2004 Immigration News Archives
This is a very large file. For the full smaller digest version, click here."[California's] middle class hinges on Bush's immigration policies"
Dan Stein of FAIR has a guest editorial about the impact of illegal immigration on California here:
...One week after his re-election, President Bush dusted off an immigration proposal first made in January 2004 that proved to be so wildly unpopular with voters that it was not only pulled off the table, but shoved to the back of the closet for the duration of the campaign. The Bush plan -- now back on the agenda -- calls for turning current illegal aliens into guest workers for six years (what happens to them at the end of six year is apparently a problem for some future president to grapple with), and allowing unlimited numbers of new guest workers to enter the country.
The Bush proposal would be a viable solution if the problem of mass illegal immigration were merely a question of legality. As Californians have understood for decades, the problem is not just about people breaking the law. The phenomenon of mass illegal immigration has profound consequences on labor markets, education, public health and the fiscal solvency of state and local governments...
Posted at 12:26 AM | Comments (1)
"Mi Casa Es Su Casa? Get Real"
[...Describes an anti-illegal immigration group in Utah...] GOP activists such as Sears spell trouble for George W. Bush. As the President woos Hispanic voters with Cabinet appointments, political appeals, and immigrant-friendly policies, a rebellion is bubbling up through his party's ranks. The reason: The influx of illegals is hitting such solidly red states as Arizona and Utah particularly hard. "The problem seems to get more attention during times of fiscal distress for the states," says Jeffrey S. Passel, who studies immigration at the Urban Institute in Washington.
Look for the clash to intensify in late January. Although the issue got put on the back burner in the wake of September 11, the President plans to push once more for partial amnesty and a guest-worker program for illegal immigrants. But that call will run smack into rank-and-file Republican pressure to crack down on illegals...
The intraparty crossfire has Corporate America worried. The agriculture, hotel, and restaurant industries rely on low-wage immigrants -- many of them illegals who evade hiring controls. "There are probably 6 million or more [undocumented workers] who are raising children and paying taxes and are the backbone of some industries," says Sandra Boyd, a vice-president at the National Association of Manufacturers. "It's ridiculous to think we would deport them all..."
I have a few cavils with the article, but their tone is generally favorable so I won't complain that much.
I'll note that not only is Ms. Boyd with the National Association of Manufacturers, she's also a board member of the National Immigration Forum along with several other fine people from the ACLU, the National Council of the Race, CARECEN of L.A., SEIU, the National Restaurant Association, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The left and right elites, working together against the rest of us.
Posted at 11:49 AM | Comments (1)
"[Kansas] Ed board member wants lessons on immigration drawbacks"
From this:
A state Board of Education member says students studying immigration should learn about the effect illegal immigrants have on crime rates, education costs and language barriers...
As one might expect, the media and "immigrants rights" groups are up in arms. The very thought that someone would not want to present immigration as a natural good with no faults at all!
Connie Morris, no stranger to criticism for her opposition to state-funded education for the children of illegal immigrants, says proposed curriculum on immigration should include study of possible drawbacks of illegal immigration.
"It's facts; it's history," Morris said. "Our children should not be subjected to inaccurate, one-sided dogma."
Morris was responding to proposed additions to state social science standards. Earlier this month, the state board adopted one of her suggestions on lessons regarding illegal immigrants, but it toned down her language, removing negative connotations...
One of those up in arms is from the Kansas Families United for Public Education. There's a whole page on their financial ties here.
The other is Elias Garcia, who had this to say on another occasion:
"Hispanics are doing the Lord's work -- we're populating this earth, basically," said Elias Garcia, executive director of the Kansas Advisory Commission on Hispanic Affairs. "Quite bluntly, let me say that we're not going anywhere. This is our home."
His other statements make it clear that among those "Hispanics" of which he speaks are a large number of illegal aliens. The reader is invited to imagine the uproar if a white person had said the same thing, especially referring to white illegal aliens.
Posted at 11:12 PM | Comments (0)
An epistle directly from the hands of David Dreier
You have to see this handwritten letter [200k PDF] from Rep. David Dreier (R-CA) to believe it. It looks like something a kidnapper who'd run out of newspapers to clip would have sent.
Via John & Ken's post here.
Posted at 11:00 PM | Comments (0)
Perhaps you should choose MasterCard (or just cash) instead
Visa hopes to entice Latinos into money-transfer business:
Eager to accelerate the growing trend away from the use of cash and checks, Visa International is pushing plastic in Latin America.
Visa — composed of thousands of banks that issue credit and debit cards — has launched an aggressive campaign to capture a bigger piece of the $40 billion in remittance payments migrant workers annually send to their families in Latin America...
Many of those sending remittances are illegal aliens, and the banking lobby supports the use of Mickey Mouse foreign ID cards that those illegal aliens use to open bank accounts as described in "Their money or your safety". Remittances are bad for the reasons outlined here. See also "The Fastest Way To [profit from illegal immigration]" for information on Western Union.
Posted at 12:24 PM | Comments (0)
NYT's immigration "reform"
In "A Passion for Immigration Reform" the NYT offers the usual canards ("jobs Americans won't do") and lies ("anti-immigrant group") and confusion (what exactly is "amnesty", and isn't giving "immigrants" a green card "amnesty"?)
For the truth about this matter, see the following:
Bush Immigration Plan Would Allegedly 'Destroy the Middle Class'
Homeland insecurity: The year in review
Posted at 12:15 PM | Comments (1)
"Ex-official tells of Homeland Security failures"
From this:
The government agency responsible for protecting the nation against terrorist attack is a dysfunctional, poorly managed bureaucracy that has failed to plug serious holes in the nation's safety net, the Department of Homeland Security's former internal watchdog warns.
Clark Kent Ervin, who served as the department's inspector general until earlier this month, said in an interview last week that airport security isn't tight enough and that little has been done to safeguard other forms of mass transit. Ervin said ports remain vulnerable to terrorists trying to smuggle weapons into the country. He added that immigration and customs investigators are hampered in their efforts to track down illegal immigrants because they often lack gas money for their cars.
"There are still all these security gaps in the country that have yet to be closed," Ervin said. Meanwhile, he added, Homeland Security officials have wasted millions of dollars because of "chaotic and disorganized" accounting practices, lavish spending on social occasions and employee bonuses and a failure to require competitive bidding for some projects.
Asked what's wrong with the department, he said, "It's difficult to figure out where to start..."
The rest of the article discusses the good job Ervin did, and the circumstances under which he's no longer employed. Those two things would seem to be related.
Posted at 11:38 AM | Comments (0)
"Report: U.S. is waging `war on immigrants'"
When foreign nationals arrive at Miami International Airport and ask for asylum, some wind up criminally charged for trying to sneak into the country with false papers. Others are detained, some for months, before their cases are decided.
Prosecution and detention of asylum seekers are among the examples cited in a new report by a Miami-based immigrant rights group of what it says is growing intimidation of refugees and undocumented migrants in Florida and across the country.
The report of more than 150 pages, Securing Our Borders: Post-9/11 Scapegoating of Immigrants, is the first comprehensive account of the local and regional impact of immigration measures since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks...
Wow, it sounds damning. Who wrote it?
...The report was written by Cheryl Little, executive director of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, and Kathie Klarreich, a freelance journalist who specializes in Haitian issues. The report is scheduled to be released next month. The Miami Herald obtained a draft...
While I have no prior knowledge of those two fine scribes - who were able to crank out a full 150 pages - I do have google. Let's try a search for '"Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center" "ford foundation"'. Holy Multiculturalists! 54 choices.
Let's try this one:
The Four Freedoms Fund (FFF) is a foundation collaborative that includes the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Carnegie Corporation, Ford Foundation, Open Society Institute (OSI), Joyce Foundation and Mertz Gilmore Foundation. The Fund, started in 2003, was created to promote immigrant civic participation; build capacity among vulnerable groups after Sept. 11; and develop a network of organizations that support immigrant integration and protect civil liberties. Initial grants totaled $2.6 million and were distributed to 45 organizations...
[...a grantee includes...]
Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center (FIAC), Miami – Funded by the Ford Foundation to strengthen FIAC advocacy and legal representation work on behalf of immigrants and refugees in South Florida.
I don't have the report, but I think we can understand exactly where it's coming from.
This article is from Knight-Ridder, and it's available here under the much less alarming title "Report examines impact of immigration measures since Sept. 11".
Posted at 11:21 AM | Comments (0)
"Lawmakers resubmit special tuition bill for undocumented immigrants [Mass.]"
From this:
BOSTON -- Legislators have reintroduced a bill that would allow the children of undocumented immigrants to attend state colleges and pay regular tuition.
In June, Gov. Mitt Romney vetoed the legislation, known as the In-State Tuition Bill. This month, Rep. Marie St. Fleur, D-Suffolk, and Sen. Jarrett Barrios, D-Cambridge, re-introduced the bill...
Immigrant students gathered at the Statehouse recently to support the bill.
The proposed legislation would allow the children of undocumented immigrants, who have attended state high schools for at least three years and graduated, to attend state public colleges and pay the in-state tuition.
Children of undocumented immigrants are currently forced to pay out-of-state tuition when they try to attend public colleges and universities...
Please contact feedback@s-t.com and let them know that "undocumented immigrant" is not the correct phrase. "Illegal alien" is the phrase used in the U.S. Code (example) and it's the phrase they should be using.
The 12/01/04 Boston Globe article on this bill also used "undocumented" and it included a race-baiting quote from Sen. Jarrett Barrios, D-Cambridge.
Posted at 11:07 AM | Comments (1)
But, they're good-hearted!
Forgive me if I missed the media coverage of the international dustup between Democratic state Sen. Gloria Romero of Los Angeles and the Mexican government the other day. The media downplay stories they perceive as "blaming the victim," particularly on the hands-off topic of illegal immigration.
Romero has gone against the tide before. Now she's rattling cages over the 28,672 foreigners in California prisons who cost taxpayers a staggering sum to feed and house, one-half of whom are illegal aliens from Mexico...
[...at Romero's prison system hearing in Los Angeles on Dec. 16...] diplomats from the consulates of Canada, Germany and Sweden testified about fixing a flawed country-to-country prisoner transfer program the Schwarzenegger administration hopes can someday send up to 6,400 eligible prisoners home -- mostly to Mexico. The behavior of the Canadians, Swedes and Germans stood in stark contrast to that of the Mexicans. In a bizarre bit of public theater that reminded me of my year in Czechoslovakia in 1991, where I observed bumbling ex-Communist officials firsthand, the Mexican government boycotted Romero's hearing, offering one of the lamest official fibs I've ever heard...
But the Mexicans do nothing but double talk on illegal immigration. On the prisoner issue, Mexico strictly limits the number of prisoners it takes back -- yet comically insists it has no limits. Pathetic. According to the California Board of Prison Terms, "all other nations accept all of their prisoners for transfer." Except Mexico.
In 2003, Mexico took back only 109 prisoners from the U.S., even though in California alone, 17,500 prisoners are Mexican nationals -- including more than 14,000 illegal aliens. And get this: Mexico won't take back those who've been here longer than five years. Just because.
Our biased media hate placing even a smidgen of blame on Mexico for illegal immigration. But in fact, most solutions won't be found in Sacramento or Washington. The lasting fixes must come from Mexico's legislature, courts and President Vicente Fox -- or more likely, his successor...
Posted at 11:54 PM | Comments (2)
"Should the U.S. get tough on illegal workers? Yes"
Mark Krikorian of CIS:
Sometimes it seems that the only people who are expected to comply with the immigration law are nominees for cabinet posts...
...A humane but uncompromising effort would welcome legal newcomers but do everything possible to prevent illegals from entering the country and prevent those who got through from living a normal life here.
Such a policy would cause the illegal population to start declining through attrition, eventually reducing the problem to a manageable nuisance rather than today's crisis...
Posted at 11:50 PM | Comments (0)
Shhhhhh!
The El Paso Times offers up "Guest-worker plan is needed, but not under pressure". While certainly not as bad as other pro-amnesty editorials, it slightly sneakily tries to give Mexico some helpful words of advice. After issuing the usual canards ("Mexicans working illegally in this country take jobs that Americans won't take", etc.), it offers some words of wisdom to Mexico:
But President Vicente Fox and other officials need to exercise some care when trying to pressure and influence U.S. officials and public sentiment about an immigration program.
The Dallas Morning News recently reported that Mexican government officials are planning to lobby in the United States at several levels on behalf of the undocumented workers.
A little attention is needed here because this is a domestic issue, and the Mexican government must exercise caution...
Hey, thanks, maybe next time they'll hire you or something.
Continuing:
...There's a good deal of opposition in Congress, opposition that could be solidified and even expanded if Mexico is too heavy-handed about "selling" an immigration program...
Aw, c'mon. I say we let them spend some money on commercials and buying spokesmen. Let's see what they have to say, OK?
(Shhh... I know...)
Posted at 09:46 PM | Comments (1)
"Immigration bill won't come easy in new Congress"
WASHINGTON - Everyone considers immigration reform a top priority when Congress reconvenes next month.
But no one agrees what "reform" means.
"I fully understand the politics of immigration reform," President Bush assured reporters this week.
Many lawmakers, including the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, call tougher enforcement the centerpiece of reform. Many others interpret reform as a code word for a guest-worker program that puts illegal immigrants on track toward a green card.
This apparent contradiction could doom legislation. Or perhaps Capitol Hill's long immigration stalemate could be broken by some deft combination of getting tough and giving hope...
The "giving hope" part is then defined as passing AgJobs, a horrible amnesty program. Coverage of AgJobs starts here. Somewhat surprisingly, the SacBee pimped for AgJobs at least once before.
Posted at 09:34 PM | Comments (1)
Immigration "reform," McCain-Kennedy-Arizona Republic style
WASHINGTON - Arizona Sen. John McCain and Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy are working together to draft a bipartisan bill for comprehensive immigration reform to introduce in the new session of Congress.In addition to the "news" that John McCain is completely on the wrong side of immigration matters, I'm going to hazard a guess that Ira Mehlman of FAIR was misquoted vis-a-vis the "immigration foes" bit. The author's information is billy.house@arizonarepublic.com or at 1-(202)-906-8136.
The efforts, bolstered by President Bush's reiteration on Monday that he wants to give temporary legal status to any "willing worker" who has found a job Americans do not want, come as many Republicans in Congress are pointing to the threat of terrorism as a reason to further restrict immigration...
[...quotes from "immigrant advocacy groups" deleted...]
...Ira Mehlman, media director for the Federation of American Immigration Reform, said that even if the White House gets behind a guest worker bill sponsored by McCain and Kennedy, or anyone else, the measure will face "serious opposition," from immigration foes, including many Republicans in the U.S. House.
"The president doesn't have to run (for office) again. House members are always running for re-election," he said.
5/14/05 UPDATE: McCain and Kennedy have introduced their "2005 Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act".
Posted at 09:29 PM | Comments (4)
"You're wrong, Mr. President"
President Bush says he wants to revamp an immigration system that is "not working" and is "not compassionate" through a program that can't work and would be anything but "compassionate" to Americans forced to pick up the tab.
During his end-of-the-year news conference, the president formally revived his expanded "guest worker" proposal first laid out as a set of "principles" a year ago. But the Bush plan is quite unprincipled and, by any other name, another in a long line of amnesty programs. Bush confidante and former Montana Gov. Mark Racicot disputed that characterization to me during the fall campaign. But that's exactly what it is. And it will do what amnesty programs do best -- fail...
And, from George Putnam:
It is this reporter's opinion that the president of the United States refuses to change his approach to an open door policy. Oh, he will deny that he favors amnesty or graduating citizenship, but it's all there. It's what he says repeatedly over and over again, as he did in his December 20 news conference proposing allowing workers in other countries to enter or remain in the U.S. legally to FILL JOBS AMERICANS WILL NOT DO.
When asked a question about his plan to reform U.S. immigration policy, the president responded half a dozen times: FILL JOBS AMERICANS WILL NOT DO.
As a youngster of what Tom Brokaw describes as "the greatest generation" - Depression, WWII, growing up in America - I never, working in the farmlands of the Midwest, ran across a job or participated in a job Americans would not do. We planted, harvested, threshed, milked 10 cows by hand, slopped the hogs, made certain that all the farm animals were cared for, and worked sunup to sundown to put food on the table ... and ended up paid as little as a dollar for a day's work. Not only were these jobs Americans would do, WE did them! We learned the work ethic as part of our day-to-day education.
At White House news conferences, they do not allow follow-up questions. May I now join Ira Mehlman of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) in asking the president the following:
[...FAIR's questions for Bush...]
Posted at 09:11 PM | Comments (1)
The price of "cheap" labor is about to go up
Wal*Mart is facing a class action lawsuit from former janitors:
After the raids, nine of the immigrants filed a suit in state court in New Jersey, with Cuban lawyer Gilberto Garcia of law firm Garcia and Kricko. Before that case developed, New York City attorney James L. Linsey of Cohen, Weiss and Simon LLP, contacted Garcia, and the two decided they had a case that was more far-reaching than a state court complaint. Together, they filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of thousands of affected Wal-Mart janitors last November. The case, Zavala v. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. , makes claims against the company for violating the Fair Labor Standards Act, including overtime violations and minimum pay violations. In addition, it charges Wal-Mart with forced labor, false imprisonment and civil rights violations. To top it off, the lawsuit claims that Wal-Mart--specifically the "Wal-Mart Enterprise"--violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, for operating in criminal conspiracy with its cleaning contractors...
There are 17 class representatives in the lawsuit, including Victor Zavala of Mexico, for whom the case is named, each with a similar story that, even in dry legal language, shows a known pattern of abuse at the hands of Wal-Mart's contractors. Zavala worked for Wal-Mart for 36 months for a weekly sum of $500. Many others in the suit were paid only $350 a week. Though Zavala and the others were obligated to work seven days a week, for 60 hours or more, they received no overtime pay. They and others were locked in the stores at night and could not leave unless a Wal-Mart store manager came to release them. As Linsey explains, the janitors were locked in to prevent "inventory shrinkage." The janitors received no sick leave pay and had no taxes withheld from their pay. Of the meager wages they earned, many of the workers were required to pay an additional $500 "security deposit" to their employers to ensure that they would not leave, a sum that was never returned.
One of the janitors, Antonio Flores, who is diabetic, cut his hand severely while working for Wal-Mart. The lawsuit states "because he was locked in, he was forced to wait until the next morning to go to a hospital." One 26-year-old man from the Czech Republic spoke to the Prague Post last year about his three-day experience working for Wal-Mart, a job he quit due to the horrible conditions. Ondra, who refused to give his last name, said, "I met two [Czech] guys. They were in Chicago for two years. All they did was work, cleaning every day, 365 days a year. They had never been to the downtown Chicago Loop. ...It's slavery..."
The lawsuit is described at walmartjanitors.com.
While many of the supporters of suits like this will be the usual "liberal" suspects, they could play a key role in limiting illegal immigration. These suits could lead to both negative publicity and large settlements. The former would cost the companies sales, and the latter would increase their cost of doing business. That would have the effect of making illegal labor less desirable.
That would cause the businesses to push all the harder for some sort of "guest" worker program. However, it might also cause some of them to make the decision that "cheap" illegal labor just isn't worth it, and that it's better to use automation or raise wages to attract legal workers.
Posted at 11:54 AM | Comments (3)
All illegal aliens to head to Trenton, New Jersey
TRENTON -- Mayor Doug Palmer issued an executive order yesterday, promising immigrants ["illegal aliens"] they will have access to city services without fear of being hassled, interrogated about their immigrant status or deported.
Here's what the mayor of Trenton, New Jersey has to say. What we need to do is translate this into Spanish and then get the Mexican press - both that in Mexico and that here - to print it:
"This fear, of having your family torn apart, of not having the right documentation on hand at the critical moment, goes against the grain in our city, because we are an open city...
We are a city whose mission explicitly recognizes that, as the people of Trenton have made us guardians of the public trust, we are committed to govern with integrity and fiscal responsibility, to seek excellence in the city’s operations, and to serve all the city’s people with respect and compassion...
Kids aren’t even going to school... [because of immigration raids...] Sick little children aren’t being taken to the doctor.
We have not been doing enough. We’ve got to reach way down into the immigrant community to explain what their rights are. This is an issue that affects everyone. This is a human rights issue.
...It is critically important that we ensure good relationships with all residents in order to get tips and information about actual crimes.
Communities where people are afraid to report crimes are unsafe and unstable... When rape, prostitution, domestic violence, theft, robbery, or beatings occur in the immigrant community, we want our response to be just as timely and as helpful as can be.
In fact, it is both our obligation and the individual immigrant’s right.
As an immigrant to Trenton, New Jersey, here are the services to which you have a right:
- Police and fire services
- General medical, mental health and public health services at clinics and emergency medical assistance, nutrition programs, programs for women and infants and children and for the disabled;
- Services dealing with non-conforming landlords, real estate tax payments or water/sewer bills, labor and employment enforcement, and access to the courts, schools, transportation services, shelter services and emergency disaster relief.
Other highlights include:
- Information in city files about an immigrant’s status will now be kept confidential, and only disseminated as required by law in the investigation of a case of illegal activity -- other than mere status as an undocumented alien -- or potential terrorist activity.
- City employees other than police officers "shall not inquire about a person’s immigration status" unless that information is necessary for the determination of program, service or benefit eligibility."
- Another section ordered that "Citizen children of undocumented parents have the same rights to public benefits as all other U.S. citizens. Undocumented parents may apply for their citizen children."
- Also, "A city employee required to establish the identity of a person seeking city services shall accept as valid photo identification."
Police officers are barred from inquiring about the immigration status of crime victims, witnesses, or others who call or approach them for help, unless they are investigating illegal activity.
However, they'll still "continue to cooperate with federal authorities in investigating and apprehending aliens suspected of criminal activity". But, it's gotta be really bad criminal activity. Just be cool and you'll be OK. Now, get a move on!
Posted at 10:10 AM | Comments (1)
Merry XMas to Arizona
TUCSON - A federal judge on Wednesday lifted a restraining order blocking enforcement of a voter-approved initiative to deny illegal immigrants some public benefits.
The order means the initiative immediately becomes Arizona law...
Posted at 02:32 PM | Comments (2)
"Mexico plans to step up immigration-policy pressure in 2005"
Mexican President Vicente Fox's renewed efforts to lobby for change in U.S. immigration policy may hurt his cause more than help it and could galvanize opposition in a divided American Congress, senior U.S. officials said.
The Mexican government is planning a multipronged effort in the United States on behalf of the millions of Mexicans working without proper documentation [i.e., illegal aliens]. Targets would include agricultural groups and Latino organizations...
...One senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Mexico should "work with us and remember that this is a domestic issue. It's not a Mexico-specific bill. ... If it's seen as a unilateral demand from the Mexican side, I think there will be plenty of people, particularly on the Hill, who will not receive that particularly well."
...A Mexican official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, acknowledged the sensitivities involved and said, "Mexico will take very careful steps" in its lobbying efforts. "We recognize that this is a very delicate matter."
Mexican officials say they plan to spend "hundreds of thousands" of dollars to promote the issue through its 47 Mexican consulates in the United States, focusing on regions that government officials consider crucial to success.
Mexico plans to hire lobbyists and to work closely with leading U.S. think tanks and universities to promote its national interests, the Mexican official said...
...The official said Mexico would launch the lobbying effort early next year, perhaps coinciding with the planned visit of Fox to Washington in late February or March...
...The migration issue ignites passion, especially among anti-immigration groups. [see the following note]
"Mexico's blatant foreign interference in U.S. domestic affairs," is the issue, said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington. The group favors reduced immigration. [but, the preceding paragraph implied they were "anti-immigration"]
"The Mexican consulates have gone from promoting trade and travel to Mexico to actively involving themselves in U.S. domestic affairs ... and the Bush administration has been irresponsible for not telling Mexico in a friendly but clear way that this is not acceptable," Krikorian said...
This is just more of the same, except now they're being completely open about what they intend to do. So, when we see a race group, university, or think tank supporting Mexico's position, we can ask whether they're being paid to do so.
On a minor note, you might want to contact grodrigue@dallasnews.com about the use of the euphemism for illegal aliens and the "anti-immigration" slam in the article.
Posted at 02:09 PM | Comments (1)
"President Bush To Fix Illegal Immigration Problem By Removing Immigration Laws"
This just in:
President Bush announced today that he will once and for all fix the problem with illegal immigration by making everyone a legal immigrant starting January 2005 and removing any immigration barriers for entering the U.S.
"Listen, the only reason we have illegal immigrants is because we have immigration laws." Stated President Bush, "If you remove those laws, then there is no problem! So, starting in January, not only will all 'illegal immigrants' be considered legal, but also all immigration laws will no longer exist. Therefore, I will be known as the president who fixed the immigration problem..."
I believe this is a joke, but nowadays it's so hard to tell.
Posted at 01:23 PM | Comments (1)
"FAIR Letter to President Bush About His Guestworker Proposal"
FAIR on Bush's press conference:
At this morning's White House press conference, you were asked a question about your plan to reform U.S. immigration policy. In response to the question, you repeatedly made the point that your proposal entails allowing workers in other countries to enter or remain in the U.S. legally to fill "jobs that Americans will not do."
The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) and millions of Americans throughout the nation are highly troubled by your policy proposal. First, your proposal both forgives and rewards businesses that have flagrantly violated laws against the hiring of illegal aliens with a novel approach to sustaining for them a never-ending supply of cheap foreign labor. Second, your proposal both forgives and rewards illegal aliens who have and continue to be in violation of our immigration laws by making your guestworker/amnesty program available to them.
The American public has a right to be clear about your intentions and policymakers in Congress deserve a degree of certainty about the consequences of adopting your policy proposal. Your position on this proposal could be much more clearly clarified if you would address the following questions publicly...
They ask five questions that a) Bush couldn't answer, and b) no reporter will (probably) ever ask.
The question relating to Kerik would be a bit of a low blow, but, then again, if they can't even correctly vet their proposed head of the DHS how well are they going to do with 10 million citizens of another country, especially given that most of them are from a corrupt third-world country?
Posted at 12:56 AM | Comments (1)
Bush's Immigration Pet Phrases
Michelle Malkin provides several links you need to fully understand Bush's recent press conference.
Posted at 12:56 AM | Comments (1)
"Fortress America's problem at the border"
The BBC has a "report" on illegal immigration into the U.S. The scare quotes are because it has all the insight that you'd expect, couple with a few errors, at least one of which has been corrected. As might be expected the correction isn't noted in the new version.
It's not a major correct, but it certainly is indicative.
Here's the first version, posted about four hours ago to FreeRepublic:
In the summer, the temperatures in Arizona soar to well beyond boiling point.
And, here's the version currently at the BBC's site:
In the summer, the temperatures in Arizona often soar to 40-45C (104-113F).
Read the FR link for some of the more substantial errors, including his description of the race-baiting film "A Day Without A Mexican."
You can send feedback through this form or contact the author directly: matt.frei@bbc.co.uk
Posted at 12:25 AM | Comments (1)
Our borderline security
It remains to be seen whether intelligence reform legislation will produce substantive improvements in our national security. Republicans and Democrats alike certainly hope so, as do we all. But Congress and the White House failed to approve other reforms passed by the House of Representatives that would have ensured heightened border security and the ability to control immigrant documentation and identification, which the 9/11 commission recommended.
...However, more than three years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, it may seem ludicrous to many that we have reached only the stage of dialogue and debate instead of concrete action. While it is critically important that we have the best intelligence possible about the radical Islamist terrorists who would destroy this nation and its citizens, no amount of intelligence and improved analysis and communication can prevent an individual terrorist or group from entering our poorly protected ports and insecure, porous borders...
...Economic interests are dominating the discussion of immigration reform. Big business, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and organized labor both seek open borders--business to exploit the cheap labor that is provided by illegal aliens and labor organizations to add to their membership rolls. Incredibly, much of organized labor in this country, including the AFL-CIO, supports open borders even at the expense of its current members...
Posted at 12:34 AM | Comments (0)
The root of the problem
From Lou Dobb's 12/16/04 show:
...CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They sneak across the border seeking jobs they can't find in Mexico. The question isn't why they come, it's why can't Mexico's economy support its own people.
Nearly half of Mexico's population lives in poverty. Ten percent are indigent, existing on a dollar a day. Yet the nation has vast wealth. Mexico has more "Forbes" billionaires, 11, than all but eight other nations. It has more billionaires than Saudi Arabia, Switzerland or Taiwan. It also has more than 85,000 millionaires.
GEORGE W. GRAYSON, COLLEGE OF WILLIAM & MARY: There is a small economic elite who live like maharajas, and there's a political elite that protects them. Our border provides an escape valve which really lets the Mexican political and economic elite off the hook in terms of providing opportunities for their own people.
WIAN (on camera): About 10 percent of Mexico's 105 million people live here in the United States. They're called national heroes by President Vicente Fox because this year they'll send home about $16 billion, more than any Mexican industry except oil.
(voice-over): The country sits on oil reserves worth about $400 billion, but Mexico's state-owned oil company, Pemex, doesn't have the investment funds to tap those reserves, and Mexico's Congress refuses to allow foreign investment in Pemex.
Mexico's outdated tax system is plagued by widespread tax evasion. It collects taxes at less than half the rate of the United States. As a result, Mexico's public-school and health-care systems suffer.
CHRIS WOODRUFF, CENTER FOR U.S.-MEXICO STUDIES: We now realize -- and particularly in a world where capitalists are mobile -- that redistribution isn't going to work, and what people focus on now instead is allowing the poor to build assets. Mexico has undertaken some programs which will allow the poor to do that. But that's not a process that changes overnight.
WIAN: Meanwhile, the gap between rich and poor is growing. So Mexico continues to export one of its most valuable assets, people...
Posted at 01:39 PM | Comments (1)
"Sheriff's Group Urges Boycott Of Mexican Products"
Mexico refuses to extradite suspects facing the death penalty or life in prison without parole.
The boycott started with the Los Angeles County deputies, then the California Coalition of Law Enforcement Associations, and now Riverside deputies.
Posted at 01:33 PM | Comments (0)
Darrell Issa apparently wants your input
The California congressman who bankrolled signature gathering for the recall of Gov. Gray Davis has taken a first step toward financing a constitutional amendment that would deny benefits to illegal immigrants in the state.
Rep. Darrell Issa, through the Rescue California Leadership Committee, is mailing letters to every voter who circulated a petition last year to recall the Democratic governor...
...his consultant, David Gilliard, said Issa is testing whether to join the drive to qualify the ballot measure. Gilliard said Issa is looking "very seriously" at providing financing for the new petition drive and will make his decision "before Christmas, maybe."
You can contact him here and let him know you would support this.
Posted at 11:23 AM | Comments (0)
"Mexico envoy calls on U.S. to protect rights of illegals"
Mexican Ambassador Carlos de Icaza yesterday said millions of Mexican nationals now illegally in the United States are hard-working residents who take jobs Americans refuse, but their rights are "completely unprotected" and the White House and Congress need to find a solution. "It is up to the American public to be concerned about the rights of these people as human beings," Mr. de Icaza said during a meeting with editors and reporters at The Washington Times. "They contribute to the U.S. economy, work hard on a daily basis, but live in the shadows completely unprotected," he said...
Posted at 11:14 AM | Comments (0)
It's not their fault
Helmet-haired demi-MILF Linda Chavez provides this bit of surreality:
...Whether we care to admit it or not, most of us benefit from the services of illegal aliens, even if indirectly, and the law that ensnarled Kerik has turned many good people into scofflaws...
...I have special reason to be concerned. My own nomination to be secretary of labor was derailed in 2001 when it became public that a decade earlier I had taken into my home and given modest financial assistance to a battered and abused woman from Guatemala, who at the time was illegally living in the United States...
...Although some news organizations have suggested that other ethical and moral lapses doomed Kerik's nomination, this does not appear to be the case. The Washington Post reports, "White House officials said they knew in advance about other disclosures now emerging about Kerik's background, including alleged extramarital affairs and reported ties to a construction company with supposed mob connections, but had concluded that they were not disqualifying." So suspicions about mob ties don't doom a nomination but hiring an illegal alien does? Something is very wrong here, but it's not the White House's fault...
...The only solution is to make it easier -- not harder -- for immigrants who want to work to come here legally. The president's much-maligned guest worker proposal is a step in the right direction. But a solution still has to be found for dealing with those illegal aliens already here. It makes no sense to kick them out in order to bring in millions of different people to fill their jobs. A one-time fine of both illegal aliens and the employers who knowingly hire them, along with the chance for undocumented workers to legalize their status if they have not broken other laws, would seem the proper punishment. Then maybe we could quit disqualifying otherwise good candidates from serving the nation.
Posted at 11:10 AM | Comments (0)
Mor-TON! Didn't you get the memo?
Morton Kondracke offers a column in support of the Bush/Fox Amnesty. In a way, it seems like something that would have been written all the way back in January 2004:
If President Bush is going to keep his promise to spend political capital on a bold second- term agenda, he should include comprehensive immigration reform that offers deserving illegal immigrants a path to citizenship.
To do so, he'd have to face down a noisy, but not large, anti-immigrant claque in the Republican Party that's determined to use the threat of terrorism as an excuse to, in effect, erect "Stay Out!' signs at the U.S. border, even to restrict legal immigration.
In reality, creating a process to legalize illegals would help homeland security by allowing law enforcement agencies to concentrate on border security and tracking down criminals and potential terrorists - rather than chasing after millions of ordinary undocumented aliens, especially Hispanics.
This logic seems to have impressed border-state Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who has told immigrant-rights groups that comprehensive immigration reform is his top priority for the next Congress...
One has to wonder what rock Mor-TON! crawled out from under.
Posted at 08:33 PM | Comments (0)
"The Wall Street Journal and Immigration"
From this:Wall Street Journal senior editorial writer Jason Riley doesn't think much of conservatives who don't accept his employer's "there shall be open borders" dogma. Consequently, his occasional op-ed pieces slamming what he calls the "anti-immigrant Right" demonstrate no effort to engage their arguments or confront immigration realities that might complicate his facile talking points...
[...discussion of the debunked increased Hispanic support for Bush...]
This would be a minor technical dispute if it weren't for misleading open-borders polemicists. After all, most conservatives would love to see increased support for the GOP among Hispanics and other minorities. But the problem is that commentators keep reciting bogus numbers to invent a political constituency for immigration policies that are bad for America -- and rejected by most Americans across racial and ethnic lines...
Posted at 08:31 PM | Comments (1)
"Illegalize illegals: Time for showdown in open frontier"
The new intelligence law, courtesy of 9/11, is mystifying because it does not face directly what is the most prominent threat to homeland security. It is: inimical action by non-Americans. All the people who participated in 9/11 were foreigners, here under various auspices. And yet the bill that has evolved from the findings of the 9/11 commission reads like an elocutionary exercise by a national committee to avoid saying anything unpleasant about unpleasant people born abroad...
The immigration problem is the primary unmet challenge of modern times. It is so because the whole of our political establishment cringes at any suggestion that the United States is inhospitable to immigration. We do have laws on the books, but they are apparently made for the sole purpose of flouting them. Time magazine published the most florid essay on the question, estimating the annual flow of illegal immigration at more than 2 million persons...
(Also available here.)
Here's a link to an online dictionary.
Posted at 11:15 AM | Comments (0)
The enemy within
From the AP's "ACLU sues for access to records on immigration sweeps":
A lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union seeks access to public records involving the arrests last summer of more than 400 illegal immigrants in Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
In June, a small group of Temecula-based Border Patrol agents set off a panic among immigrants by beginning to patrol and arrest people in cities far north of the border, including Corona and Ontario.
The next month, the ACLU filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking information about whether the Border Patrol was acting lawfully. The organization asked for details about the people involved and their interactions with the Border Patrol, methods used during the sweeps, records of involvement by local and state law enforcement, and communications approving the patrols...
Previous coverage of the sweeps and the townhall meeting they engendered starts here. If you aren't familiar with the backstory, click the link.
I note the story says "set off a panic among immigrants". Perhaps they should have said "set off a panic among illegal immigrants". If you think that's the correct wording, contact readers.rep@uniontrib.com or feedback@ap.org .
Posted at 10:59 AM | Comments (0)
"Safety's Not No. 1"
Now that the Bernard Kerik nomination has crashed and burned, President Bush should ask the next candidate for Department of Homeland Security chief the most important question for the job: Will you enforce the law against border trespassers?...Yet fear of offending the race and rights lobbies has trumped national security at DHS. This spring, for example, Asa Hutchinson — the department's undersecretary for Border and Transportation Security and now a contender for the top job — shut down a successful border-patrol initiative to catch illegal aliens.
A specially trained team had apprehended about 450 border trespassers in several southern California cities. The Los Angeles Times, La Raza and every other advocacy group for illegal aliens protested that the arrests were racially motivated and that they were "scaring" illegal aliens.
The White House promptly called the team off, and Hutchinson appeased the race hustlers by denouncing the initiative as "racial profiling." He followed up with a memo to every U.S. immigration, border patrol and customs agent declaring that "preventing racial profiling is a priority mission of this department."
... These authorities seem to believe that they can give a pass to the hundreds of thousands of Mexicans who cross illegally every year and still strengthen the border against terrorists. But since the government forswears consideration of national origin, race, religion or ethnicity in its law-enforcement activities, strict immigration policing across the board becomes even more crucial for catching terrorists.
Without real enforcement, terrorists will make use of the infrastructure of illegality — such as corrupt Mexican officials. In 2003, authorities busted Mexico's consul in Lebanon for selling fake visas for up to $4,500. Her ring had smuggled about 300 Lebanese into the U.S. from Tijuana from 1999 to November 2002...
I don't necessarily blame Hutchinson for this. He was probably just doing what he was told.
However, in an administration where symbolism means everything, choosing Hutchinson would send the completely wrong message.
Posted at 05:47 PM | Comments (0)
California Democrat's Magical World
It's a magical world:
Adding to the immigration debate, state Senate Majority Leader Gloria Romero has scheduled a hearing Thursday in Los Angeles on the cost of holding illegal-immigrant convicts in state prisons and why the federal government isn't paying more.
Romero, D-Los Angeles, estimated the state pays as much as $868 million a year to incarcerate up to 28,000 felons who are immigrants, including many who entered the country illegally...
... Schwarzenegger's chief budget spokesman H.D. Palmer said the governor is working as hard as any governor has to get more federal money.
"This governor has worked with both Republican and Democratic governors in other states to get Washington to recognize that states bear a disproportionate cost for the federal government's inability to control the border."
In the California Democrat's Magical World, they can reduce the money spent on jailing illegal aliens at the same time as their driver's licenses for illegal aliens laws roll out the welcome mat. To a certain extent a few of them must realize they're partially to blame for the problem and this is just another attempt to bother Arnold. However, for the most part most of them are living away off in Magical World where Everything's Going To Be OK.
("The Costs of Illegal Immigration to Californians" says Romero's figure is off by a few hundred million.)
Posted at 02:25 PM | Comments (0)
"Redondo Beach will fight ruling on day laborers"
Redondo Beach lawyers said they plan to file an appeal after a judge Monday extended her order barring the city from enforcing a law prohibiting laborers from soliciting employment on public streets and sidewalks.
City Attorney Jerry Goddard said unless directed by the City Council to do otherwise, he will appeal U.S. District Judge Consuelo Marshall's decision to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
While labor and immigrant rights groups viewed enforcement of the law as harassment, city officials contend the law is needed because in some locations day laborers have created traffic hazards and sparked complaints...
Posted at 11:33 AM | Comments (1)
"[AZ] solicitor general: Enforce 200 now"
I can't comment on all the machinations involved here and what they mean, but:
Attorneys for the state want a federal judge to let Arizona begin enforcing the provisions of Proposition 200 next week.
In legal papers filed Monday, Mary O'Grady, the state's solicitor general, said nothing in the voter-approved initiative conflicts with federal law. She told U.S. District Judge David Bury of Tucson that the state is entitled to tell government workers to check the immigration status of applicants for public benefits.
O'Grady said Bury should also permit enactment of a related provision that requires those same government workers to file written reports when an applicant turns out to be in the United States illegally...
See also "Prop. 200 supporters file motion to intervene in lawsuit":
A group supporting a voter-approved initiative aimed at keeping illegal immigrants from obtaining some government services filed a motion in U.S. District Court in Tucson to be allowed to help defend the measure.
An attorney for Protect Arizona Now filed the motion Monday to intervene in the lawsuit the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund filed Nov. 30.
MALDEF's suit argues that Proposition 200 is unconstitutional because it usurps the federal government's power over immigration and naturalization...
Posted at 11:33 AM | Comments (0)
Cry me a river of Sally Struthers' tears
The federal government wants to deport convicted felon Patricia Ann Law but freed the Santa Clara woman from jail last month anyway.
Law, 52, is among the first Northern Californians to participate in an experimental program intended to keep immigrants out of jail while their deportation and asylum cases proceed.
Though Law must wear an electronic ankle bracelet and observe a strict curfew, she says she's grateful to be out of detention and close to her family.
Genoveva Noriega Perez and her husband, Salvador Perez, are decidedly less enthusiastic...
[...whining... ...whining from a lawyer... more whining...]
...The need for better tracking is obvious, officials say: Roughly 80 percent of the immigrants who aren't in detention when given deportation orders disappear...
Posted at 04:19 PM | Comments (0)
" Central America wants to open borders"
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) - Central American nations are putting aside border bickering to allow the relatively free movement of people and goods between nations - a goal that has U.S. officials worried about a jump in smuggling of drugs and people in a region already plagued by crime and on the lookout for terrorists...
...Costa Rica, Belize and Mexico have declined to participate, in part because all three countries are already struggling with an influx of illegal Central American migrants who come to either look for work or, in the case of Mexico, pass through to the United States.
Citing the illegal migration, drug trafficking, corruption and gang activity that thrives in Central America, U.S. officials have expressed concern about removing the border checks. Michael O'Brien, the head of the U.S. federal Drug Enforcement Administration in Guatemala, said the old border controls, complete with drug-sniffing dogs and car searches, often were the strongest safeguard against criminal activity.
The United States is also keeping a close eye on the region after several recent terrorism scares. U.S. officials have said that an alleged top al-Qaida operative, Adnan El Shukrijumah of Saudi Arabia, spent 10 days in Panama in April 2001. Honduran officials said he was spotted more recently at an Internet cafe there.
But Central American leaders say the new border plan won't hamper their fight against drugs and other crime. So far, El Salvador and Guatemala have put up more highway checkpoints to keep a closer eye on traffic through the two countries...
Posted at 04:07 PM | Comments (0)
The WSJ's libertarian fantasy world
The Wall Street Journal has an editorial supporting the Bush/Fox amnesty, and using Bernie Kerik's nanny problem as an example. It's only available to subscribers, but an excerpt is here:
...Think about the Kerik example: The man and his wife have two small kids.... A nanny offers that help, and she seems both nice enough and gets along with kids. Whether or not she's "legal" seems less important to most American parents than whether she's trustworthy and hard-working.
As for the nanny, she's traveled hundreds, if not thousands, of miles from home to make some money and get ahead. Her primary concern isn't running some Immigration Service gantlet but is to find a good family that pays decently and treats her well. Are we really supposed to believe that this kind of transaction between consenting adults jeopardizes our national security?
Leaving aside any ethical issues, and only looking at this matter on the surface, it all seems so simple. A couple wants a nanny, a nanny wants a job. They exchange a little bit of money, and everyone's happy.
In the perfect case, or in the case of just one nanny, everything might be fine.
However, the nanny problem becomes a problem for the rest of us when you move out of the WSJ's libertarian fantasy world and when you consider the numbers involving, say, 1000 nannies.
Out of that number, some of them will get sick. Will their employers pay for their medical treatment, or will they encourage the nanny to go to the emergency room? What of those nannies that get injured on the job? Will the couple give her a little bit of money then threaten to call la migra if she doesn't go home?
What of all the other public services those nannies will have an impact on simply by being here? Won't 1000 nannies require new roads, new utility services, and all the other services that apparently are paid for by others in the WSJ's libertarian fantasy world?
What if the nanny has a U.S. citizen child while she's here? Who will pick up the tab to educate that child? The nanny will send back money to her home country, making her a valuable commodity to that country. That monetary incentive will cause that country to meddle even more in our immigration laws, reducing American sovereignty. Is there a price tag we could put on that?
The WSJ's scenario would have some merit if they were willing to pay the true cost for their nannies' labor. But, that would be contrary to the goal of cheap labor: pay as little for the labor as possible, and stick the rest of us with the true costs.
Posted at 12:45 PM | Comments (2)
When Libertarians attack!
In response to the WashTimes article mentioned in the last post ("Hillary goes conservative on immigration"), Nick Gillespie of Reason Magazine offers the following. I've tried to condense his thoughts down as much as possible, and I've put fact-based corrections in brackets and in bold:
Hillary's National I.D. Card
[...slags off on the WashTimes because of their Moonie connection and their cost...]
...stance against immigrants ["illegal immigrants", just like it says in the article]...
...Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.), the leading congressional spokesman against people with last names that end in vowels (if you know what I mean)... [...sounds more like a race-baiting "liberal" than a Libertarian...]
Yeah, that's really fucking heartbreaking to see people lined up to work in the morning. God, this used to be a beautiful country, before all these people--many of whom look different than Hillary--started getting up early in the morning and working really hard at shit jobs for a living. [Awww. They're just here to do the jobs Americans won't do. Never mind all the downsides.]
[...promotes a Reason Open Borders piece...]
[...compares Hillary to a "camp commandant"... Who said Hitler references were just for "liberals"?...]
[...promotes another Reason piece...]
[...and another...]
Previous coverage of Reason's Open Border stance is here and here.
Posted at 11:13 AM | Comments (1)
"Hillary goes conservative on immigration"
The WashTimes offers a roundup that's similar to the one earlier offered by NewsMax. It also mentions HillaryNow.com, "a group dedicated to drafting Mrs. Clinton to run for president."
Posted at 11:03 AM | Comments (0)
Lower tuition rate for undocumented immigrants ["illegal aliens"] sought
Let's play newspaper editor and correct the problems in the article "Lower tuition rate for undocumented immigrants sought" by Elise Castelli of the Boston Globe. My corrections are in brackets and in bold:
Advocates for [illegal] immigrants and refugees yesterday renewed their demand for cheaper, in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants ["illegal aliens"] at state colleges...
[flyers sent opposing providing] tuition breaks for undocumented students ["illegal aliens"]...
...The in-state tuition bill... would allow [illegal] immigrant students who have lived in Massachusetts for three years and graduated from a Massachusetts high school to pay in-state tuition rates at the state's colleges, regardless of their immigration status. [...race-baiting by Jarrett T. Barrios deleted...]
Eight other states have laws that permit illegal immigrants [use of correct term noted] to attend school at residents' tuition rates.
[...personal touch added via an] East Boston High School graduate [who] immigrated to Boston from Peru when he was 11 ["whose parents illegally immigrated, perhaps in expectation of 'immigrants rights advocates' using a sympathetic press to push through a cheaper-educations-for-illegal-aliens-than-for-U.S.-citizens bill"]
Please send an email to ombud@globe.com and suggest they make these changes on their own in future articles.
I also posted a message about this to Boston.com's forums.
Posted at 12:50 PM | Comments (1)
"House to see new bill on immigration security"
The immigration security provisions stripped out of the intelligence overhaul bill will be introduced as a separate bill on the first day of the next Congress, House leaders promised yesterday, and will be their first priority for passage.
"We're doing this to stop the next terrorists and to take necessary steps to protect the American people," House Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. said. "The bill will address the three most critical elements, including real driver's license reform, tightening our asylum laws to stop exploitation by terrorists, and finishing the fence on California's border with Mexico."
See also "Congress snubs Bush's immigration plan"
Posted at 02:35 PM | Comments (1)
"Beaten Paths: Illegal immigration and smuggling continue to wreak environmental havoc in Southern Arizona"
Tucson Weekly has more on the environmental damage caused by massive illegal immigration.
Posted at 02:32 PM | Comments (0)
Interesting cartoon...
Posted at 02:08 PM | Comments (0)
"Anti-illegals group targets 2 senators"
A new grassroots group that wants to close the borders to illegal immigrant is targeting Sens. Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett, both R-Utah.
Barry Hatch urged dozens of people attending a meeting at the South Jordan public library Wednesday night to flood their offices with phone calls and letters, urging them to strengthen and seal off the nation's borders.
"We are about to lose our country the way we know it," said Hatch, who is a second cousin of the U.S. senator. "Illegals are coming in. Jobs are going to be lost."
In an emotional speech, Barry Hatch, who used to live in California, said, "Immigrants are coming as conquerors. They are colonizing and spreading fast . . . I watched California become a third-world country."
...Hatch also suggested that President Bush should be impeached for his pro-immigration reform, which would provide temporary work visas for some illegal immigrants. He said such policy would lead to no borders, with only one nation from Canada southward...
I'm pretty much reflexively opposed to anything from Orrin Hatch too, but I'd strongly advise them to lighten up on the rhetoric.
Posted at 01:49 PM | Comments (0)
Another feverish missive from the OBL noted
Tamar Jacoby has yet another misleading editorial about massive immigration, this time in the NY Post. It might help if you read the editorial in a Tokyo Rose voice.
From "Winning the Border Battle":
Our increasingly educated, middle-class workforce isn't interested in hard manual work, but millions of campesinos south of the border are. [Tamar is down! --LW] We need them and they need us — supply and demand — and the resulting flow is good for our economy.
That's right, you soft Americans! Despite the incredible downsides of inviting 10% of another country's population to in effect invade your country, the global market must reign supreme! Don't worry about things like Mexico still not having gotten over the loss of "their" territories or their claims that all Mexicans everywhere are part of the greater Mexican Nation. Just think about the cheap labor.
In addition to the "jobs Americans won't do" canard, Jacoby also brings up the "the economy will collapse" canard and the "enforcement hasn't worked" canard. Enforcement has several parts. Jacoby only mentions border security. She conveniently does not mention that under the Bush administration workplace enforcement is even lower than under Clinton.
... Once we've adjusted the law — once most needed workers have a way to come legally and the only unauthorized foreigners in the country are people we don't need or want here — many of Sensenbrenner's proposed provisions would make good sense.
Indeed, in that case, we'd want to use every means at our disposal to find and catch those who eluded the guest-worker program or tried to come illegally outside it. And tightening up on drivers' licenses and other I.D. cards would be an extremely effective tool — to use against not just uncooperative migrants but also smugglers and terrorists...
Yeah, after we enact the Bush/Fox Amnesty, we'll get tough on enforcement. Unfortunately, that's what we've been promised after past amnesties, and it turned out to be lies. And, if Bush won't truly enforce the immigration laws now, that tends to cast doubt on his intention of ever enforcing those laws.
If we passed the Bush/Fox Amnesty it would create millions more illegal aliens to replace those who had been magically transformed into legal workers. Thence would follow more editorials from people like Tamar Jacoby telling us how we need our new crop of illegal aliens and how the economy will collapse without them and how we need a new amnesty and so on and so forth.
For the truth about the Bush/Fox Amnesty, see The Big Show on the Border.
Previous columns or quotes from Jacoby are here, here, and here. She's also a signatory to the *cough* "Conservative" Statement of Principles on Immigration.
Posted at 01:37 PM | Comments (0)
"Judge gives OK for Napolitano to sign Prop. 200 into law"
PHOENIX - A federal judge has given the OK for Gov. Janet Napolitano to officially proclaim approval of Proposition 200.
Judge David Bury, in an order released Wednesday, said Napolitano is free to declare that voters approved sections of the initiative which require proof of citizenship to register to vote and mandate that those seeking to cast a ballot must first present identification.
That, in turn, permits the state to submit the change to the U.S. Department of Justice for its required review of whether the measure illegally impairs the voting rights of minorities.
But Bury left intact part of his original Nov. 30 order which bars the state from enforcing the section of Proposition 200 which says government employees must get proof that applicants for public benefits are here legally and are required to report illegal entrants to federal officials. That order also precludes proclaiming voter approval of that section of the initiative...
Who knows what these fine public servants are up to. Napolitano claims she'll support 200, but I tend to be a bit skeptical seeing as just about all of Arizona's establishment was opposed to it.
Yesterday's "Will of the people ignored again" from Joseph Farah discusses judges and *cough* grass-roots groups like MALDEF trying to thwart the will of the voters, even if it does go a bit overboard.
Posted at 12:27 AM | Comments (1)
"[CA] Latino caucus calls GOP ads racist"
Accusing the Republican Party and business groups of stoking "anti-immigrant, anti-Latino" fervor, the Legislature's Democratic Latino Caucus on Tuesday urged Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to denounce "racist" GOP campaign ads mailed during recent Assembly races.
Members of the 27-member caucus also called on the Republican governor to speak out against a campaign to qualify a ballot measure that would deny benefits - including driver's licenses - to illegal immigrants.
"I would hope that the governor will make a response to these (campaign) tactics," said state Sen. Martha Escutia, D-Whittier, the new chairwoman of the caucus...
..."All I can assume, as a lawyer, is it was temporary insanity," Escutia said. "But I can tell you, as a Latina, that these types of attacks will not ever happen again on my watch..."
ZZZZzzzzzz...
Based on the description of the ads, they don't sound "racist," but I guess we could have figured out that they weren't racist based solely on the people who were making the charge.
The anti-Arambula mailer may have some merit, even if it was out of date. From November 1's AP report "Democrats accuse GOP of using racist mailers in Assembly races" (yes, this isn't the first time they've played this specific card):
...Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, charged that the mailers aimed at Arambula, a Fresno County supervisor, "crossed the line of racism.
"It is an outrage that racism is being utilized by the California Republican Party to wage a campaign against one of the most creditable candidates running," he said.
The Arambula mailers have a photo of the Mexican border in the background and quote a 1991 Fresno Bee article in which Arambula says he found non-citizens voting an "intriguing idea" that could "encourage participation in school-related matters by parents that have not really had much say."
The mailers also state that Arambula belongs to Mexican government organization that "lobbies the United States to increase taxpayer benefits to Mexicans living in the U.S."
Arambula said he attended no more than two meetings of the Instituto de los Mexicanos en el Exterior and resigned a year ago. He also said he had rejected the idea of allowing noncitizens to vote in school board elections...
"I just attended a couple meetings." Hey, it's been tried before. In his case it might even be true, and it might indicate that he sees a problem with that group.
For an idea of what the Democratic Latino Caucus would consider normal, see "California legislators ask Mexican Senate to intervene [in driver's licenses for illegal aliens]":
Mexico City — Members of the Assembly of California have asked the Mexican Senate (sic) to beseech Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to sign the bill so that almost 2 million undocumented Mexicans can obtain driver’s licenses that would serve as identification...
...Marco Antonio Firebaugh, said that the governor “is the one who has the ability to make it law, to give this right to Mexicans, whether they have settled in California or not... We want the Mexican people to know that the measure is on his desk... However it is now September and he has not responded whatsoever, although we will insist on approval of the bill, basically so that illegal migrants can have access to education and health services in the U.S..."
Assemblywoman Cindy Montañez, from the San Fernando Valley, said that it is vital for Mexico to ask Schwarzenegger to approve this legislation "so that he would know that not only people of California, but an entire country is asking that he sign the bill."
If we're going to call what appear to be fact-based mailers "racist," what would we call the above? And, will any prosecutor dare to file charges?
Posted at 03:03 PM | Comments (1)
Janet wants to sign Prop. 200?
For some unknown reason: Napolitano wants OK to get law ready to go:
..."We're obligated to implement the law unless a judge tells us we can't," said Napolitano, adding her proclamation is merely a formality. She said state agencies are ready to carry out Proposition 200 when the judge tells them to do so.
Daniel Ortega, one of the lawyers who filed the federal lawsuit in Tucson challenging Proposition 200's constitutionality, declined to comment on Napolitano's legal maneuvering.
On Dec. 22, Bury will consider evidence for and against the anti-illegal immigration measure. He could issue an injunction or let it become law.
In other strange news, I had to double check that the above does in fact use the word "illegal" instead of their (past?) practice of conveniently omitting that bit.
Posted at 11:52 PM | Comments (0)
"Redondo Beach temporarily blocked from arresting day laborers"
A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked the city of Redondo Beach from arresting day laborers who solicit jobs on the street...
In issuing a temporary restraining order, U.S. District Judge Consuelo Marshall said the city's policy could do "irreparable harm" to workers and questioned whether it was constitutional...
...If the city's attorneys are unable to show cause, the ban could be extended through the duration of the case, said Thomas Saenz, vice president of litigation for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund...
Saenz said his organization has identified at least 50 cities statewide that prohibit day laborers from soliciting work in the street, among them Agoura Hills, San Bernardino and Chino.
The organization has successfully represented day laborers against the city of Los Altos in Northern California and against Rancho Cucamonga, Upland and Los Angeles County.
A case against Glendale is pending, Saenz said.
In case you're wondering about the link I added to the article, see this:
...The Ford Foundation, for example, in 1968 single-handedly funded the creation of The Mexican American Legal Defense Fund (MALDEF) and The Southwest Council Of La Raza, later renamed National Council Of La Raza. Both groups are radical mouthpieces for the "rights" of illegal immigrants (including the advocacy of college tuition for illegals at state universities), have managed to force bilingual education in many areas and remain wholly unrepresentative of the average Hispanic-American citizenry...
Posted at 11:48 PM | Comments (2)
The 9/11 hijackers and driver's licenses
There's a detailed article from November 2001 here:
When [9/11 hijackers] Hanjour and Almihdhar showed up at DMV Express [in Virginia], they apparently already had two forms of ID--a passport and a legal visa would have been accepted---because they did not submit DL6s to establish their identity. But they did submit DL51s, to "prove" their Virginia residence. Martinez [an illegal alien day laborer from El Salvador who they'd hired to help them get driver's licenses] allegedly certified the forms for both of them.
On the forms, the men claimed to live in an apartment complex on the 5900 block of Leesburg Pike--one block down from the strip mall. "This address did not belong to either Hanjour or Almihdhar," [FBI agent] Gomez wrote in his affidavit, "but was rather the address that appeared on Martinez's Virginia identification card. Martinez no longer lived at the address, but had in the past."
With their newly minted photo IDs, the two suspected terrorists drove back with Martinez to Culmore. "At the 7-Eleven they all got out of the van," wrote Gomez. "Hanjour and Almihdhar went inside the store and appeared to use the ATM machine. They then came out, paid Martinez $100 in cash for his efforts, and left in the van. Martinez did not see them again."
But the Virginia DMV had not seen the last of these two. Hanjour and Almihdhar were now qualified to certify the legal residency of other terrorists.
That is exactly what they did the next day--at a DMV about three miles from the Pentagon on South Four Mile Run in Arlington.
Wrote Special Agent Gomez: "DMV records also show that Hanjour and Almihdhar used the address Martinez gave them on August 1, 2001, to complete DL51 forms for [9/11 hijackers] Majed Moqed (Moqed) and Salem Alhazmi (Alhazmi) on August 2, 2001..."
Three other suspected hijackers showed up at the Arlington DMV that very same day. They, too, needed witnesses to help them secure Virginia IDs. But unlike Hanjour and Almihdhar, they needed not only DL51s, to establish a residence, but also DL6s, to establish their identities. That meant they had to have the help of a witness, a notary, and a lawyer...
...Herbert and Lopez-Flores [also illegal alien day laborers] got into Herbert's car and drove to an attorney's office on Columbia Pike in Falls Church. The three Arab men followed in their van...
One of the Arab men in the office that day was Ahmed Alghamdi, one of the suspected hijackers of United Airlines Flight 175, which flew into the World Trade Center towers. Lopez-Flores vouched for his DL51 form, on which Alghamdi falsely claimed to live on Edison Street in Alexandria.
Abdul Alomari was another one of the Arab men in the law office that day. He is a suspected hijacker of American Airlines Flight 11, which also crashed into the World Trade Center towers. Alomari claimed to live on Buchanan Street in Arlington. "Oscar Armando Diaz," whom the FBI believes to be Villalobos, certified Alomari's residency on the DL51. (The actual resident at this location was Villalobos' cousin.)
Villalobos, who told the FBI he believed the men to be Pakistani or Iraqi, added an interesting note. "Villalobos said the attorney then came out of his office and signed the forms as well," wrote Special Agent Weidner. "Here, Villalobos noted that the attorney conversed with the 'Pakistanis' in 'their language.' After this conversation, each 'Pakistani' man paid the secretary $35, and then all returned to the Arlington DMV office. Once back at the DMV office, the 'Pakistani' men paid Villalobos $50 for his assistance and then went into the DMV to get identification cards."
When the FBI later showed Villalobos photos of the suspected September 11 hijackers, he identified five of them--Hani Hanjour, Salem Alhazmi, Majed Moqed, Khalid Alghamdi and Abdul Alomari--as being at the Arlington DMV that day. "These identifications," Special Agent Weidner wrote, "were later confirmed by Virginia DMV records which show that all five men did in fact conduct various transactions relating to Virginia identifications cards at the Arlington DMV on August 2, 2001..."
Much more information at the link.
Posted at 10:40 PM | Comments (0)
"Liberal" Loony Land vs. the Realm of Reality
From "Liberal" Loony Land:
The prospect of revisiting the immigration reforms [which were stripped out of the Intelligence "Reform" Bill] alarmed others.
During a pointed exchange on the House floor last night, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi called the reforms "egregious" and "extraneous" and signaled that Democrats would oppose them.
"I have serious concerns," the California Democrat said. "I hope Republican leaders won't tarnish the achievements of today" by bringing up the immigration reforms again after the new year.
From the Realm of Reality:
"We are here today because on September 11, 2001, 19 men, all of whom entered our country illegally, overstayed their visas or obtained fraudulent visas, boarded four airplanes and used them as bombs to kill thousands of our citizens," said Rep. Nathan Deal, Georgia Republican. "The primary identification documents that allowed them to board those airplanes were state driver's licenses. Nothing in this bill would prevent those hijackers from using those same driver's licenses to board those same airplanes and repeat the events of 9/11."
Quotes from the article "Border security up next, Bush says". It starts with this generally unbelievable bit:
President Bush is vowing to help House Republicans enact tighter immigration-security controls "early in the next session" of Congress...
Posted at 10:24 PM | Comments (3)
Intelligence vs. the S.F. Chronical
From the S.F. Chronical editorial "Intelligence vs. immigrants":
Attempts to improve the nation's security should not be used as a cover to carry out a stealth attack against immigrants.
That is in effect what Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., and his allies in the House of Representatives have been trying to do by blocking the bill to overhaul the nation's intelligence system in exchange for immigration provisions that are, at best, tangentially related to the war against terrorism...
Fifteen of the nineteen 9/11 hijackers had a combined total of 63 driver's licenses. The Sensenbrenner provisions would have attempted to prevent future terrorists from getting driver's licenses.
Since the 9/11 hijackers used those driver's licenses to function on a day-to-day basis in the U.S. before the attacks, it's clear that the Sensenbrenner provisions were directly related to preventing future terrorist attacks.
The editorial continues with a few more paragraphs and a few more lies. Strangely, it includes a swipe at FAIR:
...The materials on [FAIR's] Web site include ''sample messages'' for callers to deliver to key legislators, such as: ''America cannot be truly protected as long as states issue driver's licenses to all comers, including terrorists.''
Holy Moses! An advocacy group includes "sample messages" for people to give to their congresscritters?!?! What is the world coming to?
If you'd like to suggest the S.F. Chronical gets their facts straight or just stops lying:
Reader representative: If you have comments on The Chronicle's coverage, standards or accuracy, please call Dick Rogers, the readers' representative, at (415) 777-7870. Written comments can be e-mailed to readerrep@sfchronicle.com, faxed to (415) 442-1847, or addressed to Readers' Representative, c/o San Francisco Chronicle, 901 Mission St., San Francisco, CA 94103. For information on delivery, billing or how to become a subscriber, call (800) 281-2476.
Letters to the Editor should be addressed to letters@sfchronicle.com. Due to space considerations, only letters of less than 250 words will be considered for publication. Please provide your name and telephone number along with your letter. You will be called if your letter is being considered for publication.
Posted at 08:23 PM | Comments (0)
"Illegal aliens cost California billions"
The WashTimes covers the FAIR report previously blogged here. From the WashTimes article:
Illegal immigration costs the taxpayers of California — which has the highest number of illegal aliens nationwide — $10.5 billion a year for education, health care and incarceration, according to a study released yesterday.
A key finding of the report by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) said the state's already struggling kindergarten-through-12th-grade education system spends $7.7 billion a year on children of illegal aliens, who constitute 15 percent of the student body.
The report also said the incarceration of convicted illegal aliens in state prisons and jails and uncompensated medical outlays for health care provided to illegal aliens each amounted to about $1.4 billion annually. The incarceration costs did not include judicial expenditures or the monetary costs of the crimes committed by illegal aliens that led to their incarceration.
"California's addiction to 'cheap' illegal-alien labor is bankrupting the state and posing enormous burdens on the state's shrinking middle-class tax base," said FAIR President Dan Stein...
San Diego's North County Times' article on this report is here.
Posted at 03:35 PM | Comments (1)
Oppose sham "intelligence reform"
The immigration-related provisions might have been removed from the Intelligence Reform Bill. If the bill passes, illegal aliens could continue to get driver's licenses and could continue to use foreign IDs that are only of use to illegal aliens.
- That's despite the fact that 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers had a combined total of 63 driver's licenses from various states.
- And, the FBI and the DOJ call those foreign ID cards - including Mexico's Matricula Consular - a security threat.
- And, from Chapter 3 of the 9/11 Commission Staff Report: "...abuse of the immigration system and a lack of interior immigration enforcement were unwittingly working together to support terrorist activity..."
- And, the media barely covers the immigration-related provisions. The news media rarely mentions that there's more than one group of 9/11 families, and that the "9/11 Families for a Secure America" opposes this bill unless it includes immigration-related provisions. (See also "9/11 Families Back Sensenbrenner in Intel Fight")
What you can do:
Please contact your representatives and tell them: don't pass this bill unless it includes those immigration-related provisions.
You can send free FAXes here.
And, here are some phone numbers:
Sen. Collins(R-ME) at (202) 224-2523
Sen. Lieberman (D-CT) at (202) 224-4041
Rep. David Dreier (R-CA)
Glendora 626-852-2626
DC 202-225-2305
Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) at (202) 225-2976
Rep. Hoekstra (R-MI) at (202) 225-4401
Rep. Harman (D-CA) at (202) 225-8220
(According to KFI's John & Ken, David Dreier might have found religion: due to Political Human Sacrifice, he might have supported these immigration-related provisions.)
UPDATE: Cross-posted to the-lonewacko-blog.redstate.org/story/2004/12/7/13423/4563, the Command Post, and Free Republic.
Posted at 07:27 PM | Comments (1)
"Prop. 200, democracy thrown for loop"
From the Arizona Republic's Robert Robb:
I was critical of Proposition 200, the illegal immigration initiative, prior to the election.
It was, in effect, expressing a sentiment by enacting a law of unknown effects and consequences. And I don't think that's good governance.
But the voters passed it, and supporters deserve a good-faith attempt at implementing it...
But last week, good-faith implementation - and democracy - got at least temporarily derailed.
A federal judge, Tucson's David C. Bury, temporarily enjoined the law from going into effect. His rationale was that Proposition 200 might be pre-empted by federal law, and that the "balance of hardships" fell on those challenging the law, not on the state for a deferred implementation.
According to Bury's opinion: "It seems likely that if Proposition 200 were to become law, it would have a dramatic chilling effect upon undocumented aliens who would otherwise be eligible for public benefits under federal law."
Bury's decision is perplexing in a couple of respects...
Posted at 04:30 PM | Comments (0)
"Immigration reform crucial to security"
From Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-CA):
If the intelligence reform bill has any chance of passage when Congress returns to the Capitol this week, it must meet all the goals outlined by the September 11 commission's comprehensive report, not just the few selected by the Senate. Specifically, it will have to address illegal immigration as a national security threat...
Posted at 03:59 PM | Comments (0)
We could make outsourcing even better!
Sometimes my comments aren't exactly top-drawer. In most cases that's simply because I crank them out instead of spending the time to make them as good as they could be. So, the comment I left here should be considered simply a work-in-progress:
The only problem with outsourcing is all the money that's wasted in transport.Wouldn't it be great if we could benefit from the tremendous benefits of outsourcing, but without all the inefficiencies? The solution is clear: we need to invite several million Chinese to come here and work in our factories or doing field work or other forms of manual labor. That way we can enjoy the benefits of outsourcing, without having to pay for the transoceanic freight!
Even better, we could cut a deal with the Chinese government to use some of their slave/prison labor. Look, let's face reality. Those people are in prison for doing bad things, and if they're in China they're going to be doing work. Why don't we face up to reality, do them a little favor, and make money in the process? That's what I call a win-win!
We establish "worker camps" in the U.S. to house those Chinese "laborers". China will want us to make sure their "laborers" work hard and are kept "under control." We'll do that, but we'll also provide better conditions than they'd normally get. We could even establish satellite "worker camps" at various business parks around the nation!
Oh yeah! Oh yeah yeah!
Posted at 03:05 PM | Comments (1)
Libertarians on the loose
The Cato Institute's Daniel Griswold has a column in Reason Magazine supporting Bush's "guest" worker plan: "Beyond the Barbed Wire: Bush won a mandate for immigration reform".
In their Hit & Run post about this article, I left the following comment:
If you have the time, I'd very strongly suggest you watch this video. It's 80 Megs, but you can download it first using something like Offline Explorer Pro.
The video features the author of this piece, together with an administration representative discussing Bush's plan.
Of particular note are the statements from the administration rep that Bush's plan:
"...would be open to any type of employee and any type of employer, such as nurses, teachers, high-tech workers, low-skilled workers. This is a concept that can apply broadly"
In other words, they want to invite the world to come to the U.S. to take American jobs. A wet dream for libertarians, a nightmare for everyone else.
On the video, you'll also see Griswold asked whether those "guest" workers will want to vote. He says something similar to: "they'll be too tired working for a few years to think about voting."
At what point in time do other people finally realize that "immigration reformers" just don't seem to get this "American" thing? Or, perhaps their concept of "America" is rooted a couple centuries in the past.
From the article:
Immigration reform is popular with Hispanics
Indeed it is. 47% of Arizona Hispanics voted for Prop. 200. On the other hand, the Open Borders Lobby strongly opposed 200.
Simply throwing more money and manpower at the problem hasn't worked. Since the early 1990s, we've quintupled spending and tripled personnel at the Mexican border. We've built three-tiered walls for 60 miles into the desert. We've imposed sanctions on employers for the first time in U.S. history.
We have? The numbers show that employer sanctions are lower under Bush than even under Clinton. Could those publicly available numbers be lying?
Our existing immigration system is out of step with the realities of American life. Our economy continues to produce opportunities for low-skilled workers in important sectors of our economy such as retail, services, construction, and tourism.
Yes, indeed. Powerful people seem to want to build something akin to manoralism.
Opponents of immigration demand more of the same failed policies: more walls and barbed wire, entire divisions of troops at the border, the massive deportation of undocumented workers at great economic and human cost.
Two - I repeat two - strawmen for the price of one! Someone who wants to restrict legal immigration and/or sharply reduce illegal immigration is not an "opponent of immigration." And, as pointed out by Steven Camarota of CIS at the video referenced above, mass deportations are not necessary: simply follow the existing laws and many illegal immigrants will self-deport and those who intend to come here won't.
The response then was to dramatically increase temporary worker visas under the Bracero program; the result was an equally dramatic decline in illegal immigration.
Illegal immigration rose during and after the Bracero program. That program created an infrastructure and those who couldn't get into the program came anyway.
Legalization would not equal "amnesty." Under the president's plan, legalized workers would not get automatic citizenship or even permanent residency.
Please. As pointed out in the Big Show on the Border, those "guest" workers will have U.S.-citizen children. They'll be here to stay and eventually they'll have to be given rights. Nanci Pelosi and Teddy Kennedy and other "liberals" will see to that.
They would have to pay a fine for having lived here illegally that would not be chump change for low-skilled workers.
That's a relief. Meanwhile, all those thousands of companies that have made billions employing illegal workers will have gotten off scot-free.
Legalization would also enhance our national security.
"Legalization" would give a foreign government even more power over our immigration system than they have now. That's the opposite of "national security." And, as pointed out in Chapter 3 of the 9/11 Commission Staff Report, at least one WTC 1 terrorist tried to take advantage of an earlier amnesty program.
Also see my comments on this other Reason thread.
There's more on Griswold's plans here and in Dogmatic Libertarians: Over the edge.
Posted at 01:47 PM | Comments (0)
Your Nativo Lopez summary
News of Nativo Lopez has been featured here in the past. He's the president of the groups Mexican-American Political Association and Hermandad Mexicana and he tends to get a fair amount of almost always favorable press attention.
Just a week ago he was featured in a discussion of the San Bernardino Sun article "Club to remove barriers". Before then, AP gave a previous boycott threat some attention. There's more on him here.
Yesterday, while announcing his latest boycott threat, this is what he had to say about KFI and the use of the term "illegal alien":
"We are not niggers. We are not kikes. We are not paddies. We are not homos. Uh-kay?"
As pointed out many times in the past, "illegal alien" is the correct, legal term. In fact, that's the term used to describe illegal aliens in the U.S. Code, a.k.a. the law of the land.
What's interesting is the ease with which these derogatory terms fall from Lopez' lips. Listen to the quote here, or directly in either this file or, if that doesn't work, in this file.
The next time you see a press article with a quote from Lopez, email them the links to that audio.
Posted at 03:24 PM | Comments (3)
"Pandering to interlopers?"
From immigration lawyer Matt Hayes in the WashTimes:
At last weekend's APEC summit, President Bush made clear the administration will try to justify its planned amnesty of illegal aliens as something necessary for greater border security. Despite unending criticism of his January call for the amnesty, the overwhelming passage of an Arizona state ballot initiative that prevents the use of public money on services for illegal aliens and every poll showing roughly 80 percent of Americans favor greater enforcement of our immigration laws, the president has decided the first political capital expenditure will be on an item Americans decidedly do not want.
The president now adopted completely the canard of the Wall Street Journal wing of the Republican Party, saying to the press corps at the summit that our border patrol's time would be better spent intercepting terrorists and drug traffickers than "people going to work." But members of the Border Patrol, speaking in defiance of a gag order issued by Undersecretary Asa Hutchinson, say privately their recent deployment orders have created the widest holes in our border in 30 years. "We've been told, in essence, to park the trucks," said one agent in October...
...Though the president's plans remain vague, every bill that has been drawn up in response to his call for an amnesty has no provision mandating minimum wages for applicants for legal status. When the White House was asked if the administration sought a minimum wage guarantee, it said there were no plans to do so...
...Utah's 3rd Congressional District saw this year a race that can rightly be called a referendum on the president's amnesty plans. In one of the most heavily Republican districts in the country, incumbent Chris Cannon, who massively outspent his rivals, faced Democratic challenger Beau Babka. Before the general election, Mr. Cannon made it through a bruising primary contest in which his challenger — who campaigned almost solely on opposition to Mr. Cannon's sponsorship of the AgJOBS bill, the primary House amnesty bill — peeled off more than 40 percent of the incumbent's primary votes. Then in the November election, Mr. Babka, the Democrat, garnered the majority of the district's Latino votes even after he came out solidly against amnesty...
I can't find the Bush quote, but it sounds like something he'd say. I also have a question about the minimum wage requirements. That was the only wage-related provision mentioned when the plan was first announced. Now, even that is gone? This issue needs a bit of clarification.
Posted at 02:54 PM | Comments (0)
"9/11 Families Back Sensenbrenner in Intel Fight"
Leaders of a group representing more than 300 family members of 9/11 victims urged Congress on Tuesday to scrap the intelligence reform bill because it doesn't include key provisions to secure the nation's borders against terrorist infiltration - the same objection raised by one of the bill's leading opponents, Wisconsin Rep. James Sensenbrenner.
"No bill should pass the Senate, the House, anywhere, unless it contains immigration reform," said Joan Molinaro, the mother of a New York City firefighter killed on September 11 and a member of the group "9/11 Families for a Secure America."
...Molinaro, Burlingame and other 9/11 familles who back Sensenbrenner's efforts have been largely ignored by the media, which has focused instead on other victim families aligned with 9/11 Commission Chairman Tom Kean, who strongly backs the bill...
Time to make some calls. Call these for starters:
Sen. Collins(R-ME) at (202) 224-2523
Sen. Lieberman (D-CT) at (202) 224-4041
Rep. David Dreier (R-CA)
Glendora 626-852-2626
DC 202-225-2305
Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) at (202) 225-2976
Rep. Hoekstra (R-MI) at (202) 225-4401
Rep. Harman (D-CA) at (202) 225-8220
Posted at 12:30 PM | Comments (0)
Behind the discordant tones
The Arizona Republic article "Successor must know border issues" was written before the announcement of Bernie Kerik as the new head of the DHS, so it's a little out of date. Nevertheless, in the process of discussing the "re-education" of the new head of DHS to understand border issues, they give us an invaluable peek into the little world of the Arizona Republic. The article has three quote sources, as follows:
...Of those being mentioned as successors, Shadegg said