Immigration

This is rich! Obama’s aunt is an illegal alien who has ignored deportation orders for four years! Obama, of course, doesn’t know anything about it. The Democratic presidential nominee’s campaign machine is already pointing the finger at the GOP claiming this is nothing more than final-hour mud-slinging.

Gimmie-a-break!

According to his campaign, Obama didn’t have a close relationship with his aunt, Zeituni Onyango. Really? This is the same aunt that Obama mentioned in his 1995 memoir, Dreams of my Father, calling her “Auntie Zeituni.” Obama’s auntie also attended his 2005 Senate swearing-in ceremony. Sounds like he may have a closer relationship than he lets on. Of course, Auntie Zeituni wouldn’t be the first person he throws under the bus. And if that wasn’t enough, his auntie made $265 in donations to her nephews campaign–illegal contributions considering she is a foreigner.

Still, this event will probably slide right off his “Oneness” like the slimy trail left behind a slug.

MORE:Hot Air; Michelle Malkin; Webloggin

Mexico’s President Felipe Calderón criticized the U.S. for our “humiliating treatment” of illegal aliens (h/t: memeorandum). Although he also pointed out the pending crisis in his own country unless more jobs are created, education is improved, tax evaders are punished and an alternative fuel is found, he still had the nerve to blame the U.S. for the plight of his people!

President Calderón said,

“I again express an energetic protest for the unilateral measures, taken by the Congress and the government of the United States, that exacerbate the persecution and the humiliating treatment of undocumented Mexican workers.”

(”undocumented workers” = “illegal aliens”)

He also categorically rejects our construction of a “wall on our common border,” saying the U.S. is “insensitive” in the treatment of foreign workers who strengthen our economy.

(and bleed our welfare system, break our laws and challenge our sovereignty!)

As if this wasn’t enough (and what really galls me), Calderón also had encouraging words for illegals everywhere: “Mexico does not end at the border” … “Wherever there is a Mexican, Mexico will be there.”

To “el Presidente”: The United States is not Mexico! Every Mexican who enters my country illegally is a criminal and should be treated as such. I reject your open-borders position and demand that you shore-up your own country. When you eliminate the corruption within your borders, maybe your people will quit trying to escape.

MORE: Hot Air (here and here); Wake up America; Right Wing Nuthouse; Michelle Malkin; Blue Crab Boulevard; Flopping Aces

Since Congress didn’t act, the Departments of Homeland Security and Commerce announced they would increase action against illegal immigration. Among other measures, they proposed rules requiring employers to fire people whose social security numbers don’t match government records. Employers who still retain these people after 90 days would be fined.

About time! Although I can’t help but wonder why the Bush administration is suddenly getting serious about enforcing immigration law. Is it a result of the grassroots effort to derail the shameless immigration reform bill both Congress and the Bush administration was trying to shove down our throats? or is this an attempt by the Bush administration to pressure Congress to press forward with the flawed immigration reform so obviously favored by the President?

Still, there are an awful lot of illegals who work without a social security number. You see them lined up in various locations in every city. Men from various companies pull up and pick workers like so many apples from a tree. These illegals work for cash under the table and without benefit or recourse should they be injured on the job.

What do we do about these illegals?

…these employers?

More: Thought Cops

(h/t: Spree at Wake up America!) Walt Edwards, a 1950’s Border Patrol veteran and participant in President Eisenhower’s Operation Wetback in 1954 says the government today could do a much better job of sealing the border and controlling illegal immigration.

According to Edwards, “When we start enforcing the law, these various businesses are, on their own, going to replace their [illegal] workforce with a legal workforce.”

Rather than build a fence at the border, Border Patrol veterans say these actions should have a higher priority:

1. End the current practice of taking captured Mexican aliens to the border and releasing them. Instead, deport them deep into Mexico, where return to the US would be more costly.
2. Crack down hard on employers who hire illegals. Without jobs, the aliens won’t come.
3. End “catch and release” for non-Mexican aliens. It is common for illegal migrants not from Mexico to be set free after their arrest if they promise to appear later before a judge. Few show up.

John Dillin of the Christian Science Monitor writes,

The Patrol veterans say enforcement could also be aided by a legalized guest- worker program that permits Mexicans to register in their country for temporary jobs in the US. Eisenhower’s team ran such a program. It permitted up to 400,000 Mexicans a year to enter the US for various agriculture jobs that lasted for 12 to 52 weeks.

While Congress is just spinning their wheels, we’re learning that the encouragement and use of illegal labor has dire consequences. Check out what Michelle Malkin and Hot Air have to say.

Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later and today New Haven, Connecticut, became the first city in America to offer ID cards to illegal aliens!

Insane! When many cities in the U.S. are cracking down on illegals, New Haven is offering ID cards to all of its residents, which includes 10,000 to 12,000 illegal aliens. The new ID cards cost $5 for children and $10 for adults. In addition to allowing illegals to do things like open bank accounts, the ID cards is supposed to encourage illegals who are the victims or witnesses of crime to cooperate with the police. According to mayor John DeStefano, “The simple straight forward purpose here is to build a stronger community because “You can’t police a community of people who won’t talk to our cops.”

New Haven already offers federal tax help to immigrants and prohibits police from asking about their immigration status. Along with the ID card, there is also associated amnesty. After all, the ID and the benefits it provides actually gives illegals de facto citizenship. A slap in the face to all those immigrants who are trying to attain citizenship by legal means.

Mayor DeStefano might as well put up a sign inviting the Nation’s illegal alien population to relocate to Connecticut! (’cause that’s exactly what’s gonna happen!) Of course, the mayor doesn’t think so.

Just wait…

Illegals will soon be flooding the job market in New Haven and the legal citizens will be looking for a new mayor!

(h/t: E.D. Hill on FoxNews Live) Back in December 2005, the U.S. Customs and Border protection’s Del Rio Border Patrol Sector (between the Texas towns of Eagle Pass and Del Rio) took the lead in a multi-agency law enforcement initiative targeting those who enter the United States in violation of the law. The operation dubbed, “Operation Streamline II” focuses on aliens who enter illegally through high-traffic areas within the Del Rio Border Patrol Sector, which spans 205 along the Rio Grande.

Basically, the operation requires those who enter the U.S. illegally to be detained and face prosecution. Those caught are expeditiously arraigned and tried. If found guilty of entering the country illegally, they receive the maximum sentence of 180 days in jail.

While the illegals are serving their sentence, Immigration and Customs Enforcement simultaneously processes the paperwork for their removal from the country. This is done to ensure that as soon as their time has been served, they are immediately removed from the U.S. back to their native country.

Persons sentenced on a first offense barred from re-entering the country, even through legal channels, for five years. Repeat offenders receive longer sentences and barring. Also, depending on criminal background, some illegals could be barred for life from ever legally entering the country.

This is an incredible success story and demonstrates what can be accomplished when we enforce existing immigration laws! This operation has drastically reduced crime in the sector and the illegals attempting to cross in this area is dwindling to nothing. Funny, we don’t hear this reported in the MSM (well, it’s not funny…it’s predictable)

According to the Denver Post, the operation has slashed the number of illegal immigrants caught crossing the border along the Del Rio Border Patrol Sector. From Dec 05 to Dec 06, “monthly apprehensions — a rough measure of illegal crossings — fell 57% across the Border Patrol’s Del Rio sector and 78% in the area around Eagle Pass.”

Commenting on the success of the operation, Border Patrol agent Randy Clark said, a year ago “you could sit here and watch dozens of (illegals) come out of those houses on the other side of the river and wade across. … Groups of 40 or 50 or 60 would come across in broad daylight, and just cross in a straight line.”

When asked what he sees now? “Nothing.”

Nothing!

The sheriff’s department in Panama City Beach, Florida, has developed a remarkably effective way of catching illegal immigrants: Deputies in patrol cars swarm upon construction sites and see who runs. The workers who flee are chased down by the deputies and arrested for trespassing, cutting through other’s property or hiding in someone’s yard, loitering or reckless driving. After they’re picked-up, the names of those whom the sheriff’s office suspects of being in the country illegally are given to U.S. immigration authorities.

Sheriff Frank McKeithen, who created his Illegal Alien Task Force, said, “It’s not wrong for them to run, but it’s not wrong for us to chase them either.”

Of course, the ACLU and other (illegal) immigrant advocate groups are apalled by the Sheriff’s tactic. The ACLU even says the program is constitutionally questionsble. (meaning: lawsuit is forthcoming).

(doesn’t one have to be a citizen to have constitutional rights?)

Still, the illegals aren’t happy and are leaving town (hello neighboring law enforement officials). Builders are worried they won’t have the (cheap) labor they need to capitalize on the construction boom going on in the area. (too bad!)

Why doesn’t anyone decry the builders who pay these illegals next to nothing (usually in cash: IRS?) and reap windfall profits on these beach condos???

My hats off to the Panama City Beach Sheriff’s Office! Keep it up!!

Radio talkshow host, Laura Ingraham, is calling on Americans to contact their elected representatives and “Save Your Country Now”…

Call your Congressmen and Senators. Tell them you do not support the Senate’s “bipartisan immigration reform bill.” Tell them you will not vote to reelect anyone who ties the issues of border enforcement and legalization together in one bill. Border enforcement first! When we as Americans verify over a number of years that this has been done, we can consider plans for those who have lived here illegally for several years.

Washington: Stop trying to tie security to amnesty! The laws necessary to secure our borders are already in effect…enforce them! Keep your promises and secure our borders first!

Last week the Senate republicans and democrats reached a compromise on a bill to overhaul our immigration policy. What a joke! The proposed law would do nothing but reward the criminal behavior of illegal aliens and those in this country who enable them. Here’s what’s in the bill:

• Amnesty for illegals (let’s just call it what it is): Basically this is the granting of a “Z visa” and a work authorization for any illegal who entered the country prior to 1 Jan 07. Of course, these applicants would have to pass a background check (mind you, there are an estimated 12 million illegals in this country), pay to $5,000 in fines and fees and pass an English proficiency test. The illegal could renew the “Z visa” every four years for $500. The Department of Homeland Security estimates that 15-20% of illegals would be ineligible due to criminal records.
• Provision for Guest Workers: In addition to the “Z visa,” the bill creates a new, temporary “Y visa” for as many as 400,000 “guest workers.” This is roughly the number of illegals who enter our country each year. I suppose the thought behind this is, “oh, well, since they’re going to do it anyway…” This visa would be good for two years and could be renewed twice (for a total of six years). Both the “Z visa” and “Y visa” provide a path to citizenship for the illegal.
• Increased Border Security (Ha!): Supposedly, the government wouldn’t be able to issue any visa unit it meets certain “triggers,” such as the addition of 6,000 new border-security officers, 370 miles of new border fence, 200 miles of vehicle barriers and 70 surveillance towers. Also, employers would have to verify if applicants were eligible to work in the country using a new electronic worker registry (where in the world is this going to come from and has anyone considered the ACLU opposition?? I don’t think so!).
• Economic Preference to Illegals with Skills: U.S. immigration policy has always given preference to applicants with families living in the States. The new policy would limit family visa to just young children and spouses of illegals, while substantially increasing the number of immigrants admitted on “economic merits” using an as-yet-to-be-determined point system. Supposedly this will help bring people into the country with higher education levels and proficiencies in science, match and technology (funny, I would think these folk wouldn’t have to hard a time immigrating legally!)

So, this is the bill in a nutshell. The potential for failure is huge! In 1986, we granted about 2.7 million illegals “legal status” under Reagan’s “Immigration Reform and Control Act.” It’s estimated that 37% (about 999,000) of those illegals eventually chose citizenship…what about the remaining 1.7 million? Where are they?

My recommendation: Enforce our immigration laws! Send the illegals back to their own countries and hold the U.S. enablers (including political leaders) accountable! It certainly wouldn’t cost as much as this new bill and it would be what most Americans want!! I’m fed-up with illegal aliens in this country and according to an ’05 Zogby poll, 81% of Americans are too. Think this is biased? Consider the following results from a ’03 RoperASW poll that indicates the majority of Americans see illegal immigration as a “serious problem” and favor reductions in immigration levels, severe penalties for using false identification, and more involvement at the state and local level to help locate and deport illegal aliens.

The following was recently reported by the Associated Press:

“The Latino-oriented record label Urban Box Office (UBO) said Saturday it plans to release the new version of “The Star-Spangled Banner” to coincide with the U.S. Senate’s debate on immigration legislation next week.”

Congress debates on border security and illegal immigration have triggered demonstrations across the United States. Protesters carrying American flags are marching on Washington, lamenting their plight. The only trouble is one must speak Spanish to understand their message.

The language of the United States is English. If living in this country is so important, if we possess the lifestyle you desire, if you what to obtain the “American Dream,” then dammit, start acting like an American. You can guard your culture, pass it on to your children and still be one of us. Don’t expect Americans to cater to you for it is you who must assimilate into our culture.

A Spanish-version of our National Anthem is definitely the wrong way to go about ginning-up support for your cause. Personally, I find it offensive when pop stars like Whitney Houston butcher the “Star-Spangled Banner” with outrageous riffs and melodrama. I find it even more offensive to think of my National Anthem sung in a different language. How the hell is that supposed to unite Americans under the umbrella of your cause?

According to UBO President Adam Kidon, “We chose to re-record ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ to show our solidarity with the undocumented immigrants and their quest for basic civil rights.”

I have news for you, undocumented immigrants are illegal aliens and have no civil rights in this country. If one is interested in obtaining “rights,” first observe our laws!

The UBO says this recording, “Nuestro Himno (e.g. “Our Anthem”), is set to “rhythmic Latin musical arrangement” but respects the song’s traditional structure. Sorry, you can’t inject Latin rhythms and maintain any “traditional” structure. This piece is a slap in the face of every American!

Incidentally, the UBO is donating a portion of the proceeds this song generates to Washington-based National Capital Immigration Coalition. I wonder what percentage of that dollar will go to the Coalition? I guess the UBO only believes in a “portion” of what the Coalition is fighting for.