Saturday, May 27, 2006

ANCHOR BABIES: ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY FOR ILLEGAL ALIEN FRAUD

Mexico does not allow foreigners to birth a child that then automatically becomes a citizen. In fact NO nation allows that.

In fact, Mexico doesn’t allow a foreigner — even if they become a citizen, to be an elected official, a Judge, law officer or firefighter! Yet, in our nation, a woman can sneak into this country, have a baby at the expense of the US taxpayers, get food stamps, health care and education for their children, ALL FOR FREE to her. Then when the first one becomes 21 years old, they can petition to allow the mother (and the father if he shows up, illegally) to become United States citizens. All the while honest people in other nations wait years and years to be allowed to come here, and more years to become citizens. [See “Anchors away,” by Mona Charen below] Of course, how do we prove these are the parents? Will the US taxpayer have to pay for DNA testing? Remember, these are no honest people we are dealing with, these are folks who sneaked into our nation, use phony Social Security cards, steal social services from honest, needy citizens. Will there will a black market in “parents”, where a 21 year old sells the right to be his parent, so they can become citizens — how about $5,000 or $10,000 to cut in line? What would another lie mean, or more violations of our laws?

If President Bush wants a “comprehensive” immigration plan (it is not an immigration plan, that we already have. It is an amnesty plan he is pushing in the US Senate — to create rules to allow law breakers to be rewarded for violating our laws) than it must also fix the “Anchor baby” problem and end the “right” to petition to allow law breakers to validate criminal activity by giving their parents petitions for citizenship.

The point here is that there are so many esoteric issues in this matter. Whether criminals, folks that use phony Social Security cards, (and that is a criminal offense) should be allowed to collect Social Security — if they have been violating the law for ten years or more? You even see Senator Kennedy argue, amazingly, that illegal aliens don’t have to be paid minimum wage! Any further evidence needed of the hypocrisy of the Left — Kennedy WANTS illegal aliens exploited, there is no other explanation for this.

President Bush says it would be “too cumbersome” to enforce our current laws and deport more than 12 million illegal aliens. Yet, he wants to create a system where the IRS has to investigate each illegal alien for back taxes, the FBI for criminal records, etc.

What do you think? Forward this article to your friends, let them comment on it as well.

“Anchors” away
By Mona Charen
Townhall.com May 19, 2006

In 1970, six percent of all births in the United States were to illegal aliens. In 2002, that figure was 23 percent. In 1994, 36 percent of the births paid for by Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid, were to illegals. That figure has doubtless increased in the intervening 12 years as the rate of illegal immigration has risen.

Any child born in the United States automatically becomes a U.S. citizen. He or she is instantly eligible for panoply of social services, food stamps and other forms of aid. When the child reaches the age of 21, he can petition to have his parents and siblings declared permanent residents.

The so-called “anchor baby” phenomenon is a hidden trap door beneath any guest worker program, because a significant number of guest workers will have babies while in the United States and will thus elude any effort to send them home. (There are other problems with guest worker schemes: the difficulty of enforcement, the creation of permanently alienated subgroups such as Europe has created of its Muslim immigrants, and the problem of uprooting even the non-citizen children of guest workers who have spent years in the United States.) [READ THE FULL ARTICLE]

Steve Frank is the publisher of California Political News and Views and a Senior Contributor to CaliforniaConservative.org. He is also a consultant currently working on gambling issues and advising other consultants on policy and coalition building. Read more of his work here or at his blog.

SENATOR DEMINT'S TOP TEN REASONS TO OPPOSE THE SENATE BILL ON IMMIGRATION

From the office of Senator Jim DeMint, (R-SC):

Washington, D.C. - Today, Senator Jim DeMint (R-S.C) announced his intention to vote against the Senate immigration compromise that would grant amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants. Senator DeMint also released his “Top Ten Reasons to Oppose the Senate Amnesty Bill”.

“We will never solve the problem of illegal immigration by rewarding those who break our laws,” said Senator DeMint. “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.”

“This bill fails to do that. Instead, it guarantees amnesty with only the promise of border security and enforcement. We tried the same formula in 1986, and it only made the problem worse. This puts those here illegally in front of those waiting to enter the right way, and that’s the wrong message for a nation of laws to send.”

Top Ten Reasons to Oppose The Senate Amnesty Bill

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

As noted by former Attorney General Ed Meese in the New York Times on May 24, 2006: “Like the amnesty bill of 1986, the current Senate proposal would place those who have resided illegally in the United States on a path to citizenship, provided they meet a similar set of conditions and pay a fine and back taxes. The illegal immigrant does not go to the back of the line but gets immediate legalized status, while law-abiding applicants wait in their home countries for years to even get here. And that's the line that counts. In the end, slight differences in process do not change the overriding fact that the 1986 law and today's bill are both amnesties.”

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

The bill’s guest worker program would allow millions of illegal immigrants to qualify for permanent green cards within four years. Additionally, the Senate approved Senator Kennedy’s amendment that each year would allow up to 200,000 immigrants who cross the border illegally and work just 6 days a year (including self employment) to qualify for a permanent green card.

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

This bill is estimated to skyrocket the number of immigrants, from its current level of 19 million over the next 20 years, to an unprecedented number. Heritage Foundation: “...[O]ur estimate of the number of legal immigrants who would enter the country or would gain legal status under S. 2611 … [would be] 66 million over the next 20 years.”

4. Insufficient Border Security

The Senate rejected an amendment by Senator Isakson that would have prohibited the implementation of any guest worker program that grants legal status to those who have entered the country illegally until the Secretary of Homeland Security has certified to the President and to the Congress that the border security provisions in the immigration legislation are fully funded and operational.

While the Senate adopted Senator Sessions’ amendment to increase “real fencing” by 370 miles and add 500 miles of vehicle barriers, the House passed a bill requiring at least 700 miles of “real fencing”, a more likely needed amount to secure the 2,000 mile long border.

5. Terrorist Loophole Disarms Law Enforcement

Heritage Foundation reported May 24, 2006: “The Senate’s immigration reform proposal … would restrict local police to arresting aliens for criminal violations of immigration law only, not civil violations. The results would be disastrous. All of the hijackers on (9-11) who committed immigration violations committed civil violations. Under the bill, police officers would have no power to arrest such terrorists.”

6. Social Security Benefits, Tax Credits for Illegal Work

The Senate rejected Senator Ensign’s amendment that would have prevented Social Security benefits from being awarded to immigrants for time that they worked illegally in the United States. If the immigration compromise bill before the Senate were enacted into law, an estimated 12 million illegal workers would be able to use their past illegal work to qualify for Social Security benefits.

Provisions in S. 2611 would require newly legalized immigrants to file tax returns for work they performed while in the U.S. illegally. And while some would be required to pay back taxes, many others could qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit, which has a maximum payout of $4,400 per year.

7. Costs Over $50 Billion A Year to Federal Government; States Foot The Bill for Immigrant Health Care

Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation described the bill as a “fiscal catastrophe,” and has said the measure would prove to be the largest expansion of government welfare in 35 years. According to Rector, the bill would increase long-term federal spending by at least $50 billion a year.

The Senate bill does not reimburse state and local governments for health care and education costs related to the millions of undocumented immigrants. While the underlying bill creates a state impact assistance account for future temporary workers, it is an unfunded account.

8. Hurts Small Business

The Senate approved an amendment by Senator Obama extending Davis-Bacon “prevailing wage” provisions for guest workers, but not American citizens, in all occupations covered by Davis-Bacon (currently limited to federally paid work). Small businesses would be forced to pay inflated wages to guest workers above the pay American citizens receive for performing the same work.

9. Gives Some Immigrant Workers Greater Job Protection Than American Workers

As reported by Robert Novak of Chicago Sun Times on May 24, 2006: “The bill supposedly would protect American workers by ensuring that new immigrants would not take away jobs. However, the bill's definition of ‘United States worker’ includes temporary foreign guest workers, so the protection is meaningless… Foreign guest farm workers, admitted under the bill, cannot be ‘terminated from employment by any employer ... except for just cause.’ In contrast, American ag workers can be fired for any reason.”

10. Weak Assimilation/English Requirements

The Senate approved Senator Inhofe’s amendment to make English the national language and require those seeking citizenship to demonstrate English proficiency and understanding of U.S. History. However, a far weaker amendment by Senator Salazar gutted the Inhofe amendment, leaving it in doubt, and also giving immigrants the right to demand the federal government communicate with them in any language they choose.

DO IT YOURSELF BORDER PATROL

The Minutemen began a fence-building project in Arizona today--and they didn't ask Mexico's permission. Chris Simcox issued a statement announcing the construction project now underway:

Chris Simcox, President of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps (“MCDC”), today announced plans by the MCDC to work with local Arizona land owners to build border security fencing on private land along the border with Mexico.

At present, six private land owners have partnered with the Minutemen for the commencement of construction of border fencing on their land. Surveillance cameras on the fencing will be monitored via computer by registered Minutemen across the country. We have chosen a fence design that is based on the Israeli fences in Gaza and on the West Bank that have cut terrorist attacks there by 95% or more. In order to be effective, a fence should not be easy to compromise by climbing over it with a ladder, cutting through it with wire cutters, ramming it with a vehicle, or tunneling under it undetected. No fence can be a 100% impenetrable barrier—but a good design will be time-consuming enough to get through that Border Patrol agents can be alerted to get to a point of attempted intrusion before the intrusion can be completed. We thank Colin Hanna and We Need A Fence.com for the design concept.

Simcox says those involved in the planning hope to keep costs near $150 per foot.

Two construction companies to date have offered to inaugurate groundbreaking, coordinate volunteer construction crews and donate the use of the necessary heavy construction equipment.

The groundbreaking will begin in Arizona on Memorial Day weekend, unless in the interim President Bush deploys National Guard and reserve troops to immediately secure the out-of-control southern border.

The fencing will be built with privately donated funds, engineering and labor and will be used as an example to educate the public about the feasibility and efficacy of fencing to secure America’s borders from illegal incursion by aliens and international criminal cartels. A non-profit organization dedicated specifically to this purpose will facilitate and administer donations for construction of the fence. Monetary and in-kind contributions for this effort will go directly into building materials for this private, volunteer fencing project.

Wanna help? Go here.

SENSENBRENNER: HOUSE REPUBLICANS FIRM ON IMMIGRATION BILL

The AP’s Suzanne Gamboa that Jim Sensenbrenner, (R-WI), Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, remains firm in a number of his demands. Here’s some details from her article:

“This will set up a very difficult House-Senate conference committee because the approaches taken by the House and Senate on this issue have been 180 degrees apart,” said Rep. James Sensenbrenner, chairman of the Judiciary Committee and principal author of the more stringent House bill. “Amnesty is wrong,” he told a news conference.

Yesterday I wrote that the House, Senate Moving Towards Each Other, based on several quotes, including this Sensenbrenner quote
“I don’t think anything is a deal-breaker,” Sensenbrenner, who will lead House negotiators, said in a CBS appearance. “We can’t have legal proceedings to deport 11 to 12 million people, that is evident.” I’ll take Mr. Sensenbrenner at his word that there won’t be “legal proceedings to deport 11 to 12 million people”.
That said, I think it’s clear that there won’t be an eagerness on his part to establish an earned citizenship program right away.

My best guess is that he’ll demand that there be proof that the border is sealed off before the earned citizenship program would start. I’m also betting that he’ll demand that the silly Dodd Amendment be eliminated and the Sessions Amendment be strengthened in conference. The Dodd Amendment simply says that we must consult with the Mexican government before we build the wall and the vehicle barriers. That thing’s history already. There’s no way that Sensenbrenner will consent to that. I suspect that Sensenbrenner might, at most, agree to a provision that says we’ll notify the Mexican government when and where we’ll build the barriers and walls.

We’ll almost certainly see the Sessions Amendment, which provides for 370 miles of triple-layered walls and 500 miles of vehicle barriers, strengthened to a number much closer to the House’s 700 miles of triple-layered walls.

Bush, walking down the White House Colonnade with British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Friday morning, ignored a shouted question about whether the House and Senate will be able to compromise. But he did say that an effective measure would protect U.S. borders, make employers responsible for people they hire, create a temporary worker program, deal with the illegal immigrants already in the U.S. and “honor America’s great tradition of the melting pot.”

If you read between the lines, you see the outlines for a compromise coming out. Notice that the President is saying that securing the border and holding employers accountable is as much a priority of his as the temp worker program and dealing with illegal immigrants. I don’t think that that’s the type of thing that Ted Kennedy, John McCain and Dick Durbin want to hear.