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Mexico to give rescue beacons to "migrants"?

Illegal aliens and a smaller number of legal immigrants send more than $20 billion back to Mexico each year. That partly helps explain why that country has passed out a comic book to prospective illegal aliens showing them how to cross the desert. They also considered passing out maps (with the help of two U.S. collaborators), they operate a "migrant assistance" group called Grupo Beta, and the state of Yucatan even came out with a computer CD.

Thus, the report "Mexico offers satnav to illegals crossing into the US" - as ludicrous as it might sound to someone who's not familiar with our remora fish to the south - isn't that much of a surprise. Apparently officials from the Mexican state of Puebla (led by Jaime Obregon, "coordinator for the state commission for migrants") are going to pass out personal locator beacons of some kind to those trying to cross the border. If they get lost - or get abandoned by their coyote - they can activate the beacon and help - supposedly from either Mexico or the U.S. - will be on the way. An unnamed CBP spokesman denies any knowledge of the scheme.

The article is a bit questionable because it's in a Hong Kong newspaper and there doesn't appear to be any other source with the news, but the author is Justin Stares, who appears to be a writer for various British newspapers.

On the other hand, they say they might pass out 200,000 of the devices which could really add up. "Personal Rescue Beacons" for use on boats and such appear to cost several hundreds of dollars, they're so pricy that there's even one site offering them for rental (you need to sign in to see their rental prices so I didn't bother), and a device called a "Digital Angel" that uses cellphone technology appears to cost around $400. However, many or most cellphones contain GPS technology and they aren't too expensive so maybe there are cheaper alternatives.

Or, perhaps Mexico has some sort of a rental arrangement in mind, with the "migrants" turning their PLB into the local consulate once they arrive in Mexico's "Lost Territories".

UPDATE: This story also appears in the UK Telegraph, so it might be legit.

UPDATE 2: As discussed here, the AP has confirmed this report. A Mexican university is developing their own cheap beacon, which will be passed out free to "migrants". If they have the abilities to design and manufacture cheap electronic devices, one wonders why they're unable to put that to good uses that would reduce "migration" rather than putting it to uses that will only make Mexico's overall situation worse.

Posted to Immigration at 08:13 PM | Comments (4)

Propaganda Watch: "Children of Men"

The new movie "Children of Men" is set in England in 2027 and appears to be a vehicle for leftwing propaganda, in particular that designed to support illegal immigration. The director/screenwriter is Mexico's Alfonso Cuaron ("Y tu mama tambien") [1], and it's based on a book by PD James.

In the film, England has become a police state and ejects any foreigners and "fugees" (refugees). One of the movie's target propagandees has a review, and his muddled view of these issues is clearly what Cuaron is trying to appeal to:

One of the film's dominant themes - more stressed in the film than the book - is immigration. And the comparisons are obvious. Some right-wing Republicans in the United States wish to restrict immigration. One Republican House Representative recently said he wanted to restrict the flow of people of a certain religious group into the United States, and others have been accused of racism. In another early scene in the film, the audience sees newspapers plastered on a wall, one of which reads "Immigrants Protest Against Government New Racist Policies." An allusion to the immigration protests that occurred in spring and summer of 2006 in the United States while the Republican-dominated House of Representatives passed racist "immigration reform"?

...In the film, the government assaults the population with propaganda to make them afraid of illegal immigrants. At one point, a government propaganda broadcast reminds citizens that "to hire, feed, or shelter illegal immigrants is a crime." Republican-controlled Congress almost passed a bill in the summer of 2006 which would have outlawed any charity provided to illegal immigrants in the US, in a draconian measure which would have seen soup kitchen employees serve prison time. Democrats, ultimately successful in blocking the measure, protested at the time that the bill under consideration put forth by a group of radical right-wing Republicans would have essentially "criminalized the Good Samaritan."

Furthermore, "immigrants" are put into prison camps, and the film's hero works with a group that tries to keep them out of the camps.

These points and the others lead the WaPo's Ann Hornaday to intone:

A bleak portrait of a dystopian future set against a backdrop of infertility, totalitarian politics and death, it plays like a nativity story for our age, a spirited humanistic message, as well as a welcome ray of hope for the future of cinema itself.

Likewise, the NYT's Caryn James says:

But the social problems [PD James] could spot in 1992, like immigration, are even more disturbing now because they are more topical. A member of the novel's ruling Council of England makes a comment that could come from a right-wing radio show in America today. "Remember what happened in Europe in the 1990s?" he says. "People became tired of invading hordes," who expect to "exploit the benefits which had been won over centuries by intelligence, industry and courage."

National Review is less kind, but doesn't call the film on its apparent misstatements.

I realize I'm strongly in the minority here, but I have trouble considering movies to be an art form when they are for the most part simply profit-making enterprises (with profits going to really annoying people) that can also be used to spread propaganda, as in the present case. As soon as I see the first product placement, hear the first strains of wimpy music, or see or hear the first propaganda drop I have trouble enmeshing myself in the "drama" and react to it the same way I would to a biased media report.

[1] Per Wikipedia (FWIW), Cuaron is the son of a "Cardiologist who worked for the United Nations' IAEA sector for many years". One might assume that (like Adam Kidron for instance) he's a bit uppercrust.

Posted to Immigration_piipps at 12:07 PM | Comments (3)

Mike Madden/Gannett News, and the Amnesty All Stars

Mike Madden of Gannett News/USA Today offers "Advocates hope new Congress will act on immigration reform", the latest in a long line of similar articles (Tim Gaynor/Reuters: "Democrats' win spurs hope of immigration revamp", the NYT editorial "Signs of Hope on Immigration", Boston Herald wants to "resolve immigration reform", etc.) Certainly, the views of the other side are to a certain extent worth listening to, but one wonders whether six opponents of amnesty have been featured in their own article.

Madden informs us that "[m]illions of immigrants marched from coast to coast demanding new rights", when I recall them actually being foreign citizens or their supporters making a show of force in our streets. Then, after playing the Hayworth/Graf canard, he sets down to work by quoting "Marshall Fitz, director of advocacy for the American Immigration Lawyers Association, which is pressing for reforms." Harry Reid promises to come up with his own version of the bill the Senate passed. Patrick Leahy is mentioned, then we're treated to a quote from:

John Gay, a lobbyist for the National Restaurant Association and co-director of the Essential Worker Immigration Coalition, made up of trade organizations for industries that depend on immigrant labor.

Unnamed aides say that Nancy Pelosi, unlike Harry Reid, is on the fence:

Many new House Democrats supported new border security restrictions on the campaign trail, which could complicate matters politically for Pelosi, even though lobbyists working on the issue believe a majority of the House would vote for reform.

So, Hayworth and Santorum lost because of their support for enforcement, but Dems won despite supporting enforcement? Or, did Madden simply forget what he wrote only a few paragraphs before?

Continuing with the internal inconsistencies:

But the stalemate this year taught advocates that they need to act fast, before election-year politics come into play, said Cecelia Munoz, vice president for advocacy at the National Council of La Raza, the nation's largest Latino civil rights group, Munoz hopes the House will take up a bill by spring in order for Congress to finish its work before 2008.

The NCLR also has links to and funds extremists, but who's counting. Finally, Madden refers to the flow of illegal aliens over the border as the "arrival of new immigrants", and says that agricultural interests are complaining about a lack of labor.

Posted to Immigration at 06:35 AM | Comments (1)

Bush pardons drug dealers, doesn't pardon railroaded BP agents

President Bush recently issued his year-end pardons, and those receiving good news included (via this and this):

-Marie Georgette Ginette Briere of Gatineau, Quebec, possession of cocaine with intent to distribute.

-George Thomas Harley of Albuquerque, N.M, aiding and abetting the distribution of cocaine.

-Eric William Olson of Ojai, CA, possession with intent to distribute hashish.

-Phillip Anthony Emmert of Washington, IA, conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine (commutation of sentence).

Those who were not pardoned include quite-possibly-railroaded Border Patrol agents Ramos and Compean.

Posted to Immigration at 06:03 AM | Comments (2)

Terrorism, drugs, illegal immigration links; Middle Easterners masquerading as Mexicans; Reyes

In September, one Miguel Alfonso Salinas and three other illegal aliens were arrested by the Border Patrol in New Mexico. After investigation, they discovered that wasn't his real name and he was actually a Muslim from Egypt [see also 2004's "Congressman: Terrorists are infiltrating the U.S. via Mexico"]. They haven't determined whether he has any links to terrorists. On the wider issue:

...Evidence of "special-interest aliens" using the Mexican border to gain entry to the United States has been kept secret from the American public, according to federal law enforcement agents, terrorism experts and critics of U.S. foreign policy with Mexico.

In 2005, the Border Patrol apprehended approximately 1.2 million people in the U.S. illegally. Of those, 165,000 were from countries other than Mexico, and roughly 650 were, like Kamal, from special-interest countries, according to the Border Patrol.

Those interviewed by the Daily Bulletin say agencies including the FBI and CIA are not using information from Border Patrol and Drug Enforcement Administration agents to make connections between the drug trade, illegal immigration and terrorist organizations.

"For us to believe that Mexican smugglers will not assist, knowingly or unknowingly, foreign terrorists trying to enter the United States is incomprehensible," said Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, who, along with other congressional representatives, has pushed for stricter border security policies.

And, FWIW, the DEA says that Asian crime groups could work with Mexican groups to import drugs into the U.S.:

...But federal agents say getting bureaucrats to understand the growing danger is difficult when most lawmakers won't even acknowledge many of the problems already happening along the U.S. border.

..."We had video and photographs [of a border incursion by the Mexican Army or groups dressed as same]," [Sheriff Arvin West of Hudspeth County] said. "We went to Congress and testified before them with the evidence in hand. And we were told by Congressman (Silvestre) Reyes (D-El Paso) that we were either lying or mistaken."

Reyes, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, and U.S. and Mexican government officials tried to play down the documents and the incident in Hudspeth County. They stated publicly that the cartels were dressing like Mexican military to damage relations between the U.S. and Mexico.

Reyes, who recently was appointed chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, did not return phone calls seeking comment...

Much more at the link.

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

Boo! Mike Huckabee says won't scare Dems, moderates

Sanctimonious illegal immigration supporter Mike Huckabee - current governor of Arkansas says:

"I think I would appeal to true conservatives for whom conservatism doesn't mean they're angry at everybody... My brand of conservatism is not an angry, hostile brand. It's one that says 'conservative' means we want to conserve the best of our culture, society, principles and values and pass them on... I would be the kind of Republican who doesn't scare the living daylights out of people who are in the center or slightly to the left."

Indeed, he should appeal to the 25% or less of the populace who support illegal immigration. When combined with the 0.1% of the populace who will buy another "compassionate conservative", he should simply coast to victory.

Posted to Immigration at 02:28 PM | Comments (6)

Zoe Lofgren optimistic on immigration "reform"

In an interview with KCBS radio that probably had little journalistic content whatsoever, Democratic Congressperson Zoe Lofgren of San Jose expressed the hope that immigration "reform" could be passed. She'll be the new head of the House Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security, and she was also mentioned as an upcoming player in the NYT article linked to by "McCain, Kennedy, Gutierrez, Flake collaborating on immigration "reform", Part 2".

To help both her and KCBS, let's examine their recap and - hopefully - the reader will go a bit further and contact either Lofgren or the station and suggest ways that they could lie better (in the first case) or ask better questions (in the second case). You can reach KCBS at 415-474-KCBS (5227), and Lofgren is at 202-225-3072 or 408-271-8700.

The representative points out that many of the politicians who pinned their re-election hopes on being tough on immigration lost in the midterm elections. "So I think that has been a wake up call for the Republicans that people want some practical solutions," she added.

At that point in the interview, the "reporter" should have called her on her BS by refering her to the many sources that have shown that canard to be false.

She said an amnesty program is under consideration but there still must be some consequences for those who have blatantly violated the law.

At that point in time, the "reporter" should have first thanked her for at least being honest enough to call it an amnesty. Then, the "reporter" should have discussed those "consequences" that illegal aliens will be subjected to before receiving their amnesty, such as not having to pay two out of five years of taxes. And, the "reporter" should have asked her exactly how she intends to prevent the amnesty being seen as a massive "Welcome" sign for future illegal aliens. If she says through enforcement, then the "reporter" should have pointed out that the 1986 amnesty was never really enforced, as well as noting all the forces currently working against enforcement and asked Lofgren whether she fantastically assumes they'll stop opposing enforcement after they get the "reform" they seek.

Lofgren said the goal is to get some true legislative reform next year in order to avoid the congestion of the presidential elections in 2008.

At that point in time, the "reporter" should have (once again) called her on her BS, asking her to deny that she realizes that "reform" is a political loser and could harm Democratic - and Republican - contenders for president.

Since the reporter clearly didn't ask any of those questions, they could have just saved time and money by asking Lofgren to send in an audio press release.

Posted to Immigration at 05:18 AM | Comments (1)

Rep. Jose Serrano's muddled immigration musings

Back on the 18th, Rep. Jose Serrano (D-South Bronx) enlightened the Congressional Progressive Caucus - of which he's a proud part - with his thoughts in "Serrano Denounces Immigration Raids". It isn't worth a full treatment, but let's take a look at a few points from his cri de coeur for racial power:

The current system provides no way for the businesses of our nation to find the labor supply they need, and provides no way to allow immigrants to become documented workers who need not fear deportation.

I'm willing to bet that there's a large and unemployed labor supply right in the district he supposedly represents, and I'm willing to bet that if all our illegal aliens left tomorrow we'd have some problems for a while but eventually our labor markets would adjust. That certainly wouldn't please businesses that want the cheapest or most pliable labor possible, but I'm sure we can do it. As for the second part, his thinking is more than a bit muddled since we have hundreds of thousands of legal immigrants per year. If we have caps on unskilled laborers, well, perhaps there's a reason. And, if Serrano wants to raise that cap, then perhaps he should consider seperate legislation as well as describing exactly how many workers would be allowed in under his scheme.

Then, he plays the "it's for the children" line, refering to the Swift case in which parents were supposedly separated from their children. Needless to say, he doesn't discuss the parents' negligence for bringing children here or having them here while illegal aliens.

And, having spent too much time on this payaso already, let's finish with this:

Our nation has never turned away workers who come seeking a decent salary and a shot at a better life.

Obviously, that's false. Those arriving at Ellis Island were pre-screened by the shipping companies, and once here a small percentage were not allowed into the country. And, just as obviously, there's a huge backlog of applications from prospective legal immigrants, and not all of those are approved.

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

MSMWatch: will cop shooter's immigration status be mentioned?

Last week, two Long Beach (CA) police officers were shot by long-term criminal Oscar Gallegos and they remain in stable but critical condition. Yesterday Gallegos was shot and killed in a gun battle with Santa Ana cops.

According to KFI's Eric Leonard, Gallegos was an illegal alien. At post time, none of the news sources discussing this case have revealed that, and only two instances of an earlier AP report disclose that he was "deported at least once" (KESQ, PE.com).

As with a previous case, let's wait and see whether the non-KFI local media tries to cover up his immigration status and whether they bother to look into whether sanctuary policies played any role in his ability to remain in the U.S.

UPDATE: The unbylined AP article here dated 12/29/06 says:

Gallegos was an illegal immigrant who had been deported three times and had a criminal record dating back to 1990, including arrests for drug offenses and assault with a deadly weapon, authorities said.

And, on 12/27 (apparently not showing up in google news), the L.B. Press-Telegram said:

Gallegos, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, was deported at least three times, the last one occurring in 1996, according to immigration officials.

Now, we turn to the Los Angeles Times.

12/25's "Long Beach police search for gunman" by Richard Winton and Stuart Silverstein says he has a "long criminal history" but there's not even a hint to his status.

12/28's "Long Beach gunman slain in Santa Ana shootout" by David Haldane and Stuart Silverstein likewise offers no clue.

12/29's "60 lawmen joined hunt for suspect" by Andrew Blankstein and Garrett Therolf dances like so:

Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley said authorities were concerned that Gallegos, a Mexican national who had been deported from the United States three times, might flee the country.

12/28's "Possible shooting suspect is slain" by David Haldane and Stuart Silverstein dances too:

[Authorities] said he had also been deported in 1994, although they provided no details on where he was sent or the incident prompting the deportation.

(That also has the news that he was arrested by Long Beach police on a warrant in 2003, but the warrant was actually for someone else with the same name. He tried to sue and collect $5 million, but the suit was dismissed. The question then becomes why his status wasn't discovered while in jail and why he wasn't turned over the the INS.)

Summary: in this race for the bottom, the AP is even more accurate than the L.A. Times.

Posted to Immigration at 10:07 PM | Comments (3)

Swift and Company raids leading to collapse of Pork Industry?

Could the recent immigration raids at Swift and Company lead to a full-blown collapse of the Pig, Pork, and Swine Industry? Or, will those raids simply send the message that The Industry should deal with doing business within the law? I favor the second choice, but the Associated Press appears to be working itself into a future article that will warn about the first choice. For now, all we have is the relatively understated (in AP terms) "Immigration raid still hurting Swift production and hog prices":

More than two weeks after immigration raids resulted in the detention of 1,282 Swift & Co. workers, the company's pork plants still have not returned to full capacity and the slowdown has caused hog prices to drop.

...hog farmers who need to sell their animals have had fewer buyers, driving prices down. David Preisler, executive director of the Minnesota Pork Producers Association, estimates that the raids are costing pork producers $6 per pig.

I'm no Porcine Professional, but do Hog Farmers "need" to sell their crop within some certain time? Or, can they keep piggies around if they can't find a good price? And, of course, the article doesn't disclose current pig pricing nor the average weight of a pig and whether the cost is based on when the pig is still in possession of its various appendages and so forth.

[Swift spokesman Sean McHugh] said that because the raid happened early in the morning, we were able to get in touch with our producers, and a lot of the normal deliveries were either stopped, turned around en route or directed to other processors," he said. "There were no livestock at risk from an animal welfare perspective."

Brad Freking, owner and managing partner of Jackson-based New Fashion Pork, said the raid proves the need for a compromise on immigration reform.

"The impact of this is so widespread. We're being indirectly impacted - Main Street businesses and social services are all impacted," he said. There has to be a better method."

The better method he has in mind is to let the Pork Industry run our immigration system. I suggest they deal with the current situation and make do.

UPDATE: The Cattle Network (not the one on TV, the web one) weighs in with this:

A panel of pork industry analysts said that while Swift & Co. was hurt by the [immigration raids], the impact on the pork industry as a whole was extremely short-lived. "It took the industry less than a week to recover" and return to pre-raid production levels, said Ron Plain, professor of agricultural economics at the University of Missouri.

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

Michael Medved, NAU apologist

Talk show host Michael Medved has a tantrum in 'Shame on Demagogues Exploiting "North American Union"!'

Today I spent a few minutes listening to another nationally syndicated talk radio show and felt outraged and embarrassed to hear the guest host (an otherwise bright and well-informed conservative) facilitating the twisted, ignorant mounting public hysteria over the looming menace of a "North American Union."

This paranoid and groundless frenzy has been fomented and promoted by a shameless collection of lunatics and losers; crooks, cranks, demagogues and opportunists, who claim the existence of a top secret master plan to join the U.S., Canada and Mexico in one big super-state and to replace the good old Yankee dollar with a worthless new currency called "The Amero." Another delusion usually associated with these fears involves the construction of a "Monster Highway" some sixteen lanes wide through Texas and the Great Plains, connecting the two nations on either side of the border for some nefarious but never-explained purpose...

...But aside from the chilling prospect of a "Monster Highway" (why is a new road in Texas supposed to be so scary?) there's no reason at all to believe in the ludicrous, childish, ill-informed, manipulative, brain dead fantasies about a North American Union...

...Concerning the feds, the entire horror story about "North American Union" is based upon the "Security and Prosperity Partnership," an utterly innocuous, open, above-board, well-advertised and widely publicized initiative to promote inter-governmental cooperation to fight terrorism, the threat of Avian flu, improve and tighten border security, and promote mutual prosperity. The then Presidents of the three countries (Bush, Fox and Martin) met in 2005 to pledge to work together on such issues and to initiate open working groups to facilitate cooperation – BUT THERE WAS NO AGREEMENT OR TREATY OR COVENANT of any kind, secret or otherwise...

Obviously, the SPP is hardly open or well-publicized. I'm sure the vast majority of Americans have never heard of it, and as previously discussed, no news sources provided the details on its relationship to the meetings held by the three leaders. And, of course, the details on what they're doing and who's involved have only been revealed after filing FOIA requests. And, the issue of the legal construct of what they're doing - whether a treaty or something else - is open and may even be extra-constitutional.

Related: Here's a longer list of NAU apologists.

1/2/07 UPDATE: Corsi replies.

Posted to NAU at 12:38 PM | Comments (5)

Bloomberg links illegal immigration "crackdown" to tourism

Mayor Mike Bloomberg stuns once again with his outright support for illegal immigration. The end of "44 Million Tourists and Counting" - putatively about tourists coming to New York City - contains this:

The mayor said that a crackdown on illegal immigration was discouraging law-abiding visitors to the city.

"Current immigration policy is making it harder for people from other countries to come to New York, and it's not just hurting tourism but all of our businesses in this city," Mr. Bloomberg said. "Now, we all recognize that in today's world we have to do a better job of securing our borders. But we also have to make sure it's done right."

On the one hand, he might have a slight point. Increased scrutiny to tourist and other visa applications - enacted after that minor incident that occured in his city five years back - may have made it more difficult for people to come here. But, he should take heart that, as far as I know, we've still got an open door for visitors from Saudi Arabia. And, as a matter of policy, we want to make sure that visa recipients actually intend to abide by the terms of the visa and don't stay on as illegal aliens. Other than that, the mind reels trying to think how a supposed "crackdown" on illegal immigration - such as workplace and border enforcement - could impact tourism to his city. Perhaps he's thinking of the workers for his associates and not the tourists themselves.

Posted to Immigration at 08:30 AM | Comments (2)

Border Patrol apprehensions supposedly down; propaganda?

The long article "Border patrol says Bush plan is working" says that Border Patrol apprehensions of illegal aliens are down 11% over last year in Arizona and 8% along the entire border. The article says that might be due to the National Guard troops stationed at the border, but it also says that relying on such numbers as an indicator of reduced attempts to cross is not advised. Oh, and it also buries this:

...Border Patrol officials say the work being done by guard troops has freed 108 agents in Arizona to go out into the field. The troops are intended to serve as a stopgap until the Border Patrol has time to recruit, hire, and train 6,000 additional agents by the end of 2008.

This June,the National Guard plans to cut in half the number of troops deployed along the border. The Border Patrol, meanwhile, is struggling to find enough qualified candidates. The agency plans to add 2,500this fiscal year, 6,000 by the end of 2008, for a total of 18,000. But it's unclear whether the agency will be able to meet those goals. The Border Patrol estimates it will have to interview 500,000 people to find 6,000 qualified candidates.

So far, the Border Patrol has hired 367 new agents. Another 739 are currently in training at the Border Patrol academy in New Mexico. But many candidates wash out before graduating, or don't pass muster once they get out in the field...

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

Spotlight on Gould Construction

Gould Construction is the Colorado construction company featured in Tom Brokaw's pro-illegal immigration propaganda piece from NBC. After that show aired, they claim to have received 600 phone calls from job applicants, as well as a quantity of "hate mail". While I certainly wouldn't mind seeing them coming under some degree of scrutiny vis-a-vis their hiring practices, they are ultimately small fry and just the vessel that Brokaw's handlers used to promulgate their message.

So, let me suggest that everyone calls NBC Nightly News with their thoughts on the show. I believe their phone number is: 212-664-4971.

Posted to Immigration at 02:42 AM | Comments (3)

"Jane Elliott and her Blue-Eyed Devil Children"

From this:

Why does racial diversity training, whose deleterious effects have been chronicled in these pages more than once, seem like a children's group exercise, a sadist's version of "patty cake, patty cake, baker's man?" There's a good reason: It is a children's exercise. At least that's how it began and operated for many years until the pillars of our society became convinced of its necessity. We have a retired school teacher named Jane Elliott to thank for the leftward infantilizing of the American mind...

...Jane Elliott is our nation's long-reigning Dominatrix of Diversity. For nearly 40 years this native of rural Iowa has been engaged in a Torquemada-style quest to eradicate racism, real or imagined, from every nook and cranny of American life. She casts a mighty long shadow. Every time a corporation forces new employees – at least Caucasian ones – to endure intensive and prolonged anti-bias training, it is ratifying the legacy of Jane Elliott. Every time a college requires incoming white freshmen to be "cured" of racial, ethnic and religious prejudices presumably lurking within, it is fulfilling Elliott's vision...

Posted to MultiCultiCult at 11:28 PM | Comments (2)

Frisco: license plates scanned for parking ticket scofflaws

San Franciso's scofflaw squad - the team that tracks down those who have five or more unpaid parking tickets - has a wonderful new tool. They can simply drive down the street, and a camera system provided by ACS Inc. automatically scans the license plates of parked cars looking for violators. The system can handle as many as 250 plates per hour, Rachel Gordon of the Frisco Chronicle reports.

Unfortunately, Gordon's article reads like a press release and she completely fails to note any of the possible downsides of this or similar systems, such as what wonderful new systems might be developed in the future. For instance, since some license plates are too dirty or too askew to be read, why not install RFID chips in them? Or, how about simply doing away with the need for the scofflaw squad entirely by giving the State direct access to an override switch in the car? Or, what about using the same technology in surveillance cameras to look for stolen cars and fugitives? The mind simply reels with all the possibilities no doubt to come.

Posted to Privacy at 06:21 PM | Comments (1)

Independent Institute: Somalia, the libertarian paradise

Libertarianism - the political doctrine usually indistinguishable from satire - reaches one of its lows in a paper from Dr. Benjamin Powell called "Somalia After State Collapse: Chaos or Improvement?" He looks to be about 18 years old, but more telling is it's from the Independent Institute, the same group that gave us the Open Letter on Immigration. Our friends at Reason Magazine provide this excerpt:

...In 2005, Somalia ranked in the top 50 percent in six of our 13 measures, and ranked near the bottom in only three: infant mortality, immunization rates, and access to improved water sources. This compares favorably with circumstances in 1990, when Somalia last had a government and was ranked in the bottom 50 percent for all seven of the measures for which we had that year's data: death rate, infant mortality, life expectancy, main telephone lines, tuberculosis, and immunization for measles and DTP. Furthermore, we have found that during the last years of Somalia's government, 1985 to 1990, their performance was deteriorating compared to other African nations as their relative ranking fell in five of these measures...

I'm not familiar with Somalia, but I'm going to hazard a guess that their earlier government - as well as the ones being compared - are a bit - just a tiny bit - dysfunctional. I'm also going to guess that there are certainly governments in Somalia right now, albeit unrecognized ones. And, I'm going to guess that Dr. Powell would not like to live in some of those, unless he were willing to convert. I'll refrain from asking, "other than that, how did you enjoy the play", or commenting on trains running on time.

Posted to Miscellania at 05:14 PM | Comments (3)

WaPo's Boom Burbs go bust; what happens to the illegal aliens?

Nick Miroff of the Washington Post offers "Immigrants' Jobs Vanish With Housing Slowdown", about the situation in the DC/Maryland/NoVa suburbs area. Seems some illegal aliens can't find jobs in construction and are leaving mostly for other states, but some are even - gasp - returning to the countries of which they're citizens. Note that just over a year ago, the Washington Post promoted illegal activity in order to keep the good times a-rollin' in those "boom burbs". Now, with the slowdown, even they are grappling with the impact of their policies.

Even the local advocates are desperately trying to maintain their grasp on racial power:

Gustavo Torres, executive director of CASA of Maryland, said he's concerned that tensions over immigration will spread and intensify if large numbers of idle construction workers are not quickly absorbed by other services and industries. "We've seen workers leaving for other states for jobs in construction or agriculture," he said.

Torres argued for the need for job training programs to help workers make the transition into other sectors, saying he feared that "confrontation will accelerate further" if the slowdown worsens.

Thankfully, sanity is restored with the next paragraph:

"That's one of the dangers of importing lots of workers," said Ira Mehlmen, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which seeks to curb illegal immigration. "After their services are no longer required, you end up with them and with their families. "There isn't much reason for them to return home when services and other benefits are available."

Posted to Immigration at 02:49 PM | Comments (7)

William Hogeland: today's illegal aliens are like the Founding Fathers

William Hogeland - author of "The Whiskey Rebellion: George Washington, Alexander Hamilton and the Frontier Rebels Who Challenged America's Newfound Sovereignty" - offers a mind-numbingly stupid slab of pro-illegal immigration propaganda in "Our Founding Illegals".

See, back in the day King George wanted all the lands roughly west of the Appalachians to be Indian territory, and residents of the American colonies couldn't settle there. George Washington and other bigwigs of the time worked around or just ignored that restriction, declaring themselves owners of lands in those areas. Without the acquisitions of these lands by Washington - as well as by German and Irish immigrants - we wouldn't be the nation we are today.

In other words, Hogeland is comparing the United States of America and the Constitution to the British empire and the British constitution of the time. And, he's comparing the illegal aliens of today to George Washington et al, ending with:

...Those of us whose ancestors risked everything as illegal immigrants, and in the process helped found a nation, owe our forebears a debt of gratitude, too. Without their daring disregard of immigration laws, we might not be here today.

Unfortunately, there's the strong possibility that the descendents of today's illegal aliens might indeed say the same thing... from the new country of Aztlan. It's our job - as the "British" in Hogeland's feverish mind - to prevent that from happening.

The fact that this even made it into print is evidence that the NYT is run by complete idiots.

Related:
Gloria Romero's revolution (That California Assemblyperson compared illegal aliens to those who conducted the Boston Tea Party with, of course, we Americans as the British)

Posted to at 09:54 PM | Comments (5)

Tim Gaynor/Reuters: Democrats to save us from "nativists"

Tim Gaynor of Reuters offers "Nativists fan flames of U.S. immigration debate". And, it's even worse than the title might indicate. (Via this).

...The founder of the Emigration Party of Nevada is among a growing number of nativists from across the United States that have been stepping up direct action in recent months to make a stand on the issues of illegal immigration and border security.

The milder end of the spectrum includes the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, who spot for illegal entrants crossing the borders from Mexico and Canada, and councilors in towns and cities from California to Pennsylvania who vote to curb landlords from renting to undocumented immigrants...

He goes on to discuss the non-mild end of the spectrum with neoNazi, various supremacist groups, "gangs who battled newcomers on the streets of New York in the 1800s", and "the Ku Klux Klan's rants against Mexican immigrants in the last century". In Reuters' view, anyone who takes action to prevent illegal immigration is a "nativist" and just a step or two away from extremists and perhaps violence. Needless to say, this is guilt by association and simple name-calling. News sources that wish to remain objective shouldn't engage in this type of behavior, but then again, it's Reuters so what do you expect.

The article also quotes Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center, a group indirectly linked to the Mexican government. Reuters does not, of course, reveal that link.

Thankfully, Tim Gaynor reveals that help is on the way:

However, analysts caution that the groups are small and increasingly out of step with mainstream Americans, who elected a Democratic Congress on November 7 that promises a comprehensive approach to immigration combining tough enforcement with incentives for newcomers.

"The (nativists) show up at town meetings, they call talk radio shows and some of them even engage in acts of violence, but the elections are the ultimate poll," said Frank Sharry, the executive director of the National Immigration Forum think tank in Washington.

Previously:
Tim Gaynor/Reuters: "Democrats' win spurs hope of immigration revamp" (also quotes Sharry)
Tim Gaynor/Reuters, "experts", say fence is "impractical"

Posted to Immigration at 03:33 PM | Comments (1)

Tom Brokaw, pro-illegal immigration hack

Tonight, Tom Brokaw is hosting "In the Shadow of the American Dream" on NBC. As a preview, he offers "Indisputable points in the immigration debate" (also here). The pro-illegal immigration points could be disputed, such as this:

In many parts of the country immigrants are doing the work Americans no longer want to do, especially the hard work of manual labor at construction sites.

I highly doubt that "want to do" comports with reality. Rather, Americans have been driven out of the market due to illegal aliens being willing to work for a lower wage or with lower safety requirements and also by forming networks. Here's just one example. He goes on to advocate for unnamed "urgent action in Congress" that sounds an awful like "comprehensive immigration reform." This page also disputes his various "indisputable points".

Obviously, Brokaw doesn't know what he's talking about, and he's simply a pro-illegal immigration hack and not a real journalist. Even the NYT's review admits that "this is no expose... [v]aried views are dutifully represented, but this is at heart a pro-immigrant program..."

Debbie Schlussel's review is even less kind. NewsBusters has a clip of his promotional appearance on the Today show and a discussion of his pro-amnesty statements, including his incorrect statement that remittances to Mexico are only $8 billion per year (they're actually >$20 billion). The Stein Reports' commenters have more.

If anyone knows anyone who's part of the Nielsen survey, please urge them to watch something else.

UPDATE: VDare comments here. Showing just how little he knows, the Washington Post's Tom Shales praises the propaganda piece, conflates "illegal aliens" with "Hispanic", and even says this:

President Bush, who likes to call himself a "compassionate person," certainly doesn't sound compassionate in an excerpt from a surly speech on immigration that he gave earlier this year.

If Tom Brokaw ever gives a speech near you, I urge you to try to publicly ask him a question about his "documentary", perhaps concentrating on one of his "indisputable" points. If a local reporter or similar interviews Brokaw, contact them and suggest they do the same or ask them why they didn't.

And, like Debbie, I suggest doing the same with his helpers: David Corvo (executive producer), Soraya Gage (producer), Joyce Cordero and Leonor Ayala (field producers), Liz Bowyer (editorial producer), Erika Beck (researcher).

Posted to Immigration at 12:03 PM | Comments (6)

McCain, Kennedy, Gutierrez, Flake collaborating on immigration "reform", Part 2

Rachel Swarns of the New York Times offers "Bipartisan Effort to Draft Immigration Bill", about various Congressmen thinking they can pass immigration "reform" early next year. Most of this was already covered in the article linked to in McCain, Kennedy, Gutierrez, Flake collaborating on immigration "reform".

Unbelievably, they want to create an even more open borders version of the Senate bill. The latter had a three-tiered approach that treated illegal aliens differently depending on how long they'd been here. The version they're trying to create would do away with those tiers and basically offer amnesty to all. No illegal aliens would even need to leave the U.S. first to get their amnesty.

They also want to block financing for the 700 mile fence bill.

Of course, some of their ideas might be considered to be bargaining chips, but even after compromise what remains will be opposed by most Americans. The best outcome would be for them to try something like this and fall flat on their faces, which might allow us to discredit even more open borders hacks in the process.

And:

[Aides] said the bill might include incentives for illegal immigrants to leave the country.

That's certainly an interesting statement, but as could be expected Swarns doesn't explore it. If offering incentives to leave the country would work, why don't we try that first? Clearly, the putative U.S. elected officials involved in this scheme strongly support illegal immigration and want illegal aliens here now to stay.

As for the article, it's among other things internally inconsistent. The Hispanic vote myth is trotted out, and we're told that "reform" is a winner (including with the Graf/Hayworth canard), but we're also told that the schemers need to tread carefully, such as:

The House Democrats are concerned about protecting newly elected moderate and conservative Democrats, some of whom had campaigned against legalizing illegal immigrants.

Posted to Immigration at 11:47 AM | Comments (1)

Nina Bernstein/NYT: Immigration enforcement equals fear

Our old favorite Nina Bernstein of the New York Times offers "Immigrants Go From Farms to Jails, and a Climate of Fear Settles In". She spends two screens painting a picture of upstate New York dairy farmers and their illegal alien employees living in a state of fear. The poor dear farmers are afraid one of their enemies is going to drop a dime on them to ICE. The poor oppressed illegal aliens are afraid of being taken away in shackles (if the report had audio, it would be of the sound of cattlecars). She even uses the phrase "harvest of fear" and makes a reference to "The Twilight Zone".

She also mentions - but doesn't explore - the role that political corruption plays in lack of immigration enforcement. Instead, she concentrates on the emotional aspects with the clear intent of promoting immigration "reform".

Here's the first paragraph:

As record-setting enforcement of immigration laws upends old, unspoken arrangements, a new climate of fear is sweeping through the rural communities of western and central New York.

It will take a real reporter - and not just a pro-illegal immigration hack - to explore those "unspoken arrangements" and to follow the money. As for Bernstein, this is all we get:

Now, more aggressive enforcement has disrupted a system of official winks, nods and paperwork that for years protected farmers from "knowingly" hiring the illegal immigrants who make up most of their work force.

If the NYT wants to be a real news sources, they'll dispatch someone else to look into those "winks [and] nods", and not someone who's part of the problem.

And, apparently someone's reading the papers:

Others, including the [New York Farm Bureau], pointed to the unusual intensification of the dairy investigation after [Rodney Brown who together with his wife Debbie are dairy farmers in Clifton Springs] was quoted in a Sept. 11 Associated Press account [presumably "Farmers: Harvest raids are badly timed" by Cara Anna which appears to have been rewritten here].

Others mentioned include Marshall Farms, Cliff DeMay, "a large private labor contractor", and:

Maureen Torrey, an 11th-generation grower and a director of the Federal Reserve Bank's Buffalo branch

Looking into the political corruption side of this issue is left as an exercise for a real news source.

Please write public *at* nytimes.com with your thoughts.

Posted to Immigration at 01:21 PM | Comments (1)

Wall Street Journal not very Swift in support for illegal immigration

The WSJ comments on the recent Swift & Co. immigration raids in "Not Very Swift". As could be expected, they oppose the raids. Let's look at a couple of their statements to see where their priorities lie.

Immigration restrictionists would have us believe that harassing businesses like Swift, the world's second-largest beef and pork processor, helps make America safer. But so far the Swift raids haven't uncovered any al Qaeda cells, merely a bunch of hard-working people trying to feed their families. The operation involved more than 1,000 federal agents in six states. And of Swift's 15,000 or so employees, a grand total of 144 have been charged to date with misidentifying themselves to get hired.

Obviously, enforcing our laws isn't "harassing" and, while their operations were temporarily disrupted, only their workers were arrested and deported with the company itself so far escaping legal action. And, of course, those "hard-workers" don't work in isolation. Their presence fuels political corruption, they send money back home to Mexico and prop up that company's oligarchy, and so on and on. And, those who were using American's identities weren't just "misidentifying" themselves; they were obviously having a negative impact on the WSJ's fellow citizens (not that that means much to them). The Wall Street Journal also fails to note that wherever you have illegal alien workers, you also have those who come to prey on them, such as the paramilitary Central American gang members arrested last year in Marshalltown, Iowa.

Put another way, 1,000 federal agents that could have been focused on potential terrorists or other dangerous threats were instead focused on a meatpacking company that hires thousands of willing unskilled workers and pays them more than twice the minimum wage with full health benefits after six months. How's that for government efficiency?

Obviously, the WSJ is ignoring such things as those wages being much lower than they were before companies like Swift were allowed to employ illegal aliens, as well as all the subsidies that those workers are receiving from U.S. citizens such as mandatory educations for their children. And, there are plenty of willing Americans that are lining up out the door to take those jobs. The WSJ is obviously not thinking of them and would probably support child labor if they could get away with it.

Posted to Immigration at 10:54 AM | Comments (2)

HR2672 and S853

This page has a bit more information on those two NAU-related bills:

...HR 2672, entitled the "North American Cooperative Security Act," was introduced by Ms. Kathryn Harris, Mr. Steve Pearce and Mr. Christopher Shays on May 26, 2005. Since then, the bill has languished in the House Subcommittee on Intelligence, Information Sharing and Terrorism Risk Assessment. S853, entitled the "North American Cooperative Security Act," was introduced in the Senate by Senator Richard Lugar on April 20, 2005. It never emerged from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee...

Posted to NAU at 04:53 AM | Comments (3)

Karen Arenson/NYT: Columbia Minuteman speech disruptors charged

The NYT reports ("Columbia Charges Students With Violating Protest Rules") that the students involved in the fracas at that university where students and others rushed the stage where Jim Gilchrist of the Minuteman Project was speaking and unfurled banners will face unspecified punishment. The possibilities include "disciplinary warning, censure, suspension and dismissal".

It being the NYT, their version of the events does not seem to comport with my recollections:

Protesters unfurled a banner on stage during one speech, and were then attacked by the speaker's supporters, including some from outside Columbia.

If those "attacks" were done out of self-defense or out of concern for the safety of those speaking, is "attacked" really the correct word?

Posted to Immigration at 11:57 PM | Comments (2)

Fry's Electronics paid *me*

Like everyone else, I hate Fry's Electronics. Unfortunately, like many other people, we're occasionally forced to shop there. Thus it was a few days ago. Later however, I decided I didn't need the item, and took it back. But, like a sucker, I bought something else from them. Despite continuing to give them money, I received a $50 bill in my change. I thought nothing of it, other than the relative scarcity of such bills.

A day later, I went to a shop, and the shoppee refused to take the bill! He'd run his fake bill checking pen over the bill a couple times and determined that the bill was bad. Apparently the yellow highlighter-style pen should stay a light color for normal bills, but with mine it was a dark yellow.

A million disturbing thoughts rushed through my mind: had I lost forever the respect of the shoppee at RiteAid? Would the no doubt videotaped exchange be turned over to the Treasury Department for immediate prosecution? Why does that unmarked van keep following me?

Perturbed, confused, and uncertain of future events, I visited the local bank and asked the teller person whether the bill was good or not. Shockingly, he informed me that not only was the bill good, but it could even be a collector's item and I should hold on to it! It was only after he informed me that the bill was from 1950 that I realized it was an old bill. Greedily clutching the bill close to my breast, I sped my way to the local library and picked up a recent copy of one of those books that shows the prices of currency.

Unfortunately, the bill would have to be in excellent shape (for instance, without the two yellow stripes) to fetch some times its face value, and the "Average Bid Price" for all such bills is only $2 to $5 more than par.

However, it is the first time I've received an unearned bonus from Fry's, rather than the other way around, so I'll take it.

Posted to Miscellania at 02:03 PM | Comments (1)

Donuts (Christmas music video)

Back in the early 90s I shot this music video (also here) of Los Angeles homeless singing Jingle Bells. This was several years before Bum Fights, and was done with different intentions.

The evolution is also (to me at least) interesting. I shot it on Hi-8 and - before I learned how to do it myself (at the editing house run by the producers of this video) - had someone else edit it using analog tape and the Video Toaster. I had no place to show it except on public access cable TV. A year or three later I digitized it and put it on a CD-ROM, but there still wasn't a way to achieve mass distribution of such things. Yet another year or three later I considered offering it as a download on my website, but even by cutting it down to around 1 meg I decided against that due to bandwidth issues. (Nowadays, of course, bandwidth is fairly cheap so even at 5 megs I could have around 10,000 downloads per month for about $10 with my current host, I have spare bandwidth with another account, and Amazon has a bandwidth service I could use if I needed it).

Now, after having made and uploaded a few videos to Youtube already, I recently remembered this video and had it digitized again. After spending a lot of time finding a converter for .vob (DVD) files and then spending a lot of time converting the VOB file to a regular format, I was able to upload it to Youtube and Google Video.

Posted to Miscellania at 10:58 AM | Comments (0)

George Bush's Christmas gift for railroaded Border Patrol agents

Ramos and Compean are two Border Patrol agents who appear to have been railroaded by our own government, perhaps to send a message to other BP agents that they shouldn't really enforce the law or perhaps to send a message to Mexico that president Bush isn't really serious about enforcing the law. Both have been sentenced to over 10 years in prison. Bush could pardon them, but with even his Attorney General denying having received a letter from Congressmen about the case, that seems less than likely. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher will soon be trying to give Bush a petition signed by 160,000 Americans, so perhaps that might do the trick. However, this will probably end up being what he gives them for Christmas:

Posted to Immigration at 06:38 AM | Comments (4)

Immigration questions for Max Sawicky

Max Sawicky (of MaxSpeak) recently posted this entry which purports to smash several of the myths surrounding immigration. Unfortunately, he lumps all forms of immigration under the same banner, and he also only discusses financial-related issues. Thus, he doesn't really answer some of the even more perilous aspects of massive illegal immigration. So, here are a few questions he can try to answer next time:

1. The downsides to remittances include: creating an unnatural dependence between countries, encouraging the U.S. Federal Reserve and member banks to profit from illegal activity, and propping up the Mexican government.

2. Many of our "immigrants" come from Mexico, a country which used to own part of this country. 58% of Mexicans think the U.S. southwest (their "lost territories") rightfully belongs to Mexico. Only an ahistoric fool or a hack would try to downplay that major difference between current and past immigration.

3. Many companies profit from illegal immigration, and they donate money to politicians who support illegal immigration in one way or another. That is political corruption no matter how you want to look at it, and massive illegal immigration is leading to massive political corruption.

I look forward to Sawicky putting on price tag on those in a future post.

Related: An immigration challenge for Andrew Sullivan

Posted to Immigration at 05:31 PM | Comments (5)

Dude! WTF? OMG!

Dude! Extreme! Wait dude, Extreme Dude! Dude? Dude!

Lonewacko comments: the guy in the second video is absolutely, positively, freaking out of his mind batsh*t insane.

Posted to OutdoorSports at 11:43 AM | Comments (0)

"Keith Ellison for Dummies"

As many other sources have discussed, Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA) recently sent a letter with the following:

"...We need to stop illegal immigration totally and reduce legal immigration and end the diversity visas policy pushed hard by President Clinton and allowing many persons from the Middle East to come to this country... I fear that in the next century we will have many more Muslims in the United States if we do not adopt the strict immigration policies that I believe are necessary to preserve the values and beliefs traditional to the United States of America and to prevent our resources from being swamped..."

This site isn't ready to fully endorse his statements, but we take a more historical, non-PC view of the matter.

In any case, these statements were in relation to newly-elected Congressman Keith Ellison, the first Muslim in Congress and a Democrat.

As might be expected, the completely non-liberal MSM has condemned Goode's comments and treated Ellison with kid gloves. Therefore, while I regret linking to Powerline, they've apparently been covering this matter from a more fact-based position, starting here. That has some puffball questions Wolf Blitzer asked him in a recent interview, as well as linking to their previous entries "Keith Ellison for Dummies" and "Louis Farrakhan's First Congressman."

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

LULAC, Democratic Party, other illegal immigration supporters call for moratorium on deportations (Part 2)

At a news conference in San Antonio yesterday, illegal immigration supporters called for a halt to deportations until "comprehensive immigration reform" was passed. Michelle Roberts of the AP - or her editors - appears to have forgot to include a few juicy quotes and omitted one quote source entirely.

Jim Forsyth of Reuters quotes Rosa Rosales of LULAC saying this:

"We are demanding an end to these immigration raids, where they are targeting brown faces. That is major, major racial profiling, and that cannot be tolerated... ...Every labor-intensive industry including the hospitality, construction, agriculture and restaurant industries will be adversely impacted if these raids continue."

Obviously, LULAC is a very strong supporter of illegal immigration.

Then, we turn to Carla Vela, who Forsyth only describes as a Democratic Party activist. She's actually the Chair of the Democratic Party of Bexar County (home of San Antone). Their homepage is here, and there's more on their troubled group here and here. This representative of the Democratic Party is quoted as saying:

"This unfortunately reminds me of when Hitler began rounding up the Jews for no reason and locking them up... Now they're coming for the Latinos, who will they come for next?"

I urge everyone to attend meetings by national Democratic Party leaders and ask them to take a stance on her quote.

We're also informed that other groups at the San Antonio press conference included the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (has at least one indirect link to the Mexican government), the Hispanic National Bar Association, and the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (has at least one direct link to the Mexican government).

And, of course, no Reuters story would be complete without disinformatsia:

Anger at anti-immigrant rhetoric and measures is said to have hurt Republican candidates with Hispanic voters in November elections that saw the Democrats win a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate.

Posted to Immigration at 09:23 AM | Comments (2)

Deval Patrick to rescind Mass cooperation on illegal immigration with DHS

Massachusetts governor-elect Deval Patrick is pledging to rescind Mitt Romney's order that would allow Mass state police to include the possibility that a suspect in another crime was an illegal alien in their investigations. This order would not allow police to detain people just suspected of being illegal aliens or performing similar functions.

As previously discussed, Patrick appears to be little more than a robot pre-programmed with Dem talking points, and he uttered them in this case. Specifically, he doesn't want MA troopers enforcing federal laws: they already have enough to do. Needless to say, neither the NYT (by Katie Zezima; link) nor the Boston Globe (by Andrea Estes; link) called him on those statements, and neither asked him why he thinks that deporting illegal alien criminals would increase rather than decrease the workload of state cops.

However, there is one difference between the nominally-independent papers. The Globe failed to note even more evidence that Patrick has absolutely no clue about the decisions he's making. The NYT notes this quote:

"I also understand the I.N.S. isn't interested in sharing their enforcement powers," he said, referring to the former immigration agency.

"Former", as in "going on four years now".

Slightly related:
Silvestre Reyes knows less about terrorists than many bloggers

Posted to Immigration at 06:31 AM | Comments (2)

Illegal aliens, supporters call for moratorium on deportations (LULAC)

From our "pickpockets call for moratorium on laws against pickpocketing" file comes a trio of - possibly loosely coordinated - stories about illegal aliens or supporters of illegal immigration calling for a moratorium on raids and deportations until such time as "comprehensive immigration reform" is passed.

First up is the noxious League of United Latin American Citizens and their national president Rosa Rosales. Speaking in San Antonio, Michelle Roberts of AP quotes her as saying:

"We would like the raids to stop - a moratorium on them - until we can come up with comprehensive immigration reform."

What happens after "reform" is passed, millions of new illegal aliens come here, and raids - such as those presumably included in the "reform" bill - are conducted? Does anyone in their right mind think that LULAC would then approve of those raids? Is there anyone who cannot hear LULAC saying what they're saying now in that case? Should anything they say be trusted?

The same article quotes another illegal immigration supporter, "Jaime Martinez, president of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, a division of the AFL-CIO". And, it includes this slight clue that the Bush administration is much closer to LULAC's thinking than that of the vast majority of Americans:

Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Marc Raimondi said that although Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has made it clear that comprehensive immigration reform is necessary, the agency must enforce the law.

Next come the far-lefties, hiding behind selective readings of the Bible. A group of "community activists" spoke in Omaha:

"People were asking for mercy. It was not mercy. It was so painful. It was so sad," said Jorge Canelas, of the Cathedral of St. Mary's Church...

..."The Episcopal Church recognizes the importance of secure borders, but we also believe our nation must not abandon its commitment to principles of justness and fairness toward those who come to our shores for legitimate reasons," said the Rev. Joe Burnett, of the Bishop of the Northeast Episcopal Diocese...

..."When you disrupt a family, you disrupt the lives of children," said Tom Harvey, of Omaha Public Schools...

..."We need the people who migrate here. We need their culture. We need the rich gifts they bring. We depend upon that so that our culture continues to grow in diversity," said the Rev. Andrew Alexander, of Creighton University...

Finally, Lyanne Melendez of KGO-TV offers the not-at-all coherent report "Day Laborers Denounce Recent Immigration Raids". If illegal aliens are opposed to enforcement of our laws, where does the problem lie? Their news director Kevin Keeshan has a blog, so let's all clue him in: newsdirectorblog.abc7news.com

UPDATE: Here's more from Rosa Rosales and from Carla Vela, Chair of the Democratic Party of Bexar County.

Posted to Immigration at 03:02 AM | Comments (2)

James Kim, Part 3; "hikers" on Mt. Hood; MSM incompetence

A few random notes on recent outdoors stories:

First, my speculation about the search "effort" in the James Kim case appears to have been correct, in that not only did they fail to take advantage of the knowledge of locals, other aspects were handled incompetently. ("A FAMILY'S TRAGEDY: Fumbles, missteps hindered search; Father hiked 16 miles in effort to save family"; link).

Second, many media sources further compounded their negligence in this matter by noting that he left on his fateful hike without a hat. To my knowledge, none of those media sources have shown any common sense by noting that he had and should have availed himself of a huge resource: his car. There may have been sheets of plastic in the car doors and elsewhere, there are foam cushions in the seats, and it no doubt had a good amount of carpeting. While he couldn't tear the entire car apart, he could at least have taken a floor mat or similar or a swatch of carpet from the trunk.

Now, regarding the case of the climbers who couldn't get off Mt. Hood. The most nagging issue with the media in that case is many sources continually refering to them as "hikers" (example). While one can certainly hike in wintertime and in the snow, what they were doing was in no way "hiking" but was in fact "climbing".

One also wonders why this story became such a cable and regular TV staple. Were Fox and CNN crews already in Oregon twiddling their thumbs? Was the media hoping to keep riding the "hikers lost in the wilderness" wave? Why are media sources with multi-million dollar budgets unable to see the benefit in offering actual valid, useful information rather than constantly and exclusively offering only the Nancy Grace side of things?

Posted to OutdoorSports at 09:01 PM | Comments (1)

Bryan Caplan descends into self-parody on immigration and... donuts

Bryan Caplan - along with TCS/Insty fave Arnold Kling - is one of the contributors to "EconLog", a libertarian/"free" market-oriented site that, like other libertarians, can't seem to understand how massive illegal immigration violates the supposed libertarian support for national defense and their supposed opposition to subsidies.

In his latest post, Caplan has - according to this - descended into self-parody, and I concur. While not specifically concerning the illegal variety of immigration, he supports immigration from Cambodia... because Cambodians are good at making fresh donuts:

...In L.A., independent shops with fresh doughnuts are the rule. What gives? ...After learning a bit about the industry, I advanced a simple explanation: Los Angeles has Cambodian immigrants to thank for its happy situation.

Thankfully, commenter "superdestroyer" provides some counterpoint to Caplan's starry-eyed blather. And, I join in with a link to my Jobs for South Asia satire.

If Caplan would like to be taken seriously, he might consider approaching some of the downsides of what he's promoting in a future post.

Posted to Immigration at 05:36 PM | Comments (3)

Fluke: first normal post at Huffington Post spotted

I'm a big fan of the Huffington Post for many reasons: unlike other sites it has a look that's immediately recognizable and one always knows where one is, they occasionally have Harry Reid on there and two of my very scathing comments have ended up on the first page of comments on two of his posts, most of my other comments have been approved despite being just slightly less scathing, plus, The Fourth Gabor Sister aka Arianna is... interesting.

That said, this post from nobody Gerald Bracey - apparently a public schools wonk - is not like the other posts I've read there. While he might be a liberal, and he might even be cooking his figures, it's unique in that it: a) doesn't call Dick Cheney "Darth Vader" or similar, b) doesn't feature obviously lunatic ideas, and c) doesn't feature blackface. In fact, it seems almost normal.

Posted to Bloggage at 08:26 PM | Comments (1)

No Santa For Hazleton

Some wacky illegal immigration supporter has started the satire site nosantaforhazleton.com:

The people of Hazleton, PA are proud to announce a citizen-organized public awareness campaign called "No Santa for Hazleton." The campaign will use Santa Claus' status as America's most-loved illegal worker to demonstrate Hazleton's new "zero tolerance" policy toward illegal aliens. [...further support for illegal immigration deleted...]

Jon Hurdle of Reuters jumps on the fun, offering "Hoax Web site jabs anti-illegal immigrant U.S. town". It must feel great to have your propaganda picked up by an even greater propaganda source.

Unfortunately, those behind the site aren't brave enough to reveal their identities either on the site or through their WHOIS (see melbourneit.com.au) which is cloaked using "Private Domain Registration" (see concentric.com/privatereg.php) which may lead people to think they're located in Emeryville, CA when in fact that's simply a mail drop. There are certainly good reasons to hide WHOIS info in the case of, say, political prosecution, but in this case why should they (presumably) be ashamed? They aren't advocating anything reprehensible, right?

Their video is here and they even created a special user account just for this project. The only thing to be gleaned from that is that they joined two months ago.

The site was dugg here (digg.com/users/joein3d/news/dugg), but he probably found it through youtube. That user appears to be Joe Walsh (joein3d.mit.edu) who's involved with video. Oddly enough, "joezane" also dropped the link at Stephen Colbert's forum (tinyurl.com/y4xk83), and that may be the same joezane who has a myspace account (tinyurl.com/ycjke2). Certainly, I have a bunch of sites and post messages here and there using different names, so none of that should indicate that he has any connection to the site whatsoever.

UPDATE: MSNBC prints the Reuters story under the title "Hoax Web site jabs anti-illegal immigrant town" (link). However, a search for the title of this post in google shows that the title as indexed was "Web site takes swipe at nativist town".

Posted to Immigration at 03:24 PM | Comments (2)

Swift and Company sued under RICO Act

From this:

A spokesman for Swift & Co. says a lawsuit filed recently by eighteen former Swift & Co. employees is "completely without merit." The $23-million lawsuit alleges that the meat packing company conspired to manipulate and depress the labor market and wages by hiring illegal immigrants.

The lawsuit, filed late Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, alleges that defendants including Swift and its owners, HM Capital Partners LLC in Dallas -- formerly Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst -- engaged in an "enterprise that grossly affected commerce through a pattern of racketeering activity" in violation of the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act...

I heard one of the lawyers on KFI's John & Ken Show a day or two ago. Most of the plaintiffs are Mexican-Americans and legal Hispanic immigrants. However, he didn't seem to sure of the suit, and J & K seemed to think it might be a bit of a fishing expedition.

Posted to Immigration at 02:11 PM | Comments (2)

New Haven's John DeStefano gets illegal immigration Christmas card

New Haven, Connecticut mayor John DeStefano is linked to collaborators with the Mexican government. Thus, it shouldn't come as a surprise that earlier today he received a "giant Christmas card and a call for immigrants' rights" (link):

New Haven based "Unidad Latina en Accion" made a special Christmas delivery to City Hall today.

The group made up of illegal immigrants and advocates for immigration rights handed over a Christmas card to Mayor John DeStefano. Inside the card were their Christmas wishes for the New Year.

First and foremost, making into law a "general order" that allows police officers to disregard an illegal immigrants' status when that person reports a crime. The "order" goes into formal affect tomorrow...

...The grassroots group for immigrants' rights thanked Mayor Destefano for signing off on the police department's new policy to look the other way when it comes to immigration status...

Posted to Immigration at 01:11 PM | Comments (2)

Swift slabs of pro-illegal immigration propaganda

Various news sources have been working overtime to spin the recent Swift & Company immigration raids as a case of the evil ICE (called in at least one article "INS") oppressing poor undocumented workers. The motivations for this may vary and may include: those illegal aliens make money for persons linked to those media sources, or those sources look on them as a market, or they're trying to support the Democrats and the "comprehensive immigration reform" with which they're linked, or out of ethnic solidarity. In the case of local reports, the papers may be thinking of the "local economy".

An early report from Roxana Hegeman of the Associated Press was previously discussed.

Others include:

* "Immigrants' Families Figuring Out What to Do After Federal Raids" by Julia Preston/New York Times (link; discussed here; write public *at* nytimes.com)

* "Mom, kids spend 3 days in agony" by Jennifer Jacobs/Des Moines Register (link; discussed here)

* "Food, items donated to raid families" by Dan Browning/Minneapolis Star-Tribune (link; discussed here; the original title of the article may have been "A helping hand after a week of fear")

* "Raid rattles workers and life along Hwy. 60" by Chao Xiong and Richard Meryhew/Minneapolis Star-Tribune (link; discussed here)

Posted to Immigration at 11:26 AM | Comments (5)

Actress threatens dogs; cats celebrate!

Br'er Drudge is linking to this article about an actress apparently going a bit overboard in an antithetical-to-PETA manner.

Perhaps Reuters should edit the teaser link they're showing next to the story:

Posted to WackyHumor at 02:54 PM | Comments (1)

Robert Pastor: North American Community just a crisis away

American University professor Robert Pastor is one of the guiding lights of the move to join the U.S., Canada, and Mexico into one nation. WND spoke to him about statements he made in a Spanish-language magazine:

This was the first time WND had found a major intellectual leader behind the push to integrate North America suggesting that a crisis of 9-11 proportions might be just what was needed to advance the process toward establishing a North American Union and the amero. WND reached Pastor in his office at American University and conducted a telephone interview to make sure the Spanish publication accurately reflected his views.

He affirmed the Spanish interview represents his thinking.

"What I'm saying is that a crisis is an event which can force democratic governments to make difficult decisions like those that will be required to create a North American Community," he said. "It's not that I want another 9/11 crisis, but having a crisis would force decisions that otherwise might not get made."

Pastor noted, for example that "Europeans, facing the crisis of two World Wars, turned to the European Community as a means to prevent war and advance their economic interests."

"The United States turned to the Marshall Plan when faced with the crisis of Western Europe falling into the hands of communism," he said. "So, I'm not advocating, or encouraging, or wanting a crisis, I'm only saying that in order to take important initiatives, sometimes one manner in which this occurs is when there is a crisis to which leaders need to respond."

I used to laugh at the peaceatarians carrying their "Reichstag Fire" signs, but...

Posted to NAU at 01:29 PM | Comments (2)

Pro-illegal immigration ACLU meddling in Butler County, Ohio

To the best of my knowledge, every single immigration-related matter that the ACLU has been involved in does not involve support for our laws but rather supports massive illegal immigration. Continuing that trend, the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio says they're going to act as "watchdogs" over Butler County Sheriff Richard K. Jones due to his request to the DHS that would allow him to detain suspected illegal aliens:

...The ACLU has requested copies of the agreement [with the DHS] from both the sheriff's office and ICE.

"Sheriff Jones has already demonstrated hostility towards the Hispanic population in Butler County," ACLU of Ohio Staff Attorney Carrie Davis said in a statement. "It is important to review the document and discern what he can and cannot do under this agreement and ensure he stays within those boundaries."

Davis criticized the erection earlier this year of billboards around the county featuring Jones threatening local businesses that hire illegal immigrants and his detention of 18 suspected illegal immigrants in May after an altercation at a construction site near Seven Mile.

Neighboring Warren County will be making a similar request to the DHS.

Some brave reporter somewhere should ask the ACLU why they're always on the side of illegal immigration, as well as asking about their indirect link to the Mexican government.

Posted to Immigration at 08:46 AM | Comments (4)

Recovering useful idiot immigration test for liberals

To my liberal readers:

You catch more flies, etc. But, then again, sometimes you have to just come right and say uncomfortable things: many liberals are useful idiots when it comes to immigration matters.

To help said afflicted persons recover, I suggest reading the report "Immigration phenomenon, not problem, Mexico vice consul tells AJC gathering" from Deborah Moon of the Jewish Review concerning a speech that that consul gave in Portland. This is a good example because one would have to be very deluded to take what she says at face value:

..."We don't like to promote emigration," said [Estela Garcia Leon, vice consul of the Consulate of Mexico in Portland], of the Mexican government. "We don't like to see our human capital go away."

Still, Leon said that the Mexican government considers immigration not as a problem, but as a natural phenomenon that occurs around the world. While the phenomenon has caused problems for both Mexico and the United States, Leon said, "We need to talk about it and manage it together."

Recognizing the U.S. need for increased border security in the post-9/11 world, Leon said border issues also require the two nations to work together...

...Leon said that if the U.S. government would authorize a sufficient number of visas for Mexicans seeking to enter this country, then people could enter by the front door instead of the back door, thereby decreasing human trafficking and reducing the impact of foreign labor on U.S. wages since legal workers would not undercut domestic wages...

Do you notice anything slightly unusual about the article? Yes, that's correct, Moon only acted as a transcription service and, at least based on her report, didn't ask any questions.

And, do you completely believe everything Leon said? Or, do you think there's the possibility that she was lying through her teeth? Is she playing you for a sucker?

Can you compare the last paragraph quoted above to a similar request? Do you agree with her economic analysis? (For extra points, compare the last paragraph to a type of crime.)

Posted to Immigration at 05:49 AM | Comments (3)

Greeley, Colorado encouraging illegal immigration

Greeley, Colorado is home to Swift and Company, which was recently raided by ICE. Now, according to this article by Joanna Larez, the "Greeley Human Relations Commission" has given $2,000 to the "Our Lady of Peace Catholic Church fund for families hurt by the raid." They would have given more, but they haven't yet cashed the grant check from "The Colorado Trust to begin planning action to build a stronger community with good relationships with immigrants". Where exactly the money came from is not stated; it could have come from private funds, or perhaps city money.

This is a very small amount in the scheme of things, but it's the thought that counts. If they gave the money together with bus fare for illegal aliens to leave the city, that would be one thing. However, their gift will allow those illegal aliens to remain in their city. The ultimate beneficiaries of the gift will be the employers of those illegal aliens, who will continue to have a ready supply of cheap, illegal labor. On a hopeful note, the 50+ comments on the story are mostly highly negative.

Whether that commission is an actual city agency isn't clear, but it:

consists of nine members appointed by the City Council, and representatives from the University of Northern Colorado, Aims Community College, and School District 6.

And, everyone hold hands and sing their Mission Statement:

To promote respect, understanding, appreciation and harmony among the members of our community by acting as a forum for advocacy of equality, fairness and celebrating diversity.

Other usual suspects quoted in the article are Sylvia Martinez and Maria Flores of Latinos Unidos.

Posted to Immigration at 01:30 AM | Comments (3)

Roxana Hegeman/AP: the $5 Swift sausage scare

Roxana Hegeman of the Associated Press offers "Immigration raids may affect meat prices". Per her, the only way to keep prices low is to allow companies to flagrantly violate the law:

When hordes of police and immigration officials stormed meatpacking plants in six states this week, the illegal workers arrested may not have been the only victims.

Consumers and the industry itself may be feeling the repercussions in a shortage of meatpackers, higher wage costs and, ultimately, higher prices for the beef that lands on America's tables at home and in restaurants...

Oh heavens no. I guess if I want to avoid the coming twenty dollar hamburgers (together with a ten dollar salad), I'll have to go to a Chinese restaurant or something. And, of course, one might think that in this case the victims are those who had their identity stolen, as well as those who were forced to subsidize Swift's labor, as well as every other U.S. citizen that's been forced to put up with our government's failure to enforce our laws. Hegeman thinks different: it's the government that's guilty, with the illegal laborers being the "victims".

Continuing on, she features the thoughts of guest worker program hack Mark Reed "former immigration regional director who now runs his own consulting business, Border Management Strategies, in Tucson, Ariz":

"The meatpacking industry has become dependent on an unauthorized labor force, and it is not good government to destroy an entire industry. In some way, there is going to be a meeting of the minds..." Every labor-intensive industry -- the hotel industry, the construction industry, agriculture -- will be similarly impacted, he said.

If the meatpacking business can't do business within our laws, then they should go out of business. Supporting our laws - and avoiding government corruption - is far, far more important.

Posted to Immigration at 10:14 PM | Comments (9)

What were the Swift & Co. illegal aliens thinking?

The usual sources are complaining about the recent Swift & Co raid breaking up mixed-status families (illegal aliens parents, U.S. citizen children). My brief glance at their statements failed to find anyone calling those parents to task for their extreme irresponsibility. Those illegal aliens weren't kidnapped and brought to the U.S. In the vast majority of cases, they came here willingly and fully aware that what they were doing is contrary to our laws. Then, they have children.

Shouldn't they bear some responsibility in this matter? Should they have put their children in such a situation? What would you think of yourself if you did such a thing? Do some people perhaps have a lower opinion of them than of Americans, thinking somehow they're not so bright or something? Should we hold them to a lower standard? Should we encourage future cases of people coming here and expecting to stay as long as they have U.S. citizen children? (Perhaps the Democratic Party could make that a plank in their next platform.)

This situation is similar to the propaganda designed to support the DREAM Act. In none of those reports have I seen a reporter try to interview the parents and see what they were thinking.

Posted to Immigration at 03:47 PM | Comments (1)

John McCain's nanny state, anti-blogging legislation

ThinkProgress - adjust your credibility indicators accordingly - sounds the alarm about new legislation from Senator John McCain (R-Lechuga). Based on this CNET article, they provide these handy bullet points:

- Commercial websites and personal blogs "would be required to report illegal images or videos posted by their users or pay fines of up to $300,000."

– Internet service providers (ISPs) are already required to issue such reports, but under McCain's legislation, bloggers with comment sections may face "even stiffer penalties" than ISPs.

— Social networking sites will be forced to take "effective measures" - such as deleting user profiles - to remove any website that is "associated" with a sex offender. Sites may include not only Facebook and MySpace, but also Amazon.com, which permits author profiles and personal lists, and blogs like DailyKos, which allows users to sign up for personal diaries.

Most forums allow profiles, as does Yahoo. Such capability is also built into CMS's such as Drupal.

Posted to Bloggage at 05:09 AM | Comments (2)

Whitley Strieber on (illegal) aliens

Self-professed alien abductee Whitley Strieber apparently still hasn't completely removed his implant, because back on the 5th he (or someone else writing for his site) offered "Why Putting Up a Fence Won't Work" (via this). It doesn't probe the subject in depth, offering only a couple quotes from some unknown newspaper article.

One of those quoted is "Attorney Margaret Wong, who founded the largest immigration law firm in Ohio". Presumably she has a monetary motive in this case. And, the other person quoted is Daniel Griswold of the CATO institute.

Posted to WackyHumor at 02:38 AM | Comments (0)

"Meatpacking raids: A victim's story" (Swift, identity theft)

Surprisingly, MSNBC offers this:

Theresa Sanchez was expecting a $5,400 tax refund when she opened a letter from the IRS in January 2003. Instead, she got a bill demanding payment of taxes on $120,000 in undeclared wages. Someone using her name and Social Security number had earned the money through a series of jobs dating back to 1996 and had not paid any taxes on the income, the letter said.

Sanchez complained to the agency and to the Federal Trade Commission that her identity had been stolen, and was being used by someone to gain employment. Nonetheless, more than two years later, in April 2005, a woman walked into the Swift & Co. meatpacking plant in Greeley, Colo., and used Theresa Sanchez's name and Social Security number to get a job...

More on these victims here, here, here, here, and here.

Posted to Immigration at 10:53 PM | Comments (5)

PBS NewsHour's Soviet-style immigration coverage

The PBS NewsHour is no longer an accurate source of information on immigration but is now simply a Soviet-style propaganda source. The latest example is the Gwen Ifill "report" on the Swift packing raid, which featured two sequential guests.

The first was Mark Lauritsen of the United Food and Commercial Workers union. He basically cried and whined his support for illegal immigration, his support for "comprehensive immigration reform", and his attempts to pass the buck. Ifill did not ask him questions in any way tough enough to blow his various statements out of the water.

OK, fine I think, hopefully they'll have someone on the other side blow both of them out of the water. Let's go to the transcript:

GWEN IFILL: And now to Julie Myers, assistant secretary for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Your response?

JULIE MYERS, Immigration and Customs Enforcement: Well, I agree. We need comprehensive immigration reform.

Note to PBS: this is how things are handled in totalitarian regimes: a "debate" between people on the same side. If you wish to have any credibility, at the very least have a third person available that actually supports our immigration laws and will let your viewers know what's really going on. Without that person, you're misleading your viewers and broadcasting propaganda.

Please everyone send a message to PBS at this link: pbs.org/newshour/letters.html

Posted to Immigration at 07:29 PM | Comments (1)

"Declaration of Los Angeles" (city council-approved pro-illegal immigration resolution)

The Anti-Defamation League, their Latino-Jewish Roundtable, and several other groups have convinced the Los Angeles City Council to sign the "Declaration of Los Angeles", a far-left resolution that claims to support human rights for "immigrants", but which is little more than a resolution in support of illegal immigration, couched in the expected doublespeak. Next year they're going to try to get the California legislature to sign on, and the Mexican partisans in that body will probably trip over themselves to comply.

The press release quotes Amanda Susskind, Director of the ADL Pacific Southwest Region:

"At this particularly volatile time in our country's history, we find it of utmost importance to unite against hatred and victimization aimed at many people who migrate to this country. Without negating the need for safe and secure borders, nor aligning ourselves with partisan politics on the issue, the ADL stands strong in the desire to support basic human rights and fair treatment of immigrants."

There certainly is some "hatred and victimization" of all types of immigrants, yet as their history shows the ADL is willing to smear those who simply support our laws of engaging in those practices. And, of course, "migrate" is a bit close to the Mexican government's favorite euphemism for illegal immigration, "migration". And, of course, their "fair treatment" - based on their past statements - is "comprehensive immigration reform".

According to the release, the Declaration also condemns "xenophobic rhetoric... especially about Latino immigration". As above, their definition of "xenophobia" is what others call "opposition to massive illegal immigration". They also oppose "vigilante civilian patrol groups creating the potential for violence and an atmosphere of fear and lawlessness", a truly Orwellian phrase considering the massive lawlessness and political corruption associated with what the ADL supports.

The doublespeak continues:

The Declaration calls upon local, state and federal government officials to: recognize and protect the basic human rights of immigrants, support humane treatment of undocumented persons, publicly denounce xenophobia, monitor and respond to extremists groups that advocate bigotry or racism, hold to the highest standards of human rights and dignity all law enforcement and judicial processes that relate to deportation, detention and immigration status, and recognize the need for a safe and secure United States.

Of course, the government monitoring and responding to groups that abide by the laws is a truly fascistic idea, but no one ever said the other side were nice people. And, the implication that the DHS is not dealing with "undocumented persons" (illegal aliens) humanely is meant to chill attempts at enforcing our immigration laws.

In brief, their position - and the one now taken by the Los Angeles City Council - is only a slightly cleaned-up version of that that one might expect from the Mexican government.

Which brings us to their partners in this enterprise:

* ACLU of Southern California (has at least one indirect link to the Mexican government)
* American Jewish Committee
* American Jewish Congress
* Archdiocese of Los Angeles (led by Cardinal Roger Mahoney)
* Asian Pacific American Legal Center
* Bet Tzedek Legal Services
* Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (alleged collaborateurs with the Mexican government)
* Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation
* Gay and Lesbian Center Legal Services Department
* Korean American Coalition
* LA Center for Law and Justice
* League of United Latin American Citizens
* Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (has at least on indirect link to the Mexican government)
* National Council of Jewish Women Los Angeles Section
* Progressive Jewish Alliance
* Public Counsel Law Center
* South Asian Network

Posted to Los_Angeles at 04:05 PM | Comments (3)

Will Rod Blagojevich pro-illegal immigration scheme violate law?

In November 2005, Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich - a very strong supporter of illegal immigration - created the "New Americans Immigrant Policy Council" (press release link) to come up with ways to deal with immigrants in his state. The report from the NAIPC has been released, as has a report from a similar panel. Blago has endorsed their findings, but has not committed any money. And, whether any money will be found is still to be determined.

As even the WaPo discloses ("Ill. Governor To Announce New Benefits For Immigrants" by Kari Lydersen), these benefits would be for both legal and illegal immigrants:

Key points of the New Americans program include increasing the number of dual-language schools, English-as-a-second-language programs and bilingual staff members at state agencies, as well as providing job training for skilled and unskilled immigrants. The program is described as the first of its kind nationwide.

Tom Vilsack and Mike Huckabee might beg to differ; the "welcoming centers" proposed in one of the reports matches those offered in Iowa. There are only two points worth noting in the WaPo coverage: that one of the members of one of the panels is "former Immigration and Naturalization Service commissioner Doris Meissner", and this:

Susan Tully, national field director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, said the program will put Blagojevich in violation of U.S. immigration law... "He does not have the right under the Constitution, even as governor of Illinois, to grant benefits to people who haven't been cleared by immigration and customs agents," she said.

The article "Aid for immigrants proposed" by Oscar Avila has more on the proposals, but like the WaPo report it doesn't offer much backstory.

Now, let's look at the seamy underbelly of Blago's scheme.

The 11/2005 press release doesn't differentiate between illegal and legal immigrants. And:

The Governor shall appoint a 15-person New Americans Immigrant Policy Council comprised of the chairs of the Joint Legislative Immigrant and Refugee Policy Task Force, a representative of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, and other appropriate parties.

Like Blago, the ICIRR is a strong supporter of illegal immigration. They were involved in the Jim Oberweis smear. And, they helped organize some of the Chicago illegal immigration marches; Blago spoke at at least one of those. Not only that, but after the first march their president Juan Salgado spoke at Los Pinos, the Mexican White House. And, their president is Josh Hoyt.

I look forward to the WaPo and the Chicago Tribune disclosing who Blago is affiliated with.

Posted to Immigration at 11:08 AM | Comments (4)

How implantable chips could become commonplace

The article "A generation is all they need" lays out the possible ways that the public could be sold on implantable ID chips/RFID tags that could be used to make purchases and for other purposes. It gets one thing wrong in the intro:

millions of consumer goods are now traced with tiny radio frequency identification chips that allow satellites to reveal their exact location

As far as I know, there are two types of RFID chips: ones that transmit signals and ones that only respond to transmitted signals. The latter are less expensive, the former are probably only used in higher end items, and I don't think either kind can be tracked from space.

Nevertheless, the scenario presented is probably close to how it will be attempted:

...the first widespread use of human implanting will occur in nations at the periphery of the Western world...

...An increasing array of hypothetical chipping scenarios will also be depicted in entertainment media, furthering the familiarization process.

In the West, chips will first be implanted in members of stigmatized groups... Even accused individuals will be tagged, a measure justified on the grounds that it would stop them from fleeing justice... ...welfare recipients will receive their benefits as electronic vouchers stored on their microchips...

...Civil libertarians will try to foster a debate on these developments. Their attempts to prohibit chipping will be handicapped by the inherent difficulty in animating public sympathy for criminals and welfare recipients...

...Mandated to determine the legality of such initiatives, privacy commissioners and Senate Committees will produce a forest of reports presented at an archipelago of international conferences. Hampered by lengthy research and publication timelines, their findings will be delivered long after the widespread adoption of chipping is effectively a fait accompli. The research conclusions on the effectiveness of such technologies will be mixed and open to interpretation.

Posted to Privacy at 08:36 AM | Comments (1)

Swift packing immigration raid conducted; send Bush a cookie!

Yesterday ICE conducted the latest in a series of what are most likely show immigration raids, this time of Swift & Co.'s meatpacking plants in various cities. A roundup is here. "Liberals"/illegal immigration supporters weigh in with more links here and here.

The last link even has a stern condemnation from Teddy Kennedy (D-Grand Marnier):

"I am deeply disturbed by the reports I have received today about the actions taken by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to apprehend individuals and cart them away for processing without any opportunity to assert their rights or contact their families and attorneys. These men and women are simply workers and not terrorists or dangerous criminals and they should not be treated as such. No one denies the need for additional enforcement at the border and at US worksites. We support efforts by ICE officials to enforce our immigration laws, but do not condone enforcement efforts that mistreat workers and violate their legal rights... Comprehensive immigration reform is good for our economy and our security, and it's consistent with our values and our heritage as a nation of immigrants. Today's enforcement action is the most recent reminder that our immigration system is irreparably broken and needs to be urgently fixed."

The cities include Greeley, Colorado (home of Swift), Grand Island (Nebraska), Cactus (Texas), Hyrum (Utah), Marshalltown (Iowa) and Worthington (Minnesota).

Marshalltown has a Gov. Tom Vilsack link. Grand Island has a tangential link to former Nebraska governor (and current Ag Secretary) Mike Johanns.

Cactus was the subject of a three-part series from the Dallas Morning News; the last is here and the first is here.

If I seem blase, it's because I am. Whatever the motivations behind these raids, they're too little too late. And, they may have been conducted as an attempt to show that the Bush administration is serious about enforcement, as a way of getting "comprehensive immigration reform". There's probably very little chance that Teddy Kennedy and Bush were actively colluding on the raid, but both are serving the same master: "comprehensive immigration reform" (i.e., a massive amnesty).

Such raids need to be encouraged, but the Bush administration also needs to know that we're on to what is most likely a game they're playing. My original thought was to send a cookie to the White House as a bit of positive enforcement, but that's probably not a good idea.

However, perhaps some brave soul could send the White House a McDonalds gift certificate. Apparently the smallest amount you can get online is a $5 book with five certificates, although one of their restaurants might have smaller denominations. I'd suggest sending the smallest coupon possible (preferably something good for only an ice cream cone or half a McRib or something), thanking them for their however belated attempts to enforce our laws. And, informing them in the most condescending-but-polite terms possible that if they keep doing a good job they'll get the rest of the book. (And, of course, if they can't keep the cert themselves they should give it to one of the homeless people just a few blocks from the White House). That plan is only for the brave, of course, and don't tell them I gave you the idea.

Perhaps someone like Neal Boortz or Glenn Beck could pick up this idea and run with it.

Posted to Immigration at 05:41 AM | Comments (4)

D.A. King needs money to fight illegal immigration

D.A. King of the Dustin Inman Society has been a strong campaigner in opposition to illegal immigration, especially in Georgia. That state is rife with questionable persons such as Pedro Marin, Sam Zamarripa, and Teodoro Maus. Now, he's asking for donations so he can continue the fight against those anti-American forces.

Posted to Immigration at 08:35 PM | Comments (1)

Stillmore: The Crider/SPLC/MSM plantation

Dahleen Glanton of the Chicago Tribune offers no less than four (and maybe more) articles about September's ICE raid of the Crider Poultry plant in Stillmore, Georgia. The raid resulted in hundreds of illegal aliens leaving the city, and that resulted in pro-illegal immigration propaganda from Russ Bynum of the AP, Reason Magazine, and Patrik Jonsson of the CSM, as well as a lawsuit from the Southern Poverty Law Center, a group indirectly linked to the Mexican government.

The Glanton article that should read before the others is "New hires, most black, find a grim daily grind". Not only does that reveal more about Crider and the city than the previous articles, it also makes some of Glanton's other coverage a bit questionable:

Crider officials are scrambling to find workers. Over the last decade, the company gradually replaced African-American employees with Hispanics. Now the company has again turned to blacks and anyone else it can find, including about 40 felons from a detention center and 30 homeless men from a mission, to keep running...

[An unemployed welder from Douglas 100 miles away describes how a recruiter hired him to work at the plant:] "He said they had rooms for us and I was thinking at least a Holiday Inn. But when I got here, it was a different story."

The man who hired him was a private contractor, and the free room turned out to be in barracks owned by Crider. Inside the filthy two-bedroom units, men and women sleep on mattresses on the floor and toilets overflow. Crider officials said they plan to shut the barracks.

The barracks used to be filled with illegal immigrants. Now the tenants are all African-Americans. "When we pulled in here, I felt like I would be used and discriminated against," Stanford said. "I felt degraded. I've never lived like this and I can't wait to get out."

Why would anyone support such living and working conditions? Yet, that's exactly what those who've taken Crider's side in this matter are doing: Russ Bynum of the AP, Reason Magazine, Patrik Jonsson of the CSM, and the SPLC are all implicitly supporting those "filthy" barracks.

The article "Raid exposes ethnic fault lines" informs us that the town had to raise $1 million for a new sewer system to deal with the influx of illegal aliens, a subsidy that Reason Magazine should be especially proud of implicitly supporting.

The article "For immigrants, raid dims hope for a better life" doesn't mention the "filthy" barracks described in the first article.

Finally, the article "Raid stirs aid effort as lawsuit seeks relief" has more on the suit:

...Last month, the Southern Poverty Law Center filed a lawsuit against the federal government on behalf of five Hispanic U.S. citizens who said they were harassed during the raid. The suit seeks monetary damages and a court order preventing future raids in the U.S.

...Another plaintiff, David Robinson, 48, earned $115,000 a year renting trailers to Crider's immigrant workers. Since the raid, his income has been cut in half. Robinson, who is white, was so enraged by the raid that he flew an American flag upside down on his property for a week.

In his view, he has done nothing wrong.

"I suspected they were illegal, but there is no way to know for sure," said Robinson. "When they go to Wal-Mart, nobody tries to find out if they are legal before they sell to them. I'm just providing a service."

Posted to Immigration at 05:29 AM | Comments (2)

Anne Taylor Fleming not on immigration

Anne Taylor Fleming is an author and regular essayist for PBS' NewsHour. Tonight's essay discussed the growing gap between the rich and the super rich on one hand, and the large number of non-rich persons on the other. It's not that notable for its content, only that which she keeps forgetting to mention.

In tonight's show, she discussed making annual pilgramages to Beverly Hills to do window-shopping, and was shocked that a purse was being sold for $28,000. She informed us that Los Angeles has more millionaires than any other U.S. city. Then, it cut to a shot of her on perhaps Broadway downtown (or perhaps on one of the streets in the Wilshire area) standing in front of a Hispanic boutique discussing how there are hundreds of thousands of very poor people in the same city. Something vaguely multicultural followed.

In a show from some years ago, she discussed how some of the poorest cities in either California or the U.S. are located in the South East L.A. area, specifically Maywood, Cudahy, etc.

In the first case and if I recall in the second, she did not mention the predominant reason there are so many poor people in those areas: massive immigration, especially of the illegal variety. She also did not look into the correlation between the gap mentioned in the first report and said massive immigration. I suspect there's a large degree of causation involved as well.

If ATF is really concerned about these issues, perhaps she can make up for the NewsHour's pro-illegal immigration, pro-amnesty bias by discussing these matters in a more complete detail than can be found in their other coverage.

Posted to Immigration at 08:04 PM | Comments (2)

Bill Richardson collaborating with OAS on immigration; Foreign Agent?

From the AFP:

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, a former UN ambassador, was named as the Organization of American States' special envoy on migration in an effort to improve US-Latin American dialogue.

..."The migration issue is key to improving relations (between Latin America and the United States," Richardson, 59, said at a news conference alongside OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza.

...Richardson, whose state borders Mexico, rejected plans backed by President George W. Bush to build a huge fence along the US-Mexico border to stop the flow of illegal immigration.

Instead, he called for comprehensive reform to regularize undocumented workers.

"Two things must take place. One, a plan to legalize the 12 million (illegal) immigrants in the United States, and I think that it is important to improve border security," he said, pointing to the need for increased patrols and more cooperation with Mexico.

(For those who don't follow this issue closely, the AFP was very misleading above. Bush is as strong a supporter of "comprehensive reform" as Richardson, and he only signed the fence bill reluctantly.)

Richardson also says that he knows Daniel Ortega and Hugo Chavez and he's willing to speak with them. Unlike others, I'll give him a pass on that, but I will second the idea that the governor of a U.S. state should not be representing a non-U.S. body, especially one that supports activities contrary to our laws namely illegal immigration. Perhaps New Mexico citizens could start a drive to make him register as a Foreign Agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

Related:
ACLU claims U.S. violating human rights obligations (OAS)
Mexico, 27 OAS nations declare opposition to border fence

Posted to Immigration at 03:32 AM | Comments (4)

Todd Spivak: mostly pro-grower, pro-illegal immigration propaganda

Todd Spivak of the Houston Press offers "Shorthanded: Foreign pickers aren't getting through the post-9/11 barricades to harvest U.S. crops". As you might have imagined, it's yet another in a long line of the "crops rotting in the fields because we can't get enough illegal aliens" articles. As in the other articles, you've got weeping growers pining over their supposedly rotting crops:

"It's very emotional," [Bernie Thiel] says. "You have a certain amount of time to get it done and if you don't get it done, that's it, it's over."

You've got the stolid GOP members who are turning their backs on the GOP because of supposed attempts to enforce our laws

Carnes, the cabbage farmer in Uvalde, had always voted Republican in major contests until this year. Fed up with Texas Gov. Rick Perry for campaigning on border enforcement without also stressing the need for a guest-worker program, he reluctantly decided to cast his vote for Democratic long shot Chris Bell...

He should take heart because Perry is definitely not on America's side in this issue. And, you've got the grower who's got a picture of himself with a conservative leader:

A lifelong Republican, John McClung served as spokesman for the USDA under Ronald Reagan, and a photo of him posing with the late president hangs prominently in his office. These days, however, his loyalties are wavering.

While Spivak does have a couple good quotes from the CIS, he doesn't try to dig into the issue in even the shallow depth that the SacBee attempted.

Previously in this long line:
NYT: Growers want to be subsidized (they already are)

Posted to Immigration_piipps at 10:07 PM | Comments (1)

Texas gov Rick Perry: no full fence, yes to anchor babies, guest workers

From this:

...Republican Gov. Rick Perry earned applause from the crowd [at a meeting of the Texas Border Coalition] when he said strategic fencing along the border makes sense but the idea of a complete wall or fence is "preposterous."

Instead, he wants the federal government to establish a guest-worker program that will allow the government to track workers, he said.

...Perry was asked after his speech whether it was a good or bad idea to do away with citizenship as a birthright [via proposed Texas legislation].

"I think any of those types of legislation that create divisions are bad," he said. "We need to look at ways to be bringing people together rather than driving wedges between them."

Now, compare his quote with that from State Rep. Veronica Gonzales, D-McAllen:

"That's just a ridiculous bill and I hope it does not see a debate on the floor, because what's going to happen is it's going to become extremely divisive..."

Cats and dogs working together, or could it be that they're both cats?

She also says she'll fight these bills with the help of the Texas Association of Business and the Mexican American Legislative Caucus.

In related Perry news:
Trans Texas Corrider master plan released
Suzanne Gamboa/AP on immigration ads
Schwarzenegger, Perry, Napolitano, Richardson urge "comprehensive" immigration reform
Rick Perry on immigration, Trans-Texas Corridor

Posted to Immigration at 06:25 PM | Comments (2)

James Kim, "vandals", the "search" effort, and the MSM

This is an update to this post. I haven't extensively researched the case of the San Francisco family (James Kim) who were trapped on a road in Oregon, but what I've seen and read so far leads me to several uncomfortable questions that others don't seem to be asking.

First, some background: it appears that they took Bear Camp Road for twelve miles and then turned onto BLM 34-8-36, taking that for fifteen miles until they were stuck. The Oregon state map (PDF) shows only about a dozen roads leading off 5 to get to the coast between Roseburg (when they were last spotted) and Medford. Since they were trying to get to Gold Beach, focusing on those routes would seem to have been the first priority. In fact, Google Maps gives the directions for the route they took.

With that said:

1. Bloggers should stop offering tips unless they know what they're talking about. (1,2; note that both those posts have AffiliateLinks)

2. I think the search efforts should be reviewed, to say the least. On Sat. 12/2 the Oregon State Police posted this (quoted here):

Following search efforts Friday and early this morning, Curry County Sheriff's Office Lieutenant Dennis Dinsmore confirmed that the length of Bear Camp Road was checked by Search & Rescue personnel and deputies using 4 x 4 vehicles and a Sno-Cat without finding any sign of the vehicle. Support air search efforts also have not located any sign of the vehicle in their county. Their efforts, supported by similar search efforts involving Josephine County Sheriff's Office, found no sign of the vehicle between Grants Pass and Gold Beach.

And, they said they were going to check side roads.

Now, we're informed ("Vandal cut lock on gate blocking road where Kims stranded", link) that BLM 34-8-36 is normally blocked in winter, but "vandals" had broken the lock. That word is completely inappropriate in this case, because people don't break locks just for a thrill. This area site offers some possible suspects:

His job is to drive around the wilderness keeping an eye out for fires, poachers, wood thieves and stealth marijuana "farmers." He also helps out the good guys like snowed-in hunters and wild mushroom gatherers. When I heard about this "vandalism" today, I figured that it was most likely done by a poacher, wood thief or pot "farmer."

And, that tells me that plenty of locals knew about this road. Those searching this road should have known that the gate should be locked, and they should have sent someone to investigate.

Furthermore, on Dec 1, a local - calling the Bear Camp Road "infamous" - tried to contact various searchers, saying that a "search of the many logging roads off of the Merlin to Gold Beach route is called for here".

The bottom line appears to be that those leading the search did not take advantage of local knowledge. As I know from personal experience, local residents who work at outdoors shops and the like are familiar with their local roads and have a good idea which routes people are likely to take. They would also notice that a gate was not locked when it should have been.

3. Kim was apparently only 27 miles at the most from finding some form of habitation. He walked five miles down the road and then five miles through a rough gorge. The energy expended in the latter could have been spent on the road, and he might have made it. The google Earth shots here supposedly show the location of the car and where he went into the gorge. Note that the road is level to downward-sloping, meaning that he could have traveled fairly quickly all things considered.

4. The media has been completely, utterly useless in this matter, concentrating only on the emotional aspects and failing to provide detailed information on how to avoid and get out of similar situations. They have also handled this matter from the perspective of those who are completely unfamiliar with hiking, the wilderness, and the like. See, for instance, the Seattle Times' PDF "map" here.

The media could help people be a little bit more self-reliant, and instead they just played to the emotional aspects of this issue and encouraged people to sit and wait for AAA to arrive.

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

McCain, Kennedy, Gutierrez, Flake collaborating on immigration "reform"

Jerry Kammer of the Copley News Service offers "Immigrant legislation strategy is plotted" which, while it has its problems, is surpring in that it's not completely biased towards "reform":

Two of the most liberal members of Congress met with two of their most conservative colleagues this week to revive immigration legislation that passed the Senate but was throttled by House Republican leaders who resisted its attempt to grant citizenship to illegal immigrants.

"The plan is to bring the bill up in late winter," said Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., a conservative stalwart who attended the meeting in the office of Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. The other participants were Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill.

If anyone can put the "u" back in collaborateur, it's the last. More on him here.

One of the problems with the article is this:

That enforcement-heavy approach is fine with immigration advocates as long as it is part of a package that provides permanent legal status to those who are beckoned across the border by agriculture, restaurant, construction, landscaping and janitorial jobs.

Unfortunately, all of those "immigration advocates" currently strongly support illegal immigration. They will not stop that support if they get "reform". Moreover, if they get "reform" they'll have even more political and financial power and they'll be even more effective at supporting illegal immigration.

Posted to Immigration at 01:38 PM | Comments (2)

Silvestre Reyes knows less about terrorists than many bloggers

Is al Qaeda Sunni or Shia?

What about Hezbollah, are they Sunni or Shia?

Many bloggers could get those right (Sunni and Shia, respectively).

However, Democrat Silvestre Reyes - Nancy Pelosi's choice to be the new chairman of the House Intelligence Committee - did not know the answer to either question.

Posted to Terrorism at 12:05 PM | Comments (6)

Los Angeles Times backs Richardson's opposition to border fence

The Los Angeles Times offers the unsigned editorial (perhaps written by Andres Martinez) "Off the fence", which discusses New Mexico governor Bill Richardson's immigration speech. They call it "thoughtful" and a "rebuke to Republican immigrant bashers". Obviously, that's muddled thinking, but that's what you expect from the LAT. BR's speech was in support of illegal immigration, not the legal variety. And, supporting our immigration laws isn't "bashing".

Then:

[The fence] would merely shift the strain on the system elsewhere and fail to address the 45% of illegal immigrants who enter legally but overstay their visas.

They willfully ignore the deterrent effect the fence would provide, and I don't think anyone has said that the fence will prevent visa overstays because, obvious to all except the LAT, those are two separate issues. Something else can be done about that, and, while the LAT doesn't understand this, both that and the fence can be used at the same time (see: walking, chewing gum).

After the obligatory Dobbs bashing (he's "CNN's millionaire working-class hero"), we're informed that BR has "unusual credibility on the issue" and:

It wasn't long ago that restrictionists were singing his praises for declaring a state of emergency along the border and calling in his state's National Guard to patrol it.

I can't speak for other "restrictionists", but my August 12, 2005 entry discussing his plan started out with the phrase "New Mexico's Bill Richardson is pro-open borders and pro-racial solidarity... making this report a bit interesting, but not really all that much."

Finally, the LAT hedges:

Certainly the governor isn't right about every one of his proposals, and how his speech will affect his presidential aspirations remains to be seen. But he couldn't be more timely in reminding his party that comprehensive immigration reform is no less urgent now that Democrats control Congress.

The Democrats should indeed pick up the banner and run with it. Then, they should give us a chance to discredit sources like BR and the LAT as they fail miserably.

Posted to Immigration at 12:34 PM | Comments (3)

Endorsement: Bill Richardson for President! (immigration speech)

Bill Richardson is the Democratic Party's best hope to regain the presidency in 2008 and, in much the same way that this site endorsed Phil Angelides to be the Democrat to challenge Arnold Schwarzenegger, this site is also endorsing Bill Richardson ("BR") to be the Democratic nominee to take on whoever the Republicans nominate. Furthermore, we also suggest that BR choose Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa as his running mate. PR for BR can be handled by Rob Allyn, with Dick Morris as his campaign advisor and Vicente Fox as a general advisor. And, in order to highlight just how compassionate BR is, they should hint that - should BR be elected president - he would nominate Elvira Arellano to head HHS.

Truly, Bill Richardson has the international expertise America needs, but it's in domestic policy where he really shines. While most Dems and Republicans would consider it suicidal to so strongly support illegal immigration, BR bravely soldiers on, reaching out to the tiny sliver of the electorate that supports massive illegal immigration. Despite that, everyone should rest assured that he would represent every American, and wouldn't just be "the president of Aztlan", or just be a racial demagogue or ethnic nationalist.

In a speech today, he spoke at length about this matter, and an apparent transcript is provided here. These remarks will go down in history as among the best ever intoned, even though pretty much everything he said has already been said ten times before by Tamar Jacoby and others:

Like it or not, these people have become part of the fabric of our economy and our culture. They have broken the law to enter our country, but they are here -- [paraphrasing: we clean your toilets]...

Eleven million people living in the shadows is a huge problem, and we need to address it intelligently and thoughtfully -- and urgently. If Congress fails to do so, it will only get worse, and the demagoguery about it which we have heard so much of recently will only get louder...

[...Graf/Hayworth canard... ...illegal aliens have it hard...]

Yet – despite what some people would have you think -- almost all of these workers pay taxes, including Social Security and Medicare taxes. Because in order to find work they must either use someone else’s Social Security number or make one up. Since they will never collect benefits, these illegal workers are subsidizing our Social Security and Medicare trust funds with their payroll taxes...

...Most undocumented immigrants come to the United States to work low-wage jobs which few Americans want, such as picking crops or cleaning toilets...

[...many wise statements deleted...]

...Despite the campaign rhetoric, I refuse to believe that most House Republicans really favor trying to round up 11 million people, separating them from their children who are citizens, and deporting them en masse. But that's what the bill they passed in the House of Representatives on December 16, 2005 would require...

[...many wise statements deleted...]

...And I believe the proponents of immigration reform have nothing to fear from those who have resorted to such tactics. The voters are fed up with that kind of politics and they are fed up with the failure to address pressing problems like illegal immigration.

So, so true. Poll after poll shows the voters strongly support comprehensive reform, and will flock to candidates who support it as well.

With Bill Richardson, the Democrats have a chance to pick a real winner.

UPDATE: I missed this bit:

And, as suggested by Texas Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, a leader on immigration issues, we should implement a system of "informant visas" and cash rewards for aliens who provide law enforcement with information on human traffickers and document forgers.

In a speech filled with brilliant insights, that might be the best of all.

Posted to Politics at 07:56 PM | Comments (1)

Vote in the 2006 Weblog Awards (plus: my enemies list)

The 2006 Weblog awards start today. I nominated this site in a few categories, but the only one it was selected for was "Best of the 6751-8750". I ask everyone to vote for this site, and note that you can vote once every 24 hour period.

If you aren't familiar with this site, you should vote for it because of entries like this, this, or this. Compare the facts presented in those posts with the facts available from the MSM as well as the great majority of blogs. Note that those are only three post from the past few weeks, and there are many more where those came from. Sometimes I even use footnotes (also here or here).

There are many other fine sites in the competition which may be discussed here later. Today however, I'm simply going to suggest ones that no one should vote for:

GOP Hacks:
Red State (also banned me after ~75 diary entries)
InstaPundit
The Anchoress (Ken Mehlman in a habit?)
Captain's Quarters
Hugh Hewitt

Friends of Insty:
Lileks
Althouse
Tim Blair (also friend of Matt Welch)

Really sleazy "liberal" a**holes:
Eschaton
Orcinus

Loony libertarians:
QandO (also banned me)
Asymmetrical Information (also frequent Insty link target)
Club for Growth

Dumb "liberals":
Pandagon
Think Progress (also banned me)
Jesus' General
Bitch Ph.D.
any Nick Denton site (because of Wonkette's, Sploid's, and Gawker's immigration-related posts)

Freaks:
TMZ (edited a comment I left to remove the link under my name)
Boing Boing (contributor is Xeni Jardin)

Posted to Bloggage at 07:23 PM | Comments (4)

Notes on the couple stranded on the Oregon back road

The case of the San Francisco family who were lost on a back road in Oregon has been all over the news the past couple weeks. I'm not familiar with the specific circumstances involved there, but it might prove useful to look into what went wrong in order to prevent others from getting into similar situations. Unfortunately, in all the time that the media has devoted to this, they've spent little on giving advice on what should have been done. I'm certainly no expert, but on the other hand I'd like to think that I might have handled things a bit differently.

First, of course, they should have been aware of weather conditions and verified that the route they planned to take was open and their car could handle it. And, they should have constantly taken an inventory of their route and the road and weather conditions and always made sure that they could backtrack if necessary. Perhaps it's just me, but I usually try to make sure I know I can get out of something before going into it. And, they should have memorized or written down each turn so they could backtrack. When on a new trail I look behind myself occasionally to familiarize myself with what the route will look like when I'm returning, and I count features and remember characteristics of junctions and such.

Once in that situation, in addition to the survival tactics that they apparently used, they should have also tried to start an even bigger, smokier fire (without burning down the whole forest of course). They should also have constructed a large distress signal; three of anything placed together is generally considered such a signal. They could have done this by clearing snow, moving rocks in the snow, or starting three large fires. If it were possible to do so safely and without a great deal of exertion, they could have tried to get to a higher elevation in order to get a better idea of their surroundings and the exit routes. By doing that they might have been able to get cell phone reception. Even if the cellphone didn't work, they could construct another distress signal there.

And, of course, he should have stayed on the road. They were only at (according to one report) 3000', and another report said there was only 6" of snow in spots. It was also around 20 or 30 degrees at night, meaning it was not that cold during the day. And, he wouldn't have to lose that much elevation in order to get to a warmer area below the snow level. Starting at 7am and traveling at 3MPH, he could have covered at least 20 miles before nightfall. He might have traveled slower if he had to keep going over passes, or he might have been able to travel faster if it was mostly a gentle slope downhill. The sun could be used to verify he was headed in the correct direction and lacking that he could have fashioned an emergency compass.

I'm also a bit surprised that it took so long to find them, considering that the route they took was well known locally. They apparently took a side road a few miles, but even so with enough volunteers in appropriate vehicles I don't think it should have taken so long.

Posted to OutdoorSports at 11:08 PM | Comments (5)

Alan Colmes, immigration lightweight

The "Immigration Watchdog" appeared on Hannity & Colmes tonight to discuss reconquista matters. He needs to learn to filibuster a bit better, because liberal lightweight Alan Colmes was able to keep interrupting him and at the end mocked him over his mention of the North American Union. At the appropriate moment (after Colmes had disputed his statement that the majority of Mexicans thing this is rightfully their land), IW should have told Colmes that his source was a Zogby poll conducted in Mexico.

IW did get in that Antonio Villaraigosa and Cruz Bustamante are former members of MEChA, but one of the key facts he should have mentioned is that part of the problem is the "liberal" infrastructure, including Colmes himself. Rather than looking into these matters, they try to downplay them (Colmes), or they ignore or even completely lie about them (the Los Angeles Times, for instance).

Posted to Immigration at 09:55 PM | Comments (1)

Bill Richardson: Dems should "get rid of" border fence

New Mexico governor and possible presidential candidate Bill Richardson continues his outreach to the 5% or so of U.S. citizens who support illegal immigration with his thoughts that the recently passed border fence "gets in the way" of U.S.-Mexico relations, and:

"The fence is very unpopular on the border in Texas and New Mexico, in Chihuahua... So one of the most significant and constructive acts the U.S. Congress should take is to get rid of it."

He said this after meeting with the leaders of the state of Chihuahua, which is located in Mexico, which is not the U.S. Apparently Richardson is unclear on that fact.

Tomorrow he'll be speaking at Georgetown University, so if you know anyone in the area please urge them to turn out and protest his appearance with flyers and posters pointing out his strong opposition to our most basic laws.

Posted to Immigration at 08:53 PM | Comments (3)

Federal Reserve is completely corrupt (Directo a Mexico)

The U.S. Federal Reserve is encouraging and profiting from illegal immigration by tapping into the remittances market (money sent from workers in the U.S. back to their home countries).

A significant portion of the money sent to Mexico was earned by illegal aliens who were involved with the illegal activity associated with illegal immigration: illegally entering the U.S., document fraud, ID theft, hiring an illegal alien, etc.

Now, Judicial Watch has obtained some of the Fed's marketing materials (PDF file) associated with the Fed's "Direct to Mexico" scheme. Those materials include a poster, a brochure, and the text of a radio ad (all in Spanish). And, in the PDF they give a chart of the number of "Migrants" in each U.S. state, as well as the number of "Migrants" coming to the U.S. from various Mexican states. Needless to say, the word illegal or even undocumented doesn't appear anywhere.

It's bad enough when small banks have tried to profit from illegal immigration. When the top levels of the government do it, it indicates an extremely dangerous situation. If they are able to do this, what else will they do?

I haven't been able to find exactly who can be contacted in this matter; the Fed's Board of Governors would probably be the group that approved this scheme. Contacting them might be an option, but the best bet might be to contact the members of the House Committee on Financial Services' Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee (financialservices.house.gov/members.asp?comm=4).

Posted to Immigration at 12:21 PM | Comments (1)

Mike Huckabee is Bush++ (sanctimony,support for illegal immigration,white guilt)

The possibility mounts that Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee is a cruel practical joke, as we're informed that:

...the nation is being given a chance to make up for past racism by the way it handles the influx of Hispanics.

Huckabee, a Republican who is considering a run for president in 2008, said Arkansas has made progress on racial justice and has a fresh opportunity to do the right thing in the way it welcomes the growing Hispanic population.

"One of the great challenges facing us is that we do not commit the same mistakes with our growing Hispanic population that we did with African Americans 150 years ago and beyond. We're still paying the price for the pathetic manner in which this country handled that," Huckabee said at a meeting of the Political Animals Club in Little Rock. The club meets monthly to hear from political figures and experts.

"I think frankly the Lord is giving us a second chance to do better than we did before," Huckabee said.

If he actually believes that, he's nuts. If he has an extreme case of white guilt, he should deal with it personally and not impose it on the rest of us.

If he's just faking it, he's trying to smear those who oppose illegal immigration as racists and trying to hide support for illegal immigration behind religion. Either way, he's not only not qualified to be president, he's not qualified for any elected office.

Previously:
Mike Huckabee disses Americans, Mexicans, promotes illegal immigration
Mike Huckabee: opposition to "comprehensive" immigration reform isn't racist
Molly Hennessy-Fiske/LAT promotes corruption in Arkansas; Huckabee
Mexican consulate coming to Little Rock
Arkansas Republican governor Mike Huckabee and the "underground economy"
Arkansas' Bob Caudle doesn't pull any punches
Arkansas' Huckabee, Tyson Foods, LULAC all aligned

Posted to Immigration at 11:56 AM | Comments (4)

Airstrip One: veiled Muslim woman to give Christmas speech on UK's Channel 4

Channel 4 is a "publicly-owned not-for-profit broadcaster" out of the UK. Since 1993 they've been offering an alternative to the Queen's XMas speech, and this year will feature a veiled Muslim woman:

[Khadija... a freelance lecturer in Islamic studies and the Koran... and a Zimbabwean-born British citizen], who has been wearing the full veil - or niqab - for 10 years, has been given the slot.

The message will reflect a year in which the wearing of religious clothing and symbols have "dominated the news agenda", said a Channel 4 spokesman.

...The right to wear the niqab made the headlines earlier this year when the Leader of the House of Commons, Jack Straw, said that it hindered communication.

The niqab - Arabic for "full veil" - means covering up completely, including gloves and a face covering which leaves just a slit for the eyes.

Channel 4's spokesman also said that the controversy has "generated a debate about multiculturalism, secularism and integration - a debate in which British Muslims have played a key role and one that will shape the future of British society".

Posted to MultiCultiCult at 10:47 PM | Comments (4)

Airstrip One: "Migrants taught how to scrounge"

From this:

MIGRANTS hoping to settle in the UK are to be taught how to rake in state hand-outs.

They will be shown how to claim benefits, demand equal rights, make full use of the NHS and get parental leave.

Labour will expect immigrants to know such information as part of the Government's "Britishness test".

But if applicants fail, they will not face removal – they will merely be told to keep resitting the exam until they pass...

...Yet ministers have again ruled out any requirement that newcomers learn about Britain’s history...

Obviously, this is a leftwing attempt to both encourage new clients for public and private social welfare agencies, as well as an attempt to erase England's rather long history and start anew, Gramscian-style.

Posted to Immigration_euro at 07:56 PM | Comments (1)

Tom Ridge recommends the Swiss Army Knife?

Will the horrors of the Bush administration never end? While browsing Amazon, I came upon the "Swiss Army One-Hand Trekker Lockblade Pocket Knife" (you can buy one here), and I saw this:

The Swiss Army Knife is the only knife recommended for the emergency kit of the US Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge.

I was unable to determine whether the former DHS Secretary had actually endorsed those knives (made by Victorinox), but I wouldn't doubt it considering his other Krusty the Klown-style moves.

Previously:
Tom Ridge hired by Albania
Ninety former DHS officials cashing in
Were terror alerts faked to elect Bush?
Tom Ridge on Home Depot board

Posted to Miscellania at 04:41 PM | Comments (0)

"Tom Brokaw Reports" on illegal immigration (December 26)

The day after Christmas, NBC News will offer an hour-long show entitled "Tom Brokaw Reports: In the Shadow of the American Dream". (Expect to hear the word "illlllegal" repeatedly.) It will probably be mostly biased, offering heartwarming anecdotes in the place of disclosing facts, but we shall see:

The hour-long documentary follows a booming economy attracting illegal workers willing to do unskilled labor, questioning what happens to American culture and America's laws when hundreds of thousands of people enter the country illegally. Brokaw interviews police, teachers, doctors, residents, and illegal immigrants to help explain the impact of illegal immigration on America. He also sits down with Congressman Tom Tancredo, a Republican from Colorado who has been out front in his opposition to illegal immigration.

UPDATE: The show's purpose has been revealed, see "Tom Brokaw, pro-illegal immigration hack" for the details.

Posted to Immigration at 12:23 PM | Comments (1)

Is Michele Marcucci/Oakland Tribune biased?

Michele R. Marcucci is a staff writer for the ANG Newspapers Group who appears to be based out of the Oakland Tribune. She offers the long article "Immigration group may not be what they seem". It would be good journalism if she covered all sides of the issue, which she does not. Instead, while she reports on two supposed "nonwhite" groups actually being initiated by - gasp! - white people, she doesn't report on questionable activities by those on her apparent side of the issue. It reads like something ripped from the pages of the SPLC, and in fact the article appears to have been fashioned from their "research". Those on her side are considered to be the gold standard of truth; those on the other side are condemned with innuendo:

Pro-immigrant advocacy organizations say Vietnamese for Fair Immigration may be one of an increasing number of groups that appear to be nonwhites gathering to ask for greater immigration controls, but are actually groups started with help from whites or from major, mostly white anti-immigrant groups that are seeking greater legitimacy for their views.

One wonders why they would be seeking "legitimacy" for views that are widely held. Marcucci is obviously assuming that those views are somehow disreputable.

As for VFI, they have unbelievably wasted their money on a billboard in Berkeley saying "No Racist Amnesty", and refering to the pro-Mexico bias in the proposed amnesty schemes. It turns out that the head of the group is one Tim Brummer, but he had presented himself as "Tim Binh" and initially denied that the first was his real name. Certainly a stupid move. (That might be a picture of him and his wife and daughter on the billboard and on their site).

Now for the other group:

Earlier this year, the Federation for American Immigration Reform, one of the nation's largest immigration control groups, created and backed a group called Choose Black America, which was supposed to be an organization created by blacks who feel illegal immigration has hurt blacks. But its leaders later acknowledged their kickoff press conference in May was funded by FAIR. And they were unable to name any of Choose Black America's members when asked.

In the next paragraph, we're informed that the Southern Poverty Law Center not only has "tracked such groups" but "broke the story about Choose Black America". Actually, while the 5/19/06 press release announcing the 5/23 press conference doesn't mention FAIR, it does give the name Ira Mehlman as a contact person. He works for FAIR and has been quoted in countless newspaper articles, including the current one. If FAIR were trying to hide their involvement that's an extremely sloppy thing to do. And, the 5/24 Washington Times article discussing the press conference of the previous day says this:

Choose Black America is the second minority-based group created by the District-based Federation for American Immigration Reform that opposes illegal entry... FAIR last month helped create "You Don't Speak for Me," a national coalition of Hispanic Americans who oppose the idea of amnesty for illegal aliens and who spoke out against immigration rallies held recently.

Obviously, while FAIR wasn't trumpeting their involvement from the rooftops, they also weren't trying to hide their involvement as Marcucci implies. You can read the SPLC's "ground-breaking" interview with two participants here: splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=673. She also smears VDare over this article, and accuses Mehlman of FAIR of seeking "legitimacy" in a truly McCarthy-esque fashion.

If Marcucci wants to offer a less biased report, she can now go ask the members of the various pro-illegal immigration groups that were formed to agitate foreign citizens to make shows of force in our streets to name the other members of their various coalitions. For instance, she could start with the "Fair Immigration Reform Movement" or the "We Are America Alliance".

Even better, she could give her readers background information on the SPLC, such as disclosing that they have at least one indirect link to the Mexican government. Or, she could discuss their academic McCarthyism. Or, their other issues discussed here, in The Church of Morris Dees. It's not like this information is hidden: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Poverty_Law_Center#Critical Why is she considering such a group to be the gold standard of truth?

This might be the wrong contact person, but the Oakland Tribune's Managing Editor is Leanne McLaughlin: lmclaughlin *at* angnewspapers.com

Posted to Immigration at 05:23 AM | Comments (1)

WashTimes: Congress might pass amnesty

The article "Congress open to passing bill on immigration" doesn't exactly live up to its ominous headline, offering only a few quotes, including this from Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT):

"Years of dawdling have worsened our border security and made it harder to fix this broken system... We should not let partisan politics and intolerance continue to delay and derail effective reform... This past May, the Senate Judiciary Committee reported and then the Senate passed bipartisan versions of comprehensive immigration reform to bring people out of the shadows while strengthening our borders... I look forward to building on that work next year and making progress on a bipartisan effort that improves security, supports our economy and respects the dignity of all people."

Obviously, opposition to a massive illegal alien amnesty is a separate issue from those he claims.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher says the Dems will pass amnesty, but Rep. Tom Tancredo isn't so sure, thinking they'll only be able to block funding for the recently-passed border fence bill. We're informed that various GOP leaders are weak on the issue and might support amnesty. It also has some of their grades from Americans for Better Immigration:

Rep. John A. Boehner of Ohio, the House Republican leader, has a "D"; Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri, the House Republican whip, scores a "C+." Incoming House Republican Conference Chairman Adam H. Putnam of Florida, who has co-sponsored legislation that many view as amnesty, scores an "F-" from the group on the issue.

It might not be so bad if the Dems and some Republicans try to push "comprehensive reform", just so long as it generates a debate and a large number of complaints from their constituents and is then scrapped. If along the way some of the pro-amnesty pundits, reporters, and others are discredited that would be a nice bonus.

Posted to Immigration at 01:02 PM | Comments (5)

Howie Carr on Boston Globe's hypocrisy (Mitt Romney lawn care)

From this:

How do you turn a noble undocumented worker into a sinister, conniving illegal immigrant?

You do it by hiring him to cut the lawn at Gov. Mitt Romney's house, or at least that's how the bow-tied bumkissers at The Boston Globe pulled it off.

The phrase that is usually frowned upon by the Globe - illegal immigrants - was used 11 times in a front-page story Friday. Yesterday, those same dreaded "illegal immigrants" made it into the lead sentence of the follow-up story...

...Suppose that Mitt had shown more interest in the immigration status of his lawn crew. What if he had confronted the company owner - a legal alien from Colombia, remember - and told him he suspected that the mowing crew was here illegally, an adverb used three times in the first story.

Here's how the lead of that story could have been written:

"GOP Gov. Mitt Romney engaged in racial profiling, assuming that good family men from Chelsea, here only to do the jobs that Americans won’t do, were in the U.S. illegally. In a move denounced by such non-partisan groups as the ACLU and La Raza, this hypocrite, whose father by the way was born in Mexico, even demanded to see their green cards before he let them work on his verdant lawn. Romney, a member of the Mormon faith, which until recent years did not allow blacks to become ministers..."

Posted to Immigration at 05:42 AM | Comments (4)

Dr. Laura Schlessinger action figure (talking doll)

A friend of mine - not me, just someone I barely know, no really, not me - downloaded the pictures of Dr. Laura Schlessinger which were floating around on the web once. Sadly, he informs me that the only one which is "safe for work" is the one on the left:

If you too are a big fan of Doctor Laura for one reason or another, you can recreate the magic with the new Dr. Laura Action Figure (pictured right, available at Amazon). Approved by the good Doctor herself, this talking doll says 23 phrases including "Now, go and do the right thing."

Posted to Miscellania at 10:11 PM | Comments (2)

NYT: Growers want to be subsidized (they already are)

Alexei Barrionuevo of the New York Times offers "Imports Spurring Push to Subsidize Produce":

For decades, the fiercely independent fruit and vegetable growers of California, Florida and other states have been the only farmers in America who shunned federal subsidies, delivering produce to the tables of millions of Americans on their own.

But now, in the face of tough new competition primarily from China, even these proud groups are buckling. Produce farmers, their hands newly outstretched, have joined forces for the first time, forming a lobby group intended to pressure politicians over the farm bill to be debated in Congress in January...

The NYT fails to note that those growers already receive a huge government subsidy: low-wage illegal labor. Those growers get to pay a low price for their workers, and all those other costs of that labor (schooling, healthcare, etc.) is paid for by U.S. taxpayers.

And, those growers tirelessly lobby for even more cheap labor, through propaganda which newspapers like the NYT willingly run as well as by pushing for amnesties like AgJobs.

Please write public *at* nytimes.com with your thoughts.

Related:
Western Growers gives Senator Feinstein a big green thumbs up
Miranda Vagg transcribes growers pining for cheap labor
Crops rotting in the fields... enforcing immigration laws to blame?
A "comprehensive" 1986 amnesty would have prevented pro-grower propaganda
Farmers hollowed when laws followed

Posted to Immigration at 12:30 PM | Comments (3)

MIRA, DNC respond to Romney smear by supporting illegal immigration

The Boston version of the National Enquirer informs us that it wasn't just Mitt Romney that contracted with "Community Lawn Service with a Heart", the landscaping service that apparently employed illegal aliens. It was also the city of Chelsea as well as the Massachusetts Port Authority.

(A question: why didn't the three Boston Globe reporters stake out those locations? Why did they choose Mitt Romney's manse? Could they be... biased?)

Then, we come to those illegal immigration supporters that are trying to profit from this smear:

"Over the past four years, Governor Romney has railed against undocumented immigrants relentlessly," Ali Noorani, executive director of the Massachusetts Immigrant Advocacy Coalition, said in a statement. "To our knowledge, Governor Romney has never offered a solution that respects undocumented immigrants as hard-working individuals striving to achieve the American dream, like the individuals who manicured his lawn for the past 10 years."

A Democratic National Committee spokesman, Damien LaVera, said that "Romney was too busy using immigration to cozy up to the right wing of the Republican Party to bother tending to his own backyard first."

A day late and a dollar short, the Boston Globe seeks legal advice:

Manuel Macias, an East Boston attorney who specializes in immigration law, said that someone who hires a contractor to perform services on his property has no obligation to make sure the employer's workers are in the country legally.

"If you hire a contractor, it's their responsibility, if they have employees, to [abide] by state and city laws, from workman's comp to immigration requirements," he said.

Posted to Immigration at 12:28 PM | Comments (0)

Elizabeth Mehren/LAT misleads about Mitt Romney's lawn care

[...shakes head, wonders whether William Randolph Hearst is still around...]

Elizabeth Mehren of the Los Angeles Times offers "Workers a thorny issue for Romney":

Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a 2008 GOP presidential aspirant and an outspoken critic of illegal immigration, apparently employed undocumented landscape workers at his home near Boston.

Responding to a report in Friday's Boston Globe, the governor's communications director said Friday that Romney was unaware that several of the landscapers who kept up his suburban Belmont property were in this country illegally...

At this point in time, I'd like to turn it over to a labor lawyer for analysis, but lacking that I'm going to say that Elizabeth Mehren is being extremely misleading, and perhaps intentionally so. Romney did not directly "employ" the alleged illegal aliens. They were the employees of a gardening service with which he apparently had some form of contract.

Personally, I think this blurring of the lines is an intentional smear, but let's give them the benefit of the doubt. After all they're good enough to provide us with this news:

The Guatemalan laborers told the Globe that the governor sometimes greeted them by saying buenos dias.

What we're supposed to draw from that is unclear.

Please write readers.rep *at* latimes.com with your thoughts.

Posted to Immigration at 09:18 AM | Comments (0)

"Corruption hits cities in L.A.'s shadows"

From this:

A string of gritty suburbs in the shadow of Los Angeles has produced a growing parade of public officials jailed for corruption, and prosecutors say illegal schemes on a scale more commonly associated with big Eastern cities have devoured tens of millions of taxpayer dollars.

The latest to be led away in handcuffs is the former treasurer of South Gate [Albert Robles], sentenced this past week to 10 years in prison...

The rest of the article briefly mentions cities such as Lynwood, Bell Gardens, "Aztlan City" aka Maywood, Huntington Park and Vernon. Not mentioned are: Bell, Cudahy, and Commerce (the last might not be so dirty).

Posted to Los_Angeles at 06:51 AM | Comments (2)

Jared Polis, Colorado Springs awarded by Mexican government (Ohtli award)

Jared Polis is a dotcom multimillionaire who serves as Vice-Chairman of the Colorado State Board of Education. He's also donated large sums of cash to "liberal" causes and candidates. Last year, that Board produced Colorado's guide for illegal aliens, and Polis is also involved with ProgressNow.

On November 20, Polis' hard work paid off, as he was given Mexico's "Ohtli" award by their local consul general, Juan Marcos Gutierrez. As shall become clear, receiving that award might be considered a strong indication that the recipient is a Fifth Columnist:

...The award is the highest Mexican government award outside of Mexico. The Ohtli - Nahuatl for "path" - award is given to someone who has contributed to the betterment of the Mexican community and has helped Mexicans abroad.

"This was a tough year for us because of the race issues and immigration issues, so we look for a person who advocates for the Mexican community and who had done it for a long time," Gutierrez said. Polis "is smart, successful, and he has been one of the most effective advocates on education and the Dream Act."

...The "Amistad" award was given to the city of Steamboat Springs for its work in reaching out to its growing Latino community. Sister Alicia Cuaron was given the "Merito Communitario" award for her lifelong dedication to the Latino community...

The anti-American DREAM Act would take college discounts from U.S. citizens and give them to Mexican citizens and others who are here illegally.

Apparently recipients are nominated by a putatively U.S. organization, the National Association of Latino Elected Officials (NALEO). The awards are given by the Institute for Mexicans Abroad (Instituto de los Mexicanos en el Exterior), which is led by Carlos Gonzalez Gutierrez. The IME is part of the Secretaria de Relaciones Exteriores, their state department. Earlier this CGG said:

"The basic concept is that the Mexican nation goes beyond the borders that contain Mexico. You can feel part of our nation without being on our territory... For the first time, we are exporting our politics. Many Mexicans now live 'transnational' lives, with one foot in our country and one foot in the other. This contributes to everyone's well-being."

Other recipients of the award include (source: preview.tinyurl.com/y47yrg):

* Harry Pachon, president of the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute (1), former executive director of NALEO (2)

* Douglas, Arizona Mayor Ray Borane (frequent anti-Minuteman and/or pro-illegal immigration quote source)

* former Congressmen Edward Roybal and Eligio "Kika" de la Garza

* current Congressman Luis Gutierrez

* former Congressman and current Senator Bob Menendez (reasons for his award here: preview.tinyurl.com/y22rtr).

* Ruben Barrales, Deputy Assistant to the President of the United States; White House Director of Intergovernmental Affairs

In 2003, a recipient was the assistant police Chief of Austin, Texas, Rudy Landeros. Vicente Fox was present when he was given the award, and it's related to a program started in 2000 by that city's police chief, Stan Knee:

[Knee] directed the launch of an outreach program to alert the community about the increase in robberies of Hispanics. The program consisted of a series of news conferences and an appeal to Hispanics to report crimes against them. Posters, bumper stickers, and radio public service announcements were distributed in both English and Spanish. The goal of this outreach program was to ensure the safety of the Hispanic immigrant community in the City of Austin.

The Austin Police Department is partnered with the Texas Secretary of State, Mexican Consulate, Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and Wells Fargo... the project was called Banca Facil - Easy Banking.

In February 2001, APD Assistant Chief Rudy Landeros and Eliza May, Executive Director of the Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce addressed the issue with Rick Burciaga, Chairman and CEO for Wells Fargo in Austin, encouraging Wells Fargo to participate in the outreach program. May indicated that one solution that would help protect the immigrant population would be to make banking products more easily accessible. It was the beginning of Banca Facil.

From 2005:

...Tommy Espinoza and Alfredo Gutierrez were honored at the Ohtli Award presentation, co-hosted by ASU and the Secretary of Foreign Relations of Mexico at the ASU Kerr Cultural Center.

...Espinoza is the chief executive officer of Raza Development Fund, the largest and most successful financial institution for the development for Hispanic communities. [...former president of Chicanos Por La Causa...]

Recently, he, along with the Consulate of Mexico, collected almost $2 million to fight the Proposition 200 that was approved by the electorate of Arizona. The approval of this initiative was lowered from 76 percent to 56 percent.

...Gutierrez won a seat in the Arizona Senate in 1972. He was then 27 years old and the youngest person who had ever been elected to the state Senate. For 14 years he served Arizona in that capacity. He now leads Tequida & Gutierrez, a consulting company that produces strategic campaigns in English and Spanish...

Posted to Immigration at 11:18 AM | Comments (1)

Commie Fest 2006: Elvira Arellano, Major Owens, ACLU, and more!

On December 3, the "19th Annual People's Weekly World/Nuestro Mundo Banquet" will be held in a Greek restaurant in Chicago:

[It] will feature living wage and peace resolutions sponsor city Alderman Freddrenna Lyle as the keynote speaker, and will honor immigrant rights activist Elvira Arellano, union activists Bea and Frank Lumpkin, disability rights group ADAPT, the March 10th immigrant rights coalition and AFSCME workers who are fighting to organize Resurrection Hospital — all familiar to PWW readers.

Note, of course, that only one of those is listed as an actual attendee; the honors may not be reciprocated, but we shall see.

In other Arellano news, she's been selected as one of the 15 Most Phenomenol Women by Latina Magazine. That rag is considered mainstream and features things like recipes. However, supporting illegal immigration and fraud are apparently part of their mandate.

Wait! There's more:

In New York City, Rep. Major Owens will be honored at the annual "Better World Awards" for his years of progressive struggle in Congress. Also being honored is Betty Smith, president of International Publishers and longtime fighter for peace and democracy. Elena Mora, chair of the N.Y. State Communist Party, will discuss the recent election results.

* In Oakland, the featured speaker will be Navy war resister Pablo Paredes. Joining him on the platform will be Kenneth Hayes, recent high school graduate and anti-youth-violence activist. Jacqueline Cabasso, executive director of the anti-nuclear-weapons organization Western States Legal Foundation; Lester Rodney, sports editor for the PWW's predecessor paper, The Daily Worker; the Blue Diamond Workers Organizing Committee; the Campaign against Unjust Immigration Laws; and the Coalition for Justice for Immigrants are all being honored.

* In New Haven, Conn., three progressive Connecticut leaders will be honored at an annual reception whose theme this year is "Carry the People's Election Victory Forward!" Merilee Milstein, former Northeast regional deputy director of the AFL-CIO; Roger Vann, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Connecticut; and the Rev. Emilio Hernandez, community organizer with Connecticut Center for a New Economy, will be recognized for their years of work for social justice.

* In Philadelphia, Libero Della Piana, national organizing director for the Communist Party USA, will be the featured speaker. Honorees include Dr. Walter Tsou, former president of the American Public Health Association.

Let's see which of those listed show up for their awards.

Posted to Politics at 09:22 AM | Comments (1)

Lefties lead smackdown over judge's "Hot House Flowers" book

Brooklyn criminal (early night) court judge John H. Wilson is the author of an allegory about illegal immigration and/or massive immigration entitled "Hot House Flowers". It's 24-pages, self-published, and only available from Amazon. This site isn't exactly a big fan of the book's overview, which is indeed a little creepy and which leftie illegal immigration supporters have already taken advantage of. In the book, said hot house flowers are edged out by invasive dandelions, until the owner of the hothouse decides to weed out the dandelions. Obviously, much, much better analogies to the current situation could be found.

The flaws in the book's premise have also allowed leftwing Gramscians/legal defender/illegal immigration supporting-type persons to now ask for an ethical review. The judge also apparently asked a member of his court's advisory ethics committee to review what he was doing, and was given the OK. He was promised a written opinion, which still has not been given.

Those quoted as trying to stir up trouble are Steven Banks, chief attorney for the Legal Aid Society and Lisa Schreibersdorf, executive director of Brooklyn Defender Services.

Posted to Immigration at 06:53 AM | Comments (3)

Infiltrator watch: DailyKos meets sharia law

The DailyKos user "cador" continues his trolling of DailyKos with this (warning: pics posted in comments NSFW):

One of the many benefits of immigration is the fact that we can adopt many non-Western concepts of law and justice which are much more progressive than traditionally oppressive, patriarchal, racist and sexist European laws...

[quotes from "Sharia law is spreading as authority wanes"]

...Let us replace the tyranny of Pat Robertson and the Religious REICH with the freedom-giving Sharia law which is known to be tolerant of womyn's rights and the GLBT community. Pym Fortuyn would certainly approve.

Although we here at the kos community have many misgivings about the Resident-in-Thief, George "DUMBYA" Bush, we should urge the newly elected Democratic Congress to implement his guest worker program so that we can bring in many more immigrants to enrich and improve our culture...

Previously: Infiltrator watch: DailyKos meets demographic hegemony

Posted to MultiCultiCult at 04:31 PM | Comments (1)

Alberto Gonzales unaware of letter about Ramos/Compean case; give him a call

This site reprints an action alert from FAIR:

During the last year, Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean were criminally prosecuted, convicted, and sentenced to serve years in prison for doing their job - protecting America from drug and illegal alien smugglers at our southern border. Those who have been following the case with us have been dismayed at the injustice of criminally prosecuting border patrol agents while granting immunity to a drug smuggler, who was carrying 743 pounds of marijuana into the U.S., to testify against the agents. The smuggler - who received medical care at William Beaumont Army Medical Center in El Paso, Texas - is now suing the Border Patrol for $5 million for violating his civil rights.

For months FAIR has been working with members of Congress to raise awareness of this case. One member who has been leading the charge is Congressman Walter Jones (R-NC). Over the past four months, Congressman Jones has written seven letters to the Bush administration regarding the Ramos and Compean case: three to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, one to Press Secretary Tony Snow, and three to President Bush himself. Indeed, one of the letters sent to Attorney General Gonzales was signed by 22 members of Congress; another by six members. However, during a radio interview on The Keith Larson Show (WBT Charlotte) this week, Attorney General Gonzales stated that he was "unaware" of the Congressman's letters...

...Please call Attorney General Gonzales and ask him to recommend to President Bush that these agents be pardoned! You can reach the Office of the Attorney General at (202) 353-1555.

Posted to Immigration at 01:28 PM | Comments (2)

Violent MSU lefties disrupt Tancredo speech

Rep. Tom Tancredo tried to give a speech yesterday at Michigan State University's law school. Leftie protesters apparently pulled the fire alarm twice, and also attacked organizers:

"One was spit on, one was kicked, and one was punched," Tancredo said in an e-mail. "Tires were also slashed."

The protesters reportedly used facebook.com to organize, so if anyone has an account there please post the information. And:

The people who attended to oppose the event said they came to represent themselves — not the minority campus groups with which they are affiliated.

One of those mentioned is Claudia Gonzalez; this page says someone by that same name is "a member of the Radical Chicano Student Union".

Another protester is Randy McPherson, who appears to have been one of "Jeter's Leaders".

Note that the sidebar in the first link in this post quotes Tim Dickinson/Rolling Stone's misleading, pro-illegal immigration propaganda.

Posted to Immigration at 11:02 AM | Comments (5)

Explosive Boston Globe on tiny company tending Mitt Romney's lawn

Those who read all three screens of "Illegal immigrants toiled for governor" should constantly ask themselves, "cui bono?" Three Boston Globe "reporters" (Jonathan Saltzman, Maria Cramer, Connie Paige) spent months investigating the article that can now disclose that the gardening service that tended Mitt Romney's law may have employed illegal aliens:

The situation underscores the extent to which illegal immigrants permeate the US economy. Even as Romney travels the country, vowing to curb the flood of low-skilled illegal immigrants into the United States, some of those workers maintain his own yard, cutting grass, pruning shrubs, and mulching trees.

They admit that the gardening service is tiny; the owner says he only hired legal immigrants (but didn't ask for proof of their status); Romney didn't ask for their status either; four out five employees questioned said they were illegal aliens.

The Boston Globe seems to have been put up to this by either the Democrats or perhaps a local illegal immigration-supporting group:

The Globe received a tip in July alleging that Romney was using illegal immigrants to landscape his property.

Not only did they track the former workers down in Guatemala, and not only did they verify one worker's social security number, but they conducted quite a stakeout:

Reporters then observed the lawn service workers outside Romney's house more than a dozen times, sometimes as frequently as twice a week.

Obviously, Romney should have been more careful, but then again if the owner of the service now says the workers were legal he probably would have told that to Romney as well. If Romney had decided to be better safe than sorry and hired a service with an all non-Latino crew, the Globe probably would have accused him of profiling.

Obviously, stories like this should be very low on the priority list of papers that want to report on large scale malfeasance. Reports like this will have the impact of supporting illegal immigration rather than reducing it.

Please write ombud *at* globe.com with your thoughts.

Posted to Immigration at 05:18 AM | Comments (2)

Non-"liberal" coverage of immigration, Iraq, terrorism, multiculturalism, Los Angeles, California, privacy, and occasionally celebrities and wacky humor...

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All Posts(links to each post by title)

• Mexico to give rescue beacons to "migrants"?
• Propaganda Watch: "Children of Men"
• Mike Madden/Gannett News, and the Amnesty All Stars
• Bush pardons drug dealers, doesn't pardon railroaded BP agents
• Terrorism, drugs, illegal immigration links; Middle Easterners masquerading as Mexicans; Reyes
• Boo! Mike Huckabee says won't scare Dems, moderates
• Zoe Lofgren optimistic on immigration "reform"
• Rep. Jose Serrano's muddled immigration musings
• MSMWatch: will cop shooter's immigration status be mentioned?
• Swift and Company raids leading to collapse of Pork Industry?
• Michael Medved, NAU apologist
• Bloomberg links illegal immigration "crackdown" to tourism
• Border Patrol apprehensions supposedly down; propaganda?
• Spotlight on Gould Construction
• "Jane Elliott and her Blue-Eyed Devil Children"
• Frisco: license plates scanned for parking ticket scofflaws
• Independent Institute: Somalia, the libertarian paradise
• WaPo's Boom Burbs go bust; what happens to the illegal aliens?
• William Hogeland: today's illegal aliens are like the Founding Fathers
• Tim Gaynor/Reuters: Democrats to save us from "nativists"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Your host, climbing Monkey Face (5.14d)

Your host's arm (circled)

Your host's hopelessly outdated conditioning progress

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