LTG: Archive May 2006

LimitsToGrowth Archive

May 2006

The Agitator — Oriana Fallaci directs her fury toward Islam [5/31/06]
Reports of Fallaci's nearness to death over the past few years seem to have been overstated, since she is still living the warrior life, at least mentally.

Today, Fallaci believes, the Western world is in danger of being engulfed by radical Islam. Since September 11, 2001, she has written three short, angry books advancing this argument. Two of them, "The Rage and the Pride" and "The Force of Reason," have been translated into idiosyncratic English by Fallaci herself. (She has had difficult relationships with translators in the past.) A third, "The Apocalypse," was recently published in Europe, in a volume that also includes a lengthy self-interview. She writes that Muslim immigration is turning Europe into "a colony of Islam," an abject place that she calls "Eurabia," which will soon "end up with minarets in place of the bell-towers, with the burka in place of the mini-skirt." Fallaci argues that Islam has always had designs on Europe, invoking the siege of Constantinople in the seventh century, and the brutal incursions of the Ottoman Empire in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. She contends that contemporary immigration from Muslim countries to Europe amounts to the same thing—invasion—only this time with "children and boats" instead of "troops and cannons."

• • •

Electing a New People: The Leftist - Islamic Alliance [5/30/06]
Fjordman has a new essay about the Islamist threat and its connection with Marxists.

At the beginning of the 21st century, electing a new people seems to be exactly what Socialist parties in Europe are doing. Perhaps the greatest idea of the Leftist parties after the Cold War was to re-invent themselves as Multicultural immigration parties and start importing voters from abroad. In addition to this, they have managed to denounce the opposition as racists, bigots and extremists. A new alliance of convenience between Leftists and Muslim immigrants is taking shape in Europe. I think the deal is that the Leftist parties get a number of new clients, I mean voters, in return for giving Muslims privileges and subsidies, as well as keeping the borders more or less open for new Muslims to enter. [...]
During the second Jihad, Jan Sobieski, king of Poland, routed the Ottoman armies that had laid siege to Vienna in 1683. Leading a combined force of Polish, Austrian and German troops, Sobieski attacked a numerically superior Turkish army until their lines were broken and the Turks fled in confusion. This was the last time Muslims came close to threatening the West in traditional warfare. They now prefer demographic warfare through migration, combined with terrorism.

• • •

New Route to the West [5/30/06]
When Camp of the Saints was published in 1973, it received a barrage of politically correct attacks for its uncompromising stance on the damage of third-world immigration upon a dispirited Europe. (See the Atlantic's response.)
These days, the specter of thousands of third-worlders sailing to Europe in rickety boats is another yawn item in the press.

The illegal immigration of non-Western peoples, I predict, will become an all-consuming issue in every Western country.
As Western birth rates plummet, as communication and transportation networks improve, and as radical Islam increasingly rears its aggressive head, Europeans, Americans, and others worry about their economic standards and the continuity of their cultures. After ignoring this issue for decades, reactions in Europe especially have sharpened of late.

• • •

EU is at a turning point [5/30/06]
The European Union is the ideal for many a Davos man of uber-government bureaucracy, with unelected officials given plenty of control over running everything. Add in a stunning degree of dhimmitude toward jihadist headchoppers, appeasement toward Islam generally and anti-Americanism in spades, and you have the EU.
Like NAFTA, the EU started out as a trade association. But elites found that it was a handy way to diminish representative government by undermining sovereignty. Say, isn't that what Ralph Nader used to warn against — corporate power threatening American democracy?
In a recent marketing ploy, the EU tried to sell itself with the only part of diversity that people actually like — food.
At any rate, Europeans have not been happy with political union (particularly the immigration part) and have used their remaining shreds of self-rule to say so.

In Britain and Poland in the last month, nationalistic parties uneasy with integration into the European Union have scored major advances. The EU constitution, rejected last year by France and the Netherlands, is dead in the water. Economic nationalism and protectionism are surging. The French, Italian, Spanish and Polish governments recently have taken steps to protect national industries from foreign takeover.
On a continent that dreamed of eliminating national borders, hostility toward immigrants — especially those from Muslim countries — is causing national boundaries to spring back to life.
In short, political life across Europe is being renationalized, plunging the enterprise of European integration into its most serious crisis since World War II.

At least the European Union has been presented to the people in a more or less straightforward way. In this country, the shotgun marriage with Mexico, aka the North American Union, has been developed in stealth, disguised with open borders and permissive immigration, because the American people would never give up the nation which many thousands in uniform died to preserve.

• • •

Mexico aims to maintain easy flow over border [5/29/06]
Mexico's el Presidente Fox recently finished his tour of several western states, where he was lavishly entertained by American political and business figures. His speeches were part resume for his post-Presidente life (in which he hopes the North American Community has become more realized), and part advertisement for investment in Mexico, which Fox portrayed as a country where progress is on the march. Fox painted a picture of universal education for Mexican children, whose classrooms were computer equipped, even in distant Indian villages, as well as improved respect for human rights.
In fact, Assemblyman Dennis Mountjoy's response in his Sacramento office (where I watched Fox's speech) was to mockingly declare, "I'm moving to MEXICO!"
Yet despite all the alleged Mexican progress, Fox and friends still want to dump millions of unskilled, illiterate peasants onto America.

At least one U.S. prosecutor in the "middle of an invasion by illegal aliens" said he is outraged by what he called efforts by the Mexican government to interfere in U.S. policies and overturn laws being used to arrest and prosecute illegal aliens.
Maricopa County Attorney Andrew P. Thomas in Phoenix accuses Mexico of being behind a lawsuit challenging Arizona's alien-smuggling law. He has asked the State Department to protest Mexico's "concerted attempts to undermine" U.S. law and its "interfering in the internal affairs" of Arizona.
"The citizens of the state of Arizona will be deprived of their right to uphold public order and to protect themselves against the Mexican government's systematic, unlawful export of humanity into the state," Mr. Thomas told The Washington Times.
More than half of the 1.15 million illegal aliens detained last year by the U.S. Border Patrol were caught in Arizona, and Phoenix is a haven for "safe houses," where illegals await transfer to other areas of the country.
But an attorney involved in the court challenge denied he was working for the Mexican government, saying only the Mexican consulate in Phoenix had arranged a meeting with three illegal aliens who had been arrested under the new law.
Peter A. Schey, president and executive director of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law Foundation, said he was not challenging the law, only Mr. Thomas' interpretation of it. He said as written, the law applies to drug smugglers and those who smuggle humans, not illegal aliens.

For more about Mexico pal Schey, see Treason For Fun And Profit: Peter Schey And His "Mexico Project".

• • •

Development Tides Are Turning within Mexico [5/28/06]
The well traveled journalist, Georgie Ann Geyer, agrees with the opinion of Prof George Grayson in condemning Mexico for its corruption, treachery and hypocrisy.

Professor Grayson ends his paper with: "U.S. leaders and the American public have every right to insist that Mexican officials act responsibly, rather than expecting that their neighbor to the north will shoulder burdens that they themselves should assume."
In short, Mexico is so corrupt, so oligopolistic, so rotting inside with the privilege of the rich that it has to send its poor and its potential political activists to another country. And on top of that, it tries to blame the United States for its own failures.
When I was in Mexico last fall, after dozens of visits over the years, people on every political and social level confirmed these accusations, complaining to me of Fox's failures. Forty families still own 60 percent of Mexico. There are no voluntary organizations, no civic involvement, no family foundations -- and thus, no accountability, allowing corruption to flourish. Mexico gains $28 billion from oil revenue and $20 billion from immigrant remittances. There is virtually no industrialization, no small business, no real chance at individual entrepreneurship. Under Fox, it has created only 1/10th of the 1 million jobs needed.
Ah, but there are new voices of change, of reason, of self-awareness in Mexico, in place of the hoary anti-gringo rants: the beginnings of a transformation of the debate.
This same week of the Fox visit, for instance, The New York Times ran a stunning article headlined "Some in Mexico See Border Wall as Opportunity." It quotes men like Jorge Santibanez, president of the College of the Northern Border, saying: "For too long, Mexico has boasted about immigrants leaving, calling them national heroes, instead of describing them as actors in a national tragedy; and it has boasted about the growth in remittances as an indicator of success, when it is really an indicator of failure."

The New York Times article is rather astonishing, given the source.The piece does indeed mention that Mexico might have a teeny amount of culpability in its own dysfunctional economy, and that forcing the country to deal with its problems might be a good thing.

"It's fantastic," said Primitivo Rodriguez, an immigrant activist in Mexico, when asked about plans to build walls. "It's the best thing that could happen for migrants, and for Mexico."

• • •

Bordering on fraud, part III [5/27/06]
Thomas Sowell points out how Americans are becoming second class citizens in our own country. There are already numerous ways in which laws discriminate against Americans in favor of illegals, but the Senate legislation makes a bad situation far worse.

Some people are worried that amnesty will give illegal aliens the same rights that American citizens have. In reality, it will give the illegals more rights than the average American citizen.
Since most of the illegals are Mexican, that makes them a minority. Under affirmative action, combined with amnesty, they would have preferences in jobs and other benefits.
Those who set up their own businesses would be entitled to preferences in getting government contracts. Their children would be able to get into college ahead of the children of American citizens with better academic qualifications.
Illegals who graduate from a high school in California can already attend the University of California, paying lower tuition that an American citizen from neighboring Oregon.
Under the supposedly "tough" immigration bill in the U.S. Senate, illegals don't have to pay all the back taxes they owe. An American citizen gets no such break from the government and can end up in federal prison, like Al Capone.
If an American citizen gets stopped by the police for a traffic violation and the cops discover that he is wanted for some other violation of the law, they can arrest him for whatever else he has done.
But if an illegal alien gets stopped for going through a red light and the police discovers that he is in the country illegally, in many communities the cop is forbidden to arrest him for that -- or even to report him to the feds.
If an American citizen forges a Social Security card in order to get a job, he can be arrested. Under a provision recently passed by the Senate, illegal aliens who forged Social Security cards not only get a pass, they get to collect Social Security benefits.

• • •

Rising black-Latino clash on jobs [5/26/06]
It is finally being talked about openly that black Americans are particularly hard hit by the hoards of legal immigrants and illegal aliens willing to work for lower wages than can provide a living for a citizen.

From where Johnny Blair Vaughn sits outside Lucy Florence Coffee House in the heart of Los Angeles's black community, he can feel the temperature rising over immigration.
The biggest reason, says the father of seven, is jobs.
"If you drive across this city, you will see 99 percent of all construction is being done by Hispanics.... You will see no African-American males on these sites, and that is a big change," says Mr. Vaughn, who has worked in construction for two decades. His two oldest boys, in their early 20s, have been turned down so many times for jobs - as framers, roofers, cement layers - that they no longer apply, he says. [...]
Statistics show that young African-Americans are having trouble in the job market. Unemployment among young blacks nationwide is 40 percent, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. "For blacks, the growing presence of immigrant workers adds to the formidable obstacles they face in finding a job," said a Pew Research Center study released in April. Among blacks, 78 percent say jobs are difficult to find in their community compared to only 55 percent of Hispanics.

• • •

Senate OKs citizenship for illegal aliens [5/26/06]
The vote of 62 to 36 wasn't even close and shows how little regard the Senate has for the well being of constituents. Senators' blathering self-congratulations are despicable, considering they just surrendered to Mexico and moved forward with their globalist, anti-national agenda.

The Senate yesterday easily approved an immigration bill that allows 10 million illegal aliens to become citizens, doubles the flow of legal immigration each year and will cost U.S. taxpayers an estimated $54 billion over the next 10 years.
The leaders of both parties hailed the 62-36 passage as a historic success.
Majority Leader Bill Frist said the vote represented the "very best" of the Senate.
"This is a success for the American people," the Tennessee Republican said. "It is a success for people who hope to participate someday in that American dream."
Four Democrats -- Sens. Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, Byron L. Dorgan of North Dakota, Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan -- joined 32 of the chamber's 55 Republicans, including several members of the GOP leadership, to vote against the bill. Three of the four Democrats who opposed the bill face voters in November.
Opponents said that the Senate is ignoring clear public will and that the bill would have disastrous consequences for decades to come.
"We will never solve the problem of illegal immigration by rewarding those who break our laws," said Sen. Jim DeMint, South Carolina Republican. "We must stop illegal immigration by securing the border and creating a temporary-worker program that does not reward illegal behavior with a clear path to citizenship and voting rights."

The President remains a friend of open borders as noted by an editorial in the Washington Times, Why no Bush support?.

For a sense of why President Bush has been unable to sway conservatives on his immigration policies, look no further than Stephen Dinan's front-page report in yesterday's editions: "The U.S. Border Patrol increased at a faster rate and apprehended more illegal aliens per year under President Clinton than under President Bush." Mr. Dinan goes on to report that the Clinton administration increased Border Patrol agents and pilots by 126 percent during his eight-year administration, which came to an average of 642 per year. In contrast, the six-year Bush administration has averaged 411 agents per year for a total increase of 22.3 percent, according to a Congressional Research Service report to the House Judiciary Committee. Listen to the sound file of Rush Limbaugh trying to nail down the slick new White House spokeman Tony Snow.

• • •

Pandering on immigration [5/25/06]
Letter printed in the Washington Times:

The Senate loves to congratulate itself on being the world's greatest deliberative body, but senators are engaged in a frenzy of approving some of the most radical and destructive legislation in the nation's history under the guise of "reforming" immigration.
News organizations have been fixated largely on what to do with the 12 million to 25 million illegal aliens in America, while the Senate plans to admit staggering numbers of legal immigrants — at least 66 million over just 20 years — essentially eliminating the concept of illegal immigration by enacting stealth open borders ("Illogical amnesty bill," Editorial, May 18).
Knocking down borders accomplishes another goal for Washington friends of the global economy, that of negating American sovereignty in favor of a European Union-style North American Union, which includes a shotgun marriage with Mexico.
This is no conspiracy theory; it was explained openly in last year's Council on Foreign Relations paper "Building a North American Community." President Bush and numerous legislators are working quietly to dismantle the nationhood that more than a million in uniform died to protect.
In earlier times in our history, the purposeful destruction of American sovereignty would have been deemed treason and handled accordingly. Today, the ruling elites see ending borders as good for business, and let the country be damned.
The survival of America as a sovereign nation depends on the moral strength of a handful of House members to stand strong against the president and Senate in the upcoming legislative showdown.
BRENDA WALKER

• • •

Sen. Grassley's Top 10 Flaws with the Senate Bill [5/25/06]
Sen. Grassley "was burned once" into voting for the bogus 1986 amnesty and doesn't care to repeat the mistake.

#2 Taxes -- Under the bill, illegal aliens get an option to only have to pay three of their last five years in back taxes. Law-abiding American citizens do not have the option to pay some of their taxes. The bill would treat lawbreakers better than the American people. The bill also makes the IRS prove that illegal aliens have paid their back taxes. It will be impossible for the IRS to truly enforce this because they cannot audit every single person in this country.

Here's another list of a similar nature fro Senator Jim DeMint: Top 10 Reasons to Oppose Amnesty Bill

3. Unprecedented Wave of Immigrants: 66 Million Over 20 Years

2. Creates Temporary Worker Program That Is Neither Temporary Nor Work-Based

1. Rewards Illegal Behavior with Clear Path to Citizenship and Voting Rights: Amnesty

• • •

Sulzberger's commencement address [5/24/06]
In May, there are a lot of earnest declarations of liberal silliness in graduation speeches. The editor of the New York Times, Arthur (Pinch) Sulzberger, ranted some leftie boomer articles of faith to the graduates of the State University of New York at New Paltz.

You weren't supposed to be graduating into a world where we are still fighting for fundamental human rights, be it the rights of immigrants to start a new life; the rights of gays to marry; or the rights of women to choose.

• • •

Veterans for Secure Borders [5/24/06] VeteransForSecureBorders Bumper Sticker

Open borders, permissive immigration and "free" trade are all part of a larger strategy on the part of the corporate elites to erase America's borders and merge into a larger North American Union.
This is no conspiracy theory, but was openly explained in last year's Council on Foreign Relations paper, "Building a North American Community." The President and numerous legislators are quietly working to dismantle the nationhood which many thousands in uniform died to protect.
In earlier times of our history, the purposeful destruction of American sovereignty would have been deemed treason and handled accordingly. Today, the ruling elites see ending borders as good for business, and let the country be damned.
For more about Washington's undisguised scheme to erase the borders of the United States, see President Quietly Creating 'NAFTA Plus'.

Without announcing his intentions to do so, President Bush has decided to support the creation of a North American Union through a process of governmental regulations, never having to bring the issue before the American people for a clear referendum or vote.
The Bush Administration has decided to "back-door" the creation of a North American Union political entity that would effectively erase our borders with Mexico and Canada and create several super-regional governing bodies that would have jurisdiction over the U.S. Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court.

• • •

Lou Dobbs Tonight Transcript May 22 [5/23/06]
Pro George Grayson
Prof George Grayson of William and Mary College is a top expert on Mexico and Mexican politics. He has written Backgrounders for the Center for Immigration Studies and always has something interesting to say.

GEORGE GRAYSON, PROFESSOR, COLLEGE OF WILLIAM & MARY: Good evening, Lou. Or should I say, buenos tardes.
DOBBS: That's just fine. In your recent editorial, you said, "Mexico's shame, if activists really want to highlight the impediments to opportunities of Mexican-Americans, they should concentrate their ire on the government south of the border and self-serving elite with which it works hand in glove." Professor, you wrote a very disturbing editorial and an honest, straightforward one. Why is it that the Americans, the government, the American society at large, doesn't want to look at the real nature of what is happening in Mexico?
GRAYSON: I think we prefer to patronize the Mexicans or buy into their victimization argument. Mexico has everything, Lou: oil, gas, gold, silver, copper, beaches, historical artifacts. If Taiwan could lease Mexico for 20 years, we gringos would soon be whining about the colossus in the South.
DOBBS: That's one of the things you point out and most people don't recognize are the natural resources of Mexico are extraordinary. The economy right now is the 14th largest, yet in terms of taxes that excluding, it takes in only about 10 percent of its GDP, which is only slightly higher than Haiti, which means there is no social safety net. There is no basic level of social service for the Mexican people.
GRAYSON: That's right. And the tax code is just riven with loopholes. It reminds us of the U.S. But at the same time, it means -- it means that there is precious little money devoted to education and to health care. And these are the two prime movers for social mobility and economic opportunity.
DOBBS: But, professor, why should the Mexican government spend all of that money when they can move approximately 15 percent of their population, their least educated people, into the United States and their poorest and have them be taken care of under our economy and our system of Social Security and safety net?
GRAYSON: Well, it's a completely irresponsible policy, Lou. But it's one that works. And you know, we have nothing to apologize for in terms of immigration. We admit almost one million legal immigrants to this country each year.
DOBBS: Right.
GRAYSON: And yet we're somehow made to feel as if we are oppressing the Mexicans.
DOBBS: Yes.
GRAYSON: Let me add one quick point here, Lou.
DOBBS: Sure, we've just a couple of moments.
GRAYSON: Mexico has a guest-worker program with Guatemala, 40,000 Guatemalans come into Mexico each year as guest workers. Why then, if they won't give jobs to their own people, why are they crying for an expansion of a guest-worker program in the United States?
DOBBS: I think we all know the answer to that. It comes in the form of a little over $20 billion in remittances from Mexico's citizens living in the United States. Many of them, most of them, in point of fact, illegal.
Professor George Grayson, we thank you very much for being here. I hope you'll come back soon as we continue to explore this issue, whether or not the Senate and its manifest wisdom or whatever word you'd like to insert instead of wisdom, decides to pass legislation on amnesty for illegal aliens in this country this week. Professor, thank you.

• • •

Bordering on fraud [5/23/06]
Thomas Sowell has his say about the poor level of debate about immigration in the Senate and generally.

The immigration bill before Congress has some of the most serious consequences for the future of this country. Yet it is not being discussed seriously by most politicians or most of the media. Instead, it is being discussed in a series of glib talking points that insult our intelligence.
Some of the most momentous consequences -- a major increase in the number of immigrants admitted legally -- are not even being discussed at all by those who wrote the Senate bill, though Senator Jeff Sessions has uncovered those provisions in the bill and brought them out into the light of day. [...]
There is probably no category of law-breakers -- from counterfeiters to burglars or from jay-walkers to murderers -- who can all be found and arrested. But no one suggests that we must therefore make what they have done legal.
Such an argument would suggest that there is nothing in between 100 percent effective law enforcement and zero percent effective law enforcement.
The reverse twist on this argument is that suddenly taking 12 million people out of the labor force would disrupt the economy. No one has ever said -- or probably even dreamed -- that we could suddenly find all 12 million illegal immigrants at once and send them all home immediately. This is another straw man argument.

• • •

The Plan to Replace the Dollar with the 'Amero' [5/22/06]
More on Bush's plan to merge the United States with Mexico.

Robert Pastor also advises the creation of a North American Parliamentary Group to make sure the U.S. Congress does not impede progress in the envisioned North American Union. He has also called for the creation of a North American Customs and Immigration Service which would have authority over U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) within the Department of Homeland Security.
Pastor's 2001 book "Toward a North American Community" called for the creation of a North American Union that would perfect the defects Pastor believes limit the progress of the European Union. Much of Pastor's thinking appears aimed at limiting the power and sovereignty of the United States as we enter this new super-regional entity. Pastor has also called for the creation of a new currency which he has coined the "Amero," a currency that is proposed to replace the U.S. dollar, the Canadian dollar, and the Mexican peso.
If President Bush had run openly in 2004 on the proposition that a prime objective of his second term was to form the North American Union and to supplant the dollar with the "Amero," we doubt very much that President Bush would have carried Ohio, let alone half of the Red State majority he needed to win re-election. Pursuing any plan that would legalize the conservatively estimated 12 million illegal aliens now in the United States could well spell election disaster for the Republican Party in 2006, especially for the House of Representative where every seat is up for grabs.

Is this the proposed design for the "Amero"?

• • •

Senate bill protects employers of illegal aliens from penalties [5/22/06]
No surprise here, that elitist Senators are taking care of their corporate minders.

Among those who will be cleared of past crimes under the Senate's proposed immigration-reform bill would be the businesses that have employed the estimated 10 million illegal aliens eligible for citizenship and that provided the very "magnet" that drew them here in the first place.
Buried in the more than 600 pages of legislation is a section titled "Employer Protections," which states: "Employers of aliens applying for adjustment of status under this section shall not be subject to civil and criminal tax liability relating directly to the employment of such alien." [...]
Sen. Robert C. Byrd, West Virginia Democrat, vehemently opposes "this effort to waive the rules for lawbreakers and to legalize the unlawful actions of undocumented workers and the businesses that illegally employ them."
Amnesties, he said, "are the dark underbelly of our immigration process."
"They tarnish the magnanimous promise enshrined on the base of the Statue of Liberty," Mr. Byrd said last week on the Senate floor. "Amnesties undermine that great egalitarian and American principle that the law should apply equally and should apply fairly to everyone."

• • •

N.Y. HEZBOLLAH HUNT [5/22/06]
Remember sleeper cells? They are still here, another result of open borders, and are ready to be activated.

The Hezbollah terror group - one of the most dangerous in the world - may be planning to activate sleeper cells in New York and other big cities to stage an attack as the nuclear showdown with Iran heats up, sources told The Post.
The FBI and Justice Department have launched urgent new probes in New York and other cities targeting members of the Lebanese terror group.
Law-enforcement and intelligence officials told The Post that about a dozen hard-core supporters of Hezbollah have been identified in recent weeks as operating in the New York area.
Sources said the activities of these New York-based operatives are being monitored by FBI counterterrorism agents as part of a nationwide effort to prevent a possible terror strike if the confrontation with Iran over its nuclear program spins out of control.

FYI, FBI Director Mueller reported in March that the threat from Mexico is real: Hezbollah Busted in Mexican Smuggling Operation.
Author Paul Sperry has a similar warning today about Terrorists Within.

• • •

Language biases underscore divide in immigration debate [5/22/06]
Now it's a "bias" to want to keep our national language? What weird kind of diversity do these extremists want, where people can't understand each other?

Unprecedented numbers of immigrants from Latin America, many entering illegally, have led some to argue that English and the country's core Western values are at risk.
"If we don't teach people from Mexico these core values. we're going to be in Mexico," said Victor Davis Hansen, a retired classics professor, Central Valley farmer and immigration critic. "We sort of gave up the melting pot and came up with this idea of the salad bowl."
Harvard political scientist Samuel Huntington argues in an April 2004 article that "the cultural division between Hispanics and Anglos could replace the racial division between blacks and whites as the most serious cleavage in U.S. society."
Others counter that non-Western values have always influenced America and that attacking immigrants for speaking Spanish is veiled racism.
"I think the notion of language is a stand in for race," said James Turner, founder of Cornell University's Africana Studies and Research Center. "It is more socially acceptable to talk about language than race."

According to nutty libs, it's "racist" to want people to be able to communicate. How ridiculous. They trot out the word "race" to end discussion about immigration, but it's not working any more.
Sharing the same language is vital to hold our increasingly disparate nation together.

• • •

Jimmy Carter Is Right: Amend the immigration bill to require voters to show ID. [5/22/06]
As has been said numerous times, it's ridiculous to require ID to rent a video but not to vote. Even Jimmy Carter agrees.

Amid all the disputes over immigration in Congress, one amendment is being proposed that in theory should unite people in both parties. How about requiring that everyone show some form of identification before voting in federal elections? Polls show overwhelming support for the idea, and there is increasing concern that more illegal aliens are showing up on voter registration rolls. But the fact that photo ID isn't likely to pass shows both how deeply emotional the immigration issue has become and how bitter congressional politics have become with elections only 5 1/2 months away.
Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican whip, is proposing the photo ID amendment. He notes that Mexico and many other countries require the production of such identification in their own elections, and that the idea builds on the suggestion of last year's bipartisan election reform commission headed by former president Jimmy Carter and former secretary of state James Baker.
The Carter-Baker commission issued 87 recommendations to improve the functioning of election systems. One called for a national requirement that electronic voting machines include a paper trail that would allow people to check their votes, while another would have states establish uniform procedures for counting provisional ballots.
But the biggest surprise was that 18 of 21 commissioners backed a requirement that voters show some form of photo identification. They argued that with Congress passing the Real ID Act to standardize security protections for drivers' licenses in all 50 states, the time had come to standardize voter ID requirements. Former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle joined two other commissioners in complaining that the ID requirements would be akin to a Jim Crow-era "poll tax" and would restrict voting among the poor or elderly who might lack such an ID.

For related remarks on citizenship, don't miss John Fonte's statement to Congress last September, Dual Citizenship, Birthright Citizenship, and the Meaning of Sovereignty.

• • •

Give and take across the border: 1 in 7 Mexican workers migrates -- most send money home [5/21/06]
A relationship based on the dependence of a less competent party on a more capable one never makes the dependent person appreciative, only resentful. So it is with Mexicans and the United States.

"We want Mexico to look like Canada," said Stephen Haber, director of Stanford University's Social Science History Institute and a Latin America specialist at the Hoover Institution. "That's the optimal for the United States. We never talk about instability in Canada. We're never concerned about a Canadian security problem. Because Canada is wealthy and stable. It's so wealthy and stable we barely know it's there most of the time. That's the optimal for Mexico: a wealthy and stable country."
What isn't wanted, Haber said, "is an unstable country on your border, especially an unstable country that hates you."

Unfortunately, that's exactly what we have, a failing state where half of its own people believe the country is near chaos. Furthermore, a largely ignored March Zogby poll showed that Mexicans do indeed hate Americans.

• • •

Insufficient Funds to End 'Catch and Release' [5/20/06]
In his recent televised address, El Presidente Bush promised more money to end the travesty of "catch and release" in which illegal aliens are let go because there is not enough bed space to hold them. But the amount of money proposed by the White House falls far short.

It will take nearly 35,000 more jail beds to end a much-criticized "catch and release" program for dangerous illegal immigrants in the United States, but the Bush administration has not budgeted enough to do that, the Department of Homeland Security's internal watchdog said yesterday.
The White House proposes spending $386 million, which would pay for 6,700 beds but not enough to detain all high-risk aliens, Inspector General Richard L. Skinner said in a 52-page report.
The new report highlighted shortfalls in deporting illegal immigrants who commit crimes in the United States or are from countries that sponsor terrorism or protect terrorists.
It also warned of "significant risks" posed by the inability of U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers to identify whether immigrants released from jail were linked to terrorist groups.

The no-nonsense Sheriff of Maricopa County, Joe Arpaio, isn't afraid of the ACLU, so why not set up some Arpaio-villes of tent camp jails to fill in the gaps?
For more about the terrorist threat, see Terrorists Entering U.S. Via The Border: What The Government Won't Reveal.

• • •

Tidal Wave [5/20/06]
Robert Rector, the reseacher at Heritage who blew the whistle on the Senate bill as "stealth open borders," explains why the worst part of the legislation is not the amnesty for illegals, but the floodgates of legal immigration that will be opened.

THINK the immigration debate boils down to whether the 10 million illegal immigrants already here deserve amnesty? Think again. The leading reform proposal in the Senate is Sens. Chuck Hagel and Mel Martinez's Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act (CIRA). If it becomes law, more than six times that figure will pour in - legally - over the next two decades.
The original CIRA would've allowed as many as 100 million people to legally immigrate to the United States over the next 20 years. We're talking about a seismic shift of unprecedented proportions.
Facing criticism, the Senate has amended the bill - which now, if enacted, would "only" allow around 66 million new immigrants. That still more than doubles the rate, from 1 million a year now to 2.5 million per year.
Current law would let 19 million legal immigrants enter the United States over the next 20 years; CIRA would add an extra 47 million.
This flow of new immigrants would dwarf the Great Migration of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In that period, foreign-born persons made up no more than 15 percent of the U.S. population. In 1924, Congress passed a law greatly reducing future immigration. By 1970, foreign-born persons had fallen to 5 percent of the population.
In the last three decades, immigration has increased sharply. The foreign-born now make up about 12 percent of the population. But if CIRA were enacted, and 66 million new immigrants entered over the next 20 years, foreign-born persons would make up 22 percent of the U.S. population, far higher than at any point in U.S. history.

In addition, see Sen. Jeff Sessions speech from May 19 for more about the numbers and the Senate's reprehensible irresponsible attitude toward changing America forever.

• • •

Paradise lost in the Netherlands [5/20/06]
Author Bruce Bawer is an American ex-pat who has lived in the Netherlands and now resides in Norway. A recent controversy has been roiling over Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Somali refugee who is now a Dutch member of Parliament, who admitted in 2002 to lying about her situation in order to get asylum in the Netherlands.
The larger picture is that of a tolerant country which has been overwhelmed and irreparably damaged by unwise immigration. The Dutch naively believed that their tiny nation could welcome hundreds of thousands of Muslims, who would somehow automatically accept Holland's very liberal social values. It hasn't worked out that way.

OSLO — If there's anything in Europe today that's more alarming than the number of European Muslims who hold radically undemocratic views (40 percent of British Muslims would like to see Britain under sharia law), it's the feckless way in which government officials tend to respond to those views. Particularly if they include explosions of public complaints and protests.
More often than not, most officials choose appeasement over standing up for democratic values. The exceptions are rare. One of them is Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen - who, faced with the Muhammad cartoon riots, strongly reaffirmed Denmark's commitment to freedom of speech. Another is the Netherlands' Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the former Muslim turned outspoken critic of Islam. Ms. Hirsi Ali, who has been confronted with a relatively sudden and stunning challenge by her country's minister of immigration to her Dutch citizenship, resigned this week from her seat in the Dutch parliament.

See also my review of Bawer's new book "While Europe Slept".
Elsewhere in Europe, the Germans seems to have acquired a clue, as revealed by a recent poll: Germans negative on Islam, poll shows.

Here's a Deutsch Welle report on the poll.

• • •

North American Union to Replace USA? [5/19/06]
Many Americans shake their heads in confusion and disbelief at what is going on with open borders and massive illegal immigration. But it's no mystery that many of our elected officials do not support America continuing as a sovereign nation state, but instead are working to rejigger it into being a mere segment in the global economy. A major part of the strategy is constructing an EU-type arrangement for North America, which unfortunately centers on a shotgun marriage with Mexico.

President Bush is pursuing a globalist agenda to create a North American Union, effectively erasing our borders with both Mexico and Canada. This was the hidden agenda behind the Bush administration's true open borders policy.
Secretly, the Bush administration is pursuing a policy to expand NAFTA to include Canada, setting the stage for North American Union designed to encompass the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. What the Bush administration truly wants is the free, unimpeded movement of people across open borders with Mexico and Canada.
President Bush intends to abrogate U.S. sovereignty to the North American Union, a new economic and political entity which the President is quietly forming, much as the European Union has formed.

In an earlier time, such activity would have been called treason and dealt with accordingly.

• • •

Illegals Granted Social Security [5/19/06]
Just when you think the Senate can't get any more evil, the Senators go and exceed your expectations. The esteemed members of the "world's greatest deliberative body" (their description of themselves) voted to allow illegal alien identity thieves to receive Social Security benefits for the time they worked using fraudulant IDs.

The Senate voted yesterday to allow illegal aliens to collect Social Security benefits based on past illegal employment -- even if the job was obtained through forged or stolen documents.
"There was a felony they were committing, and now they can't be prosecuted. That sounds like amnesty to me," said Sen. John Ensign, the Nevada Republican who offered the amendment yesterday to strip out those provisions of the immigration reform bill. "It just boggles the mind how people could be against this amendment."
The Ensign amendment was defeated on a 50-49 vote. [...]
Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, Vermont Democrat, said it would be unfair to deny illegals the benefits.
"We should not steal their funds or empty their Social Security accounts," he said. "That is not fair. It does not reward their hard work or their financial contributions. It violates the trust that underlies the Social Security Trust Fund."
Within hours, the vote had become an issue in this fall's elections, raised by a Republican challenger to Sen. Debbie Stabenow, Michigan Democrat.
"Instead of protecting the retirement security of Americans who are earning an honest living and abiding by the laws of our country, Debbie Stabenow sided with people who are here illegally and abuse our Social Security system," Oakland County, Mich., Sheriff Michael Bouchard said in a press release. "Allowing illegal immigrants to use their illegal work history as credit towards receiving Social Security benefits shows that Debbie Stabenow has forgotten who she is supposed to be working for in the U.S. Senate."

Since when in American jurisprudence does a thief get to keep his ill-gotten gains? Every Senator who voted for this atrocity should be voted out of office at the next available opportunity.
On the subject of the mind-numbing numbers of legal immigrants the Senate plans for our future, one amendment knocked down the egregious level of work visas from 100 million to 66 million over the next 20 years — close to the total number of immigrants to America throughout its history.
In addition, see Sen. Jeff Sessions' list of 15 Loopholes in the Senate bill.

• • •

Always on guard in Nuevo Laredo [5/19/06]
Every so often the researchers at LTG check out what's going on in Nuevo Laredo, aka Narco Laredo, a city under siege by drug traffickers. The cartels are equipped like an army, carrying RPGs and such, who beat back the Mexican Army when it attempted to retake the community last summer.
The murder rate in Narco Laredo is 33 per 100,000 residents versus 4.9 across the Rio Grande in Laredo and 3.9 in Los Angeles.

Two weeks ago, five Nuevo Laredo police officers were wounded when masked gunmen attacked a seafood restaurant. A few weeks earlier, four Mexican federal agents were assassinated on a busy downtown street here.
Besides making this one of the deadliest places in North America, such brazen killings — and the inescapable sense that violence could break out at any moment — have underscored the challenge the U.S. government faces in trying to improve border security and limit the flow of illegal immigrants and drugs into the USA.
The instability in this city of about 330,000 has made the USA increasingly attractive not just for Mexicans seeking a better life, but also for marijuana, cocaine and heroin traffickers who have begun to set up safe houses and makeshift weapons manufacturing sites on the U.S. side of the border, says Elias Bazan, the top agent in Laredo for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
The chaos in Mexico has "started to spill over here," says Bazan, whose agency formed an unusual working relationship with Mexican law enforcement and military authorities last fall to try to curb violence and weapons trafficking.

• • •

Amnesty touches home for Bay Area Asians: About 1.5 million Chinese, Filipinos, others live here illegally -- many overstayed visas [5/18/06]
The hopelessly liberal San Francisco Comical loves illegal aliens, and particularly the ones who cook up tasty chow for cheap in local restaurants. Instead of spinning a heart-tugging sob story based the hard-luck tale of teary-eyed "immigrants" struggling for a "better life," the Chron aims at the stomach here.

Robert and Alice Liang came to the United States on vacation in 1983 and never left.
Today, they have three U.S.-born children and own a house and a bustling Chinese restaurant. They also are among up to 180,000 undocumented Asian immigrants who live in the Bay Area. [...]
Of the nation's estimated 12 million illegal migrants, about 13 percent or 1.5 million are from Asia, the Pew Hispanic Center estimated in a report released in April. Most of those 1.5 million likely are among the 25 to 40 percent of illegal immigrants that Pew estimates entered the country legally but then overstayed their visas, as the Liangs did.
The Asian Law Caucus, a San Francisco civil rights group, estimates that 80,000 to 180,000 undocumented immigrants from all across Asia live in the Bay Area, based on calculations they made using Pew, U.S. Census and federal immigration services estimates. Nationally, Chinese accounted for 23 percent of undocumented Asians, followed by Filipinos at 17 percent, Asian Indians at 14 percent and Koreans at 11 percent, according to a federal study in 2001.

• • •

Still Dodging Immigration's Truths [5/18/06]
Columnist Robert Samuelson is one of the few columnists at the Washington Post to go beyond the paper's relentless open-borders drivel.

Hardly anyone is discussing these issues candidly. It is politically inexpedient to do so. We can be a lawful society and a welcoming society simultaneously, to use the president's phrase, but we cannot be a welcoming society for limitless numbers of Latin America's poor without seriously compromising our own future -- and, indeed, the future of many of the Latinos already here. Yet, that is precisely what the president and many senators (Democratic and Republican) support by endorsing large "guest worker" programs and an expansion of today's system of legal visas. In practice these proposals would result in substantial increases of low-skilled immigrants.
How fast can they assimilate? We cannot know, but we can consult history. It is sobering. In 1972 Hispanics were 5 percent of the U.S. population and their median household income was 74 percent of that of non-Hispanic white households. In 2004 Hispanics were 14 percent of the population, and their median household income was 70 percent of the level of non-Hispanic whites. These numbers suggest that rapid immigration of low-skilled workers and rapid assimilation are at odds. Some immigrant families make huge advances, but many don't and newcomers represent a constant drag.
The difficulties are obvious. Competition among them depresses wages. Social services are stretched thin. In 2000 children of immigrants already represented a quarter of all low-income students in U.S. schools, an Urban Institute study reports. The figure is probably higher today. The study also reports that immigrant children are rapidly spreading beyond the six states where they had traditionally concentrated (California, Texas, Florida, Illinois, New York and New Jersey). This may explain why immigration has suddenly become such an explosive issue. A reader e-mails: "There are children in my son's school who aren't able to speak a single word of English, and it is causing such frustration amongst the staff and other children . . . I am afraid for my son's future."

• • •

Vent: Connect the Dots [5/17/06]
Michelle Malkin uses the homemade TV capability of the internet to great advantage here, by literally showing the connection between the fake ID business catering to illegal aliens and the 9/11 hijackers. Check it out!

• • •

Mexico voters fear nation on edge of chaos [5/17/06]
While Washington is working toward a shotgun marriage, er political union with Mexico in the form of the so-called Security and Prosperity Partnership Of North America, the chosen spouse is having a nervous breakdown. The level of violence and corruption has grown to such a level that half of Mexicans believe the whole house of cards is about to fall apart.

A poll published Friday in Excelsior newspaper found 50 percent of respondents feared the government was on the brink of losing control. The polling company Parametria conducted face-to-face interviews at 1,000 homes across Mexico. The poll had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
The conflicts are "a warning sign," said Yamel Nares, Parametria's research director.
Security is the top concern for Mexicans, and Fox has struggled to reform Mexico's notoriously corrupt police. Meanwhile, drug-related bloodshed has accelerated, with some cities seeing killings almost daily.
In April, suspected drug lords posted the heads of two police officers on a wall outside a government building where four drug traffickers died in a Jan. 27 shootout with officers in the Pacific resort of Acapulco.
A sign nearby read: "So that you learn to respect."
Last week, Zapatista rebel leader Subcomandante Marcos said Mexico was in a "state of rage," and warned that tensions were similar to those that preceded the Zapatistas' brief armed uprising in January 1994 in the southern state of Chiapas.

Remember that el Presidente Fox sent the Mexican army to Nuevo Laredo to smack down the drug cartel violence there last summer. But after six weeks of martial law, the killings only got worse, and Fox withdrew the troops. The action was admission of defeat and that Mexico is a failed state.
Today, the violence continues unabated. Over100 have been murdered so far this year in Nuevo Laredo, where the drug cartels call the shots.

• • •

Rush Limbaugh Transcript: Senate "Compromise" Bill Must Change, Or This Country Will Change Forever [5/17/06]
It's good to hear one of the nation's most popular broadcasters pick up on the numbers being shoved down our throats by the Senate, namely the 100-200 million legal immigrants to be admitted over the next two decades. The MSM has been jabbering about "jobs Americans won't do" and amnesty for 10 million illegals (probably 20-30 million), while the nation-busting provisions of essentially opening the borders via legal immigration have been largely ignored.

In the Hagel-Martinez compromise bill, amnesty would be granted to about ten million illegals (story). That's not the problem. The real growth in the immigrant population would come later. As part of the bill, the annual flow of legal immigrants allowed into the U.S. would more than double to more than two million annually. In addition, the guest-worker program in the bill would bring in 325,000 new workers annually who could later apply for citizenship. That population would grow exponentially from there because the millions of new citizens would be permitted to bring along their extended families.
"Also, [Jeff] Sessions said, the bill includes 'escalating caps,' which would raise the number of immigrants allowed in as more people seek to enter the U.S. 'The impact of this increase in legal immigration dwarfs the magnitude of the amnesty provisions,' said Mr. Rector, who has followed Congress for 25 years. He called the bill 'the most dramatic piece of legislation in my experience.'"

Rush also interviewed the Vice President yesterday and brought up the shocking numbers and received a typically political response.

using conservative estimates, is anywhere from over the next 20 years 110 to 217 million legal immigrants entering the country and illegals as part of that number being granted legal status. What is the public policy purpose for doing that in these kinds of numbers?

• • •

Meet El Presidente [5/16/06]
The National Review has a selection of reactions of important people to the President's speech last night, including George Borjas, Rep. JD Hayworth, Victor Davis Hanson, John O'Sullivan and others. Here's a snippet from Heather MacDonald...

Dangling strings of shiny trinkets, President Bush tried last night to make contact with the restive natives. Six thousand National Guard troops on the border! Infrared cameras! Biometric work cards! Those baubles will dazzle 'em, the Bush speechwriters must have concluded, and they'll never notice that we've changed nothing in the border-breaking status quo.
Creating a biometric card is meaningless if you don't penalize employers who ignore it. No fortifications at the border can withstand the avalanche of people seeking to violate our laws so long as they know that once they get across the border, they're home free in a 3,000-square-mile sanctuary zone. But Bush said nothing about worksite enforcement. If this administration wanted to end illegal immigration, it would exchange those 6,000 National Guard troops for 6000 immigration agents with the mandate to enforce the laws that Congress passed 20 years ago.

You can read the President's full speech here.

• • •

Bill permits 193 million more aliens by 2026 [5/16/06]
Here's another article about the shocking numbers the Senate is planning in its radical, nation-changing bill, a subject which has gotten altogether too little attention by the MSM.

Although the legislation would permit 193 million new immigrants in the next two decades, Mr. Rector estimated that it is more likely that about 103 million new immigrants actually would arrive in the next 20 years.
Sen. Jeff Sessions, Alabama Republican who conducted a separate analysis that reached similar results, said Congress is "blissfully ignorant of the scope and impact" of the bill, which has bipartisan support in the Senate and has been praised by President Bush.
"This Senate is not ready to pass legislation that so significantly changes our future immigration policy," he said yesterday. "The impact this bill will have over the next 20 years is monumental and has not been thought through."

• • •

Foes of Illegal Immigration See Support Growing [5/16/06]
The LA Times visits CAPS, the Californians for Population Stabilization, the excellent group doing yeoman's work in a tough political environment. A rare mention of the environmental consequences

Californians for Population Stabilization has been fighting for tighter immigration controls since 1986, when the nonprofit spun off from Zero Population Growth, a nationwide organization that lobbied for population control and is now known as Population Connection.
"They wouldn't look at California," Hull said. "It was easier to give out condoms in the Third World. Our obligation is to take care of our backyard."
As part of their effort, members of Hull's group were involved in an unsuccessful attempt last year to force the 750,000-member Sierra Club, one of the nation's most influential environmental groups, to take up the national immigration issue. But Sierra Club members overwhelmingly rejected the idea, preferring to take a more global approach to population control.
Carl Pope, the Sierra Club's executive director, said the organization refused to be drawn into the political tug of war over immigration.
"We deal with issues that we think can be resolved on ecological principles," he said. "We can't deal with all issues and since we weren't united, members voted ... to remain neutral."
But UCLA astronomy professor Ben Zuckerman, a vice president of the population stabilization group and a former Sierra Club board member who pushed for change, said environmentalists dropped the ball.
"The movement is afraid to deal with U.S. population growth," Zuckerman said. "When we talk about it they call us racists, xenophobes and fascists ... the people who pay the penalty are not white people but poor people who are disproportionately people of color."

N.b.: the Los Angeles Times reported in 2004 that the Sierra Club received a $100 million "donation" from a Wall Street investor with the stipulation that excessive immigration not be mentioned as damaging the environment: The Man Behind the Land,

• • •

Senate Immigration Bill Would Allow 100 Million New Legal Immigrants over the Next Twenty Years [5/15/06]
What can you say about the evil of our our Senate? It boggles comprehension that our elected representatives could act so monstrously.

If enacted, the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act (CIRA, S.2611) would be the most dramatic change in immigration law in 80 years, allowing an estimated 103 million persons to legally immigrate to the U.S. over the next 20 years—fully one-third of the current population of the United States.
Much attention has been given to the fact that the bill grants amnesty to some 10 million illegal immigrants. Little or no attention has been given to the fact that the bill would quintuple the rate of legal immigration into the United States, raising, over time, the inflow of legal immigrants from around one million per year to over five million per year. The impact of this increase in legal immigration dwarfs the magnitude of the amnesty provisions.
In contrast to the 103 million immigrants permitted under CIRA, current law allows 19 million legal immigrants over the next twenty years. Relative to current law, then, CIRA would add an extra 84 million legal immigrants to the nation's population.

Sen. Jeff Sessions' analysis of the legislation puts the number of legal immigration far higher, i.e. over 200 million in 20 years. He remarked that the Senate bill, "would permit up to 217.1 million new legal immigrants into the United States over the next 20 years, a number equal to 66 percent of the total current population of the United States."

These will be almost an entitlement to enter the country.

Please call and fax Congress and the White House as if the survival of the country depended on it.

• • •

Reform bill to double immigration [5/15/06]
The Senate is planning a monstrous bill, guaranteed to shred what's left of America. Not only are they determined to pass an amnesty to please their business pals, but they intend to increase legal immigration enormously as well.
Perhaps the busy Senators didn't notice the results of the recent Zogby-CIS poll, that "On immigration generally, Americans want less, not more, immigration." More about that poll here.
Nevertheless, the Senate is forging ahead with the worst possible immigration legislation, a veritable Christmas tree of goodies

The immigration reform bill that the Senate takes up today would more than double the flow of legal immigration into the United States each year and dramatically lower the skill level of those immigrants.
The number of extended family members that U.S. citizens or legal residents can bring into this country would double. More dramatically, the number of workers and their immediate families could increase sevenfold if there are enough U.S. employers looking for cheap foreign labor. Another provision would grant humanitarian visas to any woman or orphaned child anywhere in the world "at risk of harm" because of age or sex.
The little-noticed provisions are part of legislation co-sponsored by Republican Sens. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Mel Martinez of Florida, which overcame some early stumbles and now has bipartisan support in the Senate. The bill also has been praised by President Bush, and he is expected to endorse it as a starting point for negotiations in his prime-time address to the nation tonight
All told, the Hagel-Martinez bill would increase the annual flow of legal immigrants into the U.S. to more than 2 million from roughly 1 million today, scholars and analysts say.
These proposed increases are in addition to the estimated 10 million to 12 million illegal aliens already in the U.S. whom the bill would put on a path to citizenship. These figures also do not take into account the hundreds of thousands of additional immigrants who would be admitted to the U.S. each year under the guest-worker program that is part of the bill.
"If there is anyone left in the world, we would accept another 325,000 through the guest-worker program in the first year," said NumbersUSA's Rosemary Jenks, who supports stricter immigration laws.

And that's not all. The Senate also intends to reverse the historic emphasis on skills and education when awarding employment visas, so that we will be importing even more unskilled workers than are currently supplied through the open border with Mexico.

Because they would be allowed to "self-petition," their obtaining permanent residency here would bypass the Department of Labor, which currently monitors immigration to ensure that American workers are not displaced by foreign immigrant labor.

"The long-term cost of government benefits to the parents of 10 million recipients of amnesty could be $30 billion per year or more," Mr. Rector said. "In the long run, the [Hagel-Martinez] bill, if enacted, would be the largest expansion of the welfare state in 35 years."

• • •

Blacks see threat from Hispanic illegal aliens [5/15/06]
The appearance of black citizens among the Minutemen has gradually gotten more attention.

Blacks in the region are joining Minuteman militia groups opposed to illegal Hispanic aliens working in the United States, saying they take jobs from blacks and piggyback off the strides made during the civil rights movement.
Several blacks Friday attended a Minuteman rally in the District. And yesterday, Ted Hayes, a black Los Angeles-based homeless activist and founder of the Crispus Attucks Brigade, held a rally in Upper Senate Park denouncing attempts by immigrant rights groups to link their movement to that of black civil rights.
"Illegal immigration is the greatest threat to black people since slavery," Mr. Hayes said. "The civil rights movement was made by black citizens of this country, but [illegal aliens] are claiming civil rights as a key to cross the American border illegally."
He and several area blacks at the rallies said losing jobs is their biggest concern.

• • •

The mayor's immigration dilemma [5/14/06]
Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa rode into his office as the Latino Mayor, flexing the muscles of his demographic clout. He was touted by the media as emblematic of America's new hispanic power. But now he is obviously looking in the mirror, thinking higher office, and being the Mexican Mayor doesn't sound so cool.

Like so many other politicians throughout U.S. history, Mexican American candidates usually seek to leverage their ethnicity to win elections and gain access to the mainstream. They unabashedly appeal to their Latino base, but, once in office, they seek to broaden their profile, with their next bid for a higher post in mind.
But that's where the parallels with other ethnicities stop. Irish and Italian politicians at the turn of the 20th century, for instance, had the luxury of making their move beyond ethnicity as European immigration tapered off. Their base merged into the mainstream with them. But Mexican American immigration is ongoing, and Mexican American officials are continuously forced to deal with that fact. Just as they are about to get out from under the glass ceiling of ethnic politics, the issue of immigration draws them back in.

As Molly Ivins says, "You gotta dance with him who brung you." Villaraigosa's rise to power is completely the result of Los Angeles becoming a Mexican city, and he won't easily put that behind him -- although he is trying.
Interestingly enough, here is another article from today on the identical subject: Immigration rallies force L.A. mayor into political tight spot - Villaraigosa backs away from image as single-issue leader:

Time magazine cover

his election victory

Yeah, right. Not everyone has forgotten his expressions of loyalty to his ancestral home: L.A. Mayor: Mexico Will Shape My Policies particularly his support for Special Order 40, the city's tough sanctuary policy which prevents police from checking the immigration status of criminals. Listen to a 1997 sound clip of Assembly Member Villaraigosa declaring that it is the duty of all elected hispanic officials to support benefits for illegal aliens.

• • •

Gingrich: Republicans 'drifting toward disaster' [5/14/06]
The number of people to be amnestied under the Senate legislation is far higher than what most Senators want citizens to know.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is warning that the immigration bill favored by Senate Republicans will permit up to 36 million illegal aliens, as opposed to the 11 million being cited by proponents, to remain in the U.S. -- a number that will make the average American "furious" when learned and will hurt the GOP.
"I am very worried that the Republican leadership in the Senate and potentially the White House are just going to end up very alienated from the vast majority of Americans on this issue," Gingrich told Human Events in an exclusive interview.. "The Senate bill is an absolute disaster." [...]
"The Senate is drifting toward a disaster of the first order," Gingrich said. "The bill they're looking at is a bad bill. It violates, in almost every case, what the American people want."
"Gingrich, who will appear on NBC's "Meet the Press" tomorrow, cited a recent poll released by Zogby and the Center for Immigration Studies showing overwhelming support -- 65% to 30% -- for the House bill, a measure that emphasizes enforcement.

Meanwhile, a recent Zogby poll put the President's approval rating for border security at an unprecedented 9 percent.

• • •

Hezbollah's Presence in the United States [5/13/06]
Politically correct and security-stupid immigration policies have allowed numerous enemies to burrow in to American communities, including the presence of Hezbollah cells in at least 10 US cities.
There are plenty more disquieting facts in this important blog article.

• • •

Addictive Remittances [5/13/06]
Victor Davis Hanson compares Mexico's lame handling of its petroleum wealth with its similarly unhealthy reliance on its corrupt remittance economy.

Millions of unemployed Mexicans now depend on money wired from the United States, where low-skill wages are now 9 times higher than in Mexico. On the national level, such subsidies, like oil windfall profits, allow just enough money to hide the government's failure to promote the proper economic conditions -- through the protection of property rights, tax reform, transparent investment laws, modern infrastructure, etc. -- that would eventually lead to decent housing and well-paying jobs.
It may be counterintuitive to think checks from hard-working expatriates are pernicious. But for a developing nation, remittances can prove as problematic as the proverbial plight of the lottery winner -- sudden, unearned winnings. In short, remittances, along with oil and tourism -- not agriculture, engineering, education, manufacturing or finance -- prop up an otherwise ailing Mexican economy. This helps explain why half of the country's 106 million citizens still live in poverty.

For more from VDH about immigration, listen to a March 30 radio interview from KMJ 580. Regrettably, the normally sensible Prof Hanson supports amnesty for the 12-20 million illegal aliens. At the least, he should consider the national security implications of admitting how weak Washington is toward a gaggle of illegal alien Mexicans.

• • •

Another American Century or Another American Civil War? [5/12/06]
The Norwegian blogger Fjordman has expanded some earlier thoughts about the danger to America (and therefore western civilization) from unrestrained Mexican immigration.
Like Sam Huntington, he recognizes that a nation is woven from more than just strong foundational ideas, quoting Huntington's remark that "as the Soviet experience illustrates, ideology is a weak glue to hold together people otherwise lacking racial, ethnic, and cultural sources of community." And immigration since 1965 has diluted and challenged America's historical identity.
Fjordman is rightly disturbed by a lack of seriousness on the part of leaders...

Many ordinary Americans lament the fact that US authorities are "asleep at the wheel" on the issue of border controls. This view could find support in some idiotic comments by US political leaders quoted by Diana West of the Washington Times. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, leader of a city that was hit by the worst terror attacks in US history only a few years ago, does not want the USA to protect its borders to make sure unwanted persons do not enter the country. According to him, deporting illegal aliens would wreak havoc on golf courses across America. "You and I both play golf," Mr. Bloomberg said on the air. "Who takes care of the greens and fairways in your golf course?"

He winds up with a warning of what is at stake — everything.

You are the indispensable nation, and if you break down, the rest of the planet is in serious trouble. Europe will have to concentrate on just surviving, India has Islamic problems or her own, Russia is neither willing nor able to lead a fight against Islam, and China doesn't care. It may even prefer a conflict that will eliminate its Western rivals. The major obstacle to the agenda of Islamic world domination is the USA. The issue of illegal immigration is not about your golf courses, your lawns or your nannies, it's about whether your children and grandchildren will grow up facing another American Century or another American civil war. And by extension, whether large parts of the world will be following sharia law.

• • •

Bid to strip Voting Rights Act of bilingual proviso falls short [5/12/06]
One of Congress' dumbest ideas ever was stinking up the 1965 Voting Rights Act with multiple language ballot requirements in 1975. The provision in question requires that "bilingual" voting materials be provided in communities where the non-English-speaking population is 5 percent or more, or exceeds 10,000 people. Of course, there are not just two languages appearing on ballots: today's multiple foreign-language voting materials are a nightmare of Babel-esque proportions.
The House Judiciary Committee could have fixed this turkey, which is saddling local communities with huge costs for translation and printing, but the proposal has gotten tangled up with the immigration legislation hanging.

In Los Angeles County, ballot information is translated into six languages: Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese and Tagalog.
About 137,000 of Los Angeles County's 3.8 million registered voters will receive their voting guides and ballots in a language other than English this year, costing the county about $4 million.
Southern California Republicans backed [Rep. Steve] King in the push for English-only voting information, saying they see no need for translations because any immigrant who has gained citizenship and is therefore eligible to vote also must have passed an English reading and comprehension exam.
"If you are going to vote in a U.S. election, you should be able to comprehend, read and speak the English language," said Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Thousand Oaks.

• • •

For environmentalists, a growing split over immigration [5/11/06]
Back before there was political correctness and touchy identity politics, environmentalists actually talked about extreme population growth as damaging to nature's infrastructure. Since then, the Sierra Club has moved from being bipartisan to an organization of leftists in hiking boots, and Executive Director Carl Pope is on all the Democrat "A" lists, like policy sessions at the home of billionaire George Soros, deep pockets to Democrat causes.

"We've got to talk about these issues - population, birth rates, immigration," says Paul Watson, founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which confronts whalers, seal hunters, and those who poach wildlife in the Galapagos Islands. "Immigration is one of the leading contributors to population growth. All we're saying is, those numbers should be reduced to achieve population stabilization."
Mr. Watson also was a Sierra Club board member. Last month, he resigned in protest just before his three-year term ended because he thinks the organization ignores immigration as a major factor in population growth. [...]
Steven Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, finds that once women emigrate to the US, most tend to have more children than they would have in their home countries. "Among Mexican immigrants in the United States fertility averages 3.5 children per woman compared to 2.4 children per woman in Mexico," he wrote in a study last October. And the same is true among Chinese immigrants. Fertility is 2.3 in the US compared with 1.7 in China. However, typically these high fertility rates decline in the successive generations as immigrants assimilate into America.

No mention that the Sierra Club reportedly received more than $100 million in donations on the condition that excessive immigration not be discussed as damaging to the environment.

But [investor David Gelbaum] said Pope long had known where he stood on the contentious issue. "I did tell Carl Pope in 1994 or 1995 that if they ever came out anti-immigration, they would never get a dollar from me."

The Man Behind the Land, LA Times, 10/27/04

• • •

Saudi woman pleads guilty in nanny slave case [5/11/06]
Slavery in Saudi Arabia was officially ended in 1962, but the idea that workers cannot be abused to the level of slavery has still not been accepted among the elite in The Kingdom, according to Human Rights Watch.
Still, it is curious that Saudis believe they can bring their vile habits with them to this country, as did a couple in Colorado, who enslaved an Indonesian housekeeper. The husband is accused of sexually assaulting the woman repeatedly.

Defense attorney Forrest Lewis said [Sarah] Khonaizan pleaded guilty to put the case behind her. Facing deportation as an illegal alien convicted as a felon, she has agreed to return to Saudi Arabia once her obligations to the courts are completed.
"She wants to go back home," Lewis said.

No mention in the current article about the husband, whose $400,000 bail was paid by the Saudi government.

• • •

Lou Dobbs Tonight May 10 [5/11/06]
Republican House member Pete King of New York has been one of the strongest proponents of borders and immigration enforcement, and has little patience with the spineless Senate approach. His no-BS style is a rarity in Washington.

KING: Well, there's a lot of games being played, and I still don't think it's caught hold in the Senate. They want to use this term, you know, immigration reform. And their idea of immigration reform is to, you know, throw a few faints or a few nods toward border security, but they're not really serious about it.
At the same time, the way we get rid of 10 or 11 million illegal immigrants is to declare them legal, and that is considered a reform. And I'm not really being sarcastic when I say that, I mean that.
What they're going to do is basically 10 of the 11 million illegal immigrants, I think the Senate is going to come up with legislation which is going to legalize them and it's going to lead towards citizenship.
And if that's not amnesty, I don't what else you would call it. So I think there's a real disconnect between the American people on the one hand and the mainstream media and the senators on the other.
DOBBS: But there's a real connect for the Democratic Party and the Republican Party from corporate America, who desperately wants the cheap labor, isn't there?
KING: Absolutely. The Democrats in particular are appealing to special interests. The Republicans in many cases are caving into corporate America. They want the cheap labor. I see it, I get letters and notices from business associations all over the country. And they -- they want that cheap labor.
And not only is it cheap labor for the people that they are hiring, that also, then, brings down the wages of legal employees that are here, so it's a big plus, a big plus in the short term for corporate America. In the end, all of us pay when you get away with something cheaply. [...]
I have made an absolute commitment. I will never support any legislation, and I would not sign my name to any conference report which calls for legalizing in any way, any of those 11 or 12 million that are here now illegally.
If we do that, it's just going to be a magnet for more illegal immigrants to come across the border and we can have all the border security we want. But if people think, if illegals think they are going to get amnesty ultimately by coming here, they are going to get across that border one way or the other.
So to me, it would be absolutely wrong and we should pay the price for that. There's no excuse. If the Republican Party doesn't stand up for controlling the borders, I don't know what we're here in Congress to be.

Interestingly, reporting like this has resulted in Lou Dobbs' Ratings Up at CNN.

• • •

Security services identify 700 potential al-Qa'ida terrorists at large in Britain [5/10/06]
Britain has been investigating the background of the July 2005 London bombings, with a rather disturbing allegation of a 300 percent increase in al Qaeda terrorists present in the country. Does that mean hundreds of new Islamists have entered, or the police have just identitifed them? Unclear.

At least 700 people suspected of being involved in al-Qa'ida terrorist plots have been identified by MI5 and the police, The Independent understands.
There has been a threefold increase in the number of terror suspects identified by the security service, MI5, since the 11 September attacks in the United States in 2001, security sources have disclosed.
Details of the rise comes as the Government faces a charge of "whitewash" tomorrow over the scrutiny of the intelligence into the 7 July 2005 London bombings, in which 52 passengers were killed as well as four terrorists. The Tories believe the publication of two major reports, due out tomorrow, will fail to answer the question of why the suicide bombers managed to evade detection

• • •

Immigration Billboards Going Up in North Texas [5/10/06]
Check out the "Stop the Invasion" billboard put up in Dallas by Grassfire.org. The link includes a video piece from a local television station as well as text.

"We must stop the invasion. We cannot have amnesty because amnesty is in essence a surrender to the invasion," said Steve Elliott, grassfire.org.

• • •

The Caged Virgin: Holland's shameful treatment of Ayaan Hirsi Ali [5/10/06]

The Netherlands' most famous Member of Parliament has been doing something of a book tour in the eastern United States, speaking in Philadelphia and at Harvard so far. Her new book The Caged Virgin is a collection of her essays discussing Islam and its threat to the freedoms of the west, particularly the religion's built-in cruelty to women.
But the one-time Somali refugee who fled to Holland to escape an arranged marriage has proved to be an uncomfortable presence in her adopted country, according to writer Christopher Hitchens, since some Dutch still cling to the failed ideology of multiculturalism.

But here is the grave and sad news. After being forced into hiding by fascist killers, Ayaan Hirsi Ali found that the Dutch government and people were slightly embarrassed to have such a prominent "Third World" spokeswoman in their midst. She was first kept as a virtual prisoner, which made it almost impossible for her to do her job as an elected representative. When she complained in the press, she was eventually found an apartment in a protected building. Then the other residents of the block filed suit and complained that her presence exposed them to risk. In spite of testimony from the Dutch police, who assured the court that the building was now one of the safest in all Holland, a court has upheld the demand from her neighbors and fellow citizens that she be evicted from her home. In these circumstances, she is considering resigning from parliament and perhaps leaving her adopted country altogether. This is not the only example that I know of a supposedly liberal society collaborating in its own destruction, but I hope at least that it will shame us all into making The Caged Virgin a best seller.

Similarly, New York literary liberals found it discomforting to hear the fearless enunciation of western values by An Enlightenment Fundamentalist who is also an African refugee. (Listen to AHA's PEN talk with Philip Gourevitch, where she angrily denounces the "liberal betrayal" of western values by excusing Islam's failure regarding basic human rights.)
For a TV clip of Ms. Ali, see an interview on Swedish television (in English, with Swedish subtitles). Another chat is available on NPR.
In a related subject, scholar Bernard Lewis recently gave an address on Modernizing the Muslim world , in which he too emphasized the oppression of women as being harmful to Islamic societies as a whole.

Listen to a podcast of Lewis' speech here

• • •

U.S. tipping Mexico to Minuteman patrols [5/09/06]
Just when you think Washington has gone as low as it can go, it explores new realms of treachery against American citizens. Now we find that our Border Patrol serves Mexico City.

While Minuteman civilian patrols are keeping an eye out for illegal border crossers, the U.S. Border Patrol is keeping an eye out for Minutemen -- and telling the Mexican government where they are.
According to three documents on the Mexican Secretary of Foreign Relations Web site, the U.S. Border Patrol is to notify the Mexican government as to the location of Minutemen and other civilian border patrol groups when they participate in apprehending illegal immigrants -- and if and when violence is used against border crossers.
A U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman confirmed the notification process, describing it as a standard procedure meant to reassure the Mexican government that migrants' rights are being observed.
"It's not a secret where the Minuteman volunteers are going to be," Mario Martinez said Monday.
"This ... simply makes two basic statements -- that we will not allow any lawlessness of any type, and that if an alien is encountered by a Minuteman or arrested by the Minuteman, then we will allow that government to interview the person."
Minuteman members were not so sanguine about the arrangement, however, saying that reporting their location to Mexican officials nullifies their effectiveness along the border and could endanger their lives.
"Now we know why it seemed like Mexican officials knew where we were all the time," said Chris Simcox, founder of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps. "It's unbelievable that our own government agency is sending intelligence to another country. They are sending intelligence to a nation where corruption runs rampant, and that could be getting into the hands of criminal cartels.

Michelle Malkin reports that "Border Patrol chiefs have also been passing along intelligence reports to the government of Mexico on the activities of Minutemen not only at the borders, but in locations such as Utah, Nevada, Illinois, Massachusetts and Tennessee." On Lou Dobbs Tonight, Andy Garcia of Friends of the Border Patrol said that there was information about his operation on a Mexican government website that could only have been gotten through the Border Patrol.
See also Tom Tancredo's press release about the government spying for Mexico.

• • •

Judge bars state from implementing exit exam [5/09/06]
Leave it to a California judge to sabotage a long-fought attempt to return standards to state schools, which have been particularly weakened by the presence of so many non-English speakers.

In an extraordinary turn of events, an Alameda County Superior Court judge issued a tentative ruling today prohibiting the state from carrying out its plan to deny diplomas to tens of thousands of high school seniors in the Class of 2006 who have been unable to pass the exit exam.
Judge Robert Freedman is expected to make his final ruling at a 2 p.m. hearing tomorrow. His preliminary ruling comes weeks before graduation day at thousands of high schools, and just days after state Superintendent Jack O'Connell announced that 46,768 seniors -- 10.7 percent of the class of 2006 - had not yet passed the exit exam.
This is the first year the exam was to be a graduation requirement.
O'Connell who wrote the exit exam legislation in 1999 when he was a state senator, has called the exit exam a cornerstone of his school reform efforts.
California's high school exit exam carries strong support among voters and the business community -- future employers of today's high school students -- who share O'Connell's view that a diploma should indicate a basic level of academic skill.

More details here, including the reaction of student Iris Padilla.

"How am I going to enjoy myself and celebrate graduation if I'm not going to get a diploma?" asked Iris, who is passing all classes with the help of Spanish-speaking teachers and classmates. Iris was interviewed by the Chronicle in an earlier article in which she exemplified the entitlement mentality, declaring that she "deserved" a diploma although her English was practically nonexistent.

• • •

Immigration bills concern some experts [5/08/06]
The Senate plans to pull a fast one on the American people by vastly increasing the numbers of legal immigrants, even though the majority of citizens want LESS immigration overall, as well as illegals brought under control.
As a recent Zogby poll clearly found, "On immigration generally, Americans want less, not more, immigration."

Three key elements of the Senate legislation raise particular concern:
• A permanent doubling of today's historically high levels of legal immigration, from roughly 1 million a year to 2 million a year. The provision has attracted surprisingly little attention.
• Legalization of most of the estimated 12 million people illegally in the United States.
• Guest worker programs that would allow hundreds of thousands of foreign workers and their families into the country each year and offer them an eventual path to citizenship.

• • •

Europe gets choosier about its newcomers [5/08/06]
Typically, the San Francisco Chronicle wrings it hands that Europe is becoming "mean-spirited" toward "immigrants." There is no mention in the article of moderate length of the terrorist attacks in London and Madrid which killed hundreds, nor of the Amsterdam murder of Theo Van Gogh in broad daylight by an enraged Islamist, Mohammed Bouyeri.
Europeans have very good reason to withdraw their uncritical hospitality to millions of Muslims who hate western civilization and vow to conquer it through demographic warfare.

Across broad swathes of Western Europe, the welcome mat is vanishing -- at least for low-skilled illegal immigrants such as Coulibali. Increasingly, European governments are introducing new immigration tests and other screening devices to attract only talented foreigners whose values mirror their own.
Xenophobia and anti-immigration sentiments are on the rise, experts say. The twin trends appear paradoxical in graying Europe, where foreign workers are needed to bankroll welfare states.

One definition of xenophobia is "an irrational fear of strangers." What would a reasonable fear of certain strangers be called?

• • •

Dan Walters: Like it or not, immigrants are driving state's population boom [5/08/06]
California's population explosion has been largely caused by the foreign influx — we're now at 37 million.

The Department of Finance's demographers calculated that as of Jan. 1, the state's population had reached 37.2 million, up 444,000 over the previous year and continuing California on a track to approach 40 million by 2010 - and 50 million by the late 2020s.
That growth, a more than 50 percent expansion since 1980, lies at the root of virtually all of California's pressing public policy issues, including traffic congestion, land use and water conflicts, air pollution, public school performance, access to health care, college crowding and the state's chronic budget deficits. And the state's politicians have been extraordinarily lax both in acknowledging that fact and in confronting the issues that it generates - in fact, most of the time acting as if the demographic facts didn't exist.

• • •

A Friendly Warning [5/08/06]
Melanie Phillips is interviewed on the occasion of her new book being published (Londonistan), a warning of how governmental idiocy in combination with multiculturalism in the schools and elsewhere is a terrible threat for western civilization.

Phillips: For three decades and more, the British education system has stopped transmitting the story and values of the nation on the grounds that national identity is racist, xenophobic, inhospitable, and so on. So English literature and, even more so, British political history are only minimally taught. If anything is racist, of course, it's that attitude itself because it means that recent immigrants are excluded from equal participation in British society because they are left in ignorance of it. Britain used to do integration; now it does disintegration. In every sense.
Lopez: This was no quick thing for London. When did the conversion, so to speak start?
Phillips: Well, it depends how far you want to go back! Certainly this process of multiculturalism, minority "rights" that beat up the majority through "victim culture" and the loss of faith in the nation and its values that these and other examples of cultural breakdown represent, got going in a serious way directly after the Second World War and the winding up of the British Empire. But I think you can trace it all much further back, to the loss of religious faith in the 19th century and the rise of romantic hyper-individualism which had an impact in the U.S. too—Britain's education meltdown, after all, derived from the "child-centered" theories of the American educationist John Dewey—and which you can trace back to Jean-Jacques Rousseau in the 18th century.

Too bad Phllips ignores the point that inappropriate immigration is central.

Hispanic culture is not so very different from that of the host society

Ouch! Certainly Mexicans look better in comparison with headchopper Muslims, but Hispanic culture is sexist, violent, corrupt and uneducated. Mexico is #6 in the world for murders per capita and #2 in kidnappings per capita.
Update: You can watch or listen to an excellent 1-hour talk which Phillips gave at the Heritage Foundation on May 10 about Londonistan.

• • •

Allah Takes Over Church [5/07/06]
More bad news about the dhimmified Belgian churches mentioned here yesterday. Muslim illegal immigrants are not only allowed sanctuary, but they are turning the churches into mosques. The photos are quite shocking in themselves, not to mention the deadly stupidity of showing such a degree of fawning fear. More repulsive photos here.

The Muslim squatters hold Islamic prayer services in the church. The altar has been moved and the statue of Our Lady covered by a cloth to hide her from the eyes of the Muslim believers.
The squatters are living in the churches. "Church occupations" by illegal immigrants have been going on for a number of years in Belgium. They are not really "occupations" because the Bishops condone the actions and actively support them. Chris Gillibrand visited a number of Brussels churches to take these pictures.
The squatters live in tents in the churches. The tents are being provided by Catholic relief organisations. They have also been offered radios, television sets and computers.
Chris saw them light a fire. We apologize for the poor quality of the photo. The man was quite aggressive. Aggression in desecrated churches that are being turned into mosques with the approval of Cardinal Godfried Danneels. This is Brussels, AD 2006.

• • •

'The Caged Virgin': A Call for Change in Islam [5/07/06]
Listen to a 13-minute interview with the fearless author and Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

Dutch parliamentarian Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a native of Somalia who emigrated to The Netherlands in the early 1990s, is no stranger to controversy among her fellow Muslims. Living in the West, she felt free to publicly criticize Islam's treatment of women.

The NPR questioner asks whether she needs security in the United States against the many who threaten to kill her. "Unfortunately, yes," she says. "Anyone who criticizes Islam should be killed" is how Islamists respond to her reasonable analysis.
She is also very critical of Europe's failed experiment with diversity [A different immigration debate in Europe]

• • •

A Legacy of the Unforseen [5/07/06]
The hopelessly open-borders San Francisco Chronicle presents a rare attempt at a non-cheerleader article about immigration, in this case a brief history of what has gone before.

Expansions of immigration were often made over public objection.
"I don't know a single poll going back to the 1930s that's indicated the public wants more immigrants to come in as opposed to fewer," said Reimers, the historian.
Defiance of public opinion is a striking constant of immigration policy, long fascinating political scientists. Major expansions were often achieved through unorthodox alliances joining business, ethnic groups, free-market think tanks and churches.
Because immigration has often divided both political parties, interest groups wield extraordinary influence in the debates, said Stanford University political scientist Carolyn Wong, author of "Lobbying for Inclusion." Business lobbies wanting more labor visas, and ethnic groups wanting more family visas, often join powerful alliances.

But as important as it is to know the history, considering the future we are creating through immoderate immigration is far more necessary. The numbers are staggering, according to Sen. Jeff Sessions...

"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."

Here is California, there will be a $37 billion bond issue on the November ballot for things like school and transportation construction -- more infrastructure needed for excessive population growth -- even though the state already has $57 billion in debt outstanding.

• • •

Violence unsettles Mexican election campaign [5/06/06]
Mexico continues to melt down into a failed state, yet Washington is full steam ahead to open the border entirely.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Street riots, decapitations of police officers by drug gangs and the worst union conflict in years have raised tension in Mexico's presidential race with the government under fire for its handling of the violence.

• • •

Belgian Church Organizes Illegal Immigrants [5/06/06]
You have to wonder about the sanity of Catholic leaders who allow their churches to be turned into squatter camps of Muslims who intend to turn Europe into part of Dar al-Islam — the land of Islam, literally the house of submission.
Christian charity is not the same thing as self-destructive weakness toward an enemy.

While Western Europe is turning Muslim, its Christian Churches are committing suicide. A Muslim would never allow his mosque to be turned into a dormitory for non-believers. This, however, is exactly what the Belgian Catholic Church is doing. The Belgian Bishops have already opened up 20 churches and chapels to illegal immigrants - so-called "sans-papiers" or "people without papers [=staying permits]" - who by Belgian law have to be expelled.

Another dangerous cowardice here at home was the Moussaoui verdict of life in prison rather than execution: Shame, by John Derbyshire

Does anyone, DOES ANYONE, think we're going to defeat Islamofascism by squirting clouds of this multicultural mush at it? The terrorists sure as hell don't.

And to read about Presidential weakness toward Mexico, see White House Taco Time.

• • •

America's First War on Terror [5/06/06]
Andrew Bostom reviews 13 centuries of brutal jihad piracy, then explains how President John Quincy Adams understood the threat of the Barbary pirates and Islam generally, unlike the current occupant of the White House.

Shortly after the cataclysmic jihad terror attacks of 9/11/01, President George W. Bush made his now infamous utterance that Islam is a "religion of peace". Ironically, the renowned 20th century Muslim ideologue Sayyid Qutb, perhaps the most brilliant Muslim scholar of the 20th century, who is demonized as a fomenter of "radical" Islam, has also referred to Islam as a "religion of peace". But Qutb's context is unapologetic and clear—he is referring to the Pax Islamica that would prevail when the entire world was submitted to Islamic domination, and the rule of Islamic law (i.e., the Shari'a), by jihad war.
President Bush further insisted in a more recent speech that the "ideology" of the most notable Muslim terrorists, who he maintained "distort the idea of jihad", is "very different from the religion of Islam", and indeed "exploits Islam to serve a violent, political vision." The President's specific and assertive comments regarding jihad were a profound disappointment. Indeed, such words could have been written and spoken by the most uninformed, or deliberately disingenuous apologists for this devastating, and uniquely Islamic institution, well over a millennium old, and still wreaking havoc today.
In stark contrast, John Quincy Adams, who made seminal contributions to the formulation of U.S. foreign policy, possessed a remarkably clear, uncompromised understanding of the permanent Islamic institution of jihad war, and its corollary institution, dhimmitude.

See also Hugh Fitzgerald's related remarks about Jefferson and Adams over at JihadWatch.

• • •

When illegal immigrants crash, taxpayers usually foot the bill [5/06/06]
The border area is a war zone, and the taxpayer is stuck with paying for the mess.

Within the last month, close to three dozen illegal immigrants have been injured or killed in three Southern Arizona accidents. [...]
Often, hospitals foot the bill to care for illegal immigrants injured here in the U.S.
Those costs are then passed on to the taxpayers. [...]
"It has a negative impact on our bottom line. First, our priority is taking care of the people that are injured and making sure that they get the proper care, but the reality is that there is no direct reimbursement for that," said Kevin Burn, Chief Financial Officer for UMC.
Two months ago, UMC received $500,000 of your tax money from the federal government as payment, but it's not enough.
According to Burns, "At the current run rate we'll incur 5-to-6 million dollars in unreimbursed costs for taking care of foreign nationals."

Note:$5-6 million is the cost for just one hospital.

• • •

An Apology from a Bush Voter [5/06/06]
Los Angeles radio guy Doug McIntyre lets fly on his total disillusionment on the disastrous Bush presidency.

I've talked so often about the border issue, I won't bore you with a rehash. It's enough to say this President has been a catastrophe for the wages of working people; he's debased the work ethic itself. "Jobs Americans won't do!" He doesn't believe in the sovereign borders of the country he's sworn to protect and defend. And his devotion to cheap labor for his corporate benefactors, along with his worship of multinational trade deals, makes an utter mockery of homeland security in a post 9-11 world. The President's January 7th, 2004 speech on immigration, his first trial balloon on his guest worker scheme, was a deal breaker for me. I couldn't and didn't vote for him in 2004. And I'm glad I didn't.
Katrina, Harriet Myers, The Dubai Port Deal, skyrocketing gas prices, shrinking wages for working people, staggering debt, astronomical foreign debt, outsourcing, open borders, contempt for the opinion of the American people, the war on science, media manipulation, faith based initives, a cavalier attitude toward fundamental freedoms -- this President has run the most arrogant and out-of-touch administration in my lifetime, perhaps, in any American's lifetime.

• • •

Making phony ID documents for illegal workers is a big business [5/05/06]
The corruption that stems from illegal immigration fuels numerous other crimes, including identity theft, sex trafficking, drug smuggling, in addition to the usual job theft from citizens and gradual lowering of wages. As this article notes, the market of illegal immigration has improved the quality of fraudulent documents, making it easier for terrorists to slip through.

WASHINGTON - Forgers are making tens of millions, and possibly billions, of dollars selling counterfeit Social Security cards, driver's licenses, immigrant registration cards and other papers to an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants.
The dominant forgery-and-distribution network in the United States allegedly is controlled by the Castorena family, say U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials. Its members emigrated from Mexico in the late 1980s and have used their printing skills and business acumen to capture a big piece of the booming industry.
Only trained experts can distinguish its fake identity documents from real ones, and the Castorena Family Organization, or CFO, as ICE officials call it, has spread to at least 50 cities in 33 states.
At a sentencing hearing for one family member in December, U.S. District Judge Lewis T. Babcock of Denver said that the CFO's criminal reach is "simply breathtaking" and strikes "at the heart of the sovereignty of the United States of America."
The threat of terrorism has made document forgers even more menacing since the 9/11 attacks. Two of the 9/11 hijackers used fraudulent notarized forms to obtain valid Virginia ID cards, which enabled them to board the two airliners that crashed into the World Trade Center.

• • •

Ex-con sentenced to three years in animal-abuse case [5/05/06]
The "ex-con" is an illegal alien from Mexico with a list of prior crimes and deportations. See a disturbing slide show here of what the perp did to a dog.

SAN DIEGO -- A ex-con who "obviously has a horrible temper" was sentenced to three years in state prison for savagely beating a pit bull.
Enrique George Hernandez, a 39-year-old illegal immigrant who has been deported several times, pleaded guilty March 30 to animal cruelty for punching "Ozzie" at least 10 times on Aug. 25, breaking a leg and some of his ribs.
The dog also had a burn, consistent with a cigarette burn, in the middle of his forehead, said Deputy District Attorney Cally Bright.
The 55-pound animal survived the beating but became aggressive, unadoptable and was ultimately euthanized, authorities said.

As I have written before, Mexico is quite primitive regarding the treatment of animals and has no laws against animal cruelty. Bull fighting remains popular, a sport in which animals are killed for the amusement of audiences. See They Kill Horses, Don't They? (Mexicans, That Is.).

• • •

Immigration Waiver Granted to Refugees [5/05/06]
Washington can't welcome foreigners fast enough. In this case, the State Department is at fault for opening the doors to thousands of Burmese, thus beginning chain immigration from that country.

In the first move of its kind, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has granted an immigration law waiver so that many of the 9,300 Burmese refugees at a camp in Thailand will no longer be viewed as supporters of terrorism and can be considered for resettlement in the United States, officials said yesterday.
The waiver, which Rice signed Wednesday, followed months of internal argument among the departments of State, Justice and Homeland Security. The argument has pitted concerns about combating terrorism against worries that people with legitimate claims to asylum were being blocked from immigrating to the United States. At issue have been broad definitions, in recently passed immigration legislation, of what constitutes a terrorist group and what qualifies as "material support" for terrorism.

• • •

On the Fence Films: Uno de Mayo [5/05/06]
Watch a four-minute film with commentary about the recent Mexo-Marxist activities in San Francisco and New York.

El Uno De Mayo points out that if extremist right-wing groups organized anti-immigration marches, we would not expect the media to stay silent about their involvement. However, when the Stalinist androids of International ANSWER are the organizers, the mainstream media is curiously uninterested.

It's a good film overall, although there is a bit too much emphasis of the "wiley commies duping oppressed peasants" variety. Mexicans come from a thinly veiled totalitarian state with much Marxist influence still firmly in place, so they are comfortable with leftist statism. The average education in Mexico is 6 years, so don't expect much critical analysis regarding the idea that America should become more like the failed state they escaped. Duh.
Furthermore Mexicans are happy to join up with anyone who professes hate for the United States, politics which they are taught as children.

• • •

Indiscriminate Discrimination [5/04/06]
The idea of affirmative action was that temporary preferences for black Americans in education and jobs would make up for the historical injustice of slavery. You may or may not agree with the policy, but it certainly was not created to give unfair advantage to legal and illegal immigrants who just arrived. These days, affirmative action actually harms black citizens by including immigrants in the mix. Somehow the redress of slavery has devolved into a vague desire for "diversity."

Here's an amendment that should be a part of any version of the bill: Affirmative action on the basis of race, color, or national origin should not be available to any temporary worker—or any recent immigrant, for that matter. In other words, immigrants shouldn't be given a preference in school admissions, public contracting, and employment on the basis of skin color or ethnicity.
After all, someone who has recently entered the country can hardly claim a right to favored treatment to make up for "historical discrimination" against him by American employers or any unit of government. He just got here.
Yet, amazingly, many recent immigrants are benefiting from our bizarre system of racial and ethnic preferences. Employment preferences present an obvious problem. A recent immigrant (or even a temporary worker) may also benefit when bidding for government contracts for which preferences are frequently awarded on the basis of race and ethnicity. Likewise, he—or a member of his family—might apply to enroll at a university where ethnic preferences are frequently awarded.
The profusion of such preferences is no far-fetched concern. The bean counters at corporations and universities—to say nothing of those in the government—use racial and ethnic preferences extensively, and make no effort to distinguish between new arrivals to this country and those who have been here for generations. Indeed, experience shows that universities are more likely to lower standards for more recent arrivals. At the University of Michigan law school a few years ago, for example, Cuban applicants were treated as "whites," and therefore were not only ineligible for racial preferences but discriminated against, while those of Mexican ancestry were treated in just the opposite way.

• • •

Speaking in (Many) Tongues Can Be Profitable [5/04/06]
Building a modern-day Babel in America has put a lot of money into some pockets. (Remember the Biblical Babel was a curse of God for mankind's arrogance in which many languages were created and people could no longer understand each other -- language diversity was not celebrated in the Old Testament.)
As a result of an unprecedented level of legal and illegal immigration, government agencies and businesses need translators of all sorts of languages. This article charts the transition of a Nigerian immigrant into a highly paid translation entrepreneur.
(Silly me, I studied German and Latin in school, rather than the languages of terrorists and criminals which are now valuable job skills.)

Thus began her trajectory from irregular $250-a-day courthouse stints to heading a company with $1 million in revenue last year. But more about that later. [...]
The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics says there were 31,000 translator and interpreter jobs in the country in 2004, up 40 percent since 2000, and estimates a further increase to 37,000, or 20 percent more, in 2014. (The bureau notes that the number of people in the business is "probably significantly higher" because many work part time.) The average full-time salary in 2004 was $38,000, with those employed by federal agencies averaging more than $70,000. About 2,000 of the jobs in 2004 were in New York State and about 500 in New Jersey and Connecticut.
But Kevin Hendzel, a spokesman for the American Translators Association, which represents about 8,000 translators and interpreters, predicted even sharper future growth, "based on the current demand." Aside from a severe shortage in "national security languages," among them Arabic, Farsi, Pashto and Dari, the demand, he said, is being driven by, globalization and by the need for interpreters in hospitals and courtrooms. The need at hospitals has been made more acute by a 2000 requirement that institutions receiving federal aid provide more effective service to people lacking English proficiency, he said.
As for Ms. Ugbebor, 54, she received her master's in chemistry in 1993, but has not worked as a chemist since then. Her courthouse work with defendants speaking Ibo and Yoruba, another major Nigerian language, led her supervisor at the court to refer her to the F.B.I. and D.E.A., for which, after getting security clearances, she translated secretly recorded conversations in drug-trafficking investigations involving Nigerians. In 1993, she said, she earned $100,000 from that and her court work.

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Breaking Through the Islamic Curtain [5/04/06]
This piece is an excerpt from Ayaan Hirsi Ali's new book. The Caged Virgin. She was a Somali immigrant to the Netherlands who became a member of that nation's Parliament, and now is an outspoken opponent against the brutality of Islam toward women. For her honesty, she has received numerous death threats from Islamists and must live under constant police protection.

About twelve years ago, at age twenty-two, I arrived in Western Europe, on the run from an arranged marriage. I soon learned that God and His truth had been humanized here. For Muslims life on earth is merely a transitory stage before the hereafter; but here people are also allowed to invest in their lives as mortals. What is more, hell seems no longer to exist, and God is a god of love rather than a cruel ruler who metes out punishments. I began to take a more critical look at my faith and discovered three important elements of Islam that had not particularly struck me before.
The first of these is that a Muslim's relationship with his God is one of fear. A Muslim's conception of God is absolute. Our God demands total submission. He rewards you if you follow His rules meticulously. He punishes you cruelly if you break His rules, both on earth, with illness and natural disasters, and in the hereafter, with hellfire.

For more about this courageous women, see An Enlightenment Fundamentalist

"My criticism of the West, especially of liberals, is that they do take freedom for granted,"

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Labor Site Backlash Felt at Polls In Herndon [5/03/06]
Washington politicians should take note of yesterday's municipal election in Herndon, Virginia, where supporters of a taxpayer-funded job site for illegal alien day laborers were voted out of office.

Herndon voters yesterday unseated the mayor and two Town Council members who supported a bitterly debated day-labor center for immigrant workers in a contest that emerged as a mini-referendum on the turbulent national issue of illegal immigration.
Residents replaced the incumbents with challengers who immediately called for significant changes at the center. Some want to bar public funds from being spent on the facility or restrict it to workers living in the country legally. Others want it moved to an industrial site away from the residential neighborhood where it is located.
The labor center forced the western Fairfax County town into the national spotlight last summer as the immigration debate grew deeply contentious. Even though fewer than 3,000 people voted yesterday, advocates on both sides of the issue looked at the Herndon election as a test of public sentiment. Outside groups such as the Minuteman Project, which opposes illegal immigration, intervened in the debate, and Judicial Watch, a conservative legal group, is suing the town over the establishment of the center.
The council voted 5 to 2 last August to establish the center, but yesterday's vote created an apparent 6 to 1 majority in opposition.

More commentary here.

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New Poll: Americans Prefer House Approach on Immigration [5/03/06]
As we say here all the time, Americans across the political spectrum want immigration to be legal, controlled and REDUCED. A recent Zogby poll concurred that most citizens understand that after decades of immigration permissiveness, a tough response is necessary to restore order and the respect for law.

• On immigration generally, Americans want less, not more, immigration. Only 26 percent said immigrants were assimilating fine and that immigration should continue at current levels, compared to 67 percent who said immigration should be reduced so we can assimilate those already here. [...]
• When offered by itself, there is strong support for the House bill [enforcement first]: 69 percent said it was a good or very good idea when told it tries to make illegals go home by fortifying the border, forcing employer verification, and encouraging greater cooperation with local law enforcement while not increasing legal immigration; 27 percent said it was a bad or very bad idea.
• Support for the House approach was widespread, with 81 percent of Republicans, 72 percent of independents, 57 percent of Democrats, and 53 percent of Hispanics saying it was good or very good idea.

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Reconquista is real [5/03/06]
Not only are the revanchist desires of Mexicans to acquire the American southwest through demographic warfare a political reality, the invaders are declaring their intentions daily.
Here's Michelle Malkin...

On the Sean Hannity radio show Monday, I debated (or rather listened to five minutes of screeching by) a young member of the radical group MeCha. A student at the University of San Francisco, she denied that her group still subscribed to 1960s identity politics, then promptly delivered a full-throated rant about Mexico's right to reclaim American territory: "We believe that we have the right to be in this land... Aztlan is California! Aztlan is this country! This country was oursŠWe didn't cross the borders. The borders crossed us... This country is based on exploitation!"
On NPR's "All Things Considered," Gloria Ramirez Vargas, a politician in Baja, Calif., rallied her constituents with a similar cry: "Many Mexicans are nourishing the ground in the U.S. , but those lands were once ours. Those same lands, which now with intelligence, with love and with a lot of work, we are re-conquering again for our Mexico."
On leading conservative talk show station KFI in Los Angeles, hosts John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou interviewed Tony Valdez, who also invoked "manifest destiny" as a rationale for supporting the sabotage of our immigration laws. He pontificated about 1846, recycled the "We didn't cross the borders" nonsense, inveighed against the war in Iraq, and exclaimed: "You took this country. You killed people in order to take this country for yourselves."

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Not even killer flu to shut U.S. border [5/02/06]
Yep, Americans could be dropping dead like flies, but the border will remain open, because business must have its supply of willing slaves.

While nationwide demonstrations focus America's attention on the issue of illegal immigration and U.S. borders, the federal government will apparently not close the border even in the face of deadly bird flu or a super strain of influenza.
That according to a draft of the national response plan obtained by the Associated Press.
The report says a major outbreak of disease could prompt the government to limit international flights, quarantine exposed travelers and restrict movement in and around the country, with the exception of the border.

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Star-Spanglish [5/02/06]
Investors' Business Daily shreds the Spanish "version" of the Star Spangled Banned as the Mexican propaganda item it truly is.

But "Himno" isn't just another arrangement of the old drinking song that has bedeviled singers ever since it was adopted as the anthem's tune. It's a whole new anthem with a new theme. The mere fact that it's in Spanish is a protest against assimilation. The "we" behind "nuestro" does not refer to all Americans. It refers specifically to those who do not speak the common American tongue and yet insist that they are as American as anyone.
We can see the argument that a faithful attempt at translation is a sign of respect, and of a desire to spread the message of the original (think of the Bible). But "Nuestro Himno" isn't a translation. It's a re-interpretation. And it's not really about Americans.
When it says, "Mi gente sigue luchando" ("My people fighting on"), it's not talking about people who faced down the British in Baltimore Harbor. It's talking about the people who took off work and marched on Monday. And what are they fighting against? Not some foreign invader, but the immigration laws of their host country.

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Showing they don't respect the law [5/02/06]
Dave Gorak of Midwest Coalition to Reduce Immigration correctly characterizes the May Day intimidation rallies as an attack on Americans' values, laws and standard of living.

This "protest" is about disrespect. It is about lies. And it is about callous indifference to the plight of 14 million underemployed American workers, a disproportionate number of them poor, who are forced to compete with foreigners for jobs they once did -- but for better wages. Has anybody noticed that in today's "inclusive" society, it appears that you have to be foreign-born in order to be entitled to "search for a better life"?
Among the many lies we hear from the open-borders advocates is that immigrants do the "dirty and dangerous" jobs Americans won't do. How many of the 14 West Virginia coal miners who died on the job in January were illegal aliens? Answer: none.
If, according to a recent labor report from the Pew Center for Hispanic Studies, 20 percent of this nation's cooks are foreigners, who is doing the remaining 80 percent? Answer: American citizens.
Many of these low-skilled jobs were done by black Americans who now, thanks to today's immigration nightmare, are being pushed to the back of the political, social and economic bus.

To see the sort of extreme America-haters who fill these demonstrations, don't miss the Pajamas Media video interview of assorted supporters of illegal aliens.
Another jaw-dropper is the audio of Los Angeles reporter shrieking Aztlan propaganda at radio guys John and Ken.

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May Day Photos, San Francisco [5/01/06]
May Day Revolutionary San Francisco
Click the link to see photos from the May Day anarchy-fest in San Francisco.

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