2004 Immigration News Archives

Mexico refuses to extradite suspects facing the death penalty or life in prison without parole.

The boycott started with the Los Angeles County deputies, then the California Coalition of Law Enforcement Associations, and now Riverside deputies.

Posted at 01:33 PM | Comments (0)

Darrell Issa apparently wants your input

SacBee:

The California congressman who bankrolled signature gathering for the recall of Gov. Gray Davis has taken a first step toward financing a constitutional amendment that would deny benefits to illegal immigrants in the state.

Rep. Darrell Issa, through the Rescue California Leadership Committee, is mailing letters to every voter who circulated a petition last year to recall the Democratic governor...

...his consultant, David Gilliard, said Issa is testing whether to join the drive to qualify the ballot measure. Gilliard said Issa is looking "very seriously" at providing financing for the new petition drive and will make his decision "before Christmas, maybe."

You can contact him here and let him know you would support this.

Posted at 11:23 AM | Comments (0)

"Mexico envoy calls on U.S. to protect rights of illegals"

WashTimes:

Mexican Ambassador Carlos de Icaza yesterday said millions of Mexican nationals now illegally in the United States are hard-working residents who take jobs Americans refuse, but their rights are "completely unprotected" and the White House and Congress need to find a solution. "It is up to the American public to be concerned about the rights of these people as human beings," Mr. de Icaza said during a meeting with editors and reporters at The Washington Times. "They contribute to the U.S. economy, work hard on a daily basis, but live in the shadows completely unprotected," he said...

Posted at 11:14 AM | Comments (0)

It's not their fault

Helmet-haired demi-MILF Linda Chavez provides this bit of surreality:

...Whether we care to admit it or not, most of us benefit from the services of illegal aliens, even if indirectly, and the law that ensnarled Kerik has turned many good people into scofflaws...

...I have special reason to be concerned. My own nomination to be secretary of labor was derailed in 2001 when it became public that a decade earlier I had taken into my home and given modest financial assistance to a battered and abused woman from Guatemala, who at the time was illegally living in the United States...

...Although some news organizations have suggested that other ethical and moral lapses doomed Kerik's nomination, this does not appear to be the case. The Washington Post reports, "White House officials said they knew in advance about other disclosures now emerging about Kerik's background, including alleged extramarital affairs and reported ties to a construction company with supposed mob connections, but had concluded that they were not disqualifying." So suspicions about mob ties don't doom a nomination but hiring an illegal alien does? Something is very wrong here, but it's not the White House's fault...

...The only solution is to make it easier -- not harder -- for immigrants who want to work to come here legally. The president's much-maligned guest worker proposal is a step in the right direction. But a solution still has to be found for dealing with those illegal aliens already here. It makes no sense to kick them out in order to bring in millions of different people to fill their jobs. A one-time fine of both illegal aliens and the employers who knowingly hire them, along with the chance for undocumented workers to legalize their status if they have not broken other laws, would seem the proper punishment. Then maybe we could quit disqualifying otherwise good candidates from serving the nation.

Posted at 11:10 AM | Comments (0)

Mor-TON! Didn't you get the memo?

Morton Kondracke offers a column in support of the Bush/Fox Amnesty. In a way, it seems like something that would have been written all the way back in January 2004:

If President Bush is going to keep his promise to spend political capital on a bold second- term agenda, he should include comprehensive immigration reform that offers deserving illegal immigrants a path to citizenship.

To do so, he'd have to face down a noisy, but not large, anti-immigrant claque in the Republican Party that's determined to use the threat of terrorism as an excuse to, in effect, erect "Stay Out!' signs at the U.S. border, even to restrict legal immigration.

In reality, creating a process to legalize illegals would help homeland security by allowing law enforcement agencies to concentrate on border security and tracking down criminals and potential terrorists - rather than chasing after millions of ordinary undocumented aliens, especially Hispanics.

This logic seems to have impressed border-state Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who has told immigrant-rights groups that comprehensive immigration reform is his top priority for the next Congress...

One has to wonder what rock Mor-TON! crawled out from under.

Posted at 08:33 PM | Comments (0)

"The Wall Street Journal and Immigration"

Wall Street Journal senior editorial writer Jason Riley doesn't think much of conservatives who don't accept his employer's "there shall be open borders" dogma. Consequently, his occasional op-ed pieces slamming what he calls the "anti-immigrant Right" demonstrate no effort to engage their arguments or confront immigration realities that might complicate his facile talking points...

[...discussion of the debunked increased Hispanic support for Bush...]

This would be a minor technical dispute if it weren't for misleading open-borders polemicists. After all, most conservatives would love to see increased support for the GOP among Hispanics and other minorities. But the problem is that commentators keep reciting bogus numbers to invent a political constituency for immigration policies that are bad for America -- and rejected by most Americans across racial and ethnic lines...

Posted at 08:31 PM | Comments (1)

"Illegalize illegals: Time for showdown in open frontier"

William F. Buckley Jr.:

The new intelligence law, courtesy of 9/11, is mystifying because it does not face directly what is the most prominent threat to homeland security. It is: inimical action by non-Americans. All the people who participated in 9/11 were foreigners, here under various auspices. And yet the bill that has evolved from the findings of the 9/11 commission reads like an elocutionary exercise by a national committee to avoid saying anything unpleasant about unpleasant people born abroad...

The immigration problem is the primary unmet challenge of modern times. It is so because the whole of our political establishment cringes at any suggestion that the United States is inhospitable to immigration. We do have laws on the books, but they are apparently made for the sole purpose of flouting them. Time magazine published the most florid essay on the question, estimating the annual flow of illegal immigration at more than 2 million persons...

(Also available here.)

Here's a link to an online dictionary.

Posted at 11:15 AM | Comments (0)

The enemy within

From the AP's "ACLU sues for access to records on immigration sweeps":

A lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union seeks access to public records involving the arrests last summer of more than 400 illegal immigrants in Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

In June, a small group of Temecula-based Border Patrol agents set off a panic among immigrants by beginning to patrol and arrest people in cities far north of the border, including Corona and Ontario.

The next month, the ACLU filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking information about whether the Border Patrol was acting lawfully. The organization asked for details about the people involved and their interactions with the Border Patrol, methods used during the sweeps, records of involvement by local and state law enforcement, and communications approving the patrols...

Previous coverage of the sweeps and the townhall meeting they engendered starts here. If you aren't familiar with the backstory, click the link.

I note the story says "set off a panic among immigrants". Perhaps they should have said "set off a panic among illegal immigrants". If you think that's the correct wording, contact readers.rep@uniontrib.com or feedback@ap.org .

Posted at 10:59 AM | Comments (0)

"Safety's Not No. 1"

Heather MacDonald:

Now that the Bernard Kerik nomination has crashed and burned, President Bush should ask the next candidate for Department of Homeland Security chief the most important question for the job: Will you enforce the law against border trespassers?

...Yet fear of offending the race and rights lobbies has trumped national security at DHS. This spring, for example, Asa Hutchinson — the department's undersecretary for Border and Transportation Security and now a contender for the top job — shut down a successful border-patrol initiative to catch illegal aliens.

A specially trained team had apprehended about 450 border trespassers in several southern California cities. The Los Angeles Times, La Raza and every other advocacy group for illegal aliens protested that the arrests were racially motivated and that they were "scaring" illegal aliens.

The White House promptly called the team off, and Hutchinson appeased the race hustlers by denouncing the initiative as "racial profiling." He followed up with a memo to every U.S. immigration, border patrol and customs agent declaring that "preventing racial profiling is a priority mission of this department."

... These authorities seem to believe that they can give a pass to the hundreds of thousands of Mexicans who cross illegally every year and still strengthen the border against terrorists. But since the government forswears consideration of national origin, race, religion or ethnicity in its law-enforcement activities, strict immigration policing across the board becomes even more crucial for catching terrorists.

Without real enforcement, terrorists will make use of the infrastructure of illegality — such as corrupt Mexican officials. In 2003, authorities busted Mexico's consul in Lebanon for selling fake visas for up to $4,500. Her ring had smuggled about 300 Lebanese into the U.S. from Tijuana from 1999 to November 2002...

I don't necessarily blame Hutchinson for this. He was probably just doing what he was told.

However, in an administration where symbolism means everything, choosing Hutchinson would send the completely wrong message.

Posted at 05:47 PM | Comments (0)

California Democrat's Magical World

It's a magical world:

Adding to the immigration debate, state Senate Majority Leader Gloria Romero has scheduled a hearing Thursday in Los Angeles on the cost of holding illegal-immigrant convicts in state prisons and why the federal government isn't paying more.

Romero, D-Los Angeles, estimated the state pays as much as $868 million a year to incarcerate up to 28,000 felons who are immigrants, including many who entered the country illegally...

... Schwarzenegger's chief budget spokesman H.D. Palmer said the governor is working as hard as any governor has to get more federal money.

"This governor has worked with both Republican and Democratic governors in other states to get Washington to recognize that states bear a disproportionate cost for the federal government's inability to control the border."

In the California Democrat's Magical World, they can reduce the money spent on jailing illegal aliens at the same time as their driver's licenses for illegal aliens laws roll out the welcome mat. To a certain extent a few of them must realize they're partially to blame for the problem and this is just another attempt to bother Arnold. However, for the most part most of them are living away off in Magical World where Everything's Going To Be OK.

("The Costs of Illegal Immigration to Californians" says Romero's figure is off by a few hundred million.)

Posted at 02:25 PM | Comments (0)

"Redondo Beach will fight ruling on day laborers"

DailyBreeze:

Redondo Beach lawyers said they plan to file an appeal after a judge Monday extended her order barring the city from enforcing a law prohibiting laborers from soliciting employment on public streets and sidewalks.

City Attorney Jerry Goddard said unless directed by the City Council to do otherwise, he will appeal U.S. District Judge Consuelo Marshall's decision to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

While labor and immigrant rights groups viewed enforcement of the law as harassment, city officials contend the law is needed because in some locations day laborers have created traffic hazards and sparked complaints...

Posted at 11:33 AM | Comments (1)

"[AZ] solicitor general: Enforce 200 now"

I can't comment on all the machinations involved here and what they mean, but:

Attorneys for the state want a federal judge to let Arizona begin enforcing the provisions of Proposition 200 next week.

In legal papers filed Monday, Mary O'Grady, the state's solicitor general, said nothing in the voter-approved initiative conflicts with federal law. She told U.S. District Judge David Bury of Tucson that the state is entitled to tell government workers to check the immigration status of applicants for public benefits.

O'Grady said Bury should also permit enactment of a related provision that requires those same government workers to file written reports when an applicant turns out to be in the United States illegally...

See also "Prop. 200 supporters file motion to intervene in lawsuit":

A group supporting a voter-approved initiative aimed at keeping illegal immigrants from obtaining some government services filed a motion in U.S. District Court in Tucson to be allowed to help defend the measure.

An attorney for Protect Arizona Now filed the motion Monday to intervene in the lawsuit the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund filed Nov. 30.

MALDEF's suit argues that Proposition 200 is unconstitutional because it usurps the federal government's power over immigration and naturalization...

Posted at 11:33 AM | Comments (0)

Cry me a river of Sally Struthers' tears

SacBee:

The federal government wants to deport convicted felon Patricia Ann Law but freed the Santa Clara woman from jail last month anyway.

Law, 52, is among the first Northern Californians to participate in an experimental program intended to keep immigrants out of jail while their deportation and asylum cases proceed.

Though Law must wear an electronic ankle bracelet and observe a strict curfew, she says she's grateful to be out of detention and close to her family.

Genoveva Noriega Perez and her husband, Salvador Perez, are decidedly less enthusiastic...

[...whining... ...whining from a lawyer... more whining...]

...The need for better tracking is obvious, officials say: Roughly 80 percent of the immigrants who aren't in detention when given deportation orders disappear...

Posted at 04:19 PM | Comments (0)

" Central America wants to open borders"

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) - Central American nations are putting aside border bickering to allow the relatively free movement of people and goods between nations - a goal that has U.S. officials worried about a jump in smuggling of drugs and people in a region already plagued by crime and on the lookout for terrorists...

...Costa Rica, Belize and Mexico have declined to participate, in part because all three countries are already struggling with an influx of illegal Central American migrants who come to either look for work or, in the case of Mexico, pass through to the United States.

Citing the illegal migration, drug trafficking, corruption and gang activity that thrives in Central America, U.S. officials have expressed concern about removing the border checks. Michael O'Brien, the head of the U.S. federal Drug Enforcement Administration in Guatemala, said the old border controls, complete with drug-sniffing dogs and car searches, often were the strongest safeguard against criminal activity.

The United States is also keeping a close eye on the region after several recent terrorism scares. U.S. officials have said that an alleged top al-Qaida operative, Adnan El Shukrijumah of Saudi Arabia, spent 10 days in Panama in April 2001. Honduran officials said he was spotted more recently at an Internet cafe there.

But Central American leaders say the new border plan won't hamper their fight against drugs and other crime. So far, El Salvador and Guatemala have put up more highway checkpoints to keep a closer eye on traffic through the two countries...

Posted at 04:07 PM | Comments (0)

The WSJ's libertarian fantasy world

The Wall Street Journal has an editorial supporting the Bush/Fox amnesty, and using Bernie Kerik's nanny problem as an example. It's only available to subscribers, but an excerpt is here:

...Think about the Kerik example: The man and his wife have two small kids.... A nanny offers that help, and she seems both nice enough and gets along with kids. Whether or not she's "legal" seems less important to most American parents than whether she's trustworthy and hard-working.

As for the nanny, she's traveled hundreds, if not thousands, of miles from home to make some money and get ahead. Her primary concern isn't running some Immigration Service gantlet but is to find a good family that pays decently and treats her well. Are we really supposed to believe that this kind of transaction between consenting adults jeopardizes our national security?

Leaving aside any ethical issues, and only looking at this matter on the surface, it all seems so simple. A couple wants a nanny, a nanny wants a job. They exchange a little bit of money, and everyone's happy.

In the perfect case, or in the case of just one nanny, everything might be fine.

However, the nanny problem becomes a problem for the rest of us when you move out of the WSJ's libertarian fantasy world and when you consider the numbers involving, say, 1000 nannies.

Out of that number, some of them will get sick. Will their employers pay for their medical treatment, or will they encourage the nanny to go to the emergency room? What of those nannies that get injured on the job? Will the couple give her a little bit of money then threaten to call la migra if she doesn't go home?

What of all the other public services those nannies will have an impact on simply by being here? Won't 1000 nannies require new roads, new utility services, and all the other services that apparently are paid for by others in the WSJ's libertarian fantasy world?

What if the nanny has a U.S. citizen child while she's here? Who will pick up the tab to educate that child? The nanny will send back money to her home country, making her a valuable commodity to that country. That monetary incentive will cause that country to meddle even more in our immigration laws, reducing American sovereignty. Is there a price tag we could put on that?

The WSJ's scenario would have some merit if they were willing to pay the true cost for their nannies' labor. But, that would be contrary to the goal of cheap labor: pay as little for the labor as possible, and stick the rest of us with the true costs.

Posted at 12:45 PM | Comments (2)

When Libertarians attack!

In response to the WashTimes article mentioned in the last post ("Hillary goes conservative on immigration"), Nick Gillespie of Reason Magazine offers the following. I've tried to condense his thoughts down as much as possible, and I've put fact-based corrections in brackets and in bold:

Hillary's National I.D. Card

[...slags off on the WashTimes because of their Moonie connection and their cost...]

...stance against immigrants ["illegal immigrants", just like it says in the article]...

...Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.), the leading congressional spokesman against people with last names that end in vowels (if you know what I mean)... [...sounds more like a race-baiting "liberal" than a Libertarian...]

Yeah, that's really fucking heartbreaking to see people lined up to work in the morning. God, this used to be a beautiful country, before all these people--many of whom look different than Hillary--started getting up early in the morning and working really hard at shit jobs for a living. [Awww. They're just here to do the jobs Americans won't do. Never mind all the downsides.]

[...promotes a Reason Open Borders piece...]

[...compares Hillary to a "camp commandant"... Who said Hitler references were just for "liberals"?...]

[...promotes another Reason piece...]

[...and another...]

Previous coverage of Reason's Open Border stance is here and here.

Posted at 11:13 AM | Comments (1)

"Hillary goes conservative on immigration"

The WashTimes offers a roundup that's similar to the one earlier offered by NewsMax. It also mentions HillaryNow.com, "a group dedicated to drafting Mrs. Clinton to run for president."

Posted at 11:03 AM | Comments (0)

Lower tuition rate for undocumented immigrants ["illegal aliens"] sought

Let's play newspaper editor and correct the problems in the article "Lower tuition rate for undocumented immigrants sought" by Elise Castelli of the Boston Globe. My corrections are in brackets and in bold:

Advocates for [illegal] immigrants and refugees yesterday renewed their demand for cheaper, in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants ["illegal aliens"] at state colleges...

[flyers sent opposing providing] tuition breaks for undocumented students ["illegal aliens"]...

...The in-state tuition bill... would allow [illegal] immigrant students who have lived in Massachusetts for three years and graduated from a Massachusetts high school to pay in-state tuition rates at the state's colleges, regardless of their immigration status. [...race-baiting by Jarrett T. Barrios deleted...]

Eight other states have laws that permit illegal immigrants [use of correct term noted] to attend school at residents' tuition rates.

[...personal touch added via an] East Boston High School graduate [who] immigrated to Boston from Peru when he was 11 ["whose parents illegally immigrated, perhaps in expectation of 'immigrants rights advocates' using a sympathetic press to push through a cheaper-educations-for-illegal-aliens-than-for-U.S.-citizens bill"]

Please send an email to ombud@globe.com and suggest they make these changes on their own in future articles.

I also posted a message about this to Boston.com's forums.

Posted at 12:50 PM | Comments (1)

"House to see new bill on immigration security"

WashTimes:

The immigration security provisions stripped out of the intelligence overhaul bill will be introduced as a separate bill on the first day of the next Congress, House leaders promised yesterday, and will be their first priority for passage.
"We're doing this to stop the next terrorists and to take necessary steps to protect the American people," House Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. said. "The bill will address the three most critical elements, including real driver's license reform, tightening our asylum laws to stop exploitation by terrorists, and finishing the fence on California's border with Mexico."

See also "Congress snubs Bush's immigration plan"

Posted at 02:35 PM | Comments (1)

"Beaten Paths: Illegal immigration and smuggling continue to wreak environmental havoc in Southern Arizona"

Tucson Weekly has more on the environmental damage caused by massive illegal immigration.

Posted at 02:32 PM | Comments (0)

Interesting cartoon...

Posted at 02:08 PM | Comments (0)

"Anti-illegals group targets 2 senators"

Deseret News:

A new grassroots group that wants to close the borders to illegal immigrant is targeting Sens. Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett, both R-Utah.

Barry Hatch urged dozens of people attending a meeting at the South Jordan public library Wednesday night to flood their offices with phone calls and letters, urging them to strengthen and seal off the nation's borders.

"We are about to lose our country the way we know it," said Hatch, who is a second cousin of the U.S. senator. "Illegals are coming in. Jobs are going to be lost."

In an emotional speech, Barry Hatch, who used to live in California, said, "Immigrants are coming as conquerors. They are colonizing and spreading fast . . . I watched California become a third-world country."

...Hatch also suggested that President Bush should be impeached for his pro-immigration reform, which would provide temporary work visas for some illegal immigrants. He said such policy would lead to no borders, with only one nation from Canada southward...

I'm pretty much reflexively opposed to anything from Orrin Hatch too, but I'd strongly advise them to lighten up on the rhetoric.

Posted at 01:49 PM | Comments (0)

Another feverish missive from the OBL noted

Tamar Jacoby has yet another misleading editorial about massive immigration, this time in the NY Post. It might help if you read the editorial in a Tokyo Rose voice.

From "Winning the Border Battle":

Our increasingly educated, middle-class workforce isn't interested in hard manual work, but millions of campesinos south of the border are. [Tamar is down! --LW] We need them and they need us — supply and demand — and the resulting flow is good for our economy.

That's right, you soft Americans! Despite the incredible downsides of inviting 10% of another country's population to in effect invade your country, the global market must reign supreme! Don't worry about things like Mexico still not having gotten over the loss of "their" territories or their claims that all Mexicans everywhere are part of the greater Mexican Nation. Just think about the cheap labor.

In addition to the "jobs Americans won't do" canard, Jacoby also brings up the "the economy will collapse" canard and the "enforcement hasn't worked" canard. Enforcement has several parts. Jacoby only mentions border security. She conveniently does not mention that under the Bush administration workplace enforcement is even lower than under Clinton.

... Once we've adjusted the law — once most needed workers have a way to come legally and the only unauthorized foreigners in the country are people we don't need or want here — many of Sensenbrenner's proposed provisions would make good sense.

Indeed, in that case, we'd want to use every means at our disposal to find and catch those who eluded the guest-worker program or tried to come illegally outside it. And tightening up on drivers' licenses and other I.D. cards would be an extremely effective tool — to use against not just uncooperative migrants but also smugglers and terrorists...

Yeah, after we enact the Bush/Fox Amnesty, we'll get tough on enforcement. Unfortunately, that's what we've been promised after past amnesties, and it turned out to be lies. And, if Bush won't truly enforce the immigration laws now, that tends to cast doubt on his intention of ever enforcing those laws.

If we passed the Bush/Fox Amnesty it would create millions more illegal aliens to replace those who had been magically transformed into legal workers. Thence would follow more editorials from people like Tamar Jacoby telling us how we need our new crop of illegal aliens and how the economy will collapse without them and how we need a new amnesty and so on and so forth.

For the truth about the Bush/Fox Amnesty, see The Big Show on the Border.

Previous columns or quotes from Jacoby are here, here, and here. She's also a signatory to the *cough* "Conservative" Statement of Principles on Immigration.

Posted at 01:37 PM | Comments (0)

"Judge gives OK for Napolitano to sign Prop. 200 into law"

PHOENIX - A federal judge has given the OK for Gov. Janet Napolitano to officially proclaim approval of Proposition 200.

Judge David Bury, in an order released Wednesday, said Napolitano is free to declare that voters approved sections of the initiative which require proof of citizenship to register to vote and mandate that those seeking to cast a ballot must first present identification.

That, in turn, permits the state to submit the change to the U.S. Department of Justice for its required review of whether the measure illegally impairs the voting rights of minorities.

But Bury left intact part of his original Nov. 30 order which bars the state from enforcing the section of Proposition 200 which says government employees must get proof that applicants for public benefits are here legally and are required to report illegal entrants to federal officials. That order also precludes proclaiming voter approval of that section of the initiative...

Who knows what these fine public servants are up to. Napolitano claims she'll support 200, but I tend to be a bit skeptical seeing as just about all of Arizona's establishment was opposed to it.

Yesterday's "Will of the people ignored again" from Joseph Farah discusses judges and *cough* grass-roots groups like MALDEF trying to thwart the will of the voters, even if it does go a bit overboard.

Posted at 12:27 AM | Comments (1)

"[CA] Latino caucus calls GOP ads racist"

ZZZZZZzzzzzz:

Accusing the Republican Party and business groups of stoking "anti-immigrant, anti-Latino" fervor, the Legislature's Democratic Latino Caucus on Tuesday urged Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to denounce "racist" GOP campaign ads mailed during recent Assembly races.

Members of the 27-member caucus also called on the Republican governor to speak out against a campaign to qualify a ballot measure that would deny benefits - including driver's licenses - to illegal immigrants.

"I would hope that the governor will make a response to these (campaign) tactics," said state Sen. Martha Escutia, D-Whittier, the new chairwoman of the caucus...

..."All I can assume, as a lawyer, is it was temporary insanity," Escutia said. "But I can tell you, as a Latina, that these types of attacks will not ever happen again on my watch..."

ZZZZzzzzzz...

Based on the description of the ads, they don't sound "racist," but I guess we could have figured out that they weren't racist based solely on the people who were making the charge.

The anti-Arambula mailer may have some merit, even if it was out of date. From November 1's AP report "Democrats accuse GOP of using racist mailers in Assembly races" (yes, this isn't the first time they've played this specific card):

...Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, charged that the mailers aimed at Arambula, a Fresno County supervisor, "crossed the line of racism.

"It is an outrage that racism is being utilized by the California Republican Party to wage a campaign against one of the most creditable candidates running," he said.

The Arambula mailers have a photo of the Mexican border in the background and quote a 1991 Fresno Bee article in which Arambula says he found non-citizens voting an "intriguing idea" that could "encourage participation in school-related matters by parents that have not really had much say."

The mailers also state that Arambula belongs to Mexican government organization that "lobbies the United States to increase taxpayer benefits to Mexicans living in the U.S."

Arambula said he attended no more than two meetings of the Instituto de los Mexicanos en el Exterior and resigned a year ago. He also said he had rejected the idea of allowing noncitizens to vote in school board elections...

"I just attended a couple meetings." Hey, it's been tried before. In his case it might even be true, and it might indicate that he sees a problem with that group.

For an idea of what the Democratic Latino Caucus would consider normal, see "California legislators ask Mexican Senate to intervene [in driver's licenses for illegal aliens]":

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

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

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

If we're going to call what appear to be fact-based mailers "racist," what would we call the above? And, will any prosecutor dare to file charges?

Posted at 03:03 PM | Comments (1)

Janet wants to sign Prop. 200?

For some unknown reason: Napolitano wants OK to get law ready to go:

..."We're obligated to implement the law unless a judge tells us we can't," said Napolitano, adding her proclamation is merely a formality. She said state agencies are ready to carry out Proposition 200 when the judge tells them to do so.

Daniel Ortega, one of the lawyers who filed the federal lawsuit in Tucson challenging Proposition 200's constitutionality, declined to comment on Napolitano's legal maneuvering.

On Dec. 22, Bury will consider evidence for and against the anti-illegal immigration measure. He could issue an injunction or let it become law.

In other strange news, I had to double check that the above does in fact use the word "illegal" instead of their (past?) practice of conveniently omitting that bit.

Posted at 11:52 PM | Comments (0)

"Redondo Beach temporarily blocked from arresting day laborers"

SacBee:

A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked the city of Redondo Beach from arresting day laborers who solicit jobs on the street...

In issuing a temporary restraining order, U.S. District Judge Consuelo Marshall said the city's policy could do "irreparable harm" to workers and questioned whether it was constitutional...

...If the city's attorneys are unable to show cause, the ban could be extended through the duration of the case, said Thomas Saenz, vice president of litigation for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund...

Saenz said his organization has identified at least 50 cities statewide that prohibit day laborers from soliciting work in the street, among them Agoura Hills, San Bernardino and Chino.

The organization has successfully represented day laborers against the city of Los Altos in Northern California and against Rancho Cucamonga, Upland and Los Angeles County.

A case against Glendale is pending, Saenz said.

In case you're wondering about the link I added to the article, see this:

...The Ford Foundation, for example, in 1968 single-handedly funded the creation of The Mexican American Legal Defense Fund (MALDEF) and The Southwest Council Of La Raza, later renamed National Council Of La Raza. Both groups are radical mouthpieces for the "rights" of illegal immigrants (including the advocacy of college tuition for illegals at state universities), have managed to force bilingual education in many areas and remain wholly unrepresentative of the average Hispanic-American citizenry...

Posted at 11:48 PM | Comments (2)

The 9/11 hijackers and driver's licenses

There's a detailed article from November 2001 here:

When [9/11 hijackers] Hanjour and Almihdhar showed up at DMV Express [in Virginia], they apparently already had two forms of ID--a passport and a legal visa would have been accepted---because they did not submit DL6s to establish their identity. But they did submit DL51s, to "prove" their Virginia residence. Martinez [an illegal alien day laborer from El Salvador who they'd hired to help them get driver's licenses] allegedly certified the forms for both of them.

On the forms, the men claimed to live in an apartment complex on the 5900 block of Leesburg Pike--one block down from the strip mall. "This address did not belong to either Hanjour or Almihdhar," [FBI agent] Gomez wrote in his affidavit, "but was rather the address that appeared on Martinez's Virginia identification card. Martinez no longer lived at the address, but had in the past."

With their newly minted photo IDs, the two suspected terrorists drove back with Martinez to Culmore. "At the 7-Eleven they all got out of the van," wrote Gomez. "Hanjour and Almihdhar went inside the store and appeared to use the ATM machine. They then came out, paid Martinez $100 in cash for his efforts, and left in the van. Martinez did not see them again."

But the Virginia DMV had not seen the last of these two. Hanjour and Almihdhar were now qualified to certify the legal residency of other terrorists.

That is exactly what they did the next day--at a DMV about three miles from the Pentagon on South Four Mile Run in Arlington.

Wrote Special Agent Gomez: "DMV records also show that Hanjour and Almihdhar used the address Martinez gave them on August 1, 2001, to complete DL51 forms for [9/11 hijackers] Majed Moqed (Moqed) and Salem Alhazmi (Alhazmi) on August 2, 2001..."

Three other suspected hijackers showed up at the Arlington DMV that very same day. They, too, needed witnesses to help them secure Virginia IDs. But unlike Hanjour and Almihdhar, they needed not only DL51s, to establish a residence, but also DL6s, to establish their identities. That meant they had to have the help of a witness, a notary, and a lawyer...

...Herbert and Lopez-Flores [also illegal alien day laborers] got into Herbert's car and drove to an attorney's office on Columbia Pike in Falls Church. The three Arab men followed in their van...

One of the Arab men in the office that day was Ahmed Alghamdi, one of the suspected hijackers of United Airlines Flight 175, which flew into the World Trade Center towers. Lopez-Flores vouched for his DL51 form, on which Alghamdi falsely claimed to live on Edison Street in Alexandria.

Abdul Alomari was another one of the Arab men in the law office that day. He is a suspected hijacker of American Airlines Flight 11, which also crashed into the World Trade Center towers. Alomari claimed to live on Buchanan Street in Arlington. "Oscar Armando Diaz," whom the FBI believes to be Villalobos, certified Alomari's residency on the DL51. (The actual resident at this location was Villalobos' cousin.)

Villalobos, who told the FBI he believed the men to be Pakistani or Iraqi, added an interesting note. "Villalobos said the attorney then came out of his office and signed the forms as well," wrote Special Agent Weidner. "Here, Villalobos noted that the attorney conversed with the 'Pakistanis' in 'their language.' After this conversation, each 'Pakistani' man paid the secretary $35, and then all returned to the Arlington DMV office. Once back at the DMV office, the 'Pakistani' men paid Villalobos $50 for his assistance and then went into the DMV to get identification cards."

When the FBI later showed Villalobos photos of the suspected September 11 hijackers, he identified five of them--Hani Hanjour, Salem Alhazmi, Majed Moqed, Khalid Alghamdi and Abdul Alomari--as being at the Arlington DMV that day. "These identifications," Special Agent Weidner wrote, "were later confirmed by Virginia DMV records which show that all five men did in fact conduct various transactions relating to Virginia identifications cards at the Arlington DMV on August 2, 2001..."

Much more information at the link.

Posted at 10:40 PM | Comments (0)

"Liberal" Loony Land vs. the Realm of Reality

From "Liberal" Loony Land:

The prospect of revisiting the immigration reforms [which were stripped out of the Intelligence "Reform" Bill] alarmed others.

During a pointed exchange on the House floor last night, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi called the reforms "egregious" and "extraneous" and signaled that Democrats would oppose them.

"I have serious concerns," the California Democrat said. "I hope Republican leaders won't tarnish the achievements of today" by bringing up the immigration reforms again after the new year.

From the Realm of Reality:

"We are here today because on September 11, 2001, 19 men, all of whom entered our country illegally, overstayed their visas or obtained fraudulent visas, boarded four airplanes and used them as bombs to kill thousands of our citizens," said Rep. Nathan Deal, Georgia Republican. "The primary identification documents that allowed them to board those airplanes were state driver's licenses. Nothing in this bill would prevent those hijackers from using those same driver's licenses to board those same airplanes and repeat the events of 9/11."

Quotes from the article "Border security up next, Bush says". It starts with this generally unbelievable bit:

President Bush is vowing to help House Republicans enact tighter immigration-security controls "early in the next session" of Congress...

Posted at 10:24 PM | Comments (3)

Intelligence vs. the S.F. Chronical

From the S.F. Chronical editorial "Intelligence vs. immigrants":

Attempts to improve the nation's security should not be used as a cover to carry out a stealth attack against immigrants.

That is in effect what Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., and his allies in the House of Representatives have been trying to do by blocking the bill to overhaul the nation's intelligence system in exchange for immigration provisions that are, at best, tangentially related to the war against terrorism...

Fifteen of the nineteen 9/11 hijackers had a combined total of 63 driver's licenses. The Sensenbrenner provisions would have attempted to prevent future terrorists from getting driver's licenses.

Since the 9/11 hijackers used those driver's licenses to function on a day-to-day basis in the U.S. before the attacks, it's clear that the Sensenbrenner provisions were directly related to preventing future terrorist attacks.

The editorial continues with a few more paragraphs and a few more lies. Strangely, it includes a swipe at FAIR:

...The materials on [FAIR's] Web site include ''sample messages'' for callers to deliver to key legislators, such as: ''America cannot be truly protected as long as states issue driver's licenses to all comers, including terrorists.''

Holy Moses! An advocacy group includes "sample messages" for people to give to their congresscritters?!?! What is the world coming to?

If you'd like to suggest the S.F. Chronical gets their facts straight or just stops lying:

Reader representative: If you have comments on The Chronicle's coverage, standards or accuracy, please call Dick Rogers, the readers' representative, at (415) 777-7870. Written comments can be e-mailed to readerrep@sfchronicle.com, faxed to (415) 442-1847, or addressed to Readers' Representative, c/o San Francisco Chronicle, 901 Mission St., San Francisco, CA 94103. For information on delivery, billing or how to become a subscriber, call (800) 281-2476.

Letters to the Editor should be addressed to letters@sfchronicle.com. Due to space considerations, only letters of less than 250 words will be considered for publication. Please provide your name and telephone number along with your letter. You will be called if your letter is being considered for publication.

Posted at 08:23 PM | Comments (0)

"Illegal aliens cost California billions"

The WashTimes covers the FAIR report previously blogged here. From the WashTimes article:

Illegal immigration costs the taxpayers of California — which has the highest number of illegal aliens nationwide — $10.5 billion a year for education, health care and incarceration, according to a study released yesterday.

A key finding of the report by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) said the state's already struggling kindergarten-through-12th-grade education system spends $7.7 billion a year on children of illegal aliens, who constitute 15 percent of the student body.

The report also said the incarceration of convicted illegal aliens in state prisons and jails and uncompensated medical outlays for health care provided to illegal aliens each amounted to about $1.4 billion annually. The incarceration costs did not include judicial expenditures or the monetary costs of the crimes committed by illegal aliens that led to their incarceration.

"California's addiction to 'cheap' illegal-alien labor is bankrupting the state and posing enormous burdens on the state's shrinking middle-class tax base," said FAIR President Dan Stein...

San Diego's North County Times' article on this report is here.

Posted at 03:35 PM | Comments (1)

Oppose sham "intelligence reform"

The immigration-related provisions might have been removed from the Intelligence Reform Bill. If the bill passes, illegal aliens could continue to get driver's licenses and could continue to use foreign IDs that are only of use to illegal aliens.

• That's despite the fact that 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers had a combined total of 63 driver's licenses from various states.
• And, the FBI and the DOJ call those foreign ID cards - including Mexico's Matricula Consular - a security threat.
• And, from Chapter 3 of the 9/11 Commission Staff Report: "...abuse of the immigration system and a lack of interior immigration enforcement were unwittingly working together to support terrorist activity..."
• And, the media barely covers the immigration-related provisions. The news media rarely mentions that there's more than one group of 9/11 families, and that the "9/11 Families for a Secure America" opposes this bill unless it includes immigration-related provisions. (See also "9/11 Families Back Sensenbrenner in Intel Fight")

What you can do:

Please contact your representatives and tell them: don't pass this bill unless it includes those immigration-related provisions.

You can send free FAXes here.

And, here are some phone numbers:

Sen. Collins(R-ME) at (202) 224-2523

Sen. Lieberman (D-CT) at (202) 224-4041

Rep. David Dreier (R-CA)
Glendora 626-852-2626
DC 202-225-2305

Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) at (202) 225-2976

Rep. Hoekstra (R-MI) at (202) 225-4401

Rep. Harman (D-CA) at (202) 225-8220

(According to KFI's John & Ken, David Dreier might have found religion: due to Political Human Sacrifice, he might have supported these immigration-related provisions.)

UPDATE: Cross-posted to the-lonewacko-blog.redstate.org/story/2004/12/7/13423/4563, the Command Post, and Free Republic.

Posted at 07:27 PM | Comments (1)

"Prop. 200, democracy thrown for loop"

From the Arizona Republic's Robert Robb:

I was critical of Proposition 200, the illegal immigration initiative, prior to the election.

It was, in effect, expressing a sentiment by enacting a law of unknown effects and consequences. And I don't think that's good governance.

But the voters passed it, and supporters deserve a good-faith attempt at implementing it...

But last week, good-faith implementation - and democracy - got at least temporarily derailed.

A federal judge, Tucson's David C. Bury, temporarily enjoined the law from going into effect. His rationale was that Proposition 200 might be pre-empted by federal law, and that the "balance of hardships" fell on those challenging the law, not on the state for a deferred implementation.

According to Bury's opinion: "It seems likely that if Proposition 200 were to become law, it would have a dramatic chilling effect upon undocumented aliens who would otherwise be eligible for public benefits under federal law."

Bury's decision is perplexing in a couple of respects...

Posted at 04:30 PM | Comments (0)

"Immigration reform crucial to security"

From Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-CA):

If the intelligence reform bill has any chance of passage when Congress returns to the Capitol this week, it must meet all the goals outlined by the September 11 commission's comprehensive report, not just the few selected by the Senate. Specifically, it will have to address illegal immigration as a national security threat...

Posted at 03:59 PM | Comments (0)

We could make outsourcing even better!

Sometimes my comments aren't exactly top-drawer. In most cases that's simply because I crank them out instead of spending the time to make them as good as they could be. So, the comment I left here should be considered simply a work-in-progress:

The only problem with outsourcing is all the money that's wasted in transport.

Wouldn't it be great if we could benefit from the tremendous benefits of outsourcing, but without all the inefficiencies? The solution is clear: we need to invite several million Chinese to come here and work in our factories or doing field work or other forms of manual labor. That way we can enjoy the benefits of outsourcing, without having to pay for the transoceanic freight!

Even better, we could cut a deal with the Chinese government to use some of their slave/prison labor. Look, let's face reality. Those people are in prison for doing bad things, and if they're in China they're going to be doing work. Why don't we face up to reality, do them a little favor, and make money in the process? That's what I call a win-win!

We establish "worker camps" in the U.S. to house those Chinese "laborers". China will want us to make sure their "laborers" work hard and are kept "under control." We'll do that, but we'll also provide better conditions than they'd normally get. We could even establish satellite "worker camps" at various business parks around the nation!

Oh yeah! Oh yeah yeah!

Posted at 03:05 PM | Comments (1)

Libertarians on the loose

The Cato Institute's Daniel Griswold has a column in Reason Magazine supporting Bush's "guest" worker plan: "Beyond the Barbed Wire: Bush won a mandate for immigration reform".

In their Hit & Run post about this article, I left the following comment:

If you have the time, I'd very strongly suggest you watch this video. It's 80 Megs, but you can download it first using something like Offline Explorer Pro.

The video features the author of this piece, together with an administration representative discussing Bush's plan.

Of particular note are the statements from the administration rep that Bush's plan:

"...would be open to any type of employee and any type of employer, such as nurses, teachers, high-tech workers, low-skilled workers. This is a concept that can apply broadly"

In other words, they want to invite the world to come to the U.S. to take American jobs. A wet dream for libertarians, a nightmare for everyone else.

On the video, you'll also see Griswold asked whether those "guest" workers will want to vote. He says something similar to: "they'll be too tired working for a few years to think about voting."

At what point in time do other people finally realize that "immigration reformers" just don't seem to get this "American" thing? Or, perhaps their concept of "America" is rooted a couple centuries in the past.

From the article:

Immigration reform is popular with Hispanics

Indeed it is. 47% of Arizona Hispanics voted for Prop. 200. On the other hand, the Open Borders Lobby strongly opposed 200.

Simply throwing more money and manpower at the problem hasn't worked. Since the early 1990s, we've quintupled spending and tripled personnel at the Mexican border. We've built three-tiered walls for 60 miles into the desert. We've imposed sanctions on employers for the first time in U.S. history.

We have? The numbers show that employer sanctions are lower under Bush than even under Clinton. Could those publicly available numbers be lying?

Our existing immigration system is out of step with the realities of American life. Our economy continues to produce opportunities for low-skilled workers in important sectors of our economy such as retail, services, construction, and tourism.

Yes, indeed. Powerful people seem to want to build something akin to manoralism.

Opponents of immigration demand more of the same failed policies: more walls and barbed wire, entire divisions of troops at the border, the massive deportation of undocumented workers at great economic and human cost.

Two - I repeat two - strawmen for the price of one! Someone who wants to restrict legal immigration and/or sharply reduce illegal immigration is not an "opponent of immigration." And, as pointed out by Steven Camarota of CIS at the video referenced above, mass deportations are not necessary: simply follow the existing laws and many illegal immigrants will self-deport and those who intend to come here won't.

The response then was to dramatically increase temporary worker visas under the Bracero program; the result was an equally dramatic decline in illegal immigration.

Illegal immigration rose during and after the Bracero program. That program created an infrastructure and those who couldn't get into the program came anyway.

Legalization would not equal "amnesty." Under the president's plan, legalized workers would not get automatic citizenship or even permanent residency.

Please. As pointed out in the Big Show on the Border, those "guest" workers will have U.S.-citizen children. They'll be here to stay and eventually they'll have to be given rights. Nanci Pelosi and Teddy Kennedy and other "liberals" will see to that.

They would have to pay a fine for having lived here illegally that would not be chump change for low-skilled workers.

That's a relief. Meanwhile, all those thousands of companies that have made billions employing illegal workers will have gotten off scot-free.

Legalization would also enhance our national security.

"Legalization" would give a foreign government even more power over our immigration system than they have now. That's the opposite of "national security." And, as pointed out in Chapter 3 of the 9/11 Commission Staff Report, at least one WTC 1 terrorist tried to take advantage of an earlier amnesty program.

Also see my comments on this other Reason thread.

There's more on Griswold's plans here and in Dogmatic Libertarians: Over the edge.

Posted at 01:47 PM | Comments (0)

Your Nativo Lopez summary

News of Nativo Lopez has been featured here in the past. He's the president of the groups Mexican-American Political Association and Hermandad Mexicana and he tends to get a fair amount of almost always favorable press attention.

Just a week ago he was featured in a discussion of the San Bernardino Sun article "Club to remove barriers". Before then, AP gave a previous boycott threat some attention. There's more on him here.

Yesterday, while announcing his latest boycott threat, this is what he had to say about KFI and the use of the term "illegal alien":

"We are not niggers. We are not kikes. We are not paddies. We are not homos. Uh-kay?"

As pointed out many times in the past, "illegal alien" is the correct, legal term. In fact, that's the term used to describe illegal aliens in the U.S. Code, a.k.a. the law of the land.

What's interesting is the ease with which these derogatory terms fall from Lopez' lips. Listen to the quote here, or directly in either this file or, if that doesn't work, in this file.

The next time you see a press article with a quote from Lopez, email them the links to that audio.

Posted at 03:24 PM | Comments (3)

"Pandering to interlopers?"

From immigration lawyer Matt Hayes in the WashTimes:

At last weekend's APEC summit, President Bush made clear the administration will try to justify its planned amnesty of illegal aliens as something necessary for greater border security. Despite unending criticism of his January call for the amnesty, the overwhelming passage of an Arizona state ballot initiative that prevents the use of public money on services for illegal aliens and every poll showing roughly 80 percent of Americans favor greater enforcement of our immigration laws, the president has decided the first political capital expenditure will be on an item Americans decidedly do not want.

The president now adopted completely the canard of the Wall Street Journal wing of the Republican Party, saying to the press corps at the summit that our border patrol's time would be better spent intercepting terrorists and drug traffickers than "people going to work." But members of the Border Patrol, speaking in defiance of a gag order issued by Undersecretary Asa Hutchinson, say privately their recent deployment orders have created the widest holes in our border in 30 years. "We've been told, in essence, to park the trucks," said one agent in October...

...Though the president's plans remain vague, every bill that has been drawn up in response to his call for an amnesty has no provision mandating minimum wages for applicants for legal status. When the White House was asked if the administration sought a minimum wage guarantee, it said there were no plans to do so...

...Utah's 3rd Congressional District saw this year a race that can rightly be called a referendum on the president's amnesty plans. In one of the most heavily Republican districts in the country, incumbent Chris Cannon, who massively outspent his rivals, faced Democratic challenger Beau Babka. Before the general election, Mr. Cannon made it through a bruising primary contest in which his challenger — who campaigned almost solely on opposition to Mr. Cannon's sponsorship of the AgJOBS bill, the primary House amnesty bill — peeled off more than 40 percent of the incumbent's primary votes. Then in the November election, Mr. Babka, the Democrat, garnered the majority of the district's Latino votes even after he came out solidly against amnesty...

I can't find the Bush quote, but it sounds like something he'd say. I also have a question about the minimum wage requirements. That was the only wage-related provision mentioned when the plan was first announced. Now, even that is gone? This issue needs a bit of clarification.

Posted at 02:54 PM | Comments (0)

"9/11 Families Back Sensenbrenner in Intel Fight"

NewsMax:

Leaders of a group representing more than 300 family members of 9/11 victims urged Congress on Tuesday to scrap the intelligence reform bill because it doesn't include key provisions to secure the nation's borders against terrorist infiltration - the same objection raised by one of the bill's leading opponents, Wisconsin Rep. James Sensenbrenner.

"No bill should pass the Senate, the House, anywhere, unless it contains immigration reform," said Joan Molinaro, the mother of a New York City firefighter killed on September 11 and a member of the group "9/11 Families for a Secure America."

...Molinaro, Burlingame and other 9/11 familles who back Sensenbrenner's efforts have been largely ignored by the media, which has focused instead on other victim families aligned with 9/11 Commission Chairman Tom Kean, who strongly backs the bill...

Time to make some calls. Call these for starters:

Sen. Collins(R-ME) at (202) 224-2523

Sen. Lieberman (D-CT) at (202) 224-4041

Rep. David Dreier (R-CA)
Glendora 626-852-2626
DC 202-225-2305

Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) at (202) 225-2976

Rep. Hoekstra (R-MI) at (202) 225-4401

Rep. Harman (D-CA) at (202) 225-8220

Posted at 12:30 PM | Comments (0)

Behind the discordant tones

The Arizona Republic article "Successor must know border issues" was written before the announcement of Bernie Kerik as the new head of the DHS, so it's a little out of date. Nevertheless, in the process of discussing the "re-education" of the new head of DHS to understand border issues, they give us an invaluable peek into the little world of the Arizona Republic. The article has three quote sources, as follows:

...Of those being mentioned as successors, Shadegg said Asa Hutchinson, who is Ridge's deputy for border and transportation security, would be a "fantastic choice" and a "tremendous asset for Arizona" because he knows border issues... [Oh boy does he -- LW]

...Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., agreed that Ridge's replacement may have be "re-educated" about immigration enforcement and border issues facing Arizona. But he doesn't expect efforts launched under Ridge to be abandoned...

...Tamar Jacoby, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank, said President Bush likely will appoint someone to replace Ridge who shares the president's commitment for immigration reform, including pursuing a guest-worker program that would make increased border enforcement more plausible by allowing more foreign workers to enter the country legally.

"Plausible" indeed. The only question is, who's Freudian slip is that?

Posted at 12:26 AM | Comments (0)

"Concern Voiced Over Gonzales' Connections with La Raza"

From this:

...the Washington, DC-based Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) is calling [White House counsel Alberto Gonzales] to task for his reported involvement with the National Council of La Raza, which has endorsed his nomination for attorney general...

I don't think they should be compared with the KKK. However, their name literally means "National Council of The Race." And:

...The Ford Foundation, for example, in 1968 single-handedly funded the creation of The Mexican American Legal Defense Fund (MALDEF) and The Southwest Council Of La Raza, later renamed National Council Of La Raza. Both groups are radical mouthpieces for the "rights" of illegal immigrants (including the advocacy of college tuition for illegals at state universities), have managed to force bilingual education in many areas and remain wholly unrepresentative of the average Hispanic-American citizenry...

Wow, that's a shocker. Yet another link between our "conservative" president and "liberalism."

Posted at 11:43 PM | Comments (1)

"Big immigration waves nearing political beach"

From a Palm Beach Post editorial:

Social Security used to be considered the untouchable "third rail" of American politics, but immigration soon may replace it.

Both candidates bobbed and weaved around the subject during the presidential campaign, and neither party has offered credible ideas for reform, fearing the political implications of being the first to propose unpopular solutions to long-ignored problems. A report released last week by the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington-based group that favors tighter immigration controls, underscores the nation's need to confront the issue head-on...

...The political calculus is difficult as ever, but a deal with Mexico, which President Bush promised at the start of his first term, remains the critical centerpiece for comprehensive reform.

As Time magazine reported in September, the issue has national security ramifications. About 60,000 of the illegals who cross from Mexico are not Mexican; some are from Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran. Without control of the border, there is no control of security...

...From a business standpoint, immigrant labor remains essential, especially in the restaurant and hotel industries that dominate the Florida economy. That is a reality the federal government cannot continue to ignore. Frustrated border states such as Arizona, which just passed a citizens' initiative restricting public services to illegal immigrants, are starting to act on their own. Such a hodgepodge policy will bring unintended consequences, not progress.

So, the editorial isn't as strong as it could be. However, unlike many other articles and editorials, it at least takes a clear-eyed look at the problem.

I note also that the editorial has a hash code attached. (A "hash code" attempts to summarize a long string of bytes in a short series of bytes. In this case it distills a 1000-character or so editorial down into 8 bytes. The attempt is to uniquely identify the long series, as an ID or to determine whether changes have been made for instance.) I have no idea why they'd do this.

Posted at 09:16 PM | Comments (1)

"Anti-Immigrant Forces Said to Gain Strength in U.S."

From Alan Elsner of Pravda, er, Reuters:

Republicans who want to slow immigration to the United States and crack down on illegal immigrants believe they are gaining political strength and public backing, which may pose a problem next year for President Bush...

But he may face growing anti-immigrant sentiment, not only his own party but in the country at large, several opponents claimed...

[quote from FAIR]

...anti-immigration conservatives recently defied the White House by insisting that a bill to reform the nation's intelligence services include anti-illegal alien provisions...

[... etc. etc. ...]

Those of you just joining us might not see a problem with this article. However, consider the juxtaposition of the phrase "anti-immigrant sentiment" followed immediately by a quote from FAIR. Doesn't that tend to imply that FAIR - and others who oppose massive illegal and/or legal immigration - are "anti-immigrant?" The title of the piece - which may have been written by the author or by an editor - gives the same intentionally false impression: those who are opposed to massive illegal or legal immigration are opposed to the immigrants themselves or are completely opposed to immigration.

Not only does the author of this piece have his own site, he has a barely-used blog (no comments) and an email address: gatesofinjustice@aol.com

But, here's the more important email address: editor@reuters.com

This article is discussed here. See, for instance, this post:

[The author] knows the difference full well, as do all the reporters and leftists who use this slimy tactic.

Any rationale examination of the proposals put forth by people like Tancredo would prove that he is anti-mass legal immigration, anti-all illegal immigration, and anti-amnesty.

Likewise, any fair look at what Americans consistently tell pollsters would show them to be the exact same things.

Another thing that the press and academics like to do is explain WHY Americans aren't so keen on unending mass immigration at a particular time, chalking it up to economic or security fears. This of course doesn't explain why public sentiments are pretty much the same during prosperous times as well. Its as though these people think it is unrationale to oppose mass immigration.

Posted at 10:02 AM | Comments (0)

Jane Harman, lost cause

As part of my effort to help out the National Council of The Race, I called Jane Harman's office and expressed my support for the immigration-related provisions of the 9/11 bill. The lady who answered the phone sounded nice, but she didn't seem to grasp the implications of the Matricula Consular scam. After suggesting a reading of Chapter 3 of the 9/11 Commission Staff Report, she said, "I will get the message to her... click."

A couple weeks ago I called the Washington office and, OK, rather stupidly, said something like, "I'm calling about the 9/11 bill. I understand your talking points say..." Suddenly, the phone went dead. Looking back, I believe it was Congresswoman Harman herself who answered the phone. Hey, at least it was a Brush with Fame.

Tomorrow is the big day for my effort:

Sen. Collins(R-ME) at (202) 224-2523

Sen. Lieberman (D-CT) at (202) 224-4041

Posted at 03:28 PM | Comments (0)

"The Costs of Illegal Immigration to Californians"

FAIR:

Analysis of the latest Census data indicates that California's illegal immigrant population is costing the state's taxpayers more than $10.5 billion per year for education, medical care and incarceration. Even if the estimated tax contributions of illegal immigrant workers are subtracted, net outlays still amount to nearly $9 billion per year. The annual fiscal burden from those three areas of state expenditures amounts to about $1,183 per household headed by a native-born resident...

Posted at 04:16 PM | Comments (0)

Warm up your phones

The National Council of The Race wants you to call Congress about the 9/11 bill. Sure, why not? Here's the phone numbers, and you know what to do.

Posted at 10:09 AM | Comments (0)

"Not in the mood for guests"

U.S. News discusses Bush's "guest worker" plan:

Back in 2001, George W. Bush, a newly elected president from a border state, had immigration on his mind. Within weeks of his inauguration, Bush vowed to extend a hand to Mexico, making an ambitious guest-worker proposal a hallmark of his administration. The president's dream was dashed by 9/11; tightening border controls, not loosening them, became the priority. He must have been serious, though, because just weeks after winning a second term, Bush has embraced the guest-worker proposal anew. Secretary of State Colin Powell and White House counselor Karl Rove have called the initiative a high priority. And Bush pledged to renew his push for the legislation in a talk with Mexican President Vicente Fox at the recent Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Conference.

But Bush faces opposition in his own party--from border-state voters and House Republicans. In late November, conservatives derailed intelligence-reform legislation in part by refusing to get behind a bill that did not include strict immigration proposals. The president has made much of his willingness to spend political capital, but this issue may prove prohibitively expensive...

Bush faces an even tougher crowd in the next Congress. Seven new con-servatives will join the Senate, and in the House, Tancredo's group will be 75 members strong. In mid-November, 22 House Republicans, led by California's Elton Gallegly, signed a letter urging the administration to give up the guest-worker proposal. On the intelligence reform bill, the House Republican leaders refused to back down until the 11th hour on proposals that would have made it easier to deport aliens and deny them driver's licenses. "These people looked the administration in the eye and said, 'Drop dead,' " says Mark Krikorian, who runs a conservative immigration reform group...

...Administration officials say Bush really believes in the guest-worker idea, and there is speculation that he wants to reward the estimated 34 to 44 percent of Hispanic voters who supported him. His ability to bring home a win may depend on how much he's ready to risk. Gallegly says he respects the president but adds that if Bush insists on peeving House Republicans early in his term, he could put his entire agenda at risk. "Washington," says Gallegly, " is a land of grudges."

Posted at 10:03 AM | Comments (0)

Rush on the 9/11 bill

Let's go to the tape:

The chairmen of the 9/11 Commission don't really care much about immigration as it relates to national security...

Now, we're back here to James Sensenbrenner, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee in Wisconsin, and he's pushing for language to prevent illegal aliens from obtaining driver's licenses. And as he told us on this radio show last week: The 19 terrorists who attacked the U.S. on 9/11 had 63 different driver's licenses from five states, all obtained legally. By the way, is it not just plain common sense that illegal aliens should not be able to get legal driver's licenses? What better time and place to push for this than now?

Posted at 10:00 AM | Comments (0)

"Prop. 200 foes take challenge to court"

AZ Republic:

Proposition 200's latest legal saga begins today when its opponents seek a temporary restraining order in Tucson federal court to prevent the immigration measure from becoming law...

The U.S. District Court judge could immediately grant the 10-day restraining order and prevent it from becoming law while a judge determines its constitutionality, or refuse to issue the order and let Proposition 200 become law. Either way, the judge, who has not yet been selected, will set a hearing for within the next 10 days on the merits of the request to declare the initiative unconstitutional...

MALDEF (which was created nearly out of whole cloth by the Ford Foundation) is leading the anti-200 forces.

Another opponent is "Unidos Contra 200 (United Against 200)" which is "made up of document preparers, bankers, educators, religious advisers and health care providers." Gosh, do you think they might have a, you know, financial interest in illegal immigration?

The rest of the article discusses the fear (illegal) immigrants feel as the try to skirt our immigration laws and as groups try to help them do so.

Note that this AZ Republic report is printed in the Tucson Citizen as "Group out to kill Prop. 200 before birth". They don't print the last several paragraphs of the article; note where the break comes.

Posted at 09:52 AM | Comments (0)

"Poor leadership at ICE cited as security threat"

From the WashTimes:

U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement's ability to gather and share intelligence data, conduct the investigations needed to guard the nation's borders against terrorists and enforce immigration law is being challenged by a growing number of ICE supervisors and agents.
Both supervisory and rank-and-file personnel, in numerous interviews, said the Department of Homeland Security agency is overwhelmed by low morale, mismanagement and the lack of a clearly defined mission, and said the lack of effective leadership threatens its ability to defend the United States against a new terrorist attack.
At least two congressional committees are reviewing the accusations and have met with ICE supervisors and agents to discuss the matter.
"Serious accusations have been made and there is a concerted effort under way to determine their validity and, more importantly, find out how they impact the country's ability to fight the war on terrorism," said one congressional investigator. "The complaints are specific and widespread. We take them seriously."

...[ICE supervisors and agents] questioned whether ICE has sought to maintain the legacy of its predecessor, the U.S. Customs Service, which developed an expertise in smuggling and money-laundering investigations, and said they doubted the new agency is committed to enforcing immigration law, particularly in the nation's interior, where 10 million illegals live...

Much of the criticism targets Asa Hutchinson, Homeland Security undersecretary for border and transportation security, who oversees ICE, and ICE Assistant Secretary Michael J. Garcia, who heads the agency...

See also "Tancredo presses White House on control of border", "Hutchinson’s Remarks Indicate Cheap Labor Bias of Administration", "Rounding up all illegals 'not realistic'", and "D.C. hamstrings border officers".

Posted at 03:11 PM | Comments (1)

"Border agents are bracing for expected surge of immigrants"

From this:

A renewed focus on immigration reform after the election by the Bush administration is making some Border Patrol agents nervous.

They are worried that misinformation about an "amnesty" program will trickle down to prospective immigrants by word-of-mouth, resulting in a surge in illegal immigration similar to the one noted last spring, after President Bush announced plans for a foreign guest-worker program in January.

Already there have been increases in apprehensions borderwide during this month, compared to the same period a year ago.

While the reason for this increase is unclear, Border Patrol union leaders fear that with recent immigration reform discussions between U.S. and Mexican officials making headlines in both countries, an increase in illegal border-crossing traffic is sure to follow...

Posted at 03:01 PM | Comments (0)

"9/11 Commishes: Leave Immigration Loophole Open"

NewsMax:

The chairman and vice chairman of the 9/11 Commission said Sunday that Congress shouldn't press to close a giant national security loophole exploited by the 9/11 hijackers before passing new intelligence reform legislation - even though the Commission itself urged dealing with the problem.

"We're very reluctant to see that whole bill held up just by this one provision," Commission chairman Tom Kean told NBC's "Meet the Press" when asked about a proposal favored by House Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wisc., to deny driver's licenses to potential terrorists who are non-citizens.

...Vice chairman Lee Hamilton acknowledged that Sensenbrenner's provision was part of the 9/11 Commission's recommendations, but said closing the terrorist loophole wasn't the job of the federal government.

"There isn't any doubt that the hijackers use the state driver's licenses to get by a lot of checkpoints," he told "Meet the Press." "So standards are important here."

"But the fundamental question ... whether or not, for example, you issue a driver's license, that's a state matter and ought to be resolved by the state," Hamilton contended...

See also "Immigration-reform calls block intelligence overhaul", which has several quotes from various Congresspeople, including this:

Rep. Jane Harman, D-El Segundo, the leading Democrat on the Select Committee on Intelligence and also a member of the negotiating team, pilloried GOP leadership.

"If there is another major terrorist attack on our soil -- and sadly, there likely will be one -- we will have only ourselves to blame. Congress had the chance to protect America and Congress failed."

Someone tell her that 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers had a total of 63 driver's licenses from various states, OK?

Posted at 10:34 AM | Comments (0)

"Club to remove barriers"

I'm all for clubs that remove barriers, and if you are too, read this San Bernardino Sun article.

What's that you say? It starts out with race baiting and goes downhill from there? It refers to illegal immigrant activists as "immigrant activists"? It includes the following:

The Mexican-American Political Association is forming an organization at Cal State to help Latino students know their rights and strengthen their cultural identity.

One mission of the MAPA club is to inform undocumented high school students of a three-year-old state law that allows them to attend colleges and universities paying the same tuition rates as other California residents.

Assembly Bill 540 was signed into law by former Gov. Gray Davis in October 2001.

It doesn't go into how Gray Davis is, like, the former governor specifically because of bills like that? And, it even gets worse, giving the impression that both MEChA and MAPA are mainstream groups? It doesn't mention those various boycotts the leader of MAPA has sponsored, as well as how that leader was recalled from the majority-Hispanic Santa Ana School District? And, it doesn't go into things like this:

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

Holy Moses! All those things seem to have been left out of the SB Sun's article. Why, it's almost as if... they have an agenda or something.

It probably won't do any good, but their editor's email is steve.lambert@sbsun.com. For more information on the chain of which that paper is a part, see this.

Posted at 08:36 PM | Comments (0)

"An Education in Expansion"

Using a combination of aggressive real estate negotiations, political gamesmanship and eminent domain, the Los Angeles Unified School District is scooping up hundreds of acres of land in a $14-billion campus building program that will result in enough new classroom seats to fill Dodger Stadium three times over.

When the program is completed in 2012, officials say, they will be close to ending overcrowding in the district, boosting academic performance and remaking neighborhoods. Some call it the largest public works project in the western United States � possibly rivaled in the nation only by Boston's $14.6-billion highway tunnel project known as the "Big Dig."

...The district hasn't been in the business of erecting schools for years. Most campuses were built before 1960, and for decades, they mostly sufficed. Then, in the 1980s, district enrollment began to swell past capacity...

yet when the project is officially completed in eight years, it won't be enough. That $10 billion will buy 162,000 seats, but projections are that, by 2012, the district will need an additional 33,700 seats...

Posted at 12:43 PM | Comments (3)

The morality of delousing pens

Upon deeper inspection; however, the real nature of Bush's approach to immigration becomes apparent. What President Bush and his Machiavellian cohorts are trying to do is develop a strategy that allows them to have it both ways on immigration and at the same time relieve wealthy Mexican elites of any responsibility to improve the lot of the poor in their country...

the hopeless people flooding the US border today are not the white Y Tu Mama Tambien-making, Selma Hyacks you see on TV, they are overwhelmingly disenfranchised Indo-Mexicans who have been a pawn in the political machinations of European-Mexican and American elites since very day Cortez laid waste to Tenochtitlan. This Republican proposal is yet another move in a sad legacy of actions whose purpose is to keep a seething revolution from boiling over and overthrowing the land holding, European-Mexican elites who control Mexico...

Posted at 12:39 PM | Comments (1)

"Norwood targets Bush illegals plan"

WashTimes:

...Rep. Charlie Norwood, Georgia Republican and chief sponsor of the Clear Law Enforcement for Alien Removal Act (CLEAR Act), joined with 21 other House Republicans this week in urging President Bush not to grant what they called amnesty to illegal aliens, saying it would be "detrimental to our national and economic security."

...According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), 80,000 criminal aliens cannot be found and are living within the United States' borders — including nearly 4,000 of whom have been identified as foreign nationals from countries that support international terrorism.
ICE, because of budgetary restraints, has committed 2,300 agents to find those missing aliens.
Mr. Norwood said ICE needs help in capturing the convicted aliens, who include murderers, rapists, drug dealers and child molesters.
"Sending 2,000 federal agents into the field to find 80,000 criminal aliens is like trying to stop a tidal wave with hand towels. It's a farce, it doesn't work and the outmanned folks at ICE — as the numbers now show us — are simply drowning," Mr. Norwood said.
His bill is pending before the House Judiciary subcommittee on immigration, border security and claims. In addition to 125 bipartisan congressional co-sponsors, the bill has been endorsed by an overwhelming number of national, regional and local law-enforcement organizations, including the National Sheriffs' Association, the Law Enforcement Alliance of America, and the Southern States Police Benevolent Association...

Posted at 01:30 PM | Comments (2)

Just put Readers.Rep@latimes.com on speed dial

The L.A. Times continues to define the new normal. The article Governor, Mexico Far From a Good Fit contains many hidden assumptions that would be shocking if things in California - specifically California's liberaldom elite - were at least somewhat normal. For an example, let's examine this passage:

Schwarzenegger seems to have damaged his relationship with Mexico by using the driver's license issue as a campaign theme last year, analysts said. When asked about it during the recall effort, Schwarzenegger replied on the radio: "You have to understand, I love Mexico. I have done four movies in Mexico."

His relationship with the nation contrasts sharply with that of former Gov. Gray Davis, who met with Fox eight times during his first term and referred to the Mexican president as a compadre. Davis was pointedly trying to contrast himself with his predecessor, former Gov. Pete Wilson, who had a chilly relationship with Mexico.

For more on Davis' links to Mexico - the very links that played a large part in his recall - see this:

In a transparent effort to appease ethnic interest groups, newly elected California Governor Gray Davis has used a blatantly rigged legal maneuver to overturn the will of 5 million California voters and kill Proposition 187, the law that banned state funded non-emergency benefits for illegal aliens...

"In no democracy in the world," FAIR Executive Director Dan Stein charged, "are the results of an election overturned without the voters having their day in court -- that is, until today. The decision to drop the appeal of Prop. 187," he continued, " has absolutely nothing to do with its constitutionality. This is a capitulation by Governor Davis to pressure from an elite group of pro-illegal immigration politicians and organizations. The implications of this are as frightening for the future of self government in our country as they are outrageous."

Or, this:

On August 4, 1999, the page 1 headline in the LA Times read "Zedillo Key to End of Prop 187." It should have read - “Heads of State Impose Their Will on Citizens of California.” But no, instead Mexican President Zedillo gets headline kudos for playing a key role in ending Prop. 187. A foreign leader working to thwart the will of California voters?

Or, specifically concerning another California politician's "friendly ties" with our neighbors to the south, see this.

Please send those links or anything else you find appropriate to: Readers.Rep@latimes.com

Posted at 11:03 PM | Comments (2)

"Record number of illegals deported from U.S."

Here's some good news:

A record 157,000 illegal immigrants were removed from the United States during the past year as U.S. authorities stepped up efforts to track down those who may pose security risks, the government said Tuesday.

About half of those deported in the year ending Sept. 30 had criminal convictions, an increase of 6.6 percent over the previous year, while removal of illegal immigrants who have no criminal record increased by more than 10 percent, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said.

Much of the increase came from targeting fugitive immigrants who failed to report for removal after receiving an order of deportation...

[... reporter looks through Rolodex to find this article's Voice of Stupidity... ]

"These immigration laws are being enforced against immigrants who are simply in this country to work and find a better life for themselves," said Michele Waslin, an immigration policy analyst at the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic civil rights organization. "We don’t have any evidence that they were national security threats or terrorists."

Also see "Leftist Sugar Daddies"

...The Ford Foundation, for example, in 1968 single-handedly funded the creation of The Mexican American Legal Defense Fund (MALDEF) and The Southwest Council Of La Raza, later renamed National Council Of La Raza. Both groups are radical mouthpieces for the "rights" of illegal immigrants (including the advocacy of college tuition for illegals at state universities), have managed to force bilingual education in many areas and remain wholly unrepresentative of the average Hispanic-American citizenry...

Posted at 12:40 PM | Comments (0)

"Congressmen urge Bush to drop guest-worker plan"

I hate to be cynical, but the senders of the letter are the "usual suspects" and they've sent other letters in the past that the Bush administration appears to have basically ignored.

Nevertheless, they should be congratulated for continuing trying to talk to the brick wall:

The chairman of a House International Relations subcommittee yesterday urged the Bush administration to drop its proposed temporary guest-worker program and not "reward Mexican nationals living and working illegally in the United States" with legal status.
"It is our hope that in future discussions with the Mexican government, you will encourage Mexico to do its part to address illegal immigration rather than encourage their citizens to illegally enter the U.S.," said Rep. Elton Gallegly, California Republican...

"Cooperation with our close neighbor Mexico is essential, but we also feel that Mexico must respect our sovereignty and our laws, and should encourage its citizens to do the same," Mr. Gallegly said in the letter, which was co-signed by 21 other members of Congress...

In addition to Mr. Gallegly, others to sign the letter were Republican Reps. Lamar Smith, Sam Johnson and John Culberson of Texas, John Hostettler of Indiana, Charlie Norwood and Nathan Deal of Georgia, Ed Royce and Gary G. Miller and Dana Rohrabacher of California, and Tom Tancredo of Colorado.
Also, Reps. John J. "Jimmy" Duncan Jr. of Tennessee, Roscoe G. Bartlett of Maryland, Kevin Brady of Texas, Robert B. Aderholt of Alabama, Charles W. "Chip" Pickering Jr. of Mississippi, John Sullivan of Oklahoma, J. Gresham Barrett of South Carolina, Barbara Cubin of Wyoming, Sue Myrick and Walter B. Jones of North Carolina and Steve King of Iowa.

Posted at 12:29 PM | Comments (2)

CalInsider on illegal immigration

Daniel Weintraub of the SacBee held an online chat. Here's one Q&A:

Question: How big a role will our broken immigration policy play in the next election (federal and state)?

answer: I wouldn't be surprised if immigration became a major issue again, and it will happen overnight if we are attacked by terrorists who are found to have entered the country through the Mexican border. Right now both parties are reluctant to address it. The Democrats seem to believe that illegal immigration is really no different from legal immigration, and the Republicans are afraid that if they focus on it, they will suffer a backlash from Latino voters, as they did in the 1990s. I have always thought that a leader willing to take a calm, rationale look at illegal immigration while lauding legal immigrants would do fine. Seems to me that illegal immigrants hurt legal immigrants by "cutting in line" in front of those who are waiting and by bidding down wages in the entry level jobs that many legal immigrants hold as they try to climb up the economic ladder. Handled carefully, this should be an issue that appeals across party lines.

I got my question in a minute before the Q&A closed, so I don't know if I was just too late or if the question was too hot to handle. I asked for his opinion of this, and why he hadn't been reported in any U.S. newspapers: "California legislators ask Mexican Senate to intervene [in driver's licenses for illegal aliens]".

Posted at 12:23 PM | Comments (0)

"Homeland Security? Not Yet"

Heather MacDonald has a new column discussing, among other things, political correctness, Norm Mineta, the Temecula illegal alien sweeps, and our porous northern border:

...A glance at a tiny section of the northern border, separating Vermont and a small part of New York from Canada, makes clear how lackluster the government's response to illegal entry remains. Every week, agents in the border patrol's Swanton sector catch Middle Easterners and North Africans sneaking into Vermont. And every week, they immediately release those trespassers with a polite request to return for a deportation hearing, since the Department of Homeland Security failed to budget enough funding for sufficient detention space for lawbreakers. In May, Swanton agents released illegal aliens from Malaysia, Pakistan, Morocco, Uganda, and India without bond. In July, they gave illegals from 11 terror-sponsoring countries a free pass. Since all these aliens chose to evade the visa process, none has had a background check by a consular official that might have uncovered terrorist connections. All are now at large in the country, outside the reach of law enforcement.

The failure to interdict northern trespassers is particularly worrisome, since Canada is a proven springboard for terrorists. Ahmed Ressam, the Algerian caught at the Canadian border with 100 pounds of explosives destined for the Los Angeles airport in December 1999, ran an al-Qaida cell in Montreal, despite having previously been ordered deported by the Canadian government. Two of the seven most wanted al-Qaida members, announced by Attorney General John Ashcroft in May, are naturalized Canadians. One, a Tunisian who has received flight training, has videotaped a "last will" in preparation for "martyrdom"; the other, an Egyptian who allegedly trained in Afghan terror camps, may already have slipped into the U.S. And Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan, arrested in July in Pakistan with detailed computer plans for attacks on financial buildings in New York, Newark, and Washington, visited Canada in 2000 and had recently applied for a return visa.

In response to the detention-space crisis, the Swanton bureau chief admonished his agents in May that before they released an illegal from a terrorist-producing country into the woods, they should write up a Significant Incident Report, listing all "suspicious facts and issues." A typical report: on May 31, agents stopped an illegal Bangladeshi whose visas the State Department had revoked in 2003 and whose driver's-license records contained a notice that he was a member of a terrorist organization. After the FBI told the border agents that it was not interested in the Bangladeshi, the agents released him...

See also "Illegals detained at border released onto U.S. streets" and "D.C. hamstrings border officers".

Posted at 12:17 PM | Comments (0)

"Illegal immigrants from Mexico pose real threat to Social Security"

Phyllis Schlafly:

...The real threat to Social Security doesn't come from giving young people this opportunity. The threat comes from a Bush administration plan to load illegal immigrants into the Social Security system, an idea that would skyrocket costs and bankrupt the system at the same time baby boomers flood into their benefit years...

Previous coverage starts here.

Posted at 11:58 AM | Comments (0)

Next time just stay inside the beltway

From the WaPo guest editorial "A Line Has Been Drawn in the Arizona Sand" by Tamar Jacoby:

Arizona voters sent a signal to Washington on Nov. 2. That front-line border state is feeling besieged and, not surprisingly, sharply divided over illegal immigration. Though its booming economy is dependent on foreign labor, the costs of the unauthorized influx from Mexico -- smuggler shootouts, bankrupt hospitals, a mounting toll of deaths in the desert -- have risen to the point that many residents just can't take it anymore. So on Election Day, Arizonans voted decisively -- 56 percent to 44 percent -- in favor of a state ballot initiative to bar illegal immigrants from receiving government services...

I was deeply disappointed in the outcome: I'd been working for months to help defeat Proposition 200, both in-state and out. But having spent a good part of the fall listening to Arizonans talk about immigration, I worry that the message they sent is being misinterpreted. Far from a simple anti-immigrant backlash, their vote for the proposition seemed more like a cry for help -- a plea for federal action -- and that could be heartening news for immigration reformers...

...But it wasn't Arizonans who turned the state into a national battleground. That was the work of Washington-based anti-immigration activists looking for an easy electoral victory...

...The restrictionist coalition set out to stop this momentum [of various "guest worker"/amnesty plans] with what it thought would be an overwhelming landslide telegraphing voters' generalized hostility toward immigrants...

... The nativist activists designed the measure to have maximum public appeal, and it worked...

...Unlike in California 10 years ago, a broad bipartisan coalition came together to oppose the measure: Democrats and Republicans, business and labor, grass-roots ethnic activists [no doubt funded by the Ford Foundation --LW] and state employees including firefighters and health care workers...

[...it goes on and on...]

...Concerned as they are, most voters aren't reflexively anti-immigrant...

If I had photoshop skills, this post would probably be accompanied by a picture of a sincere Tamar Jacoby listening intently to what Arizonans were telling her. Dressed in her business suit she'd be a little out of place in the 130 degree Phoenix heat. The crowd to whom she was listening would be passing the hat to buy her a ticket back to D.C. But, since I don't have those graphic skills, you're just going to have to imagine it. Or, alternatively, you can send an email to ombudsman@washpost.com

Posted at 03:22 PM | Comments (1)

"Guest-worker measure awaits a new Congress"

From the SacBee:

...Bush is signaling renewed attention to immigration. That's heartening advocates of reform, dismaying skeptics and raising questions of both strategy and tactics...

With a filibuster-proof 63 senators already co-sponsors, the AgJobs bill could be poised to move. Supporters, many of them organized through the Agriculture Coalition for Immigration Reform, hope for Senate action by spring.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., though not a co-sponsor, said Friday that she "could support such an effort if it is done properly and not in a way that would serve as a magnet for new illegal immigration."

But, although a companion House bill claims 126 supporters, opponents hold strong opinions and key positions, including chairmanships of the House immigration subcommittee.

"The next Senate and House will be, if anything, less receptive" to immigration reform, predicted Mark Krikorian, president of the Center for Immigration Studies. "If the president makes a big push on this, he's going to waste a lot of political capital on something he can't win..."

...Bush himself has thus far resisted the centerpiece of the AgJobs bill. This is the guarantee that an undocumented agricultural worker can get on track to secure legal status.

Bush's own concept is both more modest, providing only a temporary worker permit for illegal immigrants, and more sweeping, as it includes workers from outside of agriculture. It is also more vague, lacking specific legislative language...

Talk about burying the lede. As discussed here, Bush's plan could include "nurses, teachers, high-tech workers" and others. In other words, it would be one giant H1-B program that might cost millions of Americans their jobs or sharply reduce their pay.

The rest of the article discusses Bush's supposed gain in Hispanic support and Political Human Sacrifice. Regarding the former, see "Bush Didn't Win 44% of Hispanic Vote —The Smoking Exit Poll".

Posted at 10:54 AM | Comments (1)

"Dreier race illustrates cautionary tale on immigration policy"

AP:

Tucked into last week's otherwise predictable California election results lay a cautionary tale about the election year's most uncovered issue: illegal immigration.

Republican Rep. David Dreier, the 24-year Los Angeles-area veteran who chairs the powerful House Rules committee, won re-election to his House seat with just under 54 percent of the vote, down from 64 percent in 2002. His Democratic opponent, Cynthia Matthews, won almost 43 percent of the vote, despite spending just over $31,000 in her campaign, compared to more than $900,000 spent by Dreier. A Libertarian candidate won 3.5 percent of the vote.

While Dreier's winning margin over Matthews can't really be characterized as close, it was his worst showing since 1980...

[...it was because of Political Human Sacrifice... ...AP reporter searches for this article's Voice of Stupidity and finds it in occasional KCAL political commentator Allan Hoffenblum:]

"Immigration is a very emotional issue, and there is a group of voters who have an intense, intense dislike for illegal immigrants," said Allan Hoffenblum, editor of the California Target Book. "Dreier has the same position that Bush has, which a lot of right wingers don't like, and it's easier to go after Dreier than Bush..."

..."The Republican establishment strongly, strongly supports [Dreier]," Hoffenblum said. "Dreier would have Schwarzenegger walking precincts for him, and the president would probably join him."

Posted at 10:04 AM | Comments (2)

"Bush Breaks First Campaign Pledge By Renewing Call For Illegal Alien Amnesty"

FAIR reacts to Bush's renewed attempts to push through the Bush/Fox Amnesty.

Away back on September 5, I reposted this February 5 2004 WashTimes article, so don't say you didn't know what was coming:

[White House spokesman Trent Duffy] said the president delivered a passionate defense of his immigration plan, telling the Republican caucus that his policy is not a political ploy.

"He said he didn't do it for politics [but] because that's what he believes is good for the country," Mr. Duffy said, adding that Mr. Bush drove his point home by saying, "I'm from Texas and I know this issue."

Meanwhile, here are Powell's November 9 remarks in Mexico City:

...In our meetings, we reaffirmed President Bush's plan to work with our new Congress on developing a temporary worker program to match willing foreign workers with willing U.S. employers. The president is committed to making this a high priority in his second term...

[...]

On the first question, I can assure you that the president remains committed to migration reform. As he noted in his January 7 speech, he wants to move forward with a temporary workers program. And now that our election is over, and as we also are coming out of the 9/11 period and doing a better job of securing our borders, and as we have the president re-elected for a second term and a new Congress coming in as well, we think that the environment has improved significantly for this kind of reform.

At the same time, we don't want to over-promise. What I said to Secretary Derbez is that when the new Congress comes into place in January, we will make an assessment with the new Congress the pace at which we can proceed with temporary worker programs, and how fast and how far we can move in what period of time.

We don't have congressional elections next year, but our next set of elections for Congress will be 2006. And so this upcoming period as we get ourselves organized, listen to ideas on this program from our Mexican colleagues, and then make an assessment with the new Congress, I think this is an important period as we move forward. [i.e., if we do this now, the citizens will forget by the time the 2006 elections come around -- LW]

There are other issues that we know that our Mexican colleagues wish to look at -- regularization [i.e., a massive amnesty -- LW] and all of the other aspects of migration reform -- and all of these issues are on the table. But we want to start with the temporary workers program and make sure that we get this right and do this well with our Congress...

Proposition 200 is a state proposition and solely within the purview of the state of Arizona and the people of Arizona to make a judgment on. We are still studying the elements in the proposition, and if we have any concerns about elements in the proposition which would make the proposition inconsistent with the federal laws, we will certainly make that view known. But I am not an expert in the proposition, but we will be watching it and its development with great care... [i.e., if it starts affecting the flow of cheap labor we'll try to fight it somehow --LW]

Posted at 01:32 PM | Comments (2)

Prop. 200 vs. the elites

Prop. 200 vs. the elites is discussed in "Arizona Calling: The brewing immigration backlash" and "Fighting back".

Posted at 01:44 PM | Comments (3)

Dreier confronted; L.A. Times serious and stupid

Rep. David Dreier (D-CA) was interviewed by KABC's Doug McIntyre and the transcript is here. Topics discussed include Political Human Sacrifice, Dreier's record on immigration matters, and his support for Bush's guest worker plan. Surprisingly, in the interview he calls that plan a "bracero" program, something that I've noted with some surprise before. I wonder, will Bush's plan include delousing pens as did the bracero program?

That link provides the link to this interesting L.A. Times guest editorial from July 18, 1999 that describes the bracero program: "Why Revive an Inhumane Program?"

That guest editorial represents the serious, adult side of the L.A. Times. Meanwhile, on the stupid and childish side, comes "John and Ken Who?" The same author wrote the racist L.A. Times screed "Pouty White People". The last article is far more objectionable than the first, which is just childish mocking.

His latest editorial attempts to claim that Political Human Sacrifice had little effect. While Dreier still has a job, I tend to think that his competitors might now be smelling a little bit of blood in the water. Here are the election results. Either the Libertarians are growing in popularity, or Dreier is losing but some Republicans just aren't willing to go as far as voting for a Democrat.

Contact Readers.Rep@latimes.com with your thoughts on both editorials.

Posted at 12:10 AM | Comments (1)

AZ Republic, AZ C. of C., AZ business leaders, John McCain, Grant Woods, Janet N. feeling wrath of the people

Arizona's Proposition 200 has passed 56 to 44. The Arizona Republic licks their wounds:

Arizonans approved Proposition 200 Tuesday, sending a message about their frustration over illegal immigration while defying opposition from many prominent political leaders.

The measure, designed to combat voter and benefit fraud by non-citizens, quickly became the most controversial state issue on the ballot, dividing politicians and citizens across party lines.

The decisive victory, despite a recent barrage of media ads against it, is expected to inspire similar measures in other states and could be used by the national anti-immigration groups that funded it as a bellwether to push for national immigration restrictions and border reform...

voters ignored McCain, Napolitano and most of Arizona's congressional delegation, deciding it was time to take matters into their hands...

At post time, the section of the article where they were about to put the final vote tally is left blank, leading me to speculate there's the small possibility they wrote this a few months ago.

Note this is co-written by Elvia Diaz. She was at the press conference where it was revealed that anti-Prop. 200 spokesman Grant Woods had been fined for employing an illegal nanny. To the best of my knowledge, that fact hasn't appeared in the Arizona Republic.

Note also that they managed to find three people who voted against it, but only one who voted for it.

And, they note that this proposition will most likely face a legal challenge. Expect the Arizona Republic to do their part in that fine effort.

UPDATE: Here's CNN's exit poll on the proposition.

Support for 200 crossed all lines. Those in the Race Industry would do well to ignore these results: it was 56 to 44 among whites and 47 to 53 among Hispanics. Hardly a racially divisive issue that the supporters of illegal immigration would like it to be.

UPDATE 2: Now, look at the liberal/moderate/conservative divide in support for Prop. 200. That's where the real divide is.

Posted at 12:06 AM | Comments (0)

"Dreier targeted on immigration"

House Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier is waging a furious re-election battle after he was targeted by a Los Angeles radio talk show as a "political human sacrifice" for his record on illegal immigration.

In the past month, Mr. Dreier and Republicans have spent an estimated $1 million to blanket his district with fliers and radio ads aimed at countering the massive "Fire Dreier" campaign led by "The John and Ken Show" on KFI-AM in Los Angeles.

Last week, Mr. Dreier, California Republican, and the National Republican Campaign Committee (NRCC) filed a Federal Elections Commission complaint (the-lonewacko-blog.redstate.org/story/2004/10/29/193325/19) against Clear Channel Inc., which owns KFI-AM...

Posted at 08:15 PM | Comments (4)

The David Dreier epistles

Two letters from the 10/21/04 La Canada Daily Sun discuss Political Human Sacrifice's David Dreier.

We Need Dreier:

David Dreier got $3 billion passed through Congress to help keep emergency rooms open in Southern California. As bad as the situation is now, imagine how much worse it would be if we hadn't gotten that money. Cynthia Matthews opposes the bill that provided that money.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that there's some serious spin in that letter. And, I wonder if Patrick J. Wade is a former Dreier intern as another letter writer was? He might be for real, but he sure doesn't sound like it.

The other letter makes more sense.

Don't Reward Lawbreakers:

For the first time in 44 years of voting I'll be casting my ballot for a Democrat this November, for Cynthia Matthews rather than David Dreier.

Mr. Dreier has consistently voted in favor of granting amnesty, social security, welfare, driver's licenses and all the benefits of citizenship to illegal immigrants. His record is even worse in this regard than John Kerry's, Diane Feinstein's, Hillary Clinton's, and even Teddy Kennedy's. I just wonder what part of "illegal" he doesn't understand?

I have a brother-in-law who's here, legally, from the Netherlands. He's educated, speaks English, is working and contributing to society, and has been here for 10 years. And for 10 years he's jumped through all the hoops to become a citizen. He's taken all the classes, filled out all the forms, showed up at the interviews, and waited his turn. Yet Mr. Dreier would have those who have broken our laws by illegally entering our country be granted amnesty and all the benefits of citizenship ahead of him...

(Note for those out of the area: it's pronounced "lah cuh NYAH duh", not as in "O Canada")

Posted at 11:36 PM | Comments (0)

Who's behind the smears?

As you may recall, earlier this year a group of pro-borders challengers were trying to be elected to the board of the Sierra Club. For many years the Club had favored reduced immigration, but that policy was reversed several years ago. And, Carl Pope, the head of the Club mounted a vigorous and sleazy smear campaign against the challengers. Despite it somewhat backfiring (one of the challengers who'd been called a white supremacist or similar turned out to be black), the members of the Club bought the lies.

Now, the not-so-shocking truth that there was money at the root of Carl Pope's smears can be revealed. From the L.A. Times' "The Man Behind the Land":

In manner and appearance, David Gelbaum has maintained a low profile for someone who can afford to give away hundreds of millions of dollars...

In 2001, Gelbaum branched out with two back-to-back anonymous gifts to the Sierra Club Foundation that dwarfed all previous individual contributions to the club. The $101.5 million in donations led to a 10-fold increase in the club's Youth in Wilderness programs and expansion of many other club activities.

But the windfall caused a stir internally. Gelbaum's identity, known only to a few Sierra Club officials, became an issue in a bitter struggle for control of the club's board of directors.

A slate of candidates, which wanted the club to call for tighter controls on immigration to stabilize the U.S. population and its impact on the environment, demanded to know the source of the donations. The candidates contended that the club's leadership opposed their election partly because of pressure brought by the secret donor.

"Is this foreign money? Is it money that comes with special obligations? I would want to know I'm not running a laundry or being a front group for an entity that doesn't have the best interests of the United States at heart," said former Colorado Gov. David Lamm.

Lamm and other like-minded candidates were soundly defeated in a vote of club members last April, and the source of the money was not revealed...

...information led The Times to Gelbaum, who, with his brother, Daniel, sat on the Wildlands Conservancy's board of directors, along with Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope.

David Gelbaum insisted that he played no role in the election. He dismissed allegations that he is calling the shots at the club in any other way.

"None of that is true," he said. "I'm not some Svengali. I'm not that engaged."

But he said Pope long had known where he stood on the contentious issue. "I did tell Carl Pope in 1994 or 1995 that if they ever came out anti-immigration, they would never get a dollar from me..."

And there you have it. I would hope - but I rather doubt - that this will lead to Pope resigning.

Previous coverage of the challenge in these links:

Guilty "liberals" at Sierra Club choose smears over fact has the results of the election.

"Sierra Club must save its soul" discusses Carl Pope's sleazy smear attempts on the challengers.

Truth must be ultimate weapon for Sierra Club calls the Sierra Club to task for its Open Borders policies.

"Anti-Immigration Candidates Sue Sierra Club Over Board Election" discusses the start of the challenge and the LAT's own smear attempt against it.

And, for a satire on the club's policies, see sierraclubbed.com.

Posted at 10:41 PM | Comments (2)

Irony in Wisconsin

From this:

An immigration reform organization recently conducted an investigation into possible voter fraud in Wisconsin. The probe revealed that non-citizens of the United States could decide the 2004 presidential election.

Susan Tully, the Midwest field director for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), says she became concerned about possible voter fraud in the Badger State when an admitted illegal alien suddenly was named a deputy registrar of voters in Racine, Wisconsin...

...So the FAIR Midwest field director sent one of her activists to take the class in Racine to become a deputy voter registrar. What Tully discovered concerns her.

"At no time was asked to show identification; at no time was she asked for her Social Security number; and at no time was she asked if she was a citizen of the United States," she says...

...Suspecting voter fraud, FAIR sent two activists from another state to the office of the former illegal alien who is not only a deputy registrar of voters in Racine but also the leader of a Hispanic organization. Tully gave the activists specific instructions.

"I wanted them to specifically tell this person they were illegal aliens, but that they wanted to register to vote -- and she registered them both," she says. The two activists received a similar response at the Milwaukee office of the Hispanic group. "This time one of the men in the office at least said it's a felony to register someone who's not a citizen to vote -- but the office manager went ahead and registered them..."

Unfortunately, the report Group sent couple to 'test' voter registration sites contains a quote from a District Attorney in which he says that not only will he not pursue this case, but "Anyone who tries to test the system from now on will be criminally prosecuted no matter who they claim they are working for or what they're testing."

However, another District Attorney says they are investigating this case of voter fraud, for what it's worth.

This incident is also mentioned in Michelle Malkin's column The illegal alien swing vote.

So, where's the irony here? One of the things that makes living here illegally much easier is the widespread acceptance of Mexican ID cards, called "Matricula Consular" cards. Those cards are only of use to illegal aliens.

Banks are allowed to accept those cards, including, as detailed here and here, banks in Wisconsin. If banks, local governments, and other companies, organizations, and agencies didn't accept those cards it would serve as a disincentive to live here illegally; as it is now, it serves as an incentive to live here illegally. And, the Bush administration supports the use of those cards.

Thus the irony, as I'd imagine very few of the recipients of the Bush administration's "largesse" will be returning the favor.

Posted at 10:23 PM | Comments (2)

It's all about the pork. And, the guest workers

As previously discussed, Rep. David Dreier (R-CA) is scheduled to be "sacrificed" as part of the Political Human Sacrifice campaign by SoCal talk jocks John & Ken.

And, he has the support of a local newspaper chain. Supposedly reporters at that chain are given "hands off Dreier" orders. The newspapers in that chain include:

• L.A. Daily News
• Pasadena Star News
• Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
• Redlands Daily Facts
• San Bernardino County Sun

Here's a roundup of recent Dreier coverage in those papers. Coverage of Rep. Joe Baca will be featured in a future post.

DailyNews' "No upsets expected in state House races" only has one paragraph on Dreier: "In the 26th District, Rep. David Dreier, R-Glendora, is challenged by Democrat Cynthia Matthews, an environmental safety worker. Dreier had about $2.7 million on hand while Matthews had about $8,800."

The SB Sun's 10/24/04 "Races rarely won by rookies" has a similar report.

10/24/04's "Dreier facing unusual battle" in the Pasadena Star News covers Political Human Sacrifice. It's somewhat balanced, except for this bit:

...Dreier admits the 'Fire Dreier' campaign has hurt, saying he has been told by a few longtime supporters that they can no longer vote for him because of his immigration policies. However, he blames a few virulent anti- immigrant foes for distorting his record on legal immigration and free trade to smear him...

It also indicates that "As of the last reporting period, he had taken in almost $1 million, even as John and Ken tossed their 'Fire Dreier' bombs his way. As of Oct. 13, Dreier had spent $920,000 and had $2.6 million left over. Matthews has taken in $31,500 and has $8,800 on hand."

Pasadena Star News' "Return Miller to 42nd District" mentions Dreier, and not in such a good way:

...When it comes to illegal immigration, Rep. Miller is in direct opposition to his fellow GOP stalwart, Rep. David Dreier's proposal to offer worker identification cards. Don't reward illegal behavior, he says. However he does want increased border patrols and has worked to make funding available to close the 11-mile gap in the border fence between Mexico and the United States. He, like many in Congress, is worried about terrorists, not day laborers, jumping the border from Mexico into the United States...

October 27's Daily Bulletin's Letters Page has eight letters; five are pro-Dreier/anti-Matthews. None of the opposite kind are provided. However, the previous day's page contains one anti-Dreier letter.

In the same paper, October 21's letter page contained one pro-Dreier letter entitled "Sick of hate-filled attacks on Dreier". It's from Dean Waddell, former Dreier intern. However, it also includes this anti-Dreier letter:

Dreier doesn’t listen to constituents

David Dreier’s column in the Sunday paper had a lot of spin in it. First of all, he says that matricula consular cards are not available to illegal immigrants. Who else would need them but illegals? Legal immigrants can get green cards, visas, etc.

Secondly, I don’t believe that 750,000 soldiers are needed to seal our borders unless they were holding hands. If Congress believed that figure, then why was there the Goode Amendment to HR4200 which would authorize the use of the military to assist in border control functions? Why does Dreier believe that 14,000 Border Patrol personnel can beef up the border but it would take 750,000 soldiers?

In 1996, Dreier voted to prohibit illegal immigrants from being allowed to pay discounted in-state tuition rates. What he fails to mention is that he co-sponsored HR1684 which would reward illegal aliens with in-state tuition rates and amnesty in 2003-2004...

Last but not least, we come to the editorial that explains the title of this post. 10/21/04's "Dreier merits another term" in the Pasadena Star News has several paragraphs describing how much pork Dreier has brought home to his district. Then, it says this:

... His plan for curbing illegal immigration, which includes funding for more border guards, goes beyond interdiction. He supports the president's proposed bracero program, which would allow immigrant laborers to go back and forth over the border. His proposal for a new Social Security card with picture I.D. and a magnetic strip that would give employers access to a potential employee's status has merit, but is not without controversy.

Dreier comprehends both local and global issues and his work in these areas are a benefit to the San Gabriel Valley, the state and the nation. In the 26th Congressional District, David Dreier is the right choice.

I don't know whether to laugh or be worried that they would call Bush's guest worker plan the bracero program. That was the name of a program in the 50s, and I don't know if Bush would like it applied to his plan.

Posted at 09:43 PM | Comments (0)

Political Human Sacrifice

[Cross-posted to the-lonewacko-blog.redstate.org/story/2004/10/27/155338/04 and the Command Post]

If you live in Southern California, you've probably heard about Political Human Sacrifice by now. That's the attempt by KFI AM 640 talk jocks John & Ken to unseat two Congressmen who refuse to do anything about our incredible problem with illegal immigration. These are the same talk jocks who played a major role in getting former governor Gray Davis recalled.

The goal is to send the message to politicians in Washington: either do something about massive illegal immigration, or lose your job.

If you aren't familiar with how much illegal immigration is a hot button issue in SoCal, I'd suggest listening to their show. You can listen live over the internet here; they're on from 3pm to 7pm Pacific time M-F. They have a segment on Political Human Sacrifice every day at 5pm Pacific time. And, they freely admit they're doing this for ratings: their ratings have gone up since starting the sacrifice.

This effort is controversial and has national implications because one of the Congressmen is David Dreier, the third most powerful Republican in the House. The other Congressman selected to be "sacrificed" is Joe Baca, a Democrat.

John & Ken are encouraging their million-plus listeners to vote for their challengers.

In Dreier's case that's Cynthia Matthews, and in Baca's case it's Ed Laning.

Dreier appears to be worried. He's spent around a million dollars on the campaign so far, and he's even gotten Arnold Schwarzenegger to record a message that's being phoned to his district. Dreier claims that his record on illegal immigration has been misrepresented, but a little research shows that's not the case.

Dreier also has the assistance of a local newspaper chain that's going to bat for him. Details here, including an example of a blatant lie by Dreier. As for Baca, read more about him here. The Washington Times offers older coverage here and here, and this has received national coverage in other papers as well. See also this site from a supporter of the effort. KFI producer and blogger Justin Levine has posts about this here and here.

To see what prompted Political Human Sacrifice and how angry many citizens are about this issue, read about the Temecula townhall meeting. And, to read about the administration's heavy-handed tactics to influence John & Ken's coverage of illegal immigration, click here.

Posted at 01:47 PM | Comments (0)

"Immigration? Oh, That."

The L.A. Times has a kinda blah editorial suggesting that the candidates at least speak about immigration matters. It somewhat gives the false impression that we need some kind of guest worker program, which is not entirely clear. Points in its favor: one sentence is about enforcing the laws against employers of illegal aliens, and the word "undocumented" appears nowhere in the editorial.

Posted at 10:15 PM | Comments (1)

U.S. code 18 U.S.C. 953

Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.

This section shall not abridge the right of a citizen to apply, himself or his agent, to any foreign government or the agents thereof for redress of any injury which he may have sustained from such government or any of its agents or subjects.

Posted at 10:11 PM | Comments (1)

"The Principles of Immigration"

Edwin Meese III and Matthew Spalding of the Heritage Foundation have a long piece on immigration policy here. I only briefly scanned it, but it seems like it gets most things right.

Posted at 01:16 PM | Comments (1)

"Nebraska gov.: Migrant I.D.s pose security risk"

It looks like Vicente Fox has lost a round:

LINCOLN, Nebraska Nebraska Gov. Mike Johanns said Wednesday during a visit to Mexico that he would not support recognition of Mexican consular identity cards for migrants because they pose a security threat.

Johanns discussed use of the cards during a meeting Monday with President Vicente Fox, who has been pushing for the United States to allow the cards. But during a telephone interview from Guadalajara, Mexico on Wednesday, Johanns said such cards could be used to circumvent immigration laws...

Posted at 01:11 PM | Comments (1)

"Rewriting History Before the Ink is Dry"

(Washington, DC—October 18, 2004) In what must be a new world's record for historical revisionism, open border lobbyists from both the political left and right are fighting to remove critical immigration policy reforms from the final version of a bill that would implement the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. The House version of the legislation, H.R. 10, includes numerous provisions designed to minimize the possibility of terrorists taking advantage of loopholes in U.S. immigration law. Open border lobbyists are vigorously fighting to strip these provisions from the final draft as the House-Senate conference committee is meeting this week to hammer out the differences between their respective bills...

Posted at 01:03 PM | Comments (5)

Irony on the Border, Part 2

From Prop. 200-style system already law in Mexico:

MEXICO CITY - The provisions of Proposition 200 have stirred up a storm of debate in Arizona. But here in Mexico, they're already the law.

Arizona's contentious ballot proposal would require voters to show proof of their U.S. citizenship when registering to vote and proof of their legal residency when applying for government benefits.

In Mexico, it has been that way for years. Only in hospitals are Mexico's laws more lenient about checking immigration documents.

To see if the requirements are being enforced, a Republic reporter (a U.S. citizen with legal residency in Mexico), went to six public agencies and two schools in Mexico City to inquire about services and registering to vote.

Almost every official asked to see proof of Mexican citizenship or an FM3 visa, the document that allows a person to live in Mexico. Often, it was the first question asked...

The previous installment of Irony on the Border discussed how Mexicans in Zacatecas don't cotton to immigrants coming from other parts of Mexico.

Posted at 12:27 PM | Comments (2)

Gutting of H.R. 10 under way

From NumbersUSA:

Our Capitol Hill team has learned that Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, chief sponsor of H.R. 10, is under tremendous pressure from the White House to back down from his current position supporting the immigration provisions of H.R. 10 so that a final bill can be agreed upon and delivered to President Bush for his signature before the election. Your phone calls will help give Speaker Hastert the support he needs to stand firm and support the immigration provisions of H.R. 10...

Rep. Hastert, Dennis
27 North River Street,
Batavia, IL 605102666
(630-406-1114)

2369 RHOB,
Washington, DC 20515
(202-225-2976)

And, from FAIR:

House and Senate conferees are scheduled to meet this Wednesday, Oct. 20, to begin working on the final version of the 9/11 Recommendation Implementation Act. They are under pressure from the White House to drop the important identification security and immigration enforcement provisions from the House bill and reach a conclusion by this Friday, Oct. 22.
Help us pound their offices with faxes and phone calls insisting the immigration-security reforms in the House version of the bill remain part of the final package. Time is of the essence so act now.

You can send free FAXes here.

Posted at 11:52 PM | Comments (2)

Fox of Mexico to get tough with the U.S.A.

More threats from our friends to the south:

In recent days Mexican President Vicente Fox and his Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Luis Ernesto Derbez, have sent barbed messages to the U.S.A. The main message — Mexico plans to get tough with the U.S.A. regarding the treatment of migrant workers in this country and the services they should receive...

During a speech in Leon, Guanajuato, Fox said that he would absolutely defend the matrícula consular... The president told the audience, that included U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson: “The matrícula consular (cards) are again being questioned, however we will defend them with tooth and nail because our fellow countrymen are neither criminals nor terrorists. They are people with dignity and workers who contribute a great deal to the North American economy.”

...Meeting with reporters in Mexico City, Foreign Minister Derbez said that after the November elections Fox would visit California — and Derbez pointed a finger directly at Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Derbez said that the Mexican president would have a “very tough talk” with the governor...

...Noting that Schwarzenegger recently vetoed the bill to allow the issuance of driver’s licenses to immigrants, Derbez secondly said that the matrícula consular “should be sufficient in order to obtain a driver’s license.”

...[a quote from Gil Cedillo is provided as background:] “We are not terrorists…. The governor is an immigrant like we are immigrants, and because of that we insist that the governor honor his word and give us the same license he has."

...“I believe that the Mexican community must send the message that it is sending, which is we represent (something) positive for the state and the country, therefore we ask we be treated like we should be treated … and if migrants decide to conduct a peaceful boycott, so that their positive side is taken into account, it is proper,” [Derbez] told the Mexico City daily Reforma...

During all of this the Mexican Senate is reaching across the northern border in ways it would quickly condemn if done the other way around. In late September senators unanimously approved sending a letter to Schwarzenegger to express concern over his veto of the driver’s license bill. (It is currently taking similar actions with Arizona and Proposition 200.)

Actually the Mexican intervention in California was done at the request of state legislators, members of the California Latino Legislative Caucus who had met with the senators during a visit to Mexico City, this according to Assemblyman Marco Antonio Firebaugh who chairs the caucus...

...In an interview with the Mexican magazine Proceso, [recently replaced Mexican consul general to San Francisco Georgina Lagos] noted the important role she and five other consul generals in California had played in the growing acceptance of the matrícula consular. She was especially critical of the timing, saying the assignment changes should not have been made at the very time the Mexican consuls had California state legislators eating out of their hands.

The whole article should set off alarm bells in the minds of those who don't already hear those bells. While it's but a sidenote, the reader will note Gil Cedillo's use of the word "we" when referring to illegal aliens. I don't think he's calling himself an illegal alien. Rather, he thinks of himself first and foremost as a Mexican and not a Mexican-American.

Posted at 11:30 PM | Comments (2)

Fire Dreier the outright Liar

As previously described, KFI talk jocks John & Ken are conducting a "Political Human Sacrifice" designed to fire a local congressman who's extremely weak on illegal immigration, Rep. David Dreier.

Said Rep. has a guest column published in the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin entitled "Immigration must play by rules." OK, so they flubbed the title. And, that newspaper is published by someone who, rumor has it, has a close relationship with Dreier including a "hands-off-Dreier" instruction to the reporters for his chain of local newspapers.

That's interesting, but what's especially shocking is that in the editorial Dreier clearly and unequivocally lies:

[I voted to allow banks to accept Mexican ID cards called "Matricula Consular" cards]...It should also be recognized that Matricula Consular cards have been issued by the Mexican government since 1871, are not available to illegal immigrants, and are not accepted by any federal benefit program...

The whole editorial is probably riddled with lies, but the part about those ID cards not being available to illegal immigrants is a complete, unequivocal lie.

I provide a few examples of Mexican consuls passing out those ID cards to illegal aliens here. In fact, here's a quote from one of those consuls:

[when you get your Matricula Consular card we] don’t care if you are documented or undocumented

So, Dreier is a liar.

He's also apparently quite afraid of Political Human Sacrifice succeeding. To help judge how scared he is, tomorrow Dreier will begin running commercials on KFI, the same station with John & Ken. He has not appeared on their show despite continued requests.

And, there are some astroturf letters from his supporters here. Apparently at least three of those people are associated with Dreier in some way. I don't know how much of an association there is between two of those three, but note that one of the authors is Dean Waddell. This Dean Waddell:

An internship with one's very own congressman is something that most political science majors only dream of.

But that is exactly what happened to Dean Waddell, 18, now in his second semester at Citrus College.

Waddell applied for an internship at Congressman David Dreier's district office in Glendora on August 2003...

Apparently that chain of newspapers has not published any anti-Dreier letters, although I'd imagine they've received a good quantity of that kind.

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

Posted at 11:01 PM | Comments (0)

The Big Show on the Border

From the 10/13 debate, President Bush:

...I believe there ought to be a temporary worker card that allows a willing worker and a willing employer to mate up, so long as there's not an American willing to do the job...

I wonder how many nurses, teachers, or high-tech workers would work for $8 an hour. Wait, you didn't know that Bush's "guest worker" plan would be open to those people too?

That's what they have in mind. And, there would be no wage-related restrictions on it other than the minimum wage. So, employers could offer a teaching job for $8 an hour. American teachers would either take that rate or, more likely, they wouldn't. So, the employer could hire that "guest" worker from Bangladesh. The Bangladeshi would consider that a king's ransom. All the requirements of Bush's plan had been met: there wasn't an American willing to do the job.

Bush's plan would force millions of previously higher-wage jobs down near the minimum wage. What phrase would most Americans use to describe such a plan?

See Analysis: Bush temp worker plan open-ended and Bush "guest worker" program to be "open to any type of employee". Also, "Hutchinson’s Remarks Indicate Cheap Labor Bias of Administration" and the links here.

...they're able to go back and forth to see their families... See, the card will have a period of time attached to it.

What exactly does he mean by "families"? Will their immediate family come with them or not? If not, are we going to be able to split up families? Not all people coming here would be Mexicans or from the parts of Mexico near the border. Is Bush going to require men to travel hundreds of miles to see their immediate family?

If, however, they're bringing their immediate family with them, there will no doubt be hundreds of thousands of children born, and those children will be U.S. citizens. Who's going to be able to make them go home after they've had a U.S. citizen child? And, won't most "guest" workers intentionally have children here so it will be harder to make them go home?

And, given that, doesn't this plan consist not just of an amnesty, but as a massive incentive for a huge chunk of Mexico's population to come here? Was any thought put into the consequences of this plan at all?

A Bush assistant addresses those questions in Bush "guest worker" program to be "open to any type of employee". No change to the 14th Amendment is expected to accomodate the "guest worker" plan.

If somebody is coming here to work with a card, it means they're not going to have to sneak across the border.

No, it doesn't. People will sneak across the border for many reasons, but primarily for employment. And, if employers are willing to employ people illegally - under any guest worker plan - people will keep coming here illegally. People don't hire illegals primarily because of a lack of legal workers. They hire illegals because of the cost or to avoid paperwork or safety laws. If those who currently employ illegals want to continue to do so, they will under any guest worker program unless they're stopped. If Bush won't enforce the laws against hiring illegal aliens now, what makes anyone think he'd enforce the laws under his plan? And, note that under the last guest worker program (the Bracero program) illegal immigration went up during and after that program.

See "Employer fines plummet for hiring illegals" and "The Mirage of Mexican Guest Workers".

...I don't believe we ought to have amnesty. I don't think we ought to reward illegal behavior...

His plan is perceived as an amnesty, and it's caused an uptick in those coming here expecting to take part in the amnesty. Whether it's truly an amnesty hinges on how exactly we define amnesty. And, when you get down to the level of minute differences in definition, you might as well be Bill Clinton.

See "Border Agents Warn of Influx" and "[Bush] Immigration plan envisions 'incentives' to illegal aliens".

Well, to say that the borders are not as protected as they were prior to September the 11th shows he doesn't know the borders. They're much better protected today than they were when I was the governor of Texas... We have much more manpower and much more equipment there.

Bush was governor of Texas before 9/11. I'd hope the borders are better protected now than they were before that date. But, are they? What of all the chatter about terrorists attempting to infiltrate the U.S. via Mexico? What of the report of 25 Chechen terrorists possibily having succeeded in that effort?

Once again Bush's rhetoric just doesn't match up to reality. If the administration would take the novel approach of fining those companies that employ illegal aliens, all that manpower and equipment would have a much greater impact. As it is, to a certain extent they're just there for show.

Posted at 10:58 PM | Comments (11)

"Candidates evade immigration issue"

This article from Oregon was written before the debates. It doesn't have much more than the title tells you and it falsely states that the country is divided on immigration. No, the great majority of Americans favor an end to illegal immigration. On the other side are the elites. Numerically that's not a divide, and in terms of power it's not a divide either.

The article does, however, have some interesting statistics:

Oregon was home to about 90,000 illegal immigrants in 2000, according to the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). That’s almost triple the previous government estimate in 1996 and 333 percent higher than the estimate for 1990, giving Oregon the 14th largest illegal immigrant population in the country, according to FAIR...

In March, the Department of Homeland Security launched its most intense effort to control the U.S.-Mexico border.

Millions of dollars were spent on electronic ground sensors, unmanned aerial vehicles, special air operations and more than 2,000 Border Patrol agents along the busiest and deadliest stretch of the Arizona-Sonora desert.

A total of 1,158,802 people were caught by the U.S. Border Patrol trying to get into the United States during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, said Border Patrol spokeswoman Gloria Chavez.

Of those, 75,371 were from countries other than Mexico.

Robert Bonner, commissioner of Customs and Border Protection said that between Oct. 1, 2003 and Aug. 31, the arrest of illegal immigrants by U.S. Border Patrol agents included: 138 homicide suspects; 67 kidnapping suspects; 226 sexual assault suspects; 431 robbery suspects; 2,342 suspects for assaults of other types; and 4,801 involved with dangerous narcotics.

Federal agents also tallied 325 deaths along the southwest border, said Chavez...

Posted at 10:08 PM | Comments (1)

"Report Finds Lavish Spending at TSA"

From AP:

The government agency in charge of airport security spent nearly a half-million dollars on an awards ceremony at a lavish hotel, including $81,000 for plaques and $500 for cheese displays, according to an internal report obtained by The Associated Press.

Awards were presented to 543 Transportation Security Administration employees and 30 organizations, including a "lifetime achievement award" for one worker with the 2-year-old agency. Almost $200,000 was spent on travel and lodging for attendees...

The TSA is part of DHS. See also "D.C. hamstrings border officers" and Border Patrol agents fear coming retribution. On a somewhat related note, see Ridge: no sign of terrorists trying to cross border and "Tancredo presses White House on control of border".

Posted at 09:59 PM | Comments (0)

Another slimy voice

The Houston Chronicle's "Another Voice" section reprints an article from Mexico's El Universal newspaper entitled "Politics of immigration":

The complicated U.S. electoral climate has caused a proliferation of opportunistic proposals by politicians looking for the support of a sector of the U.S. electorate that is very conservative and even racist. That is why they have proposed measures against Mexican immigrants, as is the case with banning identity cards issued by Mexican consulates... [etc. etc. etc.]

Rather than respond to this drivel directly, let's ask why they would write it. The answer - like many other answers - involves money and power. Mexican citizens working illegally in the U.S. send billions of dollars home each year, and there's that little matter of Mexico's lost territories. From a 1982 editorial in another Mexican newspaper (excerpted here):

The territory lost in the 19th century by...Mexico...seems to be restoring itself through a humble people who go on settling various zones that once were ours on the old maps. Land, under any concept of possession, ends up in the hands of those who deserve it.... [The result of this migration is to return the land] to the jurisdiction of Mexico without the firing of a single shot.

Posted at 09:39 PM | Comments (1)

Class in class

Kids in some town in Iowa simulated a 1907 voyage to Ellis Island by dressing up in period costumes, going through inspections, etc. etc.

On the MultiCultiCult danger scale this is pretty low, but nonetheless some of it is a little revealing:

[A student] said he learned during the unit on Ellis Island that first-class passengers were usually treated better than the poorer immigrants...

Students also learned how the lives of present-day immigrants mirror the struggles of new Americans from 100 years ago, he said...

"In first class we've got good food," [a student] said. "It just shows the difference between first class and third class."

...Chris Long, 13, played Jose, a poor man from Portugal. In accordance with what some immigrants experienced at Ellis Island, an official said Jose did not pass one of the exams and marked his coat with chalk...

[A teacher name of] Yager explained to Chris and other marked students how Ellis Island procedures were similar to security checks made today at airports and other public locations.

American officials then worried immigrants might bring disease into the country, Yager said. Now, she said, they are concerned about terrorism and weapons.

"We didn't want to degrade people (then), but we were scared," Yager said...

Any lessons relating to present day immigrants is not described. However, one will note that someone named Jose was singled out to be rejected. Gosh, you think the teachers could have been sending a message? Where we just "scared" about disease then? Wouldn't "rightfully very concerned" be the better choice of words?

Posted at 09:25 PM | Comments (2)

"Republicans and the Politics of the Latino Vote"

From the report "Losing Ground or Staying Even: Republicans and the Politics of the Latino Vote" by University of Maryland Professor of Government James Gimpel:

• The President’s guest-worker proposal for illegal immigrants has had no discernable impact on Latino voters. Candidate positions on immigration policy are a low priority for Latino voters.


• Latino voters have remained remarkably stable in their political views, preferring Democrats over Republicans by a margin of two to one nationally and in most states.


• The vast majority of Latino voters live in states that are not battlegrounds in the current presidential race, thus their impact on the current election will be more modest than previously thought.

...continued at the link...

Posted at 12:17 PM | Comments (1)

"Immigration overshadowed on presidential campaign trail"

From the AP:

Neither President Bush nor Sen. John Kerry has devoted much attention lately to his plan for fixing America's failed immigration policies – a sticking point for states paying the financial and human costs of the thousands of workers who sneak into the country each year.

While the candidates laid out plans for confronting the problem earlier in the race, illegal immigration has been overshadowed by Iraq, the war on terror and the economy in the final weeks of the campaign...

Given the report about 25 Chechen terrorists possibly entering from Mexico, that might change soon. Especially if Bob Schieffer asks a tough question at the final debate.

Posted at 11:56 PM | Comments (0)

"Jones Seeks to Curb Immigration by Expanding Economy in Mexico"

From the LAT:

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bill Jones proposed federal incentives Monday to create jobs in Mexico and help reduce the economic motive propelling illegal immigration.

Jones, revisiting a theme of his campaign, argued that a porous border with Mexico threatens national security and called for a sharp increase in the number of border patrol agents, completion of a stalled border fence project north of Tijuana and creation of a guest-worker program for U.S. industries facing labor shortages...

He kinda lost me at the end there. The other proposals might have some merit, but how about Mexico reforming its system a bit? When it has more millionaires than Germany and a vastly lower standard of living, one might assume there's something a bit wrong.

Posted at 11:45 PM | Comments (0)

14% of U.S. population eligible to be card-carrying dual citizens

CNN/Money has a borderline wacky happyfun report on dual citizenship. When one passport won't do: An estimated 40 million Americans are eligible for citizenship in another country. Any takers?

Here's a product of globalization that isn't as easy to spot: the dual citizen.

He's the guy on the plane who was born and raised in Akron but flashes his Indian passport at customs in Mumbai. She's the lucky college grad who gets a trip to Europe and an EU passport to boot. They are the retirees who relocate to Ireland to trace family histories and receive national health benefits...

Just how many of them are card-carrying (make that passport-carrying) dual citizens [wacky! --LW] is virtually impossible to estimate. But many immigration experts have a hunch the number is increasing...

Etc. etc. The bad news - what little of it that's given - is given at the end of the article. Before we get to the bad news, we learn that 40 million Americans, or about 14% of our population are eligible to have what amount to divided loyalties. And, we learn that those dual citizens don't have to inform the U.S. government that they're now citizens of another country as well.

This post discussed how dual citizenship is part of Mexico's plan to meddle in our internal politics.

Posted at 07:27 PM | Comments (1)

Bob Schieffer: "There should be a question about illegal immigration"

According to an unconfirmed report from a TV viewer:

Just saw Bob Schieffer, moderator of tomorrow nights debate, on Hannity and Colmes and he mentioned a "probable" question about illegal immigration.

Let's hope this comes to pass, and he's able to ask tougher questions than Bill O'Reilly.

If you'd like to suggest something, this email might work: ftn@cbsnews.com (stands for "Face The Nation")

Posted at 07:04 PM | Comments (0)

"The Changing Face of Poverty"

From Newsweek:

The census bureau's annual figures on family incomes and poverty were bound to become familiar factoids in the Bush-Kerry combat. The numbers seem to confirm what many people feel: the middle class is squeezed; poverty's worsening. In 2003 the median household income dropped for the fourth consecutive year, to $43,318; the official poverty rate rose for the third year, to 12.5 percent of the population; and the number of people without health insurance increased for the third year to 45 million, or 16 percent of the population. But the debate you're hearing is not the real deal. What ought to be the debate is shunned by both candidates because it touches a politically explosive subject: immigration...

See also Michelle Malkin's "The elephant in the room".

Posted at 07:37 PM | Comments (1)

"Red Alert"

Mother Jones (yeah, I know) excerpts their subscriber-only article "Red Alert" here. It looks at how the DHS is protecting us, and whether they're doing the acceptable job everyone has been told they're doing:

...Defending America has been a pillar of President Bush's reelection campaign. Only the president, argue his backers, has the resolve and strength of leadership to prevent another 9/11. This campaign tactic has proved surprisingly effective. Even as public opinion polls show that increasing numbers of Americans are wondering whether the White House has been fighting the right battle in Baghdad, many remain convinced that President Bush will be tougher on terror than his Democratic opponent. This view has been a mainstay of Republican campaign commercials, conservative talk radio shows, the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal, and, of course, the folks at Fox. Unfortunately, like a lot of "popular" notions generated by concerted public relations drives, it's a myth not rooted in reality...

Posted at 01:29 PM | Comments (1)

Joe Baca vs. John & Ken

U.S. Rep Joe Baca is striking back at John & Ken's Political Human Sacrifice (see this for a summary of Political Human Sacrifice).

He's sent a letter to other congressmen complaining that his record has been distorted by the "anti-immigrant" group BetterImmigration.com (His letter is in this PDF file).

Not only that, but in his letter he plays the race card, including this incredible bit:

They also cite a speech I made while serving in the California State Legislature urging Latinos to vote and describe me as "racist" for it...

You can watch him making the speech in question here. Let's just say that any allusions I could make to the contents of his speech might violate Godwin's Rule.

Posted at 01:09 PM | Comments (1)

Poll: Stricter immigration laws wanted [in NC and SC]

From this:

Most Carolinians believe it should be harder for people to immigrate to the United States, according to the 2004 Carolinas Poll.

About 80 percent of those surveyed said they oppose loosening restrictions for America's newest arrivals...

The article closes with the thoughts of a cheap labor pimp:

"If these people do not come in, we would all be hurting. Houses would not be built as inexpensively as they are," and restaurants and hotels would not be properly staffed, [Ana Flynn] said.

In her quote, the word "inexpensively" means "on your dime." As we know, that cheap labor is only cheap for their employers, not for the rest of us: "Study Says Illegal Migrants Cost U.S. $10 Billion a Year"

Posted at 02:40 PM | Comments (2)

Action needed on the House 9/11 bill

Some congressmen are trying to gut the House 9/11 bill of its most vital provisions: ending driver's licenses for illegal aliens and preventing the acceptance of foreign ID cards that the FBI and the DOJ call a security threat. Fifteen of the nineteen 9/11 hijackers had a combined total of 63 separate drivers licenses issued by Virginia, Florida and New Jersey.

There are three amendments under consideration that would remove those vital provisions, and you can quickly send free FAXes opposing those amendments here.

That page also has a phone number you can use to call your representative. Please send the free FAXes and urge your representative to support H.R. 10 in its current version.

Information on this bill is here.

UPDATE: H.R. 10 has passed the house in its original form. But, now it goes to a committee who will try to iron out the differences between the two House and Senate 9/11 bills. So, please keep calling your representative and your senators and tell them to leave the immigration-related provisions in the final bill.

I called and stressed the driver's license and foreign ID card-related provisions. If they want to keep those but remove or weaken the deportation-related provisions, that's a compromise I would be willing to make.

Posted at 12:11 AM | Comments (1)

"ACLU, Open Borders Advocates, Attempt to Rewrite 9/11 Commission Report"

From FAIR:

The American Civil Liberties Union and other open border advocacy groups are attempting to rewrite the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, leaving out important sections dealing with immigration policy, charged the Federation for American Immigration Reform. In assessing the situation that led to the attacks of 9/11, the Commission pointed to glaring weaknesses in U.S. immigration policy and made concrete recommendations for reform...

"Just two months after it was published, the ACLU and other open border advocates are mounting a campaign intended to convince Congress and the American public that the 9/11 Commission report called only for reform of our intelligence agencies," said Dan Stein, president of FAIR. "In the annals of historical revisionism, the ACLU has set a new speed record for distorting the truth. The Commission's report clearly spells out a variety of immigration-related policy failures that contributed directly to the events of September 11, 2001, and is equally clear about the policy changes they believe are necessary to avert future attacks..."

Since they wrote that, amendments have been proposed to gut the House bill.

Please go here and quickly send a free FAX or call your representatives using the phone number provided at that link. Please take action now.

Posted at 10:16 PM | Comments (2)

Irony on the Border

From the CSMonitor's "Mexico's other migrant wave":

...Upwards of 1 million Mexicans are successfully crossing into the US each year, leaving behind a dearth of laborers. Increasingly, that void is being filled by... poor Indians from remote villages throughout Mexico.

..."Our workforce has left," says Tomas Torres, the general secretary of Zacatecas. "So these other people come here, lured by the high demand for seasonal labor. But then they decide to stay."

...[Zacatecas] has the highest per-capita emigration rate of any Mexican state - an astounding 1 of every 2 Zacatecans are estimated to reside in the US. That opens the door to migrants who come from poor Indian towns in states like Veracruz, Hidalgo Durango, Jalisco, and San Luis Potosi.

...Here in Chaparrosas, workers are welcome and generally unobtrusive. But elsewhere in Zacatecas, it's a different story. "In the last six years, many more people have come from other states to work here," says Laura Macias, a radio reporter in Tlatenango, in the fertile south of Zacatecas. "They come to work, but they stay and cause problems."

...According to Ms. Macias, the laborers, largely Huichol Indians from neighboring states Jalisco and Nayarit, have increasingly been accused of thefts, assaults, and even murders in the normally quiet community. The accusations have led to hard feelings toward the newcomers, and tensions in Tlaltenango are on the rise. But, Macias admits, it's proven hard to link crimes directly to any of the Huichols, and she wonders if part of the problem isn't that "locals are resentful that outsiders are earning money in their town."

Does that make those complaining about this XRM-SBAHs*, or is that possible in this case?

*xenophobic racist mean-spirited bigoted anti-humans

Posted at 10:02 PM | Comments (0)

"Playing politics with your safety"

I added a few explanatory links to the last post ("House GOP firm on 9/11 bill") and posted it at RedState (redstate.org/story/2004/10/6/203334/979) and the Command Post. If you've read the previous post, and especially if you've already sent a FAX, no need to visit those two fine sites just for that post.

Posted at 07:38 PM | Comments (0)

"House GOP firm on 9/11 bill"

From the WashTimes:

House Republican leaders say the immigration reforms in their intelligence overhaul bill will remain, despite prodding by Senate Republicans and the White House to delete the provisions.

The bill calls for a crackdown on driver's licenses for illegal aliens, easier deportations and limits on the use of foreign consular identification cards. The White House initially signed off on these provisions, which House leaders and some September 11 family members endorsed.

"This bill will make the American people safer," said House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, Texas Republican. "In order for anything to be added or taken out of this bill, you have to show how it makes America safer."

Unfortunately, the Bush administration is up to their pandering tricks again, pandering to both "immigrants" and the cheap labor lobby. And, it looks like this might be a political attempt to get Democrats to vote against the House bill to show that they're weak on homeland security.

Whether the immigration-related provisions of the House bill are a political ploy or a political football or whatever the case, it's important the America speaks out and demands that we have real homeland security.

You can quickly send free FAXes about this bill here.

Posted at 12:48 PM | Comments (0)

"Limit on H1-B visa hurts India"

Maybe it is a zero sum game:

National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom), India's top association for IT firms, has said new and start-up software firms will be affected in a major way due to filling up of the annual limit for the controversial guest worker programme through the H1-B visas.

However, the Nasscom expects the new administration in the US to immediately relax the H1-B visa norms, allowing more IT professionals to fly to the US, Nasscom president Kiran Karnik said...

That's a relief!

Posted at 12:24 PM | Comments (0)

KCStar: Americans should keep eating cake

The Kansas City Star has an editorial "Keep tuition law for immigrants" that starts its lies with title. The law in question deals with illegal aliens, not "immigrants." It allows those illegal aliens to get a better deal on college tuition than U.S. citizens or legal immigrants.

The lies continue throughout:

Opponents argued last spring that it would allow immigrant children to take college slots from native-born Americans. That isn't happening. There's room for both native-born and immigrant children in the state's colleges and universities.

Others contend the law is unfair and discriminates against out-of-state students, who cannot get the lower rates for attending Kansas colleges. But those students can pay in-state tuition if they attend colleges in their home state.

As pointed out above, using the phrase "immigrant" is a lie; they're illegal aliens.

The use of the phrase "native-born Americans" is a lie also. Those negatively impacted include native-born Americans, naturalized citizens, and legal immigrants. This is clearly a subliminal attempt to make the reader think of the scare word "nativist."

Whether there's room for both groups isn't the question; is there money for both groups? Shouldn't we give money to our own citizens and legal immigrants before we give it to those who are here illegally?

Apparently, the Kansas City Star thinks so.

See also the discussion of one of their similar editorials in "Kansas City Star: Let U.S. citizens eat cake". That post has several other links, including this contact information for the KCStar:

letters@kcstar.com

Editorial Page Editor
Miriam Pepper:
mpepper@kcstar.com

Posted at 12:00 PM | Comments (1)

"Immigrants find a friend in The Governator"

From Ruben Navarrette of the Dallas Morning News:

...Americans shouldn’t be going out of their way to accommodate illegal immigrants — or when you really get down to it, those Americans who employ them — by making life in the United States comfortable for people who shouldn’t be here.

I’m not sure all immigrants get that. After Schwarzenegger’s veto, a television news crew for a Spanish-language network descended on the streets of Los Angeles to gauge public reaction. A Latina, identified as undocumented, said she thought the governor had done a terrible thing and that she felt discriminated against.

Bingo, senora. You are being discriminated against. You’re being singled out because you came here illegally. And when you decided to do so, you accepted — whether you realized it or not — the likelihood that you wouldn’t experience all the privileges enjoyed by native-born Americans, legal residents and naturalized U.S. citizens. In this case, that includes the right to drive legally on U.S. roadways.

Immigrants living in America used to think in terms of opportunities.

Now, more and more, they think in terms of entitlements.

Posted at 11:20 AM | Comments (0)

Today's compendium of Prop. 200 links

Dan Stein of FAIR offers said compendium about Arizona's Prop. 200. It shouldn't come as a surprise that some of the same scare tactics that were tried against California's Prop. 187 are now being repurposed in Arizona.

Posted at 12:12 AM | Comments (0)

That's an awful lot of straw you've got there, Clay

Clay Robison - chief of the Houston Chronicle's Austin Bureau - offers us an editorial entitled Our reality: Immigrants always part of Texas' 'picture'. It starts out like this:

Almost every time I write about the deficiencies of state government — a practice akin to shooting fish in a barrel — I receive messages from readers who blame Texas' problems in education funding, health care or whatever on immigrants from the south and/or their offspring.

Some of the responses are tinged with racism and fear, while others simply ignore the reality of Texas' changing face...

After the false choice, things go downhill from there as he heaps up big piles of straw and builds up giant strawmen that he deftly demolishes. The editorial is pretty worthless, just something to keep in mind as you read some of the Houston Chronicle's less worthy news articles.

Posted at 11:42 PM | Comments (1)

"Border War in Arizona"

Time Magazine has a somewhat biased blurb about Arizona's Prop. 200. They even use the phrase "anti-immigrant", just like the Arizona Republic. Nevertheless, it contains this interesting bit:

...The measure could affect the presidential race in a state where Bush and Kerry are running neck and neck. Some opponents hope it will galvanize Hispanic voters, which could boost Kerry's chances. Yet the Hispanic vote is hardly monolithic. Many of Arizona's Latino families — one-quarter of the state's population — have lived there for generations and are unhappy with undocumented workers who drive down wages. Democratic canvassers in Latino neighborhoods have been told to stress jobs, education and health care — and not to discuss the initiative unless asked.

Posted at 11:32 PM | Comments (1)

U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo "stunned" by administration being weak on homeland security

From the press release "Tancredo Stunned by White House Maneuver to Exclude Key Immigration Component of Intelligence Bill":

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Tom Tancredo (CO-06) was shocked to learn of the White House’s demand of House Republicans to exclude portions of the House Intelligence Bill which would prevent those who are in the United States illegally from obtaining drivers licenses, speed up the deportation process, and bar the use of the Matricula Consular card, which the FBI has already testified before Congress as being too susceptible to fraud for official use.

"This last minute switch by the White House now puts in jeopardy the most significant border security enhancements we’ve seen in years," said Tancredo, chairman of the House Immigration Reform Caucus. "I sincerely hope that the White House is not seriously thinking about walking away from this effort in the interest of political expediency in a few states..."

I'm certainly not "stunned." I know exactly what to expect.

Posted at 11:19 PM | Comments (2)

Orrin Hatch's anti-American DREAM Act gets closer to passing

From "Hatch's bill for tuition breaks for undocumented immigrants bypasses floor vote":

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, has inserted his "DREAM Act" into the budget authorization for the Justice Department, bypassing opposition from Republican leaders who have refused to schedule a floor vote on the measure to permit states to give college tuition breaks to illegal immigrants.

The move could mean the bill benefiting undocumented alien children eventually becomes law as part of the larger two-year spending blueprint for the Justice Department, rather than trying to survive a contentious vote as a stand-alone measure...

This legislation is explicitly anti-American. From this:

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

You can send a free FAX about this here.

Posted at 11:07 PM | Comments (11)

"Conservative group targets Bush over immigration"

From this:

Fed up with what they say is the Bush administration's failure to address a growing illegal immigration problem, a small group of conservatives has launched a series of radio ads seeking to convince voters to oust President Bush from office.

Last week, a group called Friends of the Border Patrol began a series of ads on KABC-AM in Los Angeles blasting Bush for "playing politics with national security."

The group plans on running the same ads in Arizona starting this week, before the Oct. 13 presidential debate in Phoenix, and in the following weeks in Nevada and New Mexico, a spokesman for the group said.

...Ron Prince, the chairman of Friends of the Border Patrol, said that he believes that Bush could lose Arizona as well [as NM and NV].

...[sources say] the impetus for forming the group and airing the radio ads came during a July 24 rally at the Temecula Border Patrol station...

Ramirez said he and Prince "just looked at each other and realized ... we've got to do something about this."

Posted at 10:48 PM | Comments (1)

A tale of two countries

From Another [L.A. County] Emergency Room Closes its Doors:

It is official the emergency room at Northridge Hospital Medical Center in Van Nuys closed its doors today. The hospital was reportedly losing $1-million each month. This closing leaves only 13 trauma centers in operation in the county, down from 26 in 1980's...

In August, hospital officials said the emergency room would close by year's end, mainly due to the cost of treating the indigent and uninsured, according to Tracey Veal of Northridge Hospital, a unit of Catholic Healthcare West.

"indigent and uninsured" is, of course, a euphemism for "mostly illegal aliens."

Now, read this:

After a fall of more than 40-feet, Mexican medical teams refuse to help a Kansas man. It was a trip to discover his heritage but instead turns tragic.

The 23-year-old was going to Mexico to meet his birth father for the first time. He had been living with his adopted parents his entire life in Newton.

Many people take for granted the quality of emergency medical care in the United States. It’s one mistake a Newton family will never make again.

It’s a lesson about health care that 21-year-old Olivia Sanchez learned the hard way. Olivia and her 23-year-old brother Ricardo recently traveled to Mexico to meet their biological family. A Newton family adopted them at the ages of 6 and 8.

During the trip, the brother and sister went swimming at the family’s ranch. That’s when Ricardo started climbing a cliff. [continued...]

If what had happened in the last story had happened to a Mexican citizen in the U.S. the Mexican consuls would immediately have swung into action. They would have filed a formal complaint with the State Department, contacted our putative American legislators, contacted the media, arranged marches, and all the rest. And, of course, the media would have immediately swung into action right alongside them. What's the response from our side? Nada.

Perhaps one day we'll stop being the sucker for a foreign country and those corrupt businesses that hire illegal workers.

Posted at 09:11 PM | Comments (0)

"House told to alter intelligence bill" [immigration, the administration, 'nuff said]

From the WashTimes:

The White House has told House Republicans that it wants them to remove provisions in their intelligence-overhaul bill that would crack down on illegal aliens' obtaining drivers' licenses, allow easier deportation and limit the use of foreign consular ID cards...

The Bush administration originally signed off on the immigration-related parts of the bill, but now they've... flip-flopped.

Posted at 01:12 PM | Comments (0)

"Republicans Rewarding Illegal Aliens"

From Human Events:

AgJobs is legislation only a liberal could love. Yet, conservative Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) its sponsor, has now moved to take his bill straight to the floor.

This bill to legalize illegal aliens working in American agriculture helped to stall much-needed class action reform from coming before the Senate in July. Craig tried to attach AGJOBS to the legal reform bill. He has vowed to offer this legislation to every bill the Senate moves the rest of the session, despite Bush administration opposition.

Craig brokered the bill-writing among agriculture lobbyists, immigration lawyers and the ethnic identity lobby...

AGJOBS adds insult to the injury of amnesty. The bill forces American taxpayers to pick up the tab for Legal Services lawyers. The activist lawyers will aid legalizing aliens at each step of the amnesty path to citizenship...

Two-thirds of special agricultural worker applications for a 1986 amnesty were fraudulent. Terrorist Mohammed Abouhalima was one such fraud. He secured legal status, then got involved in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Abouhalima was a New York cabbie who never worked in agriculture... [Chapter 3 of the 9/11 Commission Staff Report says he was granted temporary status but then later his application was denied, but I don't know if that was before or after being indicated for WTC1 --LW]

The Bush administration, which advocates its own amnesty, opposes AGJOBS. So should thinking lawmakers, agricultural special interests and those who truly have America’s best interests at heart.

The only apparent reason the Bush administration is opposed to AgJobs is because of their alternative program, so I wouldn't get my hopes up about them coming to their senses about amnesty.

As far as the immigration lawyer-friendly provision above is concerned, consider the following story about the finances of Rep. Chris Cannon (R-UT), one of the original authors of AgJobs:

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

And, from "Immigration lawyer industry funding Tancredo's opponent" (Despite the title, there's only a teaser about that funding, most of that article is about AgJobs):

In the case of the immigration lawyer industry and AgJOBS, the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) actually got to be in on the drafting of the bill. There is even an audio recording of Cannon publicly admitting to it...

You wouldn't know it, but it is still illegal to solicit and accept political contributions in return for official action. As spelled out above, this is precisely what Congressman Cannon has done, and the audio recording of his public acknowledgement that AILA helped draft AgJOBS is the smoking gun that nails him...

Can they prove that Cannon allowed AILA to help draft AgJobs as a direct consequence of receiving contributions? Or, is no specific proof needed to bring some form of charges against him? I don't know.

For more on AgJobs, see Guest Worker Residency Bill Is Taking Root in the Senate and "Miami Herald "endorses indentured servitude". The second has a list of the 400 business, legal, grower's, and Race Industry organizations that support this horrible bill.

Posted at 10:41 PM | Comments (1)

"Dual nationalities only double a family's pride"

I'm all for family pride, but this guest editorial might be going just a tad too far. Is there a way to support family pride without also supporting divided loyalties? Yes, I know he proudly mentions in there his uncles who fought in WWII. What if WWII had involved Mexico? Would they still have fought on our side if they were dual citizens? Or, would they have fought on the other side?

The article itself is fairly insignificant; what's more significant is that it's being published in the anti-Proposition 200 Arizona Republic and it's from José A.Cárdenas... host of KAET-TV Channel 8's "Horizonte: Arizona Issues Through a Hispanic Lens."

I watched one of their shows once and they incessantly confused legal and illegal immigration. I meant to write a complaint letter to ASU and their sponsor Bank of America, but I guess I never got around to it. If you're in the area, and you spot an error on that program, you might consider writing Bank of America and ASU: kaet@asu.edu

Posted at 09:33 PM | Comments (0)

"[Charlotte NC] Police: Immigration crackdown has reduced violent gang crime"

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- A yearlong crackdown on immigration violations has led to a drop in gang-related violence in the Charlotte area, according to police...

At least one gang member arrested in the original roundup and then deported has returned to Charlotte and been arrested again...

Latino gang members are among the hardest to keep track of, police say, because many are here illegally...

See also Heather MacDonald's "Ignored In Open-Borders Debate: Rising Cost Of Second Underclass" (the condensed version of her previous article "The Immigrant Gang Plague"), "The Illegal-Alien Crime Wave" and "Hillbangers".

Posted at 02:30 PM | Comments (0)

"Few immigrants use tuition law"

From the KCStar:

When Kansas passed a law in May allowing certain noncitizen immigrants to pay in-state tuition rates at state colleges, critics envisioned a flood of those students.

Now that the fall semester is under way, the flood looks more like a trickle...

"This law is new to Kansas and we didn't know what to expect," said Kip Peterson, a Regents spokesman. "Looking at the numbers now, there are 30 students in Kansas pursuing higher education that otherwise might not have had the opportunity."

And, there are millions of people around the world who now see that they can get a discounted college education even if they come here illegally. No doubt that will serve as yet another incentive to many of those people.

And, of course, the money spent on those 30 students could have been spent on our own citizens rather than citizens of other countries.

The article also mentions that Kansas is being sued by FAIR over their explicitly anti-American law.

(This is a KCStar report that the AP picked up under their byline and reprints here and here.)

See also "Kansas City Star: Let U.S. citizens eat cake".

Posted at 01:59 PM | Comments (1)

"State Is Sailing Toward a Crisis on Immigration"

The LAT prints a column from regular citizen Beverly Antel of Torrance. She goes a bit "overboard" on the Titanic references, but nevertheless:

I am an African American woman of mixed ethnic ancestry whose parents encouraged her to embrace diversity from a very early age. I attended integrated schools in the San Fernando Valley. I have friends of every color and stripe. My deceased husband was Caucasian. My mother is married to a man from the Philippines. And my brother's girlfriend is a Latina.

This issue is not about race; it's about fairness.

For years, liberal policy wonks have told us that illegal immigration is good for our economy. They sit in their high-rise think tanks in Brentwood and Century City and pontificate that the benefits of immigrants' cheap labor outweigh the price we pay to have these people here...

And I refuse to stand by and watch my beloved California go the way of the Titanic. Everyone wanted to sail on that mighty vessel. But when it got in trouble, no one seemed to notice at first or grasp the seriousness of the situation. Then the ship started to sink, and the commoners below were the first to drown.

That's us, people. The ultra-wealthy Westsiders, the corporate moguls and the special- interest politicians don't care about the hoi polloi on the lower decks...

Posted at 03:01 PM | Comments (8)

How today's immigration is not like yesterday's

From the NY Post:

Scores of non-English speaking parents gathered at City Hall yesterday, calling for reforms to make the school system more immigrant-friendly...

[other demands deleted...]

The demonstrators yesterday demanded passage of a bill that would require report card translations and interpreters at parent-teacher conferences.

The chances of this being a spontaneous demonstration are about nil. No doubt they were even bussed there and provided with talking points by one or more "immigrants rights" organizations. And, some of those organizations probably have some ties to the Ford Foundation.

An earlier example of how today's immigration is not like yesterday's is in 2 + 2 = separatism.

Posted at 11:22 AM | Comments (3)

Organizations Supporting Amnesty for Illegal Aliens

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

Posted at 12:10 PM | Comments (1)

Boston Globe: The silence about immigrants

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

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

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

Posted at 11:01 PM | Comments (1)

Bill O'Reilly asks some semi-tough questions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted at 11:02 AM | Comments (4)

"Out of our way, gringos!"

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

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

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

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

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

The piece ends with:

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

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

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

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

Posted at 02:12 PM | Comments (7)

"Mexican official seeks open border"

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted at 09:09 AM | Comments (7)

"Daniel Weintraub: Governor should lead debate on immigrants"

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

Posted at 10:53 PM | Comments (0)

"DHS has a different view of reality"

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

The editorial ends with this:

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

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

Posted at 10:24 PM | Comments (2)

The Arizona Republic has a lesson for you

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted at 10:13 PM | Comments (1)

More lame attempts to diss Samuel P. Huntington

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

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

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

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

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

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

Previous lame attempts to diss Huntington start here.

Posted at 12:32 PM | Comments (3)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted at 11:55 AM | Comments (1)

"Report: California a leading port for forced labor"

From this:

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

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

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

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

Posted at 11:38 AM | Comments (1)

AZ Gov. Janet Napolitano gets asked a tough question

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Insert the hand gesture of your choice here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted at 11:29 AM | Comments (1)

Will they be boycotting public services as well?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Especially note this link from the WSJ:

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

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

Posted at 03:43 PM | Comments (0)

Understanding Boxer

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted at 03:25 PM | Comments (0)

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

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

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

Posted at 11:29 AM | Comments (3)

Guess the candidate

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

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

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

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

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

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

Milbank quotes the following from ProjectUSA's article:

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

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

Posted at 11:25 AM | Comments (3)

"Little to stop illegal aliens from voting"

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

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

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

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

Posted at 12:41 PM | Comments (1)

One of these really happened

Can you guess which of the following really happened?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted at 12:20 PM | Comments (1)

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

From a press release, presented for amusement purposes only.

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

Posted at 01:22 PM | Comments (0)

"Welcoming arms put squeeze on U.S."

From John O'Sullivan:

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

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

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

Posted at 02:04 PM | Comments (1)

What should Bill O'Reilly ask President Bush?

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

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

Posted at 12:46 PM | Comments (2)

Bill Jones makes right noises, seeks support

From Senate candidate campaigns for reform of immigration system:

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

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

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

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

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

Posted at 12:35 PM | Comments (0)

"Campaign cowardice"

From Lou Dobbs' Campaign cowardice:

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

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

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

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

Posted at 12:29 PM | Comments (0)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The consortium has concentrated on undocumented immigrants...

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

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

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

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

Posted at 04:01 PM | Comments (1)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

From "Voting by noncitizens hard to find":

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

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

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

Posted at 01:18 PM | Comments (0)

Their money or your safety

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Before the vote, Treasury Secretary Snow said this:

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

After the vote, Culberson had this to say:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted at 09:49 PM | Comments (3)

The losing battle to deport criminal aliens

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1. The article has 31 paragraphs.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted at 01:45 PM | Comments (0)

"Shut The Sanctuary"

From Investor's Business Daily:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted at 12:42 PM | Comments (0)

Homeland Security making "extraordinary progress"

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted at 01:38 PM | Comments (1)

"A Day Without Misrepresentation?"

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

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

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

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

Posted at 01:53 PM | Comments (2)

At least the Pasadena Star-News is covering it

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

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

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

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

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

Time to get Patterico on the case!

In related news, Jane Chastain suggests taking this national.

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

Posted at 01:10 PM | Comments (1)

"Americans for Legal Immigration"

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

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

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

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

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

Posted at 10:59 PM | Comments (0)

"Time to Take Illegal Immigration Seriously"

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

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

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

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

Posted at 10:48 PM | Comments (1)

AZ Republicans rally for Protect Arizona Now

From the WashTimes:

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

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

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

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

OK, that's to be expected.

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

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

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

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

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

UPDATE: From this:

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

Don't read the following while drinking water:

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

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

Posted at 10:46 AM | Comments (1)

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

The SteinReport has the scoop:

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

Posted at 01:14 PM | Comments (0)

I have no idea what he's getting at

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

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

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

Posted at 12:59 PM | Comments (0)

"Tancredo presses White House on control of border"

From this:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted at 12:39 PM | Comments (0)

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

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

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

Posted at 12:14 PM | Comments (0)

"Tancredo furious with Hutchinson comment on immigration"

From The Hill:

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

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

According to this, they haven't yet spoken.

Posted at 11:38 AM | Comments (1)

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

From the Salt Lake Tribune:

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

The answer won't shock you:

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

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

Previous coverage of this great American here and here.

Posted at 11:28 AM | Comments (0)

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

Insight Magazine has a roundup of the latest Bush giveaway:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted at 11:13 PM | Comments (4)

"America's most urgent crisis"

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

Posted at 10:56 PM | Comments (1)

Radio hosts line up 'sacrifices'

The Washington Times offers this summary of Political Human Sacrifice:

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

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

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

Posted at 10:35 PM | Comments (0)

A letter from Americaland

A letter to the Washington Times editor:

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

WILSON L. FARIS Gaithersburg

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

Posted at 10:31 PM | Comments (0)

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

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

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

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