Viewpoints

U.S. Border Patrol Agents: Equivalent of School Crossing Guards
By Michael Cutler
Family Security Matters, March 28, 2007
. . .
Law enforcement has limited resources. Therefore, not every alien who illegally crosses the border shared by the United States with Mexico can be prosecuted. However, to state that an alien must make 5 or 6 unsuccessful attempts at crossing our border – each time being apprehended and returned to Mexico — makes it obvious that resources are sorely lacking. It also means that a good number of illegals will ultimately make their way to the interior of the United States because eventually they will manage to pass the Border Patrol on their way north in violation of what should be our sovereign borders.

 

This practice makes our Border Patrol agents into the equivalent of ’school crossing guards’. Mr. Hernandez made the point that these are all good people. When I challenged that concept, he attempted to speak over me to prevent me from being heard, but let me repeat: Mr. Hernandez said that the immigration bill proposed by Representatives Flake and Gutierrez would create a guest worker program for these millions of illegal aliens and that such a law would “solve the problem.”
. . .
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/challenges.php?id=840192

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2.
Congress Shadow Boxing with Illegal Immigration Crisis
By Michael Cutler
Family Security Matters, March 29, 2007
. . .
The legislation would allow aliens who were physically present in the United States since June 1, 2006 to participate in a program that would allow them to work in the United States and receive official identity documents in conjunction with the Guest Worker Amnesty program. I have a very simple question. How would a relative handful of bureaucrats at USCIS, the agency that would administer this program, determine when these millions of illegal aliens – many of whom ran our borders and therefore have no documentary evidence of their entry into the United States – be able to determine when they really entered the United States?
. . .
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/homeland.php?id=843937&PHPSESSID=5178ca747c4df2535a90299e0fa562e4

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3.
Bolivia Demands that Coca Cola Change its Name?
By Michael Cutler
Family Security Matters, March 26, 2007
. . .
Consider this article from the Washington Times as an example of diminishing respect for America. Coke vs.Bolivia in the ‘dignity’ stakes (http://www.washtimes.com/world/20070321-114731-8102r.htm) Clearly, this would be laughable if you were reading it a decade or more ago. In this day and age, I do not find the story to be amusing. It is all the more disconcerting, because it is true. The President of Bolivia has obviously become emboldened by the extreme reluctance demonstrated by the current Bush administration to secure the southern border of the United States, even though that porous border facilitates the flood of illegal aliens to enter our country along with criminals, narcotics and potentially terrorists and their weapons.
. . .
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/global.php?id=833856

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4.
Grande Ideas Would Solve Illegal Immigration
By E. Ralph Hostetter
Notable News Now, March 29, 2007
. . .
The United States cannot be considered an open-range country as in the Wild West days. Individuals who state that fences or walls don’t work are expressing their lack of knowledge of history. The purpose of the Berlin Wall was to keep people imprisoned.
. . .
The purpose of the proposed U.S.-Mexican Border wall is for the protection of U.S. sovereignty, the protection of the U.S. citizen from crime and the spread of international terrorism into the United States. These are all decent, honorable reasons.

With the application of the genius of the American entrepreneur and his vast ideas, such a 2,000-mile wall could be built in less than a year.
. . .
By locating 50 independent steel erection companies in the five-state area along the Mexican Border, providing specifications for the wall, obtaining bids for 40 miles each of construction, letting the 50 contracts that would begin construction simultaneously with substantial bonuses for completion ahead of time, the length of the wall is now only 40 miles, and by requiring construction to begin at both ends, the length of the wall is now only 20 miles.
. . .
http://www.freecongress.org/commentaries/2007/070329.aspx

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5.
The Dutch Immigration Disaster: Is It Happening Here?
By Bruce Allen Roberts
VDare.com, March 29, 2007
. . .
That said, there are many eerie similarities. Muslims and Mexicans are similarly arrogant in their demands. It might surprise Americans to learn that, as racial preferences went into effect against the electorate’s wishes here, Dutch multicultural policies evolved in a top-down manner. Elites decided what was best, implementing those views without popular support.

And Dutch left-right cooperation, with the left advocating and the right acquiescing to multiculturalism, must remind Americans of their own internationalist left/free-trade right pro-immigration alliance.
. . .
http://www.vdare.com/misc/070329_roberts.htm

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6.
Call It Treason: Flake-Gutierrez Bill Immigration Insanity And Merger With Mexico
By Juan Mann
VDare.com, March 26, 2007

The latest nation-destroying amnesty scheme of H.R.1645—the Security Through Regularized Immigration and a Vibrant Economy (STRIVE) Act—was introduced in the House of Representatives on March 22 by Treason Lobby mouthpieces Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) and Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL).

But don’t be fooled. This bill is not just about selling-out America to the lowest foreign worker bidder. The end-game of H.R. 1645 is the even more deadly: the sovereignty-eroding Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) plan for regional government.
. . .
http://vdare.com/mann/070326_mexico.htm

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7.
Education, Not Litigation: Government, Employers, Citizens, All Should Promote English
By Marion Edwyn Harrison
Notable News Now, March 27, 2007
. . .
That necessity adds another, if perhaps less sweeping, argument to the proposition that to the extent reasonably possible everyone must be accorded the opportunity to learn English and all governmental levels must cease catering to those who have not learned English. That masterfully keen 19th Century French observer of American life, M. Alexis de Tocqueville, could not have known the extent to which his prescient observation would become nearly all-encompassing: We Americans often resort to litigation to resolve problems.
. . .
http://www.freecongress.org/commentaries/2007/070327.aspx

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8.
Comprehensive Confusion
By W. James Antle III
The American Spectator, March 27, 2007
. . .
Yet the trouble with most comprehensive bills is that their authors are too clever by half. Many of the hoops illegal aliens will need to jump through to keep these measures from being stuck with the amnesty label will either be symbolic or ineffective at bringing unlawful workers into the mainstream.

If this new touchback idea is seriously enforced, some of the intended beneficiaries — being poor and having limited English skills — may find it too difficult to comply and decide not to bother with the vacation time in Mexico. But if illegal immigrants are merely required to leave the U.S. for a day or a few hours, with all their paperwork completed before they depart, the provision may amount to what Center for Immigration Studies executive director Mark Krikorian calls a game of ‘Immigration Twister.’
. . .
http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=11206

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9.
Please Go Fight for My Country So I Can Take Your Job
By John Derbyshire
The New English Review, March 2007
. . .
There are peculiarities of our political system that magnify the problem. The bizarre phenomenon of “chain migration,” coded into current U.S. immigration law, means that each Third World immigrant is regarded by his family, extended family, or clan back home—refugees or not—as a foot in the Golden Door. Then, when enough refugees from some nation or group are present here, they can organize as an ethnic lobbying group for yet more to be admitted. Our refugee program (to the degree that it is ours: key decisions are made by the UNHCR) is an immigrant-generating mechanism.
. . .
http://www.newenglishreview.org/custpage.cfm?frm=5809&sec_id=5809

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10.
Switzerland Just Fine Without Selling Illegal Immigration Indulgences
By Donald A. Collins
VDare.com, March 29, 2007

My wife and I just returned from a week in that wonderful orderly country of Switzerland, mostly in the city of Basel, which lies on the border of France and Germany. Many French and German nationals commute to Switzerland daily, but return to their homes after work. Immigration works there. The Swiss value citizenship and make it very hard for any immigrant to gain permanent residence. Public transportation in Basel, via trams which run often, makes auto and truck traffic light and the air quality clean. The flow of the majestic Rhine as it turns north at Basel from its east-west flow, sparkles in the morning sunshine.

The contrast between how clever and wise the Swiss are about immigration was sharply drawn for me, when upon our return I read the recent news about the latest push for completely open borders (and marriage to Mexico) here in the US.
. . .
http://www.vdare.com/collins/070329_switzerland.htm

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11.
Democrat Decries New Open Border Lobby Juggernaut
By Donald A. Collins
VDare.com, March 24, 2007

Here we go, folks. The major power players favoring flooding our nation with unlimited legal and illegal immigrants have coalesced into a group which dubs itself the Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CCIR). [VDARE.COM note: The acronym CCIR, has of course, been used for years by a patriotic group, the California Coalition for Immigration Reform.] CCIR announced on March 13th that it will make a $4 million effort to ram cheap labor as well as ethnically and religiously simpatico aliens down the throats of American citizens who time after time have pleaded with American government at all levels for relief from this invasion.
. . .
http://www.vdare.com/collins/070324_border.htm

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12.
Illegals Driving Big Chunk of Growing Social Security Liabilities
By Shannon Benton
The Washington DC Examiner, March 30, 2007
. . .
Earnings get dumped into the ESF when an illegal worker reports wages under someone else’s Social Security number or uses a fraudulent number. Due to a loophole under current law, an immigration amnesty plan would trigger a provision which would allow that worker to receive credit for those illegally earned wages, which would then be transferred into their new Social Security account — even though they broke the law by working in the country and potentially using somebody else’s Social Security number.
. . .
http://www.examiner.com/a-647251~Shannon_Benton__Illegals_driving_big_chunk_of_growing_Social_Security_liabilities.html

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13.
Not Too Late to Keep America American
By James P. Pinkerton
Newsday, March 29, 2007
. . .
But here’s a sharp truth: Europe is not an idea; it’s a place, a place for Europeans. These folks have a shared history and a shared religious tradition, Judeo-Christianity – or at least they did until the European Idealists, eager to flatten their own local customs in the name of politico-economic unification, opened the border to millions of Muslim immigrants.

Unfortunately, the globalizing plan hasn’t produced harmonious odes to joy. Instead, big cities have been scarily divided into ethnic and religious combat zones. Muslims were happy to cross flattened frontiers into Europe, but they never had any intention of flattening their own adherence to rigid Sharia law. No wonder, then, that 56 percent of Europeans, finally waking up to the change that’s been foisted upon them, believe that the Union ‘does not represent ordinary people.’

Now back to America, where our elites maintain the same faith in continent-flattening. ‘Visionaries,’ Democratic and Republican alike, have long advocated a ‘free trade zone’ to include all of North America, and then all of South America. And along with free trade, of course, comes the free movement of peoples.
. . .
http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-oppin295149376mar29,0,364429.column

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14.
Bill Gates And The Tech Skill Shortage Lie
By Edwin S. Rubenstein
VDare.com, March 27, 2007

Microsoft multibillionaire Bill Gates says American immigration policy is backward: Our doors are open to low skilled workers while we keep out talent that’s crucial to our competitiveness.

He’s half right: Most immigrants to these shores are unskilled and poorly educated. But his assertion that foreign scientific and engineering talent is needed for U.S. economic success simply isn’t supported by the facts.
. . .
http://www.vdare.com/rubenstein/070327_nd.htm

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15.
Take Illegal Aliens Seriously Now
The Post-Journal (Jamestown, NY), March 28, 2007
. . .
Homeland Security officials blame the backlog on a variety of factors. Obviously, not enough personnel are being devoted to seeking out and kicking out the fugitives. But in addition, the department says it is being hampered by insufficient detention capacity, limitations of an immigration database and inadequate working space.î

That just about covers every factor imaginable. And it indicates that the government simply isn’t serious about catching and deporting scofflaw aliens.

Frankly, it puts a whole new face on the plan by some, including President Bush, to offer amnesty to millions of illegal aliens. Decriminalize their behavior and — presto! — there’s no problem in dealing with it.
. . .
http://post-journal.com/articles.asp?articleID=13917

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16.
Knock Before Entering
By Butch Mazzuca
The Vail (CO) Daily, March 28, 2007
. . .
No one can blame a person for aspiring to a better way of life. But something is radically out-of-kilter when more than 10 percent of Mexico’s population lives in the United States illegally. To put this in context, imagine the combined populations of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia collectively moving to Canada.

The immigration debate centers on motivation and responsibility. As long as the United States provides more opportunity than an individual’s homeland does, people will try to emigrate here.

This reality then begs the larger question of why the government of Mexico cannot induce an industrious citizenry to live and work in their own country. Mexico is a nation that’s geographically blessed with abundant natural resources, access to two oceans, a temperate climate, and no armed enemies at its borders. So why do its citizens emigrate by the millions?
. . .
http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20070328/EDITS/70328021

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17.
Support Your Local Sheriff
Investor’s Business Daily, March 28, 2007
. . .
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R.-Calif., has pointed out, ‘the prime witness against these two Border Patrol agents was involved in another major load of drugs, and the prosecution made a conscious decision to keep these facts from the jury.’

And just as Davila ended up filing a $5 million lawsuit against the feds who dared to impede his drug smuggling activities, Maricela Rodriguez-Garcia and Candido Garcia-Perez are preparing to file a multimillion dollar civil lawsuit against Hernandez and Sheriff Letsinger for violating their civil rights.
. . .
http://www.investors.com/editorial/editorialcontent.asp?secid=1501&status=article&id=259889059758067

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18.
Erasing the Thin Blue Line
By Barbara Anderson
WEB Commentary, March 28, 2007
. . .
The proverbial ‘thin blue line’ is the contingent of law officers duly sworn to protect We the People. There are review boards and other means to make sure officers of the law do not abuse their positions.

Nonetheless, there have arisen groups that have not been elected by voters, nor appointed by those we have given the authority to oversee our law keepers. Also, there seems to be a pattern of wrongful prosecution of certain border patrol agents. These agents have one thing in common: they were either trying to apprehend illegal aliens or have, in fact, apprehended them.
. . .
Both suspects ended up in jail and were subsequently deported. That should have been the end of this story. However, five years later, and one day before the statute of limitations expired, Stephanie Mohr was charged with a crime. The two illegals, even the one who was bitten, never filed a complaint. The case against Stephanie took two trials to convict her. Eleven jurors in the first trial voted for acquittal, with only one holdout. Most often, prosecutors will not go to the expense of a second trial after seeing a jury vote heavily for acquittal. Also, there is the spirit of double jeopardy to consider.

Bringing in new witnesses, the race card was played. The new slant was that Stephanie Mohr was prejudiced toward minorities. The usual pressure groups, from Amnesty International to the N.A.A.C.P. were involved. Also, the deported illegal alien was sprung from his jail cell in El Salvador, and his companion from a prison in Texas to testify against her. The full power of the government was available to the prosecution under the aegis of the U.S. Department of Justice.
. . .
http://www.webcommentary.com/asp/ShowArticle.asp?id=ANDERSONB&date=070328

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19.
Amnistia Por Ilegal Emigrantes–Que, No?
R.E. Smith Jr.
OpinionEditorials.com, March 26, 2007
. . .
Less charitable Latinos held signs and sprayed graffiti declaring Bush a “fascist” and a “murderer.” Still, the U. S. entourage gamely went on with their “outreach,” hoping to up an unnamed financial ante on Chavez’s “investments”—he plans to build a $2.5 billion oil refinery in Nicaragua—and promoting free trade to lift all boats. But many disgruntled Latinos complain that they sit in less buoyant crafts.

Of course, our government officials can’t pull them up—as promised, but never delivered, by communists such as Chavez, Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega, Bolivia’s Evo Morales and totalitarian Cuba’s Castro—nor should they try. At least, not with our taxes. John Edwards says we have “two Americas” right here in the Disunited States. He would like to give more of our money to American presumed third-world residents.
. . .
http://www.opinioneditorials.com/freedomwriters/rjr._20070326.html

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20.
Two More Good Reasons to Annex Mexico
By Erik Rush
MichNews.com, March 26, 2007
. . .
In my newly-released book, Annexing Mexico: Solving the Border Problem Through Annexation and Assimilation, I outline an in-depth and quite feasible plan for the peaceful annexation of Mexico and the use of resources already present there (rather than U.S. taxpayer dollars) to bring their infrastructure, education and economy up to U.S. standards over a ten-year period. Yes, initially some presume I’m off my rocker, but after familiarization with the plan itself, many skeptics have come around to admitting it is not only sound and viable, but a saner, more straightforward proposal than anything on the table right now.

It probably won’t surprise that some of the most positive feedback has come from first and second-generation Mexican-Americans, either.
. . .
http://www.michnews.com/artman/publish/article_16253.shtml

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21.
The Next Added 100 Million Americans, Part 27
By Frosty Wooldridge
NewsWithViews.com, March 29, 2007
. . .
Pimentel added, “Highway construction also destroys many thousands of acres of natural habitat for survival of native species. Nearly four million miles of highways cover our land. The area being black topped each year is 1.3 million acres (an area equal to the State of Delaware). No species lives under the blacktop. Rapid, unabated population growth, including legal and illegal immigrants, also is stressing school systems. Some schools have three times the number of students that they can handle with the available teachers and support staff. Overall this lowers our effectiveness of the education system, which in turn reduces the economic viability and competitiveness of the United States in the global market.”
. . .
http://www.newswithviews.com/Wooldridge/frosty245.htm

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22.
Immigration Lawyer Indictments Expose H-1B Fraud
By Rob Sanchez
VDare.com, March 24, 2007
. . .
The DOJ is using this case to demonstrate that it is protecting American workers by rooting out fraud. But the aliens who arrived under false pretenses are presumably still here taking jobs that Americans need. And nobody knows what else they may be up to—crime, spying, terrorism.

In fact, most of the aliens who came here will probably be allowed to stay. Marie Sebrechts at the USCIS announced that it would only revoke visas of aliens that were complicit. In other words, the illegals get to keep their fraudulent visas and stay in the United States unless the USCIS can prove that they were co-conspirators. The burden of proof is on our government, not the aliens who flouted our immigration system. [2 attorneys charged with work visa fraud. By Anna Gorman, LA Times March 2, 2007]

It gets worse!
. . .
http://www.vdare.com/sanchez/070324_fraud.htm

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23.
All Illegal Immigration is LOcal
By Steve Chapman
The Washington Times, March 27, 2007
. . .
The root of the problem is that the units of government that allowed the problem of illegal immigration are not the ones that pay the price for it. If it’s national policy to tolerate illicit entries and overstaying of visas, it’s a national obligation to address the painful side effects. If the bill is going to fall largely on local governments, you can hardly blame local governments for trying to protect themselves.
. . .
http://washingtontimes.com/commentary/20070326-091231-1376r.htm

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24.
What Do We Really Think About Immigration?
By Lawrence Henry
The American Spectator, March 30, 2007
. . .
But Gallup’s result on the deportation question differs sharply from other polls, likely because of methodology. Gallup gave respondents a one-in-three choice: deport, temporary guest-worker, or path to citizenship. Under that stringent choice, only 24 percent supported deportation.

Fox, which asked a great many questions, but without insisting on exclusive answers, found that 57 percent of people favored deporting illegal aliens.
. . .
http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=11226

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25.
Police Should Prepare for Immigration Duty
The East Valley (AZ) Tribune, March 27, 2007
. . .
At one time, Arizona law enforcement leaders (as well those around the rest of the country) considered the presence of illegal immigrants to be a problem for the federal government to solve. Tackling the issue at a local level would require significant new training for most police officers and a huge shift in resources away from solving crimes more familiar to their agencies. Many police experts also are convinced that local enforcement would drive crime victims who are immigrants into hiding instead of reporting the crime, letting their attackers roam free to victimize others.
. . .
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/86656

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26.
Hazleton Should Move its Focus to Gangs
The Morning Call (Allentown, PA), March 27, 2007

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Did illegal immigrants pour into Hazleton and form violent street gangs, creating nightmares for police and long-time residents? Or, as a March 22 story described it, were ”violent street gangs such as MS-13 and the Latin Kings” entrenched in Hazleton and growing by recruiting illegal immigrants? That was a gang expert’s opinion on Wednesday during the final day of testimony in the federal civil trial over Hazleton’s Illegal Immigration Act.
. . .
http://www.mcall.com/news/opinion/all-editorial2mar27,0,707288.story?coll=all-opiniontop-hed

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27.
Organization is Against All Illegal Immigration
By Charles W. Skinner
The State News (Michigan State University), March 30, 2007
. . .
Heidi Beirich, deputy director of the Intelligence Project for the SPLC, said if it denigrates people for characteristics they cannot change, it is hateful, in ‘Law Center lists YAF as ‘hate group” (SN 3/15). Let’s be intellectually honest. YAF does not engage in ‘immigrant bashing.’ YAF opposes illegal immigrants. Illegal immigrants can easily change the characteristic for which YAF denigrates them. They can return to their country of origin and follow the law. If they wish to come back, they can apply through the Immigration and Naturalization Service like every other person who enters legally.
. . .
http://www.statenews.com/op_article.phtml?pk=40473

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28.
The Nice-Guy Attorney General
By Debra J. Saunders
The San Francisco Chronicle, March 25, 2007
. . .
For example, some Republicans wonder why Gonzales did not include U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton of the Western District of Texas on his got-to-go list. Sutton, you may recall, prosecuted two Border Patrol agents, Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, for shooting at a fleeing drug smuggler, covering up the incident and depriving the Mexican smuggler of his constitutional rights. Many voters are outraged that the two agents are now serving 11-year and 12-year sentences.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Huntingdon Beach, is incensed that Gonzales did not stop Sutton from throwing the book at two good agents — strike one — while Sutton granted immunity to a man who was smuggling 743 pounds of marijuana into the country. Strike two.

Rohrabacher told me that his frustration with the Bushies had been mounting. ‘I kept quiet for a long time,’ he said. ‘But when he put the lives of these two Border Patrol agents on the line and decided he was going to squash them like a bug, that was the end of it.’
. . .
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/03/25/EDG56N6PA01.DTL

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29.
Teamsters Plan April Boycott
By George Putnam
Newsmax.com, March 29, 2007
. . .
This is unbelievable that we would consider allowing these incompetents on our highways without meeting U.S. standards, the regulation of hours of service, driver training, and licensing.

And we haven’t even mentioned Hoffa’s warning that there will be a ’strong temptation by unscrupulous employers to capitalize on lower-wage Mexican drivers and entice them into carrying undefined domestic cargo in the United States.’

As example, environmentalists will be furious when they read a report from California’s Air Resources Board stating that 50 tons of new smog (the equivalent of that produced by 2.2 million cars) will be pouring into California’s skies daily as a result of 17,500 Mexican trucks crossing into California each day!
. . .
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2007/3/29/160824.shtml

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30.
Refugee Status For Iraqi Translators? Let’s Look At The Big Picture
By Joe Guzzardi
VDare.com, March 23, 2007
. . .
As long as the U.S. policy of family-based chain migration remains intact, anti-American elements from Iraq and other terrorist nations will be eventually be able to enter the country. Why should we take the risk?
. . .
http://www.vdare.com/guzzardi/070323_refugees.htm

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31.
Legal Immigrants Reject Gutierrez and Flake’s Amnesty Plan for Illegals
By Tony Dolz
The American Chronicle, March 22, 2007
. . .
My name is Tony Dolz. I was born in Cuba and migrated legally to the United States as a child with my family. I am now a proud United States citizen. My wife was born in Denmark and she is a legal immigrant. As a family we celebrate legal immigration. I am the national spokes person for the Legal Immigrants First Foundation (www.legalimmigrantsfirst.org). My wife and ;I and the overwhelming majority of immigrants that has earned our place legally, are dismayed that Gutierrez and Flake would put foreigners who have been committing identification and tax fraud, both felonies, and who have been stealing unmerited educational and other health and social services from the taxpayers for years ahead of law abiding immigrants.
. . .
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=22586

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32.
Compassionate Conservatism for Illegal Immigrants
By Andy Selepak
Family Security Matters, March 26, 2007
. . .
In the March 12, 2007 issue of Time magazine, writer Massimo Calabresi quotes Bush from a 1999 campaign stop in Iowa as saying, “Family values do not stop at the Rio Grande.” Calabresi wrote that Bush’s words on the subject of illegal immigration showed “it was hard not to believe he [Bush] was speaking from the heart,” adding that “the felicitous phrase became a touchstone of compassionate conservatism.”
. . .
Although it went relatively unnoticed at the time, Bush’s comment should have been a warning that he never had any serious intention of stopping illegal immigration. But going from inaction on humanitarian grounds to a plan to grant amnesty to millions of criminals is a stretch that has left most conservatives dismayed and angry.
. . .
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/challenges.php?id=834280

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33.
Chingo Bling Is Wrong — We Can Deport Them All
By James Fulford
VDare.com, March 28, 2007
. . .
I confidently expect illegal alien protesters to be chanting ‘They can’t deport us all’ at the next round of illegal alien protest marches.

But they’re W-R-O-N-G, of course. Very large numbers of people can be deported, it’s happening around the world all the time. Amnesty International complains whenever it happens, of course, but it still happens.

West African invaders are being kicked out of Morocco, gypsies are being kicked out of Slovenia, Indonesians are being kicked out of Malaysia, Haitians are being kicked out of the Dominican Republic.

It’s been known to happen in America, too, when the problem gets bad enough. In 1954, President Eisenhower deported a very large number of illegals in an initiative called Operation Wetback. As Bob Park, who as a young Border Patrol officer took part in Operation Wetback, pointed out to me, Eisenhower didn’t have to have any laws passed to deport people—illegal immigration was already illegal, and deportation is how the law dealt with it.
. . .
http://vdare.com/fulford/070328_fulford_file.htm

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34.
The Erosion Continues
By Jim R. Schwiesow
NewsWithViews.com, March 26, 2007
. . .
The truth is that Mr. Gonzales is being politically excoriated for the wrong reasons. The fact that he is around for an objurgation over these political firings is in itself ridiculous. In point of fact he should have been fired long ago for his dirty dealings with foreign agents in regard to the setup and prosecution of those who protect our borders from criminal intruders. His complicity in the program to railroad two patriot border patrolmen and a Texas deputy sheriff into prison for righteously doing their duties merits him our deepest execration. The commendable performance of these officers in protecting and securing our borders against criminal aliens and foreign drug runners makes them worthy of our highest commendation for excellence in the performance of their duties. Instead Mr. Gonzales and his conspiratorial henchman, U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, corroborated with foreign agents to fabricate the charges, which put these dedicated officers in prison. To add insult to injury Gonzales and company
engineered the intrigue, which completely absolved the foreign felons who came against these dedicated lawmen of their criminal conduct.
. . .
http://www.newswithviews.com/Schwiesow/jim18.htm

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35.
Forbidden Pleasures
How advocates of Prohibition exploited anti-immigrant sentiment
By Russ Smith
The Wall Street Journal, March 27, 2007
. . .
In ‘Dry Manhattan,’ Michael A. Lerner concentrates on New York City in the Prohibition years. ‘In its attempt to regulate the private lives of its citizens,’ he writes, ‘the federal government had gone to extremes no one had thought possible in a democracy.’ But generally he avoids the soapbox and just tells the story. Mr. Lerner is not an especially stylish writer; the Roaring Twenties era is more colorfully evoked in Isaiah Wilner’s recent ‘The Man Time Forgot,’ about the founding of Time magazine. But Mr. Lerner’s painstaking research is generously on display in ‘Dry Manhattan,’ and without the usual Jazz Age clichés. Rather, he draws a disturbing portrait of the ‘dry’ movement and how it exploited the country’s fear of immigrants, then arriving from Europe in vast numbers.
. . .
‘As the dry experiment took shape in the early 1920s,’ Mr. Lerner notes, ‘the city’s Irish, Italian and Eastern European immigrants, its Catholics and Jews, and the masses of other ethnic Americans who populated New York found that the main objective of the dry lobby was to police the habits of the poor, the foreign-born and the working class.’ Not that it worked particularly well. The neighborhood saloon business simply adapted to the new law: Bars disguised the nature of their business on the street, and some served booze in coffee cups, but much remained unchanged. ‘One reporter argued that the only discernible difference between these Prohibition-era saloons and their legal predecessors,’ Mr. Lerner writes, ‘was that the traditional free pretzels had been replaced by potato chips.’
. . .
http://www.opinionjournal.com/la/?id=110009857

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36.
Bigger Jail and Deportation Hub Worry Latinos
By Lorraine Ahearn
The News-Record (Greensboro, NC), March 18, 2007
. . .
Said Alamance Lt. Robert Wilborn, a former vice officer who will lead the unit: ‘Before they hit our radar, they would have to have committed two crimes: One is being in the country illegally, two is whatever offense they’ve been picked up for. We’re not going out targeting illegal aliens. We’re only targeting criminal aliens.’

In Mecklenburg County, the first of three North Carolina counties where deputies received the ICE training, the program in its first 10 months screened about 3,000 foreign nationals booked at the jail and started deportation proceedings against 1,530. Of those, information officer Julia Rush said, more than 100 had previously been deported and come back.
. . .
http://www.news-record.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070318/NEWSREC010201/303180005/1015

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37.
A Fear of Latino Voters
By Ruben Navarrette Jr.
The San Diego Union-Tribune, March 25, 3007
. . .
Context is everything. This isn’t about allegations of the dead voting, or even of live folks voting more than once. In New Mexico, and anywhere in the Southwest, when someone says they’re worried about voter fraud (“surging Hispanic political power”), you know they’re talking about the possibility of illegal immigrants going to the polls. And since in these parts, most illegal immigrants happen to be Hispanic, the issue comes with built-in and not-so-subtle ethnic overtones.
. . .
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/op-ed/navarrette/20070325-9999-lz1e25navar.html

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38.
Inhumane Raid was Just One of Many
By Carol Rose and Christopher Ott
The Boston Globe, March 26, 2007
. . .
ICE tactics call to mind sinister human rights abuses from other parts of the world. The United States went to war to stop Slobodan Milosevic’s attempt to ‘ethnically cleanse’ Kosovo in 1999. We should ask ourselves how, just eight years later, we came to be carrying out a policy that involves such similar tactics — lightning raids, mass arrests, packed detention centers, and mass deportations.
. . .
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/03/26/inhumane_raid_was_just_one_of_many/

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39.
Hope for Illegal Immigrants
A bill in the House sounds the opening bell for real reform
The Washington Post, March 26, 2007
. . .
Conservatives opposed to citizenship for illegal immigrants are fond of pillorying it as ‘amnesty.’ This bill provides nothing of the sort. In addition to requiring lawful reentry to the country, it would entail immigrants paying a $2,000 fine and any back taxes they owe, clearing a security and background check, learning English and civics, compiling a felony-free record, and submitting proof of past employment. Only after six years and after satisfying those requirements could workers apply for permanent residency status, which could lead to citizenship.
. . .
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/25/AR2007032500883.html

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40.
Bill Lacks Effective Way to Verify Workers’ Status
By Lena Saradnik
The Arizona Daily Star, March 26, 2007
. . .
The reason I did not support HB 2779 is that it has no verifiable method for employers to check the legal status of potential employees. HB 2779 has no enforcement provision and lacks a method to investigate complaints.
Because this bill does not require that valid complaints be forwarded to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for investigation, it is essentially a very expensive Maricopa County-dominated catch-and-release program.
. . .
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/border/175245

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41.
Immigration Backslide Express
The Boston Globe, March 24, 2007
. . .
McCain praises the bill’s leadership. Now he and like-minded fellow presidential candidates should use their political power to push for fast legislative action. Taking a loud, firm stand might complicate a candidate’s quest for his or her party’s nomination. But most voters already know that this complex problem needs a sophisticated solution — and they’re ready to hear genuine straight talk.
. . .
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2007/03/24/immigration_backslide_express/

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42.
Immigration Initiatives Are Counterproductive
The Arizona Daily Star, March 27, 2007
. . .
We believe the moderate voices in the Legislature and Napolitano have it right. Illegal immigration is a national problem that requires a comprehensive federal solution, as well as federal dollars. The state has plenty of responsibilities already, and it should focus its resources on things such as education and health care.

Of the two initiatives, the one calling for police to play a role in immigration enforcement is the most troubling. As we’ve stated in editorials before, asking police to verify someone’s immigration status is an open invitation to practice racial profiling. Such a mandate also amounts to micromanagement of law-enforcement practices.
. . .
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/border/175397

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43.
Despite Raids, Illegal Immigrants Here to Stay
By Jean Marbella
The Sun-Sentinal (FL), March 30, 2007
. . .
Maybe it’s simply time to face the fact that we’re addicted to this steady pool of cheap labor, and figure out how to deal with it. Maybe it’s a guest worker program — which a Time magazine poll last year found was supported by nearly 80 percent of those surveyed — or maybe it’s some other process that allows illegals who have demonstrated that they want to work to do so legally.
. . .
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/bal-md.marbella30mar30,0,6052654.column

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44.
Mexico’s New Envoy to U.S. Takes New Tack
By Marcela Sanchez
The Arizona Daily Star, March 30, 2007
. . .
To Sarukhan, both countries must undermine these divisive forces through public diplomacy. ‘We have failed to explain to our people the importance of our relationship,’ he said. For his part, the ambassador plans to use the extended network of 49 Mexican consulates throughout the United States to attempt to show the benefits of deeper U.S.-Mexican integration.
. . .
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/border/175776

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45.
In Defense of Day Laborers
The New York Times, March 28, 2007
. . .
But an equally compelling reason is that hiring sites impose order on free-market chaos. An unregulated day-labor bazaar wallows in the mud flats of capitalism, benefiting sleazy contractors and fostering rock-bottom wages and working conditions for all laborers, legal or not. Hiring sites that register and monitor contractors and laborers can hold them all to account. Employers who undercut competitors and rob workers will find it hard to return to a well-established hiring site, and drunks and belligerents among the laborers will be pressured to toe the line. These places are sometimes called “shape-up sites,” an apt term in more ways than one.
. . .
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/28/opinion/28wed1.html

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46.
Extreme Measures Won’t Fix immigration
By Kenneth J. Branch
USA Today, March 27, 2007
. . .
The extreme views are either full deportation or full amnesty. Medved recognizes that trying to find and deport some estimated 11 million people — roughly the population equivalent of Los Angeles and San Francisco counties combined — would be impossible. To force them to leave voluntarily by cutting off jobs would only result in a huge increase in crime by turning people who are working hard at low-paying jobs into thieves and killers. This is no answer. Offering amnesty is not the answer either, as it unjustly penalizes those who have gone through our naturalization process. I reject these two extremes as being unacceptable.
. . .
http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2007/03/extreme_measure.html

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47.
STRIVE Immigration Plan Merits Support
Our view: Proposed act is a reasonable compromise to tackle illegal workers in U.S
The Arizona Daily Star, March 26, 2007
. . .
We urge both sides in the immigration debate and Arizona’s congressional delegation to approach the Flake-Gutierrez bill in the spirit of compromise because it is a well-crafted and comprehensive solution to the problem of illegal immigration.

The bill would tighten security by adding more than 15,000 jobs related to illegal immigration, including 11,600 border agents. The legislation would create an electronic system for verifying eligible workers and a new fraud-proof identification card for immigrants.
. . .
http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/175067

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48.
Entrant Bills Resurfacing
By Ernesto Portillo Jr.
The Arizona Daily Star, March 30, 2007
. . .
While taking to the streets in protest is useful, it’s not enough. Immigrants, regardless of their legal status, need to involve themselves more in our political process.

Immigrants need to become naturalized citizens and vote. Those who can’t vote can help candidates or political causes that will help them create a reasonable path to citizenship.
. . .
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/border/175953

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49.
Why Deport First, Ask Questions Later?
For nearly two decades there has been a legal debate in Canada over a simple point: Does birth equal birthright?
By Allan Thompson
The Toronto Star, March 29, 2007
. . .
Surely we need to make sure – at a minimum – the rights of the child are properly assessed when deportation decisions are made.

Canadians who are paying attention to this case should be asking what it says about our standards for assessing the impact of immigration department decisions on the best interests of Canadian-born children.
. . .
http://www.thestar.com/News/article/196958

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50.
Key Objectives and Possible Outcomes of the First Session of the Global Forum on Migration and Development
By H.E. Régine de Clerq
Eurasylum, April 2007
. . .
Migration is an issue that ranks high on the political agenda, and which therefore is in the limelight of the media and public opinion. This makes the debate sensitive and we all know how easily these issues can be exploited for political reasons. Finding a modus vivendi on this issue is not always an easy task. However, the Global Forum can help to identify ways that are beneficial to the countries of origin, the countries of destination and the migrants themselves. It is clear that total freedom of movement for everyone is impossible, politically and of course economically and socially. On the other hand a “fortress” approach is not a solution either, for the same good reasons. Looking at migration as a tool for development offers a middle road as well as opportunities for win-win situations and compromises. This is precisely what we aim to achieve with this new international process that we call the Global Forum on Migration and Development.
. . .
http://www.eurasylum.org/Portal/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabindex=2&tabid=19

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51.
93,340 ‘Returnees’
By Tessa Morris-Suzuki
The Wall Street Journal, March 27, 2007
. . .
After decades in North Korea, around 100 migrants have now escaped the harsh realities of life there and made the perilous return journey back to Japan. Other survivors of the same project who managed to escape have settled in South Korea.

The story of their migration has been almost entirely unheard by the rest of the world. But it urgently needs to be heard, because it involves an injustice that resulted in the deaths of thousands of people and still causes deaths and suffering today. The history of this migration also constitutes a prime example of the complexity of Japan’s connections with North Korea, and thus sheds important light on the impasse that their relations have now reached.
. . .
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117494859639949529-search.html?KEYWORDS=immigrant&COLLECTION=wsjie/6month

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