LTG: Archive April 2006

LimitsToGrowth Archive

April 2006

United States of North America [4/30/06]
Never forget that many in Washington, including the President, are quietly working to dismantle American sovereignty and create a North American political union. Did we vote for this? Of course not. The scheme is treason in a business suit.

Elitists in the United States, Mexico, and Canada are plotting to merge these three nations into a single regional government similar to the European Union.
In 1787, 13 former British colonies that had briefly been independent states agreed to create a free trade zone inside a shared security perimeter. People, goods, and capital would move freely throughout that region, ignoring previously existing borders. The union thus created was christened the United States of America.
In the early years of the 21st century, elites in three nations -- the United States, Canada, and Mexico -- are busy creating a new political configuration called the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP). It would broaden and deepen the relationship between the three nations created in 1994 through the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in dramatic ways.

• • •

Homeowners, top employers of day laborers, say the system works [4/29/06]
More shameless propaganda from the MSM that illegal immigration is good for us. Indeed, the article suggests that Americans should not be shy about wading right in: "You too, American Homeowner, can benefit from the gaggles of foreigners lurking on nearby street corners -- just drive up and hire some. It's easy!"

BURBANK, Calif. - Chris James needed help moving a piano and three dozen boxes of records from his music studio - so instead of corralling some buddies, he rented a truck and hired some workers from outside the local Home Depot.
Within minutes, two Guatemalan men James had promised $12.50 an hour were in his truck.
If James, 31, worked solo "it would take all day."
The two men finished the job in an hour and a half while their employer looked on. For hauling a piano and wedging a sofa into his condo, then stacking the boxes in a back room, James owed the men less than $40.
It's the kind of scene replayed daily across the nation.
It was first time James hired day laborers, but it won't be his last.

What madness compels naive Americans to bring total strangers from foreign countries into their homes, thereby revealing possessions, children, the layout of the house and personal vulnerabilities? Citizens have no way of knowing the criminal history of such men. Is saving a few dollars so important?
The family of the late Mary Nagle surely regret allowing illegal alien Douglas Herrera to do painting prep work on their house. The mother of two was brutally raped and murdered in her bedroom by the man who was supposed to supply cheap labor
Another horrific case was the murder of a beloved elderly couple, Eugenia and Sabato Russo, who owned a popular North Hollywood restaurant. A Mexican national who had worked as one of a flooring crew in the Russo home returned to rob and kill them.
American homeowners who hire illegal aliens are not only contributing to the demise of legal work, but are also endangering themselves and their families. It's better to pay a few dollars more to hire citizens from their own communities who are known to be honest.

• • •

Egyptian Man Pleads Guilty to Smuggling [4/29/06]
Here is another reminder of how the southern border remains a sieve, endangering every person in this nation as long as al Qaeda and other Islamofascists plan to destroy America. Mexico doesn't do many things to a high level of efficiency, but it does have a well developed smuggling infrastructure.

An Egyptian man has pleaded guilty to smuggling at least 100 men from the Middle East into the United States, the government said.
Ashraf Ahmed Abdallah Bashar, 37, admitted to leading a smuggling ring that brought 100 or more men from Middle Eastern countries into the U.S. from April 2001 through January 2002, officials from the Justice Department and the Homeland Security Department said. He pleaded guilty Friday in federal court before Magistrate Judge Deborah A. Robinson.
"Providing persons with unknown backgrounds undetected entry into our country is a threat to national security," said Alice S. Fisher, assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department's Criminal Division.
Abdallah admitted to arranging land transportation and guides into the U.S., as well as layovers at safe houses in Guatemala and Mexico, for up to $8,000, according to plea documents. He told the men how to avoid capture during their journey across the southwestern U.S. border, according to his plea.

See also blogger Tom Joscelyn's discovery in government records of a Guantanamo Detainee Caught At The Border.

• • •

Fjordman warns about weak response to Mexican antics [4/28/06]
One of our favorite bloggers occasionally pops up on Little Green Footballs with incisive observations. Here is his alarm from this morning.

You Americans need to understand just how much is at stake here. We are in the early stages of a world war with Islam, Muslims are working to get nuclear weapons and are openly calling for the physical destruction of the West. Your enemies are watching the way you are handling the illegal situation, and they are not impressed. Do you think the North Koreans or the Iranians are scared of a country that allows itself to be intimidated and held hostage by a bunch of Mexicans who shouldn't even be in the country in the first place? When you're a superpower, the line of separation between domestic and foreign policy hardly exists. During the Cold War, the Soviet Union was impressed by the way Ronald Reagan handled the blackmail by the air trafic controllers. He simply fired them. This signalled to your enemies abroad that you were not going to give into black mail anywhere.
What is at stake here is your credibility as a superpower. In the longer run, it could be your physical security from nuclear attacks, perhaps even your very survival as a coherent nation state.
DO NOT give in to Mexican intimidation. Build the fence, and deport the illegals. Yes, ALL of them. No amnesty.
We are facing decades of what could potentially become the deadliest war in human history, where the very survival of Western civilization and perhaps human civilization in general hangs in the balance. We cannot win this without you. You are the indispensible nation, and if you break down, the rest of the planet is basically screwed.

• • •

Spanish 'Star-Spangled Banner' Draws Ire [4/28/06]
As I have noted earlier, reconquista-inclined Mexicans and their supporters are often their own worst enemies in advancing their agenda, e.g. picking the commie-associated May Day for the next major action.
Recording a Spanish version of America's national anthem is yet another insult and incremental declaration of war. (Sound clip here).

Some Internet bloggers and others are infuriated by the thought of "The Star-Spangled Banner" sung in a language other than English.
"Would the French accept people singing the La Marseillaise in English as a sign of French patriotism? Of course not," said Mark Krikorian, head of the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank that supports tighter immigration controls.
The initial version of "Nuestro Himno," or "Our Anthem," comes out Friday and uses lyrics based closely on the English-language original, said Kidron, who heads the record label Urban Box Office.
Pro-immigration protests are planned around the country for Monday, and the record label is urging Hispanic radio stations nationwide to play the cut at 7 p.m. EDT Friday in a sign of solidarity.
A remix to be released in June will contain several lines in English that condemn U.S. immigration laws. Among them: "These kids have no parents, cause all of these mean laws ... let's not start a war with all these hard workers, they can't help where they were born."

Are these lyrics a salute to assimilation into the American community? Hardly. They are another whining complaint about the U.S. enforcing its sovereignty and ultimately a statement of intent to conquer through demographic warfare.
See also a chat between yours truly and Larry Auster on this subject.

• • •

Is Illegal Immigration as Dangerous for African-Americans as Slavery Was? [4/27/06]
Ted Hayes on Hannity-Colmes

Homeless activist Ted Hayes appeared on Hannity and Colmes last night, defending his earlier statement that illegal immigration is the worst thing for blacks since slavery. The link also includes a video clip of the interview.
Notice how Colmes cuts Hayes off when he was making a point about how slavery being re-established via illegal immigration.

TED HAYES, HOMELESS ADVOCATE: Absolutely right, and I've been saying that all along, that these employers are essentially slavers, and they're trying to reestablish slavery in this country.
That's why I say that I support and am a member of the Minutemen. And I'm saying to black America this is our issue. We were slaves at one time in this country and we cannot allow for slavery to be reestablished. We can't allow our campaneros... .
COLMES: Minutemen -- that's not what the Minutemen's focus is. The Minutemen's focus, of course, is watching the border. Now they're talking about building a fence, which I think is unworkable. And plus, you need billions of dollars to build it and billions of dollars to watch it and personnel to watch it.
But the employers who are really hurting the working poor, that's where I would focus. And isn't that something we can agree on?
HAYES: Absolutely. And the Minutemen -- the Minutemen feel the same way. I know Jim Gilchrest and Chris Simcox and all the fellows, Martin Stewart (ph), who were the first black Minutemen on the board, these are our sentiments. [...]
Well, I just sent a letter to the pope, OK, Pope Benedict XVI. And I said to him, "Sir, these are good Roman Catholic Christians." Because this is not an issue of walls, or soldiers or legislation.
SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST: Hey, Ted.
HAYES: It's a moral issue. It's a moral issue, and these people need to know that they are stealing. They're trespassing. And stop it, because you're good Roman Catholic Christians. Take your children and go home.

Update: Open-borders fanatics were quick to jump on Ted Hayes for telling the truth about the harm to the black community of unrestricted immigration. But black citizens are rising up to protest the invasion of job-thieving illegal aliens, Friday in Los Angeles, for example!

• • •

Californians like more tests in their schools [4/27/06]
There has been a lot of controversy about the state's required high school exit exam over the past few months as it became clear that thousands of students would not pass. The test is embarassingly easy, with math measured at the eighth-grade level and English at the tenth. Students get six tries to pass, yet many don't.
Even with the complaints, the California public still thinks a high school diploma should signify accomplishment beyond keeping a seat warm.

A vast majority of Californians support not only the state's controversial high school exit exam but also the idea of requiring all students to pass a test before advancing to the next grade level, a new poll shows.
Although no such idea is in the works at the moment, 72 percent of Californians surveyed by the Public Policy Institute of California said they would support such a test for all 12 grades. The idea has received strong support in national surveys, inspiring the pollster to ask the question locally.
Even more Californians, 73 percent, favor the exit exam that students must pass for the first time this spring to graduate from high school, according to the survey, which is being released today.

There are more than 70,000 high school seniors who have not passed the exam; of those, around 40,000 can't speak English well enough to graduate.
The entitlement mentality runs deep among some of these immigrant students. This article from February, Exit exam a test of determination: Language barrier adds unfair burden, critics say of requirement, interviews a girl who doesn't know the English word for spoon, yet believes she "deserves" a diploma so she can go to college.

"I need a diploma," said Iris, a chestnut-haired girl who was born in Los Angeles and grew up in the Mexican state of Jalisco. "I want it. I deserve it. I've been going to school and studying. I want to have a profession."

• • •

Life of Mexican Migrant Hinges on Psychiatrists [4/27/06]
"Railroad killer" Angel Maturino was convicted of the rape and murder of one person, but is believed to have killed 14 Americans as he travelled around this country hobo-style on trains. The illegal alien serial killer had been scheduled to be executed May 10, but the execution has been put off until June in order that more psychological testing be done.
Apparently it was the meddling of the Mexican government into the American justice system that caused the postponement.

"It was a positive decision, which must largely be attributed to the insistence of the lawyers paid by the Mexican government, because it is obvious that Maturino is not sane and thus is not eligible for capital punishment," Alfonso Garcia, with the Amnesty International office in Mexico, commented to IPS on Tuesday.

If Mexico doesn't want its mass murderers to be executed then it shouldn't encourage them (and nearly everyone else) to head north. Mexicans who object to capital punishment should limit their murder behavior to areas outside of the United States.
Michelle Malkin devoted a whole chapter of her book Invasion to this man, as a poster illegal alien who had been arrested and deported numerous times without his really serious crimes being discovered.

• • •

Mexican Officals Feather Their Nests While Decrying U.S. Immigration Policy [4/26/06]
Prof. George Grayson is a widely recognized expert on Mexican politics, and has written a book on Mexico City Mayor Lopez Obrador, a current candidate for the Presidency, to be voted this July.
Prof. Grayson's CIS paper on Mexican political corruption nails down the facts on politicians' generosity to themselves in thorough tables that compare the riches at the top to the grinding poverty at the bottom. It is America's willingness to accept millions of Mexican nationals that allows Mexico's elite to ignore responsibility for their own people.

Mexican politicians continuously demand more visas for their citizens, an expanded guest-worker program, and "regularization" of illegal aliens living north of the Rio Grande. While neglecting to mention that the United States admits nearly one million legal newcomers each year, they also fail to publicize: (1) the extremely high salaries they receive, often—in the case of federal and state legislators—more than their counterparts in developed nations that have substantially longer annual sessions, (2) the generous stipends that they grant themselves, including year-end aguinaldos and end-of-term bonuses of tens of thousands of dollars known as bonos de marcha, and (3) the generous sums that party leaders in legislative bodies have to spend with few or any strings attached. [...]
Many Mexican officials enjoy princely lifestyles, while expecting the United States to solve their social problems by allowing the border to serve as a safety-valve for job seekers.

• • •

Welfare to kids of illegals at $276 million [4/26/06]
And that's just in Los Angeles County. Supervisor Michael Antonovich has been pointing out the the price tag of "cheap labor" illegal aliens to the LA taxpayer for some years, e.g. he estimated the healthcare costs in 2002 to be $342 million.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich said Tuesday that he will tell Congress that close to 100,000 children of illegal immigrants in the county collect $276 million in annual welfare benefits.
Antonovich, who is in Washington with the Board of Supervisors, will meet with congressional representatives and provide information about the impact of illegal immigration on county services.
Antonovich said 98,703 children of 57,458 undocumented parents received Cal-WORKS welfare checks in January, or a total of 156,161 recipients.
"If incorporated into a city, it would be the sixth-largest city in Los Angeles County," Antonovich said in a statement Tuesday. "While legal immigration is a positive influence on our culture and economy ... in public safety, health care and public social services, illegals cost county taxpayers nearly three quarters of a billion dollars a year."

• • •

Bush, senators agree on alien citizenship, shut out critics [4/26/06]
Mexico's best friend, who happens to inhabit the White House, has shown his allegiance lies with his pals south of the border, not with the United States nor with the Constitution which he swore to protect. As I observed in Bush, Reconquista, the President prefers Mexicans to Americans.

President Bush and a group of senators yesterday reached general agreement on an immigration bill that includes a pathway to citizenship for many illegal aliens.
But left out of the closed-door White House meeting were senators who oppose a path to citizenship. The meeting even snubbed two men who had been considered allies of Mr. Bush on immigration -- Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Republican and chairman of the immigration subcommittee, and Sen. Jon Kyl, Arizona Republican.
Mr. Bush in brief remarks to the press said there was agreement to get "a bill that does not grant automatic amnesty to people, but a bill that says, somebody who is working here on a legal basis has the right to get in line to become a citizen." But senators, speaking afterward, said Mr. Bush was far more specific in the meeting.

That's right, there's no "automatic" amnesty; the foreigner has to fill out a few forms.
Small wonder then (as noted here 4/23) that Mexicans now plan for illegal immigration to the United States with the sure knowledge that another amnesty will follow in a few years.
Wes Pruden has a nice rewrite of the Golden Door poem, wrongly associated with the Statue of Liberty.

Give us your tired, your poor/ Your unemployed masses yearning to breeze in free/ The wretched refuse of the steaming poor/ Send these, the readily abused/ Greedy employers wait at the golden door." To see the future diverse society Bush and Congress are creating with their actions, don't miss photos of a San Diego Reconquista gathering last Saturday.

• • •

Dutch Grapple with Immigration Explosion and Their Future [4/25/06]
Georgie Anne Geyer nails the cultural arrogance of many in Europe who believed that millions of hostile Muslims could be brought into their communities with no harm done. So wrong. There's no faster way to destroy a country than by inappropriate immigration, as the Dutch have learned the hard way.

WASHINGTON --Dutch politicians, analysts and diplomats met at a luncheon last week at the Royal Netherlands Embassy with a warning for several hundred of their compatriots living here. They hoped to engage in an influential discussion about what happens when a prosperous but inattentive state gives in to the multicultural delusions of the left and lets large numbers of culturally hostile immigrants enter the land.
"Today, we have 1 million Muslims out of 16 million Dutch," Frits Bolkestein, an impressive center-right Dutch politician and former E.U. commissioner, began. "Within 10 years, they will have an absolute majority in both Amsterdam and Rotterdam. We are staring into the face of a shortly to be divided community. Muslims have the right to their own schools, so there is no teaching of evolution, gay teachers are not tolerated but anti-Semitism is, and the Holocaust is not a subject for teaching.
"Unemployment of immigrants has gone from 9 percent in 2001 to 16 percent today. Immigrants tend to marry women from their home country, and they have little contact with Dutch society except for the Iranians. Eighteen percent of Moroccan men are suspected of crimes, compared to 4 percent of Dutch men. Half the Turkish and Moroccan population believe their cultures are incompatible with Dutch habits.
"I was born in Amsterdam," he then said sadly, "and I resent the idea that the whole culture is to be changed. But these people are there to stay, and we wanted to draw attention to the dark side and risks of these changes."
Other immigrant-target Western countries are beginning to get the message that Islamic immigrants in particular have not come to the West to join it, but to overcome it. One participant at the meeting noted: "In France, the majority of young Muslims believe that French society is dying, committing suicide. More like 10 percent to 20 percent of them believe that they are in the process of replacing European civilization with an Islamic one."

• • •

Veterans Drawn Into Immigration Debate [4/25/06]
You can't have just a little anarchy. The lawlessness spawned by illegal immigration is spreading corruption throughout our society, undermining our traditional values of fairness and law wherever it intrudes. For example, the gains in wages and working conditions made over a century in meatpacking which made it a middle class occupation have been swept away by illegal labor.
Another troubling situation is the presence of hispanic soldiers in our military who are miffed that their illegal alien relatives might have to go home -- possible, but unlikely. It used to be that the Pentagon would excuse the soldier himself, but now the sense of entitlement for illegal behavior has expanded to the familia.

It is unclear how many soldiers find their loyalties similarly divided, but at a time when Pentagon has stepped up recruiting of Hispanics to fill recruiting quotas, experts say a crackdown on illegal immigration would undoubtedly cause resentment in the ranks.
"How do you tell them we're going to deport their parents and grandparents?" asked Hector Flores, president of the League of United Latin American Citizens, a group that has encouraged Hispanics who do not plan to attend college to join the military. "That's not America."

It is unsettling to hear about divided loyalty among our military. If hispanics in uniform were required to defend the United States against Mexico, where would their allegiance lie?

• • •

Extremists Declare 'Open Season' on Immigrants: Hispanics Target of Incitement and Violence [4/24/06]
According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the Minutemen and other advocates of American sovereignty and immigration control are racist xenophobes. The ADL was founded to fight anti-Semitism in particular, yet its National Director, Abraham Foxman, just appeared with Cecilia Munoz of The Race (aka La Raza) to condemn white supremecist support for border enforcement.
The anti-borders extremists squawk about imagined racism among Minutemen because they have no other argument. Americans as a whole don't want their country more overcrowded than it already is, so the open-borders groups go for the hot-button emotional issue of racism to shut down debate. How racist is this Minuteman rally in Burbank last October? (See other photos of the event here for more of same multi-racial American solidarity.)
Minutemen in Burbank-NBC demo
For more evidence of black Americans' growing concern with the illegal immigration threat, see Black Activists Join To March With Minutemen, in which homeless activist Ted Hayes spoke strongly...

"While all Americans are suffering from this invasion, we blacks are suffering the most," Hayes said. "We feel like the leaders promoting this issue are being insensitive. This country wasn't built on the backs of immigrants like (Villaraigosa) says. It was built on the back of West African slaves." [...]
Hayes said that Minutemen Project members have been unfairly portrayed as racist.
"I've been down to the border with them. They're not racist," Hayes said. "They don't care what color you are."

The facts are clear that the demand of citizens for immigration to be returned to a lawful activity is not racist. But as the Senate returns for another attempt at an amnesty for 12-20 million illegal aliens, don't expect honesty from the special interests which benefit from open borders. The long knives are drawn and the shreiks are growing louder.
See a video of Ted Hayes' 4/23 rally against illegal immigration.

• • •

Mexicans see immigration to U.S. as part of life [4/23/06]
The attitude of 105 million Mexicans that illegal immigration to the United States is normal should be reason enough to enact enforcement-only legislation. No surprise that Mexicans believe that the current amnesty will be followed by others as required to accommodate their endless needs.

Many families give their babies "American" names, figuring it will help them fit in when they make the inevitable trip north. In one central Mexican village, men on a dusty side road knowingly discuss which Long Island towns are best for day-labor work.
Cervantes avoids using the common metaphor of migration as an escape valve for Mexico's social tensions, but says the country of 105 million people would be in trouble if 11 million migrants returned en masse.
On the ground, the lure of America is evident. Abelardo Gonzalez, an elementary school director in the southern state of Oaxaca, said of his students: "From the time they are little kids, they have this idea of going north."

Why don't Mexican children instead have an idea of going to college and becoming successful persons in their own country? Unrestricted immigration has created a totally skewed national identity in Mexico.

• • •

CNN Transcript, Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer, April 23 [4/23/06]
Tom Friedman, the well known expositor of globalist economics was on CNN this morning, bashing Lou Dobbs for his pro-sovereignty positions. Even though Friedman is employed as an opinion writer for the New York Times, he objects to Dobbs having the same freedom of speech. (Friedman has also written several books extolling the globalist economy, which are implicitly against a strong nation-state.)

BLITZER: Now, here's what you wrote in The New York Times in a column on April 5. You wrote: "Because I strongly favor immigration, I also favor a high fence. We will not sustain a majority in favor of flexible immigration if we can't control our borders. Good fences make good immigration policy. Fences make people more secure and able to think through this issue more calmly. Porous borders empower only anti-immigrant demagogues, like the shameful CNN, which dumbs down the whole debate." [...]
FRIEDMAN: I'm referring to Lou Dobbs and the fact that on his show -- the show doesn't seem to be a news show anymore. It seems to be one man's hour-long rant against globalization and immigration. And I'm all for, hey, I'm an opinionated guy, but my stuff goes under opinion. I turned to Lou Dobbs' show for many years to see news and what I get is an undigested, unmitigated, unbalanced rant against immigration.
I am for high walls with a big gate, OK? Yes, I am for some kind of border control. You don't control your border, you're never going to sustain a political consensus for immigration. But I am also deeply, Wolf, for a big gate in that fence because I believe immigrants have done so much to nourish our country, to put it forward into the 21st century. [...]
The fact that we can cream off the first-round intellectual draft choices, bring them to our country where they start new companies, drive our education forward. And just as importantly, the fact that we bring in and allow in some illegals, some more legal, lower-end immigrants who not only do the low-end jobs a lot of Americans don't want to do but bring that energy to our country and the sense of aspiration.

Where to start with this guy? First, he is using the analogy of professional sports picking up the best from around the world. That idea is entirely at odds with the concept of developing talent in the local (or national) community.
Interestingly, this is the same fellow who wrote about the importance of cultural identity in "The Lexus and the Olive Tree" (p. 27)

"Few things are more enraging to people than to have their identity or ethnic sense of home stripped away. They will die for it, kill for it, sing for it write poetry for it and novelize about it. Because without a sense of home and belonging, life becomes barren and rootless."

So Americans don't have a valued national identity and sense of home rooted in culture? Apparently not, now that Friedman's eyeballs have turned to dollar signs.
Furthermore, he is essentially approving illegal immigration to bring "energy" to America, generally code for "cheap labor."
My question to Mr. Friedman would be, "Do you now or have you ever employed an illegal alien?"

• • •

Immigration stance puts city on the map [4/23/06]
Maywood, California, should be a warning for all Americans because of the two-tiered society being created when Mexicans take control of a community, where "immigrants" are not required to follow the law, even public safety provisions, such as traffic laws. (See Mexican Petri Dish Located for more details.)

The new political majority, including two new City Council members and a new mayor, promptly voted to disband the Police Department's four-member traffic division.
In January, Maywood became one of California's first cities to adopt a resolution protesting a state House bill that sought to make illegal immigration a felony and deputize local police to enforce federal immigration law.
"This is a civil rights issue to us," said newly elected Councilman Felipe Aguirre, a former Head Start administrator who runs a Maywood immigrant community service center. "People speak of undocumented immigrants as if they are animals in a zoo. But they are part of the fabric of our community." [...]
"This is emblematic of a new permissiveness in that illegal immigrants are somehow seen as a protected class -- even if it means suspending all the laws on the books," complained Ira Mehlman, media director for the Federation for American Immigration Reform. "If this spreads beyond Maywood, it will become a form of surrender to people who come to this country illegally."

Pay attention to the "civil rights" argument. Open-borders extremists are not simply trying to attach themselves to the memory of Martin Luther King and other civil rights heroes; they actually want illegal immigration to be recognized as a "right," i.e. that anyone on earth can go wherever they please. That's a recipe for chaos we can't begin to imagine.
As far as any connection to the real civil right movement, black activist Ted Hayes calls illegal immigration "biggest threat to blacks in America since slavery." Hayes is planning a rally of blacks and others April 30 in Los Angeles demanding "Civil Rights for Illegal Immigrants ... in Mexico."

• • •

Racing pigeon thefts may be linked to gangs [4/22/06]
More diversity in the heartland. Apparently Hmong gangsters stole valuable racing pigeons from Americans in Minneapolis/St. Paul and ate them.

Three men who race pigeons locally say more than 600 of their pigeons have been stolen, a loss valued at nearly $200,000. They say not enough is being done to prevent the thefts.
The strike force became involved after investigators found racing pigeons belonging to Dick Althoff in the basement of a known gang member.
Investigators say the thefts may or may not be gang-related, but are perhaps a broader, cultural problem.
"Predominately they were Asian, Hmong and that's why I'm saying it's a cultural thing, they weren't always necessarily gang people," says Commander Ron Ryan of the strike force.
Officials believe the stolen pigeons are sold for profit, raced and then eaten.
The three men say the thefts discourage them from collecting and racing the birds.
"I'm disgusted, disgusted," says one, while another adds, "We just want to fly our birds and be left alone, but they won't let us."
The third owner is packing up the remaining birds he has, and moving out of state.

So was Commander Ryan saying that animal theft is a Hmong cultural thing?

• • •

Father says he's unfairly accused [4/22/06]
A better title for this article might be "Diversity in Home Improvement" since the accused, one Danny Vu of Wisconsin, is charged with selling his daughter to get funds for fixing up his house. Mr. Vu was born in Vietnam, but is a citizen (despite not speaking English well enough to consult with a lawyer on his own).
The man has clearly lived in the United States for some years, yet hadn't figured out that selling children is not accepted here.

APPLETON — Police say an Ashwaubenon man charged with trying to sell his 18-month-old daughter was on his way to a Grand Chute home to deliver the girl when he was arrested.
The man, Danny Vu, 37, appeared in Outagamie County Circuit Court on Friday. Court Commissioner Maureen Roberts Budiac set a $10,000 cash bond for Vu, who is charged with unauthorized placement for adoption for money. The felony charge carries a maximum sentence of three years in prison and three years of extended supervision.
Police say he was asking for $7,000 to sell his daughter.
Defense attorney Eugene Bartman said Vu, who was born in Vietnam but is a U.S. citizen, has never been in jail or in trouble with police before, and that he "understands what's going on and thinks it's very unfair." [...]
Winn Collins, assistant district attorney, asked for a $15,000 cash bond, saying that Vu is a flight risk because he has tenuous ties to the area and might have an alias. Collins said police found two Social Security cards with different names in Vu's possession. He also said Vu might have assets to post bond because he holds an interest in a Green Bay business.

• • •

Senate to persist on border plan [4/22/06]
What words should we use to describe the United States Senate as it forges ahead to create an amnesty against the will of the American people? Out of touch, elitist and too attentive to corporate interests?
How about treasonous, quisling and subversive?

"The American people are very tolerant and forgiving. But I don't think they will be forgiving if the Congress passes something to fool them again into thinking we're actually serious about controlling our borders and illegal immigration," Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Republican, said yesterday.
"There is a growing consensus that we must secure our borders, but the problem is that the 'compromise' bill's security provisions are only a promise at this point," he said. "No money has actually been committed to create the 10,000 or so new Border Patrol agents we need, to create the technology, the ground sensors, the unmanned aerial vehicles we need in order to create a virtual wall to protect our borders."
Union officials and other liberals opposed the legislation because they feared that the guest-worker program would flood the job market with cheap labor.

• • •

"The Situation" with Tucker Carlson April 20 [4/21/06]
The MSNBC pundit did a nice smackdown last night of uber-hypocrite Cardinal Roger Mahony who has been one ot the biggest cheerleaders for illegals (many of whom are Catholics, curiously enough).

Last month, Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles jumped into the public debate over illegal immigration.
"The war on terror isn't going to be won through immigration restrictions," Mahony thundered from the pulpit. He went on to scoff at the idea that al Qaeda terrorists would bother to walk through the hot desert from Mexico just to attack the United States.
The cardinal's opinions about national security were taken seriously by the press, by and large. Still, you had to wonder, is Roger Mahony really a man capable of recognizing a threat when he sees one? Apparently not.
According to today's "Los Angeles Times", Mahony let at least 12 priests continue to work around children, in some cases for many years, after they'd been accused of molesting kids.
Mahony was warned twice about the behavior of one of his priests. The cardinal did nothing about it. That priest ultimately pleaded guilty to four counts of lewd conduct with a child under 14.
And yet despite all this, Mahony still has the gall to lecture the rest of us about our moral inferiority because we don't support illegal immigration. At this point, Roger Mahony is not in a position to tell anybody anything. He's lucky he's not in jail.

Furthermore, if the Catholic Church is so concerned about the well being of Mexicans, why doesn't it do a better job of ministering to them in Mexico?

• • •

States mull slew of bills to deal with illegal aliens [4/21/06]
States are picking up the ball because Washington has been entirely useless, except for a handful of border defenders in the House.

State lawmakers across the nation are grappling with how to control the rising cost and effect of illegal aliens, with 368 bills pending or being debated in 42 states.
The bills, with more expected, target a number of constituency concerns, including the rising costs of education and medical care for illegal aliens, exploding crime, punishment for employers who exploit illegal aliens and the federal government's inability to secure the U.S. border.
But, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, which tracks legislation, only Georgia has managed to get an immigration law through a state legislative session this year.
Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue signed sweeping new laws on Monday, requiring adults in that state seeking benefits to prove their U.S. citizenship, sanctioning employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens and requiring companies with state contracts to check their employees' legal status.

• • •

Execution Delayed for 'Railroad Killer' [4/20/06]
Illegal alien Angel Maturino Resendiz was convicted in 2000 of one murder, although he was linked to 14 others. Michelle Malkin wrote a whole chapter about this man's case in her book Invasion, demonstrating the fecklessness of law enforcement at capturing a mass murderer, whom they had in custody several times.

Next month's scheduled execution of a Mexican drifter dubbed the "Railroad Killer" has been delayed to allow more psychiatric testing.
The change from May 10 to June 27 came after attorneys for Angel Maturino Resendiz filed reports from two experts who concluded that he is delusional, schizophrenic and has a brain disorder, Harris County Assistant District Attorney Roe Wilson said Wednesday.
Prosecutors contend that the 45-year-old Mexican citizen is sane and is manipulating the courts.

• • •

Earth Day Blues [4/20/06]
There has been little burbles of information about how many additional people will be dumped into America if the Senate version of "reform" carries the day — 30 million according to Sen. Jeff Sessions.

These days, we hear about the Senate¹s scheme for a stunning population explosion from conservative Republicans like Sen. Jeff Sessions [McCain/Kennedy leads to 30 million new illegal immigrants].

This bill would add 30 million people to our nation in the next ten years. We ought to be spending some time talking about that. It's a big, big deal."

Newt Gingrich said on O'Reilly this Monday that 30-36 million persons would be eligible for amnesty under the McKennedy bill — that's a California-size population! Plus Rep. Sensenbrenner recently stated, "I have seen demographic projections that it means that we'll get 20 million more illegal immigrants in the next 10 years," apparently to take advantage of the employment opportunities the current amnesty will present.

• • •

Dean calls the border top priority [4/20/06]
This is at once hilarious, ironic and a total pack of lies.The idea that the far left leadership of the Democratic party is now concerned with closing down the border really does strain credulity. Also, the ploy show hows ridiculously weak Bush has become on this issue by his endless pandering to corporate cheap-labor interests.

"If Dean means what he says about border enforcement, that would put the Democrats somewhere to the right of President Bush on immigration," said Rep. Steve King, Iowa Republican.
A spokesman for the Republican National Committee dismissed Mr. Dean's "newfound commitment to border security" as "not believable."
A Gallup Poll of 1,004 Americans this month found that 81 percent think illegal immigration to the United States is out of control and that 79 percent think it's extremely or very important for the government to take steps this year to halt the flood of illegal aliens.

• • •

Crisis in Europe [4/19/06]
Bruce Bawer is the author of the recent book While Europe Slept and is one of the stronger voices pointing out the idiocy of culturally inappropriate immigration and its evil stepchild, the failed ideology of multiculturalism.

In Generous Betrayal, Wikan told several stories to illustrate how a misguided "respect" for immigrant-group traditions leads to a denial of individual rights. One such tradition is forced marriage. Wikan wrote of Aisha, a Norwegian-born girl whose parents transported her to their homeland, Morocco, to be married against her will. Aisha, then fourteen, knew what was coming and begged Norwegian child-protection authorities for help; but, not wishing to be seen as culturally insensitive, they refused to get involved. Another such tradition is "honor killing," whereby family honor is restored through the murder of a female relative who is seen as having sullied it—by, for example, being raped. Wikan drew attention to this practice in her book For ærens skyld (For Honor's Sake), which is troubling not only for its account of girls and women brutally executed by their families but also, alas, for Wikan's dismaying insistence on seeing the murderers, too, as victims, her argument being that their cultural ideology binds them to obligations that they cannot shirk. (Using similar logic, one might maintain that a guard at Auschwitz was as deserving of pity as the children he shoved into the gas chamber, since he was, after all, a helpless instrument of Nazi racial theories.)
All these books gave voice to the concerns of many ordinary Europeans and broke through the wall of silence erected by Europe's political, media, and academic elite around questions of immigration and integration. Taken together, they painted a grim picture of immigrant neighborhoods that were growing more and more insulated from their surroundings; of young European-born men who were being drawn increasingly to Islamic fundamentalism and even terrorism; and of a mainstream European society too inhibited by political correctness to face up to any of it. Several of the books stressed that those most severely affected by these problems tended to be Muslims themselves—the abused wives who fled to women's shelters, the toddlers subjected to the torture of clitoridectomy, the children sent abroad to prison-like Koran schools, the teenage girls compelled to wed illiterate bullies who think wife-beating is a God-given right.

• • •

The black and brown job picture [4/19/06]
There's so little mention of history in the newspapers that it is a pleasure to read a reminder about Frederick Douglass, who accurately assessed immigration's effect on American blacks in the late 19th century which remains appropriate today.

THESE DAYS, Frederick Douglass is most often read for his firsthand account of rising out of slavery to become a leading abolitionist. But in his third and final autobiography, "Life and Times of Frederick Douglass," he turned his attention to another subject — immigration — and discussed it with a candor that few black politicians have shown during the current debate in Washington and beyond.
"Our old employments by which we have been accustomed to gain a livelihood are gradually slipping from our hands: Every hour sees us elbowed out of some employment to make room for some newly arrived emigrant from the Emerald Isle, whose hunger and color entitle him to special favor," Douglass wrote. "These white men are becoming house servants, cooks, stewards, waiters and flunkies."

• • •

Don't Pass Just Anything [4/18/06]
Jeff Sessions has been the strongest voice of sanity among the Senators, who have been arguing about which amnesty-on-steroids legislation they should pass. The so-called "compromise" bill from Hagel-Martinez is a total horror which is crammed with unimaginably stupid, harmful and treasonous provisions. Only a deeply twisted, America-hating institution could create such evil.
Imagine Ted Kennedy and Vicente Fox put in charge of writing the bill — that's the "compromise" the Senators were celebrating a couple weeks ago.

• Cost: The Congressional Budget Office estimates the bill will increase the deficit by $29 billion in just five years and more than that in the years to come.
• Categories of aliens that should be removed from the United States would be allowed to qualify for the compromise mass amnesty program, including:
— Aliens with certain felony convictions or three misdemeanors;
— Aliens previously barred from receiving immigration benefits for life, because they filed a frivolous asylum application;
— Aliens who are under final orders of removal, or who signed voluntary departure agreements but have never been deported.
• The broad and vague work requirements are an open invitation for fraud. No continuous or full-time work is required, and the department of Homeland Security must accept "reasonable inferences" of work as qualifying evidence that the alien is eligible.
• Illegal aliens who do not qualify for the mass amnesty (because they have been here for less than two years) can qualify for the bill's new low-skilled "essential worker" program without ever leaving the U.S. In other words, no illegal alien will be left behind.

There's lots more just as ugly. Read it all.

• • •

The Fall of France and the Multicultural World War [4/18/06]
The highly regarded blogger Fjordman has not disappeared since closing down additions to his website. His latest article is nothing if not grim.

If Muslim immigration continues, the impending fall of France could mark the starting point of the Balkanization of much of Europe, perhaps later even North America. I fear this is a world war. Maybe future historians will dub it the Multicultural World War. Just as WW1 was caused by Imperialism, WW2 by Fascism and the Cold War by Communism, this one will be caused by Multiculturalism. The term "the Multicultural World War" has been coined by Fjordman. I find this to be more accurate than "The Islamic World War" because what will cause this world war is Western cultural weakness, through Multiculturalism and Muslim immigration, rather than Islamic strength

He notes the rapidly increasing frenzy of violence among Euro-Muslims, who say things like, "We must burn France, as Hamas will burn Israel." With particular bravery, he sketches out predictions of how Europe's future might go, from inevitable Islamification following the entrance of Turkey into the EU, to a glimmer of hope.
Remember that Fjordman recently defined Mexico's relationship with the United States as "war ... using massive immigration to conquer your territory."

• • •

Interview with Ronald Maxwell [4/17/06]
Listen to KFI's John Ziegler as he talks with the Virginia film director about how no one is Washington is protecting the nation from invasion. As mentioned earlier on this website, Maxwell wrote a scathing open letter to President Bush printed in the Washington Times a week ago. An expert on the Civil War, Maxwell dreads the nightmare scenario of an illegal alien amnesty leading to a second civil war a generation from now.
Definitely worth a listen.

• • •

China: Too Many Men [4/17/06]
Sixty Minutes takes on the important topic of the misogyny in Chinese society which has shown up in a potentially disastrous gender imbalance. There is no doubt that the red Chinese government has been unduly oppressive in how it has restricted families to one child, but we in the west tend to forget China's history of famines as we condemn their attempts to deal with overpopulation.
At any rate, the cultural disdain for females combined with the one-child policy and the availability of fetal scans has resulted in a huge preponderance of males, which bodes poorly for China's future social stability. When Sixty Minutes visited a high school in the village of Linchuan, there were 150 boys for every 100 girls. The government has launched pro-girl incentives, but evidence shows that the problem is getting worse.

The one-child policy is 25 years old, so the first generation is just now reaching marriage age, and for China that's a big problem because it is estimated that as many as 40 million of its young men could spend their lives as bachelors.
Some of these men have joined the country's floating population — 140 million migrants who move to the cities like Beijing in search of work. [...]
"In world history, there has never been a bride shortage as large as is about to hit China," says political scientist Valerie Hudson of Brigham Young University, who co-authored a book on Asia's male surplus.
She and other scholars have compiled statistics going back centuries that show too many unmarried males in a society spells trouble.
"When there are more men than women, social instability and crime increases in society," Hudson explained. "Psychologists have talked about what they call the pacifying effect of marriage. Young men who have been pretty extreme criminals — upon marriage — and when the children begin to come, their criminal careers more or less end."
Asked if she is predicting a crime wave, Hudson said, "Yes. It's already happening."
And Zhao Baige admits that China has already begun to see social problems that stem directly from this gender imbalance.

• • •

Immigration hits home in Lynn: Blacks voice fear of a loss of jobs [4/16/06]
There is no group in America other than border ranchers that is more harmed by the illegal alien tsunami than black citizens.

LYNN -- James Banks thinks he knows how the controversy over immigration in this country is going to end: Millions of undocumented immigrants will get to stay in the United States, many more will follow them here, and young African-American men will have an even tougher time finding jobs.
''The whole United States is going to change," the African-American store manager said as he got his hair cut at a Union Street barbershop on a recent morning. ''They'll let you go, and get one of these happy immigrants in your spot. They won't be late, they won't get sick, and they won't complain. They will work every unhappy American citizen out of their grass-cutting, trash-hauling, floor-sweeping jobs."
But he doesn't blame the immigrants: They're just feeding their families. Banks, 36, says the fault lies with a generation of young African-American men who would rather ''walk their sneakers up and down the street" than step up on a stage to collect high school diplomas.
''Immigration is going to set the black community back 25 years," he said. ''Because they'll let it."
Across the country, immigration has been a subject of debate for weeks. But among African-Americans, the issue has a more profound, and in some ways, more personal dimension. Many African-Americans believe they are the ones most imperiled by cheap immigrant labor. Some see no reason why people who cross the border illegally should be given leniency, when young black men who break laws receive so little leeway.
For them, the heightened attention to immigration has triggered a range of responses: anger, trepidation, and deep reflection. It has also intensified concerns over the plummeting fortunes of young black men.

As mentioned, the attitude toward school among many of today's black kids is not good as shown by high dropout rates. But if they saw hope at the end of the educational process — like a decent job after graduation — more would certainly engage themselves in school.

• • •

Mexican aliens seek to retake 'stolen' land [4/16/06]
For years, anyone who brought up the idea that Mexico was pursuing "reconquista" in the American southwest was characterized as crazy or worse. Now we see evidence daily as marching Mexicans declare their real intention — invasion, not immigration, because they think the land belongs to them. (See relevant photos over at MichelleMalkin.com.)

DENVER -- La reconquista, a radical movement calling for Mexico to "reconquer" America's Southwest, has stepped out of the shadows at recent immigration-reform protests nationwide as marchers held signs saying, "Uncle Sam Stole Our Land!" and waved Mexico's flag.
Even as organizers urged marchers to display U.S. flags, the theme of reclaiming "stolen" land remained strong. One popular banner read: "If you think I'm illegal because I'm a Mexican, learn the true history because I'm in my homeland."
"We need to change direction," said Jose Lugo, an instructor in Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder at a campus march last week. "And by allowing these 50,000, 50 million [immigrants] to come in here, we can do that." [...]
"We are millions. We just have to survive. We have an aging white America. They are not making babies. They are dying. It's a matter of time. The explosion is in our population," Jose Angel Gutierrez, political science professor at the University of Texas at Arlington, said on the videotape.

Demographic warfare — the Mexicans are now so bold, due to our government's lack of enforcement, that they openly declare their sedition.

• • •

In Mexico, 'nothing gringo on May 1' [4/16/06]
Mexicans squatting here and residing in their home country are calling for a boycott of American goods 5/1. As usual, they are not bright enough to plan a political event that doesn't screw themselves worse than it hurts us.
First of all, they are doing it on MAY DAY, the international holiday of Communist solidarity. Ri-i-i-i-ght, emphasizing the radical left connections will convince Americans. And threats of closing down the ports and other commerce will illustrate that our neighbor to the south is not a friend, nor has it ever been.
Furthermore, Mexican illegals joining up with their brethern in the home country against the United States will remind Americans of all those Mexican flags we have seen lately, that Mexicans are invaders
Finally, the boycott would mostly hurt U.S. corporations that are the biggest boosters of the neo-slave economy. Perfect! Great going, Mexicans!

The protest is timed to coincide with a May 1 boycott of work and shopping in the United States that also has been dubbed "A Day Without Immigrants." The boycott, which grew out of huge pro-migrant marches across the United States, is designed to pressure Congress to legalize millions of undocumented people.
Mexican unions, political and community groups, newspaper columnists and even some Mexican government offices have joined the call in recent days.
"Remember, nothing gringo on May 1," advises one of the many e-mails being circulated among Internet users in Mexico. [...]
And ironically, the protest targets the U.S. business community, which is one of the strongest supporters of legalization or guest-worker programs.
"At the end of the day, boycotting would only hurt corporations that are backing what people want done in the immigration bill," said Larry Rubin, CEO of the American Chamber of Commerce in Mexico.

• • •

Muslims trawl web for wives [4/15/06]
These Muslims live in Australia, but they are looking for wife #2 — still called polygamy in the western world where multi-wifing remains a crime.

MUSLIM men in Australia are trawling "marriage websites" looking for second wives in what Immigration officials say is a growing illegal trade. And Muslim leaders have warned that men who take second wives from overseas face jail or deportation.
A Sunday Herald Sun investigation has found Muslim men are using the internet to attract second wives with promises of financial security.
Immigration officials are investigating a growing number of second marriages and say anyone found to have committed bigamy will be prosecuted.
"Muslims are required to follow the law of the land and since the law of Australia prohibits a second marriage, Islamic law will also prohibit it," Islamic Council of Australia spokesman Mohamad Abdalla said.
Victorian Women's Affairs Minister Mary Delahunty said websites that depicted women as chattels were a disgrace.

• • •

Villaraigosa Tells Where He Stands [4/15/06]
Los Angeles' hispanic mayor is interviewed by la Times and gives a spotty rendition of the truth, not to mention a dismissal of the opinion of the voters.

Q: Since you got involved [with immigration] in a very visible and active way a few weeks ago, what has the reaction been?
A: The letters and e-mails have been overwhelmingly negative, maybe 500 to 1, maybe a little more... But I think we're elected to do what's right, not necessarily what's popular.
*
Q: Illegal immigrants place some burden on city services, whether it's fire or police or sewer or whatever. Is there any way to measure the cost that the city of Los Angeles pays to care for people who are here illegally, and is that a cost worth paying?
A: I don't know what the cost of providing services to the undocumented would be, but I do know this: The responsibility for those costs is the federal government's, and for more than a decade I have maintained that the federal government, which receives the Social Security and income taxes generated by these immigrants, should reimburse cities and counties for any expense incurred.

Do you really believe the Mayor of Los Angeles doesn't know the costs of illegal aliens to his city? LA Supervisor Michael Antonovich has pointed out the healthcare costs for years, $350 million in 2002, for example.

• • •

Minutemen Defense Corps say more illegals crossing border [4/14/06]
Well, duh. Mexicans have only been hearing the sound of doors opening since el Presidente Boosh started talking about a "guest" worker program two years ago.

Recent marches for immigrants rights have helped to unite opposition against government plans to criminalize illegal immigration, but the Mexican flags waving have also had another effect - an increase in volunteers for the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps. Volunteers said the help is needed now more than ever. They claim all the talk of amnesty has inspired a new wave of illegals to flock north of the border.
"The Border Patrol told us last night that in our last meeting. The minute the word is even mentioned, or seen in print, Katy bar the door, I mean it's flooding," said Linda Vickers. The Border Patrol confirms they are making more apprehensions. [...]
Lydia Caballero, who opposes the Minutemen project said, "Five miles from here is Sarita [checkpoint]. There's no reason for those people to be here. They're not even from here. They don't belong to us, they don't belong in our area."

But it's fine for everyone from the Rio Grande to Tierra del Fuego to come on in, right Senorita Cabellero?
Lou Dobbs Tonight reported this week that illegal borders crossings have shot up.

That monthly arrest average is now 106,000, a 40 percent increase since 2003.

• • •

Path to Deportation Can Start With a Traffic Stop [4/14/06]
The New York Times pays attention to immigration law enforcement at the local level.

While lawmakers in Washington debate whether to forgive illegal immigrants their trespasses, a small but increasing number of local and state law enforcement officials are taking it upon themselves to pursue deportation cases against people who are here illegally.
In more than a dozen jurisdictions, officials have invoked a little-used 1996 federal law to seek special federal training in immigration enforcement for their officers.
In other places, the local authorities are flagging some illegal immigrants who are caught up in the criminal justice system, sometimes for minor offenses, and are alerting immigration officials to their illegal status so that they can be deported.
In Costa Mesa, Calif., for example, in Orange County, the City Council last year shut down a day laborer job center that had operated for 17 years, and this year authorized its Police Department to begin training officers to pursue illegal immigrants — a job previously left to federal agents.
In Suffolk County, on Long Island, where a similar police training proposal was met with angry protests in 2004, county officials have quietly put a system in place that uses sheriff's deputies to flag illegal immigrants in the county jail population.
In Putnam County, N.Y., about 50 miles north of Manhattan, eight illegal immigrants who were playing soccer in a school ball field were arrested on Jan. 9 for trespassing and held for the immigration authorities.
As an example of the uneven results that sometimes occur in such cross-hatches of local and federal law enforcement, the seven immigrants who were able to make bail before those agents arrived went free. The one who could not make bail in time, a 33-year-old roofer and father of five, has been in federal detention in Pennsylvania ever since.
"I took an oath to protect the people of this county, and that means enforcing the laws of the land," said Donald B. Smith, the Putnam County sheriff. "We have a situation in our country where our borders are not being adequately protected, and that leaves law enforcement people like us in a very difficult situation."

This being the alien-loving New York Times, the writer has to include sob story elements, e.g. "father of five," to slant to story. Furthermore, as the article notes early on, this enforcement is happening in "more than a dozen jurisdictions" — hardly a major crackdown in a nation of 300 million people. You want to ask the reporter, "Do you now employ or have you ever hired an illegal alien?"
As Senator Kyl pointed out in a column last month, in 2005 around 13 percent of illegal border crossers had criminal records in the U.S. (Of course we have no idea of how many committed violent crimes in Mexico.)

According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 139,000 of the 1.1 million people apprehended on the border in 2005 were criminal aliens seeking to illegally reenter the United States.

As I noted in Beyond Willie Sutton, nearly 30 percent of federal inmates are foreign born, compared with the general population as a whole (12.1 percent in 2005).

• • •

The Great Quake: 1906-2006 — Out of chaos came new Chinese America [4/13/06]
San Francisco is now remembering the April 18, 1906, earthquake that leveled much of the city. You could make an argument that the first illegal alien amnesty was that earthquake, which burned many of the city's records thereby enabling Chinese nationals to claim American birth.

Destroyed records meant more immigration.
The earth dragon has awakened, Chinatown residents are said to have screamed as the 1906 earthquake and fire flattened their neighborhood and killed untold numbers.
But San Francisco's Chinatown was already under siege. White leaders considered the Chinese an economic threat, filthy and dangerous, and were trying to push them out. The Chinese Exclusion Act, barring most Chinese from entering the United States since 1882, had slowed the flow of newcomers to a trickle of teachers, students and merchants.
Yet when government buildings were destroyed a century ago, so were the birth and immigration records inside. Scores of Chinese recognized the serendipity, claiming citizenship and bringing in their children.
In many cases, for a fee, they also brought in people who weren't their children. Hundreds of those friends and strangers, who came to be known as "paper sons," arrived in the Bay Area in the following decades, changing Chinese America forever.
"In a strange way, we as Chinese Americans are indebted to that disaster," said Felicia Lowe, 60, a Bay Area documentary filmmaker whose father and grandfather were paper sons. "It was a gateway, an opening, a possibility to allow Chinese people to come here."

This PBS program celebrating Chinese immigration has a film clip explaining paper sons. Then as now, the attitude is that immigration is a right of the would-be newcomer, not a privilege granted by the citizens of this nation.

• • •

Apple Valley School Squatter Arrested In Boston [4/13/06]
Francisco Serrano criminal and high school squatter A little over a year ago, there was an incident in which 21-year-old illegal alien Francisco Serrano lived in a Minnesota high school for several weeks and posed as a student until he was discovered. At that time, locals rallied to his defense. High school kids made up "Free Francisco" t-shirts and evidently no parents were concerned that a lawbreaking adult male was rubbing elbows with their teenaged daughters.
A typical sentiment at the time was expressed in an editorial from the Pioneer Press, Story points to rising homelessness.

Serrano's legal problems detract from the focal point of this story, which is homelessness. We don't know if a fear of discovery as an illegal immigrant kept Serrano from seeking social services.

Last October, an immigration judge ordered Serrano back to Mexico. But he never boarded the plane and has now turned up as a violent felon in Boston.

The link at the top includes a news video, which has a clip of Serrano in a pink sweater! (Here is a still photo.) An example of a lawyer playing extreme dress-up with a criminal client? Even the notorious parent-murdering Menendez brothers didn't go beyond muted pastels for a collegiate look in their trial makeover.

• • •

Cities encourage illegal immigration [4/13/06]
You have to wonder what city governments were thinking when they instituted nutty sanctuary laws which encourage lawbreaking and increased crime. California State Senator Dennis Hollingsworth points out the cost to taxpayers of allowing cities to pursue such irresponsible policies. The human cost in crime — murder, rape, kidnapping, theft, highway carnage — from illegals who were allowed to remain even after coming into contact with police cannot be adequately measured.

In the 1980s, cities around the country began instituting illegal immigrant "Safe Havens" and "Sanctuary" ordinances or policies that prevent city employees, especially law enforcement, from inquiring about the immigration status of any individual or cooperating with federal immigration officials.
While it would be easy to dismiss such declarations as rhetoric to showcase their higher state of "enlightenment" on the illegal immigration issue, these actions have a real impact on California and contribute to a real cost: about $10 billion dollars.
That's the estimated total annual cost of illegal immigration to the state's taxpayers. The cost for incarcerating more than 18,000 criminal illegal immigrants alone is almost $750 million. With the estimated population of illegal immigrants in the state at more than 2.3 million and growing, California taxpayers can expect to be footing the bill for an even larger tab in coming years.
With an ongoing budget deficit of over $6 billion, the cost is a serious impact on our state's ability to accommodate a growing legal population of immigrants and births.

• • •

Sen. Kennedy Slammed for Civil Rights Comparison to Illegal Aliens [4/12/06]
Rev. Jesse Peterson appeared on Fox News yesterday, and this brief article is apparently a description of what he had to say about the arrogance of comparing the civil rights struggle with the noisy claims of the invader. Black Americans were demanding their rights as citizens, guaranteed by the Constitution, while illegal aliens today are parasites feeding off the largesse which America offers.

A black conservative minister and staunch immigration reform advocate Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Tuesday denounced Sen. Ted Kennedy for comparing pro-illegal immigration rallies to civil rights marches for blacks half a century ago.
The Massachusetts Democrat, who is a proponent of a Senate plan that would open the way to citizenship for illegals, said recent illegal immigration rallies are "reminiscent of the civil rights movement."
Rev. Peterson said, "Ted Kennedy should be ashamed for comparing the civil rights struggles of blacks to that of illegal aliens. Black Americans are being driven out of their jobs and schools by the influx of illegals — while politicians like Kennedy sell them out for Hispanic votes."
Thirty years ago, the Los Angeles Unified School District student population was 24% black and 32% Hispanic. Today, one in 10 students is black, and seven in 10 are Hispanic.
"These figures should be alarming to anyone who cares about black Americans," Peterson said. "Unfortunately for blacks, politicians like Kennedy are more interested in the next election — and blacks are a small slice of the voting pie, while Hispanic numbers are exploding."

• • •

Berkeley Campus Rally, April 10 [4/11/06]
Click on the link to see the photos I took yesterday over at Sproul Plaza.
World

• • •

Rally organizer tied to Marxist party [4/11/06]
There is a strong communist thread among the anti-borders demonstrations during the last little while.

One of the key organizers of the immigration protests and rallies nationwide, including yesterday's in Washington, is a group whose leaders are tied to the Workers World Party, a Marxist organization that has expressed support for dictators Kim Jong-il of North Korea and Saddam Hussein of Iraq.
Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER) Coalition, which also has proposed a nationwide boycott on May 1 to protest congressional efforts at immigration reform and border security, is an offshoot of the International Action Coalition, an anti-capitalism group founded by former Attorney General Ramsey Clark.
In a press release celebrating a March 25 rally in Los Angeles against immigration-law enforcement that drew an estimated 500,000 people, ANSWER said it helped organize "a major contingent in the march" and provided logistical support. The march was co-chaired by Juan Jose Gutierrez, director of Latino Movement USA, who also is a member of ANSWER's Los Angeles steering committee.

See also Domestic Terrorist Group Behind Immigrant Rallies on the same topic, which includes some interesting photos.
Don't miss Michelle Malkin's collection of pictures you won't see in the mainstream media.
More photos from Team America. Additional pix from San Diego from Save Our State.

• • •

Senator Sessions on Securing America's Borders Act [4/10/06]
Read Sen. Jeff Sessions' floor statement arguing against the terrible legislation coming out of that place, particularly the Hagel-Martinez amendment. This is serious criticism with a lot of attention paid to the costs.

We have seen amnesty before in our country, in 1986, and the record is clear that American taxpayers did pay the cost of the fiscal deficit created by the 3 million beneficiaries under the 1986 amnesty. Of course, the original estimates were that 1 million, 1.5 million people would qualify for amnesty in 1986. Now they are estimating 12 million. But, in fact, 3 million showed up in 1986 and claimed the benefits of amnesty, many using documents that were dubious.
A 1997 study conducted by the Center for Immigration Studies estimated that the 3 million newly legalized aliens in the 1986 amnesty had generated a net fiscal deficit of $24 billion in the short decade that passed since their arrival. The 3 million cost the Government $24 billion. That is a very large sum of money.

• • •

Arrival of aliens ousts U.S. workers [4/10/06]
Illegal immigration is not a victimless crime, as illlustrated by these cases of job displacement of citizens by exploitable foreign workers.

An Alabama employment agency that sent 70 laborers and construction workers to job sites in that state in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina says the men were sent home after just two weeks on the job by employers who told them "the Mexicans had arrived" and were willing to work for less.
Linda Swope, who operates Complete Employment Services Inc. in Mobile, Ala., told The Washington Times last week that the workers -- whom she described as U.S. citizens, residents of Alabama and predominantly black -- had been "urgently requested" by contractors hired to rebuild and clear devastated areas of the state, but were told to leave three job sites when the foreign workers showed up.
"After Katrina, our company had 70 workers on the job the first day, but the companies decided they didn't need them anymore because the Mexicans had arrived," Mrs. Swope said. "I assure you it is not true that Americans don't want to work.
"We had been told that 270 jobs might be available, and we could have filled every one of them with men from this area, most of whom lost their jobs because of the hurricane," she said. "When we told the guys they would not be needed, they actually cried ... and we cried with them. This is a shame."

• • •

El Presidente waves the flag [4/10/06]
We are seeing way more Mexican flags recently than many of us would like. But the sight of our American President campaigning with the flag of a hostile foreign power is galling, to say the least. The ever-interesting Steve Sailer posted this.
Bush
See also my 2004 article, "The Mexichurian Candidate."

• • •

Mexicans casting aspersions at Americans should look in the mirror [4/09/06]
Talk show host Larry Elder nails Mexico for its outrageous hypocrisy about immigration and racism generally.

Typically, when Mexican authorities catch illegal immigrants, they place them overnight in a detention center, then bus or fly them back to their country of origin. Despite the fact that Mexico militarized its border and deported 203,128 illegal immigrants in 2004, many illegals get through by bribing corrupt military and police. [...]
Mexico should look in the mirror. According to the Houston Chronicle's Rachel Graves, around the turn of the 17th century, Mexico imported more African slaves than anywhere else in the New World. As a result, tens of thousands of blacks (no one knows for sure -- the Mexican census does not recognize them) live in Mexico, mostly in destitute villages in its poorest states. An estimated 30,000 to 40,000 blacks live in Costa Chica.
How do they fare? According to the Houston Chronicle, many are illiterate, struggling to get a decent education for their children from government schools. One Costa Chica missionary says, "The kids here are considered by their teachers to be largely unteachable." When stopped by the police, Mexican blacks are often instructed to sing the Mexican national anthem to prove their citizenship!
If so many Mexicans consider Americans racist, why do polls show that nearly half of Mexico's inhabitants say that their lives would improve if they could work here illegally?

• • •

Dutch to Muslims: Do you really want to settle here? [4/09/06]
The Dutch are trying to cope with a growing population of immigrants who refuse to assimilate into Netherlands society. One strategy is to show prospective immigrants a DVD revealing the sexual liberalism which is the social norm in the country, with the unspoken message that perhaps Islamic culture is not a good fit in Holland.
The Dutch have also had to lay down the specifics of what kind of behavior is expected — no murders of gays or beating women as directed by the Koran.

In February, Geluk helped draft guidelines for multicultural living that have become known as the Rotterdam code. It calls for respectful treatment of women, homosexuals and people of different religions, but the main provision requires that the Dutch language be spoken in all public places.
"Dutch people feel excluded when they go into a shop and no one is speaking Dutch," Geluk explained. "They are not racists, but sometimes they feel frightened and a bit alone in their own city when they can't talk to their neighbors."
Nearly 40 percent of Rotterdam's population is foreign-born, and projections suggest it will have a non-native-Dutch majority by 2017. In the city's schools, the children of immigrants already make up more than 50 percent of enrollment.
Pastors, the councilman, says the code is a step in the right direction but that tougher measures will be needed to compel immigrants to integrate.
"We used to think: Give people time and they will integrate. It's a nice theory, but it didn't work," he said.

• • •

Back To Basics [4/08/06]
Investors Business Daily is famously common-sensical about the need to deal with immigration anarchy.

Washington has a history of ignoring workplace realities. Since 1986, for instance, it's been against the law to hire illegal aliens. Yet that hasn't stopped them from finding work. Blame employers who knowingly break the law. But honest businesses also get little help; most firms don't have the time or money to check documents related to past residency.
A small voluntary program enables employers to check Social Security numbers and information against a federal database. With enough time and money, it could be built into a reliable nationwide system that employers could use. But it's not there now. The House bill gives some idea of the work still needed, giving employers all of six years to verify that their workers are here legally.
And if anyone sees the worst of the immigration system, it is those would-be U.S. residents who play by the rules. The government has made progress in whittling down its backlog of applications, but it is has some way to go before meeting its stated goal of getting the average processing time for a green card down to six months.

• • •

Mexico's Plan Puts American Values to the Test [4/08/06]
Georgie Ann Geyer describes the strategy by which Mexico has advanced its agenda of meddling in American affairs.

When in Mexico again last November, I saw the next steps. I dropped in at the Foreign Ministry to see Carlos Gonzalez Gutierrez, head of the Institute of Mexicans Abroad. He told me: "The basic concept is that the Mexican nation goes beyond the borders that contain Mexico. You can feel part of our nation without being on our territory.
"For the first time, we are exporting our politics. Many Mexicans now live 'transnational' lives, with one foot in our country and one foot in the other. This contributes to everyone's well-being." [...]
In short, what we have is a new ethnic-political situation totally unlike anything in America's past, except perhaps the 1920s German Bund and the present-day Israeli lobby. Both made and make strong political demands on their American members in the name of "the old country." Other national groups represented in America -- Polish, Lithuanian, British, French, etc. -- are more cultural organizations.

• • •

Lou Dobbs Transcript, April 7 [4/08/06]
Rep. James Sensenbrenner, who has guided the House immigration enforcement legislation through the legislative process, appeared yesterday for a live interview on CNN.

SENSENBRENNER: The Senate doesn't get it. We made the mistake of giving amnesty 20 years ago and not enforcing employer sanctions. And instead of solving the illegal immigrant problem, we ended up getting four times more.
And the Senate again wants to give amnesty and not have effective border security and enforcing employer sanctions. I have seen demographic projections that it means that we'll get 20 million more illegal immigrants in the next 10 years.
DOBBS: [...] One, why does the Sensenbrenner legislation, and this is something I disagree with as well, make it a felony for an illegal alien in this country rather than a misdemeanor?
SENSENBRENNER: I offered an amendment to reduce the felony penalty to a misdemeanor. And it was defeated because of an almost unanimous Democratic vote against it in the House. These are the same Democrats that are now criticizing the bill for making it a felony, but when they had the chance to reduce it to a misdemeanor, they voted the other way.
A little cynical and play on politics, yes. Dealing with an important issue facing the American public that way is just bad policy and bad politics.
DOBBS: Well, having set the record straight on that, let's talk about another -- the cardinal of the Los Angeles Diocese, Roger Mahony, saying we should break the law -- his parishioners should break the law, Catholics should break the law if indeed the Sensenbrenner legislation is passed because it would mean that good Samaritans -- and Senator Hillary Clinton has also said that even Jesus Christ himself would be a criminal under the terms of this legislation. How do you respond to them?
SENSENBRENNER: What's really interesting is 20 years ago encouraging an illegal immigrant to stay in the country was made criminal. And the United States Catholic Conference strongly supported that. [...]
DOBBS: I think that you and I and a lot of other people in this country agree something has got to be done about the illegal alien crisis. But there's no way to kid the American people, there's no way to fool the American people. If the Congress and this president can't deliver secure borders and secure ports, it is foolish to even consider immigration, an attempt at immigration reform.
SENSENBRENNER: If we don't do that, Lou, we're just going to have more illegal immigrants crossing our border. That's what happened 20 years ago when the Simpson-Mazzoli bill failed. And if we don't do first things first, and do it the right way, we're going to see the economic collapse as a result of the flood of illegal immigrants going into our schools, collapsing our healthcare and taxing our social services.

• • •

"Transnationalists" don't take immigration reform seriously [4/08/06]
Columnist John Leo notes that the globalist worldview is antithetical to retaining sovereignty and impedes the current political debate about immigration control.

In his 1995 book "The Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy," the late Christopher Lasch argued that America's political and cultural elites had opened up a gap between themselves and ordinary Americans. "Many of them have ceased to think of themselves as Americans in any important sense, implicated in America's destiny for better or worse," he wrote. They are increasingly detached from their fellow citizens and drawn to an international culture, Lasch said, or what we would today call a transnational culture.
Consider the current immigration debate in this light. In the transnational view, patriotism, assimilation and cultural cohesion are obsolete concerns. Borders and the nation-state are on the way out. Transnational flows of populations are inevitable. Workers will move in response to markets, not old-fashioned national policies on immigration. Norms set by internationalists will gradually replace national laws and standards. The world is becoming a single place. Trying to impede this unifying process is folly.
The term "transnationals" specifically refers to those working in and around international organizations and multinational corporations. More broadly, it indicates a cosmopolitan elite with a declining allegiance to the place where they live and work, and a feeling that nationalism and patriotism are part of the past. [...]
John Fonte, of the Hudson Institute, notes that "transnationalism," like "global governance" and "multiculturalism," are presented by advocates as irresistible forces of history. Not so, he says. They are "ideological tools, championed by activist elites."
The astonishing aspect of the immigration debate is that the elites think they can override the clear and huge resistance of the American people. As columnist Tony Blankley wrote last week, the Senate was prepared to "legislate into the teeth of the will of the American public."

The transnational agenda is essentially an anti-democratic one, which gives undue influence to global corporations.

• • •

Do pols actually believe the press clips on immigration? [4/08/06]
Blogger Mickey Kaus sorts through what clueless Senators may actually be thinking compared with the reality of American public opinion.

At least in the 2006 election--a low-turnout mid-term in which intensity of opinion may be important in prodding voters to show up at the polls**-- the beleaguered House Republicans seem like the ones who benefit from "having only a GOP-written House bill" that stresses enforcement on the table, despite the excessive felony penalties. ... Will the House Dems sense this and at some point pressure the Senate Dems to pass a compromise in order to muddle the issue and give them something to support?
P.S.: A subsequent, richer AP report suggests, reassuringly, Democrats aren't really so stupid as to drink the same MSM-served anti-House Kool-Aid Specter seems to have been sipping.

Reid and Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, who heads the party's campaign effort, said they did not want to expose rank-and-file Democrats to votes that would force them to choose between border security and immigrant rights

Unfortunately, most Democrats in Congress are open-borders extremists, unlike the majority of D-voters who want immigration to be legal, controlled and REDUCED.

• • •

Starting over in America: Hmong journey [4/07/06]
They keep coming. Hmong, that is. Thousands of refugees from Thailand keep pouring in to join their hmore acculturated relatives (relatively speaking).

WAT THAM KRABOK, Thailand — Teng Yang and his family live on the other side of the earth from the home they will soon make in California. But in many ways, they inhabit another universe.
If they get sick, they slaughter a pig and two chickens as offerings to the spirits. A 13-year-old bride, a man with two wives -- these are accepted social arrangements in the dusty squatters' colony where they have spent the past 11 years of their drifters' lives.
Teng and his family -- a Hmong clan of 27 people from the jungles of Laos -- are moving to Fresno, a middle-class, Central Valley town whose social mores will be as baffling to them as the drive-through line at McDonald's.
Over the next several months, 15,000 other Laotian Hmong who live at this makeshift refugee camp will follow them, most settling in California, Minnesota and Wisconsin, the three U.S. states with the largest established Hmong populations.
Teng's younger brother Tong and his wife arrived in Fresno last week, and the rest of the family will follow over the summer and fall.

One important question is whether the American taxpayer will be forced to subsidize the importation of ALL Hmong, a possibility which has been hinted. Politicians should be forewarned that this agenda is not a popular one.

• • •

Elites turning against illegals [4/07/06]
This article might better be titled "SOME elites turning against illegals." At any rate, columnist James Pinkerton is upbeat on the idea that the recent rejection of open borders by pundits Paul Krugman and Robert Samuelson reveals a fracturing of the elite monolith of belief in illegal immigration as a positive force. Let's hope he is right.

Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., is nobody's idea of an elitist or an insider, so he was free to spearhead this populist cause. Of course, Tancredo has been savaged by the mainstream media; just on Friday, The Washington Post suggested that his views on immigration were a function of his own odd mentality: It was his "anger," the Post explained, that led to his "obsession" with immigration. Most politicians back off in the face of such criticism, but Tancredo is out to make big change: He knows that revolutions are not tea parties.
Besides, finally, the ruling class is suffering dissolution; some members are even switching sides, joining the one-nation-building, border-securing revolution. Writing in the Post, centrist columnist Robert Samuelson declared that the guest-worker program, jointly championed by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., was a "bad bargain" that would have the United States "importing poverty." Liberal New York Times columnist Paul Krugman joined in, denouncing the guest-worker program as "deeply un-American." Instead, Krugman offered a Tancredo-esque solution: "Reduce the inflow of low-skill immigrants."
The elite can smear Tancredo, but can't smear Samuelson and Krugman. So we know we have reached the revolutionary moment: The ruling class is no longer united in its open-border enthusiasm. And so, divided, the elite falls on this issue.

The American people want the borders enforced and don't want illegals to be given a better deal than what would-be legal immigrants get. [FOX Poll: Views on Illegal Immigration, Bush Job Rating Down]

By eight-to-one, Americans think it is unfair to grant rights to illegal immigrants while thousands of people wait each year to come to the United States legally. Fully 86 percent of Republicans think it is unfair, as do 77 percent of Democrats.

• • •

What Bush fails to see at the border [4/06/06]
This opinion piece was written by Ron Maxwell, who produced the historical films Gettysburg and Gods and Generals, the sort of movies that foster appreciation for our traditions. This expert on our history is very concerned about the nation's future.

What is happening on the southern border is unprecedented. Not only in our own history, but in the history of the world. No country at any time anywhere has sustained the influx of tens of millions of foreigners across its borders. A wave of anti-American leftism is sweeping Latin America. A socialist radical may soon be elected as the president of Mexico, a country which officially encourages its emigrants to vote in Mexican elections, urging them to think of themselves as Mexican first and perhaps only. The eventual outcome is plain for anyone with eyes to see. This is invasion masquerading as immigration.
It may already be too late to avoid a future annexation of the Southwest by Mexico or the evolution of a Mexican-dominated satellite state. This is not to say Mexican people are better or worse than any of God's children. It is to say that millions of ethnically and culturally homogeneous people will seek self-determination in a land they will increasingly feel justified in claiming as their own. Especially when the natural weight of demographic change is accompanied by the soundtrack of radical demagoguery which seeks to legitimize and moralize this phenomenon as a "reconquista." Many pundits claim you will be remembered in history as the president who won (or lost) the war in Iraq. I see it differently. I believe you will come to be seen, in the years and decades to come, as the President who saved (or lost) the Southwest of the United States. [...]
When I watched the Senate Judiciary Committee's one-day public session on immigration reform (I suppose we should be grateful that Sen. Arlen Specter devoted one whole day out of his busy schedule for the public discussion of a problem regarding 20 million illegal aliens) it was remarkable for the near absence of any senator speaking on behalf of the American people or their own constituents. It seems the overriding concern of most senators of both parties is for the illegal immigrant population. Perhaps these senators should be reminded that they are supposed to represent and defend American citizens, not foreign nationals, illegal aliens or indeed anyone else. Listening to the self-serving and pandering speeches, you'd think the senators were elected in Mexico or any other country on the globe except America.

Read the whole thing. Then check out the National Review interview with Maxwell about immigration

• • •

Illegal Alien Killer of Mary Nagle Found Guilty on All Counts [4/06/06]
My blog at Vdare.com comments on the verdict of the brutal murderer Douglas Herrera.

On Wednesday, while the Senate was debating about which way to destroy the country, another tragedy due to Washington irresponsibility was being played out in a New York state courtroom, as one more murder by an illegal alien was tried.
The crime was brutally clear. It took jurors only 2 1/2 hours to find illegal alien Douglas Herrera guilty on all 15 counts of raping and murdering suburban mom Mary Nagle in her home. (See earlier Vdare account with photo here and local obituary.) Herrera had been hired to power-wash the deck of the Nagle home, but instead took the opportunity to attack and kill his employer.

See also the flyer of victims of criminal aliens (which has a picture of Mary Nagle), suitable for faxing to politicians, for example.

• • •

Criminal alien exception blocked [4/05/06]
It looks like Senate Democrats are taking their evil pill again.

Senate Democrats refused to allow consideration of an amendment yesterday that would bar illegal aliens convicted of felonies from obtaining U.S. citizenship.
Democrats said the amendment would "gut" the immigration bill under consideration in the Senate and refused to allow a vote on it.
"It hurts the bill," said Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. "It hurts the very foundation and what I believe is the spirit" of the legislation.
Republican Sens. Jon Kyl of Arizona and John Cornyn of Texas restated the purpose of their amendment and appeared incredulous that anyone would object to it.
"I do not have to explain in any more detail than what I have as why I don't want to move forward," Mr. Reid said. "I don't agree with the amendment. I don't think it's going to benefit this legislation that is pending before the Senate and I'm going to do what I can to prevent a vote on it."
Later, Mr. Reid added, "We're not going to allow amendments like Kyl-Cornyn to take out what we believe is the goodness of this bill." [...]
Mr. Kyl came to the floor and listed the crimes he said would not be included without his amendment, such as burglary, assault and battery, possession of an unregistered, sawed-off shotgun, kidnapping and alien smuggling.

• • •

Lou Dobbs Tonight Transcript [4/05/06]
Reporter Christine Romans smacks down the ridiculous argument that America needs more low-skilled workers. The White House is trying to tell us that the basic economic principle of supply and demand no longer works.

ROSEMARY JENKS, NUMBERSUSA: The White House absolutely does not want a true debate on immigration. Of course, we have willing workers and we have a whole lot of willing workers who are unemployed or underemployed who can't find full-time jobs even though they would like them.
ROMANS: Today there are more than seven million unemployed workers in this country. Nearly 1.4 million have been out of work for more than six months. Millions of available legal workers, even as the White House claims there are some jobs not fit for Americans.
But Pew Hispanic Center research shows Americans and legal immigrants hold the majority of jobs facing competition from illegal workers in agriculture, cleaning, construction and food preparation. In fact, even as the restaurant lobby complains about a worker shortage, wages there have been falling.
Simple economic polls. If there is a true worker shortage, wages rise.
Over the last five years, restaurant wages have been stagnant, at best. And fast food wages have tumbled almost 4 percent.
Those falling wages are a clear economic declaration of too many workers, not too few. And legalizing illegal laborers will drive down wages in those careers even more. So found Harvard economist George Borjas As immigration swelled the labor force from 1980 to 2000, Americans' wages fell 4 percent, twice that for Americans without a high school diploma. Borjas research finds that a guest worker program for illegals will hurt legal immigrants and less educated American workers the most.

• • •

Senate's Upside-Logic Cake [4/05/06]
John O'Sullivan analyzes the Senate's hypocrisy, stupidity and treachery.

Responding to the pressure of corporate America and the White House for cheap labor and to demands from ethnic lobbies and labor unions for cheap recruits, senators now seem likely to insist that any such enforcement law must also amnesty the 12 million illegal immigrants already here and admit more legal immigrants by a "guest-worker" program and higher quotas for legal immigration.
In other words, the Senate will act on the following logic: In order to have fewer immigrants, we must admit more of them. In order to halt illegal immigration, we must legalize it. And in order to enforce the law, we must reward those who have broken it.
Until very recently the advocates of this upside-down logic — Sens. Ted Kennedy and John McCain, President Bush, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, labor unions, various pro-immigration "experts" and almost all the nation's editorial writers — maintained that immigration of all kinds, illegal and legal, was not a problem at all. It was a benefit from which all Americans and the U.S. economy gained enormously.
"Enforcement plus amnesty" was also the formula Congress invoked in 1986, passing an outright amnesty, paired with supposedly tough enforcement provisions to forestall future illegals. But, operating under that "all immigration is good" philosophy, the federal government simply stopped enforcing the 1986 law some time around, say, 1987.

• • •

Planners want Old Glory only at local immigrant rally [4/04/06]
Mexican invasion planners now realize the fury which the deluge of Mexican flags has engendered among Americans.

Wary of confrontations, organizers of a giant pro-immigration rally this weekend have issued a directive: Keep your Mexican flags at home.
At pro-immigrant demonstrations across the nation in the last week, the waving of the Mexican flag has sparked incendiary emotions among U.S. citizens, including Mexican-Americans.
If immigrants want legalization in the U.S., some say, they should logically raise the Stars and Stripes high.
But Mexicans say carrying their red-white-and-green banner shows pride in their roots — at a time when they face increasing hostilities from Congress and the public. And in meetings across Dallas and the nation, as planning gets under way for a march Sunday billed as the largest in Dallas history, the directive is stirring debate.
Protest marches can't be "branded" with safe symbols, as though they were a sports product, some say.
"This is the people's march: This isn't LULAC's march," said Roberto Calderon, a University of North Texas professor, about the one of the organizers, the League of United Latin American Citizens. "Most people coming will not be reading e-mails that say, 'Don't bring Mexican flags.' ...Who is going to enforce taking flags away?"
The flap over the flag opens a window into the divide between Immigrant America and the rest of the country. Flags and their unofficial anthems inspire great emotion on both sides of the Río Grande.
In Garland, as high school protesters gathered at a park, Gregg Holmes, an employee at a nearby furniture store, couldn't contain himself when he saw them waving Mexico's distinctive flag withan eagle anda serpent.
"This is your flag," he shouted, holding up the red-white-and-blue. "Thanks to this flag you are free to protest. Not that flag."
One student shouted back: "We've built everything."

One tactic of revanchist movements is to rewrite history, enhancing the invaders in some way. If Mexicans are such accomplished builders, why is their home country a dysfunctional mess?
The Mexican Ambassador was on C-SPAN Monday morning and mentioned that Mexico is the 12th largest economy in the world. Mexico is rich but is too corrupt to arrange an equitable society that provides opportunity for its people.
Below is an example of the flags which today's young Hispanics prefer, these being bussed back to school from a 3/28 "pro-immigrant" rally in Dallas.
Dallas

It should be of great concern that so many high school Hispanics appear to have zero loyalty to the United States. What kind of multicultural nonsense are schools teaching these days? It's a good time to reread Victor Davis Hanson's The Civic Education America Needs.

• • •

Migrants Find a Gold Rush in New Orleans [4/04/06]
More news from "Nuevo Orleans" as illegal workers stream in. Locals don't want it, but the government won't do anything.

The new workers "don't care about traditions. They're not going to eat crawfish," said Azucena Diaz, a disc jockey for Radio Tropical Caliente, one of the area's two Spanish-language stations. "They don't care about anything else, just work, getting money and sending it to their families."
The Latino workers haven't always been welcomed.
Diaz, a Mexican-born U.S. citizen who moved here from Pomona five years ago, says she's seen Latinos, including her husband, insulted on the street.
"People are so angry with Hispanics coming," Diaz said. "They don't want any outsiders."
Police in Metairie have run off immigrants looking for day labor. The city balked at Jesus Gonzales' request to install showers for the men staying at his church. Immigration and Customs Enforcement recently arrested 40 men at a popular gathering spot for day laborers. And workers report being stiffed by employers.

• • •

Legislators call for creation of national Latino museum [4/04/06]
As Dave Barry says, you can't make this stuff up. Hispanic lawmakers want to have a "museum of Hispanic art, history and culture" in the nation's capital perhaps to be part of Washington's historic Smithsonian complex. Leave it to Mexicans to demand the most while having contributed the least.

The call for a national Latino museum comes as Congress continues a contentious debate over immigration, but sponsors said Monday they don't expect the project to be affected.
Florida Republican Mel Martinez, the only foreign-born member of the Senate, joined the push Monday, noting that Hispanic Americans are the largest demographic minority group in the country.
"A museum honoring this community, in our nation's capital, would be a fitting tribute to the important contributions of Hispanic Americans throughout U.S. history," said the Cuban-born Martinez."The enrichment of American culture and society due to the Hispanic community ought not to go unnoticed."

Of what would that "enrichment" consist? Perhaps the museum could present a Watts Tower-like assemblage of plastic water containers from the tons of trash which Mexicans have left throughout the border areas. It could have a diorama of Pancho Villa's 1916 terrorist attack on Columbus, New Mexico, which killed 24 Americans.
How about the achievements of Mexican-American scholars and scientists, like ...
[Sound of crickets...]
This could be a small museum.

• • •

Stakes High for Families: Outcome of bill weighs heavy -- dad, in U.S. since age 8, could be deported [4/03/06]
Immigration legislation pending?! Time for the MSM to drag out the sob stories with high heart-tug appeal. Adorable moppets! Dashed hopes for better life! Horatio Alger in Spanish! Dreadful cruelty to appealing families from meanie Americans with their hateful "laws."

Roberto crawled around playing King Kong with curly-headed Robert. Ricky gazed at family photographs pasted over the changing table whenever he got a fresh diaper. And Marisela, Anna's 7-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, waited patiently for a promised bookstore outing. She was eager for a new "I Spy" book so she and her stepfather could share a favorite pastime of spotting objects hidden on the pages.

Time magazine has immigration as its cover story, so of course there is a slide show of suffering Mexicans and "immigrants" doing work at wages Americans can't live on.
Funny how you don't see multi-photo spreads of the victims of criminal aliens, like Mary Nagle, whose killer is being tried this week.

• • •

A Kendall hot spot for Santeria [4/02/06]
In areas of south Florida, immigrants have brought their Santeria religion, which includes a lot of animal sacrifice. For some reason, practicioners think it is okay to dump the bodies wherever they please.

Mornings bring a certain kind of dread to the neighbors along a quiet Kendall road off Miller Drive -- even to those who long ago resigned themselves to the piles of dead roosters and disemboweled goats and the unearthly odors that have become a constant fixture in this suburban enclave.
"It's Halloween every day,'' said Carla Savola, pointing at a roadside tree where a headless chicken hangs from a branch, spinning on a black ribbon like a macabre pinata. "And everywhere, there is the smell of death.''
The stretch of road along the CSX railroad line, and the tracks themselves, have evolved over the years into a hot spot for Santeria practitioners to dump sacrificed animals that are a cornerstone of their AfroCaribbean religion. [...]
''I've known Santeros, and I've had Santeros as clients,'' said real-estate agent Larry Salas, who has lived across the street from the tracks for more than a decade. "But you have little old ladies pulling up in cars with a trunk full of dead animals, tossing them onto my street. It's disrespectful.''

Don't forget to celebrate diversity!

• • •

Lou Dobbs Interview [4/02/06]
Check out the ideas of CNN's well informed news anchor, whose program viewership is up 24 percent over the same time last year.

How do you explain this president's staunchness on this issue? Does it come from sincere, personal belief or has he made a calculation based on political expediency that it's in his interest to try and please Latino voters?
Well, I certainly give any politician the benefit of the doubt on the issue of sincerity. What I can't figure out is what the president is sincere about. As president he is responsible for the welfare and the safety and security of 300 million American citizens. And he has chosen, in the course of five years, while he talks about a war on terror and engages in war in Iraq and Afghanistan, to leave our borders absolutely porous, our borders insecure, cargo coming into this country every day all but uninspected, about 5 percent of it is [inspected], this is to me, it's a sincerity I don't recognize.

• • •

Immigrant Issues Are Personal for Bush [4/02/06]
It's nice to learn at this late date that President Bush has been a closet reconquista all these years.

The video includes images that would probably rile those who today are calling for the most restrictive immigration laws. At one point, Bush is shown waving a Mexican flag. The footage was shot, Sosa said, during a Mexican Independence Day parade in San Antonio in 1998, when Bush was running for reelection as governor.
The five-minute video, narrated by Bush, opens with an image of him fishing on his property near Crawford, Texas, as he essentially described millions of Americans who populate his home state as the true foreigners in someone else's native land.
"About 15 years before the Civil War, much of the American West was northern Mexico," Bush says in the video. "The people who lived there weren't called Latinos or Hispanics. They were Mexican citizens, until all that land became part of the United States.
"After that, many of them were treated as foreigners in their own land," Bush adds.

As I wrote two years ago in The Mexichurian Candidate, there has been no instance where Bush has chosen the well being of Americans over Mexicans, given a choice. Since that time, the evidence has accumulated that President Bush not only has a "comfort level with Mexicans" (as stated in the LA Times article), but actually prefers Mexicans to his own countrymen.
Here's the Vdare.com version, Bush, Reconquista.

• • •

Police help control Berlin school [4/01/06]
Muslim immigration is probably the worst mistake Europe ever made.

Police have been deployed at a Berlin school after teachers complained that they could not cope with their students' aggression and disrespect.
Six officers were posted at the Ruetli secondary school in Berlin's Neukoelln district to check students for weapons.
In a letter asking for help, the head teacher said it had become almost impossible to hold orderly lessons.
Students were said to be ignoring or even attacking the teachers and fighting among themselves.
A teacher who recently left the school told the Tagesspiegel newspaper that ethnic Arab pupils were in the majority and were bullying ethnic Turks, Germans and other nationalities. [...]
"Things have been getting worse and worse because people seem to be crazy here. They are bringing knives and weapons to school," the teenager said.