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Bush gives argument against any sort of illegal alien amnesty scheme

Earlier today, president Bush delivered speech #5B in Miami (whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/07/20060731-1.html). For those who left their program at home, that speech number designates 10% Cuban-oriented content, and 10% ports-oriented content, with, of course, the remaining 80% being offal, stuffing, straw, lies, and bits and pieces from other speeches.

However, near the end, he provides an argument that can be used against any form of amnesty or whatever he falsely claims it is. Here are parts of the speech:

America is home to 5 percent of the world's population. That means 95 percent of the world's population are potential customers.

And 95 percent or so of that 95 percent make less in a year than some Americans make in a day.

Congress passed NAFTA, and as a result, Florida's exports to Mexico tripled.

And, Mexico's "exports" to the U.S. tripled as well. Now, the same sort of people who pushed NAFTA are trying to sell us their "solution" to massive illegal immigration.

In order to make sure this country continues to remain strong we must also ensure that America welcomes new immigrants, people who add to our prosperity. See, we can be a nation of law and a welcoming nation at the same time, and we don't have to choose. (Applause.)

Bush is right about that, and that's why we have legal immigration. Of course, since Bush supports and encourages illegal immigration, he actually only supports the "welcoming" part.

To keep the dream alive we must have comprehensive immigration reform. We must be logical about the approach we take to immigration. Of course, we want to enforce our borders. The Coast Guard works hard to enforce our borders. We got hardworking people on the Mexican border working hard to enforce our borders. And we'll provide more Border Patrol agents. And we'll provide new technologies to help those working hard. But in order to enforce the border, we have got to recognize that people are sneaking in here to work; the best way to enforce the border is to have a rational way for people who are doing jobs Americans aren't doing to come to this country on a temporary basis so they can realize their dreams. We need a guest worker program as part of a comprehensive reform. (Applause.)

Actually, the best way to enforce the border is to enforce the laws against employing illegal aliens, something that - aside from a few show raids and arrests at military bases - Bush refuses to do.

There's a lot of document forging going on. See, we got people being snuck across in 18-wheelers; we got people walking miles across the desert because of coyotes or smugglers. There's also a lot of people who forge documents. It's hard for an employer to know whether someone's here legally, or not. That's why we need to have a document that can't be forged and faked. So people say, I'm here for a temporary basis to work. I'm here legally to do a job Americans aren't doing, and that way we'll be able to have better work site enforcement. It's against the law for somebody to hire somebody who is here illegally. In order to make sure that those laws work, we need to have tamper-proof documents in the hands of people applying for work.

A Big Lie. There are tried-and-true ways of workplace enforcement that don't require a national ID card and, once again, Bush actively thwarts such enforcement. Not also the previously noted change from "jobs Americans won't do" to "job Americans aren't doing".

Fourthly, it is unrealistic to think that we should give automatic citizenship to people who've been here illegally. That's not going to work. It basically says, fine, then the next wave of people will come to try to become -- get automatic citizenship. Amnesty is not the right approach.

Bush admits that future immigrants - legal or illegal - take cues from our past actions. And, since that "next wave" would expect amnesty if we gave them the "automatic citizenship" Bush claims to oppose, that "next wave" will also expect to receive "earned citizenship" that Bush supports. It's good to hear Bush admitting that if his dream is fulfilled it will lead to yet another "earned citizenship" (i.e. amnesty) in the future.

But neither is trying to remove the 10 million or 11 million people who've been here illegally. Deportation is not going to work. What must work is a rational middle ground that says, you can pay a fine, you can learn English, you can prove you've been a lawful citizen, and then you can get in the citizenship line -- but at the back of the line, not the front of the line.

Bush just lied: there will be many people behind them in the line, and unlike the former illegal aliens, those people will be waiting in foreign countries and won't get to live here while waiting for their citizenship.

And finally, we'll continue to work to help people assimilate into the United States. We want people learning English. We want people learning our history and our traditions. We're going to work hard to make sure we're one nation under God. Rational immigration policy is possible, and it's important for members of the United States Congress to work toward a comprehensive immigration plan. (Applause.)

In his next speech, Bush will propose putting the NCLR and the government of Mexico in charge of his assimilation push.

Posted to Politics at 07:25 PM | Comments (0)

Santorum confused about Al-Jazeerah.info. So was DailyKos

Sen. Rick Santorum is apparently trying to promulgate an endorsement of his rival (Bobby Casey Jr.) made by al-Jazeera. Santorum even mentioned this on Thursday's Bill O'Reilly show.

Only one problem: the endorsement is from al-jazeerah.info, which is not related to the infamous network (and is in fact located in Georgia in the U.S.)

Of course, what few will remember is that our good buddy the DailyKos made this same mistake a few years back. Perhaps someone who has a DK account could point that out to them.

Posted to Bloggage at 12:03 PM | Comments (0)

"Wikipedia Celebrates 750 Years Of American Independence"

From this fine news source:

Wikipedia, the online, reader-edited encyclopedia, honored the 750th anniversary of American independence on July 25 with a special featured section on its main page Tuesday...

..."On July 25, 1256, delegates gathered at Comerica Park to sign the Declaration Of Independence, which rejected the rule of the British over its 15 coastal North American colonies," reads an excerpt from [Wikipedia's] entry. "Little did such founding fathers as George Washington, George Jefferson, and ***ERIC IS A FAG*** know that their small, querulous republic would later become the most powerful and prosperous nation in history, the Unified States Of America."

"All our lives, we are taught about the achievements of Washington, Jefferson, and FAG, but we seldom consider the factors and conditions that led them to risk everything for a republican cause," [WP founder Jimmy] Wales said. "What was it really like to be a patriot in those times? How did the colonists' perception of democracy conform and contrast with our modern one? Did Betsy Ross, as legend has it, really have the biggest boobies in the New World? It's these types of questions I want Wikipedia to be a forum for, all at the click of a mouse."

On a serious note: Wikipedia's continual low credibility

Posted to WackyHumor at 11:33 AM | Comments (0)

Special Order 40 video

There's a video here featuring interviews conducated over the past decade concerning Los Angeles' illegal alien sanctuary law, aka "Special Order 40".

Posted to Los_Angeles at 05:14 AM | Comments (0)

The "migration meltdown in Britain"

From this:

A massive rise in immigration next year could trigger a devastating crisis in Britain's schools, housing and welfare services, according to a secret Government report leaked to The Mail on Sunday.

The document reveals that every Government department has been ordered to draw up multi-million-pound emergency plans after being told public services face catastrophe as a result of the hundreds of thousands of Eastern Europeans pouring into Britain...

...The leaked document, written by Home Office Minister Joan Ryan, is entitled Migration From Eastern Europe: Impact On Public Services And Community Cohesion...

The London Times article on the leaked report is here. Some of the comments on the Daily Mail report show that England has a Bloomberg-style problem:

They cannot claim benefits.They do not take council flats or houses from British people because they are simply not entitled to them.If it wasn't for the Polish or Bulgarian maids,porters or receptionists,our hotels wouldn't function.The same goes for public transport or agriculture.

On a related note, Britain's "Serious Organised Crime Agency" says it can cost as little as 150 Pounds to be smuggled from France to England. Someone from the "Immigration Advisory Service" (an NGO and probably far-left) disagrees, saying it's in the high hundreds or more. This article is based on the same report, and highlights the even less reputable activities of smugglers.

Posted to Immigration_euro at 02:59 AM | Comments (1)

Tony Snow spins massive illegal immigration in Reason Magazine

The lunatic libertarians at Reason Magazine have a special issue about illegal immigration. If you live in a town with 6000 residents, there's a slight statistical chance that one of those people has read it.

One column in the issue is from Tony Snow; whether it was penned before or after him being hired as a Bush administration shill is unknown.

The article is described here, and in it he describes those who want our elected officials to enforce our laws as "neo-Know Nothings". And, he seems to have gotten other things wrong as well, offering a series of very questionable statistics:

Percentage of illegal immigrants who got here by jumping the Mexican or Canadian border: 60. Percent who overstayed their tourist or educational visas: 40.

Percent of illegals who are unemployed: 5.5. Percent who pay income taxes, Social Security and Medicare: 66. Percent who send their children to public schools: 10. Percent who receive food stamps or unemployment assistance: 5. Percent of Latino households that are Spanish-free by the third generation: 80.

Researcher-analyst Steve Camarota of the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors "a pro-immigrant, low immigration vision," says some of these Reason statistics are a little off. Camarota uses the figure 55 percent for illegals who pay payroll taxes, for instance, and he seriously doubts that only 10 percent of illegals send their kids to public school.

As for the linked column, it's from Pittsburgh Tribune-Review associate editor Bill Steigerwald. If you get a chance, give him a call at (412) 320-7983 or an email at bsteigerwald *at* tribweb.com with some of the painfully obvious reasons why illegal immigration is indeed a crisis.

Posted to Immigration at 10:24 PM | Comments (6)

Nets, jets, and reverse colonization

Try to ignore the editorializing from a typically idiotic Wired writer in the following:

During a recent briefing at the time-honored Royal United Service Institute – the oldest military think tank in the world, founded in 1831 by the Duke of Wellington – Parry imagined a future, circa 2030, in which the war on terror is still rolling along and the terrorists are winning. He describes a world so ripped up by nets and jets that sovereign nation-states like the UK are collapsing economically, politically, even physically. Then there are the people of that future, who hop from country to country and bear allegiance to none. "Globalization makes assimilation seem redundant and old-fashioned," he noted, pointing out that, rather than dissolving into the melting pot of their host nations, immigrants are increasingly maintaining their own cultural identity. Jets and nets make this possible. "Groups of people are self-contained, going back and forth between their countries, exploiting sophisticated networks and using instant communication on phones and the Internet." The result, Parry says, is "reverse colonization," in which the developing world's teeming masses conquer Western nations, as surely as the Goths sacked Rome.

It's easy to pigeonhole Parry as an isolationist – and, indeed, much of the public response to his speech came from anti-immigration wackos who said, "We knew it all along." But he has plenty of forward-thinking company in these ideas. According to a loose school of "fourth-generation warfare" theorists, connected, globe-trotting terrorists are a bigger threat to the world order than hostile nations are. The technological drivers of globalization have enabled stateless barbarians to seize the initiative. You can't keep them out by blocking the border, and the harder you smash the failed states that nurture them, the more they thrive. At the first sign of weakness, these new-wave Vandals will log on to urge their diasporic compatriots to attack you on your own soil. Failing that, they'll hop on the next flight, pick up their baggage, and sidle into Starbucks to download the latest instructions from Abu Ayyub al Masri...

Posted to Terrorism at 12:30 PM | Comments (2)

Tamar Jacoby: the Americans can be forced to accept a massive illegal alien amnesty

Tamar Jacoby is back with more blather in support of massive immigration, this version being called "Amnesty Is Not a Four-Letter Word: Voters don't like amnesty, but they'll swallow some form of it to fix immigration." No, really, that last part is the real subtitle.

She discusses various misleading and/or push polls and concludes that the Americans will accept a massive illegal alien amnesty just because they want to fix immigration so urgently. The polls she mentions - without dates - include "Gallup Poll, Washington Post/ABC News, Time, NBC News/Wall Street Journal, CNN and the Republican National Committee". At the last link, I determined that the poll question was so misleading it was specifically designed to mislead. Looking in to the other polls is left as an exercise.

And, what she fails to discuss is what happens after the "reform" turns out to make the situation even worse than before. She doesn't address whether, for instance, people like Jacoby will still have careers after the Americans realize that they were hoodwinked by corrupt forces whose only interest is the bottom line and not what's best for the country.

This is the way the Manhattan Institute and the National Immigration Forum put the question in a poll released this week: "Which would you prefer: Congress does nothing about immigration reform this year, or Congress passes an immigration reform bill that provides for increased border security and tougher enforcement but also contains things you do not like, such as amnesty for current illegal immigrants?"

Even bright grade schoolers could recognize that that's a false choice. If they wanted to be honest, they could have presented a third choice:

"Or, would you prefer that your representatives simply enforce the current laws across the board?"

That would probably receive 70% or 80% approval. Perhaps they could even ask this:

"Does the fact that corrupt politicians refuse to enforce the current laws give you any hope that they would enforce the new laws?"

Her entire article is based not only on questionable polls, but on the questionable concept that voters can be forced to accept something that is clearly not in their best interests.

Posted to Immigration at 02:37 PM | Comments (4)

DHS spent $34 billion like drunken bureaucrats

From this:

The Homeland Security Department spent $34 billion in its first two years on private contracts that were poorly managed or included significant waste or abuse, a congressional report concluded Thursday.

Faulty airport screening machines, unused mobile homes for hurricane victims and lavish employee office space — complete with seven kitchens, a gym and fancy artwork — were among 32 contracts on which Homeland Security overspent, the report found...

Posted to Politics at 12:29 PM | Comments (1)

Alberto Gonzales to promote Bush/Fox/Kennedy amnesty scheme Monday July 31, 2006

All the cool kids will no doubt be discussing Monday's ground breaking press conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico where Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez will be speaking regarding "comprehensive" immigration "reform".

No doubt underlings are busy copying and pasting bits of his speech from the speech Bush has been giving for the past few years.

Posted to Immigration at 10:24 AM | Comments (0)

"Comprehensivly Wrong" (reply to WSJ open borders letter)

In June, 41 prominent conservatives released an open letter calling for "enforcement first". A couple weeks ago, 33 "conservatives" published a reply in the WSJ. Now, here's the response:

...Unfortunately, the letter's principal argument rests on the false premise that the Senate bill strengthens enforcement. According to University of Missouri law professor Kris W. Kobach, former attorney general John Ashcroft's chief advisor on immigration law from 2001–03, the Senate bill would actually weaken the War on Terror...

...as the signers of the counter-letter well know, American national identity has been under assault for decades from an anti-assimilation agenda that includes bilingual ballots, bilingual education, group preferences for new immigrants, and dual-allegiance citizenship (e.g., a naturalized U.S. citizen was just elected to the Mexican Congress last week, for the first time) [????]. A truly "comprehensive" approach would fight to address these anti-assimilation measures - here and now - before endorsing a Senate bill that vastly increases immigration. To their credit, some of the signers of the counter-letter have fought for (not just talked about) assimilation (Clint Bolick, Linda Chavez), but many continue to prevaricate, and pander to the aptly named National Council of The Race ("La Raza")...

...The counter-letter touts the old Bracero program as a successful model for limiting illegal immigration. But, as U.C. Davis professor Phil Martin testified before the House on July 19, during the 22 year (1942–1964) Bracero program "some 4.6 million Mexicans were legally admitted, but over 5.3 million were apprehended demonstrating that even a large guest worker program can be accompanied by larger illegal migration." Thus, the counter-letter fails to note that illegal immigration actually increased during the Bracero program.

Surprisingly, the counter-letter begins by posing the question: "What side of history do conservatives want to be on?" We are told that the economy "demands" and "history teaches" that "the only way to control immigration" is a "comprehensive solution" (the Senate approach). Thus, the philosophical foundation of the counter-letter rests on the premise that there is an impersonal force called "history" to which Americans must submit and, apparently, scurry to get on the "right side" of. This represents a quasi-Marxist (and fatalist) mindset rather than a conservative (or liberal) one. How did the one or two Straussians, who signed the counter-letter, miss this historicist cant?

...No less surprisingly, the Wall Street Journal, in the same editorial that promotes the counter-letter, argues that the philosophy of "open immigration" and "flexible labor markets" is "at a fundamental level" a "matter of freedom and human dignity." Thus, the Wall Street Journal states: "These migrants are freely contracting for their labor, which is a basic human right."

Well, there you have it. An influential voice in the conservative movement believes, apparently in all sincerity, that illegal immigrants have "a basic human right" to work in the United States, contrary to the laws and, hence, the wishes of the American people. So much for "government by consent of the governed." Apparently, as far as the Journal is concerned, a "flexible labor market" trumps democratic self-government. The signers of the counter-letter should come clean and tell us whether they agree. This is an issue conservatives should clarify now, before passing any immigration legislation or heading into the elections of 2006 and 2008. Do we stand for American self-government or not?

Posted to Immigration at 04:32 AM | Comments (1)

"California now resembles Mexico"

Here's a post just for my "liberal", "conservative", and lunatic libertarian illegal immigration apologist and supporter readers! Please consider this fun quote:

"We're in a state [Kentucky] where there's nothing but Americans. The police control the streets. It's clean, no gangs. California now resembles Mexico - everyone thinks like in Mexico. California's broken."

Oh, by the way, the speaker is a former illegal alien who moved from Los Angeles to KY:

They went to night school to learn English because few people in Lexington speak Spanish... [the same person says] "at the school there are just people who speak English. It's helped my children a lot."

The quotes are from the Los Angeles Times article "6 + 4 = 1 Tenuous Existence", which tells the tale of several sisters, one of whom stayed in Los Angeles and the rest who left. Much more could be said about the article, such as what they're trying to get at and whether it's to a tiny extent an indictment of the LAT's outright support for massive illegal immigration.

Some comments on this article are here; at the DailyDross, the response is a bit mixed, with some rational posts and a couple noisemakers race-baiting. A few others accuse the Los Angeles Times of doing Rove's work for him: "Articles like this are designed to inflame. They're using the same playbook they used for the Welfare Queen and Johnny Can't Read panics." That's refering to the Los Angeles Times.

And, here's a discussion question just for my "liberal", "conservative", and lunatic libertarian illegal immigration apologist and supporter readers:

How much has the family featured in the article cost the U.S. over the years, and who's benefited from their presence in the U.S.?

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

Chertoff promotes "Guest" Worker Program at House meeting

Everyone knows he's just a lackey saying what he's told to say, but just for completeness' sake, DHS head Michael Chertoff testified before a House committee yesterday:

...Chertoff noted that other alternatives [to the Senate amnesty scheme] - such as jailing 10 percent of illegal immigrants already in the country - could cost up to $10 billion a year.

"The round 'em up and detain 'em method is astronomically expensive," Chertoff said. Comparatively, the worker program, "while not cheap and absolutely requires some time to build and plan and deploy, is ultimately successful if we make sure we continue to enforce the law."

Of course, Chertoff is only selectively enforcing the law right now, so the last bit is highly misleading. And, that "10%" would be a constantly replenished figure that would actually consist of fewer and fewer people as almost all are sent home and most prospective illegal aliens realize that coming here is a losing proposition.

And, there's the issue that trying to jail even a small number of the illegal aliens here now would result in massive civil disturbances; in other words, George Bush has put the U.S. at tremendous risk.

And, from this:

Though Chertoff stopped short of endorsing a new immigration proposal outlined this week by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, he did offer support for a key part of her plan: turning aspects of the guest worker program over to private employment agencies. The private sector, he said, can be more efficient than government at collecting applicants' data, fingerprints, health information and other records.

Last August, George Bush formed the "Americans for Border and Economic Security" which was fronted by Ed Gillespie and Dick Armey. They were trying to raise $3 million from corporations in order to spread pro-"guest" worker propaganda. That exact plan might not have taken off, but Gillespie and Armey are still promoting massive immigration. By getting the private sector involved, Bush might be trying to give (another set of) businesses an incentive to open their wallets and begin spreading lies.

But Chertoff warned Congress that it would take some time for the government to implement any temporary worker program or plan to legalize millions of illegal immigrants.

"I don't think we could open for business the day after Congress passed it," he told reporters after the hearing. "We would need months."

Rep. John Carter, R-Texas, argued that the government is far from ready to handle any increased workload caused by a sweeping guest worker program. "I personally think none of those areas are even close to ready," he said...

Of course, in those months between it being passed and it being implemented, hundreds of thousands (or more) of illegal aliens could come here to take advantage of the scheme. In that time, they'd get all their fake paperwork together showing they've been working here for years.

And, of course, once it's implemented we'd see that wonderful Bush administration technical competence we saw during Katrina, in the flu vaccine shortage, in Iraq, and pretty much in everything else they've tried.

From 10/05: Chertoff promotes "Temporary Worker Program" at Senate meeting

If you too think The Skull is worthy of nothing more than ridicule, see: "Michael Chertoff apologizes for latest Rex-related deaths".

Posted to Immigration at 06:32 AM | Comments (3)

The Senate amnesty: an "Administrative and National Security Nightmare"

Yesterday the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims held a hearing entitled "Whether Attempted Implementation of the Senate Immigration Bill Will Result in an Administrative and National Security Nightmare."

Clearly they have an agenda, but they're also right. One of those testifying was Michael Cutler, a former INS agent. Full text at the link; a segment:

there are senators and others who insist on pushing forward to implement a guest worker amnesty program that would be utterly disastrous for national security... if this program were enacted, these millions of illegal aliens would be able to go to an immigration office, assume any identity they found convenient and receive official identity documents from our government. It would be a simple matter for a terrorist or criminal, to walk into such an office, provide a false name to the over-worked bureaucrat at USCIS who will probably be given only a minute or two at most to interview each applicant. The terrorist would then receive a guest-worker identity document in that new identity that would permit him to circumvent the various terrorist watch lists or so called, "No fly" lists and thereby embed himself in our country and gain access to what are supposed to be secure venues...

Another person testifying was Michael Maxwell, the former head of the USCIS' internal affairs division:

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) still isn't ready to handle a massive guest-worker program, even though President Bush and the Senate are pushing for one to be part of any immigration-enforcement bill, a former agency official will tell lawmakers today.

"An administrative and national-security nightmare already exists at USCIS," Michael Maxwell, who until this year ran the agency's internal affairs division, will testify, according to a copy of his prepared statement obtained by The Washington Times. "Implementation of the Senate bill would codify the nightmare and ensure that the criminals, terrorists and foreign intelligence operatives who have already gamed our immigration system are issued legal immigration documents and allowed to stay permanently..."

Posted to Immigration at 02:10 AM | Comments (1)

Jill Capuzzo/NYT: corruption, illegal activity are good for Riverside, New Jersey

Jill Capuzzo of the New York Times offers a ludicrously transparent article in support of illegal immigration: "Town Battling Illegal Immigration Is Emptier Now".

Don't you feel sad and all just by reading the headline? It continues. The lesson the NYT wants you to learn is that the best way for Riverside NJ to prosper is just to give a wink and a nod to illegal immigration. If they don't, cue the tumbleweeds.

The first paragraph calls up images of a ghost town as we learn that the streets are empty because the town has passed an ordinance that - whether ultimately proved constitutional or not - only seeks to reinforce federal laws against hiring or providing shelter to illegal aliens. In other words, unlike the New York Times those who actually live in the town want to help stop illegal activity there.

In the second paragraph, we're informed that one resident compared [a "heated" town meeting] to The Jerry Springer Show. That's certainly an entertaining comment, but one wonders whether it being placed there was intended to influence the reader in any way.

Then, in the third paragraph, we get the thoughts of a local merchant (many or most of whose customers are no doubt illegal aliens), and that person is given a few more paragraphs to expound, including this:

Ms. Martiniano said that immigrants here were scared in the aftermath of the vote, and that those who have been most vocal against immigrants "are not working and have nothing better to do."

Damn those lazy Americans! Of course, many of those might actually be working, and those that aren't might be patriotic Americans who are retired and who - unlike the NYT - oppose corruption and illegal activity. And, since the ordinance deals with illegal aliens, the use of "immigrants" is highly questionable.

After that, we get this interesting bit:

Ingrid Reinhold said that the new ordinance smacked of discrimination. She and her husband, Gustav, own three businesses along Scott Street: a music store that features mostly Latin music, a Brazilian cafe that is undergoing renovations, and a bustling Western Union office, where many of the immigrants can stay in contact with relatives back home...

Of course, many or most of those "immigrants" are actually illegal aliens. And, those at the Western Union office are almost certainly "staying in touch" by sending money home, a multi-billion dollar "industry".

In the real world, remittances encourage political corruption both in the U.S. and in receiving countries. In the NYT's world, wire transfer offices are just comfy Internet cafes.

Then, we're informed that Riverside is a city of immigrants.

Then, it's implied that those opposed to illegal immigration are drunks:

...Its new distinction, recognized at one point by the Guinness Book of World Records, was having the most bars and liquor licenses in a mile-square town... Many of those bars remain, and in some of them there is talk about what needs to be done to slow the tide of immigration...

I don't know exactly why they do, but the New York Times supports illegal activity and corruption.

Posted to Immigration at 09:14 PM | Comments (5)

Is Michelle Nichols of Reuters a liar?

[7/28/06 UPDATE: Reuters has corrected the article, see below.]

Michelle Nichols of Reuters offers a report about yesterday's Minuteman rally and book launch entitled "Immigration protesters scuffle in New York". As predicted, the MSM coverage of this event did not provide any details on the protesters, and it was biased in another way as well:

Immigration activists clashed at the site of the World Trade Center on Wednesday when an anti-illegal immigration group called for secure borders to avoid a repeat of the September 11 attacks and counterprotesters yelled "racists go home."

Members of the Minuteman Project, which patrols the U.S.-Mexican border for illegal immigrants, pushed and shoved members of an immigrant rights group that showed up at the event.

Jim Gilchrist and Jerome Corsi, authors of "Minutemen: The Battle to Secure America's Borders," were whisked away when some immigrant rights supporters broke through a police barrier and scuffled with Minutemen supporters...

If you're familiar with the coverage from the MSM - and especially Reuters and the AP - you've probably already assumed that Michelle Nichols is lying in the second paragraph. And, her third paragraph even implies that she's not telling the whole truth.

Then, there's this slightly less biased report from Samantha Henry of the Herald News:

As the rally continued, several pro-immigrant supporters broke away from their police-designated pen across the street and surrounded the Minutemen, who numbered about 30. Several shouting matches ensued.

And, in this audio interview, Gilchrist says that Michelle Nichols is indeed a liar. He also says that the pro-illegal immigration forces infiltrated their group with four protesters, who would occasionaly break away and rush the mike. And, he says his wife was pushed by protesters.

If Reuters were concerned with their reputation - instead of apparently being more concerned with pushing either a far-left or pro-cheap labor agenda - they'd look into whether their reporter is telling the truth or not.

There's some background on Reuters here, and also write to those sources that published this report:

longislandpress.com/index.php?show=contact (longislandpress.com/?cp=162&show=article&a_id=9221)

abcnews.go.com/Reference/story?id=54216 (abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2240196)

editor *at* reuters.com

7/28/06 UPDATE: At this page, Reuters provides an update, saying "Corrects description of scuffle in second paragraph". The other paragraphs appear the same, here's the new second para:

Supporters of the Minuteman Project, which patrols the U.S.-Mexican border for illegal immigrants, and immigrant rights activists, who showed up at the Minuteman event, became involved in a heated argument.

There are photos of the event here (eldiariony.com/galerias/minuteman072706/index.htm) and here: news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/060726/480/ffd6d165bc0241aa9f7174f2395fe7a3 news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/060726/480/cd94dd2dc1c645b0903b3fbd0f475d0b news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/060726/480/57fce14624d846149d975c1260726062 news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/060726/480/48f54511174041838db3c320ad09ec72 news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/060726/480/08ec463a317c4ac2b2e7896631bb5f2a news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/060726/480/057935e972174069baf5b48c725161d0 news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/060726/480/56873f18f72c41bf9b4be6df5d76be77 news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/060726/480/1b999a6c022745cabdacdfb98567831a news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/060726/480/8d3e56eb2a534506aa14aeaea59353d5

Posted to Immigration at 10:40 AM | Comments (1)

Dan Weintraub is wrong on illegal immigration

The SacBee's "CalInsider" is wrong about illegal immigration in so very many ways:

My take is that illegal immigration, in and of itself, is a victimless crime. If people come here to work, which most illegal immigrantsdo, they are going to engage in a voluntary exchange of their labor for someone else's money. They are not stealing, and, as a group, they are helping our economy, even if a few people at the lower end of the wage scale see their wages bid down. Illegal immigrants are also not harming legal immigrants or anyone "in line" to enter the country legally. The number of legal immigrants is set without any reference to the number who enter without documentation.

Some of the ways he's wrong are listed in the post and the comments here (note: that site has twice refused my request to comment there; according to the email I received after the last attempt, "LonewackoDotCom" is "anonymous". I guess that would make "Instapundit" "anonymous" too.)

Anywho, here are some of the other ways he's wrong:

Illegal immigration gives corrupt foreign governments power inside the U.S. The Mexican government meddles in our internal politics in many ways:

- their consuls attend city council meetings from coast to coast, encouraging those cities to accept Mexico's ID card, which is used mainly by illegal aliens

- distributing Spanish-language books with pro-Mexico propaganda to U.S. schoolchildren through agencies like the LAUSD

- working with several "human rights" groups, which then conduct various protests attempting to change our laws

For instance, the Georgia illegal immigration march was organized by a former Mexican Consul, one of the organizers of the Chicago 3/10 march is from Mexico's PRD Party and another serves on an advisory council to the Mexican president.

I'd hardly call giving a foreign country political power inside our country "victimless".

(OTOH, there's this 9/05 post: "CalInsider: Arnold should just say driver's licenses for illegal aliens is a bad idea")

Posted to Immigration at 11:38 PM | Comments (6)

Howard Dean: "George Bush is worse than Kanz'qaep!"

Earlier today, Howard Dean spoke to a group of third-graders from Miss Berry's class at Sequoia Elementary in Berkeley and compared president George Bush to Kanz'qaep. "My past cases of childish name calling have included comparing Katherine Harris to Stalin. Once you do something like that, you can't just compare Bush to even Hitler or Genghis Khan or Pol Pot," Chairman Dean explained. "That would be in effect almost putting him on the same level as someone like Katherine Harris, and we know he's much worse."

Continuing, Gov. Dr. Howard Dean M.D. explained, "That's why I'm now comparing president Bush to Kanz'qaep, the infamous 'Planet Wrecker' from 100,000 light years in the past whose magnetic weapons destroyed an entire solar system in the Andromeda galaxy."

No astronomers that we contacted - even including Dr. Steve Quayle, Dr. Whitley Streiber, Dr. Johnson Jameson, and Dr. John Lear - had ever heard of "Kanz'qaep" or his "magnetic weapons", but Chairman Dean insists that he existed at one point in time in a certain time-space continuum.

Posted to WackyHumor at 11:05 PM | Comments (0)

Mike Pence amnesty "would allow unlimited immigrants"

From this:

The latest proposal in Congress for a "guest"-worker program would allow unlimited immigration of eligible workers during the first three years and allow them and their families to remain here indefinitely.

Offered by two Republicans [Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison], the plan is criticized by proponents of stricter immigration laws. They say the program would tilt the nation's immigration system toward millions of uneducated, unskilled workers...

Under the Pence-Hutchison plan -- a variation on a proposal Mr. Pence floated earlier this summer -- the expansive "guest"-worker program would not begin until the president certified that the border had been secured. Only then would laborers matched with willing employers at an "Ellis Island Center" outside the United States be admitted indefinitely.

...Detractors are skeptical that President Bush would provide an honest assessment of border security and questioned the commitment of Mr. Pence and Mrs. Hutchison to tough immigration laws and stricter borders...

Both John Boehner and - naturally - Bill Frist have expressed hopes for the massive amnesty scheme.

Posted to Immigration at 01:04 PM | Comments (4)

Gilchrist, Corsi to premiere Minuteman book

Jim Gilchrist of the Minuteman Project and co-author Jerome Corsi will be at Ground Zero today to premiere their book "Minutemen: The Battle to Secure America's Borders". As they note, a protest is planned, and the details of that protest are provided here:

iacenter.org/archive-2006/minutemen-nyc072606.htm

As you can expect, it's the usual far-left distortion of the facts (that also ultimately serves those who profit off illegal immigration). The groups involved are:

Theresa Gutierrez, New York May 1st Coalition
Carlos Canales, The Long Island Workplace Project
Berna Ellorin, BAYAN Philippines

As described at the last link, the LIWP has collaborated with Arturo Sarukhan, a Mexican consul.

And, of course, note that their page is hosted at Ramsey Clark's International Action Center. Now, just because it's hosted there doesn't indicate a deep affiliation, but one can assume a certain spiritual kinship between those organizations and one of Saddam Hussein's lawyers.

If the press covers this expect them to gloss over those minor issues.

Posted to Immigration at 10:55 AM | Comments (1)

Think Progress pimps Susan "Medea" Benjamin

Susan "Medea" Benjamin is a very well known, far-left protester who's famous for getting arrested at anti-war and similar rallies, flying to Cuba with her organization Code Pink, and on and on.

Yet, to read this Think Progress post you'd think they'd never heard of her before. Either that, or they're trying to pawn her off as just a normal mainstream Democrat. Come to think of it...

The question now is: who gave her the pass that she used to get in to the event.

Previously: Think Progress, Ezra Klein, AP downplay organizers of illegal immigration marches

Posted to ThePeaceMovement at 10:41 AM | Comments (0)

Legal details on local police being involved in immigration laws

The basics of the law allowing police to be involved in immigration enforcement have been well known, but Judicial Watch has the actual documents:

...According to the documents, the 1996 Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) "authorized the Secretary of Homeland Security to enter into a written agreement to delegate the authority of enforcing federal immigration laws to a state or political sub-division of a state." Through Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), local law enforcement officers can receive immigration enforcement training – called "287(g) cross designation training." The cost for the five-week program is approximately $520 per officer...

The documents note that certain states and localities inquired about the training program, but failed to follow through, including: Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Virginia.

"Some local law enforcement agencies claim they lack the ability to enforce our nation's immigration laws. These documents prove that claim false," said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. "Local communities that want to help enforce immigration laws can do so legally and cost effectively."

For more on Los Angeles' sanctuary law "Special Order 40", see this, this, and this. Here's a relevant excerpt from the 9/11 Commission Staff Report. ICE's fact sheet on this is here: ice.gov/pi/news/factsheets/section287g.htm

Posted to Immigration at 05:45 AM | Comments (0)

"Meet Robert Pastor"

Jerome Corsi continues his series with "Meet Robert Pastor: Father of the North American Union":

...As we are taught in grade school, George Washington is the Father of our nation. If the North American Union comes into existence as the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) asserts, then we all better get prepared for a new hero. Robert Pastor is the person most likely to be proclaimed the father of the North American Union, a designation consistent with his decades-long history of viewing U.S. national interests through the lens of an extreme leftist almost anti-American political philosophy.

Dr. Pastor's early professional career involved a working association with the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS)...

In December 1993, President Bill Clinton nominated Pastor to be U.S. ambassador to Panama. Pastor's nomination was approved by a 16-3 vote in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and his confirmation looked virtually certain. The nomination failed, however, and was withdrawn by the administration in February 1995, after then-Sen. Jesse Helms (R.-N.C.) swore to prevent a Senate vote on Pastor's nomination. Helms, who had vehemently opposed the turn-over of the Panama Canal, placed much of the blame squarely on Pastor, declaring when he opposed Pastor's nomination that Pastor "presided over one of the most disastrous and humiliating periods in the history of U.S. involvement in Latin America." Helms also claimed that Pastor bore responsibility for what Helms saw as "a Carter administration cover-up of alleged involvement by Nicaragua's Sandinista government in arms shipments to leftist rebels in El Salvador."

Dr. Pastor has also co-authored a 1989 book with his long-time friend, Jorge G. Castaneda, who began his career as a member of the Mexican Communist Party...

...In his pressing enthusiasm for realizing the NAU, Robert Pastor argued in a 2004 article in CFR's Foreign Affairs, entitled "North America's Second Decade," that the United States would benefit by giving up U.S. national Sovereignty. "Countries are benefited," he wrote, "when they changed these [national sovereignty] policies, and evidence suggests that North Americans are ready for a new relationship that renders this old definition of sovereignty obsolete."

...Dr. Pastor himself proclaims that the May 2005 CFR task force report on which he was vice chair and principal editor was a "blueprint" for the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP)...

...Critics who argue that the NAU is a "conspiracy theory" are well advised to take a hard look at Robert Pastor. With U.S. policy toward Latin America, Dr. Pastor first approached the issue in writing (for the radical IPS, as we have noted), next as a university professor, and finally as a government official. Had John Kerry won the 2004 presidential election, Robert Pastor most likely would have emerged with a government position from which he could have pursued his NAU agenda. Given the re-election of George Bush, Dr. Pastor has surfaced within the CFR, an influential "think-tank" NGO whose history of impacting U.S. policy would suggest the CFR impact on SPP.gov could easily be more than academic.

More at the link.

Posted to NAU at 03:25 AM | Comments (0)

Three San Diego border hospitals might close [partly because of illegal immigration]

From this:

At least 3 hospitals serving many poor and uninsured people south of I-8 are in danger of financial collapse. Few physician specialists will accept such patients. And the county lacks a system to coordinate their care.

Those are three of 24 serious weaknesses in San Diego County's broken safety net that more than 900,000 Medi-Cal beneficiaries and uninsured residents depend on for medical care, according to a draft of a county-commissioned report released yesterday...

While the article details other reasons, it also doesn't mention who many or most of those "poor people" are: illegal aliens.

Posted to Immigration at 02:29 PM | Comments (1)

Michael Dukakis' lunatic immigration plan

The former governor has thoughts. Here's my reply:

If we raise the minimum wage, that will result in two classes of workers: American citizens lawfully employed at the minimum wage and higher, and illegal aliens illegally employed at the minimum wage and lower.

The difference between now and then is that there will be fewer of the former, and more of the latter.

Millions more illegal aliens will come here and will undercut American wages even further.

The same forces that prevent enforcement of our immigration laws now would simply go to work preventing enforcement of our immigration laws later. They might throw in working against enforcing our minimum wage and safety laws for good measure.

The Dukakis plan is like a fad diet, when everyone knows the only way to lose weight is to eat less and exercise more.

The only way to reduce illegal immigration is to enforce our immigration laws. That's something that Dukakis and the NYT editorial board have shown that they do not support.

Posted to Immigration at 01:18 PM | Comments (3)

Schwarzenegger: Supporting Prop. 187 was an error

This site translates this La Opinion article about an (English-language) interview with California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger:

It was an error to support Proposal 187, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger admitted yesterday during a meeting with the editorial board of La Opinion. The state’s chief executive expressed his positions on immigration, public education, the healthcare crisis, and his vision for California, within the context of his campaign and its engagement of the state's Latin community with a view to his re-election in November.

I have three statements to make:

1. As before, grit your teeth and smile! Arnold is better than the alternative.

2. La Opinion publisher Monica Lozano not only serves on the board of MALDEF, she's a sleazy race baiter (on a local TV show a few years ago, she was asked a leading question by Tony Valdez or another of the local reconquistadores whether opposition to illegal immigration was based on racism and answered "yes" in a definitive manner.)

3. The ball-tightener that Maria uses is working better and better.

Posted to Immigration at 12:36 PM | Comments (4)

Sen. John Cornyn comes out against North American Union, but...

In the past I've had some bad things to say about Senator John Cornyn, and he is the sponsor of one of the Senate's amnesty schemes. While he's now come out against the NAU, pay especial attention to the last paragraph of this snippet:

Responding to information from WorldNetDaily, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, has taken steps to ensure the Senate will not act on a bill that would further a plan to create a European Union-style alliance in North America.

...Yesterday, Cornyn's office notified WND the senator had been assured by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that no action will be taken on Senate bill 3622 in the 109th Congress. If the Senate Foreign Relations Committee does not act, the bill will expire at the end of the term in January...

The spokesman clarified Cornyn "is adamantly opposed to any 'North American Union' being formed like the EU has been formed in Europe."

Cornyn's office had no explanation, however, for why the legislation was introduced, except to note the senator "continues to believe that if Mexico would adopt free market principles, it would be in the best interest of the United States."

...WND showed Cornyn's office Friday that a content analysis of the bill demonstrated its similarity to some of Pastor's writings. The correlation was so strong, WND told the senator's staff, a conclusion could be reliably drawn that the person drafting and proposing the legislation drew from Pastor's writings and intended to advance his political agenda to create a "North American Union."

Posted to NAU at 11:51 AM | Comments (2)

John McCain supports illegal immigration even more strongly than Bloomberg

The NYPost reports that (putatively U.S.) Senator John McCain appeared at a New York Yacht Club gala and stated:

"What are we going to do with 11 million people? ...You going to send 'em all back? Mayor Bloomberg testified at a hearing last week that the economy of New York City would collapse [without illegal immigrants]. I would argue the economy of America would collapse."

Coming soon: George Bush will state that the world economy would collapse without illegal aliens.

Posted to Immigration at 11:07 AM | Comments (4)

Flex Your Power, California!

I've compiled a video containing energy saving tips to help citizens and residents avoid California's energy crunch. I compiled these tips from FYPower.org, other California government web sites, and other web sites. Follow these tips to make sure you're saving energy. Any state client can follow these tips. State energy providers and other providers can promulgate these tips to help their target populations conserve energy. (Note: none of these tips are endorsed by any governmental officials or agencies and are presented as personal opinion only. Consult with your physician, care giver, primary care provider, lawyer, accountant, and other professionals before basing any decisions on these tips.)

Posted to WackyHumor at 10:33 AM | Comments (2)

Juliana Barbassa/AP promotes anti-American DREAM Act

Juliana Barbassa of the Associated Press offers a PIIPP entitled "Illegal immigrants find room at colleges":

SAN FRANCISCO – When he started high school, Matias Bernal's English was so limited he stumbled over the words for numbers and colors.

Four years later, he was on the wait list at Princeton.

The article goes on to promote the DREAM Act, an anti-American bill that would take discounted college educations away from U.S. citizens and give them to illegal aliens. There have been literally dozens of highly similar articles promoting that bill, and almost all of them - including this current article - have a highly similar structure.

And, all of them are little more than an advertisement for that bill; the current article has 28 paragraphs with just 2 paragraphs dedicated to just one of the downsides of the bill. Those two paragraphs are nestled between heartwarming tales of struggling "immigrants" and the news that state legislators have recently passed laws "cracking down on foreigners".

Clearly, the AP has little interest in reporting the news or doing in-depth analysis. Since the AP itself is a lost cause, I'd suggest writing to a few of the papers that printed this propaganda with your thoughts:

dsimon *at* mercurynews.com
reader.advocate *at* sltrib.com
jfutchpt *at* aol.com

Posted to Immigration_piipps at 03:41 AM | Comments (2)

John Rosenow, Capital Times pimp cheap labor from Mexico

The Capital Times has printed a nice article from dairy farmer John Rosenow. The article has a title that makes me happy. It's called "We're obliged to know the hopes of our employees from Mexico":

My wife, Nettie, and I could not believe what we were seeing. Roberto, our favorite Mexican employee for four years, had sent the money he made back to Mexico to build a bakery. We had no idea he had done that.

That was nice of him. John talks about a program called "Puentes/Bridges" (that's what a "puente" is in Spanish!)

It was the brainchild of Shaun Duvall, a high school Spanish teacher, and Carl Duley, a UW-Extension agent, from Alma. They saw a new phenomenon in Buffalo County of Mexicans working on dairy farms and only speaking Spanish. Puentes was formed to teach us farmers Spanish and to educate us about the culture of our new work force by taking us to Mexico. The program also evolved to include visits to the villages where our workers' families lived.

John goes on to describe how he takes advantage of desperate poor people employs those wonderful Mexicans:

I called a friend who was employing Mexicans. He showed me where to locate a man to work for us. His name was Manuel. He worked 54 days in a row because he did not want a day off. I thought it was too good to be true. He worked like we did. Soon I hired more Mexican workers, and my good American workers began to once again have regular hours and time for vacations.

Why did I suddenly hear "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah, Zip-A-Dee-Day"? Obviously, comparing cheap third world labor that has few options to slavery is not accurate, but comparing the mindset of today's "liberals" who seek to profit from a bad situation to past mindsets is certainly appropriate. There are more comments on this article here.

Rosenow's article is apparently part of a push by Madison's Capital Times; here's columnist Margaret Krome sounding for all the world like a cheap labor pimp: "Sharing immigrants' lives promotes understanding":

Wisconsin has always grown with the vision and hard work of its immigrants. Usually, there is resistance and fear when new cultures enter the state.

Of course, some of those whose only interest is the bottom line are able to disguise their real agenda beneath a heaping load of "liberalism", white guilt, and a desire to be "tolerant".

In previous CT news, here's more on Joel McNally. And, here's my first impression of that newspaper.

Posted to Immigration at 11:20 PM | Comments (3)

Hugh Hewitt controls horizontal, vertical

In some ways, Hugh Hewitt is the person that I wish I was. He is a true renaissance man: an author, a radio host, an attorney, a public speaker, a blogger, a virulent BushBot, and now the editor of Townhall.com. He's reportedly able to update his blog... while doing his radio show and in between taking sips of KoolAid!

Of course, now that Townhall has a brand new look, they've deleted the blog I once had there. It only had a few entries, so it's not that big of loss. I'm currently trying to sign up for a new blog, but I keep getting "The page you requested cannot be found."

But, assuming I do get a new blog there, how many posts do you think it will be before the BushBot patrols come by and shut it down? I'm betting on three, four at the most.

Posted to Bloggage at 09:04 PM | Comments (1)

Video from National Council of the Race convention

I haven't watched this yet, but it's video from the NCLR convention and it's titled "CORPORATIONS + LA RAZA = OPEN BORDERS?"

Posted to Immigration at 02:26 PM | Comments (1)

Myth Debunked: Latin Conservative Tidal Wave Is Not Coming

Heather MacDonald offers this, which is sure to get the usual suspects and various Lysenkoists up in arms:

The myth of the redemptive Hispanic is finally cracking. For years, conservative open-borders advocates have touted Hispanic “family values” as a prime reason to increase immigration. Hispanic immigrants, these conservatives say, will save America from itself. At a time when Anglo and black families are disintegrating, when society is becoming increasingly atomized and alienated, Hispanics will bring the traditional values that the country so desperately needs. In a classic iteration of the theme, Larry Kudlow wrote on NRO last May that Hispanic immigrants would "become a much-needed churchgoing blue-collar middle class . . . that is crucial to a healthy America."

The truth is now supplanting the fiction. Last Friday, the New York Times ran an editorial, "Young Latinas and a Cry for Help," that laid out the real state of the Hispanic family. A quarter of all Latinas are mothers by the age of 20, few of them married, reported the Times. This out-of-wedlock teen-birth rate is three times that of white teens, and significantly more than that of blacks as well. The Hispanic dropout rate is also the highest in the country — the Manhattan Institute’s Jay Greene puts it at 47 percent...

Posted to Immigration at 01:24 PM | Comments (1)

John Fund's Borderline Insanity

WSJ columnist John Fund offers a heaping load of open borders propaganda in a column appropriately named "Borderline Insanity". The upside to his screed is that many people will realize it for what it is, and that will further reduce his and the WSJ's credibility.

He sets out to show that "enforcement-only" won't work, a frequent theme from those who support massive immigration. Of course, he only mentions employer sanctions once, and that's in a quote from an unnamed BP agent. In a way he's right: simply enforcing the border won't work. We need to enforce immigration laws at the workplace. However, his column is misleading by almost completely focusing on the border instead of, for instance, looking into why workplace enforcement has dropped sharply and whether that has anything to do with massive illegal immigration.

And, he compares the "failure" to stop drug smuggling with the "failure" to stop immigrant smuggling. The huge differences between the two are described here.

As for his talking points:

Right now, with Border Patrol agents trying to apprehend potential busboys and gardeners along with terrorists and gang members, the problem is too big for any law enforcement agency in a democratic society to tackle.

This is dramatically similar to drivel from an earlier WSJ editorial, David Brooks, and Tamar Jacoby. With all the money available to promoters of massive immigration, you'd think they could hire someone to come up with new lines.

Then:

Border Patrol agents I spoke with were reluctant to be quoted on the record, but all agreed that a comprehensive solution that combines more and better border enforcement with a well-designed guest-worker program is necessary if real progress is going to be made. "We need to enforce employer sanctions at the same time we give employers a legal path to fill the jobs they must have workers for," one agent told me. A retired agent points to the Bracero ("strong arms" in Spanish) guest-worker visa program, which until 1964 brought millions of Mexican workers north to work in the agriculture, construction and service industries.

I'm going to guess that he spoke with BP supervisors who are willing to spout the Bush line, nothing more. After rephrasing the busboys line, he starts whistling:

Support is building for a rational middle ground on immigration proposed by Rep. Mike Pence, chairman of the House Republican Study Committee.

Support for that is building in the same sense that support is building for "comprehensive" "reform": only within the ranks of the out of touch, pro-open borders elites.

Posted to Immigration at 11:10 AM | Comments (6)

Illegal aliens arrested at Barksdale Air Force Base

Twenty five illegal aliens were arrested working at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. They were working in construction and landscaping, and this report from China's People's Daily Online has no word on what country they were from.

The Communist China newspaper also reports:

The Barksdale Air Force Base, home for the Air Force's 2nd Bomb Wing, also provides global combat capability and trains all B-52 combat crews.

Always remember: George Bush is keeping the U.S. homeland safe, and our enemies are not paying attention to any weaknesses we might have.

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

Did Bob Mulholland proxies drive Maria Shriver out of Watsonville?

Maria Shriver appeared at a fair in Watsonville, CA on Friday to promote California's capacious welfare state. After about an hour of pressing the flesh, she was shouted down by about a dozen Brown Berets. She shortly left the event on the advice of her security contingent, with the mayor following her to the airport to apologize for the welcome.

Bob Mulholland - senior strategist for Phil Angelides, Arnold Schwarzenegger's opponent - has no comment. Another Angelides helper - Steve Maviglio - decried the incident, calling it "tragic and totally inappropriate." The latter is on loan from Fabian Nunez' office.

From this:

The incident was strikingly similar to a notorious event during the 2003 recall. Then a group of labor protesters, orchestrated by then state Democratic Party honcho Bob Mulholland, disrupted and shut down Shriver's very first campaign event on behalf of her husband, now Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

There's absolutely no evidence that Mulholland or anyone else from the Angelides campaign is involved in this. However, based on the oppressive atmosphere of sleaze surrounding the California Democratic Party and their campaigns that is certainly something worth looking into.

UPDATE: This article informs us that the BBs are not contrite, that they say the protest was reasonable, and that Councilman Manuel Bersamin is an "ally" of the BBs:

Work prevented [Bersamin] from attending Friday's event. But he said maybe Shriver will carry a message back to her husband about the anger among young Latinos in Watsonville, and that will prompt some thinking about cuts to college outreach programs, to university funding, to the crisis in health care among the poor.

Alternatively, maybe she'll realize that having an open borders policy is only going to make the situation worse and end up bankrupting the state. Then, she'll talk to her uncle-in-law about that. Youbetcha.

Posted to California at 09:44 PM | Comments (0)

More elite vs. popular opinion on massive immigration

There's more on the titular subject in From Citizen to Subject — The Rule of Experts and the Rise of Transnational Anti-Democrats and also in "Immigration and Usurpation: Elites, Power, and the People's Will".

Previously: Elite vs. popular opinion on massive immigration: an analysis

Posted to Immigration at 04:27 PM | Comments (0)

Molly Hennessy-Fiske/LAT promotes corruption in Arkansas; Huckabee

Molly Hennessy-Fiske of the Los Angeles Times offers a fine slice of pro-illegal immigration propaganda called "Arkansas Immigration Raid Reaches Beyond Workers". It "reports" on the aftermath of the raid at the Petit Jean Poultry plant in Arkadelphia, Arkansas a year ago. We're informed that "[i]nstead of feeling reassured that immigration laws were being enforced, many felt that their community had been disrupted":

The Petit Jean workers had come to be more than low-wage poultry processors. They were church friends, classmates and teammates in the local softball league. And so some residents responded to the raid by helping workers fight deportation, driving them to court and writing to lawmakers for help. Others donated money, food and clothing to the families of workers detained or sent back to Mexico.

While there may have indeed been "many" who donated money, the only ones named in the article are:

- Mike Huckabee (governor of Arkansas)
- Blanche Lincoln (Democratic Senator)
- "prominent Arkadelphia citizens"
- Troy Tucker ("the county sheriff at the time of the raid")
- Henry Morgan (county prosecutor)
- Dr. Wesley Kluck ("a pediatrician, and his wife, Debbie"; he's a member of the Ark. Chamber of Commerce. The LAT also mentions that he's a school chum of Huck and wrote to him about the raids.)
- a 23-year-old community college student (who helped an illegal alien pay a smuggler)
- Pentecostal Pastor Bill O'Connell
- Jon Capps (a landlord who says of the illegal aliens: "I want them here... They're good renters.")

The college student is probably just a useful idiot, but as for the rest one wonders whether something else is going on. Could they be profiting directly or indirectly from illegal immigration? Should the Los Angeles Times' Molly Hennessy-Fiske have asked? Could the members of the local elite be supporting one another? Are transcribing sob stories the best reporting job that the LAT can muster?

As for Huckabee, he was apparently asked a question by the LAT:

"Our first priority should be to secure our borders," Huckabee said in an e-mail to The Times. "I'm less threatened by people who cross the line to make beds, pick tomatoes or pluck chickens" than by potential terrorists crossing the border.

This is similar to things that "Huck" has said before, and the follow-up questions remain the same. Clearly, the LAT should have asked him whether he also supports the corruption associated with illegal immigration and the highly negative impact it has on our political system. (One of the three people the LAT finds opposed to illegal immigration is right where Huck is wrong: "We are a nation of laws, and you cannot ignore those basic laws.")

If the LAT wants to try some real reporting, here's a whole site dedicated to Huckabee's various scandals. I was unable to find a list of contributions he's received, but surely the Los Angeles Times could look into that. Maybe they could talk to this guy; maybe they could look into the connections between Huckabee, Tyson Foods, and LULAC. If someone continually excuses illegal activity and corruption, real newspapers should look into whether that person is corrupt.

In light of the LAT story about the landscaper who was also an immigration activist (the latter not disclosed), one wonders exactly what the Los Angeles Times is ignoring in order to promote their agenda.

When the LAT editorializes in support of changing our immigration laws, can we trust that they would support enforcement of the new laws? If someone's bottom line is affected, wouldn't they simply publish propaganda pieces like this? Is assuming that the LAT is in any way not simply a propaganda source giving them too much credit?

Write readers.rep *at* latimes.com with your thoughts.

ADDENDUM: While the LAT's problem is much bigger than MHF, note that she started a blog in early 2004 at clipfile.org/mexico:

My name is Molly Hennessy-Fiske. I am an American reporter. On February 21, I travel to Mexico for six weeks with the Pew Fellowship program. I want to speak with people and write about immigration to the United States. I write for a number of publications, including The News & Observer newspaper in North Carolina.

At the page clipfile.org/mexico/archives/week_2004_08_15.php, she refers to the comments attached to a story she wrote as "some disturbing reader responses". While certainly rough-edged, the comments she refers to would only be disturbing to someone who supports illegal immigration.

UPDATE: On a trivial note, the (apparently unaffiliated) "Mike Huckabee For President 2008" blog did not approve the comment I left there informing it that I too had written about Huck's article ("MSM: Huckabee Right on Illegal Immigration"). I guess the news that its idol is completely corrupt was too much for it to bear simply approving my comment.

Posted to Immigration at 01:21 PM | Comments (4)

Illegal alien water stations in Anza Borrego State Park?

This site took a trip along Highway S2 in Anza Borrego State Park near San Diego, and spotted several blue drums containing what 1 gallon water jugs. Did the state of California put those out, or did they allow a "human rights" organization to put them on state land?

Posted to Immigration at 07:24 PM | Comments (3)

Bush "cognizant" of border terrorism risk, but won't do anything about it

Les Kinsolving asked Tony Snow about border security:

"The president has made his views on border security well-known... and my question: Would the president make border security a higher priority if he were convinced it was being used as an entry point by terrorists like those who are part of Hezbollah and al-Qaida?"

Snow responded:

"Think of it this way. The president committed as much money to the borders already as the House of Representatives was planning on doing in five years. So, he was serious before – he's perfectly cognizant of the possibility there may be terrorists crossing over. We have intelligence assets deployed in the area, and so he's not going to be anymore concerned because he's already very concerned about it."

Now, let's look at the facts. Karl Rove admits that 6 million illegal aliens have entered on Bush's watch. And, not only has the Bush administration almost completely refused to enforce immigration laws in the workplace, they admit it. And, Bush has almost come right out and blackmailed the U.S., saying that he'll only enforce the borders after he gets a guest worker plan.

I guess there are different levels of being concerned. If he were really concerned, he would do what's necessary to reduce the risk. The fact is, he has not. He has clearly made the decision that keeping the cheap labor flowing is more important than the security of the U.S.

Posted to Immigration_terror at 09:25 AM | Comments (5)

"North American Union Is No Conspiracy [Theory]"

John Hawkins at RightWingNews deserves credit for not supporting Bush as strongly as others did, often in a juvenile (BlogsForBush), sleazy (RedState) or underhanded (Insty) manner. However, he does have the major failing that he thinks the North American Union is simply tinfoil talk.

Jerome Corsi responds to him in great depth here. If you do the necessary research I think you'll see that Corsi is right.

Posted to NAU at 05:37 AM | Comments (1)

Biased San Jose State University poll delivers undesired result

A Survey and Policy Research Institute at San Jose State University immigration poll was discussed here in April. The problems with the question they asked was discussed at the link, and the latest version of the poll asks the same questionable question:

In your opinion, should undocumented or illegal immigrants living or working here be allowed to become legal residents of California?

However, the results of the latest version are bit more anti-amnesty, which - based on the statements they made after releasing the last version - is probably not the direction that those perpetrating the poll want:

In March, 59% answered yes, and 32% said no.

This time, the yes vote is 53%, and no has risen to 34%.

If they used the correct terminology - and maybe included a neutral summary of the issue - no doubt the yes vote would be much lower.

Posted to Immigration at 01:20 AM | Comments (2)

Al Walentis/Reading Eagle taken to task

Al Walentis is the editor of the Reading Eagle (Pennsylvania). And, he's got a blog where he tries his best to act just like a big city supporter of illegal immigration. A sample:

the non-partisan Congressional Research Service issued a report yesterday concluding that Hazleton's ordinance creates immigration rules independent of federal law and thus is vulnerable to legal challenge, especially if it is proven that in denying housing or a job to an immigrant it has discriminated on the basis of national origin rather than citizenship.

That's all he says about that issue, but there is something rather interesting he left out:

Hazleton City solicitor Chris Slusser argued that the report, which was written on June 29, appears to have been written before the ordinance was finalized, and that it comments on penalizing illegal aliens themselves, which the measure does not propose.

I don't include every word of every article I quote, but that is a rather interesting thing to leave out.

On a general Walentis note, an anonymous commentator at the first link has thankfully done my work for me:

...what's this I hear about the poverty rate skyrocketing in Hazelton while annual crime indices previously considered to be in the stratosphere for this quiet lil' Luzerne County town now quite sadly "the norm?" What did you say about Hazelton increasing in population from 20,000 to 33,000 people in a little over 4 years? You say nearly all of those new Hazletonians are undocumented illegal immigrants flooding from Allentown and New York City? Did you say the exponential increase in murder, property crime, assaults and drug crime has been contemporaneous with the influx of illegal immigration? Oh wait, you didn't mention any of that stuff, sorry, Al. My mistake. I wouldn't want to confuse you with an honest person...

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

Ed Rendell: America's anti-American governor

This jaw-droppingly idiotic recent quote from Pennsylvania's governor Ed Rendell shows that he is not qualified to be anything above dogcatcher:

The only ones I want to hear speaking up and complaining about immigration are the Native Americans who we screwed.

Honestly, I can't believe that someone who would make such an idiotic, anti-American comment is a governor. I am so stunned to hear a major elected official - even after adjusting for the fact that he's a Democrat - spew extremist reconquista talking points that I'm just going to link to this: "Ed Rendell Denounces America's Existence on Behalf of Illegal Aliens".

Hazleton mayor Lou Barletta has responded to that and other recent Rendell quotes:

"As a former mayor of Philadelphia, Governor Rendell should understand the desire to protect the legal citizens of a city," Barletta said in the news release. "As the governor, Mr. Rendell is aware of the current financial situation of the City of Hazleton , where it is important to make every dollar count, where every dollar should be spent on the legal residents of Hazleton."

Barletta said he wants to know how upholding a law is "mean-spirited or divisive" and said he was "very surprised" when reading remarks made by the governor.

"I was surprised with the governor's comments – especially since two members of his Governor's (Advisory) Commission on Latino Affairs have gone on to say some pretty mean-spirited things at me and at the city with no response from the governor's office," Barletta said.

The mayor referred to remarks made by Anna Arias, who spoke out against the IIRA during a recent Hazleton City Council meeting and called him a "monkey" during a television interview.

"I would say that calling the mayor a 'monkey' during televised interviews, as the representative of the governor did, is also mean-spirited," Barletta wrote. "The ordinance is not motivated out of anything other than a desire to protect the legal residents of Hazleton and make every precious taxpayer dollar go as far as it can."

UPDATE: Ed Rendell's soul mate has been spotted in the person of Azul Christian Caravaggio, a pro-illegal immigration protester who's walking to Washington to protest our laws. He and a few buddies stopped in Tennessee:

What began as a peaceful illegal immigration demonstration turned briefly physical Saturday morning in Jonesborough after one side charged the other over the presence of a Mexican flag.

Carl Twofeathers Whitaker, a Sevierville resident who is running as an independent candidate for governor, was charged by members of a Hispanic group [perhaps including Caravaggio] seeking to take the flag away from him.

...Caravaggio also thought seeking a better life in the United States is impossible to do legally, for most. She compared illegal immigrants to European settlers, saying European immigrants killed the indigenous population of North America when they arrived...

Posted to Politics at 09:52 PM | Comments (2)

North American 'Trusted Traders' Begin Rolling on the NAFTA Super-Corridor

From this:

Through a series of acquisitions including Mexican railroads, Kansas City Southern (KCS, NYSE: KSE) has declared itself the nation’s first NAFTA Railroad.

On April 1, 2005, KCS completed the acquisition of Mexican Railroad TFM, S.A. de C.V., an acquisition which gained for KCS all the common stock of Groupo Transportacion Ferrovaria Mexicana, S.A. de C.V., the holding company that owned TFM. In December 2005, KCS changed the name of TFM to Kansas City Southern de Mexico (KCSM). The acquisition of KCSM was a key piece in putting together the “NAFTA railroad,” the marketing brand that KCS uses to market its North American service for both KCSM in Mexico and Kansas City Southern Railroad (KCSR) in the United States...

...We should also note that KCS and the company’s Chairman & Chief Executive Michael R. Haverty have been very prominent in SPP activities.

The 2004 Summit held in Kansas City, Missouri, by the North American International Trade Corridor Partnership (NAITCP), an affiliate organization of the North America's Super Corridor Coalition, Inc. (NASCO) produced a brochure with a front page photograph of Mr. Haverty, documenting his attendance. Mr. Haverty is photographed at the right of the first row in the photo, with Dr. Robert Pastor of American University at the left of the row.

Dr. Pastor, who spoke at the summit, was the vice chair of the Council on Foreign Relations task force report "Building a North American Community," which we have argued serves as the blueprint for SPP.gov. Dr. Pastor is the author of five books, including "Toward a North American Community," published in 1991. Dr. Pastor has consistently argued that NAFTA should be transformed by a process of tri-lateral administrative regulations and executive branch negotiated trilateral agreements into a North American Union regional government on the model of the European Union...

Posted to NAU at 03:25 PM | Comments (2)

Illegal aliens caught in LULAC van

Apparently LULAC ("League of United Latin American Citizens") or one of its chapters operates some kind of van or bus service in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas. Border Patrol agents saw a man acting suspiciously, and he and two friends got on one of the buses. After following the bus for a while, the BP stopped the bus and discovered that all three were illegal aliens.

There's no indication that the driver had any knowledge of their status or that LULAC is in any way involved in any sort of smuggling operation, and this site doesn't want to cast any sort of aspersions. However...

Posted to Immigration at 02:08 AM | Comments (3)

Commerce Dept stonewalling Corsi's FOIA request?

In June, Jerome Corsi sent a FOIA request to the Commerce Department asking for information on the "Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America", aka the precursor to the possible North American Union.

According to statute, Commerce should have responded within 20 days, and they have not:

"We thought we might encounter some recalcitrance," he explained to WND, "but I am frankly shocked that we had received no response at all. The department acknowledged its receipt of our request on June 19. The requirements of the Freedom of Information Act are quite clear: The government is allowed to respond to a FOIA request in many ways, but the complete failure to respond within 20 business days is simply not an option."

Posted to NAU at 11:09 PM | Comments (2)

Drum Major Institute: out of its depth

The immigration-related proposals of the DMI have been mentioned here in the past, and not in a good way.

Now, Andrea Batista Schlesinger of the DMI is questioning Phyllis Schlafly being selected to testify before Congress about immigration. Her post is simply an ad hominem attack, focusing on Schlafly's cultural conservatism rather than her immigration coverage, such as this important article.

In addition to a comment from yours truly, ABS's post generates this:

The problem with Andrea and other "liberals" is that they are NOT promoting the Democratic Party or liberalism. They are playing the cards of the Republicans and those in power. Who benefits from illegals? The illegals themselves? No they are underpaid, get no benefits, and have no job security. Real immigrants? No, because we are equated with illegals and get it from both sides. The American population does not like us, because they think we accept lower wages and no benefits, and, unfortunately, that is often what we get, whether we accept it or not, and not being real illegals we do not get some of the benefits those persons get, such as free medical care. We are, most of the time, just above that level, and we do have to pay taxes and other fees, that illegals do not pay.

Those who are Americans or naturalized Americans also end up with the short end of the stick, because we do not get jobs; they go to the illegals. We are competing with them.

Those who are Americans, and have paid in into Social Security and Medicare all their life, get to share that with illegals who do NOT pay one cent into those funds, not even if it is actually withheld from their paycheck. The employer keeps that. Another advantage to the employer of hiring an illegal...

Pretty good. In her post, ABS also references Heather MacDonald, pointing to this October post:

And [Heather MacDonald] tends towards sensationalist and unfounded allegations, such as that "police forces and county jails [are] reeling under the burden of illegal-alien rapists."

Note the period, because that's where the quote ends. However, if you look at HMD's essay you find this is the full quote:

[TimeMagazine's] WHO LEFT THE DOOR OPEN? catalogues the costs to the public: increased risk of terrorism; local hospitals driven out of business by borderinterlopers demanding free care; police forces and county jails reeling under the burden of illegal-alien rapists, murderers, bank robbers, and car thieves; Southwestern ranchers andhomeowners who daily face "revolting mounds of personal refuse" on their property, not to mention broken fences and missingproperty; and a corrosive assault on the "U.S. tradition of encouraging legal immigration."

Does this reader think ABS should have included all the groups that HMD lists, and that not doing so is intellectually dishonest?

Posted to Immigration at 09:34 PM | Comments (1)

Wells Fargo and illegal activity

Rep. Elton Gallegly offers "U.S. banking policies foster immigration lawlessness":

While a strong presence on our southern border is imperative, the border cannot be secured unless we enforce our internal laws and stop ignoring the open complicity of U.S. companies and foreign nations to promote illegal activities.

While Mexico is not the only country to market its consular card to illegal immigrants in the United States, and Wells Fargo Bank is not the only financial institution actively seeking the lucrative illegal market, they were the first. Together, their activities undermine the security of the United States...

...By earlier this year, Wells Fargo was boasting that it had opened 700,000 accounts with consular cards. Other financial institutions soon followed suit. Today, some 200 banks accept consular cards as legitimate identification to open accounts, transfer funds and take out loans. While I am a firm believer in capitalism, I believe it must be tempered with responsibility. Capitalism without responsibility is greed. Banks that facilitate illegal activity are complicit in those acts.

Wells Fargo doesn't even try to hide it. When it announced in late 2002 that it was beginning to accept Guatemalan cards, company officials made it clear they knew who their target audience was.

"The Mexican matricula has proven to be an effective method of helping Mexican nationals and we wanted to provide the same opportunity for Guatemalan citizens," Shelley Benson, market president for Wells Fargo Downtown Los Angeles Community Bank, stated in a press release.

Notice she didn't say U.S. nationals or U.S. citizens of Mexican or Guatemalan heritage.

Two years later, a Wells Fargo official, speaking about marketing to the underground community, noted: "And we also consider cash income, since a lot of these individuals are paid in cash."

Posted to Immigration at 03:12 PM | Comments (3)

Rep. Mike Rogers wants info on SPP from Commerce Department

From this:

A congressman is pressing the Department of Commerce to fully disclose a congressionally unauthorized plan to implement a trilateral agreement with Mexico and Canada that critics say could lead to a North American union.

Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., chairman of the Subcommittee on Management, Integration and Oversight of the House Committee on Homeland Security, wrote July 11 to Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez requesting detailed disclosure of working groups in the Security and Prosperity Partnership office within his department...

He forwarded a letter from a constituent containing several good, detailed questions on their scheme. The questions are at the link.

Posted to NAU at 01:06 PM | Comments (0)

New York Times offers hazy thoughts on immigration

The NYT offers the editorial "Hazy Days of Immigration". As you might expect, it's wrong. Just as an example, let's take a look at the final paragraph:

Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City said it well, at a Senate hearing: "It's as if we expect border control agents to do what a century of communism could not: defeat the natural market forces of supply and demand and defeat the natural human desire for freedom and opportunity. You might as well sit on your beach chair and tell the tide not to come in."

Mayor Mike's blather sounds reasonable, until you actually think about it. Which is clearly something that the NYT did not do (or thinks their readers won't do).

The current situation is not like the ocean. It's like sitting on a beach chair at Raging Waters watching the tide being forced in by giant underwater paddles, while at the same time staring at the $10 ticket stub in your hand.

The current situation is not an example of "natural market forces". It's an example of corporatism: companies that engage in illegal activity - wittingly or no - get cheap labor, and stick everyone else with the bill.

It doesn't matter whether the NYT can't figure this out, or thinks their readers won't figure it out. In either case, no one should trust their opinions on this matter.

Posted to Immigration at 10:55 AM | Comments (2)

Jack Kemp, Sheila Jackson Lee aligned on 1986 amnesty talking points

Jack Kemp offers "Immigration Reform Will Help Keep This Nation Strong". It's the usual song and dance supporting "comprehensive" immigration "reform", and it doesn't merit much of a response.

However, let's take a look at this talking point:

Some counsel that Congress should start with tougher enforcement and border security but wait to create a guest-worker program or address the illegal population. Only in that way, it is said, can we avoid the mistakes of the failed 1986 immigration reform.

In fact, the lesson of 1986 is that only a comprehensive solution will fix our broken immigration system. The 1986 legislation combined amnesty for 3 million illegal immigrants with a promise of tougher enforcement, particularly in the workplace. But the law did not recognize the need for future immigration to meet the demands of a growing economy, and the new enforcement never materialized.

Now, over to Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Neptune):

Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee of Texas, ranking Democrat on the subcommittee, said the reason the 1986 bill did not work is that it was not "comprehensive" enough, a criticism she also leveled at the enforcement-only bill approved by the House last year.

"Although IRCA had legalization programs and new enforcement measures, it did not address all of the essential issues," she said. "For instance, it failed to provide enough legal visas to meet future immigration needs."

Did they think this up completely independently? Or, did Kemp get it from Lee? Or, did they get it from someone else? If the latter, who could it be? Howard Dean? Vicente Fox? Karl Rove? Frank Sharry?

Posted to Immigration at 10:34 AM | Comments (0)

Chicago illegal immigration march organizer is PRD official

One of the organizers of the March 10 illegal immigration march in Chicago is an official with Mexico's PRD Party. Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, and mayor Richard M. Daley all attended and spoke at that rally.

This is yet another link between the Democratic Party and Mexican political parties. The official in question is Jorge Mujica.

He's identified here as a spokesman for the March 10 Committee (also called the "Diez de Marzo" committee).

And, he's identified here as a former reporter for the weekly newspaper 'La Raza'. (The paper in which Dick Durbin refered to Mexican citizens and himself as "we").

And, he's identified here as:

Jorge Mujica, secretary-general of the PRD in Illinois

Note also that both Gutierrez and Mujica spoke at yesterday's rally; the latter's role in today's version is unknown.

Blago, Gutierrez, and Daley are all Democrats, and until such time as the Democratic Party censures them for attending a rally organized in part by a representative of a foreign political party, it is perfectly reasonable to assume that the Democratic Party fully supports such links.

Posted to Immigration at 10:15 AM | Comments (1)

"Emergency border squads", Euro-style

This is not a joke:

A plan to create rapid reaction teams of border guards to deal with European Union immigration crises has been unveiled by the European Commission.

The teams would be assembled by the EU border security agency, Frontex, from lists of experts in member states...

The proposals approved by the European Commission on Wednesday say it would be up to each member state to decide whether to make experts available...

Mr Frattini said the aim would be to have a pool of 250 or 300 ready to be called up in emergencies, including experts in first aid, translation, risk assessment and the identification of people.

All border guards would wear their own national uniforms - with an armband identifying them as members of a joint EU rapid reaction team - but would be temporarily under the control of the host state.

The Commission says that planning such an operation is currently complicated by a muddle of different national laws in each member state governing what tasks foreign border guards can fulfil...

Posted to Immigration_euro at 03:40 AM | Comments (1)

Yet another Chicago illegal immigration march

Today's march was much smaller than the last one, with somewhere between 10,000 and 50,000 participants.

Pictures are available at:
chicago.indymedia.org/newswire/display/73136/index.php
chicago.indymedia.org/newswire/display/73139/index.php

The last page contains this highly revealing bit:

One of the most notable shifts in the demonstration, though, was the huge move toward the more conservative visual representations that some activists say came largely from the influence of spanish-language radio host Pistolero. Participants were told to wear white, but the greater contrast came in the flag display. On March 10th, a strong majority of flags were US, though a large number of Mexican and Irish flags gave a certain counter-hegemonic flavor. One May Day, this was far more apparent, with a flag from almost every country of the world represented in the front of the march, and ample Mexican flags, red flags, and others that easily outweighed the influence of the US flags. Even in the latter march, conservative news sources and right-wing groups affirmed the high number of US flags. Well, today there were tons of flags all over the march, and they were almost all Old Glory, the flag of the United States of America, most likely at the request of protest organizers.

Surprisingly, the AP report doesn't mention that.

So far, those collaborating on or appearing at this event include U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez and Emma Lozano, executive director of Centro Sin Fronteras (an organizer).

And, the AP seems to have missed a couple other participants:

Hatem of the Arab American Action Networka and Jorge Mujica of the Mexican PRD political party both spoke eloquently about recent crises in the homelands of their respective communities, and gave a progressive counter-balance to Congressman Luis Gutierrez, Pistolero, and other figures on the stage

Should Luis Gutierrez even be considered an American politician?

Posted to Immigration at 10:33 PM | Comments (2)

Illegal aliens, public services, and the MSM

Proceeding from non-worst to worst, here are three stories about illegal immigrants getting public services.

First, Julia Preston offers "Texas Hospitals Reflect Debate on Immigration". It tells the tale of two hospitals: one that inquires about immigration status, one that does not.

...In California, hospitals spent at least $1.02 billion last year on health care for illegal immigrants that was not reimbursed by federal or state programs, according to federal government estimates. Hospital officials there said the ailing health care system was being pushed to its limit.

"Emergency rooms and hospital doctors are forced to subsidize the lack of immigration enforcement by the federal government," said C. Duane Dauner, president of the California Hospital Association. "It amounts to an unfunded mandate for us to treat everybody."

California received $66 million in federal money in 2005, the first year of a four-year national program to help pay for emergency care for illegal immigrants. But it was "not even a down payment" on the total cost, Mr. Dauner said. With more than 1.4 million of California's residents uninsured and more than half of California's hospitals operating in the red, Mr. Dauner warned that care for illegal immigrants could tip some hospitals into bankruptcy.

...While Texas border hospitals often get "anchor babies" - children of Mexican women who dart across the border to give birth to an American citizen - most illegal immigrants who go to major hospitals in Texas can show that they have been living here for years, said Ernie Schmid, policy director at the Texas Hospital Association...

...The largest group of illegal immigrant patients is pregnant women, hospital figures show. Contrary to popular belief here, their care is not paid for through local taxes. Under a 2002 amendment to federal regulations, the births are covered by federal taxes through Medicaid because their children automatically become American citizens...

...In January 2004, the JPS board of managers voted to offer its financial assi