Immigration News first half of 2005 Archives

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Illegal immigration advocates... want CAFTA changed

Let's send out a big "heh indeed" to Reps. Xavier Becerra (D-Los Angeles) and Linda Sanchez (D-Lakewood) as well as to Sergio Barahona of the Central American Resource Center. They say that CAFTA will lead to increased illegal immigration. They don't want to completely stop it, nor do they wish to join with pro-borders groups to stop it, they just want to add in some protections:

[the fine advocates] maintained that the pact, known as CAFTA, would depress wages and exacerbate poverty in the region, particularly among farmers.

That, they said, would spur a move to cities, and if jobs are not plentiful enough to sustain migration, people will seek jobs outside their countries both legally and illegally.

"Guess what we're going to have? More immigrants from Central America coming to the United States," said Barahona, whose Los Angeles-based organization represents an estimated 1.5 million El Salvadorans in the United States, more than 700,000 of whom are believed to live in Southern California.

Added Becerra, "CAFTA will do nothing to improve the situation when it comes to immigration, particularly undocumented immigration..."

Full report in "CAFTA leads some to think illegal immigration could rise". I have absolutely no idea why advocates for illegal immigration would now raise questions about something that would seem to increase their ethnic power base. There must be something else going on, but what that is I don't know.

UPDATE: From "Bush seeks to ease concerns over Cafta":

The White House on Thursday offered to negotiate with congressional Democrats over enforcing labour rights provisions in a trade agreement with Central America and the Dominican Republic, the latest sign that the administration fears the proposed deal is in jeopardy...

As if you needed any more reason to oppose CAFTA, see "Former President Carter backs Cafta".

Posted at 12:17 PM | Comments (0)

OTMs on MSM radar

For some reason, OTMs ("Other Than Mexicans") are now on the MSM's perspicacious radar screen.

The AZ Daily Star combines their own reporting with the AP's reporting to create "Entrants not from Mexico big concern".

The L.A. Daily News' Washington Bureau offers "Most illegal aliens freed on bail, own recognizance".

Neither of those reports have much new to report, but if you aren't familiar with this issue they're worth a look.

UPDATE: There's yet another roundup in "Non-Mexican migrants swamp immigration, border agencies".

Unlike the other reports, there's actually news in "Release of non-Mexican illegals questioned":

...three U.S. senators Tuesday pressed federal officials to stem the flow by halting the routine release of thousands of non-Mexican illegal immigrants every month by the Border Patrol.

"Tell me what we can do and what it would cost," asked Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala...

"There is a vision, and it's already started," responded Wesley Lee, the acting director of Detention and Removal at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Lee, like Border Patrol chief David Aguilar, touted a program of "expedited removal" that puts illegal immigrants on a fast track for deportation...

Expedited removal is only used in the Tucson and Laredo sectors, not in the other seven along the border.

Posted at 01:53 PM | Comments (2)

JAMA: Immigrants bringing drug-resistant TB to U.S.

The Journal of the American Medical Association has a special issue on tuberculosis. From "Drug-resistant TB coming to U.S. from abroad-study":

...Dr. Reuben Granich of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told a news conference that while TB fell overall by 33 percent in California between 1994 and 2003, the proportion of cases that resisted more than two drugs, called multidrug-resistant or MDR TB, remained steady.

His team studied all reported cases of tuberculosis on California, the state with the most cases of TB in the United States...

Oddly enough (as they say), this is from Reuters and it doesn't sugar-coat the issue. The same cannot be said for, for instance, WebMD's "Drug-Resistant TB Continues in California". It mentions CA, NY, and TX as leading the nation in TB cases. What else do they lead the nation in? The reader is left to figure that out on their own.

See also ""Catastrophe in Care: Hospitals are being crippled by the costs of treating migrants".

Posted at 04:55 PM | Comments (1)

"U.S. officials promote programs for Mexican immigrants"

Can you spot the contradiction in this introductory paragraph from Knight Ridder's "U.S. officials promote programs for Mexican immigrants":

U.S. government officials convened Monday in San Francisco to promote programs, services and benefits available to Mexican immigrants in this country, including those who are undocumented, under a binational effort aimed at protecting workers' rights and improving the health of families...

Those of you who are old fuddy-duddies will probably have a problem with the U.S. government encouraging illegal immigration. But, wait, it gets worse. They're doing so with our friends from Mexico:

The officials from the Department of Labor and Department of Agriculture spoke to dozens of representatives of Mexican consulates from throughout the Western United States in a daylong training seminar aimed at jointly promoting immigrant rights...

While the government representatives seemed careful to not publicly emphasize how illegal immigrants can benefit under federal laws, the consuls and a top official from Mexico's Foreign Ministry in interviews spoke openly about how the undocumented often don't complain about working conditions for fear their employer will have them deported...

While I don't want to see workers exploited, I believe a far better way to avoid that would be for the federal government to fight against illegal immigration. That would also be consistent with our laws. And, no matter what we do, we should keep the Mexican government and their consulates at arm's length.

Maybe it's time for the American public to consider their options. If you don't want to go that far, contact your representatives and make clear to them that you oppose these sort of activities.

Posted at 02:52 PM | Comments (1)

Welcome libertarian Open Borders advocates!

Because you have a special ideology, I have a special treat for you: "Does the Free Market Require 'Free' Immigration?"

Note also that even someone as libertarianly pure as Michael Badnarik is opposed to illegal immigration.

Posted at 12:10 PM | Comments (0)

"Report Card on America’s Schools: Illegal Immigration Provides Lesson in Negative Numbers"

A new FAIR study shows just how much we're spending to educate another country's children. From the press release:

With the traditional end of the school year, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) has updated its study of the impact of illegal immigration on America’s public schools. Breaking the Piggy Bank: How Illegal Immigration is Sending Schools Into the Red estimates that nationwide, the cost of educating the children of illegal aliens in the U.S. now runs an astonishing $28.6 billion...

Posted at 06:46 AM | Comments (0)

ACLU: "Cowboys" enforcing immigration laws

Welcome to the Los Angeles Times' little world. In that world, it's unusual to enforce our immigration laws. Needless to say, the ACLU lives there too. Unfortunately, our "homeland security president" and his underlings live in that very same world.

From the LAT comes "Local Police, U.S. Agents Differ on Raids" (AP summary in "Local police didn't tip federal agents in SoCal immigration sweeps"):

When U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested more than 400 undocumented immigrants a year ago in controversial Southland sweeps, they said they acted partly in response to tips from local law enforcement agencies.

But hundreds of pages of documents about the raids, released by federal officials in response to a lawsuit from the ACLU, show no specific evidence of such tips, and several police agencies told The Times last week that they did not inform Border Patrol agents of the whereabouts of suspected illegal immigrants before the sweeps...

...The Escondido Police Department was the only one of seven agencies contacted by The Times not to dispute the Border Patrol's claims...

The Border Patrol says the tips may have come through unofficial channels, have been made by citizens, made confidentially, etc. etc.

...The sweeps raised protests among politicians, church leaders and the Mexican government because they extended well beyond the border and caused fear in immigrant neighborhoods, even among people in the U.S. legally.

Despite the overwhelming cultural presence of 'Born in East L.A.', those who are here legally have nothing to fear except the possibility of a slight inconvenience. As for those politicians et al., do some or all really have the best interests of the U.S. at heart? (See "AVWatch: Villaraigosa's under-reported associations" and "Rep. Joe Baca is making sense") As for the Mexican government, should we allow them to dictate our immigration enforcement policies? Aren't they - like some or all of the politicians - just on the other side?

Subsequently, the Department of Homeland Security determined that the agents did not get required approval from headquarters and did not coordinate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency primarily responsible for immigration violations away from the border. Homeland Security officials then clarified that the Border Patrol should concentrate on the border, major transportation hubs and travel routes north...

There's a story for the Times: why did the DHS cave in? Are they corrupt or just scared of far-left racial demagogues?

...The documents, sought by the ACLU in a lawsuit alleging possible violation of immigrants' rights...

...ACLU attorney Ranjana Natarajan said she believes the dozen agents harassed "day laborers and other vulnerable workers" out of frustration over the Inland Empire's growing immigrant population.

"It looks like it was a bunch of cowboys at the Temecula office who wanted to do more," she said. "They clearly wanted to do interior enforcement... They didn't bother to get any approval."

So, the ACLU says it's "harrasment" to enforce our laws. And, those who do so are "cowboys." Did we need reminding of which side they're on? See "The enemy within".

...The sweeps had a profound effect in some areas: Some immigrants said they were scared to go to local markets or schools...

Memo to the Times: legal "immigrants" have nothing to fear from the BP. Those who are here illegally shouldn't be attending schools in the first place.

Also see:
Reports on the Temecula townhall meeting
"Homeland Security? Not Yet"
Search for Hutchinson for more

Posted at 12:02 PM | Comments (1)

Mort Zuckerman: Massive illegal alien amnesty is a "second chance"

U.S. News & World Report's Morton Zuckerman offers us "A Second Chance", all about "immigration reform". There are only three good ideas in this editorial: first, at least this magazine is covering this; second, he wants to end or reduce chain migration, aka "family reunification"; third, he wants to bring in more skilled labor.

However, like others, he comes out in favor of "immigration reform", such as that offered by Bush's horrific plan or by the McKennedy amnesty. It includes this:

...We have to figure out how to fully integrate these illegal immigrants into our nation so that they become productive, law-abiding citizens, paying taxes and learning English...

We have to do no such thing. "Having to" integrate millions of illegal aliens now will just provide an incentive for millions more to come, all of whom will "have to" be integrated. How about we reduce the incentives for remaining here illegally at the same time as making it unprofitable to employ illegal aliens. As pointed out many times before, hundreds of thousands or even more illegal aliens will repatriate themselves, and we won't have to go out of our way to accomodate them.

The hope would be that once the available jobs were filled by authorized immigrants, those unauthorized would stop coming because employers could no longer hire them. This would free the Border Patrol to look for terrorists--instead of people just seeking work...

Yeah, it's good to know we're basing policy on "hope." What will actually happen is employers will keep employing illegals until it's unprofitable to do so. They'll donate some money and get exemptions in return. Or, Bush will just not enforce the law as he's doing now.

He goes on to say that these "reform" proposals are not amnesties. And, perhaps in some extremely strict, legalistic definition in some dictionary somewhere he might be right. However, in any case it will be perceived as an amnesty in all those countries that have sent us millions of people. And, it will show that the U.S. is "easy", leading to millions more coming here in expectation of the next last non-amnesty amnesty.

Posted at 02:40 PM | Comments (0)

America's immigration system is broken, and needs to be fixed

America is a land of immigrants. Today, immigrants come to do the jobs that Americans won't do. Today's wave of immigration is just like past waves. Everyone agrees that our immigration system is broken and needs fixing.

Oh, sorry. I was just reading this card I found on the ground... let's see, what's on the other side... Party Line Printers, Berkeley CA???

Oh my.

Anyhoo, while reading the rather unremarkable "news report" entitled "Immigration forum Sunday in St. Helena", I ran across the only quote they provide from "noted immigration law expert Mark Silverman" from the Immigrant Legal Resource Center:

"Everyone agrees immigration is broken and needs fixing, but nobody can agree how to fix it," Silverman said. "We're talking to people about their legal rights."

I don't know whether he said more than that, or whether that was the first and only thing he said to the "reporter." But, you can see the same exact comment from others here. And, when we change the wording slightly, we get even more hits, including one from Sen. John McCain of McKennedy amnesty fame.

Posted at 01:10 PM | Comments (0)

"Catastrophe in Care: Hospitals are being crippled by the costs of treating migrants"

Leo W. Banks has a long, depressing article about the health care crisis caused by massive illegal immigration. Print it out, take it to a "liberal" you know, and stand there while they read it.

Posted at 12:09 PM | Comments (0)

Mexico's Political Agenda Behind Migration Talks

There's a good roundup of the threat posed by massive illegal immigration in "Mexico's Political Agenda Behind Migration Talks: Americans Should Heed Warnings to Preserve National Unity".

The author has first-hand knowledge of the mindset she describes. In 2003 she spoke at the California hearings during which "American" legislators discussed accepting Mexican ID cards. At the hearing, former Sen. John Vasconcellos basically advocated giving the U.S. southwest back to Mexico. See "Since We Stole It, Let Them Steal It Back".

Posted at 11:42 AM | Comments (1)

Pro-illegal immigration groups gather, are ignored

Dan Stein reports:

A coalition of illegal alien advocacy groups including MALDEF, CHIRLA, SEIU and several dozen protestors holding signs demanding amnesty for illegal aliens, held a news conference on the steps of the Los Angeles City Hall this afternoon...

After the formal press conference, FAIR media director Ira Mehlman was interviewed by the press that did attend, presenting the arguments against rewarding millions of illegal aliens, and in the process punishing millions more Americans and legal immigrants. The organizers clearly were not pleased, as each interview was accompanied by angry glares from the leaders of the illegal alien advocacy groups who hovered around.

Apparently only KNX, KFWB or some other all-news station was the only English-language station that bothered to show up.

The protesters were there to support Kennedy-McCain, aka the McKennedy amnesty.

Posted at 10:20 AM | Comments (0)

OTMs in Brownsville to be deported

As previously discussed ("Other-than-Mexicans give themselves up to get released into the U.S.") OTMs have been basically surrendering to BP agents because there's no detention space. Thus, they get a notice to appear in 30 days, they're released, and they're never heard from again.

Now, one Brownsville judge appears to be attempting to change that:

...U.S. Magistrate Judge Felix Recio made a statement Thursday [seven] Central Americans who were caught this week crossing the Rio Grande near Brownsville.

"I want you to tell all your friends in Honduras that if they come through Brownsville, Texas, they will not be paroled into the system and they will be put in jail and deported," Recio told Vasquez in open court as he handed him a jail sentence that could keep him here until space opens at an immigration facility and he could be deported...

Full story here. Same report here.

Posted at 09:14 AM | Comments (0)

"The immigrant 'cheap labor' myth"

Jon Dougherty crunches the numbers and tells us:

...immigrants – legal and illegal – inflict a net drain on the U.S. economy, when you factor in all of the expenses associated with providing them taxpayer- and consumer-supported benefits and services.

While it is true there are some industries benefiting from cheap labor – agriculture, for one – bare-bones, unbiased, non-partisan statistics prove beyond reproach that illegal immigrants are costing the nation much more than they contribute to it...

Posted at 06:32 PM | Comments (2)

Wal-Mart, illegal aliens, and a wink and a nod

Earlier I pointed out that the $10 million fine to WalMart for employing illegal aliens represented about 15 minutes of their revenue (Wal*Mart's 15 minutes of pain).

Now, comes this news:

FAIR has learned from the Department of Homeland Security that the agency's recent settlement of charges for employing illegal aliens - that included an $11 million penalty - didn't apply any real pressure on mega-retailer Wal-Mart to mend its ways. One of the most useful arrows in the DHS quiver is a requirement that an offending employer sign up for the Basic Pilot verification system for all future hiring. FAIR learned that the enforcement folk at DHS did not levy this requirement on Wal-Mart...

Posted at 01:26 PM | Comments (0)

AVWatch: Villaraigosa's under-reported associations

The last post ("The Trojan Horses of Sacramento") mentioned one Juan Jose Guiterrez ("JJG"), who has some association with America's favorite new mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa. A closer look at JJG might prove fruitful for those who think that AV's apologists and supporters have any credibility left.

From this:

Villaraigosa was the only California politician who dared to join in the 1996 March on Washington that demanded amnesty for illegal aliens... The March was organized by Juan Jose Guiterrez of One Stop Immigration (now with SEIU) and led by a band from the Mexican Army...

What's a self-described patriot doing at a march featuring the Mexican Army band? There's a few pictures of AV from the march here. One picture includes AV and JJG together with someone who said on another occasion, "You old white people, it is your duty to die."

Just yesterday JJG held a press conference in L.A. where he called California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger a Nazi. Parts of this press conference were broadcast on KFI, so there's quite a bit more to this. JJG seemed to be mispronouncing Arnold's last name, so it rhymed with a rather infamous and scurillous word for black people.

No, really. He said Arnold's last name several times, but, instead of pronouncing it like "Schwartz-uh-NAY-gur", he pronounced it a bit more like "Schwartz-uh-NI-gur". Now, JJG has an accent. But, think of the second syllable in the word "ole", which has the same sound as the penultimate syllable in Arnold's last name. Perhaps it's just some strange inability to pronounce phonemes which are nearly the same in anglicized German and in Spanish, or perhaps he was being tripped up by the double-g's, or perhaps he was doing this intentionally.

In addition, he brought up that Arnold's father was supposedly a Nazi, and detailed how said father had allegedly killed many different people of many different backgrounds. Therefore, since Arnold was trying to secure the borders, JJG compared what Arnold is trying to do to what the Nazis did. Eric Leonard of KFI called JJG on this, but JJG offered a evasive reply then moved on. And, JJG reportedly did this press conference standing in front of a Swastika banner outside Arnold's L.A. office.

But, wait, there's much more. JJG then introduced someone who I believe was named Camacho. That person then went off on the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, claiming that because of that treaty we (you know, the Americans) had no right to prevent Mexicans from coming across the border at will.

Here's another slight connection, relating to the supposed immigration raids that supposedly took place in Southern California last year:

But the leader of Coalition Latino Movement USA, Juan Jose Gutierrez, claimed Border Patrol agents have also arrested people in Los Angeles, Orange, and Ventura counties.

He charged that Latino communities are being "terrorized" by the raids.

On Monday, Los Angeles City Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa and religious leaders called for an end to the alleged raids.

"Border Patrol officials say they're only enforcing the law, but it's clear they're only selectively enforcing the law," Villaraigosa said.

Those raids never took place.

There's more on JJG's SEIU connection here. And, here's Antonio Villaraigosa, marching in an SEIU parade.

There's more here and here.

And, here's the announcement for a May 21 ANSWER protest:

Join individuals and organizations as they converge on Downtown LA for a day of political and cultural resistance to the anti-people policies of the White House, Wall Street & the Pentagon... Speakers and Performers Include: Mark Klein, Political Director SEIU 660, Angelina Corona, Hermandad Mexicana Nacional, James Lafferty, National Lawyers Guild... Initiated by ANSWER-LA: Alliance for a Just and Lasting Peace in the Philippines, Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee-LA/OC, Free Palestine Alliance, Gabriela Network, MINDULLAE, National Lawyers Guild, Palestinian-American Women’s Association, Latino Movement USA, Party for Socialism and Liberation...

There's more on AV's associations here. "Tell me with whom you hang out, and I will tell you who you really are" indeed.

UPDATE: The only news report I can find on this is here, in Spanish. They have a twelve-point plan, including:
* voter registration drives...
* declaring a day during which they're going to trash all Schwarzenegger products...
* trying to get our friends in countries to the south to declare Arnold persona non grata...
* a big march (will the Mexican Army band be invited?) on October 12...

And, they also want to work with nurses, teachers, firefighters, and all other anti-Arnold groups. Gosh, wouldn't that be sweet? Maybe even AV will end up supporting their efforts. Hopefully there will be a lot of discrediting going on in the near future.

Posted at 08:18 AM | Comments (3)

"The Trojan Horses of Sacramento"

This is from December of last year, but it's still timely considering that Gil "One Bill Gil" was able advance this year's version of driver's licenses for illegal aliens yet again:

...if some far-Left legislators, and California Democrats in general, continue to conduct themselves as traitors to the mainstream, we may have to dramatically alter how we look at them: not as elected officials we disagree with, but as revolutionary enemies within. Not only haven't they learned a single lesson from the party-wide condemnation of the 2003 recall, but they clearly see the removal of Gray Davis as an aberrant historical myth and urban legend...

According to K. Lloyd Billingsley of the Pacific Research Institute ("The Radical Vanguard in the Los Angeles Labor Movement," August 2000), who wrote about, among other things, Nunez and his extreme political speeches and positions:

"We don't have economic power because we don't own the means of production," Nunez told a rally in January 1995, where he urged the crowd to "bring Washington to its knees." A year earlier, in October of 1994, Nunez and his militant colleague Juan Jose Gutierrez of the group One Stop Immigration, coordinated a rally of 70,000 immigrants against Proposition 187. Protestors waved Mexican flags and displayed an American flag with only 13 stars. They called Governor Pete Wilson a pig, compared Prop. 187 to Hitler's laws against Jews and told "Anglos" to go back to Europe.

Who do these legislators really work for?

What oath did they take when they captured elective office?

What are their real objectives?

Every California voter should know don't you think?

...Mr. Cedillo is one of the most influential and visible members of the Latino Caucus, a powerful organization that constitutes more than one-fifth of the state Legislature. His singular devotion to a conflict-ridden cause on behalf of two million foreigners is a serious paradox to the legal residents who pay his six-figure salary...

Posted at 10:51 PM | Comments (1)

What you can do about illegal immigration

I hardly agree with everything she writes, but Devvy Kidd does have some useful tips about dealing with illegal immigration.

First, do not vacation in Mexico...

Second, don't book your business convention in Cancun or any other city in Mexico...

Third, stop buying anything made in Mexico or any Latin American countries...

Fourth, stop buying any fruits or vegetables from Mexico or Latin American countries...

Fifth, get your money out of any bank that is giving home mortgage loans to illegals or in any way doing business with them...

I heartily agree with #1, #2, and, especially, #5. #4 I do already since I'd rather not expose myself to unnecessary risks. #3 might be a bit of a closer call, as it might be counterproductive. In any case, those steps are more effective as threats rather than in practice. If the Mexican government thought that their aggressive anti-American activities might result in a loss of revenue, they might modify those policies.

In any case, with Mexican citizens illegally in the U.S. threatening to wage economic war on one of our states, I don't think anyone should have any objections to simply refusing to send their money south of the border.

Posted at 10:42 PM | Comments (4)

"Illegal Immigration and the Mexican Archbishop"

I'm not familiar with the term "Thomistic", but Robert Klein Engler is and he reports:

...CNN.com reports that "Even Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera, the archbishop of Mexico City, criticized U. S. immigration policy as ridiculous and defended Fox's comments ["the jobs that even blacks won't do"], saying: "The declaration had nothing to do with racism. It is a reality in the United States that anyone can prove."

That's not the whole of Cardinal Carrera's comments about immigration. He also has criticized the United States for "xenophobic attitudes" toward Mexican immigrants, calling it inconsistent to promote international free trade but refuse to let people cross the border for the basic human right to work. "Just as the borders are open to merchandise, that is all the more reason that the borders should be open to the human being," said the Cardinal.

Why is the archbishop of Mexico City getting involved in the illegal immigration dispute between Mexico and the United States and defending President Fox and his remarks?

...Cardinal Carrera should be reminded that it is a principle of Thomistic theology that both the family and the state are natural and necessary for our earthly happiness. Respect for the family means respect for marriage and respect for the state means respect for its laws and borders. Furthermore, respect for the culture of indigenous peoples is no different from respect for the unique culture of those living in the United States. It is hard to imagine how following Thomistic theology we can justify illegal immigration or in the Cardinal's words, "that the borders should be open..."

Although Cardinal Carrera is in favor of national unity when it comes to things Mexican, he seems not to be in favor of national unity when it comes to the U. S. protecting its borders. During the 1995 rebellion in Chiapas he made a plea for national unity and worried that Mexico might run the risk of coming apart. But when the U. S. decides on the national unity that comes with the enforcement of its immigration laws, he opposes such an effort...

See also "Can I blame the Catholic Church then?" about a logic-free Open Borders editorial from Cardinal Roger Mahoney.

Posted at 10:33 PM | Comments (0)

AVWatch: Annotating Villaraigosa's speech

L.A.'s mayor-elect Antonio Villaraigosa appeared at the "Take Back America" event (for "progressives", not necessarily reconquistas). Here are his remarks, annotated with few randomly chosen links:

I come today as a patriot... I talk about patriotism because I think for too long progressives have allowed some to wrap themselves around the flag and say, America, love it or leave it...

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

...I started out in the civil rights movement...

The speech went on like that. If you prefer facts, even of the uncomfortable kind, click on the links and check out who "progressives" support.

The middle sentence should scare the crap out of anyone in the named cities. Trust me on this: you don't want to end up like Los Angeles.

Posted at 05:52 PM | Comments (0)

Thinking not so welcome among Texas Democrats

The AP offers us "Minutemen not so welcome in Texas", which contains some less-than-brilliant thoughts from state Democrats.

First up is state Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa, D-McAllen, who sponsored an anti-Minuteman resolution. He opines:

"I don't think that there's any doubt that there's a tinge of racism beneath the surface in their attempt to try to stop immigrants from Mexico," Hinojosa said. "Why don't they do that in Canada?"

Well, first of all, they do intend to patrol the Canadian border. And, secondly, while I haven't been following the news reports that closely, I believe there's an ever so slight difference between the numbers of people who stream over our southern border and those who come from the north. That number is just ever so slight, so I certainly can't blame Chuy for not being aware of a numerical difference. Say, why is Hinojosa more or less supporting the importation of millions of people who are of the same ethnicity as he is? Anyone have a clue why he might do that?

Next up is the always entertaining U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston:

She wrote an amendment to a Homeland Security budget bill that blocks funding to "any border patrol activities that are unauthorized by law."

She said the Minuteman Project was "an appropriate wake-up call for the United States" about the need to better fund border security. But, she said, it has completed its mission and needs to disband because of potential for violence.

"The California event wound up in almost hand-to-hand combat. The meeting in Las Vegas also produced violent reaction. What can we expect at the border?" she said. "The Minutemen are as bad for the southern border as the Ku Klux Klan was for the South."

I've seen some really far-out-to-space comments from our political class, but that has got to be one of the most brain-dead statements I've ever seen.

The Freedom Riders encouraged violence from the Klan. Does SJL think they should have been stopped? The Klan in the current case is not the MMP, it's the Commie-agitated anti-American racists who violently oppose the MMP. Perhaps SJL should consider supporting the rights of Americans to peacefully assemble and protest without having soda cans or water bottles thrown their way. What an absolute idiot.

I believe SJL's comments can be explained using the usual formula: up is down, down is up.

Posted at 10:11 AM | Comments (2)

Can I blame the Catholic Church then?

The LAT offers us a guest editorial from L.A.'s own Cardinal Roger Mahony entitled "A Nation That Should Know Better":

It appears fashionable these days, and almost politically correct, to blame hard-working immigrants, especially those from Mexico and Central America, for the social and economic ills of our state and nation. Anti-immigrant fervor on TV and radio talk shows, citizens attempting to enforce immigration laws and the enactment of restrictive laws, such as the Real ID Act, are evidence of this trend. Some of our elected officials are joining the parade, going so far as to call for the closing of our southern border...

It isn't "anti-immigrant" to support enforcing our laws. His first sentences are basically a strawman argument; perhaps he should do some more research into what people like, for instance, Lou Dobbs are saying rather than misrepresenting their complaints.

And, of course, the last sentence is a swipe at Gov. Arnold. Yet, oddly enough, Arnold made it clear that he was referring to securing, not closing the border.

That makes this the third instance I've spotted in which Arnold's comments have been deliberately misrepresented. The other two were from Antonio Villaraigosa and Pilar Marrero, both fine company.

Needless to say, the editorial goes downhill from there, and he ends up supporting "immigration reform" (you know, the "up is down, down is up" variety).

Now, of course, the reader is left wondering, "Why would a high-ranking member of the Catholic Church support the massive importation of millions of people from overwhelmingly Catholic countries?" I would be shocked and horrified if anyone dared suggest that the good Cardinal was trying to increase the size of his flock, and was using deliberate misinterpretations, strawman arguments, and Orwellian newspeak to do it. Why, it's inconceivable!

This section is titled "Thinking out loud." Perhaps the Cardinal should have thought about this some more.

Posted at 01:27 PM | Comments (2)

NYT goes to Idaho, discovers illegal immigration

Monday's New York Times has a front page article about illegal immigration to Idaho and County Commissioner Robert Vasquez's attempts to do something about it: "A Battle Against Illegal Workers, With an Unlikely Driving Force".

In what might be a first for the NYT, it's not a PIIPP, and the bleeding heart "liberalism" of Nina Bernstein is nowhere to be found.

It does, however, approach this issue with the idea that being Hispanic implies that one must also support illegal immigration. If that's true, does that mean that all or most Hispanics don't respect our laws and put their race before their country? Perhaps the NYT should look into that in more depth in a future article.

The article also says, "Mr. Schwarzenegger was criticized by many Latinos after he praised a group of citizens patrolling the border." Do far-left (or worse) racial demagogues (including one with alleged links to the Mexican government) really count though?

The NYT also generally supports the idea that without all those illegal serf laborers Idaho would be forced to declare bankruptcy and be sold to Canada or something. For the answer to that, see "How Much Is that Tomato in the Window?" or "The Mirage of Mexican Guest Workers":

...California Farmer reported in 1963 that if the flow of braceros stopped, tomato growers and canners "agree the State will never [again be able to plant] the 100,000 to 175,000 acres planted when there was a guaranteed supplemental labor force in the form of the braceros..."

Reality, however, never confirmed these dire predictions. In 1960 some 45,000 farm workers (mostly braceros) had harvested 2.2 million tons of processing tomatoes. By 1999, it took only 5,000 workers to operate machinery that harvested some 12 million tons. Thanks to these efficiency gains from mechanization, the real price of processing tomatoes declined 54 percent while per capita consumption rose 23 percent...

It's a good start, but I hope the next time the NYT will look into this in a bit more depth. And, perhaps they should consider coming to Los Angeles and reporting on our situation here.

Posted at 09:55 PM | Comments (3)

New South Federal Savings Bank... and RICO?

Dimitri Vassilaros might be an unforgivable idiot when it comes to biking ("Keep Bicycles off the Road"), but he does have an interesting column about home loans for illegal aliens. From "Banking on illegals":

New South Federal Savings Bank is giving illegal aliens home mortgages to help them realize the American dream.

Its Casa Mia program is designed to help tax-paying immigrants "without traditional forms of documentation" -- like anything indicating they are Americans...

If enough illegals apply, New South plans to offer Casa Mia mortgages in Atlanta, Phoenix and Houston "in the near future."

Unless, that is, the bank officers are arrested for helping to harbor illegal aliens.

"What this bank is doing is a clear violation of the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act," said Craig Nelsen, executive director of Friends of Immigration Law Enforcement...

...[FILE] is threatening to use the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) to file a civil damages lawsuit against the bank...

Previously: "Most banks would sell the kidneys of Brazilian garbage men if they could get away with it".

Note that this article also mentions Atlanta's Mexican Consul general, Remedios Gomez Arnau, who I seem to recall from the Pedro Marin story. See Mexican agents in the state houses? Part 2.

UPDATE: Here's the FILE letter:

...It is very likely a court would find the issuance of a mortgage under your new program to be a criminal violation of 8 U.S.C. 1324 (Bringing in and Harboring Certain Aliens), which makes it a felony to encourage an alien to reside in the United States knowing that such residence is in violation of law. §1324(a)(1)(A)(iii) It is hard to imagine any court taking seriously a claim that helping an illegal alien buy a house situated inside the United States isn't knowingly encouraging the illegal alien to reside illegally in the United States...

Posted at 08:40 PM | Comments (0)

AVWatch: Mexico to play important role in Villaraigosa's policies

Los Angeles mayor-elect Antonio Villaraigosa was interviewed by Mexico City's El Universal a few days ago, and:

[he said] that Mexico will play an important role in shaping his policies...

Furthermore:

...Villaraigosa stressed that as mayor he would look to improve relations with Mexico.

"We are starting a new era. Instead of closing the borders, as stated by (California Governor Arnold) Schwarzenegger, we should look at our border as an opportunity," said Villaraigosa. "This is a time of great importance, not just for us to rediscover our roots, but looking to create a mutually beneficial relationship."

...He said he would not support policies that persecute the city's large migrant population...

"I support Special Order 40 (prohibiting police from making migration-related arrests)," he said. "We need our police officers to fight gangs and organized crime. That will keep them more than busy."

He lamented the Real ID act, recently passed by the U.S. Congress, that if signed by President George W. Bush would prevent undocumented migrants from getting driver's licenses.

"Politicians in the United States need to understand that immigrants come here for the same reason that immigrants have always come: To work," he said. "Instead of punishing and demonizing them, we should try to integrate them."

He added that while his position does not allow him to make policies on immigration, he will speak out in favor of "humane, realistic and effective" migration reform...

Not being able to make policy hasn't stopped him from doing things like congratulating former MX president Zedillo on helping to block Prop. 187. And, while he might not have federal legislative powers, he can set immigration policies for Los Angeles by doing things like exactly what he says above: opposing Special Order 40.

Note also that AV misquotes Arnold Schwarzenegger above. Since Arnold made clear he was only referring to securing the borders, and AV undoubtedly knows that, wouldn't you consider that AV is intentionally trying to mislead the readers of this article?

Regarding Special Order 40, see also "Immigration Laws Might Have Stopped Sept. 11 Plot" and a similar policy discussed in "'Sanctuary' practice in Houston draws fire". The fire came from 9/11 Commission member John Lehman, who might be better able to speak to this issue than the mayor "for all of Los Angeles."

Note to all of AV's apologists, defenders, and supporters: expect this only to get worse as our Open Borders mayor drives Los Angeles even further down the road to ruin. Get out now while you still have some slight credibility left.

Note to the NYT: I see that you published "In New York, Fringe Politics in Mainstream" in your NY Regional section. Could you please come out to Los Angeles and do a special on our politics here? Sure there will be some bias, but I have no doubt you'll do a much better job than the L.A. Times. (Readers are urged to contact public *at* nytimes.com and ask them to do this.)

Posted at 02:15 PM | Comments (0)

Rich Lowry on the McCain-Kennedy amnesty bill

From NRO:

This bipartisan deal cut by Sen. John McCain is noxious. No, the issue isn't judges. (Or campaign finance, or health care, or any number of other things.) It's illegal immigration and a proposal that has just been cooked up by the Arizona maverick and the Massachusetts non-maverick Sen. Ted Kennedy to grant an amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants...

The bill could make illegals stand on one foot and wave their arms before becoming legal - but it would still be an amnesty...

...The McCain-Kennedy bill has the hallmarks of continuing in the tradition of the 1986 legislation... "A lot of it seems intended actually to handcuff DHS enforcement people," says [Mark] Krikorian. The rest of the enforcement provisions are a mishmash of calls for reports, coordination plans, advisory committees - in other words, the usual dodges when politicians want the public to think they are doing something they don't want to do...

Posted at 08:24 PM | Comments (4)

Sierra Club to rent Goodyear blimp

From the Angeles Chapter of the Sierra Club's website comes this (older) news:

Sierra Club members turned out in historic numbers in April to elect five of their peers to the Board of Directors and to reject a ballot initiative that would have forced the group to support restrictions on immigration. Over 15 percent of the Club's membership returned 122,308 ballots - the second highest in the Club's recent history - and defeated the anti-immigration measure by more than a 5 to 1 margin...

That's linked from their home page by the headline "Club elects new board; measure to restrict immigration soundly defeated". The prominent placement given to the defeat of the measure, and the use of the word "soundly" immediately prompted me to add, "Did you hear that, Mr. Gelbaum?"

For those who don't know the name, David Gelbaum has given the Sierra Club Foundation over $100 million. Here's a quote from him:

"I did tell Carl Pope [Executive Director of the Sierra Club] in 1994 or 1995 that if they ever came out anti-immigration, they would never get a dollar from me..."

In case they want to make sure that he hears their message, perhaps they should rent the Goodyear blimp, buy billboard space, print up some coasters, or do all three.

Posted at 08:10 PM | Comments (1)

"Sens. Cornyn, Kyl Prepare Massive Guestworker Plan"

Paul Egan of FAIR reports on a Senate immigration hearing attended by John Cornyn (R-TX) and Jon Kyl (R-AZ). Those two worthies are preparing their own massive guest worker plan/amnesty (not to be confused with the McCain-Kennedy Open Borders, Open Wallets bill.)

According to Egan the meeting was one-sided in favor of Open Borders types:

...Deputy labor secretary Stephen Law proposed a wide-open foreign worker program, for every sector of the U.S. economy. He was joined in supporting this proposal by the other witnesses, including Tom Donohue president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Dan Griswold director of Trade Policy Studies at the CATO Institute, and Princeton sociology professor Douglass S. Massey.

The witnesses also told senators that illegal immigration would solve the social security problem. Assistant Secretary Law made the incredible observation that the use of h-1b guestworkers in the high-tech industry, proves there is continued job growth in the high-tech industry, completely ignoring the record high levels of under- and unemployment for U.S. high tech workers...

For his part, CATO's Griswold responded to a question about the tax burden of illegal aliens on local communities by claiming that illegal aliens pay more in taxes than they get in benefits. He went on to offer another gem, saying one of the main problems of the 1986 IRCA legislation was that it didn't liberalize legal immigration. (Meaning, unlimit it.)

Egan says that neither Kyl nor Cornyn endorsed the statements of the pro-Open Borders crowd, but I doubt whether they renounced them either.

In case you think Law's comments were just a one-off or didn't reflect Bush's opinions, bear in mind that Margaret Spellings (former assistant to Bush for domestic policy and our current Secretary of Education) said the same things in January 2004. That's discussed in Bush "guest worker" program to be "open to any type of employee", and, strangely enough, Dan Griswold was on the same panel at that time. See also Bush immigration plan could affect techies.

Posted at 05:48 PM | Comments (5)

Illegal immigration activist offended, media alerted

Mayra Latimer - a counselor at high schools somewhere in Wisconsin - is angry. Very angry.

You see, there's a TV commercial playing in Wisconsin which opposes WI Gov. Jim Doyle's plan to give illegal aliens a better deal than U.S. citizens. Doyle wants to give citizens of other countries discounted college educations. Meanwhile, U.S. citizens who live outside WI but who want to (for some reason) attend WI colleges would be forced to continue to pay the full rate.

Let me put Jim Doyle's plan in chart form:
Illegal aliens: discount
U.S. citizens: the shaft

But, back to Latimer:

[she] says the ad makes her angry not just because it exists but because it drives an even bigger wedge between the people on both sides of the issue.

"We want to create a better future for our kids, and as a parent it's hard for me to see that kind of reaction."

That's nice, but it still doesn't explain why the U.S. citizens in Wisconsin should pay for the educations of citizens of foreign countries and give the shaft to other U.S. citizens from other states.

So far, I've only been able to come up with two explanations as to why this high school counselor was given air time: either the station agrees with her and was using her to make their point, or the news director is high on cheese.

Posted at 04:13 PM | Comments (0)

They take the jobs teens won't do. Or something.

From the article "Finding summer job is no child's play. Teens have to slog to find work, more so in some states":

Employment rates for younger Americans have been falling steadily, hitting a historic low last year and likely to be about as low this summer. An expected improvement in teen jobs has failed to materialize even as the overall job picture has brightened.

Teens, facing stiff competition from older workers, immigrants and college kids, will fare about as well this summer as they did last summer, predicted Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston.

About 36.7% of U.S. teens age 16 to 19 will work this summer, Sum said, just about matching the 36.1% of teens employed last summer, which was the lowest rate in 57 years...

"Teens really benefit a lot when employers add a lot of jobs," [Sum] said. And because of a stable influx of older workers, immigrants and young adults age 20 to 24, "employers just haven't had to reach back that far in the queue to reach the kids..."

Why are we giving low-wage jobs to people from another country, when we could be giving them to our own citizens? And, is how socially healthy is this situation? Shouldn't teenagers get crap job experience as part of their development?

Previously: "[Illegal aliens] do the jobs that even blacks won't do."

Posted at 05:08 PM | Comments (3)

Tucson: free educations for all!

Tucson's a nice little city, but it has its problems. Two of those problems appear to be Pima County Schools Superintendent Linda Arzoumanian and, in the same county, Ajo Unified School District Superintendent Robert Dooley.

From this:

The state's top school official said Wednesday that students who live in Mexico regularly attend public schools in Ajo at the expense of Arizona taxpayers and that Pima County's school superintendent has refused his request to investigate the matter.

That refusal could result in a challenge of future per-pupil funding requests, said state schools superintendent Tom Horne

Horne said the allegations first raised a year ago in news reports were confirmed by a private investigator he sent to the border. The investigator videotaped students walking across the Lukeville border and boarding a nearby school bus...

...Horne said Pima County Schools Superintendent Linda Arzoumanian declined to investigate further, and Ajo Unified School District Superintendent Robert Dooley has yet to respond.

Should Arzoumanian or Dooley fail to take action, Horne said he may challenge schools' requests for per-pupil funding, an annual allotment which is currently set at $5,000 per student...

[Arzoumanian] said discriminating against students based on citizenship, race or national origin is unconstitutional - and because address checks aren't common practice - she hesitates to focus on border-area students of apparent Mexican heritage.

"It's not within my right to do an investigation," she said.

If, as in the Ajo schools, students provide the rent and utility receipts, or guardianship documents that they need to prove they live in the district, then they are eligible to attend public schools.

"I'm not sure that any (students from Mexico ) are attending. … There's no way to know," she said...

Other than the videotape and the investigation, of course.

Previously: "Southwestern schools root out illegal pupils"

Posted at 04:45 PM | Comments (0)

Chris Cannon, Grover Norquist, WSJ, Fox News all linked together?

Regular readers of this blog are probably familar with Rep. Chris Cannon (R-UT). (If not, see "Rep. Chris Cannon, great American and great Republican" for the latest or see "Aide to U.S. Rep. Chris Cannon (R-UT) solicits campaign contributions from illegal aliens" for a classic.)

On Monday, the NYT published "Link to Lobbyist Brings Scrutiny to G.O.P. Figure", which showed all the links between Grover Norquist and indicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Now, Project USA reports:

On May 02, 2004, Norquist wrote a dishonest article for FoxNews.com attacking Matt Hayes of Friends of Immigration Law Enforcement after FoxNews.com ran a piece by Matt detailing the negative impact on working Americans of the immigration policies pushed by Rep. Chris Cannon of Utah...

By the sheerest of coincidences, in the last election cycle, Chris Cannon's campaign paid Janus Merritt Strategies, the firm Grover Norquist started with David Safavian, Cannon's chief of staff in 2001, $5,960 for "Campaign Consulting & Fundraising Exp." Also during the 2004 cycle, Cannon's campaign paid $5,614 for fundraising expenses to Williams Mullen, the influence-peddling company that was in the process of buying Norquist's influence-peddling company.

Matt had a crushing response to Norquist ready to submit (crushing responses to immigration extremists, forced as they are to rely on dishonesty in order to be convincing, are very easy to write), when he got word that word had come from higher up not to print any more articles by him that mentioned Chris Cannon...

...In the 2004 cycle, News America Holdings gave $5,000 to Cannon for Congress...

Note that American Patrol says that Norquist is supposedly now in favor of greater immigration control, but who cares.

Posted at 11:41 AM | Comments (1)

Far-lefties support illegal immigration, use strawman argument

There I go again, giving MSM reports my own title. In fact, what we have is "Speakers say immigrants don't get fair shake":

"Immigrant bashers" got bashed Monday afternoon at a rush hour rally in support of immigration reform.

[...quote from SEIU deleted...]

...Speakers at the event denounced "Real ID," which they said makes it virtually impossible for an undocumented immigrant to get a driver's license...

But, isn't that a good thing?

I realize this is just a blurb, and it's probably from a cub reporter, but perhaps that reporter could have made a slight attempt at journalism and asked them what they mean by "bashing" rather than just serving a stenographic role. Can they give examples of this "bashing?" Could they in fact be referring to U.S. citizens simply asking that our immigration laws be enforced? And, could the reporter have given a slight clue to the far-left nature of the SEIU rather than requiring her readers to search for that information? And, by "immigration reform", don't they in fact mean "the Kennedy-McCain massive guest worker and amnesty program"?

Send your thoughts to metro at RockyMountainNews.com

Posted at 12:03 AM | Comments (0)

Should Bryan Barton sue San Francisco?

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is voting on a resolution that would condemn Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for his support of the Minuteman Project.

The resolution is in this PDF file. As you might expect, it's full of innuendo and misleading statements.

However, it also contains at least one thing that I consider to be an outright lie:

WHEREAS, The federal border patrol had to call in the County Sheriff's Office when Minuteman vigilantes held a 26 year old Mexican man against his will, physically restrained him and forced him to hold a t-shirt with a mocking slogan while his picture was taken and he was videotaped...

That refers to Bryan Barton. I realize that in the alternate reality of Frisco the above statement might be true, but it's false in our reality. Even the Mexican consul agrees no crime was committed.

We can laugh about those wacky S.F. Supes all day long, but when the state lies about you and falsely accuses you of having committed a crime, that affects all of us irrespective of ideology. If I were Barton I know what I'd do, and I'm sure I'd win and collect a large judgment as well.

Posted at 06:30 PM | Comments (3)

Far-left illegal alien advocates bus in anti-Arnold demonstrators (my title)

Wouldn't it be a wonderful world if my title had been used, rather than "Angry Immigrants Protest at Capitol"?

In that case, we'd actually know what's going on. Instead, we get this naive and misleading report:

Angry immigrants tried to get the governor's attention Monday with a noisy protest outside his office...

[...they don't like his support of the Minuteman Project...]

[Assemblyman Alberto Torrico, D-Newark informs:] "The governor of the people is afraid of the people... He's become an embarrassment to our state."

...Immigrant groups began boarding buses for the Capitol just after sunrise to celebrate Immigrant Day. In Sacramento, they delivered an open letter to the governor and the legislature, asking them to recognize the contributions of immigrants and reject vigilantism.

[Reshma Shamasunder of the California Immigrant Welfare Collective intones:] "...Let's support comprehensive immigration reform. Let's not invite lawless folks into our state."

Some of these people might in fact be immigrants. Others, perhaps most of them, are actually immigrants. Oops! I forgot to call them "illegal immigrants" just like the article did. Thankfully I believe in calling things by their true names.

I note also that the California Immigrant Welfare Collaborative (the correct name of the group mentioned, although collective is certainly accurate) is a far-left organization:

(CIWC) provides information on public benefits for immigrants in California. Some of the issues CIWC addresses include: Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants (CAPI), health care, domestic violence, language access, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Food Stamps, CalWORKs, public charge, and affidavits of support.

At this point in time you're probably thinking of that guy who sells books telling you how to get as much government money as possible. Except, when they say "immigrants", I think they're talking about "immigrants" too. As in the illegal variety. And, I don't know whether Matthew Lesko has chapters on that yet.

CIWC's homepage is here. You'll note two things: one of their collaborators is Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles. Click the link to see why that's not a good thing at all.

And, another of their collaborators is the National Immigration Law Center, which also hosts the CWIC's site. Read that link for much more on CWIC and their fellow travelers.

See also "The Enemy Within the Justice Department's Office of Special Counsel". The DOJ at one time linked to the NILC.

And, here's an action alert from the CWIC and their fellow groups advocating for the Mexican government's Matricula Consular cards.

Now, if I could do the foregoing, why couldn't CBS 5's John Lobertini?

Posted at 10:25 PM | Comments (2)

"Immigration excuses need some work"

David Harsanyi of the Denver Post gets it right:

Did you know some consider it racist to oppose illegal immigration but perfectly reasonable to support a system that casts illegal Mexican immigrants in the most menial and undesirable jobs?

The enlightened, it would seem, need someone to wash the dishes when they are done with their seared ahi and pinot noir in the finest Cherry Creek bistros.

Makes you wonder, though: Who are the bigots here?

...Colorado provides illegal immigrants free use of hospitals and city homeless shelters, while they make up around 20 percent of the Colorado jail population. And the state affords tens of thousands of immigrant children free schooling.

Is it racist to point out these facts? Or do open-border advocates cleverly equate rational immigration control with irrational bigotry?

He goes on to discuss Denver's sanctuary for illegal aliens policy and their current and former mayors John Hickenlooper and Wellington Webb. For more information on that sanctuary policy, see this.

Posted at 11:15 AM | Comments (2)

N.Y. Daily News, Albor Ruiz: Lying, Misleading, Joking, or Telling the Truth?

Welcome to the premier edition of "Lying, Misleading, Joking, or Telling the Truth", or LMJOTTT as it shall henceforth be known. In this series we'll examine editorials and news reports, and try to decide which of those the author is doing.

For this edition, we'll look at "Immigrants get new hope for fairness" from Albor Ruiz in the New York Daily News:

The new bi-partisan immigration reform bill introduced this week in Congress brings some hope for moving the immigration question away from prejudice, partisan grandstanding and merciless repression.

I think I'll put this part in the "he must be joking with his hyperbole scare talk" and part in the "he's misleading verging on outright lying". Is it really "prejudice" or "merciless repression" to enforce our immigration laws? So, is he joking, or just outright lying?

...current anti-immigrant climate...

I think he's referring to the fact that 75% or more of the American public is opposed to illegal immigration, and they seem to actually be demanding that their representatives share their concerns. Is that "anti-immigrant"? No, it isn't. Misleading.

It is too soon to give a verdict on the merits of the proposed reform law, but something is certain: It puts back some needed common sense in the immigration debate.

I get the impression that Albor didn't have the time to go to Kennedy's site and read up on the details. He lays it all out. Perhaps he's waiting for talking points or something.

Then, Ruiz includes a quote from the New York Immigration Coalition. This was the same group discussed in the earlier entry "Hats off to the New York Immigration Coalition", which - surprise! - featured Ruiz discussing a misleading poll that, unfortunately, was performed by an academic rather than a regular-grade hack.

We'll end with this highly misleading statement:

Immigrants are our neighbors, the parents of school children like our own, they are hardworking people who pay taxes, fight wars and hold the most difficult jobs out there.

That's good to know. However, isn't Ruiz mainly discussing illegal immigrants in this piece? Why doesn't he identify them as such? Why does the NYIC suffer from that same problem? Are they... trying to mislead their readers?

Note: just a couple weeks ago, a N.Y. Daily News "news" report was discussed in the post "Get out your hankies, here comes a PIIPP", which also contains the email I sent the NYDN.

Contact editor *at* nydailynews.com with your thoughts.

Posted at 09:04 PM | Comments (4)

Jesse Jackson, MALDEF creating "human rights" group

Disturbing news from the Reverend's latest junket:

On the heels of a meeting with Mexican President Vicente Fox over his comments about American blacks, the Rev. Jesse Jackson announced he is forming a group that will address issues affecting blacks and Hispanics...

On Thursday, Jackson, along with Ann Marie Tallman, president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said they were forming a human rights council that would focus on issues such as fair immigration policies, voting rights and a balanced trade policy...

MALDEF, like many other open borders groups, gets most of their money from the Ford Foundation. See the link for more information on them. Even someone like Jackson should have qualms about forming a group with them. Maybe the other Reverend can do better:

...In a phone interview with The Associated Press, Sharpton said he wasn't satisfied with the contradictory expressions of regret issued by the administration of Vicente Fox this week. He said he would seek an "unequivocal, formal" apology during a meeting with Fox on Monday in Mexico City...

He said illegal migrants in the United States millions of whom are Mexican are working for low wages and no benefits, taking jobs from other minority groups who are in the United States legally.

"We also need to deal with the fact that there has been an inordinate amount of tension where people have come across the border for almost slave wages, competing with Latinos and blacks," Sharpton said. "It's almost like a 21st century slave trade."

Posted at 12:29 PM | Comments (0)

"Immigration's not-so-hidden costs hurt American workers"

Liberal Clarence Page informs us:

"We are a nation of immigrants," Kennedy said in announcing the new bill. "And we always will be, and our laws must be true to that proud heritage." I agree with that. But I also know that the nation can have too much of a good thing, especially those who have entered the workforce illegally.

Controlled and orderly immigration is enriching for our country. But massive large-scale immigration puts a squeeze on low-wage workers who already are here and facing a shrinking demand for their low-skilled labors...

...Yet we continue to hear about how illegals only take the "jobs nobody wants." Ideally, there is almost no job that somebody would not want and make themselves available to do, if you offer them enough money to do it. Whenever I hear someone talk about the "jobs nobody wants" what I really hear is: "jobs that pay less than most Americans need to support their families."

Posted at 10:34 PM | Comments (4)

"Analysts say racism unrecognized"

The Dallas Morning News article "Analysts say racism unrecognized" gives a bit more background on Vicente Fox's recent comment that Mexican illegal aliens do the jobs "that not even blacks want to do".

President Vicente Fox's controversial comment about blacks in the United States is typical of a Mexico that fails to recognize its own racist attitudes, even as skin tone and economic success move in near lockstep, analysts said Tuesday.

In the official census, Mexicans of African descent are not even counted as a distinct group. White Mexicans dominate TV programs and advertising. Most politicians have light brown skin or are white like Fox, whose mother is from Spain.

"Racism is very deeply ingrained here, but no one accepts (that fact)," said Sergio Aguayo, a longtime human rights activist. "What Fox said was part of the language of all Mexicans. The paradigm of beauty is white skin and blue eyes..."

Previously: "Jesse Jackson and MALDEF go to Mexico".

Posted at 10:21 PM | Comments (0)

El Paso poll: no driver's licenses for illegal aliens

From the El Paso Times' "Many oppose licenses for undocumented, poll shows":

El Pasoans, Hispanic and non-Hispanic, largely favor allowing some undocumented immigrants to work and live legally in the United States, but strongly oppose giving them driver's licenses.

An El Paso Times/KVIA-ABC 7 poll indicates that 59 percent of the 300 registered voters interviewed in April favored the creation of a work program for undocumented immigrants. But 65 percent of the same voters said they opposed giving undocumented immigrants driver's licenses, a much-debated issue for years...

In the poll, the answers to the two immigration questions were similar among Hispanic and non-Hispanic voters. Sixty-one percent of Hispanics and 72 percent of non-Hispanics disapproved of driver's licenses for undocumented immigrants, and 64 percent of Hispanics and 50 percent of non-Hispanics favored a work program. The margin of error was plus or minus 6 percentage points...

El Paso is, of course, right on the border and it's around 3/4 Hispanic, almost all of which are Mexican-American.

Posted at 08:18 PM | Comments (2)

Jesse Jackson and MALDEF go to Mexico

Jesse Jackson shows exactly what type of person he is. When he first condemned Vicente Fox's remark that "[illegal aliens do the jobs] that not even blacks want to do" I (to a very minor extent) thought he might actually try to do some good. Instead, we get "Fox 'expresses regret' to Jackson for remark":

...During a 40-minute meeting, Fox said he was sorry the statement had offended Americans, Jackson said.

"He expressed his sincere regret of any misinterpretation of what he meant," Jackson said afterward. "He expressed with a very contrite heart that he is not a racist."

The two men pledged to work together on human rights, U.S. immigration reform and other issues, Jackson said. After talking, they posed with a large picture of Jackson and the late Hispanic civil rights leader, Cesar Chavez.

Jackson was accompanied by Ann Marie Tallman, president of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund. The group is leading the legal challenges against Arizona's Proposition 200 and similar initiatives in other states...

Al Sharpton is expected to fly in shortly.

MALDEF gets most of their money from the Ford Foundation. I wonder whether they contribute to the Rev. Jackson as well.

Larry Elder responded to this visit on Lou Dobbs' show:

Think about that. MALDEF wants open borders, effectively. They want driver's licenses for illegals. They want in-state tuition for illegals. They want us really to do nothing about -- about the borders... Then Jesse Jackson is standing there and talking to Vicente Fox about the "problem of illegal immigration." It's a joke...

For his next visit, let me suggest that Jesse Jackson go there with Gil Cedillo:

"Latinos have displaced other work communities - clothing, hotel, and restaurant industries that used to be done by blacks and anglos... Since Latinos are now central to union revitalization, through immigration and high birth rates unions can be partisan for full Latino empowerment."

Posted at 01:19 PM | Comments (0)

Feinstein has her own mass illegal alien amnesty plan

From the OCR's "Feinstein gives immigration plan ideas":

Feinstein, D-Calif., said any new guest worker program, even one that required employees to eventually return to their home country, would be a "magnet for illegal immigration" and something she could not support...

OK, I'm with her so far...

"There are plenty of workers here who will work legally if given the opportunity to do it," Feinstein said. "And I think the first step should be taken in the one industry that most assuredly needs it."

Under Feinstein's idea, which hasn't yet been finalized, longtime agricultural workers would get a "blue card," allowing them to continue to work in agriculture. After a period of years of continued agricultural work, they would be entitled to trade their blue card in for a green card.

Doh! Note that at least she's opposed to Kennedy and McCain's 'Open Borders, Open Wallets' plan.

Posted at 12:10 AM | Comments (1)

"[Kennedy-McCain] Guest-Worker Plan is Un-American"

Terence P. Jeffrey:

Sen. Ted Kennedy may do a lot of talking about his love for the little guy, but if two major proposals he has made in this Congress were to become law it would be a disaster for the poorest American workers and a blow to American freedom...

...[the Kennedy-McCain massive illegal alien amnesty program] would provide amnesty to illegal aliens while creating a permanent, ongoing guest-worker program to fill--as a summary on Kennedy's website puts it-- "jobs that require few or no skills." This would thrust the American employment ladder down into Mexico and other under-developed regions of the world so that workers who are used to laboring for Third-World wages could routinely, legally and in massive numbers climb into the U.S. job market and compete directly with American workers for pay and positions...

Until now, the American ideal of an immigrant has been someone who comes here with the ambition to work harder, earn more, save more, perhaps start a business, and succeed in the free-enterprise system. But this entrepreneurial spirit will not be encouraged among the sub-class of guest workers Kennedy would create. The bill, says Kennedy's summary, "Prohibits the hiring of temporary workers as independent contractors."...

Posted at 12:03 AM | Comments (2)

Bonnie Erbe: Anchor Babies hurt working class

PBS host, columnist, and presumed liberal Bonnie Erbe reports on the children born to illegal aliens:

...Since their children are delivered on U.S. soil, the children immediately become U.S. citizens and "anchor" the mother (and later, the rest of her family) as future legal U.S. citizens as well...

...California will get the largest chunk of this new federal outlay or almost $71 million [for healthcare]. No wonder. FAIR cites Census Bureau data showing Californians spent $10 billion last year (whew!) to subsidize education, medical care and incarceration costs for (not legal but) illegal immigrants.

Guess who's hit the hardest? Not the wealthy Hollywood types, nor the Silicon Valley billionaires, but the hard-working, low-income recent and legal immigrants. It's costing them nearly $1,200 per native-headed household to subsidize illegal immigration in the Golden State.

...This is not about race. For my part, I am the granddaughter of immigrants who came from Poland, Russia and Cuba. My father's side of the family speaks Spanish as a native language and English with heavy Spanish accents. This is about preserving the quality of life for legal immigrants, and the progeny of immigrants who have come here legally since the birth of our immigrant nation.

It's also about fairness to America's working class -- many of whom are legal immigrants. Their housing, education and health care costs go up as their wages are driven down by immense competition from illegal immigrants. Where's the fairness or practicality in that?

Posted at 11:54 PM | Comments (3)

Today's Kennedy-McCain news

In the posts "Tamar Jacoby on the Kennedy-McCain mass amnesty", Kennedy-McCain in "accord" with Bush's "principles", and "McCain, Kennedy introduce Open Borders, Open Wallets bill" I presented some of those who favor their massive amnesty for illegal aliens plan.

Another one of the usual suspects has weighed in: U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva (Democrat-AZ). Grijalva is a former member of MEChA, and he's proud of having been involved with that group.

Here's what he said about the amnesty plan:

"[the bill] looks to the reality of immigration and attempts to create a safer, accessible and regulated immigration system... Arizona, like no other state in the nation, understands the need to address immigration and realism, fairness and a sense of urgency... [this is a chance to] move forward toward a solution and not merely react with empty rhetoric and increased divisiveness."

And, in other news, McCain has backtracked from recent remarks. Here's what he said last week:

"If we went down to the Camelback Inn today in Phoenix and arrested everyone who's working there illegally, the place would probably shut down..."

The Camelback Inn says everyone they employ is legal. Accordingly, here's yesterday's version from the Senator:

"I did not mean to single out any particular resort in my remarks... The legislation we introduced ... is designed to comprehensively address a broken immigration system. The reference to a specific business in my remarks detracts from the intent and import of my comments and this legislation."

Posted at 12:13 PM | Comments (0)

The other Reverend weighs in on Fox's comments

As discussed yesterday, the Rev. Jesse Jackson expressed his outrage about Vicente Fox's comments that Mexican "immigrants" take jobs "that not even blacks want to do."

Quicker than you can say "Tawana", the other Rev. weighs in:

Another American civil rights activist, the Rev. Al Sharpton, said the comment was especially disturbing because Fox was educated in the United States and "he is not unaware of the racial sensitivities here."

Posted at 12:37 PM | Comments (0)

Jesse Jackson finally meets his match

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, more popularly known for basically shaking down businesses, actually did something worthwhile for a change:

The Rev. Jesse Jackson on Saturday criticized Mexican President Vicente Fox's comment that Mexican immigrants to the United States take jobs "that not even blacks want to do."

Jackson called the remark "a spurious comparison" with "ominous racial overtones."

Foreign Relations Secretary Luis Derbez tried to cover for Fox with this: "The president didn't make a declaration in the racist sense; of course there are those who interpret it in that way... [Fox was making the point that] Mexican migrants are making great contributions in the United States and that their role is a positive role... ...I think that what we have to be very clear about is that the statement made by the president was in no way motivated by racism."

Unfortunately, the Rev. also says he's going to be giving Fox a call, and you know what that normally means.

Posted at 04:01 PM | Comments (2)

Tamar Jacoby on the Kennedy-McCain mass amnesty

Tamar Jacoby has issued the following statement:

We the undersigned applaud the introduction today of Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act... [etc. etc...]

The signatories include:

Lee Culpepper (last mentioned here; works for the National Restaurant Association and is Chairman of the National Immigration Forum)

Jack Kemp

Grover Norquist

Rick Swartz:

And then there's the National Immigration Forum, the umbrella organization for high-immigration political advocacy, which works closely with sympathetic Republicans. But NIF is not like the conventional lobbying coalitions that exist on numerous issues. It was cofounded by the National Lawyers Guild in the 1980s, back when the Guild was a Soviet front group. The group's first head was Rick Swartz, a leftist attorney who cut his teeth advocating for Haitian illegal aliens and who, during a 1981 Senate hearing, likened the United States to Nazi Germany.

Like many lobbying coalitions, the NIF board includes representatives of Republican stalwarts like the National Association of Manufacturers, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the National Restaurant Association, and used to include Stephen Moore of the Cato Institute, now head of the Club for Growth. Whatever his libertarian views on immigration, I imagine Steve hightailed it out of there after he realized what he'd gotten into, because the people sitting around the conference table at NIF board meetings include some decidedly unsavory characters. In addition to the usual leftist suspects — the ACLU, the Service Employees Union, Jim Zogby of the Arab American Institute — the NIF board includes the head of the immigration lawyers' association, one Jeanne Butterfield, who used to be executive director of the Palestine Solidarity Committee, identified by the Anti-Defamation League as an alliance between members of the Popular Front for Liberation of Palestine and the Workers World party (the Trotskyites behind the Iraq War protests)...

You'll note that the signatories are almost the same group as those who signed the "Conservative" Statement of Principles on Immigration from over a year ago.

Previously: More straw, Tamar?

Posted at 03:05 PM | Comments (3)

They do the jobs that even blacks won't do

Here's a recent quote from Vicente Fox:

"There is no doubt that Mexicans, filled with dignity, willingness and ability to work are doing jobs that not even blacks want to do there in the United States..."

I believe at this point in time my "liberal" readers might want to read up on Mexico's racial hierarchy. Try "America's Imported Caste System" as a starting point.

UPDATE: If you have access to a site snake program, you might want to cache everything in this search for "the jobs americans won t do". I can almost hear history being rewrit as the White House and others work to cleanse their various statements of that phrase.

Posted at 11:44 AM | Comments (2)

What's Pete Seghesio's billing address?

Open Borders warrior Professor Bainbridge excerpts an absolutely hilarious article from Wine Spectator magazine. The article is basically an ad for illegal immigration disguised by "some of my best friends are Hispanic" coverage of the Sabor de Napa event. Call it enlightenment, but with a profit motive:

...As vital and energizing as Hispanics are to the wine industry, their contributions to California's overall economy are so pervasive and indispensable that I doubt we could exist without them. They are today's labor force, just as Europeans and Chinese were in centuries past. One of the great ironies is that as the wine industry pays homage to Hispanics, there is talk in the state capital of tightening the border and making it hard for Hispanics to cross...

...It's also a double-edged sword, since many other Hispanics entered California illegally and aren't citizens. Shutting down or even constricting the flow of immigrants across the border would be disastrous well beyond the wine industry.

Hispanics are the backbone of the wine industry, pure and simple, says Pete Seghesio, CEO of Seghesio Family Vineyards in Sonoma County...

...The bottom line, though, is this, says Seghesio: "If people really knew the percentage [of Hispanics working in California] that's driving our economy, there wouldn't be any of this talk from our government..."

Whether he knows it or not or is willing to admit it or not, Seghesio is receiving a massive government subsidy for any illegal aliens that he employs. If Seghesio employs illegal aliens, does he pay for their medical care? How about their schooling? What about all the other medical, social, environmental, and political costs associated with illegal aliens? Is he paying for that, or is he pushing the cost off on the rest of us?

How many illegal aliens are Seghesio, Wine Spectator, Professor Bainbridge, or the rest willing to sponsor? If the California wine industry is important to anyone, then perhaps they should pay the full and correct price for their products instead of shoving the costs off on the rest of us.

UPDATE: Apropos of nothing, did you know that Nanci Pelosi owns a couple vineyards in Napa? Now, they're probably too small to be concerned about. If they were much larger - or grew higher-quality grapes - we might raise substantial concerns about her past support for illegal immigration.

Posted at 08:17 PM | Comments (3)

Kennedy-McCain in "accord" with Bush's "principles"

From the WashTimes' "McCain-Kennedy bill opens citizenship path":

...Mr. McCain yesterday said he has told the administration about the provisions of the bill, and that administration officials "certainly agreed that they are in accord with the president's principles. If you think it's different in some key aspects, you'll have to point them out to me."

Erin Healy, a White House spokeswoman, said President Bush's principles were to protect the nation's security and match willing workers with willing employers.

"We look forward to working with the leaders of both parties to pass legislation that meets the president's principles," she said...

Not exactly a ringing endorsement, and the idea that a massive amnesty and guest worker program would be in "accord" with Bush's "principles" isn't exactly news. So, consider this post mainly to be here for entertainment purposes.

Previous coverage in "Why the Kennedy-McCain mass amnesty is important".

Posted at 11:28 AM | Comments (0)

Why the Kennedy-McCain mass amnesty is important

It probably doesn't stand much of a chance of passing, but it's important for two reasons:

1. We probably didn't need any more data points, but it will make sure that the American public never takes the phrase "President McCain" seriously.

2. It reveals the base corruption of our elites, and just how far out of touch they are.

On a related note, Mark Krikorian of CIS discusses the bill in "Fool Me Twice, Shame on Me":

The essence of the bill is the same as the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act: amnesty up front for millions of illegal aliens in exchange for paltry promises of future enforcement - promises that will quickly be abandoned...

The enforcement sections of the bill are laughably thin, making the amnesty-in-exchange-for-enforcement claim even less plausible than it would be otherwise. The part on border security is almost a parody of a Washington cop-out: It orders up yet another "National Strategy for Border Security" (how about picking one of the previous strategies and just enforcing it?), plus an advisory committee, two coordination plans, and various other reports and programs and multilateral partnerships...

And the interior enforcement provisions seem intended to actually hobble enforcement. Though the law provides for a system to verify employment eligibility, it instructs the Social Security administration to reinvent the wheel rather than simply expand on the successful pilot system the immigration service has been developing for over a decade. The job of auditing firms for compliance with the immigration law would also be taken away from immigration agents, and given instead to the Labor Department, perhaps the only agency even less capable of doing its job. And the bill specifically says that it does not give state and local cops any new authority to enforce immigration law...

Previous coverage in McCain, Kennedy introduce Open Borders, Open Wallets bill.

Posted at 10:32 AM | Comments (1)

McCain, Kennedy introduce Open Borders, Open Wallets bill

Senators John McCain and Ted Kennedy have introduced the "Open Borders, Open Wallets" bill, informally known as the "2005 Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act".

Do I really need to provide details, aren't the involvement of those two senators enough?

Anyway, their cohorts are Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), and Jim Kolbe (R-AZ). This is a massive amnesty program that could lead to not only transforming the 10 to 20 million illegal aliens in the U.S. into citizens, but will most assuredly lead to millions more illegal aliens coming here to take advantage of this and future amnesties. As can be expected, Kennedy specifically denies that this is an "amnesty", but any difference between SAOIA and amnesty is purely semantic. Expect semantics - or, more properly, doublespeak - to be a major part of the debate on this bill.

Read more in "Bill would tighten border security, increase information sharing" and "Bills could grant legality to 10 million immigrants".

The complete details are in this detailed description of the bill.

Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ) issued a statement opposing the bill, including this:

...If recent history is an accurate guide, and I believe it is, this so-called guest worker notion would only encourage a new wave of illegal aliens and make America's uncontrolled and unacceptable immigration debacle even worse than it is now.

This legislation is a bad idea not only because it creates a transparent path to amnesty, but also because it would reduce work opportunities, depress wages, and lower worker protection for Americans. Further, it would be impossible to administer and even more unlikely to be enforced...

Those in favor of this legislation include:

FIRM ("Fair Immmigration Reform Movement"). FIRM is a project of the Center for Community Change, and their organizer Bhargava is the executive director of that latter group. One of the members of FIRM's organizing committee is Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles. The latter especially is a group that sounds quite dangerous. Despite that, the City of Los Angeles uses them as a quote source: The "L.A. Opens Office of Immigrant Affairs" story just gets worse and worse

The Service Employees International Union issued a press release in support of SAOIA here.

The National Restaurant Association's press release is here. It includes a statement from "Lee Culpepper, the Association's senior vice president of Government Affairs and Public Policy and Chairman of the National Immigration Forum." The page "Organizations Supporting Amnesty for Illegal Aliens" contains a 2002 quote from Culpepper, which sounds similar to something you've probably heard many times from a "conservative":

...we believe that our nation's immigration policy should not only secure our borders, but also match willing employers with willing employees...

In an interesting twist, the Laborers' International Union issued a statement favoring the bill, but moderately opposing its guest worker provisions:

"In light of abuses that have historically occurred with guest worker programs, we believe the provisions in this bill for H5A visas should be improved to ensure that workers have legal recourse against unscrupulous employers and so that U.S. workers are protected from employers whose sole purpose in hiring H5A visa holders is to undercut existing workplace standards," [Terence M. O'Sullivan, General President of the Laborers' Union] said.

And, last but not least, the office of Mexico's Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez has issued a statement. From "Mexico eyes immigration politicking":

"According to the preliminary information that we have, this initiative...supports substantive elements and distinct aspects of the migratory problem that reflect a serious interest and a political determination to adopt a balanced and integral focus on the treatment of the migratory issue and to tackle the issue of security from a wider context."

With friends like these, should we really trust anything from Kennedy or McCain?

Posted at 10:15 PM | Comments (7)

Foreigners declare war on Arizona

A large group of people from another country have invaded Arizona and are declaring war on the state unless they get what they want.

The force is mostly from Mexico. The war will be of the economic variety. What they want are benefits normally reserved only for citizens or legal residents.

Hyperbole? Let's read "Test of Hispanic boycott fails in Arizona" and find out:

An immigrant advocacy group asked Hispanics to boycott businesses and to stay home from work yesterday to protest legislation by Arizona lawmakers targeting illegal aliens, and said it was a trial run for a full-scale, three-day economic protest planned for July.

"This is a test so people can see and feel the power we have and the actual stranglehold we have on the economy of this state," Elias Bermudez, executive director of Centro de Ayuda, an immigrant advocacy group in Phoenix, told reporters this week...

...The July boycott was called to protest laws that restrict the use of the Mexican matricula, or identification card; require illegal aliens to pay out-of-state college tuition; deny access to literacy programs to illegals; adopt English as Arizona's official state language; and mandate that state funds be denied for the construction and operation of a day-workers center...

Arizona's Prop. 200 only concerned illegal aliens, as do most of those above. The only one on that list that might affect those here legally is the language bill, and that's far outweighed by their objections to Prop. 200 and the others. Of course, illegal aliens are - by definition - citizens of another country. Many or most of those participating in the boycott, such as it was, were no doubt citizens of other countries. And, the boycott was designed with them in mind: recent or proposed Arizona legislation is designed to reduce illegal immigration.

This boycott is a threat against not just the (lawful) residents of Arizona, but against employers as well. Expect almost all of them to buckle under. After all, if they're corrupt enough to employ illegal aliens in the first place, they probably aren't going to spend too much time considering the long-term effects on them and on the country by giving in to such boycotts.

Those few employers who aren't completely corrupt might want to ask themselves, "Where does it stop?" If Arizonans give in to such threats, they'll enable more illegal aliens to come. That will serve to increase the power of racial demagogues and increase the power of such boycotts. What then? Will there be a demand for voting rights for everyone regardless of "status"? What other demands will have to be acceded to in order to keep the money flowing?

Note that while the WashTimes says this wasn't a success, the Arizona Republic (as could be expected) paints it in rosy terms: "Valley Hispanic boycott called a success":

...Hispanics who could afford it or believed it was worth missing a day of pay showed up at rallies instead of work. [The AZ Republic only offers those two choices, truly a false choice. -- LW]

"We are trying to stop the anti-immigrant laws that they are introducing against us who don't have papers," said Rivas, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico...

Moderate Hispanic community or business leaders in Arizona should make it painfully clear to the AZ Republic and anyone else who'll listen that all "Hispanics" are not militant Chicanos, supporters of illegal immigration, and supporters of threats against the U.S. by foreigners. That's what the polls show, even if the AZ Republic would like to think otherwise.

Posted at 07:34 PM | Comments (7)

Irony on the Border, Part 5: Mexico clamps down on immigrants

Mexico wants to be our primary supplier of cheap labor, so they're starting to crack down on immigrants from Brasil who are using Mexico as a staging area for attempts to sneak across our border. How soon until we see Brazilian "immigrants rights groups" spring up in Mexico and agitate like similar groups do here? Will Sally Struthers-level emotionalism and charges of racism be used as a cover for attempts by the Brazilians to get rid of their own surplus population? Stay tuned.

Details hinted at here and explicitly stated in this PDF file (scan of a WSJ article).

See the previous pieces in this series starting in "Irony on the Border, Part 4".

Posted at 11:29 AM | Comments (0)

Bush supports Georgia's sovereignty!

Maybe I completely misjudged president Bush. Maybe he does support U.S. sovereignty after all! Here's a speech he gave in Georgia earlier today:

"the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia must be respected ... by all nations."

Take that, Mexico! Our stalwart leader is finally standing up to your corrupt oligarchy and their expansionist plans!

Wait a minute... I just realized something. He wasn't speaking about Georgia U.S.A., he was talking about Georgia in Central Asia. That explains everything.

Posted at 08:38 PM | Comments (1)