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Florida businesses join to support immigration "reform" (Laura Wides-Munoz, Laura Reiff)

Laura Wides-Munoz of the Associated Press offers February 23's "State Businesses Build United Front On Immigration Reform":

...During a daylong conference in Clearwater [hosted by Florida TaxWatch, "FTW"], more than 50 [Florida] business leaders agreed on the need for a louder and more unified Florida business voice to pressure politicians in Washington. The need for workers and fear of Homeland Security crackdowns were top issues Thursday....

Victoria Zepp of FTW is quoted, as is Laura Reiff, "a Washington, D.C., lawyer and an immigration expert who attended the meeting."

Wides-Munoz forgot to mention that Laura Foote Reiff is with Greenberg Traurig (bio) and, among her other qualifications was a member of the Board of Governors of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, is a member of the Board of Trustees of the American Immigration Law Foundation and is the co-chair of the Essential Workers Immigration Coalition, a group that has gone as far as cheering on Rep. Chris Cannon (link)

"The anti-immigration forces sought a referendum on immigration policy and they got it," said John Gay, EWIC co-chair. "By a large margin, Republicans rejected nativist policies and endorsed thoughtful reform of our broken immigration laws." ...Congressman Cannon has been one of many targets of anti-immigrant groups seeking to undermine bi-partisan and Administration efforts to bring reason and sense to a chaotic immigration system. "This victory shows that ugly falsities spread by anti-immigrant forces are transparent to the American public," said Laura Reiff, EWIC co-chair. "The average voter is not going to be duped by scare tactics."

And, you can hear her on the "censored AILA tapes" ("tapes that are used to train immigration lawyers on how to exploit the H-1B laws").

And, turning to the press release (PDF) we see a set of ludicrous, parochial complaints, such as this:

"United States immigration officials are sometimes downright rude," said Eileen Forrow, Vice President of Sales at Visit Florida.

Well, boo-hoo. I'm sure a massive amnesty is going to fix that. There are also a couple instances of the "we're running out of workers!" scare tactics, and we also learn that even Tamar Jacoby was apparently invited to the event.

Related:
LULAC, MALDEF, ACLU, business groups fight Texas immigration bills

Posted to Immigration2007a at 01:14 PM | Comments (0)

Sen. Patrick Leahy begins comprehensive immigration "reform" hearings

From his site (leahy.senate.gov/press/200702/022807.html):

The Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), held a hearing Wednesday to set the stage for work on comprehensive immigration reform, featuring Department of Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. At the hearing, Leahy pressed the Bush Administration officials for firm and clear commitments from them to work with Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform this year.

Trust me: they're on board, not doing their stated jobs just as hard as they can.

"Finding help on the farm is becoming increasingly difficult for hundreds of Vermont farms," said Leahy. "Many have turned to migrant workers from Mexico and Central America. Currently, Vermont dairies are depending on an estimated 2,000 foreign workers. We need to bring order and common sense to a broken system. Vermont dairy farmers should not have to choose between saving their family farms and obeying the law."

Obviously the system is broken, but not in the way that Leahy pretends it is. Since he knows many dairy farmers are employing illegal aliens, why isn't he looking into why Chertoff isn't raiding those farms? Isn't that what Leahy and Chertoff are supposed to be doing? Instead, they're collaborating to find a workaround for our laws.

Give Leahy a call and suggest he does his job: 202-224-4242

Posted to Immigration2007a at 11:37 AM | Comments (0)

New York Times throws cold water on guest worker schemes

Steven Greenhouse of the New York Times offers "Low Pay and Broken Promises Greet Guest Workers", which details several Thai and Indonesian workers getting ripped off after being brought to the U.S. as "guest" workers. One group is suing labor contractors and erstwhile employers.

I don't know exactly what the NYT is getting at here. Perhaps they favor "guest" worker schemes, but they just want to make sure their future serfs are treated fairly. Or, perhaps they've joined the "legalization for all even if they just snuck over the border five minutes ago" brigade. But, whatever it is, let's throw this back in their faces the next time they pull the stuff this article complains about:

Labor experts say employers abuse guest workers far more than other workers because employers know they can ship them home the moment they complain. They also know these workers cannot seek other jobs if they are unhappy.

"I'd say a substantial majority of U.S. guest workers experience some abuses with their paycheck," said David Griffith, a professor in the anthropology department at East Carolina University and author of the new book "American Guestworkers: Jamaicans and Mexicans in the U.S. Labor Market." "It's the recruitment process especially where they get cheated."

The abuses take many forms. Guest workers often pay exorbitant fees and are frequently given fewer weeks of work and lower wages than promised. Many employers fail to make good on their commitment to pay transportation costs. The Thai workers, who were supposed to be paid $16,000 a year for three years, ended up earning a total of just $1,400 to $2,400. Most of the Thai workers had their passports taken away after they arrived, leaving them trapped.

"The program has been rife with abuses, even during the best of times," said Cindy Hahamovitch, a history professor at the College of William and Mary, who is writing a book about guest workers. "There will never be enough inspectors to check every labor camp, contract and field."

For decades, farmers, tree-planting companies, and hotel and restaurant owners have argued that they need guest workers, citing a shortage of Americans willing to fill jobs in their industries. In Washington, many supporters of an expanded guest worker program say they want to strengthen protections to curb abusive treatment.

Is the last sentence the secret clue to the NYT's motives?

"The business community supports the idea that these temporary workers should have the exact same employment protections as American workers," said Randel Johnson, co-chairman of the Essential Worker Immigration Coalition, a business group lobbying to expand the guest worker program. "When an employer can't find an American worker to fill a job, the economy is helped if the employer can find someone else."

Critics, including many labor unions and immigrant groups, say employers exaggerate the labor shortage because they are eager for cheap, docile, temporary labor from abroad. The critics say there would not be such a shortage of American workers if employers offered a living wage for these jobs.

In Congress, proposals to expand protections for guest workers include a provision to bar employers from retaliating when these workers protest and one that would let them sue in federal court over contract violations...

Posted to Immigration2007a at 05:34 AM | Comments (3)

Harry Reid wins LULAC National Legislative Award

This site congratulates corrupt Nevada Senator Harry Reid, who's the proud winner of this year's National Legislative Award from the League of United Latin American Citizens.

His comments are basically just hot air, touching on Searchlight (did you know he's from that small Nevada town?), promoting "comprehensive immigration reform", quoting Cesar Chavez, and sending a shout out to LULAC president Rosa Rosales.

Of course, Harry Reid is torn between two illegal immigration supporters: he received an award from the National Council of La Raza ("The Race") back in 2001, and he might be the one that helped them pick up a $4 million federal grant. Maybe LULAC will get a little something extra in their stocking this year, if you know what I mean.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 02:23 AM | Comments (3)

Did Sam Graham-Felsen, New York Times lie about "Catch the Illegal Immigrant" game? (Howard Dean)

Dr. Gov. Chairman Howard Dean M.D. has come out against the College Republican game "Catch the Illegal Immigrant". More from his site.

Whether this came before or after or at the same time as the New York Times editorial "Game With No Winner" isn't known, but the Democrats.org post links to and quotes from that editorial. And, the editorial contains what may be an extremely scurrilous lie:

...It's a game with a name that says it all: "Catch the Illegal Immigrant." ... "Catch the Immigrant" is the brainchild of an intern with the College Republican National Committee, who lost her post after coming up with this and other campus recruitment gimmicks... ..."Catch the Immigrant" also reflects a larger misunderstanding of the immigration issue...

Yes, that's right: in a variation on the Big Lie, the New York Times appears to have changed the name of the game to make it look like "immigrants" - rather than "illegal immigrants" - were the subjects of the game.

Likewise with the Nation post by Sam Graham-Felsen called "GOP 'Catch the Immigrant' Game Catches Flak"; the form without "illegal" doesn't appear in the text of the post. And, with October 22, 2006's "'Catch the immigrant' is no game for college campuses" by Kecia Judson of the Hispanic Link News Service

A search failed to show any instances of "Catch the Immigrant" (with "game" or "GOP" appended to filter out noise) from any sources other than the ones above, and I doubt whether the College Republicans would be confused enough to call it the way that the New York Times and the others claim.

I'm certainly willing to apologize if I'm wrong, but as it stands now, I'm going to say that the editors of the New York Times, Sam Graham-Felsen, and Kecia Judson are liars.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 05:08 PM | Comments (0)

Larry Kudlow admits he was ignorant about immigration

Larry Kudlow - former Ronald Reagan economic advisor, current CNBC host and guest on Hugh Hewitt's show - has been a minor-league supporter of the Bush/Fox/Democrats immigration scheme. However, he's just admitted on his site just how ignorant he is of this issue.

He discusses the recent story "Mexican wives seek ouster of husbands from U.S." (link; pointed out here last April in "Mexican village artisans plead with U.S.: enforce your laws") and says (put on a Hugh Hewitt voice for full effect):

These Mexican wives seem to be saying that family breakup is a bad idea, even though their husbands are sending extra money back home.

As a free trader, I favor the Bush comprehensive immigration reform plan, which includes better border security, temporary worker cards, and ultimately, a path to citizenship.

However, family breakup is very troubling for a social conservative like myself.

Frankly, the extent of this family breakup problem is new information to me. I find it troubling.

All this time, this idiot has been promoting Bush's scheme, and he had (or says he had) no knowledge of the social disruption massive immigration to the U.S. causes? What else is he ignorant of? What else are similar hacks such as David Brooks, Tamar Jacoby, Fred Barnes, etc. ignorant of? How thick is their bubble, and are they even able to see anything outside of it?

In brief, Kudlow wasn't aware of these issues when he signed the Independent Institute's Open Letter on Immigration. He wasn't aware of these issues when he was told by president Bush that "immigration helps restore our souls." He wasn't aware of these issues when he said that "[Hispanic immigrants would] become a much-needed churchgoing blue-collar middle class . . . that is crucial to a healthy America." Do the fellow members of the Free Enterprise Fund know as little as he does?

Posted to Immigration2007a at 03:21 PM | Comments (11)

Arnold Schwarzenegger's "totally reasonable, centrist approach" to illegal immigration

Arnold Schwarzenegger - California's Bush-resembling, Mexico-pandering, Rove/Kennedy/Mexico-linked governor - engaged in a three-day "media blitz" in Washington DC, attending the National Governors Association meeting, speaking on Sunday talk shows, giving interviews and speaking before the National Press Club:

..."It is time that we reintroduce the concept of the mainstream back into the American political life, and the place to start it is immigration" ...minutes after leaving a meeting with President Bush in the Oval Office, Mr. Schwarzenegger said there is "a totally reasonable, centrist approach to the whole [immigration issue]."

His plan (legalization, "guest" workers) is actually an extremely radical plan that will have a disastrous impact on the U.S. His plan - which is about the same as the Bush/Democratic plan - will massively increase legal immigration, continue to allow illegal immigration for the same reasons as the 1986 amnesty did, and give even more political power to racial demagogues like Gil Cedillo and Fabian Nunez. The plan will be seen around the world as a massive amnesty, no matter what it's called in the U.S. Those prospective illegal aliens will respond by attempting to come here to take advantage of the next amnesty. The plan will give political power to those who currently support illegal immigration and will enable them to support future illegal immigration in the same manner they do now. And, the plan will give even more political power inside the U.S. to the Mexican Government. Is there any way to define his plan as anything other than extremely radical?

Arnold can be reached at 916-445-2841, and if you press the right sequence of buttons you can speak to an actual staffer.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 12:29 PM | Comments (1)

"Man agents shot ran drugs into U.S. after he was given immunity, DEA report says"

From this:

The Mexican national shot by two Border Patrol agents in a drug-related incident in February 2005 brought a second van load of drugs into the U.S. while he waited to testify against the agents, according to Drug Enforcement Administration reports obtained by the Daily Bulletin.

Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila - who was given immunity by U.S. prosecutors in exchange for testifying against former agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean - is the focus of a November 2005 DEA report that identifies him as the person responsible for stashing more than 750 pounds of marijuana in a van parked at a house in Clint, Texas, in October of that year...

Western District of Texas U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, whose office prosecuted Ramos and Compean, has denied numerous times that Aldrete-Davila brought a second load of narcotics into the United States after being granted immunity.

Sutton said in a Jan. 17 "Myths vs. Reality" press release that "Aldrete has not been subsequently arrested for drug smuggling. Our office is in the business of prosecuting drug traffickers and alien smugglers ... If we had a provable case against Aldrete, we would prosecute him."

Sutton's assertion that Aldrete-Davila has not been arrested is accurate. However, an Oct. 25, 2005, DEA report shows that DEA investigators believed they had sufficient evidence to indict Aldrete-Davila, but their requests to do so were denied by prosecutors.

According to a high-level source close to the investigation, Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura Gregory was notified in October 2005 that Aldrete-Davila was being investigated by the DEA and that the agency had new evidence against him.

Gregory dismissed the warning, the source said...

Posted to Immigration2007a at 11:27 AM | Comments (0)

Wells Fargo considers credit cards for illegal aliens

Apparently, Chris Casacchia of the Business Journal of Phoenix contacted various banks asking whether - like Bank of America - they were going to give credit cards to illegal aliens. A JPMorgan Chase & Co. spokeswoman said they have no such plans. Compass Bank "were not prepared to comment" for the story.

However, as could be expected, the bank that put support for illegal immigration on the map says that they're considering it.

Wells Fargo vice president of regional banking communications Marge Rice says:

"We are exploring the possibility of offering unsecured credit cards to Wells Fargo checking account customers who do not have Social Security numbers... Wells Fargo recognizes a great need for equal access to financial products and services for all customers who want to build credit, establish financial security and achieve the 'American dream'".

If you're a member of the media, you can contact Wells Fargo at corpcsf@wellsfargo.com. Others, please use this form: https://www.wellsfargo.com/contactus

If you'd like to move your accounts to a bank that supports our immigration laws, refer to this list.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 05:59 AM | Comments (1)

Bay City News Wire demands to know why ICE is doing their job

The Bay City News Wire - apparently an even-further left version of the AP operated by KPIX/CBS 5 out of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, alerts us that "SF: PROTESTERS KICK OFF WEEK OF ACTION AGAINST IMMIGRANT ARRESTS". The verbage used is similar to that from their "investigative reporter" Anna Werner, but the author isn't known. As with the article at the link, they don't seem to understand this whole "immigration law"/"city laws vs. federal laws" thing:

Several immigrant-rights organizations kicked off a week of action today in San Francisco in response to what they say is a recent spike in Bay Area raids on illegal immigrants.

The rally coincides with a San Francisco Board of Supervisors resolution that condemns enforcement efforts in San Francisco, a sanctuary city, and lobbies federal lawmakers to change immigration standards.

But officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) defend their actions and deny that there has been a recent crackdown on undocumented immigrants...

Did I miss the glorious news that San Francisco has seceded from the U.S.? Is there some reason why ICE has to "defend their actions", as long as they're lawful? Is the BCNW unaware that we have immigration laws and an agency that every once in a while enforces them? Apparently so:

Spokeswoman Virginia Kice said ICE has been conducting enforcement operations since 2003 when ICE was formed and began the fugitive operations initiative.

After a quick search of Wikipedia, the BCNW crack reporter determined that this "ICE" thing is indeed part of the federal government, as they claim.

Evelyn Sanchez, advocacy coordinator for the Bay Area Immigrant Rights Coalition, said ICE isn't admitting to recent raids and shakedowns in low-income communities in San Francisco, Concord and other Bay Area sites.

"Shakedowns"? What is this, The News Channel for Thugs?

A Board of Supervisors resolution sponsored by Supervisors Chris Daly, Tom Ammiano and Gerardo Sandoval, charges immigration officials with entering homes in their districts without warrants. It also accuses officials of harassing and intimidating residents... She said ICE only goes out to arrest people who have been through the court system and have been ordered by a judge to leave the country. In the process of these operations, ICE runs across other illegal immigrants and makes arrests accordingly...

ICE is trying as hard as they can not to do their job, and the far-lefties aren't playing along, allowing people like me to point out that post-"reform", these same far-left groups would continue to oppose the raids mandated by the "reform" they support. Clearly, these groups have no interest in "reform", and are only seeking a massive amnesty combined with open borders in the future.

In related news, Renee Saucedo of La Raza Centro Legal and the San Francisco Day Labor Program, together with St. Peter's Housing Committee, the Bay Area Immigrant Rights Coalition, Deporten a la Migra Coalition ("deport the Border Patrol/ICE"), and other groups will be conducting marches in front of the ICE Building in 'Frisco this week: indybay.org/newsitems/2007/02/22/18367355.php

You can read about a Deporten rally here: salon.com/news/feature/2006/04/11/sfrally/ and read Deporten's demands here: liberationink.com/revised/navigator.php?s=2&a=deporten

Just like movements for the redistribution of agricultural land, we demand democratic control of the land. We the workers are the ones creating value from the land, and it is just for us to have democratic control of it.

Those doughty capitalists told us we were importing cheerful, compliant workers, but it turns out we were importing land reformers instead.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 12:09 AM | Comments (1)

The "Mexican border town" in Los Angeles: Cudahy

Somewhat surprisingly, the L.A. Weekly offers the seven-screener "The Town the Law Forgot", all about the 1.2-square-mile city of Cudahy, California, located in southeast Los Angeles County near such tourist destinations as Maywood and South Gate. The story shows the dangers of allowing Mexican-style politics to be imported to the U.S.

Cudahy is a strange little city; some say a scary one. In 2003, city leaders fired the L.A. County Sheriff's Department — which had policed Cudahy for 14 years, focusing on gang and drug crime — in favor of a nearby municipal police force that recently erupted over public allegations of police brutality and kickbacks to police and city officials from a towing company.

In Cudahy, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency has seized almost 20 times more cocaine over the past five years than in Bell, a bordering city of similar size...

...Cudahy resembles a Mexican border town more than it does a Los Angeles suburb. Entrenched gangs and Mexican drug trafficking have trapped working-class legal and illegal immigrants in a cycle of violence and fear, in a city where less than a quarter of the 28,000 residents are eligible to vote...

Related:
Anne Taylor Fleming not on immigration
"Corruption hits cities in L.A.'s shadows"

UPDATE: Those living in other parts of the country should pay attention to this quote from Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa:

take a snapshot of Los Angeles and in 25 or 30 years so will go Topeka, Kansas and Des Moines, Iowa.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 10:38 PM | Comments (1)

Minneapolis Star-Tribune immigration editorial lies to readers

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune offers the unsigned editorial "Immigration is an asset, not a liability". Virtually everything in the article concerns illegal immigration, which they consistently refer to without the "illegal" qualifier, only using that word twice.

Not to put too fine a point on it, the "Strib" is lying to their readers. You can see a version with the magic word "illegal" added here, or consider this paragraph:

The big fight is likely to center on the Dream Act, which would extend in-state college tuition rates to immigrant students if they have attended a Minnesota high school for three years and earned a diploma.

They may be refering to the MN-specific version of that bill, but otherwise those "immigrant students" they refer to are actually "illegal immigrant students".

If the only way the Strib can support their argument is through lying, do they really have any argument at all?

Posted to Immigration2007a at 03:16 PM | Comments (3)

Illegal aliens rehired at Buckley Air Force Base after raid

From this:

Illegal immigrants say they were working on a military housing project outside Buckley Air Force Base within days after a major immigration raid there last year.

Immigration officials said at the time that they were protecting national security and sending a message to employers with the Sept. 20 raid, which nabbed more than 120 workers.

Most of the workers were from Mexico and were quickly deported. Others came from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. Three had outstanding criminal warrants and were turned over to Aurora police.

Julio Cesar Rodriguez, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, told the Rocky Mountain News he was back on the job a few days after the raid.

So was Martin Torrez, who said he saw about a dozen workers who returned to Buckley after they were deported...

The housing site is near the giant golf ball-like satellite monitoring systems on the base, which assist in global surveillance, missile warnings and homeland defense operations...

[Juan Guzman, a legal permanent resident who befriended some of the deported workers] said one worker told him he called a foreman while he was still in Mexico to see if he could get his job back.

"He was told, 'Just come back under a new identity, and we'll hire you back,' " Guzman said...

Bear in mind, of course, that the latter may or may not have happened, and there doesn't appear to be proof that any of those who had been deported were back working at the base. Of course, whether the DHS is looking for that proof is an open question.

The main contractor in this case is Hunt Building Co. Ltd. from El Paso, and, as could be expected, they have subcontractors.

The rest of the article goes into the details of labor laws, whether the contractors failed to pay their workers, etc. The second part of this series is tomorrow and is entitled... "The construction industry is addicted to illegal labor."

Posted to Immigration_terror at 01:27 PM | Comments (1)

Reuters: Hispanics do jobs others in U.S. "won't stand for" (Andrea Hopkins, Tim Gaynor)

Like a combination between an old-tyme ethnographer and a present-day cheap labor pimp, Andrea Hopkins of Reuters offers this:

As President George W. Bush's plans for a guest worker program languishes in a backlash against immigration, employers both large and small say they rely on Hispanic workers to keep the economy running.

A quote from a landscaper pining for more cheap labor follows, as does a story of an Average Homemaker who hired day laborers ("They do their job and do it well"). The latter paragraphs are highly reminiscent of the April 29, 2006 AP promotional piece "No. 1 employers of day laborers? Homeowners" (link; "It was first time [Chris James of Burbank] hired day laborers but it won't be his last.")

Then, we're treated to the only slight indication that their wonderful "traits" aren't necessarily genetic, but are based on something else: "They do it because they really want to feed their families." In other words, they're really, really desperate. But, part of it might be genetic:

"They'll work in extreme temperatures, in 115 degree (46 Celsius) weather, and most people won't stand for that."

That's oddly similar to the open letter that cheap labor profiteers wrote last year:

...few young Americans want to do hard physical labor, particularly in our climate. And in the less-skilled construction trades – masonry, concrete, drywall, tile – more than 80 percent of Texas' workforce is Latino.

Needless to say, the article doesn't look into the desperation aspect, and simply serves as an infomercial for cheap foreign serf labor. Which leaves me wondering why exactly Reuters continually prints things like this. Whose agenda are they trying to promote: that of the Bush administration, or the Democrats, or those who profit from cheap labor, or racial power groups, or what? And, are they paid to do it?

The article also features "additional reporting by Tim Gaynor in Phoenix", and I'm sure this is his contribution:

Julian Claudio Nabozny, owner of five McDonald's restaurants in Phoenix, sees the work ethic and close cultural ties among his Latino workers as nothing but a good thing... "Latinos [will] come to work even if they feel sick," said Nabozny. About 200 of his 220 employees are Latino... "[One of his assistant managers] comes in sick. We gave her health insurance and we have to tell her, 'Aurora go see a doctor!'" he said. "She wants to make us happy."

I wonder: when hiring people, does he discriminate in favor of Hispanics? And, do you want sick people to be working at McDonald's? Those are certainly good questions for McDonald's corporate offices, and I suggest you ask them.

And, if you're in the area and if you see any of his workers coughing and wheezing, document it and contact the health department. (Only if you see specific instances, of course.)

And, while I have no proof of discriminatory practices, I'd say 200 out of 220 is a very high number, so the Phoenix Human Relations Commission might be interested as well: phoenix.gov/HMNRELAT/index.html

Posted to Immigration2007a at 12:40 PM | Comments (1)

California presidential primary to help reelect incumbents like Nunez and Peralta

The California legislature is trying to move the presidential primary in the state from June 3 to February 5, 2008. That ballot will have two propositions. The first is from Arnie Schwartzenegger and concerns redistricting; presumably it's similar to his earlier proposal.

The second would extend term limits for our wonderful incumbents and would do so before a March 2008 deadline, thus allowing people such as Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez to continue their reigns.

Details here:

Essentially, California would have no real elections over the next four years, because we would have the same people running in the same districts where there is no competition.

UPDATE: For some unknown reason, I've thrice misspelled his name. It's Don Perata.

Posted to California at 12:20 PM | Comments (0)

"U.S. economy leaving record numbers in severe poverty"

McClatchy Newspapers has analyzed Census figures from 2005 and has found that "nearly 16 million Americans are living in deep or severe poverty". The number of "severely poor" (half the poverty line) rose 26% from 2000. The overall number of poor rose 17% in the same period.

And, an unknown part of that is due to the immigration policies of the Bush administration and the Democratic Party:

...Severe poverty is worst near the Mexican border and in some areas of the South, where 6.5 million severely poor residents are struggling to find work as manufacturing jobs in the textile, apparel and furniture-making industries disappear. The Midwestern Rust Belt and areas of the Northeast also have been hard hit as economic restructuring and foreign competition have forced numerous plant closings.

At the same time, low-skilled immigrants with impoverished family members are increasingly drawn to the South and Midwest to work in the meatpacking, food processing and agricultural industries.

These and other factors such as increased fluctuations in family incomes and illegal immigration have helped push 43 percent of the nation's 37 million poor people into deep poverty - the highest rate in at least 32 years.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 09:29 AM | Comments (1)

Bill Press is an idiot, Part #4832842 (Bank of America illegal alien credit cards)

Bill Press is a radio (Jones Radio Network), TV, and newspaper pundit and the former chairman of the California Democratic Party. Via this he offers "Bank Of America Rejects English-Only Plastic". As with other things, discussing all the ways it's wrong would take too long. So, let's just concentrate on three things:

1. The "Latino market" certainly includes most of the illegal alien market, but perhaps Press might consider not giving the impression that every Latino is an illegal alien by conflating the two markets.

2. While I never thought I'd say this, there are some statements that are even below sleazy bloggers such as Atrios. And, the Press statement "Tom Tancredo, who has yet to see an immigrant he didn't hate" falls in that category. It's not just false, it's extremely childish. Perhaps Creators Syndicate should look into the editing they give Press' articles.

3. Press strikes a loony libertarian note with "These new credit card customers may have broken the law by entering the country illegally. But that's no business of the banks." They've also almost certainly been hired illegally. What if the bank has a strong suspicion that some customers are drugrunners? Is that not their business either, and should they go after that market as well?

4. Press says "Now conservatives want the federal government to tell banks whom they can do business with." It's actually the other way around: banks weren't originally able to accept Mexico's Matricula Consular card as ID. The Bush administration fought to allow them to accept that card. In brief, Press is supporting Bush administration corruption.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 09:43 PM | Comments (3)

"Speaker Pelosi's Bad DREAM"

IBD discusses Nancy Pelosi supporting the DREAM Act in this editorial:

The speaker of the House backs in-state tuition for illegal aliens from neighboring countries but not for American citizens from neighboring states. Arizonans, among others, think otherwise. And, by the way, it's illegal.

...Title 8, Chapter 14, Sec. 1623, clearly states that "an alien who is not lawfully present in the United States shall not be eligible on the basis of residence within a state . . . for any postsecondary education benefit unless a citizen or national is eligible for such a benefit." Pelosi's legislation speaks only of "alien minors."

This law, passed in 1996, doesn't prohibit children of illegal aliens from getting in-state tuition rates. It merely says that if they do, U.S. citizens from any state must be offered the same benefit if they meet the same qualifications...

In 2005, the Washington Legal Foundation filed a complaint with the DHS under the Section above, and here's a March 2006 update. The current status of the complaint isn't known.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 05:37 PM | Comments (0)

"The Kennedy Amnesty Reign of Terror Begins This Next Week"

Starting next week, Senator Teddy Kennedy will apparently try to start the ball rolling on "comprehensive immigration reform" (aka a massive amnesty for illegal aliens). Please sign up at NumbersUSA to receive their action alerts; one such is here, which goes into who needs to be contacted and whether they're leaning for or against amnesty.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 01:42 PM | Comments (0)

Can Barack Obama answer this?

Please go to Barack Obama's campaign appearances and try to ask him the question on the video (reprinted below). The media isn't going to ask politicians any difficult questions, so it's up to us to do it.

Note that the same question applies to others who spoke at the May 1 rally: U.S. Reps. Rahm Emanuel, Jan Schakowsky, and Luis Gutierrez. The last also spoke at the March 10 event, as did Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich and Chicago mayor Richard Daley.



Here's the question:

You spoke at the May 1, 2006 illegal immigration march in Chicago.

Some of the key organizers of that march have links to the Mexican government and Mexican political parties.

Leaving aside your thoughts on immigration 'reform', is it proper for a U.S. Senator to support foreign citizens marching in our streets demanding that we change our laws, especially when foreign political parties helped organize the marches?

Posted to Temporary at 12:28 PM | Comments (4)

Council on Foreign Relations gets star power: Angelina Jolie

Angelina Jolie has been elected a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), sources say. Almost all top government leaders of the past several decades have been members of that Rockefeller-linked organization.

As could be expected, the media covers this from an entertainment perspective ("ANGELINA A BABE AMID BRAINIACS", NYPost, link) rather than looking into what the CFR might be after. First, while it will give them a higher profile, she may serve as a pretty face for the group. Second, she may be able to help them get their ideas into popular culture, the same way that another group has been able to do.

Posted to Politics at 11:01 AM | Comments (1)

Bush administration lets Mexican truckers past border zone

From this:

The news that Mexican trucks will be allowed to haul freight deeper into the United States drew an angry reaction Friday from labor leaders, safety advocates and members of Congress.

They said Mexico has substandard trucks and low-paid drivers that will threaten national security, cost thousands of jobs and endanger motorists on the northern side of the Mexican border.

..."This program will make trade with Mexico easier and keep our roads safe at the same time," Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said Friday. She announced details of the plan to let 100 Mexican trucking companies travel beyond the border area while she was in El Paso, Texas, at the Bridge of the Americas, which connects to Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.

She just "misspoke". If she wants to "keep our roads safe", she can work to prevent this. What she's trying to say is that the increased risk is both managed and worth it. Regarding the former, this program will probably be as well managed as other Bush programs, and regarding the latter someone is certainly standing to profit with this, and perhaps Leslie Miller of the AP should follow the money instead of just transcribing remarks.

According to the Transportation Department, U.S. inspectors will inspect every truck and interview drivers to make sure they can read and speak English. They'll examine trucks and check the licenses, insurance and driving records of the Mexican drivers. Inspectors will also verify that the trucking companies are insured by U.S.-licensed firms.

Expect there to be loopholes or those rules to be watered down or just not enforced.

National Transportation Safety Board member Debbie Hersman questioned how the U.S. could spare sending inspectors to Mexico when only a tiny percentage of the hundreds of thousands of U.S. truck companies are inspected every year...

...One-fourth of all U.S. trucks are taken off the road after random inspections because they're so unsafe, she said. An even higher percentage of Mexican trucks are taken off the road at Texas border crossings, she said.

The trucks will start to roll in 60 days, but when American trucks will be able to drive into Mexico is still being worked out (naturally). And, those Mexican trucks won't have "black boxes" like those on aircraft to make a record of the amount of time the driver's been on the road. Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) - believe it or don't - has a hearing on this matter scheduled for March 8.

Posted to NAU at 07:26 AM | Comments (2)

Prosperity promoted in closed-door Canada SPP event

The AP, always willing to act as a transcription service and not ask tough questions, offers:

Promoting prosperity topped the agenda at a gathering of U.S., Canadian and Mexican Cabinet leaders Friday, but immigration and the threat of terrorism also were key topics at the gathering.

Nine foreign and security ministers from the North American nations met in Ottawa, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

The Security and Prosperity Partnership talks were a lead-up to a meeting of the countries' leaders this August in Canada.

The officials reviewed a 63-page report from the North American Competitiveness Council on how to streamline border crossings, harmonize regulatory standards and improve the supply and distribution of clean energy sources. They also discussed ways in which to deal with a global bird flu pandemic, natural disasters, organized crime and drug trafficking.

After a full day of closed-door meetings, the officials addressed joint news conferences and discussed security, illegal immigration and terrorism.

...Some critics believe the Bush administration has put too great an emphasis on border security and not enough on the economic alliance. A Mexican journalist told Rice that this was the growing perception in his country.

Rice didn't respond by accusing the "journalist" of being high, but she should have.

"I think that if you look at everything from NAFTA on, including our extensive trade relationships, our extensive economic relationships, you can see that the United States and Mexico have been deeply concerned about one another's prosperity," she said. "But as the president has said, ultimately when one talks, for instance, about the issues of immigration, we want very much to see a Mexico in which Mexicans can find work and can take care of their families in Mexico."

..."I have to say it's very, very inspiring to see how vigorously President Calderon has moved, even in his brief term in office, to assert security controls when there are violations of the law," [Michael Chertoff] said.

Posted to NAU at 03:21 AM | Comments (2)

Los Angeles Times: give illegal aliens drivers licenses

The Los Angeles Times has an unsigned editorial called "Let illegal immigrants get licenses". They don't have an detailed list of reasons why we should do that, and they don't answer the large number of objections. Other than "just because", they think we should do it because they're here now, and they might as well have insurance.

As for the objection that "the state shouldn't be in the business of making life easier for people who aren't supposed to be here anyway", the LAT has a ready answer:

It's undeniable that illegal immigrants place a real burden on schools, hospitals and other institutions. But driver's licenses must be earned and paid for, and they benefit not just those who carry them but anyone who uses the state's roads.

The "earning" part is really tough: an hour or two at the DMV. The "paying" part, well, should the state really try to pick up a buck off those who are here illegally? Couldn't we make even more money if we just opened up the borders?

Needless to say, the LAT doesn't offer us the option of California attempting to reduce the numbers of illegal aliens here now. Nor, do they discuss the increased illegal immigration that will likely result from offering yet one more benefit. Nor do they discuss the possibility of terrorists getting the cards. In fact, one of the 9/11 terrorists got a California driver's license using a bypass code designed for use by illegal aliens (that loophole has since been closed).

And, of course, the LAT doesn't discuss the huge benefit this will give to the country of Mexico other than to mention that one document needed to get a license would be an "official ID from their country of origin".

The head of the LAT's editorial board is Andres Martinez, and I don't think it's unfair to question which country he's trying to benefit with this scheme.

Posted to Immigration_dls at 11:56 PM | Comments (1)

Bill: end ITIN mortgages (John Doolittle, R-CA)

From this:

...a bill has been introduced in Congress that would prohibit financial institutions from providing home mortgages to anyone who lacks a Social Security number. The bill, introduced by Rep. John Doolittle, R-Calif., would amend the Truth in Lending Act to make ITIN mortgage lending illegal.

Needless to say:

Proponents of ITIN-based lending to home buyers say Doolittle has it all wrong.

Tim Sandos, president and CEO of the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals, said Doolittle's bill would be "extremely disruptive" and affect far more people than the illegal immigrants the measure purports to target.

Sandos estimates that there are as many as 7 million to 8 million resident aliens in the United States who do not have Social Security cards but are in some phase of the immigration process leading to citizenship...

I'm not entirely sure, but I highly doubt his numbers since legal immigrants can get SSNs. Other quote sources with cash and/or racial cows in the fight are Geoffrey Cooper, director of emerging markets for MGIC Investment and Janis Bowdler, senior housing policy analyst for the National Council of La Raza. If you want to fight corruption, support the bill.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 06:50 PM | Comments (0)

Liberals: Wikipedia not biased, Conservapedia a joke

Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum has started an alternative to Wikipedia called Conservapedia.

Needless to say, the usual "liberal" suspects are having a great deal of (what passes to them as) fun (link, link, link,link). They're pointing out "errors" in the encyclopedia, and some of those "errors" may actually be vandalism (link, link,link) and would be refered to at WP as such. Did you really expect anything different?

Of course, those of us with a greater mental age might wonder, "if unthinking 'liberals' say Wikipedia isn't biased, isn't that prima facie evidence that it is indeed biased?" And, we could compare that to the occasional ludicrous statement that the MSM does not have such a bias. And, we could point to entries at WP such as that on Antonio Villaraigosa, or the press-release-manquee for Media Matters. Or, something else I just noticed: Art Torres' 187 quote was added to his entry in April 2006, removed in May, and then not added back in until August. Meaning that all during the Summer of 2006, a very "liberal" POV of Torres was being presented to all those who visited the entry, which turns up at the #1 spot in a Google search for his name.

Nope, no bias in Wikipedia, which is "normal" and "unbiased" in the same sense that the New York Times is "normal" and "unbiased".

I note also that WP publishes an /Interwiki_map, which lets you create links to other wikis. Instead of entering the full, external URL, you use something like [[Disinfopedia:Wikipedia]], which would link to the Wikipedia entry at sourcewatch.org. Unlike almost all other external links, such links don't have the nofollow tag added, which is certainly of benefit to many sites. There are interwiki links for commercial sites such as IMDB, and one was briefly added for Youtube (it was deleted over concerns of linking to copyrighted material). You can suggest adding an interwiki link on its talk page, and no one has so far offered for Conservapedia. I wonder what would happen if someone did?

The bottom line is that the "liberal" response to Conservapedia is similar to their response to Rush Limbaugh, the Washington Times, and Fox News, and their push to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine. They aren't content with having their biases presented in almost all of the wider media, they simply want it all.

VERY SPECIAL UPDATE: Certainly, not all the bias at WP is "liberal". In the 06:13, 26 January 2005 revision of the Asa_Hutchinson article (a Republican and a former DHS Undersecretary), I added four negative links, none of them to any of my sites and all relating to illegal immigration:

"Rounding up all illegals 'not realistic'"
"Hutchinson’s Remarks Indicate Cheap Labor Bias of Administration"
Cheers, jeers at immigration town hall meeting
"(Hutchinson) slammed for stopping illegals sweeps"

Those links were deleted 10 weeks later; in August I added them back in twice before giving up. In its current state, no one would know anything about his involvement in the Temecula sweeps, which is about the only thing (other than running for Arkansas governor) he's known for in the past few years.

DON'T MESS WITH MINILIB UPDATE: My Digg post was buried; searching for it by name didn't bring it up until I checked the 'show buried stories' checkbox. I don't know exactly how that works, but if you go here and vote for it it might become un-'liberaled'.

Posted to Miscellania at 01:55 PM | Comments (12)

Sleazy Think Progress, Anderson Cooper lie about Tom Tancredo

Think Progress continues their reputation as illogical smear merchants - and Anderson Cooper continues his reputation as a fluff "reporter" - with "CNN Fact Checks Tancredo, Proves He Once Suggested Bombing Mecca". He did suggest that, but neither Think Progress nor Anderson Cooper properly contextualized his suggestion.

At the post there's a video outtake [transcript] from an unknown date featuring Edina Lekovic from Muslim Public Affairs Council (link: "Los Angeles-based Muslim organization whose leadership defends extremist violence") saying that Tancredo suggested bombing Mecca to "send a message". Tancredo objects, saying that she is being disingenuous and is not putting his remarks in the proper context.

Then, the video cuts to Anderson Cooper who disingenuously pretends that the question is about whether Tancredo suggested bombing Mecca, when his complaint was about the context.

Tancredo's original comment was that he'd only do that under certain conditions: if it was determined that terrorists had struck several U.S. cities with nuclear weapons and it was determined that it had been "extremist, fundamentalist Muslims" that had done it, only then would we bomb their "holy sites". The host said, "you're talking about bombing Mecca", and Tancredo responds, "yeah".

Lekovic did not mention Tancredo's pre-conditions, and her comment as well as Think Progress' complaint and Anderson Cooper's "fact-checking" are completely disingenuous.

You can contact CNN using the link at cnn.com/CNN/Programs/anderson.cooper.360, and that also links to their blog where you can leave (moderated) comments. Best of all, just don't watch his show.

UPDATE: I've since found and linked the transcript.

Posted to Politics at 11:18 AM | Comments (7)

Flash: Mitt Romney great-great grandson of polygamist!

Breaking news from our "never trust a Mormon" department: presidential contender Mitt Romney is the great-great-grandson of a polygamist!

This shocking news is burning up the wires:

While Mitt Romney condemns polygamy and its prior practice by his Mormon church, the Republican presidential candidate's great-grandfather had five wives and at least one of his great-great grandfathers had 12.

Sure, he condemns it now, but what about then?

America demands answers, and a consortium of liberals - led by the Huffington Post, BrainFireDogFireLake, Hatrios, and ThinkProgress are currently encouraging George Soros to set up a fund to pay Mike Stark to go to Mitt's campaign appearances and scream at him, "WHY AREN'T YOU GOING BACK IN YOUR TIME MACHINE TO STOP THIS POLYGAMY, YOU GREAT-GREAT-GREAT-GREAT-GREAT-GRANDSON OF A POLYGAMIST?!?! ALL LIBERAL BLOGDOM WANTS TO KNOW!"

It's a win-win: this will also help avoid a grown-up discussion about policy issues and Mitt's close links to the Bush family. And, who wants to discuss that?

Posted to Politics at 10:39 AM | Comments (4)

Charles Rust-Tierney, ACLU of Virginia

Charles Rust-Tierney - who served as president of the Virginia chapter of the ACLU from 2002 to 2005 - was arrested by ICE today on charges of possessing child pornography.

ABC News has a report, and Bill O'Reilly gave it a couple minutes. But, only five to seven local media sources are running the Associated Press' account which, to their credit, starts like so:

A youth sports coach in Arlington County who is also a past president of Virginia's American Civil Liberties Union chapter was arrested Friday and charged with receiving and possessing child pornography.

Disclaimer: he might be innocent, he may have or may think he has some exception because he's doing research or something, the images might not actually be of children but of adults portraying children, etc.

Special tinfoil hat disclaimer: the images could have been planted by ICE or by Interpol.

2/24 UPDATE: The WashTimes has a little more, but there's only one or two more local sources - if that - covering the ACLU link.

2/26 UPDATE: The major sources have (almost) completely ignored this issue. At present, the following are the (almost) only MSM sites with stories featuring both his name and the ACLU affiliation (per Google News):

North Country Gazette, NY
NBC 4.com, DC
Associated Content, CO
Washington Times, DC
WJLA, DC
WTOP, DC
WVEC.com, VA
WDBJ7.com, VA
Daily Press, VA

The Washington Post did cover this, but they offered it on Saturday and buried as the first blurb in their Virginia Briefing/Arlington County section. It got two paragraphs, including the news that he's a "former ACLU chapter president".

2/28 UPDATE: He's due in court today. Oddly enough, this story still hasn't taken off for some strange reason or other.

Posted to Politics at 08:23 PM | Comments (2)

Dick Morris still wrong; Hispanics, unprincipled GOP, religious conservatives

Dick Morris - at one time on Vicente Fox's payroll - offers "The Latino revolution":

...Evangelicals, of any race or ethnicity, are fertile ground for Republicans and may provide a huge opening to swing the formerly Democratic Hispanic vote toward a more even-handed stance or even make it a core element of an emerging Republican majority.

I recently met with Rev. Sam Rodriquez, the leader of the national association of Evangelical Latino churches. He's a Republican dream: pro-life, anti-gay marriage, and a Bush voter...

Unfortunately, the hostile reception immigration reform has received from the GOP side of the aisle in Washington is turning off the very voters the Republicans can now, for the first time, hope to attract to their side. Based on a fear of Democratic domination of the Hispanic vote, Republican insistence on barring the way to citizenship and voting rights for undocumented or illegal immigrants may drive these very potential Republican supporters back into Democratic arms...

If those "potential Republican supporters" don't support our laws - or want special favors for their race - are they really good candidates for the Republican Party? Morris is, as usual, completely unprincipled. He sees the GOP as a slight variant of the Democratic Party, with the use of red meat social issues and pandering to religious conservatives to bring in the voters.

He's also living in a fantasy world: no matter how much the GOP supports multiculturalism (i.e., Gramscism) and massive immigration, the Democrats will always be able to offer those who want open borders for racial reasons a better deal.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 11:27 AM | Comments (4)

Orange County Catholic Church: fast for immigration "reform"

The local leaders of the Catholic Church are using lent as a pretext to push for immigration "reform", aka a massive amnesty:

[Cardinal Roger M. Mahony] said he would travel to Washington in early March to encourage lawmakers to "take active steps" toward immigration reform...

At St. Boniface Catholic Church in Anaheim, Auxiliary Bishop Jaime Soto, a longtime champion of immigrant rights, proposed that parishioners fast to reflect on the problem...

...Soto said he conceived the fast for immigration reform with other Orange County Catholic leaders who shared his concern about immigration issues...

...Soto asked parishioners to fill out cards that will be sent to members of Congress, urging them to enact reforms. The Los Angeles Archdiocese conducted a similar postcard campaign last year. Soto said 15 of Orange County's 60 parishes had asked for the cards in recent weeks.

Soto said that although Orange County was "ground zero" for opponents of immigration reform, he was "hopeful that even people who have trouble with the church's position on immigration might dedicate a day to fasting and come to a new understanding that this can be beneficial for all."

To the extent that fasting reduces your ability to reason, yes indeed it would be helpful to coming to a "new understanding". So would downing a pint of tequila.

As I have a few times before, I strongly urge everyone to go to public events or similar where these open border bishops speak and try to publicly ask them tough questions designed to discredit their positions. Discrediting them isn't hard at all, the hard part is finding a public forum where they're willing to engage in a dialogue about their positions.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 10:46 PM | Comments (3)

Monica Rhor/AP: pro-anchor baby propaganda

Monica Rhor of the Associated Press offers an idiotic article entitled "Bill denying citizenship to U.S.-born babies would cost Texas". She's a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (link), and she appears to have let her ethnic identity get in the way of her ability to do fundamental economic analysis:

A Texas legislator wants to challenge the right to automatic U.S. citizenship for babies born to illegal immigrants, cutting them off from receiving state health and education benefits.

But the bill sponsored by State Rep. Leo Berman, R-Tyler, that would deny birthright citizenship to those children could end up putting a heavier financial burden on already-overwhelmed public hospitals, increase costs to local taxpayers and create a population of children who do not receive basic medical care or immunizations, state and local health officials said...

Quite a list of negatives she got there, didn't she? Of course, whether the sources said that first or whether it worked the other way around isn't clear. And, she seems to have forgotten about the overall goal of Berman's bill: to reduce illegal immigration to his state. Oddly enough, she doesn't figure reduce illegal immigration into her "analysis". She doesn't discuss why those hospitals are "already-overwhelmed", and to what an extent illegal immigration plays in their situation.

One of every four births at public hospitals in Houston, Dallas and Fort Worth are to illegal immigrant mothers, officials estimate. The mothers' obstetrics costs are covered through a special Medicaid program. As U.S. citizens, the babies qualify for Medicaid or CHIPS coverage.

If the infants are denied automatic citizenship, however, thousands might not qualify for state or federal reimbursement programs — saddling the public hospitals with the extra costs, said King Hillier, vice president of public policy and government relations with the Harris County Hospital District, which includes Houston. "They would further exacerbate the problem of the uninsured in the state."

Certainly, with illegal immigration at the current or at a higher level, there would be a cost associated with the effects of a lower immunization rate and similar. However, complaining about reduced federal reimbursement is at the least extremely short-sighted: it ignores the fact that that money has to come from somewhere. If Rhor and the District cares about saving money, they'll try to reduce illegal immigration, instead of offering an incentive by providing birthright citizenship.

Rhor also lies:

Birthright citizenship is guaranteed by the 14th Amendment, which was ratified in 1868.

The 14th has only been interpreted to grant birthright citizenship, and the original author of that clause didn't intend it to apply to "foreigners".

Posted to Immigration2007a at 07:44 PM | Comments (0)

Bank of America CEO Kenneth Lewis defiantly says won't cancel credit card for illegal aliens

Bank of America CEO Kenneth Lewis has written an editorial for the Wall Street Journal explaining his side of the credit card for illegal aliens his bank offers. In yet another bone-headed move, it's subscriber-only. A large percentage of those who subscribe to that rag will probably already support their position; it's the rest of us he should be trying to hustle. This also underlines that that bank is part of a elite that is indifferent to the concerns of the vast majority of Americans.

Fox summarizes it here, saying that they're defiantly continuing the program:

"Bank of America does not deliberately market financial products and services to illegal immigrants from any country." he wrote. Instead, the bank chief said that the program was created to help consumers who lack certain financial tools.

"We believe we have an obligation to serve all those in our country who are legally eligible to receive services. To do less would be discriminatory and unfair."

..."As with all our products, the program meets the identification requirements of the USA Patriot Act, U.S. Treasury Department regulations and internal fraud prevention procedures," he wrote...

..."We know some will find this unacceptable. Even so, we feel we have a great obligation to live by the laws of the land, to serve our customers, and to do our part to support the security of our nation's financial systems."

And, from the blurb:

First, the program is not about illegal immigrants, and never was. ...

Tell me another one. One of the ways that a customer can obtain the credit card or the required checking account is with Mexico's Matricula Consular card, which is almost a guarantee that the bearer is an illegal alien. If it isn't about "illegal immigrants", then surely Lewis should have no problem with stopping to accept that card (which, by the way, the Bush administration fought to allow banks to accept).

Posted to Immigration2007a at 03:00 PM | Comments (5)

Kennedy-McCain illegal alien amnesty nearing completion; business, racial groups

From this:

Senators and lobbyists are putting the final touches on a comprehensive immigration-reform bill that includes an easier citizenship path for illegal aliens and weaker enforcement provisions than were in the highly criticized legislation that the Senate approved last year.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, the Massachusetts Democrat who ardently supports citizenship rights for illegals, will introduce the bill as early as next week, according to Senate sources knowledgeable about the negotiations. If the Senate Judiciary Committee can make quick work of the bill, it could be ready for floor action in April.

Mr. Kennedy drafted this year's bill with help from Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, and outside lobbyists...

Those lobbyists include the Essential Worker Immigration Coalition (EWIC) and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

In particular, EWIC and the chamber have taken a leading role in drafting the section of the bill dealing with work-site enforcement, Senate staffers say. Lobbyists in both organizations have shuttled around Capitol Hill drafts of those provisions, which are supposed to impose sanctions on businesses that hire illegal aliens, according to internal e-mails obtained by The Washington Times.

"That's putting the fox in charge of the henhouse," one Senate lawyer said about the pro-business chamber's involvement in drafting the punishment of employers.

One of those e-mails obtained by The Times invited Democratic immigration staffers to a briefing in early January with "key stakeholders" to discuss workplace-enforcement provisions. The invitation listed six such "stakeholders," including the chamber and EWIC. The other groups attending the meeting, according to the e-mail, were the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Immigration Law Center, the National Council of La Raza and the Service Employees International Union.

The ACLU is indirectly linked to the Mexican government. The NCLR funded one or more MEChA chapters (link,link) and funds a racial separatist charter school in Los Angeles. The SEIU paid one Artemio Arreola to organize immigration marches, and he also serves on an advisory council to Mexico's president. The SEIU, their locals, and various members have extensive links to last year's immigration marches.

Sens. Brownback and Specter were apparently shut out of helping to write this year's monstrosity, and they together with Lindsey Graham, Chuck Hagel, and Mel Martinez only were invited to a meeting after the bill had almost been completed.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 11:17 AM | Comments (0)

Open borders libertarian loon invades Pandagon!

Pandagon isn't just the place where Amanda Marcotte fights the g****** patriarchy. It's a group blog, and another poster there, one Chris Clarke (see his first post for his bio), offers "Trashing the border". I don't know if he's a libertarian or just a delete-the-border type, but he's as loony as either:

Let me say this up front to piss off the Malkinites: I'm an open borders advocate. I think that as long as capital is allowed to cross borders freely, people ought to as well.

And, let me say this up front: I appreciate him saving me having to read the rest. So, a quick scan of the rest of the post and the comments, and I left the following comment earlier today. I received the message that it was awaiting moderation, but for one reason or another it hasn't shown up. Now, certainly, some people don't bother to check comments awaiting moderation and there are occasionally technical glitches. So, as a public service to the Pandagon Community, I'll post it here and try to send a trackback:

Did I stumble upon a libertarian blog by mistake?

Sirkowski says: "Why not do like Europe and have an American Union?"

President Bush - in addition to being a strong supporter of massive immigration - is actually working on that plan. Look into the North American Union. There's even a precursor website: spp.gov

Richard: the proposal is to build the fence on the border over which millions of people have come.

Patrick Nielsen Hayden mentions Humane Borders, without disclosing that they are or were collaborating with the Mexican Government.

As for the post:

1. All those who support or enable illegal immigration are partly responsible for those border deaths. Those include useful idiot "liberals", business interests, racial interests, the Democratic and Republican parties, including, of course, this site's friend President Bush.

2. The idea that we can have open borders is extraordinarily ahistoric and childish. Stronger countries would not hesitate to take advantage of it, just as Mexico is currently taking advantage of political corruption and useful idiots in the U.S. in order to make money off their excess population. With open borders, Mexico, China and any other country could send us millions of their citizens and obtain a great deal of political power inside the U.S., almost certainly in changing the political structure of the U.S. to match what those countries want.

No one who supports open borders should be taken seriously.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 09:20 PM | Comments (2)

Keith Ellison endorses Barack Hussein Obama

More good news for Barack Hussein Obama, as he's just received the endorsement of Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), the first Muslim Congressman and someone linked to CAIR.

"Not because he's black... That's identity politics. I reject identity politics... He speaks with a unifying spirit."

As for CAIR, their spokesman Ibrahim Hooper once said this:

"I wouldn't want to create the impression that I wouldn't like the government of the United States to be Islamic sometime in the future," Hooper told the Star Tribune. "But I'm not going to do anything violent to promote that. I'm going to do it through education."

However, Ellison said that if Hillary Clinton gets the nomination, he might end up supporting her instead.

Posted to Politics at 04:23 PM | Comments (1)

Hillary Clinton endorses Bush on immigration amnesty

From this:

Speaking to about 300 community leaders in an area with a large immigrant population [Miami], Mrs. Clinton staked out a centrist position on the hot-button topic [of immigration], saying she supported a "pathway to legalization" for the nation's 11 million to 12 million estimated undocumented immigrants, but only if they waited in line and paid fines. She described her stance as "basically" what the president has proposed.

"I think, on this issue, the president is right," Mrs. Clinton said...

Needless to say, that position is "centrist" only in so far as it's not as extreme as those who want to declare open borders. The Clinton/Bush scheme would vastly increase legal immigration, continue to allow illegal immigration, and give racial demagogues and the government of Mexico even more political power inside the U.S. That's not "centrist", that's extremist.

...Mrs. Clinton did not mention the fence issue yesterday. She has said she supports a wall "in certain areas," but she made clear that tougher enforcement of current immigration laws was a top priority. While she scoffed at the suggestion of deporting all illegal immigrants, she had strong words for those who break the law. "The ones who are criminals, let's deport them. If they're criminals, let's move them back to where they came from," Mrs. Clinton said, drawing applause from the crowd.

She called for stricter sanctions on employers who hire illegal immigrants, and she echoed Mr. Bush in saying undocumented immigrants should have to pay fines and should have a lower priority than legal residents in applying for citizenship, even if it takes "10 to 15 years." Mr. Obama has also stood with the president on immigration, championing legislation that passed the Senate with Mr. Bush's support but that stalled in the House.

The article ends with someone who attended the lecture complaining about Hillary just giving a stock speech. The power to change that is in your hand, but unfortunately not too many people seem willing to go out and ask tough questions.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 08:47 AM | Comments (0)

Mexico to push even harder for a massive illegal alien amnesty

Looks like Mexico is going to help us determine who's on their side, and who's on ours:

Mexico plans to begin an aggressive lobbying effort in the United States to secure an immigration reform agreement, the country's new ambassador in Washington said Tuesday.

Mexican consulates in the United States will talk with state and federal lawmakers, business chambers, civic organizations and "all actors of U.S. society" who support comprehensive immigration reform, Arturo Sarukhan said.

"There are few matters so important to the future of this country," Sarukhan told reporters in Mexico City before departing for Washington.

"This country", of course, refers to Mexico. He also said:

"We are going to put into place the same kind of diplomatic and lobbying effort that we did in the early 1990s when NAFTA was being decided."

What to watch for is an even higher level of propaganda from the usual suspects in the media: the NYT, LAT, WaPo, the AP, and the major networks. Something else to watch for is who he meets with, and what they say and what they mean. Any U.S. representative who gives him anything beyond a polite brush-off should perhaps consider going back with him to Mexico.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 05:22 AM | Comments (6)

Let's help Katherine Mangu-Ward find some Reason

Katherine Mangu-Ward of Reason Magazine discusses Bank of America's credit card for illegal aliens in "Credit Where Credit Is Due" [1]. Let's help her with her thinking:

[ITIN numbers are] a reasonable, practical measure and it enables recent arrivals to the country-legal and illegal-to do business on the up-and-up. In fact, these numbers make it easier for those people to pay their way in taxes for the services they use, and easier for the government to track them.

It all sounds so simple when a Reason hack explains it, doesn't it? Of course those who want to think about it at a deeper level might realize that the use of those numbers allows the government to bring in revenue from illegal alien workers, all or almost all of whom are employed contrary to the laws of the country. And, the more illegal immigration, the more that part of the government brings in. Won't that give bureaucrats or legislators an incentive to increase or legitimize in some ways illegal immigration? Is that good public policy? Is Mangu-Ward even concerned with public policy, or only with Bank of America's bottom line?

But Tancredo and Dobbs imply that private companies should be expected to do the work of government, screening illegals better than government itself can manage.

Bank of America is going out of its way to screen *for* illegal aliens by accepting Mexico's Mickey Mouse ID card, the Matricula Consular. If they want to restrict their no-SSN program to only that small number of legal immigrants and visitors who don't have SSNs, they can ask for a visa. (Cue the crickets). One would have to be a complete simpleton (whether working for Reason or not) to pretend that the whole obvious goal of the scheme wasn't simply to give credit to illegal aliens.

"Its practical effect is an amnesty for illegal aliens," declares analyst John Keely, also of the Center for Immigration Studies. But, of course, it's not at all like a nationwide amnesty.

It does allow illegal aliens to build up a credit history, and this won't be the last program giving credit to illegal aliens. And, those recipients will use the credit to further embed themselves into their communities, making it more difficult to deport them. It's certainly not a "comprehensive" amnesty, but it does help those who have that as their goal.

Critics worried about the ethical implications of offering credit cards to lawbreakers would do well to consider the ethical implications of shutting out an underclass from the banking services the rest of us enjoy.

Oddly enough, I don't feel guilty since I support enforcing our immigration laws, something that would eventually greatly reduce that underclass. Perhaps illegal immigration supporters like Reason Magazine might want to look at the several fingers pointing back in their direction: they're the ones responsible for that underclass, now they're sleazily trying to use guilt to help others profit from it.

When an illegal immigrant is faced with unexpected medical bills, surely it is preferable for him to be able to put it on a credit card and pay it off gradually, rather than turn to various unsavory and potentially illegal ways to get his hands on the money.

Even better: what if he could ask his government - while living in his own country - why they won't help him out? (Those from California will note that this is a variant of the scare tactics opponents of proposition 187 used.)

And, of course, Mangu-Ward doesn't go into issues such as the massive political corruption that allowed Bank of America to reach this point, nor does she mention the government of Mexico's endless campaign to get Matricula Consular cards into as many illegal alien hands as possible, nor all the other troubling aspects of this story.

Since Reason is either unaware of or unwilling to discuss those troubling aspects, should anyone trust anything they say?

[1] reason.com/news/show/118741.html

Posted to Immigration2007a at 07:40 PM | Comments (4)

Barack Hussein Obama brings mania to Los Angeles

Barack Obama Mania visited near-South Los Angeles earlier today, as the presidential candidate delivered a stock speech before a few hundred supporters at the Rancho Cienega Sports Complex. The speech was held outside in the bleachers of a softball field, and that made it a bit difficult to get a good photo.

About the only Los Angeles-specific part of the speech involved him promoting finding jobs for some of the unemployed in the surrounding neighborhoods. Needless to say, he didn't explain how illegal immigration - something that he strongly supports - would make that more difficult than it would be otherwise.

Unfortunately, there was no Q&A session, so I wasn't able to ask him something that would take the wind out his sails a bit:

Senator Obama: You spoke at the May 1, 2006 illegal immigration march in Chicago. That march was organized with the assistance of representatives of Mexico's three major political parties. And, one of the other groups that's organized similar events is partially funded by the Irish government. And, two marches in Georgia were organized by a former Mexican Consul General. Were you aware of this? If you weren't, shouldn't you have been? If you were, I would like you to explain exactly why you find it acceptable for those linked to foreign governments to meddle in our internal politics.

I wasn't able to ask that question, but I strongly urge everyone to go to his future appearances and try to ask it or something similar.

After his brief stop in South L.A., he heads to the Westside (the Best Side) for a Hollywood fundraiser to be held at the Beverly (Hills) Hilton expected to net him over a million dollars.

Posted to Politics at 05:26 PM | Comments (1)

Erika Hayasaki/LAT should write ad copy for illegal alien debit card commercials

Erika Hayasaki of the Los Angeles Times offers "Debit cards for immigrants". As she makes clear in her piece, those "immigrants" are almost certainly illegal aliens. And, the article doesn't read like a news report at all, but rather like an infomercial for the card. Please send an email to readers.rep *at* latimes.com with your thoughts.

The card in question is not the credit card from Bank of America, but a debit card called "Sigo". The program is "affiliated with MasterCard".

Those named as helping start the program include:
- Janice Fine (Rutgers University labor relations professor)
- Lauren Leimbach (Community Financial Resources)
- the Center for Community Change.

It's being distributed at the New Labor "worker center" (New Brunswick, New Jersey), Pilipino Worker Center (L.A.), the Institute of Popular Education of Southern California, and five other unnamed places. They want to expand that to 160 "worker centers" across the U.S.

To many Americans, the idea that major banks are attempting to profit from indirect illegal activity is extremely worrisome. Hayasaki only acknowledges those concerns very briefly and in a negative manner. In fact, illegal immigration-related concerns are brushed aside with one-half of a sentence in a 24 paragraph article:

Critics have denounced such efforts to integrate illegal immigrants into the banking and credit world as aid to criminals, but Sigo organizers worry such offers by traditional banks will take advantage of low-income immigrants.

Certainly, exploitation is an important part of this, but that sentence falsely implies that that is a much more important issue than, for instance, the massive political corruption that allows such programs.

The rest of the article reads like ad copy; perhaps Hayasaki is on the wrong beat or working for the wrong company. Allow me to suggest that she goes to work writing infomercials. First, introduce the problem:

Jose Manuel Aparicio had come up with all kinds of ways to stash his construction job wages: He slipped bills between pages of books hidden in his bedroom closet and stuffed money into an old sock in his laundry — places thieves weren't likely to look... Without a bank account, "somebody can steal it," said the 20-year-old, who came to the U.S. from Mexico three years ago. "That's it, my money is gone."

[...cue peppy music...]

Then three months ago, Aparicio applied for a special debit card created for immigrants who don't have Social Security numbers, which are required to open savings or checking accounts. They're also for people who just don't trust banks.

[...bring in the show's expert...]

A nonprofit worker center here called New Labor, which helps immigrants learn English and find jobs, in November became the first in the nation to offer the Sigo card — combining "go" with Spanish for "yes."

For the rest, turn to channel 347.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 11:45 AM | Comments (1)

Nancy Pelosi: take college discounts from citizens, give them to illegal aliens

Nancy Pelosi spoke at a town hall meeting at Arizona State University in Tempe on Monday, and was joined Reps. Barbara Lee (D-CA), Ed Pastor (D-AZ), Harry Mitchell (D-AZ), and Raul Grijalva (D-AZ).

...In a news conference following the meeting, Pelosi made reference to the effect of Proposition 300, an Arizona initiative passed by voters in November that requires illegal immigrants to pay out-of-state tuition to attend public universities and community colleges.

"Our country does not benefit by our depriving young people of an education," Pelosi said.

Our country does not benefit by providing yet another incentive for illegal aliens to come here and for Mexico to keep sending us their unwanted population. What she supports would take discounts from U.S. citizens and give them to foreign citizens who are here illegally. She is in effect turning her back on those she's supposed to represent, and she is, yet again, unclear on who she works for: the U.S. or Mexico.

Pastor said comprehensive immigration-reform legislation will be introduced in Congress next month and it will include provisions that would allow undocumented students who grow up in the United States and graduate from high school to pay in-state college tuition.

Aka the "DREAM Act".

Posted to Immigration2007a at 11:29 AM | Comments (1)

Tamar Jacoby: "Stop chasing that busboy"

Tamar Jacoby becomes a caricature of herself (again), offering "Stop chasing that busboy" (via this). That's part of an online debate with Mark Krikorian of CIS.

For those who haven't been following along, the "busboy canard" is a stock talking point from the massive immigration/pro-illegal immigration crowd. The argument is that our border guards should chasing terrorists and such, and chasing busboys, gardeners, greenskeepers, and the like distracts them from that mission.

I've already dealt with one of her "arguments":

It was all but impossible to enforce Prohibition.

Now, let's deal with another:

But the most effective way to get control of illegal immigration isn't on the border; it's in the workplace. It's about ensuring that every available job - every job for which an employer can't find an American worker - is filled by a legal immigrant. Because once we do that - once illegal immigrants can't find work in the U.S. - there will be little or no incentive for them to make the long, difficult trip from their home countries.

Obviously, those same companies that employ illegal aliens in order to achieve a lower cost for labor will play similar tricks if all they have available are legal workers. For instance, many current H-1B scams involve placing ads with an impossible list of requirements, then, after no "qualified" citizens can be found, doing what the company wanted to do in the first place: hire a lower-wage and/or more compliant foreign worker.

And, even with that there's no guarantee whatsoever that illegal aliens couldn't find work in the U.S. There are plenty of crooked employers (and banks) around, and they have a tremendous amount of influence. If Bush won't enforce the laws now, what makes anyone think a future Bush clone would enforce them at that time?

Note also that the "guest" worker schemes from the various Senate bill had only a limited number of visas; a greater demand would equal a greater chance for future illegal immigration, and that would be allowed and enabled by those same forces that are currently allowing and enabling it.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 05:16 AM | Comments (2)

NoCal far-lefties show why immigration "reform" would fail miserably

In March 2006, the dean of massive immigration, Senator Teddy Kennedy, said that his "comprehensive immigration reform" proposal offered "[d]oubled Interior Enforcement" and "authorizes state and local law enforcement officers to investigate, apprehend, arrest, detain or transfer to aliens to federal custody" and had "[a]dditional Worksite Enforcement" (preview.tinyurl.com/2vdhsd).

Unless someone lives in a magical place full of elves and faerie sprites, all that enforcement is going to mean raids, and it's going to mean that illegal aliens caught in those raids are going to get deported. Will those who support "reform" support those raids?

Let's take a trip to a magical place (up north) to see what very special far-lefties say now, and use that as a guide to what they'll say in the future.

Last week, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom issued a statement regarding ICE's "Return to Sender" sweeps, which picked up a very small number of fugitives and criminal aliens, including many who were already in jail:

"These raids jeopardize the public health and safety of the city by instilling fear in those who may come forward to report information about a crime or those who are in need of medical treatment. In the future, I urge ICE to take that factor into consideration when deciding to undertake raids across the United States."

If "reform" passes, isn't Newsom simply going to repurpose that whine when post-"reform" raids are conducted? Isn't it clear that he supports no enforcement in his city at all?

Then, let's consider Sheryl Bergman of the International Institute of San Francisco. She wants Redwood City to pass an anti-ICE raids resolution:

"It would help make parents safer when they take their children to school, when they go to the grocery store to buy milk and when they go to their jobs."

Post-"reform", illegal aliens will still be going to the store on the wholesome-as-apple-pie task of buying milk. Does anyone foresee Bergman supporting raids at that time?

On the semi-plus side, Rose Jacobs Gibson, president of the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors isn't a complete idiot:

"The fact that they're a federal agency, it causes me to pause very thoughtfully about what we can do ... given the fact that we don't have authority over them."

Likewise, Redwood City Mayor Barbara Pierce also isn't entirely stupid:

On the one hand, said Pierce, the city wants to show support to its illegal residents, but on the other hand, "you also have people who have lived here perhaps a long time.. who might have other opinions about what should be done."

Yes, citizens as "old-timers".

Posted to Immigration2007a at 05:32 AM | Comments (3)

Mainland Antarctica not showing global warming effects

Never fear, they're currently looking for them:

A new report on climate over the world's southernmost continent shows that temperatures during the late 20th century did not climb as had been predicted by many global climate models.

Says "David Bromwich, professor of professor of atmospheric sciences in the Department of Geography, and researcher with the Byrd Polar Research Center at Ohio State University":

"It's hard to see a global warming signal from the mainland of Antarctica right now... Part of the reason is that there is a lot of variability there. It's very hard in these polar latitudes to demonstrate a global warming signal. This is in marked contrast to the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula that is one of the most rapidly warming parts of the Earth... The best we can say right now is that the climate models are somewhat inconsistent with the evidence that we have for the last 50 years from continental Antarctica... We're looking for a small signal that represents the impact of human activity and it is hard to find it at the moment."

Posted to Miscellania at 12:05 AM | Comments (1)

"A safer, more secure and economically dynamic North America"

The article "'North American Union' plan under fire" by Kelly Patterson says:

Officials on both sides of the border strongly deny the charges that they're engineering a North American Union.

"All three governments are sovereign democracies, and the SPP work is the kind of standard intergovernmental diplomacy and co-ordination that occurs all the time on various issues," says U.S. Department of Commerce spokesman Matt Englehart.

Any steps that would require legal changes will be vetted by Congress, Mr. Englehart adds.

The pact aims simply to "promote the safe and efficient movement of people and goods" among the three trading partners, he says.

Millions of us North Americans visit each others' countries each year, but somehow I think he's refering to the "save and efficient movement" of "guest" workers and similar as well.

And, a few paragraphs earlier in the article we were treated to this:

The SPP aims "to build a safer, more secure and economically dynamic North America," says Melisa Leclerc, spokeswoman for Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day.

In addition to quoting Jerome Corsi and the president of the John Birch Society, we get this:

But Robert Pastor, director of the Center of North American Studies at American University and an influential proponent of economic integration, says the SPP is no threat to sovereignty.

"The idea of a North American Union is impossible.... There's no way these national governments are going to be dissolved," he says, noting that the relationships among the three nations are very different from those in Europe.

The bottom line is that he supports the formation of such a union in the future, even if he thinks many preliminary steps need to be taken first. He also said that the formation of the NAU was just a crisis away.

Posted to NAU at 02:38 PM | Comments (6)

New York Times' worst immigration editorial ever: "They Are America"

The New York Times offers the unsigned editorial "They Are America". It takes up two whole screens, and pointing out all the problems in it would extend to novel length. So, let's look at just the first two paragraphs:

Almost a year ago, hundreds of thousands of immigrant workers and their families slipped out from the shadows of American life and walked boldly in daylight through Los Angeles, Washington, Chicago, New York and other cities. "We Are America," their banners cried. The crowds, determined but peaceful, swelled into an immense sea. The nation was momentarily stunned.

1. Many or most of those marching weren't "immigrants", they were foreign citizens who were here illegally, aka illegal aliens. And, all the marchers were marching in support of illegal immigration.
2. Those banners saying "We Are America" were actually supplied by the eponymous group at the link above. One of that group's members (CHIRLA) has allegedly collaborated with the Mexican government. Another (NCLR) funds extremists.
3. Any march of hundreds of thousands of people is a show of physical force, whether they march peacefully or not.
4. Many people were indeed stunned to see foreign citizens marching in our streets, waving the flags of the countries of which they're citizens.

A lot has happened since then. The country has summoned great energy to confront the immigration problem, but most of it has been misplaced, crudely and unevenly applied. It seeks not to solve the conundrum of a broken immigration system, but to subdue, in a million ways, the vulnerable men and women who are part of it. Government at all levels is working to keep unwanted immigrants in their place — on the other side of the border, in detention or in fear, toiling silently in the underground economy without recourse to the laws and protections the native-born expect.

1. The immigration system is not "broken". What's broken is the enforcement of our current laws.
2. One of the government's main functions is to keep illegal aliens out of the country, something that our leaders have intentionally failed to do.
3. All residents of the U.S. are covered by various laws and protections, even illegal aliens. By using the phrase "native-born", the NYT is trying to imply that naturalized citizens and legal immigrants are in the same position as illegal aliens, something that is self-evidently false.
4. The New York Times has continually supported illegal immigration and has enabled that "underground economy" to blossom. If they were resolutely opposed to illegal immigration - for instance by exposing those who support it instead of enabling them - they could reduce the abuses they complain about.

We will always have laws against illegal immigration; those like the NYT who refuse to see any distinction between the different types of immigration and who support illegal immigration through other means are partly responsible for any consequences.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 01:42 PM | Comments (4)

Corruption in Southampton: Catholic Church, League of Women Voters, Chamber of Commerce, Mark Epley

Southampton (Long Island, New York) is trying to develop a day laborer hangout in their city. Mayor Mark Epley, refering either to the proposed location or the 7-11 where those laborers are currently congregating, says:

"I'm not happy with the close proximity to a school, the impact on traffic congestion and residences . . . but my problem is I've got to get these guys off the street."

If you're like me, you might say, "why not call ICE? UCLA says 75% of day laborers are illegal aliens, so they should be able to handle it. If they won't, then put pressure on them to do their job. And, take other lawful actions such as giving out tickets at the 7-11 and such."

Needless to say, Epley didn't say that, favoring instead the building of the center, as proposed by a group called "Coalition for a Worklink Center". They want to use a location owned by the city, meaning that a municipal entity might be engaged in shading the law.

A trailer for the center would be donated by the Catholic Charities and the Diocese of Rockville Centre. Other supporters include the Southampton Chamber of Commerce and League of Women Voters of the Hamptons. The LWV keeps coming up as a supporter of illegal immigration, and I'll be looking into that shortly.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 01:18 PM | Comments (2)

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal: let illegal aliens deprive U.S. citizens of college

Randy James of the Waterbury Republican-American offers a PIIPPish article entitled "Illegals seek tuition break". On the 13th, several people traveled to Hartford, Connecticut to support a bill that would give them those breaks. As with similar articles, it starts with the tear-jerking:

Victoria Perez traveled to the state Capitol Tuesday to ask for a future... Perez, a senior at New Haven's Wilbur Cross High School, aspires to go to college next year to prepare for a career in criminal justice. But she has no idea how she'll foot the bill... The problem: She's in the United States illegally, and therefore doesn't qualify for in-state tuition rates at Connecticut's public colleges and universities. Out-of-state tuition costs three times as much.

Showing either a complete lack of understanding of logical reasoning (or perhaps a knowledge that there are a lot of useful idiots about), Perez doesn't think that's fair:

"We're all created equal. I mean, we're all humans."

Needless to say, James doesn't try to help her understand fundamental concepts.

And, we get the news that Perez et al have friends in high places:

"These kids were brought here, sometimes without any choice or against their will," Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said. ...[Regardless of the cost], Blumenthal said, the price would be fully justified, calling it "an investment that will repay itself many times over."

Partially redeeming himself, James includes some critics:

During Tuesday's hearing before the higher education committee, Sen. Dan Debicella, R-Shelton, called the bill "a massive subsidy" for illegal immigrants.

"If someone has not followed the laws of the U.S. to become a citizen, why do they deserve to get the same level of tuition as legal residents?" Debicella asked.

"This seems to reward behavior that we seek to deter," the senator said.

Rep. Pamela Z. Sawyer, R-Bolton, worried the measure could hurt the state's aspiring college students by heightening the competition for admission. Many community college students are single mothers struggling to make ends meet, she said.

"There are a lot of pressures on education dollars currently in the state of Connecticut," Sawyer said.

Posted to Immigration_piipps at 10:10 AM | Comments (4)

Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, Julien Ross, AFSC

Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition ["CIRC"; statewide coordinator: Julien Ross] is a five-year old group with 80 other organizations as members.

From this we learn:

The coalition is directed by representatives of 12 groups, including the Colorado Catholic Conference, Service Employees International Union Local 105, and the American Friends Service Committee.

The AFSC has an indirect link to the Mexican government. And, CIRC's site is hosted at AFSC's site. afsc.org/central/ImmigrantRights/CIRC.htm has a list of their demands:

* driver's licenses for all immigrants, regardless of status
* in-state tuition for qualifying immigrants who graduate from state high schools
* statewide acceptance of the matricula consular identification cards issued by the Mexican Consulate as official ID
* defeat of English-Only bills similar to Amendment 31
* defeat of attempts to cut all Medicaid benefits to legal immigrants

The Mexican government - or the crooks who hire illegal aliens - couldn't come up with a better list of demands. Under their scheme, we might as well not have a border at all.

On the 13th, CIRC visited Longmont and was hosted by a member organization, El Comite (director: Marta Moreno; development director: Carolyn Slauson). Details in "Immigration group to plan lobby efforts" by Ben Ready:

...During the meeting, CIRC members also will discuss rapid-response plans to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids...

Immigrant advocates in Longmont and other communities will create contingency plans in case ICE executes more raids, Slauson said. Getting immigration lawyers access to arrestees in detention facilities, raising funds for their families and organizing peace processions would be easier if planned ahead of time, [El Comite development director Carolyn Slauson] noted.

Despite being held at a public facility, one of those on the other side (Stan Weekes of the Colorado Alliance for Immigration Reform) - as well as a photog from that paper - was kept out of the meeting, supposedly due to space concerns. And:

"We don't want to be a coalition that just reacts, but that fights," Ross said in Spanish of CIRC's two-tiered plan to lobby legislators while also planning boycotts, marches and protests for the humane treatment of all immigrants. "We won't just sit with our legs crossed waiting for them to attack us."

"Them... attack us?" Determining whether Ross has "issues" is left to the reader's imagination.

3/24/07 UPDATE: The Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition is supporting a week long boycott designed to show the power of "immigrants". It will end April 1. Participants are to take all but a minimum from their bank accounts, avoid sending money out of the country, avoid spending money, and... "[t]urn off televisions and use minimal electric energy":

CIRC’s Denver office has made dozens of media presentations and circulated 50,000 boycott fliers. Centro Amistad has circulated another 2,000. El Comité director Marta Moreno declined to comment when asked if her organization will participate in the boycott, but El Comité’s office had the flier posted on its front door Friday.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 07:17 AM | Comments (2)

Why is CBS 11 KTVT-TV Dallas misleading about immigration reform?

Stephanie Lucero of CBS 11 TV out of Dallas offers "Immigration Debate Re-Energizing Hate Groups" concerning the recent Anti-Defamation League (ADL) claiming that KKK membership is up because of the debate over illegal immigration. That may well be true, but - needless to say - Lucero doesn't look into: a) whether this is an attempt by the ADL to smear all those opposed to illegal immigration, and b) whether this is an attempt by them to obtain donations. And, while the report features stock footage of Klan rallies, Lucero doesn't feature any new footage from her area. Rather, she interviews two restaurant owners who serve as conduits for the message that opposition to illegal immigration equates to hate. She also mentions the SPLC, a group indirectly linked to the Mexican government (that is not, of course, disclosed).

And, CBS 11 TV has a running feature apparently not specifically associated with this report entitled "Slideshow: I Want To Know More About Immigration Reform". OK, let's learn:

* Following a picture of the Mexican flag, the following appears next to the U.S. flag:

"It's not something commonly known," said Edward Rincon of Rincon & Associates, "But close to 40,000 non-citizens serve in our military, that's according to a Department of Defense report."

What he said may be correct, but due to the dust thrown up in the immigration debate it may also be misleading and. CBS 11 should point out that illegal aliens cannot serve in the U.S. military except in case of war. I believe that provision was added a few years ago, however:

"The fact is that the US military can accept undocumented aliens as recruits when the US is in a declared state of war. Despite what President Bush repeatedly says about the US being involved in a war against terrorism, no such war has been declared by Congress."

Then comes this statement next to someone with binoculars:

November 28, 2005: President Bush outlined a plan for detention and removal of people who enter the US illegally. It would increase enforcement, strengthen immigration laws, and do away with amnesty for illegal immigrants. Bush also advocates a temporary worker program. The plan would allow illegal immigrants the chance to register for legal status for six years and then be required to return home.

Actually, the plan only concerned OTMs, the infamous "catch and release". And, Bush isn't "do[ing] away with amnesty for illegal immigrants", he's supporting it.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 04:53 AM | Comments (0)

Anna Werner, "investigative" "reporter" (KPIX CBS 5 San Francisco)

KPIX CBS 5 in the Bay Area bills Anna Werner as "one of the nation's top investigative reporters". If this were the novel Fahrenheit 451, that statement would be true. However, in our world, she's little more than a transcriptionist and a propagandist. See, for instance, her "report" on Richmond CA becoming a sanctuary city for illegal aliens. The latest example can be found in "Immigration Agents Conducting Raids In S.F."

CBS 5 Investigates has been looking into complaints about federal immigration raids in the East Bay. Now CBS 5 has learned they have moved into San Francisco.

Immigrant rights groups maintain even though the city is officially a sanctuary for undocumented immigrants, that isn't stopping immigration from conducting raids here.

As far as I know, not even the awesome powers of the far-lefties in 'Frisco can overturn federal laws.

Then Werner transcribes quotes from S.F. Supervisor Gerardo Sandoval ("...the INS has gone out to employers..."; the INS dissolved about four years ago) and Miguel Perez with the Latin American Alliance for Immigrant Rights.

Then, Werner goes for the gut:

And it's clearly a painful experience for many immigrants like a woman who wanted to be identified only by her first name, Rebecca.

Then, we get a quote from Mayor Gavin Newsom:

"I am very concerned about the recent raids performed in various parts of the city by immigration and customs enforcement... These raids jeopardize the public health and safety of the city by instilling fear in those who may come forward to report information about a crime."

In the only instance of reporting she's capable of, it ends with this:

An ICE spokeswoman refused to provide specific details regarding where and when those raids were conducted in San Francisco.

I don't know exactly why they'd do that, but perhaps it has something to do with jeopardizing ongoing operations?

The feds have done some horrible things, and we want investigative reporters to uncover abuse and wrongdoing on their part. However, what Werner and those she quotes oppose is lawful, reasonable enforcement of federal law.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 10:17 PM | Comments (0)

New illegal immigration supporters trick: raids lead to domestic abuse

The supporters of illegal immigration will say or do almost anything to further their cause, and the latest example comes in the article "ICE raids dubbed harmful" by Michelle Durand.

No doubt those quoted in the article also support immigration "reform", something that is being sold as having strong enforcement provisions. That means there will be similar raids after "reform". Won't these same people raise these same objections? Can anyone imagine these same people supporting the enforcement which would be mandated by "reform"?

Recent immigration sweeps [in Redwood City, California and environs] are frightening the abused from seeking help and tearing at the community relationships that help law enforcement cull information about drug activity and other crime, domestic violence advocates told the [San Mateo County Board of Supervisors] yesterday [apparently February 13].

The efforts by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement are counterproductive because the sweeps keep battered people, particularly women, from coming forward about their abusive situation, said prosecutor Elizabeth Hill [apparently a Deputy District Attorney] who sits on the board of CORA, Community Overcoming Relationship Abuse.

Among many other fine things, CORA "believe[s] in social change... We acknowledge current and historical inequities and work towards ending oppression." (corasupport.org)

..."It shouldn't be the work of the police to cooperate with the immigration service," Rhina Ramos, CORA's Latina outreach coordinator, said.

[San Mateo County Board of Supervisors President Rose Jacobs Gibson] assured the group the issue "is not something that's being left uncared for" and she is working with U.S. Rep. Ann Eshoo, D-Atherton... "[the sweeps are] really causing a lot of stir in the community."

...The [Redwood City] City Council and Police Department maintained that the city wouldn't participate in immigration raids and told residents they don't have to cooperate if asked about their legal status.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 06:08 PM | Comments (3)

Ramos/Compean: Darryl Fears, "angry conservatives", and possible distortion

Darryl Fears of the Washington Post offers "Support Swells for Agents Who Shot Drug Smuggler: Conservatives Lead Movement to Free Ex-Border Patrolmen". His report seems to contain errors.

First, it starts like this:

Early this week, the Bush administration urged angry conservatives to remain calm over the convictions of two former Border Patrol agents who shot an unarmed Mexican drug smuggler, but petitions for their release continued to flood the White House.

Later on, he reveals that Sen. Dianne Feinstein "promised to look into the matter", and the American Federation of Government Employees will "speak with one voice" against the convictions. I don't know about the AFGE, but most people wouldn't put Feinstein in the "angry conservative" camp.

Also:

After the shooting, the agents collected all shell casings at the scene, threw them away and did not mention the shooting to superiors, a violation of Border Patrol procedures that call for an oral report after a weapon is discharged, according to the report and court records.

As far as I know, supervisors were on the scene or knew about the incident, which seems to indicate that the requirements for an "oral report" had been met. Also, I recall that the complaint from U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton was that a written report hadn't been made, but only supervisors - and thus not Ramos or Compean - can make such reports.

And:

Investigators granted immunity to Aldrete-Davila to lure him back across the border. The story he told was corroborated by other officers at the scene, the report said.

Those statements may contradict the facts of the matter; OAD might have been presented to the U.S. by the Mexican consulate. Note also that a few of the agents on the scene have since been fired.

Then, Fears refers to Rep. Ted Poe (Tex.), Rep. Phil Gingrey (Ga.) and Rep. Walter B. Jones (N.C.) as "[a]ngry congressional Republicans". Were they scowling as well?

I'm hardly an expert on the case, but parts of Fears' report are misleading at best. Please contact the WaPo's ombudsman and suggest they do more research: projects.washingtonpost.com/staff/email/deborah+howell/

Posted to Immigration2007a at 03:30 PM | Comments (1)

Arizona: $1.2 billion/year to educate children of illegal aliens

The Pew Hispanic Center says there are 125,000 to 145,000 children of illegal immigrants in Arizona public schools (elementary and secondary), and about half are U.S. citizens because they were born here. And:

The Pew estimate nearly equals the enrollment of the Scottsdale, Mesa and Chandler unified school districts combined.

More than one in nine Arizona students is an illegal immigrant or the child of an illegal immigrant, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.

To educate these children, school finance experts in Arizona suggest taxpayers will spend as much as $1.2 billion this year alone.

They appear to have obtained that number by multiplying $8500 (upper limit of the estimate to educate one child per year) by about 140,000 (estimated population), or some other variation. They note that no one knows for sure how many such students there are because schools are forbidden to ask:

When children enroll in public school, their parents must show proof of residency but not a Social Security number. Many families bring Mexican birth certificates and transcripts from Mexican schools.

And, as part of our Useful Idiot Watch, Jennifer Kill, a 6th grade teacher at Lindbergh Elementary School in Mesa, has thoughts:

[She said] she has never asked if any of these students are illegal immigrants or the children of illegal immigrants. Her job is to teach children, not to guard the border... "As a teacher, you get the students that come to your door... You don't concern yourself with where they're from, what they look like... Do I think there are illegals taking time away? ...Not at all. It never crosses my mind."

I'm not a psychologist, and even if I were it would be difficult to do an analysis from such a distance. Perhaps she's just saying that because she wants to keep her job or because she doesn't want to be falsely called names. Or, perhaps she's just a useful idiot. I note also that she's not a DEA agent; if she knew of a drug ring at her school would she use that as a pretext to not report it or even speak out against it?

Posted to Immigration2007a at 01:02 PM | Comments (0)

At this point, John Edwards should just go for laughs

The John Edwards campaign recently open a headquarters in "Second Life", a virtual world of some kind. I'm not familiar with it, but this is apparently what you see when approaching his office in virtual space:

At this point in time, I believe he should scrap his previously-planned campaign, and just go for laughs and a career as a punchline on late night talk shows.

Posted to Politics at 10:36 AM | Comments (1)

Michael Chertoff promotes illegal immigration in Mexico

Speaking in Mexico before the American Chamber of Commerce, DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff promoted illegal immigration:

Comprehensive immigration reform, he said, would allow U.S. law enforcement to "focus more on the people that we don't want in the country under any circumstances, namely the criminals and the dangerous folks."

"Every time a Border Patrol officer is transporting a load of future housekeepers and landscapers to someplace to be returned, he's not looking for drug dealers or drug loads," Chertoff said.

He's saying that there are two types of illegal immigration: the bad kind, and the acceptable kind. Due to all the constantly-noted negatives, neither kind are acceptable: political corruption, political influence for Mexico inside the U.S., increased crime, increased costs, and on and on. Chertoff doesn't see it that way. And, of course, his job is to prevent both kinds. His job is not to blackmail the U.S. into accepting a massive amnesty.

And, if Bush and now Chertoff had done their jobs, there would be no need for any sort of prioritorization: most of those "future housekeepers and landscapers" wouldn't consider trying to cross the border.

As for the "housekeepers" bit, I can almost hear Tamar Jacoby or one of the other cheap labor promoters say the same thing. In fact, they have: this is a standard talking point I refer to as the "busboys canard". Tamar Jacoby, Bush, the Wall Street Journal, David Brooks, and John Fund have all said something very similar, and Rudy Guiliani joined in just recently.

Chertoff is corrupt and incompetent; if Bush weren't the same, Chertoff would have been replaced long ago.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 09:18 PM | Comments (5)

Monica Lozano on Bank of America board; National Council of La Raza

This is a Bank of America press release from March 20, 2006 [1]:

Monica Lozano, publisher of the nation's largest Spanish-language newspaper, has been nominated to Bank of America's board of directors...

...[BofA] has relationships with 48 percent of Hispanic households in its coast-to-coast territory, more than any other bank in the United States. Last year more than 21 percent of all new hires by the bank were Hispanic.

She was approved and currently serves on their board [2]. And, since 21 percent is close to double the percentage of Hispanics in the U.S., perhaps the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights should look into their recruitment efforts.

Also in 2005, Bank of America became the first financial institution to make electronic money transfers to Mexico free for its customers through a SafeSend feature with a checking account. For its efforts in the Hispanic community, Latina Style Magazine named Bank of America its 2005 Company of the Year.

Lozano, 49, is the publisher and CEO of Los Angeles-based La Opinion, the nation's largest Spanish-language daily newspaper. She is also senior vice president of Impremedia LLC, the first national Spanish-language newspaper company in the United States. Among her many community leadership positions, Ms. Lozano is currently chairwoman of The National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States.

[1] newsroom.bankofamerica.com/index.php?s=press_releases&item=7342
[2] investor.bankofamerica.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=71595&p=irol-govboard

Posted to Immigration2007a at 05:31 PM | Comments (3)

Mitt Romney linked to Bush family; Jeb Bush encouraged to run for president

From our "will we never learn/will the nightmare never end" department comes this:

Jeb Bush, who hasn't publicly picked a favorite in the Republican presidential race, privately is talking up the candidacy of Mitt Romney and steering some of his closest advisers to the campaign.

The former Florida governor has said repeatedly he won't be a candidate in 2008 despite encouragement from his father, the former president, and his brother, the current one. But Jeb Bush's support, even tacit, would be critical in the state that decided the 2000 presidential election.

[Former Florida Lt. Gov. Toni Jennings] is one of several former Bush confidantes in the Romney camp. Others include his hand-picked, former state party chairman Al Cardenas, and Sally Bradshaw, [Jeb Bush]'s former campaign manager and chief of staff...

With such links, I don't think there's any way I could consider that Romney wouldn't be strongly influenced by the Bush family. If you don't think that would lead to further problems, simply replay the last six years of the Bush administration over in your mind: massive illegal immigration, reduced civil liberties, massive corruption, cronyism, and corporatism, and all the rest.

Posted to Politics at 02:19 PM | Comments (2)

McCainSpace: John McCain launches new site, wants to hear from you

Senator John McCain has started a new website at johnmccain.com, and the name/password to access it is lettuce/sweetsweetlettuce. (Just kidding about the last).

You can get your own blog there when it launches:

johnmccain.com/Blog/BlogForMcCain.aspx

He's requesting feedback:

johnmccain.com/Blog/WriteInQuestion.aspx

You can send him a link to your youtube video:

johnmccain.com/Blog/YouTubequestion.aspx

I made a video about him a while back, maybe I should send it in.

And, he's giving several sites free advertising:

johnmccain.com/Blog/bloglist.htm

Links are worth money, and there are even companies that sell links on sites. Could that be considered a payment in some way?

Posted to Politics at 01:16 PM | Comments (2)

The Bank of America boycott

Via this and this we learn that alipac.us has started a website called bankofamericaboycott.com. They're boycotting that bank due to their decision to give credit cards to illegal aliens. It would be nice if sites like that would spend a couple hundred dollars or so coming up with a nice design, and I'd also suggest weaving those keywords into the text rather than putting them at the bottom, 90s style. Nevertheless, feel free to sign the petition or pass the URL around.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 12:30 PM | Comments (18)

Ramos/Compean: smuggler's credibility questioned; second load while under court protection

From this:

Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila, the Mexican drug smuggler given immunity to return to the United States and testify against two Border Patrol agents, was involved in smuggling a second load of marijuana into the United States after he was given court protection, records have confirmed...

I'd certainly be interested in knowing whether any documents they gave him were used in that smuggling run, but unfortunately that isn't covered in the article. If that turns out to be the case, then I'd tend to think we'd be seeing some resignations.

...At the trial, Cardone ruled that Aldrete-Davila was not on trial. She ruled that no reference about the October 2005 drug offense was to be made to the jury and she sealed all records concerning that offense, despite vigorous defense objections that this information not only violated Aldrete-Davila's immunity grant, but also went to the heart of the defense argument that Aldrete-Davila's testimony was not credible.

Rohrabacher expressed continued outrage that Sutton had decided to grant immunity to an admitted drug dealer so he could prosecute two Border Patrol agents who were trying to apprehend him.

"Once Aldrete-Davila was caught a second time," Rohrabacher told WND, "it unmasks the indefensible nature of the prosecutor's decision to go after the Border Patrol agents. If the jury is not allowed to know about Aldrete-Davila's second offense, then Ramos and Compean did not get a fair trial."

..."What Ramos and Compean got was a screw job from day one by the U.S. attorney's office in order to send a message to all Border Patrol agents," Rohrabacher told WND. "The message from Sutton was that the President of the United States makes policy on the border, so don't get in the way. If you haven't gotten the message yet, this is an open border."

Posted to Immigration2007a at 11:19 AM | Comments (1)

Symbolism of NFL rejecting Border Patrol ad

The NFL refused to run an ad from the Border Patrol in this year's Super Bowl program, and Diana West ponders it here:

...There is a hefty chunk of symbolism to ponder here, beginning with the staggering concept that a recruitment effort on behalf of the U.S. Border Patrol can be considered "controversial" by any American organization. More alarming still is that the organization here is professional football, hobbyhorse to redmeat America, the kind of people -- the kind of men -- who are stereotypically supposed to have retained their atavistic reflexes when it comes to defending hearth and home.

The Border Patrol ad in question lists an agent's prospective duties in protecting that last line of defense for the United States -- our border. By any measure, this is an affirmative mission that should have a salutary effect on any civilization with even halfway healthy reflexes...

She also provides this quote from NFL spokesman Greg Aiello:

"The ad that the department submitted was specific to Border Patrol, and it mentioned terrorism. We were not comfortable with that... ...The borders, the immigration debate is a very controversial issue, and we were sensitive to any perception we were injecting ourselves into that."

Posted to Immigration2007a at 11:18 AM | Comments (0)

LULAC, MALDEF, ACLU, business groups fight Texas immigration bills

A new, apparently unnamed coalition has been formed in Texas to fight state bills designed to reduce illegal immigration. The coalition is using the standard pretext that immigration is a federal responsibility. Of course, they realize that the feds have abrogated their responsibilities; were the feds to enforce the laws, they would push for more local control. Passing the buck to the federal government is the slimmest of dodges.

The apparent ringleader is State Rep. Rafael Anchia, D-Dallas, and their members include:

* Texas Mexican American Legislative Caucus
* Texas Association of Business (President Bill Hammond is a quote source)
* Texas Association of Mexican-American Chambers of Commerce
* Texas Employers for Immigration Reform
* League of United Latin American Citizens (strongly supports illegal immigration)
* Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (has at least an indirect link to the Mexican government)
* American Civil Liberties Union (ditto)

...The group specified a number of immigration bills they called for the Legislature to defeat. Two by Rep. Leo Berman, R-Tyler, that would prohibit children of illegal immigrants from receiving state benefits such as health care, welfare benefits and public education. Another bill the coalition opposes, authored by Rep. Bill Zedler, R-Arlington, would prohibit cities from operating day-labor facilities. Currently, Austin has one such facility and is in the midst of creating another... An immigration platform promoted and distributed by the caucus and the business association outlined a number of proposals for immigration reform. It calls for legal avenues for immigration to the United States, giving those already immigrated opportunity to become legal, the elimination of immigrant quotas, a guest worker program and national security policies to guard against threats of terrorism...

UPDATE: There's a similar, apparently unrelated group at txsip.com calling itself Texans for Sensible Immigration Policy. It consists of:

* Houston Chapter of the Associated General Contractors (AGC)
* Houston Chapter of the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC)
* Houston Chapter of the American Subcontractors Association (ASA)
* Houston Contractors Association (HCA)
* Texas Construction Association (TCA)
* Greater Houston Builders Association (GHBA)
* Drywall & Interior Systems Contractors Association (DISCA)
* Women Contractors Association (WCA)

They've even got a sample letter you can send to your representatives:

I work in the construction business in Houston Texas. I am here to tell you that we cannot find enough American citizens willing to labor in the hot sun!

Lazy Americans!

Their FAQ shows an unexpected level of self-awareness. Here's one question:

Aren't you guys are just a bunch of criminals trying to legalize your own bad behavior?

Let's just say they don't answer that in the way that I would.

And, via this comes the August 28, 2006 opinion piece "Texas business: Pass immigration reform" from several Texas bigwigs:

...few young Americans want to do hard physical labor, particularly in our climate. And in the less-skilled construction trades – masonry, concrete, drywall, tile – more than 80 percent of Texas' workforce is Latino.

Isn't that attitude extremely racist not to mention extremely decadent? A century or two ago, what would these same people have written?

Those who signed on to the letter are in the extended entry.

Bo Pilgrim/Pilgrim's Pride, Pittsburg

Harold Simmons/Contran Corporation, Dallas

Bob Perry/Perry Homes, Houston

Vance Miller/Henry S. Miller, Dallas

J. Huffines/Huffines Auto Group, Dallas

Red McCombs/McCombs Enterprises, San Antonio

W.L. Hunt/Hunt Building Corporation, El Paso

James Leininger/M.D., San Antonio

Phil Adams/Phil Adams Company, Bryan

Bob Barnes/Schlotzsky's, Austin

Kent Hance/Hance Scarborough Wright, Dallas

Tom Loeffler/Loeffler Tuggey Pauerstein Rosenthal LLP, San Antonio

Louis Beecherl/Beecherl Investments, Dallas

Henry J. "Bud" Smith/Bud Smith Organization, Dallas

Dennis Nixon/IBC Bank, Laredo

Ernesto Ancira Jr./Ancira Enterprises, San Antonio

Tom Hewitt/Interstate Hotels & Resorts

Tom Corcoran/FelCor Lodging Trust Inc.

Lionel Sosa/MATT.org, San Antonio

Henry Cisneros/CityView, San Antonio

Henry R. Muñoz III/Kell Muñoz Architects, San Antonio

Harold MacDowell/TDIndustries, Dallas

Pedro Aguirre/Aguirre Corporation, Dallas

Robert "Buddy" Barnes/Dee Brown Inc., Garland

Stephen M. Pitt/Boulder Imports, Houston

Brad Bouma/Select Milk Producers Inc., Plainview

Wayne Palla/Dairy Farmers of America, Grapevine

Jim Baird/Lone Star Milk Producers Inc., Windthorst

Randy Davis/Greenleaf Nursery, El Campo

Josh Bracken/Nicholson-Hardie Garden Centers, Dallas

David R. Pinkus/Tawakoni Plant Farm, Wills Point

Don Darby/Darby Greenhouses & Farms, Jacksonville

Georges Le Mener/Accor North America, Carrollton

Stevan Porter/InterContinental Hotels Group

John Caparella/Gaylord Hotels

Tony Farris/Quorum Hotels

Posted to Immigration2007a at 10:48 AM | Comments (1)

Amanda Marcotte now passing 16 minute mark

The communications director for Lieberman's 2006 general election campaign, Dan Gerstein, offers "Liberal Bloggers Demonstrate Their Political Immaturity, Democrat Says":

...Throughout the course of the controversy, the left's bigger digital diatribers never stopped to address the substance of what the Edwards bloggers actually wrote before joining the campaign... Instead, right until the bitter end, most liberal bloggers responded in their familiar mode - by lashing out at their critics and trying to marginalize them... ...Indeed, even after the two Edwards staffers essentially surrendered, the few bloggers who wrote postscripts kept up the front of the petulant, blame-deflecting 15-year-old who got caught spreading rumors about the homecoming queen...

This is followed by comments:

...Why in the @#$% would you allow Joe's "Republican" mouthpiece to speak to what Liberal bloggers think, do and accomplish?...he is a right wing plant in the Republican-lite's attempt to take us further to war? ...even I can see your motivations flashing in the background like neon wallpaper... ...This is coming from the guy who was LIEberman's communication director in 06. and one of the oustanding issues from lieberman's 'screw the democratic process senate run' was his use of misinformation... ...Yes, it's the liberal bloggers that are immature, not the right wing blogs that have spewed hatred and lies toward us the past 12 years, against which we are finally standing up to... ...What I despise are paid lackeys like you, who never met a smear or innuendo you wouldn't wield in a heartbeat, arrogantly lecturing the unwashed masses on proper manners...

Meanwhile, as the clock excrutiatingly passes the 16 minute mark, the daemon herself pens "Why I had to quit the John Edwards campaign". I've taken the liberty of interspersing her real thoughts:

...So it surprised me [like hot **#@#@ *#@##**# @*!@*@] that my [hot sticky white] streak of luck would result in the [*##*!#! *#*@!&$$*#@!] John Edwards campaign calling and recruiting me [the $&#@#$@#* #*$@#$@#$* #$#($@#($@s!] for the position of campaign blogmaster. Of course, when I was informed [by that $(#@#($@# #(@#(@#($@# $$($((@#@] that the general gist of the job played to my strengths of writing about progressive politics and building a [hot sticky] blog audience...

Posted to Bloggage at 10:01 AM | Comments (0)

Barack Hussein Obama promotes illegal immigration... to the Irish

Shortly after announcing that he was going to run for president, Barack Hussein Obama issued a press release concerning Ireland and the peace process. It also contained this:

"We must also pursue immigration policies that keep open the doors of opportunity in our own country. My father's experience has informed my own views on the issue, and I have seen the enormous contributions that Irish immigrants have made to this country. Last summer, I joined hundreds of thousands of people in Chicago to march on behalf of immigration reform, walking shoulder to shoulder with many Irish Americans who shared their own personal stories of hope and opportunity..."

The standard amnesty-with-"guest"-workers boilerplate follows. What Obama didn't mention is that many or most of those he marched with were illegal aliens, and all of them were marching for illegal immigration. And, one of the groups that pushes for "reform" is the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform, a group partly funded by the government of that country.

Someone should go to one of his campaign appearances and ask him why he supports a foreign country meddling in our internal politics.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 08:27 AM | Comments (0)

Mexico's propaganda textbooks promoted

Louis E. V. Nevaer is an investment advisor of some kind, the author of the forthcoming "HR and the New Hispanic Workforce", and a contributor to the racist Pacific News Service/New America Media. He offers a slab of anti-American propaganda in "U.S. Schools Benefit from Mexican Largesse" (also here):

At a time when Americans throughout the country are frustrated by the failure of public schools to teach their children, Mexico is increasing its efforts to help struggling school systems deal with immigrant children who speak Spanish.

"We are grateful that the Mexican Consul and the Mexican government have taken such an interest in helping Denver Public Schools and its students," Jerry Wartgow, Superintendent of the Denver Public Schools, said when Mexico donated 30,000 Spanish-language textbooks for elementary students...

From San Diego to Orlando, from Chicago to Las Vegas, the Mexican government, through its 42 consulates throughout the United States, is accelerating its ambitious "foreign aid" program designed to deliver millions of Spanish-language textbooks to American schools this decade...

...[...Refers to Phyllis Schlafly's concerns...] The books, correctly, point out that the United States reneged in its obligations under the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo which ended the Mexican-American War in 1848 when the U.S. Congress established a commission to review property titles in 1851, designed to expropriate the land of Mexican nationals who were now living in U.S. territory.

...Mexican American folklorist Americo Paredes has called what we are witnessing as "Greater Mexico" – achieved one textbook at a time. While Americans may fret that Johnny Can't Read, Mexico wants to make sure that Juanito Pueda Leer.

The article also quotes Vicente Fox, who said at the Congress of the Spanish Language in Madrid:

"To continue speaking Spanish in the United States is to 'hacer patria' (fulfill one's patriotic duty)."

And, Raquel Romero, director of Mesoamerica Foundation, a "Mexican nonprofit organization" says:

"This is more than an 'outreach' program... This is part of a concerted program to educate Hispanic children in the United States, and to help the United States make the transition into a bicultural society this century. It is a way of understanding that Mexican culture is expanding across the border, that it is in ascendance, and that Hispanic and Latino children in the United States will never be blond, blue-eyed Anglos... Reaching out to young Hispanics in their formative years, and while they're in public school is the way to go... Mexico has to be there for them, reminding them that they come from a great civilization, and can be proud of their who they are, and where their families come from."

Posted to Immigration2007a at 05:57 AM | Comments (0)

Inside a "National Alliance for Human Rights" meeting (Joe Baca)

The National Alliance for Human Rights is led by UCR professor and pro-Aztlan extremist Armando Navarro. Two members of the Minuteman Project attended one of their meetings at a public library on February 13 and report. If they could have taped it that would be best, but this is probably accurate. They apparently didn't get Navarro saying anything overly inflammatory, but the audience members seem like a piece of work. As you read this, note that three staff members representing Rep. Joe Baca were there (the audience apparently didn't think Baca was doing enough for them), and note also that the New York Times gave Navarro three paragraphs without disclosing his extremist views:

..."There was talk of how poorly Latino children are doing in school. White people were blamed. Talk about raids at work sites by ICE. White people were blamed. Talk about not enough Hispanic school teachers. White people were blamed. Talk about imprisonment of Latinos. White people were blamed," Hvidston recounted.

"People stood up and gave testimonials about white people being the cause of poor education, prison sentences, police brutality… They used slang such as 'gavachos' to refer to white people."

...Navarro is planning a march for March 17th in San Bernardino. He said they will be calling on cities such as L.A. to join them. He said if civil disobedience is needed to stop any future ICE raids, so be it. One man stated that if guns and violence are needed, they should use violence to overwhelm the white people. He encouraged the community to take what they want by overwhelming and overpowering force...

Posted to Immigration2007a at 01:11 AM | Comments (1)

Freeway offramp fruit sellers: products from supermarket dumpsters?

You know those people who sell fruits like oranges at freeway (or highway or thruway) offramps? Did you ever ponder where they got the fruit and what type of arbitrage is involved there? Well, I did, briefly, once and I assumed that they bought it from supermarkets and then resold it for a higher price for those in a hurry to get the Vitamin C. But now, a disturbing voice has whispered in my ear another possibility: the produce has been retrieved from supermarket dumpsters after the market threw it out because it had passed the sell-by date. I don't know whether that's prevalent or not, but it is something to consider.

Posted to Miscellania at 10:22 PM | Comments (1)

Call Bank of America about their illegal aliens credit card

You've been deputized:

Bank of America wants all media inquiries about the credit cards for illegals program to be directed to Betsy Weinberger at 1-704-387-7376. This is your chance to be a John and Ken Assistant Producer for the day!

Posted to Immigration2007a at 09:28 PM | Comments (5)

"Following the Amnesty Trail" (Arizona, illegal aliens, trash, crime)

Leo W. Banks drives and walks along the "Amnesty Trail" in Arizona, the route that future illegal aliens might take should Bush push through amnesty. A snippet:

Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge has 5 1/2 miles of border within the corridor. Its land has been badly staggered by illegal immigration and drug smuggling, and visitors can see evidence of it within moments of arriving. The parking lot is surrounded by steel rails and a locked gate, and the office has bars on the windows and expensive security doors.

It looks like a building in a dangerous inner-city neighborhood, not an 118,000-acre preserve in some of Arizona's most picturesque land.

...There are now 1,500-2,000 miles of illegal trails on Refuge land. Illegal crossers left 500 tons of trash for staff and volunteers to pick up in 2004, and about the same amount in 2005. "I know it sounds unbelievable, but we cranked the numbers," says Ellis.

...The hardest-hit area is below Garcia Road, a dirt track running east to west about a mile north of the border. This parcel became such a hotbed of criminal activity that in October, Ellis ordered 3,500 acres off limits to the public--American land effectively taken out of American hands by the invaders...

Posted to Immigration2007a at 01:12 AM | Comments (2)

Harris poll: most think future illegal immigration is a major threat

From their press release (note that the question refers to future large-scale illegal immigration, not those currently here):

A recent Harris Poll asked a cross-section of U.S. adults to say how likely they think it is that various possible events would be "a major threat to the United States in the next five years." Two of these possible threats are seen as extremely or very likely by over half of the public:

* 55 percent of all adults think it is extremely or very likely that a large number of illegal immigrants coming into this country would be a threat;

* 52 percent of adults believe that a significant loss of jobs to foreign countries would be an extremely or very likely threat.

These are some of the results of a Harris Poll of 1,508 U.S. adults, surveyed online between January 5 and 12, 2007. However, because split samples were used, each individual item on the list was asked of between 400 and 500 adults.

The only other possible event seen as an extremely or very likely threat by more than 40 percent of all adults is a significant natural disaster destroying areas of a major city (43%)...

Posted to Immigration2007a at 08:47 PM | Comments (1)

Wells Fargo knows many of its customers are illegal aliens

The not-exactly-in-depth L.A. Times article "Banking on illegal immigrants" by E. Scott Reckard, David Streitfeld and Adrian G. Uribarri discusses the backlash to Bank of America's credit card for illegal aliens. It informs us:

"At face value the program seems to be problematic," said Russ Knocke, a [Department of Homeland Security] spokesman. "It seems to be lending itself to possibilities of perpetrating identity theft or creating more risk for money laundering."

...[Rep. Tom Tancredo] said he sent a letter to U.S. Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff asking them to look into the program.

"I hope the administration will shut down this reckless and illegal program before Bank of America extends a line of credit to a potential terrorist," said Tancredo, a hard-line foe of illegal immigration...

Then, almost at the bottom of the article, we're treated to the news that another bank knows exactly who it's dealing with:

Since then, Wells has opened more than 1 million accounts for Mexicans using the consular card. It also accepts Guatemalan, Argentine and Colombian identity cards. The assumption is that most immigrants using the cards to identify themselves are here illegally, Wells Fargo spokeswoman Trigg said, but the bank doesn't ask.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 02:45 PM | Comments (1)

Migrant March II: Institute for Mexicans Abroad; Human Rights Border conference?

Migrant March II continues, and Enrique Morones' latest dispatch says [1]:

...Eagle Pass (2/10): We meet with the Institute of Mexican Abroad, Border Commission... We attend meetings and forums with locals, local authorities and discuss realities, policies and here stories of why we need the humane immigration reform NOW! Towards San Antonio (2/11): Stormy weather but nothing like what our brethren face when they travel North... Tomorrow I fly to Nebraska to debate F.A.I.R. president Dan Stien, others go to HUTTO PRISON for protest vigil and others attend Human Rights Border conference...

The details on the conference aren't known.

[1] sandiego.indymedia.org/en/2007/02/125074.shtml

Posted to Immigration2007a at 09:39 AM | Comments (0)

Doh: Los Angeles February 24 illegal immigration march canceled

The Los Angeles Police Commission has denied a permit for the planned illegal immigration march which was to take place in L.A. on February 24. The LAPC president says it has nothing to do with politics, only with resources: the Chinese New Year parade will be held on that day, and they filed for their permit a week before the illegal immigration supporters did.

The main organizer is Juan Jose Gutierrez from Full Rights for Immigrants and other groups. He's not only linked to the SEIU and Antonio Villaraigosa, but ANSWER as well. And, NBC News featured him as the voice of the Hispanic community in one of their news segments.

He doesn't want to move the march to the next day because they've already had a media blitz including printing up 50,000 flyers. Oh well, I guess they'll have to get more money from wherever it is that they get their funding.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 05:43 AM | Comments (0)

Jose Serrano's "Child Citizen Protection Act" ("Anchor Baby Bill")

Last year, dim bulb Rep. Jose Serrano (D-NY) introduced the "Child Citizen Protection Act" (2006 release here; PDF). As People's Weekly World describes here, it would let immigration judges decide whether or not to deport the illegal alien parents of U.S. citizen children, aka "anchor babies".

There are apparently over 3 million such anchor babies (source: Urban Institute, see article below); not all of the parents might be illegal aliens, but giving the judges discretion might result in a large number of otherwise deportable people not being deported. That will lead to the usual suspects complaining about those who were deported, which might lead to an even broader bill. And, of course, the bill will lead to many other illegal aliens - including new illegal aliens - having children here in order to take advantage of Serrano's largesse.

Now, he's introduced a new bill for the new year, H.R.213 (link). The co-sponsors include some of the usual suspects:

Gary Ackerman, [NY-5]
Raul Grijalva [AZ-7]
Barbara Lee, [CA-9]
Jim McDermott, [WA-7]
Jerrold Nadler, [NY-8]
Janice Schakowsky, [IL-9]
Edolphus Towns, [NY-10]

On Monday a federal judge in Florida threw out a lawsuit that would have had the same effect as Serrano's bill, and the bill was the rationale for the dismissal.

If the bill gets any traction, I'd suggest using that to try to make the Democratic Party look even more like the party of collaborateurs, something which may cause more moderate Democrats to put the brakes on their extremist brethren.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 01:51 AM | Comments (1)

Toronto bankers promote Amero (North American common currency)

From January 3 comes this:

If Canadians are going to debate the idea of a single North American currency, "now is the time it should be on the table," according to the chief economist at Toronto Dominion Bank [Don Drummond]...

[...discussion of and promotion of the Euro...]

...So, if you believe the single currency has been a good thing for Europe, could it be a good thing for North America?

"If you go back to FTA and then NAFTA," Drummond said, "the Number 1 premise behind those from a Canadian perspective was a message to the world: `Locate in Canada and you have free unfettered access to the wealthiest market in the world.'

"That was true to some extent, but you've had two irritations. One, you don't have a common currency, so you have exchange rate risk if you're operating in Canada. The second is the border difficulties.

"Clearly, a common currency, or at least a linked currency, would address one of those two," Drummond said.

[Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce/CIBC World Markets economist Benjamin Tal] argued "the costs of a single currency and the loss of monetary policy independence outweigh the benefits...

Posted to NAU at 09:57 PM | Comments (2)

Ramos/Compean trial transcripts; meddling Mexican consuls initiated case?

A series of PDF files containing the transcripts of the trial of Border Patrol agents Ramos and Compean is here:

usdoj.gov/usao/txw/press_releases/Compean-Ramos/index.html

An MSM report with very little information gleaned from them is here, and a thread that may in the future have some more information is here. I've cached the PDFs in case they go missing.

Then, we come to "Mexico demanded U.S. prosecute sheriff, agents":

The Mexican Consulate played a previously undisclosed role in the events leading to U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton's high-profile prosecution of Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, who are serving 11 and 12 year sentences for their role in the shooting of a drug smuggler, according to documents obtained by WND.

And Mexican consular officials also demanded the prosecution of Texas Sheriff's Deputy Guillermo "Gilmer" Hernandez, who subsequently was brought to trial by Sutton, the documents reveal...

Much more at the link, including what appears to be yet another contradiction by Sutton.

UPDATE: There's a Jerome Corsi interview here:

"...For several weeks [after the February 17, 2005 incident at the border] no investigation was ongoing. The Border considered the incident to be completely normal, the reporting to be acceptable and nothing was being done. Then on March 4 the request came through from the Mexican Consulate to the U.S. consulate in Mexico demanding an investigation on the basis that the Mexican Consulate was bringing forth [drug smuggler] Davila and wanted the agents to be punished..."

Posted to Immigration_consul at 08:03 PM | Comments (2)

AVWatch: Villaraigosa offers bread, circuses, and... free wireless

According to the press release here, Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa - a former leader of the racial separatist group MEChA - has announced that the City of Los Angeles will have free, citywide wireless internet by the year 2009. The city has a massive illegal alien population and a somewhat associated very large crime problem, but apparently those problems have already been solved so now it's time to move on to the more important stuff. Of course, in 2010 Tony Villar is expected to run for governor of California, and our corrupt media would be more likely to focus on his signature programs rather than his past and his current failures. Sez the mayor:

"By giving every resident high-speed access, we will transform Los Angeles into a cutting-edge city across every neighborhood and every economic sector... LA WiFi will help us meet the technology needs of our world-class media and creative industries, give a leg up to small businesses, plug every neighborhood directly into the knowledge-based global economy, and make computer training programs for students an after-school reality."

Like those people decades ago who suggested that personal computers could be used to store recipes, the city has already determined what it's going to do with its new toy:

The City of Los Angeles could use the network to enhance the delivery of city services by transmitting data between police patrol cars, instantaneously sending the location of potholes or forwarding on-site building inspection reports to speed up the building process.

Posted to Los_Angeles at 04:03 PM | Comments (0)

February 23 Ottawa meeting: Rice & Chertoff + Mexican, Canadian counterparts

From this:

As a prelude to a visit to Canada by U.S. President George W. Bush later this year, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will visit Ottawa this month for meetings with Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay.

Rice and U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff will be joined in Ottawa on Feb. 23 by their Mexican counterparts, for a day of talks with MacKay and Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day.

The meeting will be the latest installment of the three-way North American security and prosperity partnership and will set the table for a follow-up to last year's Three Amigos Summit in Cancun, Mexico, which will be held later this year [no date set yet], somewhere in Canada.

...Critics in Canada and the U.S. say the partnership could compromise the sovereignty of both countries, and that the accord is a part of a covert way to create a common currency for North America. But the U.S. State Department has said that it is not interested in creating a North American Union, akin to the European Union, or encouraging its neighbours to adopt the U.S. dollar.

By the time that most people have realized that the State Department was lying it will probably be too late.

Posted to NAU at 12:25 PM | Comments (0)

Reuters: Iraq to "close" borders

Even Reuters' international correspondents are unclear on the concept of borders and border security, offering this:

Iraq's government said on Tuesday it would close its borders with Syria and Iran and extend the hours of a night curfew in Baghdad under a U.S.- backed security plan to rein in violence in the capital.

The measures ordered by Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al- Maliki were announced on Iraqiya state television by Lieutenant General Abboud Qanbar, the Iraqi commander who is leading the U.S.-backed security offensive in Baghdad.

Qanbar said the border with Iran and Syria would be closed for 72 hours...

The article is prepended with this:

Corrects to show government says will close the borders, not that it has already shut them

I assume that this means they will be closing border crossings. What actions they take to prevent illegal crossings aren't known, but I'm sure they aren't as stringent as they could be.

If I recall correctly, shortly after the invasion it was pointed out that we didn't have enough troops to prevent illegal crossings and that this was a huge security risk. That was contemporaneous with the rise of foreign fighters entering the country and an insurgency forming. And, I believe that such concerns were brushed aside by the Bush administration as well as the usual hacks outside.

I'm also sure it wouldn't be difficult to find people arguing at the time that securing the borders would be a great make-work project for newly unemployed Iraqis, and, while that would have led to corruption and infiltration of that force by insurgent supporters, it also would have greatly reduced the numbers of people available to join the insurgency and given them something to do and some income rather than just throwing them out on the street. Needless to say, such intelligent plans didn't find favor with the Bush administration.

Posted to Iraq at 11:13 AM | Comments (1)

Rudy Giuliani: Schwarzenegger is a "progressive leader"

Yesterday His Weirdness, aka former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, spoke in Silicon Valley and said:

...Giuliani praised [Arnold Schwarzenegger], calling him a "progressive leader."

"I generally agree with Governor Schwarzenegger," Giuliani said...

...On immigration, Giuliani said while the country needs to ensure that terrorists, drug dealers and other criminals are not entering the country we should not be driving law-abiding immigrants away.

"The worst problem would be . . . if you're the country that nobody wants to come to,'' Giuliani said...

As you might have surmised, the "reporter", Jason Bennert of the Bay City News Service, did a fine job transcribing Juliani's remarks. However, not a single question he asked of the candidate is noted, so one can assume none was asked.

If Bennert had decided to do some real reporting, he could have informed Rudy that there's a multi-year line to get into the U.S. legally, and we're at absolutely no risk whatsoever of running out of applicants. And, he could have also informed Rudy that his plan to legalize millions of illegal aliens would make their situation even worse and also allow those former illegal aliens to cut in front of the citizenship line ahead of those prospective legal immigrants.

Posted to California at 05:59 AM | Comments (0)

Alfonso Aguilar/U.S. Office of Citizenship promotes "guest" workers (LULAC, NALEO connection)

The "U.S. Office of Citizenship" was created a few years ago and is part of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The first and current head of the Office, Alfonso Aguilar, was appointed by president Bush in 2003. His biography reveals that he's a member of two highly questionable groups. (Go to uscis.gov and search, or enter this: preview.tinyurl.com/2948hx)

The first group is LULAC, the League of United Latin American Citizens. If that group has ever opposed illegal immigration, I'm not aware of it.

The other group is NALEO, the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials. They collaborate with the government of Mexico on an award that generally speaking marks the recipient as assisting Mexico with their goal of sending their citizens to the U.S. illegally. They also appeared with LULAC and with MALDEF (a group that has at least an indirect link to the Mexican government) at a press conference where they demanded an end to deportations until "comprehensive immigration reform" passes.

Aguilar was in Springfield, Missouri last week and put on quite the show to local Rotary clubs. While he promoted assimilation and opposed "parallel communities", his main goal was to be a cheap pimp for Bush's immigration position:

"Immigration is without a doubt the issue of the day," Aguilar said. "Immigrants are going where there are jobs. You have a large number of undocumented immigrants and it is in (your) best interest to know who is here."

He promoted President George Bush's guest-worker program saying that the current legal process to gain U.S. citizenship is mired in a bureaucracy that can take years. He also said that without immigrants doing the work that Americans won't, the U.S. economy would collapse.

"Immigrants can help revitalize sectors of your cities," he said. "I encourage the mayors to develop a strategic plan (to help those immigrants) become a part of the community."

...Aguilar conceded that most Americans will not work for the wages paid to immigrants. But he also stressed that regardless of wages, some industries like poultry processing plants cannot find enough Americans to "fill those jobs."

"Today's unemployment rate is 4.5 percent," he said. "We are in a period of transition. Immigrants are not driving wages down - although (immigrant labor) may affect some sectors."

..."Don't fear immigrants," he said. "They are good, hardworking people that share our values. They are not here to impose their culture."

...He said the "rule of law" is the most important value...

When he said that, the audience should have erupted in laughter. Millions of illegal aliens are here now because the Bush administration has ignored the "rule of law". And, the idea that our economy would collapse is obscene coming from someone who's supposedly working for the U.S. Only a small number of job types are held by low-skill immigrants and illegal aliens. While the economy would take a hit if they all left tomorrow, we'd make out OK. And, of course, not all "immigrants" "share our values", and while the vast majority of "immigrants" don't have an explicit plan to "impose their culture", that is indeed what happens to a certain extent.

Press 2 if you believe anything Aguilar said.

Related:
USCIS Director compares immigration "reform" to civil rights movement
Citizenship and Immigration Ombudsman is former president of AILA chapter

Posted to Immigration2007a at 01:30 AM | Comments (0)

Bank of "America": credit cards for illegal aliens

Bank of America is currently offering credit cards to residents of Los Angeles County who only have ITIN numbers and who don't have either a social security number or a credit history. That strongly implies that those credit recipients are illegal aliens. Later this year the bank hopes to expand the program nationwide.

For those who don't understand why this is horrifically bad, this bank is indirectly profiting from unlawful activity. And, they're explicitly going after that market. If you're one of those people who don't agree this is bad, imagine some form of illegal activity that you believe is bad for society. Then, imagine BofA going after that market.

And, the bank couldn't do this if they knew the government wasn't going to turn a blind eye to it. And, the bank no doubt donates to political candidates, and they will almost certainly only donate to politicians who will help the bank make more money.

Let's imagine that a few years from now BofA is making a handsome profit from this card. Then, some politician proposes forbidding banks from engaging in this practice. Do you think BofA is going to just let some politician cut off the money flow? Isn't it more likely that they're going to donate to those politicians who'll allow more illegal immigration and who'll support companies trying to profit from that indirect illegal activity? (A tangible example: when Tom Tancredo merely suggested taxing remittances, Western Union/First Data began publicly supporting - and funding - his Democratic opponent).

In summary, Bank of "America"'s actions rely on and will lead to political corruption. And, the bank would not do this if the Bush administration were not completely corrupt.

As for what you can do about this:
- Hopefully, BofA will eventually face both civil suits and criminal prosecutions for their scheme, and that might have a serious impact on their stock price. If you're a shareholder, express your concern. Even better, if you belong to a pension plan that invests in the bank, express your concern to the manager of the plan, and tell others to do the same.
- Watch for news reports and editorials concerning the card, and write letters to the ombudsman or editor, or leave comments.
- Contact your representatives and urge them to remove any loopholes that allow banks to engage in this activity or to investigate their activites.
- If you have any business with BofA, transfer it to some other bank; make sure they don't have a similar policy on ITIN numbers or Matricula Consular cards first.
- Stop supporting anyone linked to the Bush administration.

Related:
U.S. Treasurer wants Mexico to become even more reliant on remittances
Have Oklahoma banks admitted to aiding and abetting illegal immigration?
St. Peter Catholic Church, Jupiter Florida, supports illegal immigration
Arizona Republic almost does expose on Western Union
remesamex.gob.mx features Bank of "America", Wells Fargo, and Western Union
Profiting off illegal activity in Santa Ana, California
Georgia Sen. Sam Zamarripa involved with a bank
Bank of America was the title sponsor of the NCLR Annual Conference
Citibank "recruiting" illegal aliens for home loans
"Banks aim to help immigrants send money home"
Bank of "America"
Their money or your safety

UPDATE: An unconfirmed comment here says:

All of you Bank of America customers call the number on the back of your ATM cards and push ZERO to speak to a customer service representative. Then ask to fill out a voice of the customer form. The representative will enter your comments and it will get mailed to the quality assurance & customer satisfaction department. The bank takes these forms very seriously. Lodge your complaint and make your voice ring loud and proud to Bank of America President Ken Lewis.

UPDATE 2: According to this:

[Bank of America] executives said participants needed another form of identification, such as ID cards issued by foreign consulates.

In Mexico's case, that refers to the Matricula Consular card. In 2004, the Bush administration twisted arms to allow banks to accept that card as identification, despite both the FBI and the DHS admitting that the card was a security risk.

UPDATE 3: From this:

Bank of America wants all media inquiries about the credit cards for illegals program to be directed to Betsy Weinberger at 1-704-387-7376. This is your chance to be a John and Ken Assistant Producer for the day!

Posted to Immigration2007a at 11:35 PM | Comments (11)

Rotten Tomatoes for Karl Rove

The following video is basically the moving version of the post about Karl Rove's remark about not wanting his son to pick tomatoes. Please promulgate it on my behalf.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 10:53 PM | Comments (0)

Barack Obama, Al Gore, Bill Richardson begin Amanda Marcotte bidding war

As soon as a door closes, a window opens or something, and recently-resigned John Edwards blogger Amanda Marcotte is learning that Edwards' loss might be B. Hussein Obama's gain. Or... Al Gore's or Bill Richardson's gain!

Shortly after issuing her resignation, the plain-speaking blogger who's unafraid to use vulgar words learned that those three campaigns were considering hiring her to write their own blogs!

Now, a bidding war has erupted, with the three presidential contenders promising her a huge salary together with an impressive array of perks to join their campaigns and chart their course through the blogosphere. Many members of that virtual world have chimed in with their own favorite, some at DailyKos prefering that she works for Gore, with the more liberal MyDD prefering that she goes to Gore.

Developing...

[Lonewacko notes: As soon as I heard about her being hired, I posted how this indicated flaws in John Edwards' judgment. All those who then pointed to her various statements validated that opinion, yet this site received very little attention. Nothing new there. Then, the huge storm started. Then, I started this, but didn't put a lot of work into promoting it. Now, I've posted this entry. I don't really like discussing this because the more this site sees of blogs, the less this site wants to be a blog. This site wants to be a real site, not one of... them.]

Posted to Bloggage at 10:30 PM | Comments (4)

USCIS Director compares immigration "reform" to civil rights movement

On February 9, Emilio Gonzalez, the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service spoke to the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce and said:

"Immigration, as we all know, is the hot-button domestic issue of the day... And I'll go one step further and I'll tell you that immigration reform is probably as important as the civil rights movement was back in the '60s."

As discussed here, he seems to have magically changed his mind on whether his agency would be able to administer a "guest" worker program, from saying it wouldn't work to saying it would in just five months. He also didn't have a clue to the extent of fraud that his agency deals with. And: USCIS director: Senate amnesty timeline is not "practical"

Posted to Immigration2007a at 09:05 PM | Comments (1)

NFL refused DHS Border Patrol recruitment ad

The NFL refused to print an ad in the Super Bowl program from the DHS attempting to recruit Border Patrol agents.

The ad "was specific to border patrol and mentioned terrorists," [NFL spokesman Greg Aiello] said. "The game was in Miami, where [immigration] is a sensitive political issue...[it] made us a little bit uncomfortable."

Awwww.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 03:32 PM | Comments (1)

Howard Dean: "equality for immigrants" is a "fundamental right"

I just ran across this October 25, 2005 missive from Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean entitled "Remembering Rosa Parks". It contains this:

"As a nation, we are all thankful for her courageous contributions. Today, in honor of Mrs. Parks' legacy, we must be committed to fighting the inequities that remain and championing fundamental rights for all whether it is voting rights, equality for immigrants or a commitment to end poverty in America."

In a career of idiotic statements, this is a subtle highlight. Citizens have various rights and responsibilities, and legal immigrants have fewer of both. And, illegal aliens have even fewer. What Dean is proposing is literally open borders: anyone who comes here by any means is made fully "equal" and given full rights.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 01:08 PM | Comments (1)

Ramos/Compean Part 2: Gilmer Hernandez

From this:

A Texas deputy sheriff [Guillermo F. Hernandez, "Gilmer"] who fired shots at a fleeing vehicle after the driver tried to run him down faces 10 years in prison for injuring one of the passengers, a Mexican national being smuggled illegally into the United States... The deputy's boss, Sheriff Donald G. Letsinger, said his officer -- who had been on the job for a year -- "followed the letter of the law" in defending himself in the April 2005 incident and questioned why the government brought charges...

Guess who prosecuted him? No, really, it was the U.S. Attorney who also prosecuted Border Patrol agents Ramos and Compean, none other than Johnny Sutton.

As with the other case, I don't know the details, but the government's conduct in that case leaves me very suspicious regarding this one.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 08:42 AM | Comments (1)

Arnold Schwarzenegger: La Cooperativa Campesina dispensing state money to employees of corrupt growers

Via this comes this:

Gov. Schwarzenegger on Friday announced a $1.75 million state grant to help [California crop] freeze victims with rent, mortgage and utility payments... The money will be distributed by La Cooperativa Campesina de California, a nonprofit association that represents community-based organizations that provide services for migrant and seasonal farmworkers.

I was expecting LCC to be a small outfit, but apparently they are not (link; excerpts in the extended entry). They say that their association members have "combined budgets of over $100,000,000". While they dance around the subject, they more or less admit that most of those they serve are illegal aliens ("Farmworkers in California are primarily young, recent immigrants from Mexico who have little education and poor English skills... [they are] suspicious of government agencies").

They also say that those workers have very low incomes. The bottom line here is that - hide it behind a "humanitarian" veneer all you want - the state of California is subsidizing a serf class in order to prop up corrupt growers, some of whom have links to Arnold Schwarzenegger. The program didn't start with Arnie, but he's doing all he can to keep it going.

I note also that Brenda Walker has coined the name "Governor Spendinator", but perhaps "Governor Crookinator" or "Governor Corporatist" might be better terms.

Previously:
Schwarzenegger: corporatism for corrupt growers
Schwarzenegger: aid for illegal alien farmworkers Here are excerpts from the LCC's about page:

La Cooperativa Campesina de California is the statewide association of service providers implementing Workforce Investment Act Title I Section 167 and CSBG farmworker service programs. La Cooperativa is a California 501 c (3) corporation. The Board of Directors consists of representatives from member agencies and from the Employment Development Department (EDD).

...Association capability includes... Combined budgets of over $100,000,000...

La Cooperativa Members
* Center for Employment Training
* California Human Development corporation
* Central Valley Opportunity Center
* Employers' Training Resource
* Proteus Inc.
* Employment Development Department

...Farmworkers in California are primarily young, recent immigrants from Mexico who have little education and poor English skills. Most farmworkers are poor. Annual incomes are very low due primarily to seasonal employment. Three quarters of California farmworkers earn less than $10,000 per year. The average farmworkers in California earns $6.75 per hour and is out of work for 26 weeks a year...

...Farmworkers are generally poorly served by mainstream social services agencies and are suspicious of government agencies...

...La Cooperativa Also maintains extensive links with state and federal agencies that assist with both policy development and farmworker services. These agencies include:
* Governor's Office
* Lieutenant Governor’s Office
* State Legislature
* Department of Education
* Community Colleges
* Health and Human Services Agency
* Department of Community Services and Development
* Office of Emergency Services
* Department of Business Housing and Transportation
* EDD Job Services
* Health Services

Posted to Immigration2007a at 05:33 AM | Comments (0)

Amber Tafoya, Catholic Charities, and Colorado Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages

Amber Tafoya is an immigration lawyer who works for the "Center for Immigrant and Community Integration Legal Services Office" of the Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Pueblo (Colorado), and on Saturday she conducted an "Immigration Law & Immigrant Rights" conference for the Colorado Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (link), which is a non-profit organization apparently associated with the University of Colorado. The report by R. Scott Rappold of the Colorado Springs Gazette describes various educators and other whining about all the disadvantages illegal alien students face, but, needless to say, Rappold doesn't ask anyone whether those at the conference are part of the problem. He also gets in a plug for "comprehensive immigration reform" at the end. Please write their editor and let him know what you think: jeff.thomas *at* gazette.com.

As for Tafoya, in 2002 she appears to have worked for Colorado Legal Services (preview.tinyurl.com/2o4b6p). I wasn't able to determine if she has any links to Jared Polis, but she's quite adept with slinging the canards:

An attorney with an agency that helps undocumented workers gain legal status in the United States is criticizing El Paso County commissioners for using the murder of a Denver police officer [Denver police Detective Donald Young; Raul Garcia-Gomez was later captured and returned to the U.S.] to launch a debate about undocumented workers.

"They're tarring all immigrants with the same, broad brush," said Amber Tafoya, the supervising attorney for Southern Colorado Center for Immigrant Rights, which is part of Catholic Charities of Pueblo...

Tafoya said commissioners glossed over the reality that many foreign janitors and restaurant, construction and farm laborers in the United States are doing jobs that few Americans want.

Instead of a letter addressing the U.S. policy on immigration and the resources currently in place to target undocumented immigrants, she said she would have preferred that commissioners urge local congressional representatives to support bipartisan legislation by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. , and others. The bill would grant undocumented workers a legal pathway to citizenship, helping to end a backlog of a decade or more.

"What we need to do is address the fact that we have a broken system," Tafoya said.

Pueblo County - with apparently Tafoya as their representative, also got a grant in 2004 (PDF):

"The Colorado Trust is giving Pueblo County an opportunity to become a national leader in identifying the needs of our immigrant communities and assisting them in transitioning from their home countries to Pueblo County. This project expands the proud Pueblo tradition of inviting immigrants with unique identities and cultural traditions to be Puebloans," said attorney Amber Tafoya, spokesperson for the Pueblo County effort. "One of my long-term hopes for this project is that it will lead the way in providing immigrants with the resources and connections they need to transition from their home countries to Pueblo County while maintaining their cultural traditions," said Tafoya, a Pueblo native.

And, she's also a liar:

[Jeff Henry of the Colorado Springs chapter of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps.] also plans to create an online list of local restaurants where "people can go and be assured that their food is not being prepared by somebody who may have a disease that hasn't been caught because they are here illegally."

Amber Tafoya, a Pueblo-based immigration lawyer, says that plan smacks of 1920s-style discrimination. "This is a typical xenophobic response, rather than something that is actually proven," she says. "Everyone is coming from a country where they have vaccination programs."

Catholics: please take the actions described here and here.

And, from the same state: Catholic Charities: bagmen for corrupt businesses? and Spotlight on Gould Construction.

UPDATE: This page describes a $10,000 grant that Greeley and Evans got last year from The Colorado Trust":

Joy Breuer attended the meeting with members of the group Concerned Citizens for Greeley and wore a pin reading "Enforce Our Laws." She expressed concern that the grant might be used to help illegal immigrants.

...[Greeley Human Relations Commission] Board member Sandi Elder assured Breuer that The Colorado Trust's Supporting Immigrant and Refugee Families Initiative is only for legal immigrants.

Some members of Concerned Citizens for Greeley said they did not feel like their views were being represented by the commission.

"Just because we have different opinions doesn't mean we don't represent you," said commission head Ruth Slomer.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 02:52 AM | Comments (2)

Nancy Pelosi didn't meet the meddling Mexican congressmen?

As previously discussed, several Mexican congressmen came to Washington to meet with their counterparts from the (U.S.) Democratic Party, and the two groups together demanded an end to deportations until "immigration reform" passes. (They used "Citizen Saul" Arellano as a prop, and on Friday they traveled to Chicago to show solidarity with Elvira Arellano).

Originally, Nancy Pelosi was to have met with them, but according to this Lou Dobbs segment - presumably from Friday's show - she couldn't make room on her schedule. Whether that's just a pretext isn't known.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 08:57 PM | Comments (0)

Democrats' fave Mexican congressmen support Elvira Arellano; Dolores Huerta; commission?

On Thursday, members of the Mexican House of Representatives joined with their counterparts (collaborators?) from the U.S. House to demand immigration "reform", aka a massive amnesty for illegal aliens.

Then, on Friday they traveled to Chicago to meet with Mexican illegal alien Elvira Arellano, who's been holed up in a church in defiance of a deportation order.

The AP report on the incident is from Nathaniel Hernandez, and only one of the versions of the article I've seen includes the following intro:

European officials allow residents to travel freely between countries, so why can't those in the U.S. and Mexico do the same?

A delegation of Mexican congressman posed that question Friday while expressing their support for an undocumented Chicago mother who has openly defied a U.S. deportation order.

"The separation of families is something that is very painful in Mexico," Nicolas Morales, a member of Mexico's National Action Party, or PAN, said in Spanish. "Let's look at the example of Europe, and how all of Europe united and is now only one nation. That is not happening here.

"We want to ask the people of the United States to pay a little bit of attention ... to look at us as a neighbor, a neighbor who has never done any harm."

Yeah, except for the various wars and skirmishes, the explicit plot to send us people contrary to our laws, the continual meddling in our internal politics, the implicit threats, the failure to admit the sovereignty of our country... No harm at all!

The rest of the article is shared by others who've printed the story:

The Mexican officials traveled to Chicago after visiting Washington D.C. on Thursday and presenting members of the U.S. House of Representatives' Hispanic Caucus with a resolution passed by the Mexican Congress in November.

The resolution expresses support for Arellano and asks the U.S. Congress to suspend her deportation order. The document, which also calls for a moratorium on massive deportations, was drafted after Arrelano's son, Saul, visited Mexico's 500-member Chamber of Deputies to plead for help in lobbying Washington to stop his mother's deportation...

...The Mexican congressman also were joined by Dolores Huerta, a longtime activist who helped found the United Farm Workers Union along with Cesar Chavez. She asked that immigrant rights marches being planned around the country for April 29 be dedicated to Arellano and her son, Saul.

And, the AP, as usual, serves only as a transcription service:

[Arellano] defended her decision to defy a federal deportation order.

"We know we came to a country that doesn't belong to us," Arellano said Friday. "But we didn't come to harm anyone. We didn't come to kill or rob. We only came to this country with the hope of finding a better job, a better future for our families."

And, while this needs to be taken with a large grain of salt, Cuba's Finest News Source says:

Mexican legislators who travelled to Chicago to deal with the situation of the Mexican immigrant Elvira Arellano agreed with their US counterparts to create a negotiation commission on migration reform.

...The US congressman Luis Gutierrez committed himself with the Mexican representatives to intercede for Arellano and protect the people with no identity papers in the country, reflected press media.

The eight congressmen communique noted that the commission must be form in August at the very latest in which legislators from Central America and the Caribbean will also take part.

I'll try contacting those American (?) legislators who took part in this to try to get more information on whether that is actually true.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 11:32 AM | Comments (3)

Arizona: some protesting illegal aliens would be "domestic terrorists"

Some Republican legislators in Arizona have proposed an alternative to Kyrsten Sinema's recent proposal:

A group of conservative Republican state lawmakers want to classify as domestic terrorists protesting illegal immigrants who "intimidate" or "threaten" U.S. citizens.

The GOP bill would also classify members of Mexican or other foreign criminal gangs or drug cartels as domestic terrorists and classify violations as felonies.

The measure defines domestic terrorists as persons who are illegally in the U.S. and are part of criminal enterprises as well as protesters whose actions intimidate, threaten or cause physical harm to legal citizens...

It appears like this might be on less shaky ground from a constitutional standpoint than Sinema's bill. AFAIK, even illegal aliens have a constitutional right to protest. However, they're adding the "intimidate, threaten or cause physical harm" bit, so it might be OK. And, of course, expect the ACLU - a group indirectly linked to the Mexican government - to fight this tooth and nail.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 03:28 PM | Comments (1)

Janet Murguia (NCLR) promotes "guest" workers

Janet Murguia - president and cheif executive of the National Council of La Raza ("The Race"), a group that funds extremists - offers "A Change of Heart on Guest Workers". As you might expect, she's wrong.

First, those "guests" aren't really guests, as she acknowledges. They "would have the opportunity to earn a path to permanent status -- and ultimately citizenship". So, our "guests" would actually be on the path to citizenship from Day 1.

And, the provisions of the program would be enforced as stringently as the enforcement provisions of the 1986 amnesty were: hardly at all. The same forces that try to block enforcement now will have even more power and will be better able to block future enforcement of the "guest" worker program provisions.

And, she also assumes that there will be a future "flow of migrants" that will have to be managed. The only way we would have such a flow is if our politicians continue to be corrupt and continue to allow illegal immigration to occur. If our politicians were not corrupt, they could greatly reduce that flow. She's assuming that politicians will continue to be corrupt, but she's also assuming that they'll follow the laws in the future. In other words, she's delusional.

Question: The NCLR currently supports illegal immigration. After "reform" they'll have much more race-based political power. Does anyone believe that they wouldn't use that power to continue supporting illegal immigration and to advocate for future amnesties?

Posted to Immigration2007a at 12:31 PM | Comments (0)

Ramos/Compean: evidence in van; injuries worse than reported; other agents fired; Feinstein

U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton - who prosecuted the Border Patrol agents Ramos and Compean - said that there was no evidence that could be used to identify the drug smuggler the agents supposedly shot as the driver of the van involved. However, it appears that he left his cell phone behind in the van, and Sutton apparently didn't try to use that against him. That also appears to contradict statements Sutton made to WND.

The WashTimes offers the muted editorial "False allegations in border case", only saying that "DHS officials should have taken more care not to mislead".

Rep. Tom Tancredo and representatives of Dana Rohrabacher visited Ramos in prison, and says that his injuries were worse than reported:

"To underestimate the seriousness of the assault on (Ramos) is a disingenuous characterization by the prison officials," [Tara Setmayer, Rohrabacher's communications director] said. "He clearly is the victim of a vicious attack. And the ineptitude demonstrated by prison officials with such a high-profile prisoner is troubling."

FWIW: Bill O'Reilly says he's going to hold warren Constance Reese accountable.

And:

Two Border Patrol agents who testified against two co-workers convicted of shooting a drug smuggler will be fired for changing their stories about events surrounding the shooting, according to documents obtained by the Daily Bulletin.

Sources inside the Border Patrol also say Oscar Juarez, a third agent who testified against Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean, resigned from the agency last month shortly before he was to be fired.

All three agents gave sworn testimony against Ramos and Compean for the U.S. Attorney's Office, which successfully prosecuted the shooting case in March. The agents were given immunity in exchange for their testimony despite changing their accounts of the incident several times...

And, Senator Dianne Feinstein has written letters to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff and Federal Bureau of Prisons Director Harley Lappin asking for information on the case and complaining about their lengthy sentences and the lack of care prison officials took. She and Sen. Patrick Leahy might conduct a Judiciary Committee investigation.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 11:38 AM | Comments (2)

League of Women Voters plans immigration study

Sounds great so far. After all, the League of Women Voters is a reknowned non-partisan group known for their even-handedness, right? Of course, they might want to explain the statements from their Fort Worth chapter, in which someone presenting the American side of things was denied a spot at the "debate" because they only had space for three people. And, they might want to explain why their recent debate in Wilton Connecticut likewise only featured one side of the debate.

I'll begin trying to get a statement from the LWV next week about their obvious bias.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 01:57 AM | Comments (1)

ABC News Person of the Week: America's youngest nanny

ABC News' Person of the Week is 10-year-old Justin Kvadas of Connecticut who, despite his young years, has actually proposed (but AFAIK not yet written for them) legislation for that state's legislature:

"I came up with this idea one day when I was driving home from tae kwon do, and I was looking out the window and it just came to me — if you can't eat, drink or talk on a cell phone while driving, how come you can still smoke? It can be just as dangerous, or more dangerous."

And, sure, I say, why the heck not? Why not just go that extra step, and ban a whole bunch of things? Heck, why not mandate the installation of smoke sensors in each car, perhaps with an automatic ticket dispenser and perhaps even an ignition lock for repeat offenders? Why not just take it to the next level?

Needless to say, the ABC News report was as light as you could get, and didn't discuss any of the downsides of his plan. Nor did it compare him to the son of the 1984 character Parsons.

Posted to Privacy at 08:23 PM | Comments (1)

Karl Rove reveals why GOP and Democrats support illegal immigration

Speaking at a GOP women's luncheon, a congressman's wife says Karl Rove said the following yesterday:

"I don't want my 17-year-old son to have to pick tomatoes or make beds in Las Vegas."

There's a slight chance that he didn't say this or it was taken out of context. Whether he actually said it or not, this statement isn't that shocking since "jobs Americans won't do" and the like are just more polite versions of the quote. The "guest" worker programs supported by both the GOP and the Democrats are just polite legislation mandating the underlying sentiments of the quote.

While the kindergarteners of the left (link,link, link, link) are quick to jump on this statement - almost exclusively with personal, completely content free, and in some cases racial attacks on Rove personally - few of them seem able to grasp that sentiments like that have been expressed by people from all sides and this is simply a bi-partisan betrayal of those they're supposed to serve.

UPDATE: Andrew Sullivan doubts the accuracy of the quote. Sorry Sully, but the White House doesn't deny he said it, only saying that it was taken out of context. Perhaps when Sully comes to grips with this he'll understand better the policy he supports.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 01:35 PM | Comments (3)

Democrats, Mexican leaders demand immigration "reform". Together, in Washington DC

As previously discussed, a few members of the Mexican House of Representatives traveled to Washington DC yesterday to speak with their counterparts - all Democrats - in our House. Those Democrats appear to have lost their way and forgotten who they're supposed to be representing.

Reporting on this event is hard to come by, but Lou Dobbs mentioned it on yesterday's show. Surprisingly, the New York Times News Service showed up for the event, but only three papers - not including the NYT itself - appear to have published the report ("Mexican and U.S. lawmakers call for deportation moratorium", link).

The United States should stop deporting illegal immigrants and separating families while Congress works on reforming immigration laws, a group of lawmakers from Latin America and several Democratic House members said Thursday.

The foreign delegates from Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua, on a two-day visit to Capitol Hill, pledged to work with their U.S. counterparts to fix the immigration system, which they said has led to a "family crisis" in Mexico and a staggering loss of life along the border. They also promised to help improve security, which they said was of paramount importance, especially after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

I'm sure they said that, but whether they mean it is doubtful. I also wonder whether that pledge - if reciprocated by U.S. elected officials - is a violation of any of our laws.

Jose Jacques Medina, a member of the Congress in Mexico who led the delegation, said that the immigration crisis is a human problem that begs a human solution and that the U.S., Mexico and other nations should work together to become "one America on one continent."

You can see an older video of him in this 8Meg WMV file. Audio from 2/5/07 is apparently available at preview.tinyurl.com/28kr69, but you need to be a Pacifica subscriber or something to access it.

The NYT does include six paragraphs from our side, then:

The U.S. and foreign lawmakers are pushing for a broad immigration law that would give illegal immigrants a path to legal residency and citizenship.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, a strong proponent of such a law, said immigration is a "justice issue."

"We must accept and welcome brothers and sisters who have invested in this country. We must reunite families. We must make moms and sons, one," she said.

Other House members at the press conference included Reps. Gwen Moore, D-Wis., Janice Schakowsky, D-Ill. and Hilda Solis, D-Calif., who spearheaded the meetings with the foreign lawmakers.

And, in a charming note, they brought "Citizen Saul" Arellano along as a prop. Over a dozen Mexican officials will be meeting with Elvira Arellano today, as the AP reports (apparently they don't have reporters in Washington who could have covered the press conference above).

Posted to Immigration2007a at 12:01 PM | Comments (4)

Pandering in vain: "Latinos" angry at Schwarzenegger remarks

During last year's campaign the L.A. Times somehow obtained tapes of Arnold Schwarzenegger, and the state has recently released a full set. Among other topics, Arnie discusses immigration and states his opposition to the border fence (comparing it to the Berlin wall of course) and his support for a "path to citizenship", known in the real world as a massive amnesty. Now, the LAT is trying to make hay ("Latinos lob a few words at governor", Anna Gorman, link). They discuss his immigration-related remarks, get the opinions of pro-illegal immigration advocates, and don't disclose that one of those quoted has a link to the Mexican government and another quote source allegedly has such a link.

Here's some of Arnie's quotes:

"I made an effort [at assimilation]. But the Mexicans don't make that effort."

...At one point, to illustrate immigrants' lack of assimilation, he described a shopping mall in Lynwood called Plaza Mexico.

"Literally I felt I was in Mexico City," he said. "Everyone only spoke Spanish, every shop was in Spanish, every sign was in Spanish. They create a Mexico within California."

And he compared the United States with a home where some guests help out and others don't.

"Look, you want to come in here as a guest ... then behave as if you are a guest," he said. "But what do we see in return? We see protesters carrying the Mexican flag... And stepping on the American flag and speaking in Spanish and talking about, 'We are here, and we're going to stay.'"

While it's certainly not true that all "Mexicans" aren't trying to assimilate, it's certainly true of a large number and a larger percentage than other groups. And, the very fact that they could be called "Mexicans" rather than "Mexican-Americans" is indicative of that lack of assimilation. And, given the large numbers of immigrants from that country, isn't that something that - if we wanted to be grown-up stewards - we should have a PC-free discussion about?

Of course, the Los Angeles Times and Hispanic "leaders" aren't interested in that grown-up discussion, prefering instead to throw a fit in an attempt to head off further debate:

"His comments were highly offensive and outrageous," said Assembly Assistant Majority Leader Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles). "It's just mind-blowing that he continues to put his foot in his mouth."

If Spanish-language newspapers and radio are any guide, others were angered as well. The headline on one La Opinion piece this week: "Governor attacks Mexicans."

Perhaps Spanish-language newspapers with an occasionally anti-American agenda aren't exactly the best source. Perhaps the L.A. Times should look a bit closer at whether they want to promulgate the thoughts of those sources instead of fighting against their positions.

Even a former campaign aide weighed in. "Those comments are disturbing to many of us," said Arnoldo Torres, who worked for the governor during last year's reelection campaign and is a former political advisor to the League of United Latin American Citizens...

"We take solace in this one thing — that those comments were made in April and that they will not be made again, in public or in private."

It's great to know that Arnie's plain-speaking has been stifled. Of course, as readers of this site know - but as readers of the LAT aren't told - Torres also serves on an advisory council to the Mexican president. He's even listed on a Mexican government web site. If the LAT had any journalistic standards, they would mention that highly material fact.

"Integration is in the eye of the beholder," said Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles. "Somebody might say that because of his accent, the governor hasn't integrated fully."

Salas added that the governor should be "more careful about what he says about the very people who are sustaining the economy."

"He needs to be much more appreciative of all the opportunities he himself has had as an immigrant," Salas said, adding that not everyone becomes a movie star or marries a Kennedy.

Of course, what the Los Angeles Times forgot to do is verify whether or not CHIRLA has collaborated with the Mexican government as alleged at the link above.

They also quote DJ Eddie "El Piolin" Sotelo and State Sen. Gloria Romero.

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

UPDATE: I didn't see this before, but the LAT published a transcript of Arnie's remarks in this PDF file. As pointed out here, his remarks are more thoughtful than the L.A. Times' cherry-picking would suggest. Clearly, their goal was to stifle rather than encourage debate of this issue.

Posted to California at 10:45 AM | Comments (3)

Christine Newman-Ortiz: citizenship test is like the poll tax

Last week the group Fair Immigration Reform Movement held a convention (link), and one of the attendees was Christine Newman-Ortiz, executive director of Voces de la Frontera of Milwaukee. In addition to surrounding someone's house in an act of intimidation, that group is a member of FIRM, as is the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, whose executive director Josh Hoyt also attended. Another attendee was the Reverend James Lawson.

Now for the quote you've been waiting for:

Newman-Ortiz, who also attended the 'Black Brown and Beyond' sessions said immigrants face similar struggles to African Americans shortly after slavery. "The proposed entry tests for immigrants are similar to the poll tax and literacy tests that kept African Americans from getting voting rights," she said. "We want to make a statement that we oppose making these tests more difficult. We want to encourage more people to get involved."

I do too. If you're in Milwaukee, do your best to expose Voces for what they are.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 08:29 AM | Comments (3)

Mitt Romney asked semi-tough questions on immigration

There are 3.5 candidates for president who support our immigration laws: Hunter, Tancredo, and Paul. The half-point is Mitt Romney, who has links to Bush and who may end up being as bad or nearly as bad as he is, or who might decide to do what's in America's best interests.

Speaking about 20 miles from Marshalltown Iowa, he was asked about his position on immigration. Whatever the exact question, it was much too broad, and such broad questions result in broad answers. What people need to do is a) find a quote or position from the candidate, b) find a flaw in that position, c) develop a short question about the specific position, and d) ask the question prefacing it with a brief version of the original quote. Because if you don't do that, you get something like this:

"I love immigration. I love legal immigrants coming into our country... My guess is everybody in this room is a descendant of an immigrant or an immigrant himself. So we love immigration as Americans. Immigration brings us education, new cultures, ideas, innovative talent. It's wonderful to have legal immigration. I don't like illegal immigration."

This is dangerously Bush-like blather, and Bush said he didn't like illegal immigration too, way back in 2000. We can see what happened.

But, at least there was a follow-up of sorts:

The man who questioned Romney specifically asked whether Romney supported construction of a fence along the southern U.S. border. Romney replied that it is important to "secure" the border. "Make sure that we have a clear, defined border between ourselves and places that want to bring people in illegally," Romney said. "...That's not enough, just securing the border. In my opinion, we need to do one thing more, at least, and that is to have an employment verification system." ...Romney envisions a tamper-proof I.D. card that would let businesses know whether the person is in the country legally.

It's still not entirely clear what exactly he supports. He went on to argue for skilled rather than massive amounts of unskilled immigration. And, he didn't discuss whether he favors amnesty or not.

Someone needs to ask him more specific questions designed to reveal possible flaws in his positions.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 05:57 AM | Comments (0)

ACLU immigration forum in Indiana features no debate

You know what happens when the ACLU holds an immigration forum? You don't get a debate, just a harangue. The latter is "reported" on by Alexa Lopez of the Indiana Daily Student, a paper run by Indiana University students but apparently not funded by the school. Those who spoke were current or former IU professors as well as people from the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana.

If there's a similar forum in your area, please show up and try to ask one or more of the panelists a tough question.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 02:01 AM | Comments (0)

AVWatch: will facts stick in Villaraigosa's Wikipedia entry?

As a test designed to show how unreliable Wikipedia is, I added some long-missing facts to the WP entry for Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Then, someone else came along and junked the paragraph I added up a bit. Then, problem administrator "Will Beback" added 'citation needed' marks to the junked-up paragraph, and I noted at the time that that was most likely a pretext to remove the whole paragraph. I was half right, since "Will Beback" subsequently reduced my paragraph to just this one line:

At [[UCLA]], Villaraigosa was a leader of the group [[MEChA]] [http://www.bruinalumni.com/antonio/antonioindex.html] [http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=3531] [http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/recall/20030830-9999_1n30mecha.html].

Now, I've fleshed out the original paragraph in order to avoid future pretext-related deletions. Let's see what fun happens to this:

At [[UCLA]], Villaraigosa was a leader of the group [[MEChA]] [http://www.bruinalumni.com/antonio/antonioindex.html] [http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=3531] [http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/recall/20030830-9999_1n30mecha.html]. Some, such as [[John and Ken]] of [[KFI]], derisively refer to him as ''Mayor [[Reconquista]]'' [http://www.kfi640.com/podcast/JohnandKen.xml] [http://www.google.com/search?q=%22mayor+reconquista%22] [http://hotair.com/archives/2006/09/15/video-la-mayor-villaraigosa-jumps-ugly-with-john-and-ken-over-immigration/] [http://newsbusters.org/node/5903] because of that and because of his support for [[amnesty]] for [[illegal immigrants]] [http://cbs2.com/topstories/local_story_024214716.html] [http://24ahead.com/blog/archives/003211.html] [http://24ahead.com/blog/archives/004756.html]. Quote: ''"I think there is a lot of momentum and support for an amnesty or regularization."'' [http://socrates.berkeley.edu:7001/Events/spring2002/04-12-02-villaraigosa/index.html]

Posted to Miscellania at 09:32 PM | Comments (0)

A Nation of Dummies: workers may be less literate in 2030

From this:

US workers may be significantly less literate in 2030 than they are today.

The reason: Most baby boomers will be retiring and a large wave of less-educated immigrants will be moving into the workforce. This downward shift in reading and math skills suggests a huge challenge for educators and policymakers in the future, according to a new report from the Educational Testing Service (ETS)...

If they can't reverse the trend, then it could spell trouble for a large swath of the labor force, widen an already large skill gap, and shrink the middle class.

"There is no time that I can tell you in the last hundred years" where literacy and numeracy have declined, says Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston and one of the report's authors. "But if you don't change outcomes for a wide variety of groups, this is the future we face."

...[Irwin Kirsch, a senior research director at ETS and the lead author of the study] and the other researchers emphasize they're not saying the US is in any danger of collapse, or even that this grim scenario will come true. What they hope to do, they say, is call attention to urgent issues that affect not just many Americans' lifestyle, but the sort of democracy based on an informed middle class that the country was founded on.

Obviously, there are very powerful forces that oppose such an "informed middle class", prefering a system more like that in South America.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 04:35 PM | Comments (2)

Richmond CA now sanctuary city; question for mayor Gayle McLaughlin

Richmond, California is in the San Francisco Bay Area, and they've just declared themselves a sanctuary city for illegal aliens. They're calling for a moratorium on immigration raids and their police are refusing to work with ICE on raids. Their new mayor is one Gayle McLaughlin, a member of the Green Party and a former leader of the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (the sanctuary movement) [1].

The headline of the "report" reads "CBS 5 Investigates with Anna Werner", but as one might expect there's little investigating involved, and Werner serves only as a transcriptionist. Another Werner report is a pro-illegal immigration puff piece ("Federal Immigration Raids Concern Richmond Police", link). Her bio offers the ludicrous statement that she's "one of the nation's top investigative reporters".

The raids took place under the "Return to Sender" program, which was designed to pick up fugitive aliens and criminal aliens (many of whom were already in jails). ICE may have picked up other illegal aliens, and McLaughlin just can't stand that:

"I really don't believe that any of our residents should be living in a climate of fear and terror like this... People who have no real criminal behavior at all have been unjustly placed under arrest... People just came and spoke from their heart and were so clearly concerned and in a state of fear and wanting to register that something needs to be done... I was totally convinced. There was no doubt in my mind that this was happening."

Her cri de coeur has resulted in:

So a new resolution passed by the city council Tuesday night calls for a moratorium on those raids until Congress takes up immigration reform.

It also calls for ICE agents to clearly state they are not Richmond police.

The resolution also says Richmond's police department will not cooperate with immigration agents in going after undocumented immigrants.

A question for the mayor: since immigration "reform" supposedly will have increased enforcement, and since it will without a doubt result in increased illegal immigration, will you sign a statement of some kind pledging support for such raids at that time, or will you just have another emotional jag and oppose those new raids? I suspect the latter, but if you want to ask her call 510-620-6503 or email Gayle_McLaughlin *at* officeofthemayor.net

[1] gaylemclaughlin.net/speech1.htm

Posted to Immigration2007a at 11:50 AM | Comments (1)

Ramos/Compean: who's on the Bush administration's side?

I have a feeling that it won't be too very long before even more truth comes out about the case of the two Border Patrol agents (Ramos/Compean) who strongly appear to have been railroaded by their own government. So, let's take a look at the short, select list of some of those who've supported the Bush administration's side of things:

* Andrew C. McCarthy at National Review, "The Border-Patrol Two Deserve Jail", January 29, 2007, link

* Ruben Navarrette, "Border Patrol agents step over line and into immigration debate", February 7, 2007, link (note: he's also friends with Rob Allyn, Mexico's paid propagandist)

* the editors of the Wall Street Journal, "Bonkers at the Border", January 26, 2007, link

* David Weigel at Reason Magazine (link)

* Duke1676 (link) and smokeymonkey (link) at DailyKos

* Patterico (link) he says he's not necessarily coming down on Sutton's side, but it seems quite clear to me

* People for the American Way's Kyle Mantyla, January 31, 2007, "The Law and Order Border Crowd Backs Criminal Agents", link

* Jeralyn Merritt, TChris, and hangers-on at TalkLeft (sample link)

* the Associated Press and their "reporters" Alicia Caldwell and Suzanne Gamboa who offer "Report: Agents in border shooting lied". While not explicit opponents, the headline (which is the one provided by the AP) and the article are highly biased and misleading, for instance by failing to note that supervisors are the only ones who can file written reports in shooting incidents

Posted to Immigration2007a at 05:42 AM | Comments (2)

About one-quarter of L.A. County jail inmates are illegal aliens

Nothing like the idiocy of the Los Angeles Times, which offers "Deportation cases soar as L.A. jails screen more":

The number of Los Angeles County jail inmates identified as suspected illegal immigrants nearly doubled in the year since the Sheriff's Department started investigating their legal status.

In other news, I didn't find my car keys until I started looking for them.

...The number red-flagged to face possible deportation once they serve their sentences went from 3,050 in 2005 to 5,829 last year.

The numbers skyrocketed from 658 in the second quarter of 2005 to 1,685 in the third quarter of 2006.

...Federal officials estimated that about 40,000 of the 170,000 inmates who go through L.A. County jails each year are in the United States illegally.

The article also treats us to a quote from Hector Villagra, director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California's Orange County office, and informs us that "immigrants rights groups" tried to prevent the program from being started. The L.A. County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 for it, with Yvonne Brathwaite Burke and Gloria Molina (a true racial demagogue) against.

Posted to at 02:35 AM | Comments (1)

UCLA caves, cancels Minuteman/libertarian immigration debate

From this:

UCLA has cravenly scuttled a student-sponsored forum on U.S. immigration policy—and revealed the administration's contempt for freedom of speech. The administration not only refuses to protect free speech, but also penalizes those who wish to exercise it on campus.

Scheduled for Feb. 6, the canceled event was to feature a debate between Carl Braun of the Minutemen and Dr. Yaron Brook, an open-immigration advocate and president of the Ayn Rand Institute. The forum, sponsored by the UCLA student group L.O.G.I.C., was approved by the administration weeks ago. When the student group learned that protesters from outside the university threatened to disrupt the event, it asked UCLA to protect the group's exercise of free speech by providing security for the event...

The acting chancellor for UCLA is Norman Abrams. Please send your thoughts to chancellor *at* conet.ucla.edu

You can read one of the jack-booted leftists who helped shut it down here: preview.tinyurl.com/yqodmz I did a little advertising on blogging.la a year or so ago, and I'll never make that mistake again.

A statement from the Minutemen is here, and a really nerdy blow-by-blow of the security negotiations - with some at UCLA apparently not acting in good faith - is here. 3/28/07 UPDATE: From this:

FIRE announces today that UCLA has abandoned its requirement that student organizations pay prohibitively large sums of money for heightened security at events that might spark controversy on campus.

Apparently there are still some issues however.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 09:14 PM | Comments (1)

Remittance shops used to launder drug money

Who knew?

Two hundred federal agents and police raided 25 money remitter stores yesterday in the metropolitan area, seeking more than two dozen people charged with turning the businesses into money-laundering operations for the leaders of drug cartels...

The remitter stores, sometimes called "people's banks" and usually located in poorer or minority neighborhoods, are legal businesses that remit - or send - money by wire, usually to family members overseas...

...Contributing to the popularity of the remitter shops is that a number of banks have halted involvement recently in the remitting business because of increased paperwork required by the government crackdown on possible sources of funding for terrorists overseas...

Actually:
U.S. Treasurer wants Mexico to become even more reliant on remittances
Remittances to Mexico: $23 billion in 2006
Federal Reserve is completely corrupt (Directo a Mexico)
Atlanta Federal Reserve tries dodge on indirect support for illegal activity
U.S. Federal Reserve to enable illegal immigration

Posted to Immigration2007a at 12:55 PM | Comments (0)

Pallets with billions of dollar sent to Baghdad; where's the money?

From this:

The U.S. Federal Reserve sent record payouts of more than $4 billion in cash to Baghdad on giant pallets aboard military planes shortly before the United States gave control back to Iraqis, lawmakers said on Tuesday.

The money, which had been held by the United States, came from Iraqi oil exports, surplus dollars from the U.N.-run oil-for-food program and frozen assets belonging to the ousted Saddam Hussein regime.

Bills weighing a total of 363 tons were loaded onto military aircraft in the largest cash shipments ever made by the Federal Reserve, said Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

"Who in their right mind would send 363 tons of cash into a war zone? But that's exactly what our government did," the California Democrat said during a hearing reviewing possible waste, fraud and abuse of funds in Iraq.

Posted to Iraq at 11:20 AM | Comments (1)

Ramos/Compean trial transcripts OIG Report of Investigation

Available in this PDF.

UPDATE: Smitty is indeed correct: those aren't the transcripts, but the very heavily - and most likely mostly unnecessarily - redacted Report of Investigation of the DHS Office of Inspector General which was obtained under a FOIA request. It also includes various Memoranda of Activity.

I note that the entire page apparently containing a portion of the Border Patrol's Firearms Policy is yellowed-out, followed by the statement that:

Investigation found that Ramos, Compean, [blank], and [blank] violated the BP Firearms Policy. Specifically, Ramos and Compean discharged their BP weapons, while on duty, and never reported the shooting.

I note that DHS Inspector General Richard L. Skinner admitted that his office lied to Congressmen about some facts of the case. And, only supervisors can file written reports about shooting incidents, and the requirement to make a verbal report seems to have been met by the fact that supervisors were present at or knew about the incident.

UPDATE 2: Sara Carter says: DHS report not consistent with earlier memo, OIG assertions. The PDF file is the DHS report; the earlier memo was:

written March 12, 2005 - less than a month after the Feb. 17, 2005 shooting - by Christopher Sanchez, the original investigating officer for Homeland Security's Inspector General's office.

More on the contradictions at the link.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 11:17 AM | Comments (2)

Ramos/Compean: "Government admits lying about jailed border agents"

It's not looking too good for that small number of people who've taken the Bush adminstration's side in this matter:

A Department of Homeland Security official admitted today the agency misled Congress when it contended it possessed investigative reports proving Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean confessed guilt and declared they "wanted to shoot some Mexicans" prior to the incident that led to their imprisonment.

...Under questioning by [Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas], [DHS Inspector General Richard L. Skinner] admitted DHS did not in fact have investigative reports to back up the claims: "The person who told you that misinformed you," Skinner reportedly replied.

This prompted a startled and angry response from the congressman.

"You lied to me and you lied to all of us," Culberson charged. "Your office tried to paint a picture of Ramos and Compean as dirty cops, and now you come before this committee and tell us you never had the information to back up those claims."

Posted to Immigration2007a at 05:34 AM | Comments (1)

Immigration forums in Connecticut, Fort Worth

The League of Women Voters is conducting at least two immigration forums around the country, and I urge anyone in the area to turn out and ask tough questions of their apparently pro-illegal immigration panelists.

Weds. 2/7/07; Wilton, Connecticut; reservation required; link; the only panelist is an immigration attorney

Thu. 2/8/07; Fort Worth, Texas; link

All three panelists at the last are pro-illegal immigration. Because of that, someone on the other side called it a "setup" and a "canned event". That resulted in this truly Soviet answer:

[Linda Hanratty, chairwoman of the League of Women Voters of Tarrant County's immigration study committee] said no opponents of illegal immigration will be on the panel because there is room for only three speakers.

Just to make it clear where their chapter of the League stands:

Hanratty said her organization came out in support of publicly funded healthcare for illegal immigrants last year after studying the issue.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 02:20 AM | Comments (0)

Terry McAuliffe makes pro-borders noises; Hillary Clinton pulls leash

Former DNC chair Terry McAuliffe is now Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman, and he supposedly said the following on NPR [1]:

CALLER: I'm one of those Republicans who helped change the political arrangement by sitting on the sidelines, and if you want to get 10 percent of the Republicans, right now, to vote for Hillary Clinton -- and I would be one of them, and I've been a Republican for 40 years -- you do the following things. You eliminate your support for NAFTA, that was Bill Clinton. Eliminate your support for amnesty and wide-open borders -- Bill Clinton, I've heard him say it many times, and I believe I've heard Hillary say it also -- and you start getting self-deportation of the 20 million illegal aliens here that are taking the jobs, the wages, and the working conditions, and destroying them for working Americans, which I always thought Democrats supported.

TERRY MCAULIFFE: I couldn't agree more. We've got to shut these borders down. These people shouldn't be coming in this country. We need to enforce our border protections. We have to do something for the people who have been here for years and have paid taxes -- you know, we're for the people who have been in this country and paying taxes and raising their family. But for the people who have not been here, who have been here illegally and have taken advantage of the situation, we need to have a plan to get them back to the countries they came from, and more important, which is the first thing John talks about, we have gotta shut these borders down. I couldn't agree more.

... I don't care if you're a Democrat or a Republican, we all agree you've gotta shut the borders down. People who are coming into this nation taking our jobs.

It's unclear exactly who he's refering to by "the people who have been here for years". Surely he's not refering to citizens. That's similar to language used by those who refer to illegal aliens, but that seems to be slightly contradicted by the next sentence. So, he could have an unclear grasp of the issue, or he could just be speaking in a slighly incoherent manner, or the transcript could be wrong. Or, he could actually be proposing something similar to attrition to reduce the numbers of illegal aliens here.

Unfortunately, the Clinton campaign (er, wouldn't that be McAuliffe?) says he wasn't speaking for her on this issue [2]:

Senator Clinton supports comprehensive reform that fixes our broken immigration system, strengthens our border security and sanctions employers who break the law. She has supported legislation that provides an earned path to citizenship while respecting the enormous contributions that immigrants make and continue to make to our country.

Needless to say, the McAuliffe statements caused the panty-bunching machine that Matt Stoller of MyDD wears with him to go into overdrive:

We've got to have a plan to 'get them back to the countries they came from'? 'These people'. 'Taking our jobs'. This is straight up Jim Sensenbrenner racism, and an endorsement of the vicious attacks on immigrants we've seen for years (including a jump in KKK membership we're seeing).

Yes, indeed. To many Democrats and to most of their leaders, wanting to enforce our laws is "racism" and "vicious attacks". And, wanting to deport people who are here illegally is definitely an endorsement of the KKK. (That's not a deliberate misreading, that's what Stoller said). Question: since Stoller supports "reform", and since one of the selling points of "reform" is more stringent enforcement, and since that enforcement would include deporting future illegal aliens, isn't Stoller himself endorsing the KKK by his own definition?

McAuliffe is a multi-millionaire, having profited handsomely to the tune of $14M from the Global Crossing fiasco, to the detriment of American shareholders. He's also a global elitist, hanging out with the Clinton's on a regular basis, as well as other world leaders. So in his case, immigrants aren't taking his job. In fact, it's a lot more likely that real immigration reform, which would address NAFTA and poverty, would cost him and his friends money.

Stoller is, quite simply, an idiot. Those he complains about are the ones pushing for "reform". And, as Clinton's statement which he provides in an update makes clear, she's pushing for it as well. At least he didn't disappear that part of his post (as he's disappeared a couple of my comments in the past). Although, he probably doesn't realize the internal inconsistencies in what little argument - beside name-calling - he can muster.

[1] mydd.com/story/2007/2/6/18442/34928 or
dneiwert.blogspot.com/2007/02/immigration-and-haters.html
[2] nuestravoice.com/?p=533

UPDATE: McAuliffe is her "campaign chairman", not her "campaign manager" as originally stated.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 07:39 PM | Comments (0)

Tennie Pierce Part 2: supervisors sue city

Tennie Pierce is the black firefighter who sued Los Angeles for racial discrimination. As a prank, fellow firemen put some dog food in his spaghetti and he ate two bites of it. For that, the L.A. City Council voted to give him $2.7 million. Oh, and by the way: at the time he didn't think it was racial, he'd played several pranks on other firefighters, and his nickname was "Big Dog".

The Council backtracked after bad publicity and has since hired outside lawyers to fight Pierce's suit. The original settlement was "negotiated" by City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo; the outside lawyers could cost as much as $750,000.

Now, Eric Leonard (no permalink) says:

Two Los Angeles City Fire Department captains accused of racial harassment by firefighter Tennie Pierce have filed a reverse racial discrimination lawsuit against the City accusing fire department administrators of unfairly punishing them.

Court documents filed jointly by captains Chris Burton and John Tohill say they were suspended and transferred without due process after Pierce accused them of taking part in a fire station prank in October, 2004...

Burton says he was summarily demoted, transferred, and suspended for 30 days and says despite his request for an, "advocate investigation," of the discipline, no formal investigation of the Pierce incident or Burton's discipline was ever conducted by the fire department.

Tohill says he was suspended for 24 days and transferred, again, he says, without a formal investigation.

The Hispanic firefighter who put the dog food in Pierce's spaghetti was suspended for only six days, they say...

Posted to MultiCultiCult at 03:59 PM | Comments (2)

Virginia's Tim Kaine fully supports illegal immigration

The Washington Post's Karin Brulliard joins Tim Kaine in advocating for illegal immigration in "Latino Groups Lobby for More Rights":

As Virginia lawmakers continued to consider a swath of bills aimed at punishing illegal immigrants and their employers, Latino immigrants and advocates took to the state Capitol yesterday to press for laws that expand the rights of people living in the country illegally.

About 100 people, most of them from Northern Virginia, fanned out to lawmakers' offices, gathered in biting wind for a short rally and attended a lunch visited by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D), who told them that he is committed to keeping Virginia a "welcoming place" for all.

"All", of course, includes illegal aliens. See the quote at the link for another wonderful example of Kaine's lack of cognitive abilities.

Another attendee supporting illegal immigration was Arlington County Board Vice Chairman Walter Tejada (D), a former LULAC leader. He called recently introduced bills in Virginia "mean-spirited" and "based on myth and hate". He probably had no other argument, and the "reporter" didn't press him on it.

Also present was Carlos Soles, of the Democratic Latino Organization of Virginia.

In Soles's group was Jose L. Vela, a Bolivian making his first foray into U.S. politics. In an interview, Vela, 45, spoke proudly of the Arlington citizens police academy training he completed and his membership in a neighborhood emergency response team -- efforts he said show his contributions to his community.

Vela, who is an illegal immigrant, said the training erased his fear of police. Some of the laws under consideration could change that, he said.

Needless to say, the WaPo doesn't delve further into what even their "reporter" probably considered a Fahrenheit 451 moment. Someone who's here illegally has no fear of one group of people who are charged with enforcing our laws? And, he's involved in a citizens capacity with them? And, he's involved in politics and lobbying "his" representatives? How exactly could the reporter fail to note the surreality of these statements?

Please contact the WaPo's ombudsman and ask: projects.washingtonpost.com/staff/email/deborah+howell/

Posted to Immigration2007a at 01:11 PM | Comments (2)

Ramos/Compean: prison beating; supervisors knew of incident; written report not allowed

The saga of the two Border Patrol agents who strongly appear to have been railroaded by the Bush administration continues with the news that BP Agent Ramos has been beaten in prison by five Hispanics after they recognized him from either an episode of America's Most Wanted or the Lou Dobbs show.

And:

A Department of Homeland Security internal memo discloses seven Border Patrol agents and two supervisors were at the scene of the shooting for which officers Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean are imprisoned.

That paragraph makes me cringe, because the memo says this:

Investigation disclosed that the following BP agents were at the location of the shooting incident, assisted in destroying evidence of the shooting, and/or knew/heard about the shooting: Oscar Juarez; Arturo Vasquez; Jose Mendoza; David Jacquez; Lance Medrano; Lorenzo Yrigoyen; Rene Mendez; Robert Arnold; and Jonathan Richards.

The "or" could imply that none, one, or both of the two supervisors (Arnold and Richards) were on the scene. However, Andy Ramirez of the Friends of the Border Patrol says all of them were on the scene:

"All the listed agents were in the field, and the memo says they knew about the shooting, including the two supervisors... The Border Patrol manual specifies that only a verbal report needs to be made of shooting incidents like this. All the agents in the field that day were discussing the shooting incident, including the supervisors. What more of a verbal report needed to be made? Ramos and Compean weren't trying to hide anything, not with the field supervisors right there."

That appears to contradict claims made by the Bush-linked U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton.

And, from this:

U.S. Border Patrol firearms policy specifically states that agents are prohibited from filing a report if a shooting incident takes place and that only an oral report to supervisors is required.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 12:07 PM | Comments (2)

Mexican National Commission on Human Rights: migrants were mistreated

From this:

Mexico's human rights agency has accused officials in Sonora of mistreating illegal Central American migrants, saying detainees were jammed into overcrowded cells and denied food and water for hours during a crackdown last year.

The report comes as the Mexican government, under pressure from the United States, is ramping up efforts to catch thousands of foreigners passing through on their way to the U.S. border, and as migrant rights groups complain authorities are ill-equipped for the task.

Mexico's National Commission on Human Rights said immigration agents "violated (migrants') right to legality, judicial protection and dignified treatment" during a two-week inspection period from April 20 to May 7. Its report was released Jan. 19...

Many Mexicans empathize with these Central American travelers. But other people, especially in southern states like Chiapas, fear that Central Americans will eventually begin settling in Mexico and taking Mexicans' jobs. They also are worried about crime brought by the MaraSalvatrucha, Central American gangsters who control the immigration routes...

I think the best situation for all concerned would be if our "human rights" groups such as the ACLU, MALDEF, as well as Parachutec from BrainFireLakeDog and all the others moves to Mexico. They can complain about not only the abuses, but also call those southerners "xenophobes" and other names.

Related: Mexican official on Democrat Enrique Morones' "Migrant March II"

Posted to Immigration2007a at 01:29 AM | Comments (0)

Kyrsten Sinema anti-Minuteman Project bill voted down

Far-left loon and Arizona state Rep. Kyrsten Sinema recently introduced a bill that would have outlawed the Minuteman Project and similar groups and have them labeled "domestic terrorists". (That earned her the prestigious honor of being selected for our first "Working For Mexico, Or Just Acts Like It?" post).

As could be expected, it was voted down in their Homeland Security and Property Rights Committee by a vote of 7 to 3. All the Republicans voted against it, and they were joined by Democrat Cloves Campbell.

Sinema voted for her own bill, and she was joined by fellow Democrats Steve Gallardo and Tom Prezelski.

I don't know how this happened, but:

Sinema ultimately conceded to [Chris Simcox] that she had no evidence that members of his organization are racists.

And, as could be expected, neither Sinema nor Gallardo are whizzes at that "logical reasoning" thing:

And Rep. Steve Gallardo, D-Phoenix, said some groups, although he wasn't naming them, are dangerous, as shown by hate mail and threats to Sinema and other legislators who don't see border and immigration issues the same way... At one point, Sinema asked Simcox if he was concerned because the first group ever to patrol the border in this country was the Ku Klux Klan...

Obviously, what they term "hate mail" may in fact simply be those who disagree and do so in a manner that causes ultra-sensitive lefties to get the faints. And, those who support something cannot be held responsible for the actions of others who support the same thing but do so in a manner with which the first group doesn't approve. And, of course, the last statement attributed to her above is guilt by association.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 11:57 PM | Comments (0)

Rudy Giuliani is full of $#*|

Rudy Giuliani announced that he's running for president on tonight's Hannity & Colmes, and watching his remarks on immigration I realized that he's completely full of $#*|. A transcript is here.

Giuliani's euphemism for a massive illegal alien amnesty is "regularization". That's the same term used by the AP/Mexican government, John Fund, Vicente Fox, and Mexico's interior minister. I'm sure Bush has used it as well.

His "regularization" would flood the U.S. with new legal immigrants, as well as new illegal aliens. Millions and millions of people around the world would see it as an amnesty, no matter what euphemism Julliani tried to use. Those untold millions would realize that if they could make it to the U.S. they could take part in the next amnesty, which would be brought about by the same forces using the same techniques as they're using now. Giuliani's amnesty would make future amnesties much more likely due to establishing yet another precedent and also because it would give even more political power to those forces that support amnesty (corrupt corporations, racial power groups, the far-left, etc.)

He opposes the real fence, prefering the "virtual" kind. He even praises Mel Martinez ("a great guy") and quotes one of his pro-illegal immigration quips: "He said except the only people that will pull put it up will be the illegal immigrants."

He said the reason why he sued to establish NYC as a sanctuary for illegal aliens is because the INS told him they could only deport 2,000 people per year. Realizing that he had 400,000 illegal aliens in NYC, he said he did the math and realized he had to do what he did. That is completely false: he had other options. One of those options would be to put pressure on the INS to deport more people. Combined with making NYC unattractive to illegal aliens through such things as working with the INS, denying them driver's licenses and public services and the like he could have greatly decreased the numbers of illegal aliens in his city.

He also gave a variant of the busboys canard:

[The INS was] dealing with somebody's maid and somebody who maybe was teaching at a college and just didn't have the right papers or somebody who was working in a restaurant and-- well that's all an issue. But the drug dealers and the criminals and now the terrorists are an issue.

His "tough" requirements for his amnesty have already been covered, and they sound even more disgusting coming from him rather than some sycophant.

Taken to a national scale, his stance on this issue would be as bad as Bush's, and we know where that's gotten us.

Needless to say, Hannity didn't press him on any of those points, and don't expect any other "reporter" to do that either. So, if Rudy's coming to a town near you I strongly urge you to get out there and try to publicly ask him a tough question about his pro-illegal immigration stance.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 09:16 PM | Comments (0)

Gil Cedillo, Peter Schey, LULAC, MALDEF, more at Migrant March II

Migrant March II is a caravan driving from San Diego to Brownsville and back in order to push for immigration "reform". Those leading it are Nativo Lopez and Enrique Morones (associated with San Diego's Democratic Party). Also along for the ride is a Mexican official.

The page sandiego.indymedia.org/en/2007/02/124985.shtml says it has a report from Morones, and near the middle of the page I laughed and said "WTF?". Let's see why:

Feb 2 California Gracias !!! San Diego, Tijuana and all for a WONDERFUL send off !!! Aztec dancers, Mauricio Farrah and the Mexico Human Rights Commission, people from Mexico, the US and lots of national and international media !!!

Feb 3 (Arizona)

After sleeping in a church in Somerton, we went to Yuma where we were met by 100 local community members and we placed 100 crosses for those that have died in the region the last 2 years alone. They fed us and after fellowship we hit the road to Phoenix.where we were to meet with the National Leadership (MALDEF, Peter Schey [linked to the Mexican government], HERMANDAD MEXICANA, [Rosa Rosales, president of LULAC], Nativo Lopez, Angela Sombrano [of CARECEN], Gloria Saucedo, DERECHOS HUMANOS, [Isabel Garcia, also linked to the Mexican government], Senator Gil Cedillo, AFSC, Arnoldo Garcia [of the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights], ... etc) of the movement for Latino rights: when we arrived, we were moved to tears as they gave us a rousing standing ovation. After our talk about our mission, (to hear the stories from the migrants themselves on why we need the human immigration reform, to later take to DC) we were again given a rousing standing ovation GRACIAS TODOS!!!

I'm a bit surprised they got so many open borders folks to come out for their little trip, especially Gil Cedillo (who I thought was just a California problem) and the president of LULAC.

In the evening 500 people met us as we camped out and joined Elias Bermudez and other Arizona locals...

Feb 4 (Arizona)

...Isabel Garcia shares two heartbreaking stories of the tragic deaths of two children. Father Carney, Kat Rodriguez, Alexis Mazon and all of us were moved to tears as 12 year old Mathew (the youngest of the caravan group, asked "why we killing all these people" as 200 crosses laid in the middle of our circle.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 05:41 PM | Comments (1)

Mexican elected officials meeting Pelosi, Gutierrez, Baca, Solis over immigration

In yet another in the long line of links between the Mexican government and the Democratic Party, three members of Mexico's House of Representatives will be meeting with four members of "our" own U.S. House of Representatives to discuss immigration matters and push for "reform". Those from "our" side are: Joe Baca, Luis Gutierrez, Nancy Pelosi and Hilda Solis. Details here (translation here).

Representing the PRD will be Jose Jacques and from the PRI Edmundo Ramirez. PAN has not yet designated a representative to the meeting.

The meetings will take place on Thursday, and on Friday they'll be traveling to Chicago to meet with Elvira Arellano.

If you'd like to call Nancy Pelosi's office and inquire whether the meeting will be on the record and discuss whether it's proper for her to meet with foreign leaders and possibly collude to push an amnesty, give her a jingle:

(415) 556-4862

(202) 225-4965

Posted to Immigration2007a at 04:26 PM | Comments (1)

How not to criticize Wikipedia

Dave Pierre offers "'Lib-pedia'? Anti-Conservative Bias Rampant At Wikipedia" (newsbusters.org/node/10615). He's definitely right about that, but I don't think he fully groks that the only way to correct that bias is for conservatives to be more tenacious than those on the other side who currently spend a lot of time making sure WP's articles match their ideology.

Lacking that, the only thing to do is to point out to anyone who relies on WP or who advocates relying on WP that it's completely unreliable.

Oh, and one other thing: stop linking to Wikipedia. Pierre repeatedly violates that, shooting himself in the foot by linking the names of several personalities to their WP entries, thereby slightly increasing the possibility that those WP entries will appear higher in searches for those personalities' names.

On a related note, someone else has come along and modified my test paragraph in a clunky way. It's now:

At UCLA, Villaraigosa was a leader of the group MEChA [5] [6] [7]. Some, such as John and Ken of KFI, refer to him as Mayor Reconquista or "Mayor Viva La Raza",because of that and because of his support for amnesty for illegal immigrants.[citation needed] Others also refer to him as "Mayor Photo-raigosa" because of his numerous public appearances in hopes of another photo-op.

Part-of-the-problem administrator "Will Beback" added the "[citation needed]" bits. I think I'll wait to see what happens; I suspect this is a prelude to the whole paragraph being deleted.

And, I note that WP's use of nofollow is not complete: at their page for Media Matters for America (a horrendous example of bias), in the 'External links' section you'll find a regular link to sourcewatch.org's page on MMFA. I guess some links are more equal than others.

UPDATE: The link to sourcewatch is handled using the template 'disinfo'. That site is very "liberal", and doesn't have anywhere as much traffic or editors as WP. I signed up and tried to add some facts to their illegal immigration page in October of last year, and all of them were immediately reverted by Bob Burton, the site's editor (preview.tinyurl.com/3awaz7).

Posted to Bloggage at 10:27 AM | Comments (2)

Mexican official on Democrat Enrique Morones' "Migrant March II"

Enrique Morones is linked to the Democratic Party of San Diego, and he - along with Nativo Lopez - are conducting "Migrant March II", a trip along the border designed to obtain sympathetic stories designed to promote a massive amnesty.

As discussed here, one of those along for the ride is Mauricio Farah Gebara from Mexico's Human Rights Commission. That's a quasi-governmental group that's independent from but funded by the Mexican government. (That commission earlier admitted that Mexico treats their own illegal aliens poorly, and also nominated Rev. Robin Hoover an award.)

And, Gebara says:

"In this march we are going to gather testimony of migration, testimony that we hope will strongly impact the conscience of the (U.S.) authorities and legislators."

This is yet another indirect link between the Democratic Party and the Mexican government.

UPDATE: Here's yet another link. In 2003-2005, Morones was a member of Mexico's Institute for Mexicans Abroad (www.ime.gob.mx/ccime/directorios/Dir_CCIME_2003_2005.xls).

Posted to Immigration2007a at 09:49 AM | Comments (0)

Travel NYT style: sneaking into the U.S. is jolly fun

A minor story from last year was the tourist attraction in Mexico that tries to recreate the experience of sneaking into the U.S. illegally. The trap is located in the Parque EcoAlberto, "an eco-park communally owned by the Hnahnu Indians".

Now, the New York Times has sent a puffball travel reporter (Patrick O'Gilfoil Healy) to take in the experience, and the results are in "Run! Hide! The Illegal Border Crossing Experience".

Now, you or I might at least ask one of the guides why Mexicans think they have the right to enter the U.S. at will. And, we might ask one of the guides whether that general idea is healthy for either Mexico or the U.S., as well as many other tough questions.

Who are we kidding? It's the New York Times, and they don't believe in delving into issues, prefering instead to offer superficial treatments of issues when not explicitly supporting the other side. Please write public *at* nytimes.com with your thoughts.

Coming next from the NYT:

- "Tips and tricks for Canadians who want to defraud the U.S. welfare system"

- "Fun amusement park attraction recreates exciting chop shop atmosphere"

- "How to water down gasoline... safely and without getting caught"

Posted to Immigration2007a at 05:39 AM | Comments (1)

Bush '08 budget only covers half of border fence

I think we could have seen this coming from 700 miles away:

President Bush's new budget would pay for only about half of the 700 miles of U.S.-Mexico border fence he and Congress four months ago promised to build.

With Mr. Bush trying to prove to Republicans he is serious about immigration law enforcement, his budget makes good on his promise to fund 3,000 new U.S. Border Patrol agents, putting him near his goal of doubling the agency's size. He also included funding for 22 new Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) teams to identify and deport illegal aliens serving time for criminal convictions.

The White House budget asks for $1 billion in new money to build the fence. Even coupled with $1.5 billion appropriated in the past two years, this would not pay for the entire fence called for in a bill Congress passed and the president signed into law in October.

"If you mean double-strand or double-fence for 700 [miles], no," said Office of Management and Budget Director Rob Portman. The $2.5 billion could pay for either 700 miles of single-tier fence, or 370 miles of double-tier fence, along with cameras, sensors and other technology to build a "virtual fence" along the other parts.
The Department of Homeland Security has argued that only 370 miles of actual border fencing is needed, saying a "virtual fence" would suffice elsewhere. Congress, though, rejected that and insisted on 700 miles of double-tier fencing, even specifying its general locations in the bill...

Anyone promotes "comprehensive immigration reform" and says that it includes enforcement provisions is lying. Those who support "reform" have shown time and time again that they cannot be trusted.

Related:

Los Angeles Times backs Richardson's opposition to border fence

Amnesty proponents can't be trusted (Democrats waver on border fence)

New York Times wrong about immigration (Part #4952234, "The Fence Campaign")

Houston Chronicle does part against border fence

"Doubts linger on feasibility of barrier" (border fence)

Bush signs border fence bill; on to "comprehensive immigration reform"!

Posted to Immigration2007a at 05:35 AM | Comments (0)

Swift & Co CEO: raid was just for show

Sam Rovit - president and CEO of Swift & Co. whose locations were targeted in an immigration raid in December - conducted an interview with the Greeley Tribune, saying:

"The government declined to work with us. They never came right out and told us who might be involved," Rovit said. It became apparent, he said, "they were looking for a marquee to show the administration it was tough on immigration."

Swift, he said, just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, despite doing everything it could to comply with hiring practices established through the federal government's Basic Pilot Program, which is designed to help employers check applicants' immigration status.

"It was like pulling a thread on a sweater and the whole thing unraveled," Rovit said.

From March leading up to the raids, Swift attempted to comply with what the government was trying to do, but they and politicians who attempted to help were told there was an ongoing criminal investigation, meaning neither ICE nor the Department of Justice could discuss what the agencies were doing.

Rovit said ICE had access to criminal backgrounds that companies or politicians cannot access.

So the company began its own review of employment records, using I-9 employment papers required by the government.

"Basically, we called people in and asked them 'are you who you say you are?'" Rovit said. More than 400 employees from five plants said they weren't, and they left the company, Rovit said.

Shortly thereafter, ICE cracked down on Swift, telling the company it couldn't conduct the reviews. But Rovit produced a letter from ICE which said, in part, "at no time has anyone from ICE told any Swift office that they cannot take action against employees who Swift determines, on its own, are unauthorized to work in the United States." The four-week review of employees started right after Swift got that letter.

Shortly before the raids they tried to get an injunction stopping them from happening, and Rovit says they weren't trying to prevent the raids but only coordinate them on a plant-by-plant basis. ICE scheduled the raids - then postponed them a day because the Japanese government was touring Swift's plants before re-allowing U.S. beef to be shipped to Japan. And:

"That day was like a slow motion train wreck," he said, noting the raids were staged for political impact and to get the most media coverage. It cost Swift $30 million in lost production and productivity.

These statements are obviously self-serving. But, given the Bush administration's history of conducting show raids for political purposes only, there's a very good chance that part is true, and it's possible that some of his other statements are true as well.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 02:58 AM | Comments (1)

Pomona mayor, activists, Monica Rodriguez, worried about ICE doing their job

From Monica Rodriguez of the SB Sun:

The recent roundup of 338 illegal immigrants across Southern California targeted those who had ignored deportation orders, criminals, fugitives and others.

But out of those arrests, about half - 159 - involved random people who officials came across and found to be in the country illegally but without any other criminal record, said Virginia Kice, spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement...

...Kice said that in the course of looking for specific people "it's not uncommon to find other immigration law violators."

When that happens, it is the duty of immigration officials to arrest the individuals, Kice said.

Pomona Mayor Norma Torres said city staff has gathered information involving the arrests of four other men near the Pomona Economic Opportunity Center, also known as the Pomona Day Labor Center...

...Jose Calderon, president of the Latino/Latina Roundtable of San Gabriel and Pomona Valley, said he and representatives of other organizations, including the Latino Student Union of the Claremont Colleges and the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, are also working to arrange a meeting with ICE representatives within the next week.

The purpose of the meeting would be to create an avenue for communicating with ICE officials and "stopping what we consider raids," Calderon said.

It's when immigration officials make random arrests that chances increase of civil-rights violations, he said...

Oh. The humanity. This is yet another in the long line of examples showing what ethnic advocates - including the mayor, the reporter, and the named activists - really want: free immigration for all others of the same race.

If "comprehensive immigration reform" passes, how exactly is the same group going to respond to post-reform "raids"? Aren't they just going to do the exact thing they're doing now?

Posted to Immigration2007a at 11:47 PM | Comments (1)

Ralph Nader: catalyst for a pro-borders independent party?

Speaking to Wolf Blitzer this morning, Ralph Nader didn't rule out a possible run for president. He said he doesn't like long campaigns and will decide later. Needless to say, expect Democrats to pull out all the stops to prevent that happening.

But, if he does run, perhaps it might make the formation of a pro-borders independent party slightly more likely. The Democrats would be weakened and be less of a challenge to the GOP. That might make the standard claims by GOP hacks that "as bad as we are the Dems are worse" less effective, allowing a fourth party that supports our laws to take some votes from the GOP. And, he could set an example that we don't have to chose between R or D. And, having three parties instead of just two that don't support our laws might be the final straw for a lot of people who want an alternative.

Posted to Politics at 09:24 PM | Comments (0)

Enrique Morones, Nativo Lopez on "Migrant March II"

From this:

Dozens of immigrant-rights advocates will depart today from San Diego to drum up support for immigration reform.

Called Migrant March II [aka "Second National March for Immigrant Rights"], the caravan of mostly Latino leaders will drive to Brownsville, Texas, and back, meeting along the way with community leaders and residents in cities along the border, organizers said.

Exactly one year ago, advocates led a similar caravan to push their agenda for comprehensive immigration reform that includes a path to legalization for the nation's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants.

This time the goals are the same, but "it's going to be more personalized," said Enrique Morones, who created Border Angels and Gente Unida, two pro-immigrant groups...

..."We're raising consciousness about the border deaths," said Nativo Lopez, president of the Mexican American Political Association. Those deaths, he added, will remain "unresolved without major immigration reform."

Actually, "reform" will only make the situation worse by sending a strong message that anyone who makes it over the border and manages to stick around long enough will get citizenship. Prospective illegal aliens will respond by... trying to cross the border. And, of course, some will fail. The only thing that will stop that is enforcing our laws, and that's something that neither Morones nor Lopez support.

Pointing that out to them in public would be a terrific way to help discredit them to their followers.

Note also that Morones is involved with the Democratic Party of San Diego.

"Exactly one year ago" is bolded above because the "reporter", Araceli Esparza, forgot to mention the significance of February 2: it's the day that the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 12:19 PM | Comments (2)

Fiji bans Helen Clark and John Howard!

Fiji's new military dictator has banned Prime Ministers Helen Clark (New Zealand) and John Howard (Oz Oy Oy Oy aka Australia) from visiting his tropical atoll country. Clark responded thusly:

"I think the Commander is digging himself into an even deeper hole and I really don't intend to dignify the comments by saying anymore about it."

The Commander in question is, of course, Voreqe Bainimarama, also known as "Frank" and not to be confused with the 80s band with a similar name.

Posted to Miscellania at 05:34 AM | Comments (0)

U.S. Treasurer wants Mexico to become even more reliant on remittances

U.S. Treasurer Anna Escobedo Cabral [1] is yet another George Bush gift to our country:

[She] said Wednesday that remittances are a driving force of Mexico's economic growth and that the country should encourage migrants' families to invest their money.

Speaking at the Mexico City Bankers Club, Cabral said Mexico's financial sector should do more to bring remittance money into formal financial channels by making credit, insurance and mortgage products easily available...

Cabral said the public and private sectors could do more to help Mexicans "build their assets and invest their money wisely," which would spur business, jobs and economic growth...

On the one hand, it's a very good idea to spur economic growth in Mexico. However, she's also trying to entrench a reliance on remittances by suggesting bringing them into "formal financial channels". Once those Mexican financial interests get their take of those channels, they aren't going to willingly give them up, and they would take steps to ensure that the money keeps flowing. That will result in them taking steps to ensure that the "migration" to the U.S. keeps flowing.

Whatever his motivation or other issues, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza (husband of the richest woman in Mexico and yet another George Bush gift to the U.S.) had the right idea when he said that "Reliance on remittances from the U.S. is not a viable economic policy."

Note also that the U.S. Federal Reserve is completely corrupt and wants to profit from illegal activity by taking a bite of the remittances market.

[1] Her bio (ustreas.gov/organization/bios/cabral-e.html) makes it clear that she's a "Professional Hispanic". Her position before Treasurer was Director of the Smithsonian Institution's Center for Latino Initiatives. Before then she was the President and CEO of the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility. She served in a role apparently not directly related to her race between 93 and 99 as Deputy Staff Director for the United States Senate Judiciary Committee. But, at the same time she served as Executive Staff Director of the U.S. Senate Republican Conference Task Force on Hispanic Affairs.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 01:40 AM | Comments (2)

Delusional Bush thinks his immigration stance is "tough, principled" (WSJ interview)

Our president was interviewed by the Wall Street Journal yesterday, and the transcript is here. I don't pay that much attention to his various remarks, but this is the first time I can recall him speaking in a not completely defensive manner or simply spouting his stock blather. The result, however, is not pretty and doesn't reveal him capable of more than a superficial grasp of issues. We can't unelect him, but what we can do is hold his supporters fully responsible for their positions.

Here's the section on immigration in its entirety, interspersed with comments.

WSJ: How concerned are you about the issue of immigration dividing the Republican Party?

GWB: Getting hammered is what happens when you take tough, principled positions. I don't want our party to be viewed as anti-anybody. If you get labeled as anti-people, you can't win elections. I believe the philosophy of our party is the most hopeful philosophy. It says to any person from any country: 'You have a chance to succeed.' It relies upon individuals. It empowers individuals to be able to realize their potential, as opposed to saying the government is going to do it for you. I know that sounds trite, but that's how I view the difference of philosophy.

Do I need to add that calling someone "anti-people" or similar is something that I've only seen those on the far-left do? If he really means this, does he not have the brain power to see how to both oppose illegal immigration and not be "anti-anybody"? Does he not realize he's playing by the far-left's rules and on their field when he puts things in such terms? Does he think anyone in the world can just come here? Is he completely nuts? (Don't answer the last one.)

I hope I can get a bill through the Congress so that the issue is dealt with in a rational way, before the [presidential] election process [begins].

WSJ: Do you think that will be easier with a Democratic Congress?

GWB: I think it's going to be hard either way. I think it's going to be [a] hard bill to get through. And I'll tell you why. The ultimate question is what happens to 12 million people who are here. My view is that you can't kick them out, nor should you grant them automatic citizenship. And so there's got to be rational middle way.

Our laws say they should be "kicked out". If Bush says they can't be "kicked out", then he's admitting that the U.S. has been invaded and settled on his watch and he's refusing to do anything about it. If all we knew about him was that statement and none other, we could say that he's clearly extremely incompetent, he's extremely unable to do his sworn duties, and he might be considered a Quisling.

WSJ: What is it about this issue that causes so many conservatives to abandon their free-market principles? Raiding businesses, becoming protectionists, etc.?

GWB: I think raiding a business is more about enforcing the law. And conservatives tend to want to enforce the law. . . . This is an emotional issue. It's interesting. There have been periods in our history where nativism has had a strong appeal. Sometimes nativism, isolationism and protectionism all run hand in hand. We've got to be careful about that in the United States. The 1920s was a period of high tariff, high tax, no immigration. And the lesson of the 1920s ought to be a reminder of what is possible for future presidents.

Wanting to enforce our laws or wanting to establish a moratorium on immigration is not "nativistic" per se. Claiming it is is a construct of the far-left.

I'm going to work hard on this. I feel strongly about the issue. I gave a speech from the Oval Office on the issue. And I hope we can get something done. But it's going to be hard.

It's not nap time yet, George, just hold on for one more paragraph.

Then, it seems like all those pointing out the truth about his schemes has taken its toll on the Captain:

This is an issue where you can distort words and label things. Amnesty. That's all you've got to say. He's for amnesty. Whether it's amnesty or not. So it's a tough debate for us all. We'll see how it goes.

What he and the Democrats are proposing will be perceived by millions and millions of prospective illegal aliens around the world as an amnesty. He can call it "strawberries" if he wants, but what matters is how it will be perceived. That perception will result in millions of people coming here illegally in the hopes of receiving the next amnesty.

UPDATE: Pat Buchanan weighs in mostly on the non-immigration related parts of Bush's interview here.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 10:49 AM | Comments (5)

Remittances to Mexico: $23 billion in 2006

Remittances to Mexico - money sent from legal and illegal immigrants in the U.S. to friends and relatives in Mexico - rose to $23 billion last year. That figure is from Mexico's Central Bank; the Inter-American Development Bank's estimate is $2 billion higher.

This is up from $10 billion five years ago, so obviously some of the increase is due to better accounting. Some is also due to lower costs to send money; note that the Federal Reserve is completely corrupt and is trying to profit from illegal activity by tapping into this market and helping member banks do the same.

Posted to Immigration2007a at 10:38 AM | Comments (2)

Catholics: ask Joan Rosenhauer some tough questions

From St. John's University's "News" department (possible email: webmaster *at* stjohns.edu) comes this:

As Joan Rosenhauer of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops [email: jrosenhauer *at* usccb.org] stood at the podium on the St. John's Staten Island campus yesterday, delivering a lecture on the Church's stance on U.S. immigration policy, one's imagination couldn't help but float six miles northeast to Ellis Island, where torrents of 19th century migrants once docked in search of a better life.

I guess if you're an un-bylined transcriptionist you might do that. I, however, would have been frantically taking notes and trying to think up the most devastating possible question to ask during the Q&A session. Due to the weakness of her argument, it wouldn't have been difficult:

Reflecting on the human right to dignity, homeland, asylum and migration, Rosenhauer said our ultimate challenge is to look upon the 11 million illegal immigrants within U.S. borders as "fellow children of God." ...Rosenhauer cited many Catholic sources defending the rights of immigrants, including Pope Benedict's XVI's first encyclical, Deus Caritas Es, stating that "charity must animate the entire lives of the lay faithful"; God's "Great Commandment" to love thy neighbor; and the famous scripture passage from the Book of Matthew in which Jesus says "I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me." ...[she] also broached the practical benefits to immigration. Citing U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics indicating that America will be short 2 million low-skilled workers by 2010, she noted that the U.S. economy depends on immigrant labor.

As with the Bishops, her arguments are incredibly weak, and a little tough questioning would have completely demolished them and shown her stance to be completely corrupt. Then, she might have taken news of her discrediting back to headquarters, and that might result in the Bishops realizing that the more lies they tell, the less everything else they say will be believed.

If Rosenhauer or another USCCB representative is coming to your area, please get out there and ask some tough questions.

Related:
Humanitarians: why do you support people falling under trains?
Catholics: discredit your pro-illegal immigration leaders!
Pittsburgh: talk to the Holy See about illegal immigration
Sam Brownback's false compassion
Sensenbrenner to Catholic Bishops: please stop lying
Let's discredit Cardinal Roger Mahoney! (Part 2)

Posted to Immigration2007a at 05:41 AM | Comments (1)

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All Posts(links to each post by title)

• Florida businesses join to support immigration "reform" (Laura Wides-Munoz, Laura Reiff)
• Sen. Patrick Leahy begins comprehensive immigration "reform" hearings
• New York Times throws cold water on guest worker schemes
• Harry Reid wins LULAC National Legislative Award
• Did Sam Graham-Felsen, New York Times lie about "Catch the Illegal Immigrant" game? (Howard Dean)
• Larry Kudlow admits he was ignorant about immigration
• Arnold Schwarzenegger's "totally reasonable, centrist approach" to illegal immigration
• "Man agents shot ran drugs into U.S. after he was given immunity, DEA report says"
• Wells Fargo considers credit cards for illegal aliens
• Bay City News Wire demands to know why ICE is doing their job
• The "Mexican border town" in Los Angeles: Cudahy
• Minneapolis Star-Tribune immigration editorial lies to readers
• Illegal aliens rehired at Buckley Air Force Base after raid
• Reuters: Hispanics do jobs others in U.S. "won't stand for" (Andrea Hopkins, Tim Gaynor)
• California presidential primary to help reelect incumbents like Nunez and Peralta
• "U.S. economy leaving record numbers in severe poverty"
• Bill Press is an idiot, Part #4832842 (Bank of America illegal alien credit cards)
• "Speaker Pelosi's Bad DREAM"
• "The Kennedy Amnesty Reign of Terror Begins This Next Week"
• Can Barack Obama answer this?

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)

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