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Allied Grape Growers admits using illegal alien labor; McCain, Johanns

The latest in a long line of stories about farmers desperate for cheap foreign labor contains a public admission that should be a bit shocking and - if the Bush administration and most of Congress weren't corrupt - would result in an investigation. Instead, it results in face time.

From "Immigration laws threaten harvest" by Panos Kakaviatos:

California grape growers are facing a harvest crisis as stepped-up US immigration enforcement limits the labour pool.

Nat DiBuduo, CEO of Allied Grape Growers, held urgent meetings with influential US senator John McCain of Arizona and the US agriculture secretary Mike Johanns in June to lobby for change in US immigration laws.

'Border security has been a focal point of immigration reform, and labour is going to be short throughout California,' said Dibuduo, whose 600 growers supply about 100 winemakers throughout the state.

'In recent years we have been using more illegal immigrants for work that US citizens do not want to do,' DiBuduo told decanter.com.

But the problem is that labour costs are increasing.

'We are having a hard time enticing people to do this hard work, so we are encouraging lawmakers to pass a comprehensive immigration bill that would include jobs, such as a supervised program for workers to come into the US and then go back to their country or be eligible for US citizenship.'

If you get the chance, ask Johanns or McCain about this the next time they're in your area. Ask them to define "corrupt".

Previously in this series: "The Guardian: American crops rotting in the fields"

Posted to Immigration at 10:21 PM | Comments (1)

Base responds to Dick Morris' Base Desires

On June 26, the political hack penned "Base Desires":

A recent poll by Tarrance Associates shows how out-of-touch the House leadership is with rank and file Republican voters. Far from appeasing the "base" by their tough position on immigration, they are alienating the very voters upon whom they most depend...

Now, several apparently rank-and-file Republicans have replied. The Post might not have printed all the letters it received and some of them might have actually supported Morris. In any case:

...No one with any common sense believes the Senate immigration bill would really be enforced...

... You can sit in New York or Washington and analyze all the surveys you want, but the real base will not support a plan that includes amnesty...

...Morris has sold out to Bush's "comprehensive" immigration plan...

...Morris wrote about a disenfranchised class with no hope of political participation... I believe most Americans feel they are the disenfranchised... No matter what the majority wants, politicians do what they please...

...What planet is Morris and the administrator of this poll living on?...

...Maybe too much Clinton-ese has rubbed off on him...

Posted to Immigration at 09:15 PM | Comments (1)

American Hotel & Lodging Educational Foundation immigration propaganda

The American Hotel & Lodging Educational Foundation released a press release touting a poll they commissioned which allegedly shows public support for the Bush/Fox/Kennedy/Reid/ANSWER/ISO/WCW illegal alien amnesty scheme. Now, quite unsurprisingly, the White House is touting the AHLEF/AHLA poll.

I spent a little time looking around their site trying to find the actual questions and results without luck. However, via this the poll itself is located in this PDF file.

The newly-sane folks at PoliPundit provide an alternative, pro-American press release about the poll:

57% of Republican Voters want their Congressman to stand on principle, even if that means no immigration bill will pass this year.

A majority (51%) of all voters support treating illegal immigrants as felons so they would have to be deported.

A majority (52%) of all voters support treating people who assist illegal immigrants to come here or remain here as felons.

By 46% to 40%, voters consider the following as amnesty, "giving illegal immigrants an opportunity to become a U.S. citizen if they pay back taxes, pay a fine, learn English, have a job, do not have a criminal record, and go to the back of the line." [That's the stock Bush/Kennedy/et al line -- LW]

When given a choice of plans, 47% of voters favor plans that do not include any path to citizenship while 40% support plans that have a path to citizenship.

77% of Republican Voters think it is important for Congress to pass legislation "combating illegal immigration" this year.

Posted to Immigration at 12:07 PM | Comments (1)

"Illegal Workers Could Receive Billions When Bush Signs Social Security Agreement with Mexico"

From their press release:

TREA Senior Citizens League filed two Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits in U.S. District Court this morning after numerous refusals over three years by the U.S. Department of State and Social Security Administration to provide a draft of, or virtually any pertinent information regarding, the impact of the Totalization Agreement with Mexico on the U.S. Social Security Trust Fund.

The Totalization Agreement could allow millions of illegal Mexican workers to draw billions of dollars from the U.S. Social Security Trust Fund. The agreement between the U.S. and Mexico was signed in June 2004, and is awaiting President Bush's signature. Many critics believe he intends to sign it shortly after the 2006 midterm elections.

Once President Bush approves the agreement, which would be done without congressional vote, either house would have 60 days to disapprove the agreement by voting to reject it.

Under the Totalization Agreement, millions of illegal Mexicans working in the United States today could claim benefits from the Social Security Trust Fund for work performed while in the United States illegally. They could do so through immigration amnesty, through which they could claim past Social Security payments for illegal work. They could also potentially return to Mexico and claim credits for illegal work in the United States...

Posted to Immigration at 04:05 PM | Comments (7)

Cannon win gives anti-American forces hope

WASHINGTON - With President Bush's immigration policy surviving fierce criticism in a Utah congressional race, lawmakers on both sides of the debate turned their attention Wednesday to finding a compromise on immigration legislation.

Those who oppose Bush's call for immigration reform — which includes a guest worker program and legalization opportunities for millions of illegal immigrants along with tougher border security — saw five-term Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, survive a tough primary challenge after allying with Bush on the issue.

Cannon defeated businessman John Jacob 56 percent to 44 percent on Tuesday after Jacob, an opponent of Bush's immigration plan, tried to make the race a referendum on the issue. Most House Republicans want a bill that calls only for tougher enforcement of immigration laws.

Cannon's victory was celebrated by Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., who discussed with Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney on Wednesday his plan to tighten borders first and then leave room for consideration for other immigration programs...

Previously: "Chris Cannon: money from cheap labor lobby, endorsement from Bush"

Posted to Immigration at 12:06 PM | Comments (5)

Company of Arkansas Democratic County chair indicted for immigration violations

From this:

A federal grand jury issued an indictment Wednesday on charges that an Arkansas firm led by the chairwoman of the Benton County Democratic Party and candidate for the state House of Representatives hired undocumented workers.

Robbyn Tumey of Rogers, chief executive of Managed Subcontractors International of Rogers, confirmed Wednesday that her company received news of the indictment today. Tumey is running for the District 95 state House seat against Republican Aaron Burkes...

This blog appears to have scooped the MSM on this issue.

Posted to Immigration at 12:02 PM | Comments (2)

Howard Dean, the man that time forgot

From this:

Democrats often seem to live in a time warp, where the year is always 1968, the daisies in their hair never wilt, people still trust the mainstream media, left-wing politics haven't yet been proven utterly unworkable, and we can afford to lose our overseas war. Yesterday DNC Chairman Howard Dean confirmed this impression in a speech during which he attempted to equate the Bush administration with the allegedly "authoritarian" 1950s and promised a return to the "Age of Enlightenment," the 1960s (here's partial video)...

Posted to Politics at 10:08 PM | Comments (0)

"Bush Administration Erases U.S. Borders With Mexico and Canada"

Here's the latest from Jerome Corsi:

The Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), signed by President Bush with Mexico and Canada in Waco, Tex., on March 23, 2005, was fundamentally an agreement to erase our borders with Mexico and Canada.

As I have documented below, the SPP "working groups" organized within the U.S. Department of Transportation are signing trilateral memoranda of understanding and other agreements with Mexico and Canada designed to accomplish the open borders goal incrementally, below the radar of mainstream media attention, thereby avoiding public scrutiny. Congress is largely unaware that SPP exists, let alone knowledgeable about the extensive work being done behind the scenes by the executive branch to advance the agenda articulated by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) to establish a North American Union as a new regional super-government by 2010...

Previously: "Sources: NAFTA superhighway is imaginary, tinfoil talk, don't worry, relax"

Posted to NAU at 01:41 PM | Comments (3)

EFE admits Goldwater "concentration camps" smear

Spanish news agency EFE has apologized for its smear of Arizona gubanatorial candidate Don Goldwater. It said he wanted to hold illegal aliens in "concentration camps". Now they say:

EFE Executive Vice President Emillio Sanchez said a freelance writer for the news agency inaccurately described Goldwater's plan.

"Upon further reflection, our investigation has determined that your plan to house illegal prisoners in a tent city is consistent with accepted practices for nonviolent American prisoners in your area," Sanchez said in the letter released Tuesday by Goldwater's campaign.

The letter also acknowledged that the freelance reporter never interviewed Goldwater or any of his staff for the story.

Of course, on June 23 I pointed out that that claim was simply a smear and that the characterization of the camps was coming from the reporter and not from Goldwater.

To help the reader with determining who's credible and who's not, let's take a look at who helped promulgate the smear.

* EFE, of course

* the AP rewrote the EFE story. Much more weight was given to the reporter's characterization than to the note that it was simply a characterization and not a quote. And, considering the weight of the charge, that was not enough.

* Unfortunately, Br'er Drudge posted the smear in red type, without bothering to do a little bit of research.

* All the various papers that printed the AP article, some of which have control over which AP articles they print.

* Jim Kolbe and John McCain, who tripped over themselves to condemn Goldwater

Now, we get to the small-time smearers:

* David Weigel at Reason Magazine with "In Your Heart, You Know He's Batshit Insane": How much of this has been hyped by the "Mexican news service"? Apparently not much; Goldwater has said the same thing before.

* "Joe in DC" at AmericaBlog: "GOPer proposes forced labor camps for illegal immigrants": Those right wingers...they're thinking has really evolved, hasn't it? Always looking for the solution.

* An unnamed contributor to TruthDig hedges a bit, but doesn't bother digging for the truth.

* AZCongressWatch reprints the article but provides little hedging or analysis. Based on its past entries the reason why is clear.

* Buffalo Pundit offers a report subtitled "El Trabajo Libera" (translation of Arbeit macht frei).

* alabamian.net uses the same phrase.

* Badattitudes' hedging falls a little short: "True, Goldwater is claiming he was quoted out of context, that he was talking about work programs for convicted felons. But he's apparently expressed such sentiments more than once... ...How does this talk of the US melting pot being polluted by immigrants differ from the ideas of the Nazis?"

* And, Man Eegee printed both the original smear and the retraction, but is unapologetic.

You can find various other blogs discussing this - before and after - with this search.

And, note that Goldwater's claim that illegal aliens are "polluting" the "Arizona desert" are based on things like this. Even the Los Angeles Times has noticed:

At Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, 2 1/2 million pounds of garbage [left by illegal border crossers] is scattered through broad valleys and desert arroyos every year

UPDATE: Showing his true sleazy, no-class nature, John McCain is refusing to back down:

"It is critically important that we improve the security of our borders and that we treat people humanely in the process, which I don't believe Mr. Goldwater's proposal, however he characterizes it, does," McCain said in a statement.

Goldwater, the nephew of former Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater, advocates detaining illegal border-crossers in tent-style jails and using them to help build a wall along the state's border with Mexico. The labor would be voluntary, he said, and modeled after work programs and tent-city jails run by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

"This is not an idea that's new," Goldwater said Tuesday. "All we're doing is taking a page out of Sheriff Arpaio's book."

McCain might be supporting EFE's false charge because of a true charge made against him:

In April, Goldwater penned a letter that appeared in The Arizona Republic in which he was critical of the path of immigration reform in Washington, D.C. He asked voters to "send a strong message to President Bush, McCain and Congressmen Jeff Flake and Rick Renzi that we are not going to accept their selling (out) of America."

Days later, Goldwater issued a clarification in which he took back the "selling out" remark, especially with reference to Renzi.

Jim Kolbe is also refusing to back down.

Posted to Immigration at 10:12 AM | Comments (2)

Alicia Robinson, Daily Pilot pimps ID cards for illegal aliens (Matricula Consular)

Alicia Robinson of Orange County's Los Angeles Times-affiliated Daily Pilot offers "ID card seen as ticket to a brighter future" about Mexico's Matricula Consular cards, aka "IDs for illegals". Mexico passes those IDs out to their citizens in the U.S. irrespective of their immigration status, and they're mostly used by illegal aliens in order to obtain some form of legitimacy. Legal immigrants and visitors already have all the ID they need to obtain state driver's licenses and such, and have no need for the MC cards.

The article is so similar to other articles about the Mexican consulate passing out the cards that I have to wonder what's going on. Did Robinson write this article from scratch? Did she follow a template and, if so, who provided that template? Or, was it derived from some earlier article, or from a press release from the government of Mexico or from one of the organizations involved?

For instance, here's the first paragraph:

Like many teenagers, Ivan Hernandez wants to buy a car someday. On Sunday, he went to get a wallet-size laminated card that may help.

This is similar to other PIIPPs, and in the particular case of ID cards, compare that to the first two paragraphs of "Mexican Consulate helps locals with their papers" from September 2004:

Yara Duran wants to open a bank account to start saving money for her 1-year-old daughter, Ashley... With two babies in her arms, Duran spent two hours Friday at the Cristo Rey Parish, 800 Wisconsin Ave., waiting for 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.

Like all the other articles, the benefits of the cards are then enumerated:

For people who don't have another photo ID or can't get one, the cards are important if they need to they apply for a library card, enroll children in school or identify themselves to the police.

Then, like some of the articles, just a few of the downsides of the cards are mentioned. And, as in all other articles that mention those downsides, those objections are quickly countered:

"I think it's misunderstood," [Patrice Mariscal, an organizer with the Unico Foundation] said. "This is a Mexican document for Mexican people, so we're not doing something wrong; this is just simply saying people are Mexican because they proved they're Mexican."

(Usually someone from the Mexican consulate provides that answer, but apparently he was tied up.) Since this article is so similar to just about every other Matricula Consular card article I've seen, what's going on?

Let's ask publisher Thomas H. Johnson (tom.johnson@latimes.com) and editor S.J. Cahn (s.j.cahn@latimes.com) or the reporter herself (alicia.robinson@latimes.com). Due to those email address, let's throw in readers.rep@latimes.com for good measure.

Note that the Catholic church - or at least the St. Joachim Catholic Church - was promoting this event at masses, and Bank of "America" had a table at the big event. In addition to Unico, another group involved was the Orange County Congregation Community Organization.

Here are some of the previous posts about similar stories:

Florida Times-Union helps Mexico distribute illegal alien ID cards
"Immigrants" get Matricula Consular cards in Watsonville; some downsides noted
Bank of "America", Part 2
"Mexican residents gain ID benefits"
No, I'm pretty sure Salem, Oregon is in the U.S. Why do you ask?
"New ID Cards Help Immigrants Keep Their Money Safe"
"Conferring Legitimacy, This Card Draws a Crowd"
Their money or your safety (several articles)
"Mexican Consulate helps locals with their papers"
"Mexican ID opens doors for undocumented workers in U.S."

Posted to Immigration_consul at 11:42 PM | Comments (1)

Pro-illegal immigration, globalist propaganda in Superman movie

No, really. If you're like me, the phrase "truth, justice, and..." ends in "the American way." But, apparently the latest Superman movie has changed it to "Truth, justice and... all of that stuff."

As detailed here (via this), that was an intentional move by two of the film's writers in order to make it easier to sell the film overseas. But, that's not all:

[Dan Harris]: "He's an alien, from Krypton; he has come to Earth to be kind of a savior for this world, not our country ... And he has no papers."

[Mike Dougherty]: "What would happen with the immigration laws we have now?"

[Dan Harris]: "I'd like to see someone kick him out!"

HUAC 2 would be a rash move, but I'd suggest boycotting their "work" lest you end up supporting illegal immigration propaganda.

Posted to Immigration_piipps at 04:54 PM | Comments (4)

Morristown/Hamblen County protest shows danger of illegal immigration

On Saturday a group of Americans from the "Citizens for Legal Immigration" held a protest in Morristown (Hamblen County, Tennessee). It ended in a disabled, 61-year-old Vet being arrested. Before that he was allegedly tasered. The charge was that he was trying to bring a flag pole onto Courthouse grounds, and the flagpole was too sharp. And, despite apparently not featuring anyone on the other side, the protest resulted in a massive police presence, including:

Hamblen County Sheriffs Deputies, Morristown Police, Tennessee Highway Patrol [from as far away as Putnam County (Cookeville,TN) ], Haz-Mat, Snipers on the roof of the Courthouse, S.W.A.T. team in full Body Armor and M-16 Rifles

The protesters' First Amendment rights were clearly violated, and they say they plan to sue. One of the organizers is County Commissioner Tom Lowe, and an account from his is here. There's video of the incident available here, and the follow-up is in "Morristown Police investigating use of too much force during arrest at immigration rally".

If American citizens are unable to peacefully protest but foreign citizens are allowed to march through our streets with impunity, aren't we at or near the crisis stage?

As one of the signs at the rally said, it's all about the green. What is probably at the heart of this incident is that the local power structure is comprised of those who profit from illegal immigration, and in order to keep the money flowing they pressured the local officials to crack down on those who might impede the flow.

Posted to Immigration at 11:39 AM | Comments (1)

Wimpy Bill Frist supports immigration "reform"

Bill Frist:

The immigration bill I voted for in the Senate started the United States down the road to a much better immigration system. But it's not finished.

He goes on to explain that he mostly supports the Senate's sell-out/massive illegal alien amnesty, but it just needs to be fine-tuned a bit.

Posted to Immigration at 11:17 AM | Comments (2)

Nina Bernstein: illegal immigration opponents are meanies

The New York Times' Nina Bernstein - a frequent author of pro-illegal immigration propaganda - is back with the three-screener "On Lucille Avenue, the Immigration Debate".

It tells the story of illegal immigration opponent Patrick Nicolosi, who's portrayed as a busy-body who complains to the local authorities about local illegal aliens and who's generally disliked by his neighbors for doing so. On the other side are a legal immigrant family who are falsely accused of being illegal aliens and a family with a developmentally disabled child. All of the latter are - surprise! - portrayed as the salt of the earth.

Obviously, there's no "debate" in the article. It's just a one-sided hit piece designed to portray illegal aliens as wonderful people and those who oppose illegal immigration as bad, mean people. An actual debate might consist of Nina Bernstein finding someone who can ask her some tough questions, and then those questions being printed. That's something that the NYT won't do, because they know they'd lose.

Posted to Immigration_piipps at 05:21 AM | Comments (2)

"'H-1B Only' Job Ad Posters Accused of Discrimination"

From this, via this:

The Programmers Guild, an IT worker interest group, has filed 300 discrimination complaints so far this year against companies alleged to have posted "H-1B visa holders only" ads on job boards.

"Abuse of the H-1B program has become so widespread that companies apparently feel free to engage openly in the practice. And we are only reviewing ads for computer programmers," Programmers Guild founder John Miano said in a statement June 19.

The actions have been filed with the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Special Council for Immigration-Related discrimination, contending that specific employers have created "Americans need not apply" job postings on both Monster.com and Dice.com...

Posted to Immigration at 02:42 AM | Comments (1)

"New border official opposes immigration fence"

(June 20) TUCSON, Ariz. - Two weeks on the job, the new head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Tuesday he does not favor building a huge wall along the Mexican border.

"I don't support, I don't believe the administration supports a wall," Commissioner W. Ralph Basham said in Tucson, where he met with patrol officials and agents before embarking on a tour across the Arizona desert.

Asked about proposals in Senate- and House-approved immigration measures to build security walls 380 or 700 miles long, respectively, Basham said, "It doesn't make sense, it's not practical."

Posted to Immigration at 11:40 PM | Comments (2)

DC Metro bilingual signs and illegal alien advocates

The DC Metrorail system is considering adding signs in Spanish to their stations (via this; satire about this here). While the cost is fairly high ($500,000 to $900,000 per station), this is seemingly a minor matter. Until you read that they might add these signs under pressure from "immigration advocates".

The push apparently started in 2003 after a report by the "National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board's Access for All Advisory Committee". (Whether that name was translated from Russian is not known.)

The head of the committee is Kathy Porter, who's mayor of Takoma Park. Not only does that city allow illegal aliens to vote in local elections (only a tiny number of them have), but she herself is a supporter of illegal immigration.

The only other "advocate" mentioned in the piece is Kim Propeack from CASA of Maryland. Whether they're involved in pressuring Metrorail or whether they're just a quote source is not known, but based on their threat to go to the schools of the children of Minuteman Project members, no paper - least of all the Washington Times - should give them the time of day. Note also that she heads the "National Capitol Immigration Coalition", one of the organizers of the May 1 illegal immigration marches.

While a relatively minor issue, bear in mind that these signs would most likely be permanent and would remain in place long after the current group of "immigrants" has supposedly assimilated. They would impede such assimilation, which may be part of the goal of those who push this. After all, would Casa de Maryland or similar groups receive as much funding if there were fewer illegal aliens it could keep under its protective wings? And, by discouraging "immigrants" from learning English, it makes it much easier for those "immigrants" to be swayed by ethnic media outlets that might in turn be easier to control.

This issue also shows the danger of allowing illegal alien advocates to infiltrate our political system.

Posted to Immigration at 11:52 AM | Comments (2)

Arlen Specter immigration hearings to feature farmers, landscapers, hotel industry

Illegal alien amnesty backer Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) recently announced that he'll be conducting public hearings on immigration around the country. These are designed to compete against the pro-American hearings to be conducted by various members of the House:

...Specter said his first hearing would be in Philadelphia on July 5 — the same date that House Republicans are to hold a hearing in San Diego, suggesting that a split-screen debate on immigration would occur from opposite sides of the nation...

Specter said Wednesday [6/21] that he would hold his hearings to "develop a broader, factual evidentiary record on the need for the comprehensive bill that is challenged by quite a few House members."

"The House has said repeatedly that the Senate is out of touch with what America wants," Specter said. "Let's have hearings on the Senate provisions, and I think when it's more fully understood, Americans will want that."

...His July 5 hearing would include farmers, landscapers and hotel industry representatives...

Obviously it's fair to say that Specter is in the pocket of the Cheap Labor Lobby.

If one of these hearings is in your area, please think up a difficult question and try to ask it.

Posted to Immigration at 09:20 AM | Comments (3)

Don Goldwater's "concentration camps": a setup by illegal immigration supporters

Arizona gubanatorial candidate Don Goldwater has received well-deserved condemnation of his calls for "concentration camps" for illegal aliens from such stalwart Americans as John McCain (R-AZ) and Jim Kolbe (R-AZ).

However, there's just one problem: Goldwater didn't call for "concentration camps"; that phrase came from the state-run Spanish news agency EFE when reporting on his comments.

The original article is at efe.es/includesasp/noticias.asp?opcion=4&id=1225615. Their report reads like something from a tabloid TV show that engages in highly selective editing:

Proponen campos de concentracion para inmigrantes indocumentados Phoenix (Arizona), 21 jun (EFE).- El aspirante republicano a la gobernacion de Arizona, Don Goldwater, propuso el establecimiento de campos de concentracion para inmigrantes indocumentados cerca de la frontera, a quienes se les obligaría a construir el muro fronterizo. Goldwater afirmo recientemente que su intencion es detener a los indocumentados en campos de concentracion para usarlos "como mano de obra en la construccion de un muro y limpiar las areas del desierto de Arizona que ensucian a su paso..."

There isn't much more to it. Specifically, there are no damning quotes such as one might expect to find from an article that leads with the "concentration camps" claim.

In fact, the sharp-eyed reader of the AP write-up is given a bit of a clue:

The article described Goldwater's plan as a "concentration camp" for migrants.

If I describe the AP as a Communist organization, does that make it true?

This appears to be a case of EFE playing fast and loose with their journalistic credibility, and supporters of illegal immigration such as the AP, McCain, Kolbe, and the WaPo are eager to jump on board.

Posted to Immigration at 10:23 PM | Comments (8)

Sources: NAFTA superhighway is imaginary, tinfoil talk, don't worry, relax

This site has linked to a few recent articles from Jerome Corsi about the plans to create a "North American Union", a superstate consisting of Canada, the U.S., and Mexico.

The article about the plan to create a massive highway running down the center of the U.S. has generated the first public sign of some pushback.

First, KUWS-FM's Danielle Kaeding has a story in northern MN/northern WI's BusinessNorth discussing the "internet rumor". Minnesota Department of Transportation's John Bray says we just need to relax. He isn't quoted as responding to any particular points, he just says it has no credibility. Tiffany Melvin, director of the North America SuperCorridor Coalition says:

"We're not working with the administration to create a new highway or anything like that. We're an advocacy group tries to bring attention to the need for improvements and maintenance to the existing infrastructure and to increase security at our nation's borders and improve safety measures along the corridor." Bray says there's no money to go toward a construction project of this magnitude. "The agency right now is in a funding crisis for gosh sake. I mean, we're doing the best we can just to hold the highways together in Minnesota. Wisconsin's in the same boat." So, no worries folks…nothing running through your backyards just yet.

Of course, as this site points out, there's a huge picture of the proposed highway right on their site (nascocorridor.com), together with the news that they're: "dedicated to developing the world's first international, integrated and secure, multi-modal transportation system along the International Mid-Continent Trade and Transportation Corridor".

In probably related news:

A Mexican customs office is being built in the U.S. heartland as part of a newly designed "inland port" facility that links with a Mexican seaport, an official in Kansas City confirms.

Tasha Hammes of the Kansas City Area Development Council wrote to author and WND columnist Jerome Corsi to correct some details of a column on the subject, but she affirmed that a key purpose of the Kansas City Inland Port, or SmartPort, will be to facilitate the movement of containers from the Far East through the Mexican port at Lazaro Cardenas rather than the West Coast ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach...

Note also that Corsi has filed a FOIA request for many documents relating to the larger scheme.

While it's good that they want to correct the record, I have the sneaking suspicion that there's a bit more going on here. If Corsi's articles get a bit more attention, expect to see people such as - just as a wild guess - Morton Kondracke, Bill Kristol, David Brooks, and similar pundits trying to spin it all away those "internet rumors".

Posted to NAU at 06:26 AM | Comments (3)

Texas Segment of NAFTA Super Highway Nears Construction (TTC, Trans-Texas Corridor)

Continuing Jerome Corsi's series on the general plan to create a North American Union comes this:

The Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC) is ready to begin construction in 2007, building the first segment of what is planned to be a NAFTA Super Highway stretching from Mexico to Canada. As we have previously written, the NAFTA Super Highway is planned to begin at Laredo, Tex., proceeding north to Kansas City via Oklahoma City, and ultimately connecting with Canadian limited-access highways north of Duluth, Minn.

On March 11, 2005, a "Comprehensive Development Agreement" was signed by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) to build the "TTC-35 High Priority Corridor" parallel to Interstate 35. The contracting party involved a limited partnership formed between Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte, S.A., a publically listed company headquartered in Spain, owned by the Madrid-based Groupo Ferrovial, and a San Antonio-based construction company, Zachry Construction Corp...

Posted to NAU at 02:44 AM | Comments (6)

Is it satire, or is it the Huffington Post?

The difference is often difficult to discern, but here's a real-world example.

Huffington Post:

Arianna has booted contributer Dr. Peter Rost: "Setting the Record Straight: On Trolls, Moles, and Dis-Invited Bloggers":

Dear HuffPost Readers, Commenters, and Bloggers,

Here's the bottom line on the issues raised by Peter Rost: We disabled his password for one reason and one reason only -- his refusal to act as part of our online community.

A little background: Peter Rost was initially invited to post about issues related to the pharmaceutical industry, his area of expertise -- but his posts increasingly became about his personal grudges and beefs or long, self-referential, diary-like entries about finding an injured bird in his front yard (complete with photos) or a blog post about his friend having an extramarital affair...

Satire:

Over six months ago, on December 12, 2005, I penned the entry "SIT-IN FOR MARC MARON OF AIR AMERICA RADIO" about "Melvin Duchovny" chaining himself to a desk at Huff and Blow headquarters and refusing to leave. "Ariadne Huffanan" subsequently blocked him from posting to her site.

(HuffAndBlow is, of course, a take-off on the HuffPost. The Duchovny character was invented before Rost began posting to HuffPost and - spoiler warning! - is a take-off on Air America co-founder, loony loose cannon, and HuffPost contributor Sheldon Drobny That's a picture of The Captain from Gilligan's Island next to his entries.)

Helpful tip:

Print this page and keep it handy when reading other entries at the HuffPost.

Posted to Bloggage at 10:09 PM | Comments (3)

"Feds admit failure to stop illegal hiring"

Washington --- The Bush administration acknowledged Monday the wholesale failure of past efforts to enforce immigration laws in the workplace and warned that a major Senate-passed overhaul fails to provide the necessary tools to fix the problem.

...[Stewart Baker, homeland security undersecretary for policy planning] said the administration wants "to avoid the same mistake" made in 1986 when Congress voted amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants along with sanctions against employers who hire illegal workers.

"Obviously, that hasn't worked," Baker said, noting that the illegal population has soared from an estimated 3 million to 12 million since the previous overhaul.

Baker also cast doubt on whether the government could ramp up the required secure identification cards for the proposed new temporary worker program within an 18-month deadline set by the Senate bill. "It's an aggressive timetable," he told the Senate panel.

...[Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas)] said the government has only 90 full-time immigration agents focusing on workplace violations nationwide and that it is "no wonder that many Americans are skeptical about how serious the federal government is about enforcing its own laws." The number of work site arrests dropped from 2,849 in 1999 to just 159 in 2004, he said.

"The American people feel like they were scammed" in the last immigration reform, Cornyn said. "If we're going to effectively solve this problem, we're going to have to regain their confidence."

Julie Myers, head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said her agency has recently reinvigorated its workplace efforts by prosecuting executives of the worst offending companies as well as increasing reviews at high-security sites such as airports.

At the same time, she conceded that enforcement in the workplace has been ineffective.

"Egregious violators of the law viewed the fines as just a 'cost of doing business,' " she said in written testimony. Federal rules for checking identification have been "meaningless" because employers are not required to verify documents or keep copies of documents reviewed, she said. As a result, employers hiring illegal workers are "sheltered" from prosecution, Myers said.

Posted to Immigration at 02:50 PM | Comments (3)

Chris Cannon: money from cheap labor lobby, endorsement from Bush

This site hasn't paid too much attention to the Utah Republican primary between incumbent Chris Cannon and challenger John Jacob due to a perhaps unwarranted concern that the latter was a bit weak on the topic of illegal immigration. However:

On Monday, a day after learning first lady Laura Bush is endorsing Cannon in a recorded phone message to voters in Utah's 3rd Congressional District, Jacob decided to criticize President Bush, saying the president supports illegal immigration and painting Cannon as Bush's water boy.

"Chris can't have it both ways," Jacob told KSL-TV. "He can be on the president's side, or he can be on the side that's against illegal immigration."

George Bush himself has endorsed Cannon.

As for the money that Cannon's receiving, it appears a bit curious:

Just days before his Republican primary election, U.S. Rep. Chris Cannon is seeing more than $134,000 flowing into his war chest, much of it from organizations known to favor cheap immigrant labor.

The pro-immigration groups have given Cannon, R-Utah, at least $58,200 in the past 12 days alone, a review of federal campaign reports shows.

That includes at least $30,000 from agricultural interests — such as the California Farm Bureau and the Dairy Farmers of America. Additional money is coming from businesses known for hiring inexpensive labor —including Wal-Mart and the National Roofing Contractors Association...

Note that in the past, Cannon received money from the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA). They also helped him write legislation.

Previously: The David Safavian, Grover Norquist, Chris Cannon connection

Chris Cannon declines debate with Tom Tancredo

Rep. Chris Cannon, great American and great Republican (that title is, of course, sarcasm)

Posted to Immigration at 11:21 AM | Comments (1)

Gil Cedillo/SB 160: free community college for illegal aliens

Gil Cedillo is a California state Senator who works tirelessly for his constituents, especially if they're citizens of Mexico who aren't here legally. He's tried several times to give driver's licenses for illegal aliens, including a creative way that would have favored them over everyone else.

His latest attempt to represent Mexican citizens is to try to give them discounted college educations via SB 160 [PDF], aka the "California DREAM Act". That is currently wending its way through the process. Arnold Schwarzenegger supports letting illegal aliens go to California colleges, but has not indicated his stance on Cedillo's bill.

Since there are only a finite number of such discounts, every discount received by an illegal alien represents one less available to a U.S. citizen. I haven't verified it, but according to this page illegal aliens could even obtain a Community College Board of Governor's Fee Waiver and go to California community colleges completely free.

Needless to say, Cedillo is a Democrat. Since he hasn't been censured by his party, it's fair to state that the Democratic Party supports his efforts.

Posted to Immigration at 09:32 AM | Comments (6)

A liberal immigration policy

From author Po Bronson:

...Liberals like me have ignored the way the steady trickle of new Americans has become a massive repopulation program, primarily from Mexico. During the 1970s, 120,000 Mexicans came to the U.S. every year. During the 1980s, it was about 200,000 a year. During the 1990s, it was 350,000 a year. Today, it's estimated at 485,000—every year. One out of every eight Mexican-born adults is now living in the U.S.

I no longer think it's okay to give the Mexican government a free pass. Pushing its poor towards the U.S. seems to have become Mexico's primary social policy...

This has been a threefold victory for the Mexican government. First, it eliminates the financial concern of how to care for these people. Second, the citizens who would be the angriest about the government's inadequacies keep leaving the country. Those who would vote, protest, stage walkouts, and revolt—instead keep voting with their feet. Which in turn protects The Powers That Be. And third, as a reward for watching entire communities empty out, they receive a huge influx of cash.

[...the negative effects of remittances...]

...Can you imagine the uproar in the U.S. if our national social policy for poor people was to encourage them to leave the country and go to Canada?

The Mexican government denies it is encouraging people to leave. But Mexico has still not made human trafficking illegal. They distributed 1.5 million comic books with instructions on how to cross the border safely. Yucatan distributed a similar book, complete with bonus DVD. Last December, Mexico began a publicity campaign reminding Mexicans that they were entitled to a $5.15 minimum wage in the U.S.—but it has not adequately enforced its own minimum wage of 60 cents. [To verify: Mexico might have occupation and region-based minimum wage laws --LW]

...It's fine to welcome immigrants and support their rights. But why do we attack our own government so loudly, and yet remain so silent on how their government is failing them? For a good liberal, there's nothing more damning than looking culturally insensitive. And Vicente Fox knows this; he knows that half of America will never dare criticize anyone who speaks another language. So he pushes his poor our way, knowing we good liberals will only rise and applaud.

Posted to Immigration at 01:45 PM | Comments (3)

ICBTS: Independent Institute's Open Letter on Immigration

"I Can't Believe They're Scholars": the Independent Institute has managed to get 500 people - many with PhDs - to sign on to their incredibly lame-brained Open Letter on Immigration.

At least four of the signatories have blogs that accept comments, and if anyone has time please monitor their coverage and discredit them by leaving comments at their site whenever they discuss immigration matters:

marginalrevolution.com (home of the ringleader, Alex Tabarrok; only has comments on some entries)

lkmp.blogspot.com (Larry Kudlow)

j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type (Brad DeLong)

gregmankiw.blogspot.com (Greg Mankiw)

Posted to Immigration at 09:46 AM | Comments (5)

Dubai still running 22 U.S. port facilities

From this:

It's been more than three months since Dubai Ports World agreed to sell its port operations at 22 U.S. ports. But as of today, all 22 of these terminal facilities remained under the control of Dubai Ports and the government of Dubai. You thought we weren't watching, didn't you? Bill Tucker reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL TUCKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The bottom line of the Dubai Ports World deal is pretty easy to understand.

JOE MULDOON, FULLER & COMPANY: Since March 6th, Dubai Ports World has owned and controlled operations in 22 U.S. ports and that Congress now has dropped the provision that would prohibit their approvals.

TUCKER: The reference to Congress has to do with the House and Senate stripping out language, put in by the House, that specifically forbid DP World from owning or controlling operations in our ports. With the removal of that language, it's not clear if DPW even legally is bound to sell the properties. The announced agreement by Dubai Ports World to sell was voluntary.

But the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States says "CFIUS does, in fact, retain the authority to bring the company back into the CFIUS process if it acts inconsistently with its announced plan to sell to a U.S. buyer." DP world, in a recent letter to congressional leaders, assured them that the sale is proceeding as planned, which seems to be reassuring Congress for now.

REP. PETE KING (R), NEW YORK: They are making the best faith effort to find an American buyer and that progress is being made.

TUCKER: But as of yet, there has been no formal offer to sell, which is known as a prospectus, from DPW.

Posted to Terrorism at 04:49 AM | Comments (3)

Nathaniel Hoffman, Andrew Becker, Contra Costa Times support illegal immigration

Nathaniel Hoffman and Andrew Becker of the Contra Costa Times offer separate articles that support illegal immigration.

Hoffman offers "Immigration rights advocates contemplate their next steps". From the headline on down it's completely biased towards supporting illegal immigration and foreign citizens marching in our streets. The groups mentioned include: Catholic Charities, Bay Area Immigrant Rights Coalition, Nativo Lopez of the Mexican American Political Association, Peter Schey of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law (his links to the Mexican government are not disclosed to their readers), the National Immigration Forum, the American Civil Liberties Union's Immigrant Rights Project, the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, and the Contra Costa Interfaith Sponsoring Committee.

Hoffman offered a similar article in March: "Protest supports illegal workers". The current article includes the following paragraph that ties into the next article:

Flores, who is from Brentwood, said the network of churches she works with has taken one element of the Senate bill -- the DREAM Act -- on as a priority. They are pushing representatives to support the program allowing the children of undocumented families a means of going to college.

As for Andrew Becker, he offers "Illegal status keeps top students from getting aid for college", which is a bit of a PIIPP designed to support the DREAM Act.

Posted to Immigration at 04:00 AM | Comments (3)

Ninety former DHS officials cashing in

From "Former Antiterror Officials Find Industry Pays Better":

At least 90 officials at the Department of Homeland Security or the White House Office of Homeland Security — including the department's former secretary, Tom Ridge; the former deputy secretary, Adm. James M. Loy; and the former under secretary, Asa Hutchinson — are executives, consultants or lobbyists for companies that collectively do billions of dollars' worth of domestic security business...

...Mr. Hutchinson began his negotiations to enter private industry months before he resigned. On March 2, 2005, the day after he officially left the department, he began work at Venable LLP, a Washington law and lobbying firm that represents major domestic security contractors like Lockheed Martin...

...Mr. Hutchinson was soon representing clients including Intelligenxia, a data-mining software company seeking domestic security business; ImmuneRegen BioSciences, a pharmaceutical company that sells anti-radiation drugs; and Global Computer Enterprises, which wants to expand its computer software and systems sales to the department...

...[questionable practices deleted...] ...Mr. Hutchinson said the presence of his business partners at these meetings was not meant to circumvent the lobbying ban. "When I am not at a meeting," he said, "I am not at the meeting..."

Posted to Politics at 12:41 AM | Comments (1)

A North American Union timeline

This page is a bit tinfoilish, but it does provide some useful background information on the attempt to join the U.S., Canada, and Mexico into an EU-style superstate.

Previously: "North American Union Would Trump U.S. Supreme Court"

Posted to NAU at 11:26 PM | Comments (2)

Lonewacko banned from ThinkProgress, QAndO

To keep you up-to-date with my bannings:

1. I'm blocked from leaving comments at ThinkProgress. Here's the last comment I left there, which was removed (twice!):

Interesting factoid: Nativo "Larry" Lopez - one of the organizers of the recent illegal immigration boycott - was booted off the Santa Ana schoolboard because of his views on Spanish. He not only supports bilingual education, he reportedly wants to make Spanish the official language of California.

I'm able to work around the ban, of course. (Search for 'pretty rich')

I've linked to TP a couple times in the past when they actually had news items instead of their usual fare of childish gotcha posts.

2. The libertarians at QAndO.net banned me for some reason. This must have happened months ago because I only noticed it when they came back on my radar a few weeks ago and I tried to leave comments there. I'm able to work around it using a similar procedure. The prime suspect is their contributor Jon Henke.

3. I'm still banned by RedState. They never provided me with a non-ludicrous explanation of the reason why.

4. I was banned by DailyKos in 2003.

5. MoJo has a strange habit of not approving the few comments I've left there.

Places I have not yet been banned from include: Huffington Post, Washington Monthly, TalkLeft, FreeRepublic, TownHall, and DailyKos. (The last under a few super-secret identities. Don't tell any Kossacks about those however!)

8/1/06 UPDATE: Think Progress deletes another comment! Why are they afraid of facts?

Posted to Bloggage at 08:42 PM | Comments (4)

Last remaining Bush supporters spotted

Irrepressible BushBot Mark Noonan offers "President Bush Riding High", which links to Michael Barone's "Stronger Than He Seems". (Insty would link to both analyses, but he's on vacation.)

On the other hand, I note that PardonMyEnglish no longer features a big picture of Bush as the background of their site. Instead, it's been replaced with a picture of the... Golden Gate Bridge.

Posted to Bloggage at 08:36 PM | Comments (0)

"North American Union Would Trump U.S. Supreme Court"

Continuing this disturbing series of articles, Jerome Corsi has more on the plan to create the "North American Union":

The Bush Administration is pushing to create a North American Union out of the work on-going in the Department of Commerce under the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America in the NAFTA office headed by Geri Word. A key part of the plan is to expand the NAFTA tribunals into a North American Union court system that would have supremacy over all U.S. law, even over the U.S. Supreme Court, in any matter related to the trilateral political and economic integration of the United States, Canada and Mexico...

Previously: "Bush Administration Quietly Plans NAFTA Super Highway"

Posted to NAU at 04:10 PM | Comments (2)

National Review: Enforcement First

NRO offers an open letter supporting Enforcement First:

The signers include William Bennett, Robert Bork, William F Buckley, Ward Connerly, Newt Gingrich, David Horowitz, David Keene, John Leo, Herbert London, Rich Lowry, Daniel Pipes, Phyllis Schlafly, and Thomas Sowell among others.

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

Immigration questions George F. Will won't answer

George F. Will was last heard offering a false choice argument on immigration, supporting the Bush line that we have to either give amnesty to illegal aliens or conduct mass deportations.

Now, he's back with "Calculating Immigration Politics":

The cost of this, paid in the coin of lost support among Latinos, the nation's largest and fastest-growing minority, may be reckoned later, for years. Remember this: Out West, feelings of all sorts about immigration policy are particularly intense, and if John Kerry had won a total of 127,014 more votes in New Mexico, Nevada and Colorado, states with burgeoning Latino populations, he would have carried those states and won the election. But for now, the minds of Republican candidates are concentrated on a shorter time horizon -- the next 4 1/2 months.

Some questions:

* Arizona's Prop. 200 got around 46% of the (largely mythical) Hispanic vote. Wouldn't Kerry have won AZ if he'd supported that proposition? And, if he'd highlighted what Bush's "guest" worker scheme was designed to do, wouldn't he have won Ohio? So, if he'd supported what's in the best interests of the country, wouldn't he be president today?

* Should the GOP embrace a racially-biased immigration scheme that encourages massive immigration from one country? Should the GOP help a foreign government obtain even more political power inside our country?

* Is it really true that supporting our immigration laws will lose support among Hispanics? Or, does that only apply for those on the left side, and would they ever vote for the GOP anyway?

* If people of one racial/ethnic background think they have a right to bring as many other people of the same race/ethnicity as they into the country, isn't it in our best interests to disabuse them of that notion?

* Can the GOP ever out-pander the Democrats? No matter how much the GOP "reached out" to those Hispanics who support bringing everyone of their same race into the country, couldn't the Democrats always undercut the GOP's position? For instance, the GOP might support taking discounted college educations away from U.S. citizens and giving them to illegal aliens. The Democrats could counter by offering voting rights to everyone who's been here for more than 2 weeks. How would the GOP counter that?

Similar questions for Will here and even at (gasp!) Powerline.

Posted to Immigration at 10:56 AM | Comments (2)

My mountain bike on Mt. Baldy

Yesterday I and my bike visited Mt. Baldy (10,064') outside Los Angeles. I basically pushed it up to the summit and then more or less biked down. Here are the details on my Mt. Baldy mountain biking expedition.

Posted to OutdoorSports at 09:50 PM | Comments (7)

Useful Idiot Watch: WPLG and anti-illegal immigration billboard vandals

In Miami, a billboard that used to read "Stop the Invasion. Secure our Borders" has been changed to read "Secure our Hoods. Stop the Invasion of Yuppies. Stop Gentrification."

In an article that almost supports the vandalism, WPLG reveals the various thoughts of those who conducted the "public art action":

"While we would hope that our work would be celebrated as public art, we know that the police and city officials prioritize the rights of property owners and developers over its community members. Free Speech is limited to those who can pay for it. Public art is criminalized when not in line with their agenda..."

And:

It is not coincidental that it is low income people of color who are those displaced from their neighborhoods because they can no longer afford to live in these now 'up and coming' areas ... This gentrification is eating away at what makes Miami a beautiful, vibrant and culturally diverse place to live."

However, WPLG appears to have edited out their more disturbing and idiotic comments. From miami.indymedia.org/news/2006/06/4799.php, the bolded sentences are what WPLG left out of the last paragraph:

"It is not coincidental that it is low income people of color who are those displaced from their neighborhoods because they can no longer afford to live in these now 'up and coming' areas. We cannot stand back and 'behave' while this ethnic cleansing is taking place. People are being forced out of neighborhoods that their families have been established in for generations, and something must be done. This gentrification is eating away at what makes Miami a beautiful, vibrant and culturally diverse place to live."

Here's another quote:

Participants in the group that modified the billboard felt that the anti-immigrant billboard was motivated by racism. One person explained: "As immigrants, many of us end up here because of US interventionist and racist foreign policies, this same racism towards our communities in the US will not be tolerated nor will attacks of white-supremacist groups."

In Los Angeles "gentrification" is code for "white people moving in to 'our' neighborhood" and "yuppie" is generally a code word for "white person". In Miami I'm pretty sure the definition is the same. Rather than supporting "yuppies" moving into "their" neighborhoods, they support what is in effect race-based rights to live in a certain place. And, by supporting massive legal or illegal immigration, they in effect support those who profit from such immigration.

Posted to Immigration at 07:59 PM | Comments (11)

WaPo ignores illegal immigration role in ER crisis

The WaPo offers "Crisis Seen in Nation's ER Care", but despite having three pages in which to do so, fails to mention illegal immigration as one of the major contributing factors to the crisis.

(Via this)

Posted to Immigration at 08:46 PM | Comments (3)

How many will legalize under the Senate's massive illegal alien amnesty?

The estimate here says:

Based on the outcomes of the last amnesty in 1986, we expect that nearly 10 million illegal aliens will receive amnesty under the Hagel-Martinez bill. That is, they will legalize and eventually apply for permanent residence and be eligible for citizenship. As in 1986, we also expect that one-fourth (2.6 million) will get amnesty fraudulently. The bill will also allow an estimated 4.5 million family members of illegal aliens to join their legalized relatives, for a total of 14.4 million beneficiaries. These estimates do not include the very large increases in future legal immigration in the bill.

And, they also don't include all the new illegal aliens who'll come here to take part in future amnesties.

Posted to Immigration at 11:50 AM | Comments (9)

Misleading NBC, Wall Street Journal poll about immigration

John Harwood of the Wall Street Journal puffs out his chest and crows "Public Warms to Bush Immigration Stance":

By 50%-33%, the survey shows, Americans support the views expressed by President Bush and also by businesses, Hispanics and Democratic leaders: that steps to strengthen border security should be combined with a guest-worker program for prospective immigrants and those who have been in the U.S. for at least two years. Yet a 44% plurality of conservatives back an agenda combining border security and deportation of illegal immigrants -- making it difficult for Republican politicians to embrace the majority opinion.

Now, from the PDF file, let's take a look at the first question:

When it comes to the immigration bill, the Senate and the House of Representatives disagree with one another about what should be done on the issue of illegal immigration.

Many in the House of Representatives favor strengthening security at the borders, including building a seven-hundred-mile fence along the border with Mexico to help keep illegal immigrants from entering the United States, and they favor deporting immigrants who are already in the United States illegally.

Many in the Senate favor strengthening security at the borders, including building a three-hundred-and-seventy-mile fence along the border with Mexico to help keep illegal immigrants from entering the United States, and they favor a guest worker program to allow illegal immigrants who have jobs and who have been here for more than two years to remain in the United States.

The House version does a bit more than the description provided, and so does the Senate bill. However, the description of the Senate bill is so misleading that I'm forced to conclude it's an outright attempt to deceive.

The "guest" worker component is separate from the legalization component; the latter would grant amnesty to several million current illegal aliens and that amnesty isn't tied to the "guest" worker scheme. And, the question doesn't mention the endless chain migration that would be allowed, nor does it mention the doubling of legal immigration in the Senate bill. Nor does it mention the tremendous amount of illegal immigration that would result from the amnesty.

Yes, Americans are indeed warming up to the Bush/Fox/WSJ/Teddy Kennedy/McCain massive illegal alien amnesty. Just as long as you don't tell them what it actually involves.

Posted to Immigration at 11:09 PM | Comments (7)

Illegal aliens make my point: "guest" workers won't go home

As I have said many times before, all those who promote "guest" worker schemes are lying: our "guests" will never go home. Don't just take my word for it:

Jose Luis Vazquez and Elia Garcia know what they're talking about when they predict that new immigrants crossing the border under the U.S. Senate's temporary guest worker program won't go home.

They each came over illegally more than a decade ago. They have children, jobs and houses - a life that would be difficult to dismantle because of a date on the calendar.

...But some immigration experts say temporary worker programs have never worked in free market societies, because as workers become used to higher wages and start to assimilate, they don't want to go back. It's even harder to return once children are born here, making them automatic Americans, and the Senate bill allows for spouses of workers also to obtain visas.

"I think the general conclusion of everybody who has studied guest or temporary worker programs is that they are never as advertised," said Michael Teitelbaum, a demographer with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation in New York. "They are never temporary programs, nor are the workers temporary."

Fewer than half the "Bracero" workers brought in to work the farms in World War I, World War II, and the Korean War went home, said Vernon Briggs, a labor economist at Cornell University.

"These things are a disaster," he said. "They don't stop illegal immigration. What they basically do is encourage people to keep coming."

...Fourteen years later, [another illegal alien] has two children who are U.S. citizens and a life she says is rooted in America. She hasn't been the few miles back to Mexico, and says it would be wrong to send people back who have contributed years of their life to the U.S. culture and economy.

"We have had to fight, we have children who are accustomed to life here," she said. "It is too much to ask that it all be just temporary."

Posted to Immigration at 12:52 PM | Comments (2)

[Colorado] Gov. Owens might oppose Supreme Court's pro-illegal immigration decision

DENVER - Gov. Bill Owens said Tuesday that he's likely to order the Legislature's return to the Capitol this summer unless the Colorado Supreme Court backs down from its Monday decision barring an anti-illegal-immigration initiative from November's state ballot.

Owens supports the proposed ballot measure to prohibit state and local government agencies from providing many non-emergency services to anyone who is not in this country legally.

He said: "In my opinion, the court's decision was inconsistent, it was inappropriate and, yes, I even believe it was arrogant... I urge the state Supreme Court to reconsider its ruling. But if that doesn't happen, it is likely that I will be bringing lawmakers back to the Capitol this summer..."

Posted to Immigration at 12:17 PM | Comments (1)

"Bush Administration Quietly Plans NAFTA Super Highway"

Here's another article in Jerome Corsi's series about Bush and others trying to build a "North American Community", i.e., an EU-style superstate consisting of the U.S., Canada, and Mexico:

Quietly but systematically, the Bush Administration is advancing the plan to build a huge NAFTA Super Highway, four football-fields-wide, through the heart of the U.S. along Interstate 35, from the Mexican border at Laredo, Tex., to the Canadian border north of Duluth, Minn.

Once complete, the new road will allow containers from the Far East to enter the United States through the Mexican port of Lazaro Cardenas, bypassing the Longshoreman's Union in the process. The Mexican trucks, without the involvement of the Teamsters Union, will drive on what will be the nation's most modern highway straight into the heart of America. The Mexican trucks will cross border in FAST lanes, checked only electronically by the new "SENTRI" system. The first customs stop will be a Mexican customs office in Kansas City, their new Smart Port complex, a facility being built for Mexico at a cost of $3 million to the U.S. taxpayers in Kansas City.

As incredible as this plan may seem to some readers, the first Trans-Texas Corridor segment of the NAFTA Super Highway is ready to begin construction next year. Various U.S. government agencies, dozens of state agencies, and scores of private NGOs (non-governmental organizations) have been working behind the scenes to create the NAFTA Super Highway, despite the lack of comment on the plan by President Bush. The American public is largely asleep to this key piece of the coming "North American Union" that government planners in the new trilateral region of United States, Canada and Mexico are about to drive into reality...

Previously in this series: "Bush sneaking North American super-state without oversight?"

See also Trans-Texas Corridor: "there's something wrong going on in Texas"

UPDATE: More here, including this quote from Kansas City mayor Kay Barnes:

As we have learned from the past, integration in the new global economy comes from complete commercial, economic, political, and cultural integration. With our strategic position in the heart of America, and as the hub of the North American Trade Corridor, Kansas City intends to be an integral part of the global marketplace for years to come.

Posted to NAU at 06:56 AM | Comments (2)

California Democrats try to give free health care to children of illegal aliens

The Democrats in Sacramento are trying to sneak through an expansion of the "Healthy Families" program that would expand that to include the children of illegal aliens.

Assemblyman John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, a budget writer, said [state Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth, R-La Mesa] was incorrect in contending that the proposal gives the children of illegal immigrants benefits not available to legal residents.

Laird said the proposed expansion provides health care for all children whose parents are under the income limit.

"It doesn't keep anyone from getting it," he said...

Obviously, those U.S. citizens above the income limit are prohibited from receiving the benefits. But, foreign citizens who are here illegally and who are below the income limit can receive the benefits. Therefore, Laird is completely wrong.

As Hollingsworth points out, this proposal would just encourage even more illegal immigration. While no one wants to block children from receiving health care, if there were much less illegal immigration this wouldn't be an issue. It's those "liberals" and racial demagogues who support illegal immigration that get us into this situation in the first place. They also hurt their own chances of passing some form of universal health care, since everyone knows that those same "liberals" and racial demagogues would try to make it available to everyone and would put the state in even greater financial straits than it is already.

Since the Democrats who support this have not been censured by the national Democratic Party, it's fair to claim that the national Democratic Party fully supports illegal immigration.

Posted to California at 02:40 AM | Comments (2)

Whistleblower: USCIS broken, infiltrated by operatives of hostile foreign countries

From this:

The U.S. immigration system is so broken that it can't be fixed, a former top security official at the Department of Homeland Security's Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) told NewsMax in an exclusive interview.

"Internal corruption at CIS is so pervasive that hostile foreign governments have penetrated the agency," said Michael J. Maxwell, who was forced to resign as chief of the CIS Office of Security and Investigation earlier this year...

..."Even if the adjudicators get a terrorist hit, the regulations say they must refer the case to the FBI," Maxwell said. "It doesn't say, deny them an immigration benefit. It just says, refer. That's very dangerous, because once they get the immigration benefit it becomes very hard to investigate them."

If the FBI fails for whatever reason to send over the case file on the individual who has been flagged, "then statutorily, the case officer must grant the benefit, even if there's a warning the person is a terrorist," Maxwell told NewsMax.

That means that individuals from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen, whose identities could not be verified and who could be working for terrorist groups, have been granted green cards or even citizenship, Maxwell added...

...More than 7 million immigration-related "benefit" claims are adjudicated every year, which Maxwell and other critics say have led immigration officers to "rubber-stamp" green card and citizenship applications. Many CIS service centers have policies that reward immigration officers who adjudicate the highest number of cases per day, giving them additional paid leave and other benefits...

...USCIS has documented an immigration route through the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico that could be exploited by foreign intelligence services and terrorists, with the complicity of U.S. immigration officers.

"The smugglers know that only one flight per day is inspected," Maxwell said, "so they put these folks on other flights," Maxwell said. An internal CIS investigation into the operations of the San Juan immigration district, obtained by NewsMax, describes the Virgin Islands-Puerto Rico immigration pipeline in great detail...

...In sworn testimony before House International Relations subcommittee on International Terrorism and Nonproliferation on April 6, 2006, Maxwell said that his office had received complaints of "USCIS employees providing material support to known terrorists or being influenced by foreign intelligence services."

One USCIS employee, "co-opted by a foreign intelligence entity," had "the ability to grant the immigration of their choosing to the person or persons of their choosing," Maxwell said in his sworn testimony.

In an unclassified meeting with senior USCIS leadership in February 2006, which he attended, Maxwell says that agency Director Emilio Gonzales "mentioned two foreign intelligence operatives who work on behalf of USCIS at an interest section abroad and who are assisting aliens into the United States as we speak..."

The USCIS would be in charge of administering the Bush/Fox/Senate amnesty scheme.

Posted to Immigration_terror at 12:27 AM | Comments (1)

Has Dennis Hastert blocked the Senate's massive illegal alien amnesty?

He wants to take a "long look" at the Senate's sell-out, which might mean nothing will happen before Congress goes on its summer vacation.

Posted to Immigration at 10:28 PM | Comments (4)

AVWatch: "The Revolution", starring Darryl Hannah

Earlier today various police forces evicted dozens of farmers from a 14 acre plot of land in South (Central) Los Angeles. Those resisting the eviction included a couple tree sitters, Darryl Hannah, Joan Baez, Danny Glover, Martin Sheen, Laura Dern, Tom Morello, Willie Nelson, Alicia Silverstone, and other washed-up or semi-famous celebrities. (There were around 350 individual plantings, but apparently some farmers had already been moved to other properties).

The backstory is provided in "Farmers, Celebrities Evicted From Urban Plot". At first glance, it might seem a bit absurd:

...Personnel using a huge fire ladder this afternoon removed actress Daryl Hannah and protest organizer John Quigley from the tree where they had vowed to remain as long as possible... Television broadcasts showed a large ladder extending from a firetruck reaching into the tree where Hannah, Quigley and two other people were located... Hannah said she was sleeping in her tent when the Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies - who handle evictions in the county - arrived. Quigley alerted her to the raid, and she raced up the tree in about a minute...

What the L.A. Times - as can be expected - doesn't cover is the actual ideologies of the leaders of the "resistance". For that, let's turn to "Farmers Kicked Out of Community Farm in South-Central Los Angeles" ( narconews.com/Issue41/article1892.html ). That article contains nugget after nugget offering a clue to what they really believe, so the following are just the more revealing bits:

...Tezozomoc, a spokesperson for the farmers, said the aggression shown today would certainly unleash a strong sense of community discontent against the city government.

...The Other Journalism confirmed that below and to the left, the farmers of South-Central – adherents and members of the Other Campaign on the Other Side – have joined with their Mexican brothers and sisters south of the border.

...Indeed, opposite the high-caliber guns and police batons were guitars, drums and whistles; in front of the high-impact helmets and shields were bandanas and ski masks, Zapatista symbols that are by now imbued with anti-capitalist significance; answering the prominent acronyms of LAPD and SWAT (Los Angeles pioneered the creation of this repressive unit, which is armed to the teeth and is by definition charged with fighting "terrorists") were "Viva EZLN", "Save our Farm" and "The people united, will never be defeated!"

Rufina Juarez, one of the most tenacious defenders of the community’s land, said to the Other Journalism that the aggression they were subjected to will not be forgotten. She also had strong words of criticism for Villaraigosa, who over the course of his corporate ladder-climbing, power-hungry career has used his "origins" and "race" as political bargaining chips.

"Mexicans," she said as tears welled up in her eyes, "have a long tradition of defending our land and we aren't going to forget this aggression..."

A summary from the American perspective: due to massive illegal immigration, we've imported many people who seem to be just a tad on the "collectivist" side. Is importing people who support the EZLN really in the best interests of this country? Is helping communists build a proletariat in our best interests? While Darryl Hannah is just a loony and useful idiot "liberal", the real leaders of this movement clearly don't support our laws and the fundamental principles of this country.

For more that the L.A. Times isn't covering, see la.indymedia.org, such as la.indymedia.org/news/2006/06/162192.php:

Living on the Farm, dirty fingernails, eating just-plucked food, daily meetings, outdoor showers, and good conversation would be an easy routine to fall into. But at the South Central Farm, the pastoral life is interrupted by a steady stream of media and celebrities, and conviviality and community is built as much from the tension of impending arrest as it is by common work and values.

Peasant values are the only true values, comrade.

Posted to Los_Angeles at 09:51 PM | Comments (4)

Is the Colorado Supreme Court pro-illegal immigration?

That court recently blocked Coloradans from voting on an initiative that, aside from administrivia, says this:

Except as mandated by federal law, the provision of non-emergency services by the state of Colorado, or any county, city, or other political subdivision thereof, is restricted to citizens of and aliens lawfully present in the United States of America.

They took this off the ballot because they claim that it involves more than one subject, something that initiatives are forbidden from doing by Colorado's constitution.

As discussed here and here, it seems to only deal with one subject and the court's reasoning seems a bit circuitous. So, perhaps there's something else involved.

As pointed out at the first link, the court approved a similar initiative in 2004, although it was challenged this time on a different issue.

The opposition group is the misleadingly-titled "Keep Colorado Safe", which is headed up by former Denver mayor Federico Pena. The petitioner in the challenge was one Manolo Gonzalez-Estay.

And, the spokesman for the group is someone mentioned here before: Polly Baca. I wonder if any other members have links to First Data/Western Union or if they were involved in this in any way.

Others involved include Mitch Ackerman, head of an SEIU local (Service Employees International Union). Also, Anna Sampaio, political science professor at the University of Colorado at Denver. The former interim chairwoman was Lorez Meinhold, executive director of the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative. They selected Pena to replace her after seeing him deliver a rousing speech before a May 1 illegal immigration march.

UPDATE: Surprisingly, the Rocky Mountain News disagrees with the court:

The court really had to reach to find that second subject, prompting us to conclude it worked backward from the finding it wanted instead of forward from the arguments made...

...We note for the record that this newspaper has taken no position on the initiative. The only issue that concerns us here is the people's right to launch ballot issues without contrived interference from the courts.

It's clear to us that the proposal doesn't even come close to violating the single-subject rule. If the high court can keep the electorate from voting on this issue, there's practically nothing that can get on the ballot if four members of the court don't want it there...

Posted to Immigration at 09:53 AM | Comments (4)

"Bush sneaking North American super-state without oversight?"

From this:

Despite having no authorization from Congress, the Bush administration has launched extensive working-group activity to implement a trilateral agreement with Mexico and Canada.

The membership of the working groups has not been published, nor has their work product been disclosed, despite two years of massive effort within the executive branches of the U.S., Mexico and Canada.

The groups, working under the North American Free Trade Association office in the Department of Commerce, are to implement the Security and Prosperity Partnership, or SPP, signed by President Bush, Mexican President Vicente Fox and then-Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin in Waco, Texas, on March 23, 2005...

Geri Word, who heads the SPP office within the NAFTA office of the U.S. Department of Commerce affirmed to WND last Friday in a telephone interview that the membership of the working groups, as well as their work products, have not been published anywhere, including on the Internet.

Why the secrecy?

"We did not want to get the contact people of the working groups distracted by calls from the public," said Word...

...WND can find no specific congressional legislation authorizing the SPP working groups...

[The closest are bills from Sen. Richard Lugar and Rep. Katherine Harris, neither of which passed]...

...WND has requested from Word in the U.S. Department of Commerce a complete listing of the contact persons and the participating membership for the working groups listed in the June 2005 SPP report to the trilateral leaders. In addition, WND asked to see all work products, such as memorandums of understanding, letters of intent, and trilateral agreements that are referenced in the report...

Sounds like it's getting serious. Oddly enough, the various major MSM sources don't seem to be interested in a plan to change the very structure of the country.

In addition to the bills mentioned by Corsi, note also that Sen. John Cornyn introduced a bill that would create a "North American Investment Fund to promote economic and infrastructure integration among Canada, Mexico, and the United States, and for other purposes."

Previously: More on "NAFTA Plus" and "North America"

Posted to NAU at 05:50 AM | Comments (1)

Immigration laws even "liberals" could support

The "U.S. General Population Act", introduced by Rep. John Linder (R-GA), proposes immigration changes that even "liberals" can support. It would make our immigration laws the same as Mexico's.

Posted to Immigration at 03:31 AM | Comments (1)

George Soros, Maurice Strong to sell Chinese cars?

George Soros and Maurice Strong might invest hundreds of millions in Chinese automaker "Chery". They make a car which sells for $3,600 in China but will sell for $20,000 here. GM accuses Chery of ripping off the design for a car that their South Korean affiliate Daewoo makes.

Posted to Miscellania at 11:27 PM | Comments (2)

"Homeland Security accepts fake ID" [Matricula Consular]

From this:

The Department of Homeland Security allowed a man to enter its headquarters last week using a fake Matricula Consular card as identification, despite federal rules that say the Mexican-issued card is not valid ID at government buildings.

Bruce DeCell, a retired New York City police officer, used his phony card -- which lists his place of birth as "Tijuana, B.C." and his address as "123 Fraud Blvd." on an incorrectly spelled "Staton Island, N.Y." -- to enter the building Wednesday for a meeting with DHS officials.

Mr. DeCell said he has had the card for four years and has used it again and again to board airliners and enter government buildings, without being turned down once. But he said he was surprised that DHS, the agency in charge of determining secure IDs, accepted it...

Posted to Immigration at 12:36 PM | Comments (2)

In Philly, eat at Geno's Steaks

This site hasn't waded into the Great Philly Cheesesteak controversy until this:

City officials are expected to file a complaint Monday against an English-only ordering policy at Geno's Steaks, one of Philadelphia's best-known cheesesteak joints that has entered the national immigration debate.

Situated in a South Philadelphia immigrant neighborhood, Geno's has posted small signs telling customers, "This Is AMERICA: WHEN ORDERING 'SPEAK ENGLISH.'"

"We're alleging that the sign itself is enough of an unwelcoming message that it may violate the Fair Practices Act," Rachel Lawton, acting executive director of the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations, told the Philadelphia Inquirer...

I don't know about Philly, but in Chicago a far-left, illegal immigration-supporting organization was appointed to a state board on immigration. And, Los Angeles quoted a far-left group with alleged links to the Mexican government when promoting a new immigration office. Someone should look into whether the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations has any links to similar groups or is filing the complaint with the involvement of any business groups.

Posted to Immigration at 11:16 AM | Comments (5)

45,000 from terror-linked countries released into U.S.

From this:

[A DHS] report [dhs.gov/interweb/assetlibrary/OIG_06-33_Apr06.pdf] reveals that 45,008 aliens from countries on the U.S. list of state-sponsors of terror (SST) or from countries that protected terrorist organizations and their members (SIC) were released into the general public between 2001 and 2005, even though immigration officers couldn't confirm their identity.

Even worse, "it is not known exactly how many of these SIC and SST aliens were ultimately issued final orders of removal and actually removed, since such data is not tracked" by the Detention and Removal Office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the report said.

The report estimated that 85% of those released aliens "will abscond," even if deportation orders are issued.

Do the math. That means that more than 38,000 individuals from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen, whose identities could not be verified and who could be working for terrorist groups, are today roaming the streets of America.

And if they're smart – and undoubtedly, they are – they have already acquired new identities and have melted into American society.

"The release of these OTMs [Other Than Mexicans] poses particular risks," the Inspector General report said. The report cited a recent U.S. intelligence assessment indicating that "terrorist organizations… believe illegal entry into the U.S. is more advantageous than legal entry for operations reasons."

Posted to Immigration_terror at 11:38 AM | Comments (3)

MSM picks up "jobs Americans won't do"

From this:

The much-criticized claim about "jobs Americans won't do" seems to have left the president's vocabulary. But though opponents of illegal immigration call the jobs claim a myth, the network news media have adopted it as an argument that needed addressing.

"The American people are the ones hiring these people in many cases to do jobs they don't want to do," NBC's Matt Lauer reminded his "Today" guest on May 1. "Few people question the ability of illegal immigrants to work hard and, according to labor statistics, work cheap on jobs most Americans are unwilling to do," said CBS's Byron Pitts on the April 10 "Evening News."

...White House adviser Dan Bartlett appeared on CNN's "The Situation Room" May 26 saying, "And we need to have a system that is above board, across the board that deals with the realities of our economy and the realities of workers who are doing jobs that Americans won't do."

..."Many argue that immigrants take jobs that Americans won't do at wages Americans won't accept," Brian Williams said [on NBC "Nightly News" on April 10]. Carl Quintanilla soon followed with: "Pick 20 workers in the U.S. at random, and one of them is an illegal immigrant, doing jobs most Americans wouldn't take for wages they wouldn't want."

Posted to Immigration at 05:02 AM | Comments (1)

If only Democrats had a brain...

And if only Republicans had a spine:

Posted to Politics at 03:03 AM | Comments (1)

Alex Jones detained in Canada on Bilderberger orders?

Way far out there radio host Alex Jones tried to enter Canada yesterday to cover a Bilderberg meeting. He claims that he was detained by Canadian immigration officials since last night to this afternoon on the orders of that group:

Customs openly told Alex as soon as they brought him into custody that the Bilderberg Group was aware of his arrival and that this was the reason for his detainment. All three members of the team were instantly detained despite going through different immigration desks...

...Towards the end of the ordeal national media, including the Ottawa Citizen and CBC, got wind of what was unfolding and sent journalists to the airport to talk to Alex...

...The point to emphasize again is that it was brazenly stated that the Bilderberg Group were behind the decision to detain Alex and his team...

Jones appears to have been ordered to fly back to Austin, but they decided not to follow through and he's currently in Canada. And, from this:

"As a result of the privacy act, we are forbidden from discussing individual cases," said Marina Wilson, spokesperson for the department. "I'm not aware of this ... (detention) is at the discretion of our visa officers."

Mr. Jones said that he and the agents had reconciled prior to his release.

"I want to say, on the record, it takes two to tango. I could have handled it better."

Speaking on the less far out there Coast To Coast, Jones described it as a "terrorizing" incident similar to the Soviet Union. And, he claims that he was under duress when he issued his conciliatory statements.

Posted to Miscellania at 09:51 PM | Comments (6)

New Orleans: AP covers the worker abuse it helped bring about

From Rukmini Callimachi of the AP:

They are the backbone of post-Hurricane Katrina reconstruction: Workers who converge at dawn and wait to be picked up for 14-hour shifts of hauling debris, ripping out drywall and nailing walls.

But because many are in the country illegally, immigrant workers rebuilding New Orleans are especially vulnerable to exploitation, according to a study released Tuesday by professors at Tulane University and the University of California at Berkeley.

The illegal immigrants often work in hazardous conditions without protective gear and earn far less than their legal counterparts, the study said. Nearly one-third of the illegal immigrants interviewed by researchers reported working with harmful substances and in dangerous conditions, while 19 percent said they were not given any protective equipment...

"What is fundamentally unfair is these are workers who have responded to a national priority to rebuild this city and yet whose rights are being violated," said Laurel Fletcher, director of Berkeley's International Human Rights Law Clinic and one of the study's co-authors...

Actually what is even more fundamentally unfair is that those workers are there in the first place. If they weren't there, American citizens and legal immigrants would be doing the work, and any abuses would be much easier to deal with.

Those workers were brought there by powerful forces who probably weren't working together, but definitely were working towards the same ends. The Bush administration moved many of the previous inhabitants into hotels in Atlanta and Houston, basically warehousing them on the public dole. Then, they allowed corrupt contractors to bring in an illegal alien workforce. Those contractors got juicy - and in many cases no-bid - contracts and were able to pay a lower price for the illegal labor with the associated lower safety standards.

Where was the Democratic Party in all this? Cheerleading it along. Harry Reid helped Bush with his scheme. And, when Nagin, Landrieu, and Blanco complained about illegal alien workers being brought in, they were silenced by higher-ups in the party.

What about the media? They formed a separate cheerleading squad of their own. The Washington Post, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the AP, and various smaller papers and racial demagogues all supported illegal aliens being brought in to New Orleans.

And, all those who supported this before are now partly responsible for the worker abuse described in the article.

Let's send an email to Laurel Fletcher suggesting she might want to attempt to consider mentioned who's responsible for this situation next time: lef *at* law.berkeley.edu

Posted to Immigration at 11:16 AM | Comments (2)

Kos: I'm a "Libertarian Democrat"

Subcommandante Markos "Kos" Zuniga has finally nailed down his exact political orientation: he's a "Libertarian Democrat". Now, that doesn't mean that he embraces the full lunatic/libertarian agenda, nor does it mean that the lunatics/libertarians have embraced the Lunatic World of Kos. However, as for the latter, we can pretend. And, be assured that I will every chance I get. (Ex.: "A libertarian? You mean, like DailyKos?")

So in practical terms, what does a Libertarian Dem look like? A Libertarian Dem rejects government efforts to intrude in our bedrooms and churches. A Libertarian Dem rejects government "Big Brother" efforts, such as the NSA spying of tens of millions of Americans. A Libertarian Dem rejects efforts to strip away rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights -- from the First Amendment to the 10th. And yes, that includes the 2nd Amendment and the right to bear arms.

Posted to Bloggage at 09:43 PM | Comments (2)

James Taranto, open borders shill

The Wall Street Journal's James Taranto links to a blogger's completely unscientific observations on the percentages of Boston valedictorians who are immigrants, and in so doing resorts to the name-calling more commonly used elsewhere in that rag. Specifically:

Why They Call Nativists 'Know-Nothings'... Maybe the anti-immigrant slogan should be: "Keep America stupid--seal the borders!"

Saving me the task, another blogger has responded to James Taranto's smears.

Posted to Immigration at 09:12 PM | Comments (4)

Bush: "Amnesty means you're automatically a citizen"

Presidente Bush verged even closer to being an outright cheerleader for illegal immigration in a speech at the Metropolitan Community College in Omaha ( whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/06/20060607.html ). This site hasn't spent a lot of time analyzing Bush's various blatherings on this issue since they're usually the same and they all have too many lies and misleading, anti-American, and un-American statements than can be discussed in just one post. Nevertheless, the latest speech has him sounding like even more of an AILA shill:

The debate really -- much of the debate I'm sure you're hearing from is either amnesty or deportation, both of which I'm against. Amnesty means you're automatically a citizen. I don't think that makes sense. It's not fair to those who have waited legally. We got a lot of people waiting to be citizens here, and they've done -- they've adhered to our laws, and they're in line, they're in the citizenship line. And I think it would be unfair to those who have been here legally to say to those who have been here illegally that these folks get ahead of you in line. That doesn't make any sense to me, if we're a country that's going to uphold laws.

Our president is against deportation of illegal aliens? Surely he must mean (the strawman argument of) mass deportations, right? As he makes clear in the next paragraph, he's opposed to deporting anyone who's made it past the border. So, he thinks we should uphold our laws, but he's opposed to our laws regarding deportation of illegal aliens from the interior of the country.

And, of course, his definition of amnesty is positively Clintonesque.

On the other hand, it makes no sense at all to say we can find people and run them out of the country. For some, I guess that sounds appealing. It's impractical. It's not going to work, and it's not necessary, in my judgment. It's not the right thing to do.

Our laws say that we do need to find illegal aliens and deport them. And, in fact, that's what ICE is supposed to do. What kind of message does this send to those who are trying to locate criminal aliens?

The right thing to do is to recognize that if you've been here illegally, that there ought to be a cost for doing so, but also recognize there are decent, hardworking people that have contributed to our society at the same time. And so I believe here's a way to work out -- work through this problem. One is to say, you got to pay a fine for being here illegally. You've got to learn the English language. In other words, you got to pay -- repay a debt to society and learn the skills necessary to assimilate into our society. Show us you've been working hard. In other words, there's a way to verify your contributions to our society. And then, if you want to be a citizen, you can get in line to be a citizen, but not at the head of the line, you get to get at the back of the line.

As pointed out here, the last is a highly misleading statement. They won't be at the back of the line, and they'll continue to be able to live here in the U.S. And, whether they're "decent [and] hardworking" or not, our country comes first. Giving amnesty (as defined by the dictionary, not Bush) would have a tremendously negative impact on this country.

If Bush feels so strongly about this issue, he should resign and pursue his goals as a private citizen.

Posted to Immigration at 10:56 AM | Comments (2)

Spain's cautionary example on illegal alien amnesties

From this:

...Spain offered four amnesties for illegal immigrants between 1985 and 2000. None of them slowed the flow of undocumented migrants. In February 2005, Spain tried again, announcing a grant of temporary residence to illegal aliens who could prove that they had been in the country for at least six months. The Spanish government legalized 700,000 during a three-month window. The plan did not stem the tide. Instead, the influx of illegal immigrants from Africa increased dramatically. The government recently acknowledged that 7,500 illegals arrived in the Canary Islands during the first half of 2006, compared to 4,751 in all of 2005. Spanish police documented about 12,000 attempts by Moroccan migrants to enter the Spanish town of Melilla. Illegal border crossing has been matched with a skyrocketing number of cases of fraud from individuals trying to qualify for amnesty, overwhelming immigration officials, who have been unable to cope with processing, screening, and adjudicating the flood of amnesty applications...

Posted to Immigration_euro at 05:56 AM | Comments (9)

LAUSD: alleged separatist school abiding by charter

Some charter schools are more equal than others, and the LAUSD has determined that an alleged Chicano separatist school is abiding by its charter and is able to continue operation:

"They have followed the charter that they wrote originally," said Kevin Reed, chief legal counsel for the district. "What we care about is that the curriculum is inclusive and not exclusive."

KABC reporter Sandy Wells was allegedly assaulted outside the school as he was trying to interview the principal, then was allegedly tailed after he left the school. The LAPD continues their investigation.

Funders of the school include the Pasadena College chapter of MEChA and the National Council of La Raza ("The Race").

Posted to Los_Angeles at 03:50 AM | Comments (4)

Rob "Meathead" Reiner's Soviet Union-style preschool initiative fails

Rob Reiner's attempt to put 4-year-olds in preschools - which would end up being state-directed and most likely mandatory - has failed ("Rob Reiner Says Campaign Raised Awareness"). The failure comes despite last-ditch effort television commercials featuring Antonio Villaraigosa, the mayor of Los Angeles and a former member of the racial separatist group MEChA.

Previously:
Rob Reiner leaves California preschool commission
First 5 California: bring back integrity!
Rob Reiner denies wrongdoing
Rob Reiner-supporting commercials paid for by tax money

Posted to California at 11:07 PM | Comments (1)

Illegal aliens fail to elect Francine Busby

Fear, despair, and a deep sense of foreboding engulfed the Democratic Party Tuesday as early results seem to indicate that even the illegal alien vote couldn't help Democrat Francine Busby defeat Republican Brian Bilbray in California's 50th District. The race was to replace convicted Congressman Duke Cunningham.

With 25% of precincts reporting, Bilbray leads by 50% to 44%.

Of course, it was Busby who uttered the now-infamous "you don't need papers to vote" while speaking to 50 or so people, many of whom were Spanish speakers. While she and her helpers have since issued various tortured explanations, the intent of her remarks is crystal clear to anyone who's intellectually honest.

UPDATE: It's official! The pet/illegal alien/dead people/space alien vote failed Francine Busby. And, here's a video of her infamous statement. She actually says "you don't need papers for voting". Unfortunately, the video doesn't have the question that was asked, but if it wasn't before, it's even more clear now what she was getting at.

Posted to California at 10:58 PM | Comments (3)

Has the National Association of Home Builders infiltrated DailyKos?

A Kossack named "dobie" offers the diary entry "Immigration Policy: Unintended Consequences". His point is that we should support illegal immigration lest the housing market collapse:

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) estimates that building an average housing single family unit generates 3.47 jobs, equivalent to 5.9M jobs nation-wide, based upon 2005 figures.

Now, to me at least, that reads like something a corporate spokesman would utter. I don't think "dobie" is a secret agent of the NAHB, rather that he's just a useful idiot. Fortunately or unfortunately, other, slightly less idiotic Kossacks have a negative view of his post in the comments.

Posted to Immigration at 12:02 PM | Comments (2)

Kerry Iran nuke plan now Bush Iran nuke plan

The Bush administration is offering to give Iran nuclear technology in exchange for them stopping uranium enrichment. While I'm not familiar with the details of either plan, wasn't this exactly what John Kerry proposed? And, wasn't that roundly criticized by BushBots near and far?

Posted to Politics at 12:00 PM | Comments (0)

"Bush Admin Hiring For Guest Workers Program as if Done Deal"

From this:

new hiring and job openings at Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) have suddenly ballooned (here and here). The ONLY reason that would happen is to hire new workers to administer the new Guest Workers program (a/k/a ShAmnesty).

Says one Homeland Security federal agent:

Take a peek at the job listings at the govt. site. It is at http://www.usajobs.opm.gov (from there prompt to DHS/CIS). Normally they have 20 to 30+ various positions open at any given time within CIS. This week, however, there is over 100. Interesting that they are seeking massive quantities of Adjudication Officers GS-9/12, all over the country. Some areas don't even specify how many openings are available. I haven't seen this since pre-IRCA of 1986...AKA "AMNESTY". It is no secret now., the decision has already been made. It WILL happen.

Posted to Immigration at 06:46 AM | Comments (1)

"How Big Sugar made slaves out of guest workers"

The story of U.S. sugar cane farmers importing "guest" workers has some not-unexpected parallels to current attempts to create such a program:

By the 1930s, Big Sugar had a labor problem, and so it turned where Big Business often turns: Big Government. The New Deal operated as corporate welfare in many ways, but nowhere did it serve the exploitative purposes of big business as thoroughly as in the sugarcane fields of south Florida. Most objectionable—and most relevant to today’s policy debates—was how FDR and Big Sugar teamed up to use open borders and guest-worker programs to subvert the free market...

But FDR's plan was not just about opening the borders to these workers. Under FDR’s BWI program, the federal government became an active partner with the sugar growers. Historian David McCally writes, "Between 1943 and 1947, the United States government played a direct role in negotiating employment contracts for offshore laborers and paid the cost of round-trip transportation for all workers between their homes and the United States."

In the current case, a federal bureaucracy will presumably spring up to "match willing workers with willing employers."

... Wilkinson writes that a sugar boss in the field who thought one cutter was working too slowly could "check him out" - send him back to his barracks with no wages for the day. If one worker was checked out three times in one season, the sugar farmer would send him back to his home country. If this was before the midpoint of the cane-cutting season, the worker himself was obligated, by the terms of his contract, to pay his roundtrip fare.

This advantage to the farmers of hiring temporary foreign workers was no accident. It was deliberate. In 1940, one grower wrote to the U.S. Department of Agriculture that if Washington were to help them find labor, the Bahamas would be a far better source than either the U.S. or its territory Puerto Rico. "The vast difference between the Bahama Island labor and domestic, including Puerto Rican," wrote the farmer, "is that labor transported from the Bahama Islands can be deported and sent home, if it does not work, which cannot be done in the instance of labor from domestic United States or Puerto Rico."

Posted to Immigration at 04:37 AM | Comments (2)

Mexican consuls allowed to meddle at Border Patrol offices

Here's Part 2 of an interview with former US Border Patrol Supervisor David Stoddard:

Agents tell me that these Mexican Consul officials are allowed unrestricted access to roam the different Border Patrol Stations in order to "service" illegal Mexican aliens. During their rounds, these foreign consular officials are allowed to “interview” aliens at will, and they interfere with ongoing investigations and otherwise hinder ongoing Border Patrol operations...

...Furthermore, these Agents tell me that the Mexican Consul routinely solicits complaints against agents directly from illegal aliens. This is unprecedented and goes way beyond any notification requirements of any existing treaties. It has become apparent that the Mexican Government has undue influence over U.S. Immigration Law Enforcement. Agents also tell me that if the Mexican Government objects to any particular Border Patrol enforcement effort, the Border Patrol immediately curtails or discontinues that operation...

...The Mexican Government is constantly complaining about all forms of enforcement against illegal aliens...

...Up until about 15 years ago, the Mexican military was the only agency in Mexico that was relatively uncorrupted by the drug cartels. Slowly, certain generals and other Army officials were bought off. Now, the Mexican military forces are just as corrupt as the federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. Practically on a nightly basis some element of the Mexican military assists drug or human smugglers to enter the United States...

...I don’t know about that particular camp. I do know that there are camps in South and Central America where middle-eastern individuals are "Latinized". There are credible reports of schools where suspicious individuals are taught Spanish, Latin culture, idiomatic expressions, and mannerisms to help them pass as Mexican or Central American...

...I and others have found Arabic documents and Muslim items discarded in "stash" locations along the border where illegal aliens lay up to be picked up by smugglers...

Previously: "Mexican government running US immigration policy--Part I"

Posted to Immigration_consul at 02:23 AM | Comments (1)

Angelides for Governor!

[As part of this site's equal time provision, we're publishing the following entry from an unnamed party known only as "TruProgressive". We have confirmed, however, that this person is not Bob Mulholland. This site does not endorse the message in any way.]

The only true progressive in the race for governor of California is Phil Angelides. He's right on the issues, and he is the only choice if you want to bring true democracy to California.

"We Can Count on Phil" isn't just a slogan, it's how he would govern this state. He will spend billions of dollars to upgrade our schools, hire new teachers, and make sure that every resident of the state - whether documented or not - can attend college. He will also spend billions of dollars on investing in our communities.

Phil has been endorsed by a wide spectrum of highly-admired Californians, from the SEIU to the California Teachers Association and from California Professional Firefighters to the California Labor Federation. Unlike the other choices, he is not in the pocket of large corporations or special interests.

I urge you to vote for Phil Angelides, the only Democrat who can beat Arnold!

Posted to California at 11:52 PM | Comments (2)

Whistleblower: Port of Los Angeles wide open to illegal aliens

Doing a little bit of journalism, KNBC's Kelly Mack spoke to an unidentified whistleblower who works for Customs and Border Protection. Here's the full interview with video, and here are some of the quotes from the agent:

A lot of [illegal aliens] we encounter down at the fishing docks... management has given a directive to officers to stay away from those areas ... there are illegal aliens in the port driving trucks ... management turns a blind eye to this as well... We've approached management to bring those people in because they're in violation of the immigration law. Management declines. ...There's a lot of suggestions officers have made to management to do joint operations with Los Angeles Port police, to do a little more with the Coast Guard. Our management declines... They say that we don't have the resources and manpower... Their primary concern is cargo, cargo, cargo... Terrorists could come in at any time.

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

Top Bush economist shows folly of Bush immigration scheme

Dr. Edward Lazear is the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers ( whitehouse.gov/cea/elazearbio.html ). In March 2005 he wrote "Mexican Assimilation in the United States" (PDF file) for the Hoover Institution. (Via this). Here's the abstract:

By almost any measure, immigrants from Mexico have performed worse and become assimilated more slowly than immigrants from other countries. Still, Mexico is a huge country, with many high ability people who could fare very well in the United States. Why have Mexicans done so badly? The answer is primarily immigration policy. The US lets in far more immigrants from Mexico than from any other country. As a result, there are large Mexican enclaves in the US. Theory and evidence suggests that those who live in highly concentrated communities do not assimilate as quickly, have lower wages, and poorer educational attainment. The fact that Mexicans live in highly concentrated communities explains some, but not all of the difference between their performance and that of other immigrants. The rest may be a result of immigration policy, through which the bulk of Mexicans enter the US on the basis of family ties, rather than job skills.

Posted to Immigration at 10:26 AM | Comments (3)

Is the Senate's immigration bill unconstitutional?

Not that the constitution really matters to the Senate, but:

The Constitution mandates that all bills regarding the raising of revenue must originate in the House. The Senate, in proposing that illegal aliens pay (only) three years' back taxes as part of a legalization program, may have improperly invaded legislative territory that belongs to the House.

Posted to Immigration at 06:37 AM | Comments (8)

Is the National Council of La Raza a mainstream group?

The National Council of La Raza is considered a mainstream group despite their name literally - and in effect - meaning National Council of The Race. Their spokesmen have been featured on national TV shows and at any one time you can find dozens of news articles offering their viewpoint.

And, they're also a financial contributor to a Chicano separatist LAUSD charter school in Los Angeles. The Pasadena chapter of MEChA is another contributor, as are at least two public agencies.

A KABC reporter who tried to find out more on the school was allegedly assaulted in what might turn out to be a hate crime.

More on this issue here and here.

Rather than getting side-tracked by attempts to shut down the school, let me suggest using this as a good opportunity to show anyone who hasn't been paying attention what the National Council of La Raza really supports.

If you see a reporter quoting Cecilia Munoz or Janet Murguia, send them an email asking whether a group that would support such a school is really as mainstream as they have been presented.

Posted to Immigration at 03:59 AM | Comments (8)

A dispatch from North America's Ministry of Truth

The May 26 WaPo featured "Borderline" by Moises Naim, editor of Foreign Policy, a Venezuela's former minister of industry and trade, and an associated of the Carnegie Endowment for World Peace. Here's the upshot:

...If a paranoid police state such as North Korea is incapable of controlling its borders and deterring illicit trade, there seems to be little hope for open, democratic and technologically advanced nations seeking to uphold their sovereign borders...

Yet the paradox of policing borders in a high-tech, globally integrated era is that today, less sovereignty may equal more protection. In order to reinforce national boundaries and combat terrorism, one of the most effective tools a government can deploy is collaboration with other nations -- in effect, ceding or "pooling" certain aspects of their sovereignty.

I think the Ben Franklin quote is, "Anyone who would trade their freedom for safety deserves neither freedom or safety." Surely we're a big enough country that we don't need to compromise either.

...In many quarters -- Washington and beyond -- the notion of diluting national sovereignty verges on treason...

I completely agree.

Posted to Politics at 11:21 PM | Comments (3)

"A citizen's primer on immigration reform"

Here's a good introduction to what they say vs. what they really mean. For instance:

When they say: These immigrants will pay fines and get punished for breaking the law.

What they mean is: Citizenship for sale, cheap. Pay fines of $2,500 and we will give it back to you and thousands more in the form of the Earned Income Tax Credit; retroactive Social Security credit; SSI for your indigent parents, who you can bring here legally; free medical care; free education; as well as free housing, food and money through your dependent children.

Posted to Immigration at 11:49 AM | Comments (2)

Illegal aliens marching in the streets. In Canada.

Many trends that start in the U.S. eventually reach Canada. The latest example is illegal aliens marching in the streets demanding rights to which they aren't entitled. The group "No One is Illegal (Toronto)" demands, among other things, a "National Regularization Program for non-status people" (nooneisillegal.org/about). More on them here.

On Saturday several hundreds of illegal aliens and their supporters held a march in Toronto, banging drums and chanting all the way, as the hugely sympathetic story "Afraid every morning I wake up" explains. As in the U.S., the press highlights the sympathetic victims and ignores the presumed ties and ideologies of the group involved. While they don't reveal any information on their site, I am going to assume that they're similar to ANSWER based on the terminology they use and their goals.

And, as in the U.S., Canadian politicians are confused over who and what they're supposed to represent:

...Olivia Chow, the Toronto NDP MP whose Trinity-Spadina riding has a large Portuguese component, told the crowd that she expects a motion asking the government to temporarily suspend deportations will pass at the committee level and come before the House of Commons this week...

...the Conservative government is taking a firm official stance on illegal immigrants.

"We have an obligation to the hundreds of thousands of people waiting to get into this country to make sure we don't reward those who don't play by the rules," Immigration Minister Monte Solberg has said.

Behind the scenes, however, the Conservatives are working hard to win over new Canadians whose votes are concentrated in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver -- cities that didn't elect even one Tory in the 2006 election.

"The Prime Minister's asked me, for instance, to work hard to build bridges with cultural communities in Canada who add tremendously to our wealth, both cultural and economic," said Jason Kenney, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's parliamentary secretary...

And, as in the U.S., the far-lefties have taken "direct action" (their version at sumoud.tao.ca/?q=node/view/572):

A speech by Immigration Minister Monte Solberg was abruptly cancelled Wednesday when a group of hecklers besieged him in an Ottawa church.

About a dozen protesters began shouting as Solberg took the podium...

...The demonstrators, who called for an immediate moratorium on all deportations, surrounded Solberg at the podium, and then blocked his exit from the church hall's front door.

When Solberg managed to slip out through the hall's back door, the protesters followed and circled his car. Police eventually cleared a path for the vehicle...

...Jaggi Singh, a well-known local activist who participated in the protest, dismissed Solberg's unheard speech as a "false dialogue" and defended the move to prevent him from delivering it...

As in the U.S., "conservatives" are "reaching out" to groups that have no interest in their current political system and would never support them under any conditions, instead of reaching out to their own citizens and to those immigrants who are willing to play by the rules. And, the press is silent on the exact nature of these groups.

UPDATE: More on Singh; first-person account of the Solberg speech here.

Posted to Immigration at 10:29 AM | Comments (2)

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All Posts(links to each post by title)

• Allied Grape Growers admits using illegal alien labor; McCain, Johanns
• Base responds to Dick Morris' Base Desires
• American Hotel & Lodging Educational Foundation immigration propaganda
• "Illegal Workers Could Receive Billions When Bush Signs Social Security Agreement with Mexico"
• Cannon win gives anti-American forces hope
• Company of Arkansas Democratic County chair indicted for immigration violations
• Howard Dean, the man that time forgot
• "Bush Administration Erases U.S. Borders With Mexico and Canada"
• EFE admits Goldwater "concentration camps" smear
• Alicia Robinson, Daily Pilot pimps ID cards for illegal aliens (Matricula Consular)
• Pro-illegal immigration, globalist propaganda in Superman movie
• Morristown/Hamblen County protest shows danger of illegal immigration
• Wimpy Bill Frist supports immigration "reform"
• Nina Bernstein: illegal immigration opponents are meanies
• "'H-1B Only' Job Ad Posters Accused of Discrimination"
• "New border official opposes immigration fence"
• DC Metro bilingual signs and illegal alien advocates
• Arlen Specter immigration hearings to feature farmers, landscapers, hotel industry
• Don Goldwater's "concentration camps": a setup by illegal immigration supporters
• Sources: NAFTA superhighway is imaginary, tinfoil talk, don't worry, relax

My trip to Alpine County What not to do, again (September 1-2, 2002)

Boston Market Cornbread Temperatures Please help contribute to this important study (August 28, 2002)

Did The Gap Put Celebrities at Risk? An Open Web Letter to The Gap (May 20, 2002)

Humphreys Peak Arizona's highest point (May 19, 2001)

Go Heavy, Go Slow, Get Lost Bay Area highpoints (December 14, 2000)

Hubris in New England The highpoints of RI, CT, and MA (October 8, 2000)

Let's go to Utah Zion, Bryce, and Grand Canyon (August 14, 2000)

Your host, climbing Monkey Face (5.14d)

Your host's arm (circled)

Your host's hopelessly outdated conditioning progress

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