Thursday, April 20, 2006

A DAY WITHOUT AN AMERICAN

Immigration: No Longer Melting“This flag bows to no earthly king” – U.S. flag bearer at the 1908 Olympic Games

I must ask the pro-immigration activists the following questions:

    * As I see my American flag being flown upside down, burned, or conveniently thrown into trash cans following your demonstrations, am I not supposed to feel insulted?
    * As you hold up banners & wear t-shirts emblazoned with the face of communist revolutionary Che Guevara, am I supposed to believe you want democracy?
    * As I read signs that say, “Whitey go back to Europe” and “We will take back California for Mexico”, am I supposed to feel warm and fuzzy about your hostile intentions?
    * As I read the e-mails of immigration activists conspiring to shut down the Los Angeles International Airport and the Los Angeles Port Authority on May 1st, am I not supposed to see that as an attack upon my country?
    * Why should America grant you amnesty when there is such a pre-disposition on your part to be anti-American?
    * How would you feel if Americans were exhibiting the same outrageous behavior in your native country?

Passing the Kennedy-McCain bill not only grants amnesty to the 11 million illegal aliens currently in this country, it opens the floodgates for their families to immigrate as well. Based upon numbers reported by CNN and Fox News, it is estimated that such a policy of blanket amnesty will result in the immigration of somewhere in the neighborhood of 36 million people. Taking the current US population of 295 million into account, the 26 million family members who will join the 11 million immigrants already residing in this country will add an additional 9% to our population! To make matters worse, the overwhelming majority of these new citizens will not speak English and as a result will live below the poverty level.

According to US census records, approximately 11% of Americans currently live below the poverty level & 21.2% of all Hispanics live below the poverty level. If we apply the 21.2% number to the 36 million citizens that would be granted amnesty under Kennedy-McCain, you have an increase of 7.6 million citizens who will be added to our nations poverty index. The incontrovertible result will be disastrous for the economy, taxes will go through the ceiling to pay for welfare and subsidies, and crime will skyrocket due to the fact that the majority of crime is committed by individuals living below the poverty level.

Americans have an obligation to do what is right for its country, its citizens, and its economy. Americans have the right to dictate its future, not the 11 million illegal immigrants who have slipped across our border in order to demand entitlements. Americans CAN live a day without 11 million illegal aliens, and if challenged to do so, I assure we will not only do so but we will prosper from the experience.

The anti-immigration argument is NOT about racism; it’s about self-determination for America’s future. However, Latino activists are trying to twist the argument into the myth that it’s about self-determination for their future.

Let’s examine one more set of statistics & apply it to a model for self-determination. If there are 11 million illegal immigrants in this country at present, and 74% are of Mexican descent, then 8.14 million of the illegal immigrants are Mexican. If these same 8.14 million people stood in mass outside of the Mexican capitol and demanded democratic change in their government, they would soon be joined by millions more disenfranchised Mexican citizens, and positive changes would absolutely occur in their favor. However, this will not happen, and somehow the immigration advocates see the whole debacle as America’s responsibility to solve.

While immigration advocates expect America to solve its problems, I hear little or nothing from these activists on the subject of the impact of integrating 36 million immigrants with the 284 million legal citizens who already reside here. The issue od such an impact is ignored by immigration advocates because their goal is not about becoming a part of America, it’s about exploiting the benefits that they will receive from enjoying our form of government. The only “correction” in the pro-immigration message I have seen thus far has been a change in their PR strategy. Instead of burning our flags while their own national flag is held in high esteem, suddenly every protester is issued an American flag to wave in front of the liberal media & we are supposed to believe that all of the previous week’s anti-American sentiments have magically melted away.

Shame on Kennedy, McCain and every other politician who is willing to whore out this country by putting the interests of illegal aliens ahead of American citizens in their quest to gain the Hispanic vote. Clearly, our elected officials cannot be trusted on this subject. The overwhelming majority of Americans are adamantly against any variation on amnesty for illegal aliens & our cries of protest have fallen on deaf ears.

In my humble opinion, I feel that the best solution to the whole immigration issue is to have the politicians draft various immigration proposals and hold a special national ballot initiative that allows the American voters choose what they feel is in their best interest. I’m pretty certain most Americans would use their vote to keep their country a place that wraps itself in the flag rather than lighting it on fire.

THE LIMBAUGH LAWS ON IMMIGRATION

The “Limbaugh Laws” for immigration. Be sure to read the whole message, especially the last paragraph. From Rush Limbaugh’s radio show on April 6, 2006.

    I want to call this proposal the Limbaugh Laws.

    If you immigrate to the United States of America, you must speak the native language. You have to be a professional or an investor. We are not going to take unskilled workers. You will not be allowed.*

    There will be no special bilingual programs in the schools, no special ballots for elections, no government business will be conducted in your native language.

    Foreigners will not have the right to vote nor will they ever be allowed to hold political office.

    According to the Limbaugh Laws, if you’re in our country, you cannot be a burden to taxpayers.

    You are not entitled, ever, to welfare, to food stamps, or other government goodies.

    You can come if you invest here, but it must be an amount equal to 40,000 times the daily minimum wage. If you don’t have that amount of money you have to stay home. If you do come and you want to buy land you will not be allowed to buy waterfront property in the United States. That will be reserved for citizens naturally born in this country. As a foreigner, you must relinquish individual rights to property.

    You don’t have the right to protest when you come here. You’re allowed no demonstrations, you cannot wave a foreign flag, no political organizing, no bad-mouthing our president or his policies or you get sent home.

    You’re a foreigner. You shut your mouth or you get out, and if you come here illegally, you go straight to jail and we’re going to hunt you down ’til we find you.

    These are the Limbaugh Laws.

    I can imagine many of you think that the Limbaugh Laws are pretty harsh. Well, let me tell you this, every one of the laws I just mentioned are actual laws of Mexico, today. I just read you Mexican immigration law. That’s how the Mexican government handles immigrants to their country.

A big hat tip to Steve Frank, who writes:

“The issue is illegal aliens, not immigration. But, what if we treated immigrants and illegal aliens like Mexico does? Why not? Unless you consider Mexico a racist and discriminatory nation.”

More Limbaugh:
If You Don’t Secure the Border, You Don’t Have a Country

RELATED:
Rethinking The Statue of Liberty
Mexicans Make A Run For The Border:
What Will Washington Do About It?

Immigration Protest in LA: Photo Essay
DNC Action Plan: Diversify The “Diversity”

POLITICALLY-TIMED IMMIGRATION RAIDS

I speak regularly with dedicated men and women who work for the Department of Homeland Security, and especially agents from across the country who work for the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

I can tell you based on my reporting over the last five years that the Bush administration's belated efforts to look tough on immigration enforcement at worksites amount to a cynical, politically timed effort to salvage the White House's guest worker program dreams and schemes. I'm referring to this story linked prominently today on Drudge and spread elsewhere:

Federal immigration authorities rounded up more than 1,000 illegal immigrants at dozens of sites and charged nine individuals of the firm that employed them, federal law enforcement officials announced. Seven current and former managers of IFCO Systems, which has offices in several states, were arrested and charged in connection with the employment of illegal immigrants, said U.S. Attorney Glenn Suddaby in Albany, New York.

Suddaby said two lower level employees were also charged in the case.

Wednesday's action against IFCO Systems -- an industry leader in the manufacture of wooden pallets, crates and containers -- came as Homeland Security and Justice Department officials prepared to announce steps to toughen internal enforcement of the nation's immigration laws.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and other Bush administration officials and a federal prosecutor will appear at the agency's Washington headquarters Thursday. They will announce the new strategy aimed at employers and disclose the results of the enforcement actions targeting IFCO Systems.

Customs officials said agents made more than a thousand arrests in nearly 40 locations including Houston, Texas; Cincinnati, Ohio; Phoenix, Arizona; and Albany, New York.

Well, this is all sounds good and tough...until you look at the Bush administration's record for the last several years. Don't be fooled.

For those covering DHS Secretary Chertoff's press conference today, ask him to explain this:

employerstats.jpg
Via Edwin S. Rubenstein. Sources: GAO, "Immigration Enforcement: Weaknesses Hinder Employment Verification and Worksite Enforcement Efforts," August 2005. Figures 3, 4, and 5. (1999-2004.); Dept. of Homeland Security, 2003 Yearbook of Immigration Statistics, September 2004. Table 39. (1997-1998); Dept. of Homeland Security, 2001 Statistical Yearbook, Table 61. (1992-1996).

As Rubenstein points out, this means that from 1997 to 2003, worksite arrests under the Bush administration fell by a factor of some 97 percent since 1997--and plunged by another 2/3rds by 2004.

Where have they been all this time?

As for getting tough on employers, Rubenstein also notes these stunning statistics: "[O]f the 3,064 workforce investigations closed [in 2004], fines were imposed in just 3 (three!) of them – one out of one thousand. . By contrast, fines were imposed in about 11 percent of closed investigations in 1997."

Notices of intent to fine employers:

1997: 865
1999: 417
2000: 178
2001: 100
2003: 162
2004: 3

Based on my reporting and interviews with ICE agents, I can also tell you that this week's dog-and-pony show will result in very few of the arrested illegal aliens actually being deported. Despite what the administration claims, "catch and release" is still the order of the day.

Just ask local and federal law enforcement officers in the Galveston, Texas, area, where in January of this year, following a collaborative effort between local police and area ICE agents, some 62 illegal aliens were caught at a day labor site...and released after local open-borders activists from LULAC kicked up a fuss and Washington ordered its local ICE agents to cave in. It happens every day.

More Bush-era catch-and-release background:here and here and here. and here. Must-read from indefatigable deportation analyst Juan Mann here.

You want "comprehensive immigration reform?" Then stop talking about making existing problems worse by piling on a new guest worker/amnesty program.

Clean our own house first.

***

Blogger reax:

La Shawn Barber is "glad to read any story with the words 'illegal immigration' and 'arrest' in it." She links to a justifiably cynical Dan Riehl .

Previous this month:

The mess at DHS