislative session that ended early Saturday. And he reiterated Thursday that the bill is deficient because it doesn't mark or color licenses of noncitizens differently, thereby making them less useful for opening accounts or other purposes...

During the debate before the vote in the Legislature, Cedillo and other advocates dwelled almost exclusively on what they said would be the traffic safety benefits of having drivers licensed and insured, while Republican critics said licensing illegal immigrants could be a security problem in an era of terrorist threats.

Neither faction wanted to talk about the real conflict, because to do so would rekindle California's divisive, racially tinged debate over the place that illegal immigrants hold in the state's economy and society - needed for their labor [I disagree --LW] but officially shunned for their illegal status. [I disagree as well. Otherwise we wouldn't have politicians pushing to give them things like licenses and voting rights --LW]

Those who back licensure clearly see it as a form of state-sanctioned quasi-legalization for hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of people who are integral members of society, removing clouds from their daily lives and opening up the possibility of opening bank accounts and otherwise moving out of the social background...

His best hope of resolving the stalemate may lie, ironically enough, in Washington's politicians, who control immigration policy but are equally befuddled by it. Schwarzenegger wants the federal government to set a national standard for driver's licenses that ends state-level debates as part of a larger agreement on immigration and homeland security policy.

"I think they will do it after the election," he says hopefully.

I discussed this doublethink on "immigration" here. And, I said Arnold should try to reduce the number of illegal aliens in California here.

The major long-term thing Arnold could do to resolve this problem is to reduce the number of illegals in California. If he's signed on to Bush's insane amnesty plan, he should reconsider. Instead, he should put pressure on Bush to simply enforce our immigration laws.

Posted to Immigration_dls at 02:56 PM | Comments (0)

September 02, 2004

"Who is really to blame for illegal immigration?"

From this:

...Illegal immigration could be stopped at any time. Rep. Silvestre Reyes of Texas, a twenty-six year veteran of the border patrol, commented on the issue of curbing illegal immigration during a debate on PBS’s News Hour with Jim Lehrer.

“We can show statistically that the employer sanctions was an effective tool,” remarked Reyes. “The problem was that Congress never followed through in giving INS the resources to enforce employer sanctions in the interior of the United States.”

...The illegal immigration problem as we know it could end today if employers were properly deterred from hiring illegal workers. But this seems to be the only measure of prevention we have not taken seriously. Even the high-profile cases have been a sick joke. A jury recently acquitted Tyson Foods and other multi-million dollar corporations with mere six figure fines. If we were serious about stopping the importation of cheap labor, someone would be doing some jail time, and his collar would be white, not blue.

If we found an effective tool, what on earth would prevent us from utilizing it? Who is benefiting from illegal immigration? Employers, that’s who. Every great civilization was built on the backs of an oppressed minority, and ours is no different. The days of slavery may be over, but it didn’t take long for businesses to find the next best thing. These are people who hire the cheapest labor without consideration for their humanity, only their own bottom line...

See also the recent post "Left and Right, working together against everyone else" and this post with details about the miniscule number of companies that are fined for immigration violations.

Posted to Immigration2004 at 09:06 PM | Comments (2)

Hospitals to close; real cause not to be discussed

CalInsider links to a five-page letter from the folks who run California's private hospitals. Due to money problems from many sources, many of them might be forced to shut down. The major reason appears to be because of the "uninsured." Of course, despite spanning five pages, the letter fails to note that most of those "uninsured" are, in fact, citizens of other countries. Perhaps one day we'll realize that we can't afford to provide all these social services to other countries' citizens. Alternatively, we should determine which countries they're from and send those countries the bill.

Posted to Immigration2004 at 08:58 PM | Comments (0)

Recapping Bush's acceptance speech

I nodded off starting around the one hour mark, so I might have missed some of it. Nevertheless here it is, with comments in bold:

Globalism creates new markets for our goods, but also new competition for our workers [and I'm helping]

Americans can compete with anyone anywhere in the world [yes, indeed, we can compete against dollar-a-day workers in Bangladesh. And, once I put all our jobs on eBay it'll get even better.]

Those who believe the heart & soul of America is in Hollywood are wrong [Neither is the Northeast]

"We have tripled funding for homeland security and trained half a million first responders, because we are determined to protect our homeland. We are transforming our military and reforming and strengthening our intelligence services. We are staying on the offensive — striking terrorists abroad — so we do not have to face them here at home." [but, they most certainly aren't coming over our borders. And, because they aren't coming over the border, I'm not going to bother discussing anything having to do with our completely porous borders. And, likewise with my insane immigration plan.]

I'll guarantee community health centers in each poor and/or rural county [whether I'll keep them out of bankruptcy due to millions lost to treating those illegal aliens I invited here is quite another matter. At least the buildings will be there.]

Viva Bush! [Vive Trudeau!]

Four years ago, the Saudis funded terrorism, today they're making raids and arrests [and still spreading Wahhibism, but, hey, give them time]

...Slappin' down the NYT... [finally, something I agree with]

Millions in the Middle East plead in silence for their liberty [Uh oh...]

Posted to Politics at 07:30 PM | Comments (0)

It's always best when your opponents go insane

From "Feminists Compare Bush's 2000 Election Victory to 'Savage Rape'":

...Poet Molly Birnbaum read aloud to a crowd of feminists gathered in New York's Central Park on Wednesday night, as part of a NOW event dubbed "Code Red: Stop the Bush Agenda Rally."

"Imagine a way to erase that night four years ago when you (President Bush) savagely raped every pandemic woman over and over with each vote you got, a thrust with each state you stole," Birnbaum said from the podium. (If something is pandemic, it affects many people or a number of countries.) [Her usage of it might refer to AIDS, or it just might be poetic license --LW]

"A smack with each bill you passed, a tear with each right you took until you left me disenfranchised with hands shackled and voice restrained. Thanks for that night, Mr. President, I can barely remember my tomorrows," Birnbaum said to applause...

"I want to be that voice that makes George Bush so scared he hires two butch black bodyguards. I want to write the poem that the New York Times will not print because it might start some kind of black or lesbian or even a white revolution," [alleged poet Stacey Ann] Chin said...

The crowd carried signs reading, "Keep your politics out of my vagina," "The religious right is neither," "I don't want a president who believes that I am going to hell," "Keep your God out of my government, keep your laws off my body," and "War is not pro-life."

Earlier in the rally, U.S. Rep. Major Owens, a New York Democrat, warned a crowd of feminist protesters that the Bush administration is taking America "into a snake pit of fascism."

Owens also said the Bush administration "spits on democracy" and is leading the country down a path reminiscent of "Nazi Germany."

Last year, Major Owens caused a "rap poem" to be entered in the Congressional Record.

And, pre-protest, TalkLeft provided us with the text of their flyer, so I guess we could have seen this coming:

PROTEST The Bush Administration'sWAR on WOMEN
WORKERS and PEOPLE of COLOR, LGBT, DISABLED, POOR and IMMIGRANT
PEOPLES
The ENVIRONMENT and OUR BILL OF RIGHTS

Posted to ThePeaceMovement at 02:02 PM | Comments (0)

"[MN Governor] Pawlenty Asks Cities To Rethink Immigration Ordinances"

From this:

Minneapolis (AP) Gov. Tim Pawlenty has asked the city councils of Minneapolis and St. Paul to reconsider laws that limit situations in which police officers can ask about a person's immigration status...

Pawlenty asks each city to amend or repeal "an ordinance which effectively prohibits police officers from inquiring about immigration status if such an inquiry is the sole basis for questioning or detaining an individual."

Minneapolis City Council President Paul Ostrow said the city has no plans to change its ordinance, but would be willing to discuss the issue with the governor.

"We believe that the ordinance that we passed was appropriate, and absolutely consistent with many states," Ostrow said.

St. Paul Deputy Mayor Dennis Flaherty told the St. Paul Pioneer Press that the city would look at its current ordinance to see how it really stacks up, adding the city did not intend to prohibit police officers from identifying criminal suspects.

Under the Minneapolis ordinance, passed in 2003, police officers do not have the authority to walk up to someone on the street and ask whether he or she is a naturalized citizen. The issue of citizenship can be raised, however, if it is part of the crime being investigated...

I don't know how the Twin Cities' policies stack up against the apparently more loony policies of Los Angeles, Houston, and three other cities:

September 11 Commission member John Lehman Thursday criticized so-called "sanctuary" practices in Houston and elsewhere that restrict cooperation between local police and federal immigration officials as an invitation to terrorists looking to enter the United States.

"It is ridiculous that five cities in the United States do not allow local police to cooperate with the federal immigration service," said Lehman, visiting Houston to lobby for Sept. 11 commission report recommendations.

"The terrorists know" which cities have such policies, Lehman said, naming Houston and Los Angeles among those cities.

Of course, as can be expected, those who support illegal immigration are up in arms. I'm not going to bother giving the Minneapolis Star-Tribune's "Editorial: Illegal immigrants/Pawlenty's off base, again" and space. Suffice it to say that an editorial that uses not only "anti-immigrant" in the first sentence but "[s]ome Americans hate illegal immigrants" near the end loses any credibility it might have had. If most Americans who are opposed to illegal immigration hate anyone it's not the immigrants themselves but those who seek to profit from illegal immigration.

Posted to at 12:53 PM | Comments (0)

"Follow the money"

As previously discussed, those opposed to the Protect Arizona Now initiative are switching tactics and front groups. The article "Foes of immigration bill shift attack" gives more information:

Steve Roman, a spokesman for the groups organizing to oppose the measure, said Wednesday that Arizonans are unaware of the unintended consequences if the measure is approved. At the very least, he said, it will lead to lawsuits as the courts try to figure out exactly what state and local governments -- and their employees -- need to do to comply with the new laws...

...Roman painted a potentially darker picture of Arizona after Proposition 200.

He said that will range from many state residents having to get new driver licenses to have ready proof of citizenship to paramedics refusing to provide first aid at automobile accidents to those who cannot show they are here legally...

One potential way to counter things like this is to ask why these groups are opposed to PAN. Could there be, oh I dunno, money involved? And, is it right that some people would seek to profit from illegal behavior?

Posted to Immigration2004 at 12:40 PM | Comments (1)

September 01, 2004

And ne'er a dissenting voice was heard

So far, I'm only aware of two instances were anything related to immigration or similar matters has even been discussed at the GOP convention:

1. Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney in his speech: "[American workers are threatened by] low-cost, highly-skilled labor from abroad"

2. "[Kansas] Republican challenger Kris Kobach said Monday that Democratic Rep. Dennis Moore "placed American citizens at risk" by voting against a proposal to allow troops to patrol U.S. borders... "How many terrorists will enter the United States before my opponent realizes that we must close the border to terrorists?" [he said during his 47-second speech]

UPDATE: The column "GOP ducks discussion on illegal immigration" has more on Tancredo's press conference:

Tancredo held a press conference to express his displeasure - in a kosher New York restaurant staffed by foreign accents from around the globe. Outside on Broadway, the international hordes went about their business.

Also note that Tancredo's fellow panelists were New Yorkers who swim easily in the sea of diversity. They didn't reflect any white-bread fears of brown-skinned masses taking over.

Some panelists told reporters that they disagreed with the fiery congressman on many issues. But they clearly shared his concern that illegal immigration threatens both Americans' livelihoods and their lives...

"There are a billion willing workers," Tancredo [, speaking about Bush's "guest worker" plan] told the press conference, "all of them willing to work for less than someone (an American) already employed."

...[Matthew Reindl, whose family owns a carpentry shop on Long Island] noted that he provides his workers with good wages, health insurance and workers' compensation coverage. His lawbreaking competitors do none of these things. As a result, his labor costs are at least 60 percent higher than theirs...

That latter certainly sounds like something a Democrat could really sink his teeth into: "illegally lowering wages for American workers, trying to put American jobs on eBay, etc. etc."

Other reports on Tancredo's efforts in NYC start here.

Posted to Politics at 06:39 PM | Comments (0)

The PIIPP to end all PIIPPs

As you'll recall, a PIIPP is a "pro-illegal immigration puff piece." It must advocate for illegal immigration and the person to whom we're to feel Sally Struthers-level sympathy for must appear in the first sentence.

And, I believe I've spotted the PIIPP to end all PIIPPs in the New York Times. Presenting "Behind Top Student's Heartbreak, Illegal Immigrants' Nightmare":

Angela Perez looked up from her desk at International High School in Queens one morning last April to behold a most uncommon sight. Her best friend, Lydia, the one who shuffled into homeroom late every day, had scampered in ahead of the bell. "Guess what?" she called to Angela, and from her backpack she pulled a thick envelope. It held the letter admitting her to Tufts University...

[Angela nad Lydia are best friends, sharing joys, dreams, hopes for the future, etc. etc. etc...]

[... but there are dark and stormy storm clouds on one of these students' horizons...]

Unlike Lydia, her soul mate in so many other ways, Angela is an undocumented immigrant, and under federal law, state university systems have been financially pressured not to provide affordable resident tuition to such applicants...

[... but, never fear! Help is on the way from those who say our immigration laws mean nothing... Begin peppy music...]

Now a bipartisan coalition of legislators has recognized that students like Angela are, in fact, among the most responsible of Americans, those who carry the burden of parents' sacrifices and who seize upon public education as their route to productive citizenship. In both the Senate and the House of Representatives, lawmakers have introduced bills to permit these immigrant students to regain resident status in their home states and, even more important, to earn citizenship in part by graduating from college, allowing them to enter the workforce legally...

[The DREAM Act] has fallen victim to the Republicans' internal split on immigration, which pits cultural nativists against free-marketeers, as well as the overall shift in federal immigration policy toward border control and internal surveillance since Sept. 11 attacks. Trent Duffy, a deputy press secretary to the president, said yesterday that "certain parts" of the Dream Act deserve "serious consideration" as part of a "better, more humane, and open immigration system..."

[... it gets even worse...]

OK, you've probably read enough. Please contact sgfreedman@nytimes.com or, better yet, public@nytimes.com.

Maybe you could suggest they provide teary puff-pieces about those U.S. citizens negatively impacted by the DREAM Act and similer legislation.

I provided this link above, but just to make this clear, here's what Dan Stein of FAIR says:

[With the DREAM Act, Orrin Hatch] and his colleagues are literally taking opportunities and tuition assistance away from the children of citizens and giving them to illegal aliens... Supporters of this bill are unabashedly placing the interests of illegal aliens above American families who have paid taxes and played by the rules..."

Posted to Immigration_piipps at 01:15 PM | Comments (3)

Left and Right, working together against everyone else

The Protect Arizona Now initiative has survived its first legal challenge (by the SEIU), and will probably appear on Nov. 2's ballot. The report "Immigration referendum survives union court challenge" unwittingly sums up the problem:

[PAN] has strong support in public opinion polls, despite facing opposition from the state's political establishment, unions, Hispanic groups and the Arizona Chamber of Commerce.

The Arizona Republic's "Migrant issue OK'd for ballot" has more on this unholy alliance:

Mainstream business, political and labor leaders will take over the battle against the state's anti-illegal-immigration initiative under a new strategy calling Protect Arizona Now a danger to the state's economy...

The groups opposing the measure plan to spend $1 million to $2 million on an advertising blitz to begin on radio and television in Arizona within the next few weeks, emphasizing the potential loss of tourism and convention business. A goal of the new strategy is to avoid the racial overtones played out in discussions of the initiative so far and expand the debate beyond illegal immigration.

"We don't want parades in south Phoenix brandishing the Mexican flag," said Bank One Vice President Ruben Ramos, a leading figure in the fight against the measure. "We need to leave emotions out of this campaign."

...Opponents say that the state's economy would suffer because the plan would cost too much to implement and that some large conventions would be reluctant to come to the state. The theory is that Arizona would lose tourism and convention business as it did after voters turned down a paid holiday honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. more than a decade ago...

[... "Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano and Republican Sen. John McCain" might be involved in the anti-PAN campaign...]

The main players in the campaign include the Arizona Chamber of Commerce, the Service Employees International Union, the National Council of La Raza and other groups...

The estimates [of the cost of PAN], prepared at the request of Napolitano, showed that at least $20 million would be spent each year to check immigration papers of everyone who sought any type of public benefits or assistance...

Even if that's accurate, it's probably a few orders of magnitude less than Arizona spends subsidizing those who employ all those illegals.

And, you'll note that, unlike past reports, they've toned down the inflammatory language. However, in one instance they refer to "Proposition 202" when what's being discussed is "Proposition 200." A harmless error, or an attempt to confuse potential voters?

Posted to Immigration2004 at 12:47 PM | Comments (2)

"Bush's 'guest-worker' proposal on a back burner"

From the WashTimes:

President Bush's proposed "guest-worker" program, which could grant amnesty to as many as 8 million illegal immigrants, has been pushed into the shadows at the Republican National Convention, much to the ire of conservatives...

"I don't like it, and I don't think it should be in there," said one delegate from the Southwest who requested anonymity. "The program, as proposed by President Bush, does not represent conservative values and should have been done away with long ago."

...Other delegates refused to say a cross word about the program, even anonymously. One delegate said despite strong misgivings about the guest-worker program, which he said is tantamount to "amnesty," he would not publicly oppose the Republican platform or the president...

Posted to Immigration2004 at 12:18 PM | Comments (2)

"Bustamante urged to step in and sign [illegal alien driver's license bill]"

From the SacBee:

State Sen. Gil Cedillo on Tuesday called on Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante to sign his bill to allow illegal immigrants to apply for driver's licenses if the measure reaches his desk while Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is out of state.

A spokesman for the Democratic lieutenant governor would not comment on the matter but noted Bustamante has not been involved in "the bill signing or vetoing process" in the past.

"That doesn't mean he won't at some point," said Stephen Green, a spokesman for Bustamante, who has voiced support for the hot-button bill that Schwarzenegger's aides say the governor will veto...

UPDATE: Huh? The San Diego Union-Tribune contradicts the above report:

"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger should sign this bill – not look for an out," Sen. Gil Cedillo said late yesterday [i.e., late Tuesday --LW]. "I'm not particularly interested in Cruz Bustamante signing it. I want Arnold Schwarzenegger to sign it."

...Cedillo said he's asked Bustamante not to sign the bill. "We all agree that it's something the governor should take responsibility for," Cedillo said.

That strategy could flush out the governor, forcing him in a veto message to explain why Democrats were strung along with public statements that he supports driver licenses for those here illegally, Cedillo said. "Tell us in writing what you want," Cedillo pleaded.

If the governor vetoes the bill, Cedillo said yesterday he'll reintroduce the measure.

But, of course. Thankfully, a semi-permanent solution is planned.

The Union-Tribune also includes the same quote from Bustamante's spokesman as the SacBee article, so I'm a bit confused.

Posted to Immigration_dls at 12:10 PM | Comments (0)

"Mexican border secure, U.S. Border Patrol chief says"

Rest easy, citizen:

The Mexican border is secure, despite the hundreds of thousands who continue to cross illegally and a Sept. 11 commission warning that terrorists could be among them, the nation's top Border Patrol agent said yesterday...

See also "Illegals from terrorist nations are crossing the border into Arizona", Who's coming over our southern border?, and How many didn't get caught?

And, there's a definition of "doublethink" here.

Posted to Immigration_terror at 11:52 AM | Comments (3)

"You might be a Republican, if..."

From Arnold's speech before the GOP convention, here are some of the ways to tell if you're a proper Republican:

• you believe that government should be accountable to the people, not the people to the government
• you believe a person should be treated as an individual, not as a member of an interest group
• you believe your family knows how to spend your money better than the government does
• you believe our educational system should be held accountable for the progress of our children
• you believe this country, not the United Nations, is the best hope of democracy in the world
• you believe we must be fierce and relentless and terminate terrorism

If I had a few hours, I could analyze Arnold's speech word by word. However, most of the rest is heart-warming pap about him being an immigrant, how compassionate the Republicans are, how the Republicans love immigrants, and so on and so forth.

Unfortunately, on the ground here in California there's a few problems with all this wonderful immigration we Republicans love so much.

Namely, the majority far-left California legislature has put a bill on Arnold's desk that would give driver's licenses to illegal aliens. We in the Republican party love immigrants, so it might come as a surprise to some that Arnold apparently intends to veto this bill.

How could we Republicans - who love immigrants so much - fail to give driver's licenses to immigrants? Didn't all of them come to America to live the American dream, no matter where they came from or how they got here?

When you fail to specify what you mean by "immigration" it causes big problems. Doublespeak causes big problems.

I'm sure Arnold sees the problems that Bush has laid at his door by failing to do his job and enforce the immigration laws, but, hey, he's a team player.

Posted to Immigration2004 at 12:39 AM | Comments (1)