New York is upset that Medicaid is no longer allowing chemo for illegals.

The federal government has told New York State health officials that chemotherapy, which had been covered for illegal immigrants under a government-financed program for emergency medical care, does not qualify for coverage. The decision sets the stage for a battle between the state and federal governments over how medical emergencies are defined.

The change comes amid a fierce national debate on providing medical care to immigrants, with New York State officials and critics saying this latest move is one more indication of the Bush administrationÂ’s efforts to exclude the uninsured from public health services.

State officials in New York and other states have found themselves caught in the middle. The New York dispute, focusing on illegal immigrants with cancer — a marginal group of unknown size among the more than 500,000 people living in New York illegally — has become a flash point for health officials and advocates for immigrants in recent weeks.

Under a limited provision of Medicaid, the national health program for the poor, the federal government permits emergency coverage for illegal immigrants and other noncitizens. But the Bush administration has been more closely scrutinizing and increasingly denying state claims for federal payment for some emergency services, Medicaid experts said.

Last month, federal officials, concluding an audit that began in 2004 and was not challenged by the state until now, told New York State that they would no longer provide matching funds for chemotherapy under the emergency program. Yesterday, state officials sent a letter to the federal Medicaid agency protesting the change, saying that doctors, not the federal government, should determine when chemotherapy is needed.

The problem with that argument is not, of course, that th federal government is defining what is needed. Rather, it is defining what is "emergency" care, and determining whether or not medical care is entitled to reimbursement from federal funds. And since long-term chemotherapy is chronic, rather than emergency, care, it clearly is not covered under the limited exception to the law that is intended to provide critical care in the case of an immediate medical crisis.

If an illegal immigrant needs chemo, let him or her return to the country of origin and receive the health care there under whatever medical program their home country has. And if the home country has no such program, explain to me again why I, as an American taxpayer, should provide it for a persona who is in this country in violation of our nation's laws.

However, if the state of New York disagrees, it may opt to spend its own tax dollars for the non-emergency treatment of border-jumpers. Similarly, private charities can step in and cover the cost. But the demand for illegal reimbursements for medical care for illegal aliens is unacceptable.

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Posted by: Greg at 01:56 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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You know, since San Francisco canÂ’t secede from the United States.

After all, they have established their own economic, defense and foreign policies, and have abrogated the First Amendment by condemning Christianity and subsidizing Islam.

Now they want to establish their own immigration policy, and force folks to accept their immigration papers.

San Francisco Supervisor Tom Ammiano is drafting legislation to create a city identification card for immigrants unable to get traditional ID cards, a move likely to anger advocates of tougher immigration enforcement.

The cards would be accepted by all city agencies and organizations that receive city funding. Ammiano plans to introduce the legislation within a couple of weeks. He also is trying to persuade financial institutions to allow residents to use the cards to open accounts.

"There is a large community who contribute, and there are not a lot of safeguards around their (immigration) status, their piece of mind and their ability to participate," Ammiano said, adding that the card would be available to all people living in San Francisco regardless of their immigration status.

San Francisco could be the first large American city to have such a card. New Haven, Conn., has such a program, and New York City is considering one.

Ammiano said the impetus for the city cards came from the immigrant community, which asked for his help. Illegal immigrants who are victims or witnesses of crime often do not report the incident because they have no identification and fear deportation. Identification also is needed for many services, such as city health care.

San Francisco already has a sanctuary policy for immigrants, which means no city agency, including the police, will assist the federal government to deport people. So-called sanctuary cities have become a major issue among Republican presidential candidates.

It seems clear that there is a fundamental incompatibility between the policies of San Francisco and those of the United States. Rather than force them to be a part of a nation they so clearly hate, we simply need to put up a border fence around San Francisco and recognize their sovereignty and independence.

Oh, yeah – and then close the border there, too.

Posted by: Greg at 09:30 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Another outrage that will allow for increased illegal immigration -- and perhaps terrorism.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in Texas have been ordered to abbreviate national security checks at one of the nation"s busiest ports of entry to speed up travel between the United States and Mexico, according to official documents and multiple interviews with agents.

An Aug. 16 memorandum from CBP El Paso field office Director Luis Garcia directs agents to limit inspections of vehicle and pedestrian border crossers as wait times escalate. The document, obtained by The Washington Times, sets new guidelines that border inspectors say undermine efforts to prevent terrorists and other criminals from entering the United States.

The memo says:

• If wait time is 45 minutes or less, officers are required to query all drivers and passengers older than 18 and ensure that the license plate is correct.

• If wait time is 45 to 60 minutes, customs officers are to query only the driver and 50 percent of the passengers. Also, the officers are not to conduct compartment checks and density-meter readings used to find contraband.

• If wait time is 60 to 120 minutes or more — the average wait at the numerous crossings — they are to query only the driver and ensure that the license plate is correct.

"At 30 to 40 minutes of 'wait time,' we were querying the driver only at the request of our supervisors," said an El Paso customs agent, who spoke with The Washington Times this month on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

"Basically, we were only running the documents of the driver every fifth vehicle, so everyone else was coming in without being checked to the same standards. Even if you stick with the letter of this memo, it still falls short for national security purposes."

I suppose, of course that this is necessary to ensure that all the illegally enrolled Mexican kids in El Paso schools and all the illegally employed local workers are not late. it wouldn't due to inconvenience those who break the law, even if it does make American citizens less safe.

Posted by: Greg at 10:47 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Absolutely shocking.

The Social Security Administration cannot start sending out letters to employers next week that carry with them more serious penalties for knowingly hiring illegal immigrants, a federal judge ruled Friday.

Ruling on a lawsuit by the nation's largest federation of labor unions against the U.S. government, U.S. District Judge Maxine Chesney granted a temporary restraining order prohibiting the so-called "no-match" letters from going out as planned starting Tuesday.

The AFL-CIO lawsuit, filed this week, claims that new Department of Homeland Security rules outlined in accompanying letters threaten to violate workers' rights and unfairly burden employers. Chesney said the court needs "breathing room" before making any decision on the legality of new penalties aimed at cracking down on the hiring of illegal immigrants.

She set the next hearing on the matter for Oct. 1.

Excuse me -- you are required to have a valid SSN to work. Such letters have been sent for years, but employers have ignored them. How is making the penalty stiffer a violation of anyone's right -- except the right of illegal aliens to work illegally, and the right of employers to break the law by employing them?

Posted by: Greg at 04:06 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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With her history of lawbreaking and border jumping, I think it would be appropriate top declare her persona non grata so that she can NEVER legally return to this country under any circumstance.

The recently deported illegal migrant and activist who took refuge in a Chicago church for a year, has asked the Mexico's president to appoint her "peace and justice" ambassador so she can return to the United States.

Elvira Arellano, 32, who sought refuge to avoid being separated from her U.S.-born, 8-year-old son, was arrested and sent back to Mexico on Aug. 19 after traveling to Los Angeles to attend a rally for the overhaul of U.S. immigration laws. Her son stayed in the United States.

"What I'm asking for is a diplomatic visa so that I can be an ambassador for peace and justice because I'm not a terrorist and the United States can't continue treating undocumented migrants as terrorists," Arellano told reporters after meeting with President Felipe Calderon at the presidential residence, Los Pinos.

There is no reason for us to recognize any diplomatic status the Mexicans give her – and every reason to permanently ban her from American soil.

Posted by: Greg at 12:00 PM | Comments (179) | Add Comment
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Take away the jobs, and the border jumpers leave.

Undocumented immigrants are starting to leave Arizona because of the new employer-sanctions law.

The state's strong economy has been a magnet for illegal immigrants for years. But a growing number are pulling up stakes out of fear they will be jobless come Jan. 1, when the law takes effect. The departures are drawing cheers from immigration hard-liners and alarm from business owners already seeing a drop in sales.

It's impossible to count how many undocumented immigrants have fled because of the new law. But based on interviews with undocumented immigrants, immigrant advocates, community leaders and real-estate agents, at least several hundred have left since Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano signed the bill on July 2. There are an estimated 500,000 illegal immigrants in Arizona.

Some are moving to other states, where they think they will have an easier time getting jobs. Others are returning to Mexico, selling their effects and putting their houses on the market.

The number departing is expected to mushroom as the Jan. 1 deadline draws closer. After that, the law will require employers to verify the employment eligibility of their workers through a federal database.

"I would say we are losing at least 100 people a day," said Elias Bermudez, founder of Immigrants Without Borders and host of a daily talk-radio program aimed at undocumented immigrants.

Here's hoping that the rate increases as the deadline looms.

And that other states – and the federal government – impose similar employer sanctions.

Posted by: Greg at 02:26 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Take away the jobs, and the border jumpers leave.

Undocumented immigrants are starting to leave Arizona because of the new employer-sanctions law.

The state's strong economy has been a magnet for illegal immigrants for years. But a growing number are pulling up stakes out of fear they will be jobless come Jan. 1, when the law takes effect. The departures are drawing cheers from immigration hard-liners and alarm from business owners already seeing a drop in sales.

It's impossible to count how many undocumented immigrants have fled because of the new law. But based on interviews with undocumented immigrants, immigrant advocates, community leaders and real-estate agents, at least several hundred have left since Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano signed the bill on July 2. There are an estimated 500,000 illegal immigrants in Arizona.

Some are moving to other states, where they think they will have an easier time getting jobs. Others are returning to Mexico, selling their effects and putting their houses on the market.

The number departing is expected to mushroom as the Jan. 1 deadline draws closer. After that, the law will require employers to verify the employment eligibility of their workers through a federal database.

"I would say we are losing at least 100 people a day," said Elias Bermudez, founder of Immigrants Without Borders and host of a daily talk-radio program aimed at undocumented immigrants.

Here's hoping that the rate increases as the deadline looms.

And that other states – and the federal government – impose similar employer sanctions.

Posted by: Greg at 02:26 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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No wonder we have a problem with border jumpers and drug smugglers breaking American law and sneaking into the US -- it isn't the job of the Border Patrol to stop them.

At least not according to Carlos X. Carrillo, Border Patrol chief of Laredo, Texas.

A Border Patrol chief at one of the nation's most dangerous Southwest border crossings says the agency's mission doesn't include apprehending illegal aliens or seizing narcotics — perplexing front-line agents and angering a congressional critic of illegal immigration.

"I've said it before and I'll say it again," Carlos X. Carrillo, Border Patrol chief of Laredo, Texas, told guests at a town-hall meeting Thursday. "The Border Patrol's job is not to stop illegal immigrants. The Border Patrol's job is not to stop narcotics. ... The Border Patrol's mission is not to stop criminals.

"The Border Patrol's mission is to stop terrorists and terrorist weapons from entering the country."

Law-enforcement agencies consider Laredo to be one of the Southwest's most dangerous border crossings. It is the sister city of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, which is controlled by one of that country's most ruthless drug-smuggling rings.

Somebody needs to explain to Carrillo that the interdiction of drugs and immigration criminals is a big part of his agency's job.

Better yet, somebody in Washington needs to tell him that he needs to find a new job, because he no longer works for the US government.

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Posted by: Greg at 08:37 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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I applaud this decision.

In contrast to the months before and after the 2000 census was conducted, federal officials say they will not suspend raids on illegal immigrants during the population count in 2010.

“We would not even consider scaling back our efforts,” said Pat A. Reilly, a spokeswoman for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. The census counts all residents, legal and illegal.

This month, Preston Jay Waite, the Census BureauÂ’s deputy director, cautioned in an interview that raids during the population count would further discourage an already distrustful group from cooperating with government enumerators. Mr. Waite said federal officials did not conduct raids for several months before and after the 2000 census.

Given how politically volatile an issue immigration has become, however, Mr. Waite was quoted by The Associated Press as saying that enforcement agencies “may not be able to give us as much of a break” in 2010.

We don't suspend other law enforcement activities at the time of the Census so that we can guarantee an accurate count. We still pick up thieves, rapists, and murders, even though it makes them less likely to fill out a census form or answer the door for a census worker. The public would be outraged if we did.

And for the same reason, we should give no quarter to border jumping immigration criminals.

Posted by: Greg at 11:20 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I donÂ’t know any other word for this course of action.

A Mexican Senate committee passed a measure Wednesday urging President Felipe Calderon to send a diplomatic note to the United States protesting the deportation of an illegal migrant who took refuge in a Chicago church for a year.

The committee also approved a scholarship to help her 8-year-old U.S.-born son, Saul, who is an American citizen and stayed in the United States.

Elvira Arellano, 32, became an activist and a national symbol for illegal immigrant parents by defying her deportation order and speaking out from her sanctuary in the Adalberto United Methodist Church. She announced last week that she was leaving to try to lobby U.S. lawmakers for immigration reform.

On Sunday, shortly after she spoke at a rally in a Los Angeles church, she was arrested and deported to Tijuana, across the border from San Diego.

"We cannot remain quiet in view of this injustice and must ask for firm action from our authorities," Mexican Sen. Humberto Zazue said.

He accused the United States of violating international deportation accords by denying her access to the Mexican Consulate in Los Angeles.

Arellano, who was at the committee's session, said Saul is in Chicago in the care of his godmother and will attend a Sept. 12 rally for immigration reform in Washington. She said she would help organize a rally in Tijuana that same day to demand Mexican authorities do more to protect migrants.

"For me it is very important that our government take a strong stand to defend all of us who decide to migrate to another country," she said.

In other words, the US is evil for insisting that it has the right to determine which foreigners enter and stay United States. And as for the closing quote from Arellano, she is calling for nothing less than an act of war against the United States. IÂ’d be much more impressed if Mexico instead chose to punish the United States by forgoing all American foreign aid.

And then there is this gem.

If the US is such an evil place, she should prove she is a fit mother by sending for him so that he can be raised in Mexico, not a lawless criminal nation like the United States. Mexico should be protecting its people by acting aggressively to close the border so that Mexican citizens cannot come to a America, where they are abused, exploited, and disrespected.

And when the diplomatic note arrives, it should be used appropriately and then flushed.

Round ‘em up! Ship ‘em back! Rawhide!

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Posted by: Greg at 08:41 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Imagine that -- law enforcement by law enforcement.

And all it took was a highly publicized multiple homicide in a sanctuary city.

Attorney General Anne Milgram today ordered all local police officers in New Jersey to inquire about the immigration status of suspects charged with serious crimes, and to notify federal immigration authorities if there is reason to believe the suspect is in the country illegally.

The requirements, which go into effect immediately, apply to suspects arrested for specific indictable offenses and for driving while intoxicated, Milgram said. If the suspect is unable to prove he or she is legally in the United States, the police officer is required to notify Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, she said. The policy also specifies that prosecutors and courts be notified.

Local officers cannot inquire about the immigration status of crime victims, witnesses to crimes or persons requesting police assistance, she said.

"The overriding mission of law enforcement officers in this state is to enforce the state's criminal laws and to protect the community that they serve," Milgram said. "This requires the cooperation of, and positive relationships with, all members of the community. Public safety suffers if individuals believe they cannot come forward to report a crime or cooperate with law enforcement."

It would have been nice if such rules had been in place before. it might have saved the lives of three very promising young people who were murdered by border jumpers.

For that matter, this policy would save lives nationally if implemented in all 50 states.

When I was a kid, the problem of young people drinking and driving and dying in auto accidents earned the border between Wisconsin and Illinois a nickname that sounds like it should apply to the US-Mexico border, given the spiraling number of bodies left in the wake of the border jumpers -- BLOOD BORDER.

H/T Tammy Bruce, Michelle Malkin

Posted by: Greg at 11:01 PM | Comments (188) | Add Comment
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Talk Radio helped defeat the shamnesty immigration bill.

Opposition from key talk radio and cable TV hosts helped kill the immigration bill in Congress, a study out today concludes.

“What listeners of the conservative talk radio media were hearing, in large part, was that the legislation itself was little more than an ‘amnesty bill’ for illegal immigrants, a phrase loaded with political baggage,” it says.

The study by the nonpartisan Project for Excellence in Journalism quantifies what White House and Capitol Hill phone lines and e-mail inboxes already indicated: Talk radio focused on the immigration debate more intensely than the mainstream media did from April to June.

Conservative hosts touched off a brushfire in the Republican base that President Bush and other party leaders were helpless to contain.

"If media attention translates into political pressure, the argument that talk radio helped kill the immigration bill in Congress has some support in the data," the study says. "Thanks to energetic opposition from Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Michael Savage, immigration was the biggest topic, at 16%, on conservative talk radio in the second quarter."

But I have to question something about this report. Was talk radio leading the way in opposing the legislation, or was it actually reflecting the sentiment that existed. Most folks I know opposed the legislation on principle before ti became a talk radio topic due to the amnesty provisions -- and were already inclined to do so without any prompting for talk radio. It strikes me, therefore, that the real impact of talk radio was not in creating opposition, but was rather in mobilizing that which already existed by providing more information and encouraging action.

H/T Captain Ed

Posted by: Greg at 11:07 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I can always handle a little good news -- and getting this immigration scofflaw out of the country definitely qualifies.

An illegal immigrant who took refuge in a Chicago church for a year to avoid being separated from her U.S.-born son has been deported to Mexico, the church's pastor said.

Elvira Arellano became an activist and a national symbol for illegal immigrant parents as she defied her deportation order and spoke out from her religious sanctuary. She held a news conference last week to announce that she would finally leave the church to try to lobby U.S. lawmakers for change.

She had just spoken at a Los Angeles rally when she was arrested Sunday outside Our Lady Queen of Angels church and deported, said the Rev. Walter Coleman, pastor of Adalberto United Methodist Church in Chicago, where Arellano had been living.

"She is free and in Tijuana," said Coleman, who said he spoke to her on the phone. "She is in good spirits. She is ready to continue the struggle against the separation of families from the other side of the border."

Personally, I believe that the doors of Adalberto United Methodist Church should have been kicked off their hinges a year ago so that she could be removed pursuant to a long-standing deportation order -- and that Coleman and his co-conspirators should have been taken into custody and charged for their part in this sham as well.

And if anything, this story points out to the need to do away with automatic birthright citizenship for the children of border jumping immigration criminals like Arellano -- for without it, she would have had no basis for even making a claim to stay.

More At Malkin, Surber, Stop the ACLU, Stix, Jammie Wearing Fool, Captain Ed

Posted by: Greg at 09:24 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I've got a better idea -- let's step up immigration raids now and continue them at a high pace all the way through the census.

The Census Bureau wants immigration agents to suspend enforcement raids during the 2010 census so the government can better count illegal immigrants.

Raids during the population count would make an already distrustful group even less likely to cooperate with government workers who are supposed to include them, the Census Bureau's second-ranking official said in an Associated Press interview.

Deputy Director Preston Jay Waite said immigration enforcement officials did not conduct raids for several months before and after the 2000 census. But today's political climate is even more volatile on the issue of illegal immigration.

Enforcement agents "have a job to do," Waite said. "They may not be able to give us as much of a break" in 2010.

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman declined to say whether immigration officials would halt raids. "If we were, we wouldn't talk about it," Pat Reilly said.

"For us to suspend that enforcement would probably take a lot more than one meeting," Reilly said. "We would have to discuss this at the highest levels of both agencies."

Why do i suggest stepping up the raids instead of slowing them down? Two reasons.

1) Enforcing our nation's laws and securing our borders should be a priority. If we do enough to enforce the law and rid ourselves of some of the immigration criminals, we might just luck out and have more leave voluntarily before they are caught and deported.

2) Given that the Census is used to fund federal programs and congressional representation, the more immigration criminals we can rid ourselves of the better. Border jumpers should not be getting government services or political representation. After all, they are not even legitimately here. Not only do I not care if they are under-counted, I don't believe they should count at all in any government formula.

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Posted by: Greg at 01:13 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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You sure as hell don't speak for this Republican -- and I'm one that was elected to my position by Republican voters, not hand-picked by the President.

The Republican Party's national chairman scolded his party's two top presidential candidates this week for their tough stance on illegal immigration, even as both men moved to try to one-up each other in calling for stricter enforcement.

Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida, President Bush's handpicked choice for party chairman, chided former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani for opposing and mischaracterizing the Senate immigration bill Mr. Martinez helped craft.

"It's about leading on the tough issues," Mr. Martinez told the St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce in comments first reported in yesterday's St. Petersburg Times. "It was easy to say, 'This wasn't good enough, this isn't right, I don't agree with Martinez.' ... But at the end of the day, what is your answer? How would you solve this?"

How? By doing what the American people want done.

Round 'em up! Ship 'em back! Rawhide!

And we can start with this one.

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Posted by: Greg at 07:52 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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You know -- California Senator Dianne Feinstein has no problem with telling American employers to raise the wages they pay their workers, even if they have little trouble filling the positions.

Today marks an important step forward in alleviating poverty. Millions of hard-working Americans will finally receive a well-deserved pay raise. The federal minimum wage increase goes into effect today – rising from $5.15 to $5.85 per hour. This is the first increase in a decade. It is a step that is long overdue.

In fact, todayÂ’s increase is the first of three increases which will occur over the next two years. One year from today, it will rise to $6.55 and one year after that, in 2009, it will increase to $7.25. Increasing the federal minimum wage to $7.25 will add nearly $4,400 to a minimum wage workerÂ’s annual income.

The bottom line is this: this two-year increase in the minimum wage will mean the difference between self-sufficiency and living below the poverty line for millions of American families who are struggling to make ends meet. It is an accomplishment for which the Democratic Congress can be very proud.

Now I won't get into a discussion of how an externally imposed artificial increase in wages does not help workers or the economy. That isn't what I'm about here.

Instead, I'm struck by the hypocrisy revealed by Senator Feinstein's reaction to the enforcement of American immigration laws.

Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, who has worked closely with growers, described the new enforcement as a “catastrophe.”

“The crisis is that crops will not be harvested,” Mrs. Feinstein said.

That is actually not true -- those crops will, in fact, get harvested. The thing is that growers will have to pay American workers a rate of pay that Americans are willing to accept, not the same amount that they paid two decades ago when I did summer work detasseling corn in central Illinois on days that I didn't have summer school classes. Those harvest jobs are jobs that Americans will do -- if you pay them on an American scale and not the slave wages given to border-jumpers who undermine the wages of American workers.

It is as simple as Economics 101, Senator -- and if you are willing to demand that American employers give a pay raise that does not make sense from an economic point of view, why not tell these folks to give one that the laws of economics clearly require.

Oh, yeah -- and at the same time quit outsourcing American jobs to illegal workers.

Posted by: Greg at 01:51 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Proving once again that we have the laws we need to deal with border-jumpers, if only the federal government has the will.

The Bush administration on Friday will announce plans to enlist state and local law enforcement in cracking down on illegal immigrants, which previously was largely a federal function, according to congressional sources.

The administration is unveiling a series of tough border control and employer enforcement measures designed to make up for security provisions that failed when Congress rejected a broad rewrite of the nationÂ’s immigration laws in June. The plans are scheduled to be announced at 10:30 a.m. by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez.

Details were provided to Capitol Hill on Thursday. As part of the new measures, the secretary of Homeland Security will deliver regular “State of the Border” reports beginning this fall.

In one of the most interesting revelations, the plans call for the administration to “train growing numbers of state and local law enforcement officers to identify and detain immigration offenders whom they encounter in the course of daily law enforcement,” according to a summary provided to The Politico by a congressional source.

“By this fall, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will have quintupled the number of enforcement teams devoted to removing fugitive aliens (from 15 to 75 in less than three years),” the summary says.

In other words, this is a concession that those of us favoring enforcement were right. After all, if the amnesty bill had really been needed, this would not be happening because the federal government would have lacked the authority to implement this plan.

Posted by: Greg at 12:50 AM | Comments (260) | Add Comment
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Proving that we have the laws we need to crack down on illegal immigration when the government gets the will to do so, ICE is preparing to crack down on folks working with fake Social Security Numbers.

In a new effort to crack down on illegal immigrants, federal authorities are expected to announce tough rules this week that would require employers to fire workers who use false Social Security numbers.

Officials said the rules would be backed up by stepped-up raids on workplaces across the country that employ illegal immigrants.

After first proposing the rules last year, Department of Homeland Security officials said they held off finishing them to await the outcome of the debate in Congress over a sweeping immigration bill. That measure, which was supported by President Bush, died in the Senate in June.

Now administration officials are signaling that they intend to clamp down on employers of illegal immigrants even without a new immigration law to offer legal status to millions of illegal immigrants already in the workforce.

The approach is expected to play well with conservatives who have long demanded that the administration do more to enforce existing immigration laws, but it could also lead to renewed pressure from businesses on Congress to provide legal status for an estimated six million unauthorized immigrant workers.

“We are tough and we are going to be even tougher,” Russ Knocke, the spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, said yesterday. “There are not going to be any more excuses for employers, and there will be serious consequences for those that choose to blatantly disregard the law.”

See, we didn't need an amnesty program to start fixing the problem -- we just needed folks to get off their butts and start enforcing the laws that are there. And while this makes the border-jumpers and their apologists upset, all that is being done is carrying out the dictates of our nation's reasonable immigration laws.

Posted by: Greg at 04:19 AM | Comments (14) | Add Comment
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Now he is willing to give the people what they want, not insist on giving the immigration criminals citizenship.

Republican presidential hopeful John McCain on Thursday backed a scaled-down proposal that imposes strict rules to end illegal immigration but doesn't include a path to citizenship.

The move away from a comprehensive measure is an about-face for the Arizona senator, who had been a leading GOP champion of a bill that included a guest worker program and would have legalized many of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living in the U.S. It failed earlier this year.

"We can still show the American people that we are serious about securing our nation's border," McCain said in a statement, adding that the new bill would "provide an essential step toward achieving comprehensive reform in the future."

McCain's immigration position has been a campaign liability among Republican voters and hurt his efforts to raise money. Other GOP presidential candidates, fellow Arizona Republicans and immigration opponents throughout the country have loudly decried his position.

Observers said McCain's switch was political. "He recognizes his position on the issue is killing him," said Steven Camarota, research director at the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors vigorous immigration enforcement.

This bill might bring meaningful reform and enforcement -- but won't change McCain's chances of getting the nomination.

Posted by: Greg at 02:24 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I'll be the first to concede that stealing from another is wrong. But when someone is engaged in illegal activity for money, it is pretty hard for me to get overly outraged when they get ripped off by the other party to the illegal transaction.

Now an ongoing epidemic of wage theft from immigrant laborers reflects the many ways that a dysfunctional immigration system robs us all.

According to a recent Chronicle story, reports of Houston-area employers refusing to pay immigrants for their work doubled from 2006 to 2007. The U.S. Department of Labor's office here received 842 complaints of businesses stealing back pay in 2006, compared to 371 in 2005. There were 172 in 2004. The department does not investigate complaints against individual employers. Nationally, almost half of all day labors reported being robbed by employers in a two-month period, according to a 2006 survey.

Reports of stolen wages probably account for only a small portion of wage thefts. As about 75 percent of day laborers are undocumented, many shy from complaining to authorities. Because they are low-income workers supporting impoverished families, they often cannot afford to lose precious work hours trying to file charges.

Even so, for those immigrant laborers who came forward last year, the Labor Department recovered $475,000 owed to 453 workers.

I have mixed emotions here. I think employers who rip off workers are scum -- especially having been in such a situation early in my working career. But at the same time, we are talking about folks who are in the country illegally and not working legally -- the transactions they are involved in are illegal from start to finish. Isn't getting ripped off just a part of the price you pay for being a part of a criminal enterprise?

Are those who file such complaints also turned over to immigration authorities for deportation? I think we all know the answer there. Any change in immigration law needs to require that they are.

Or are the feds going to now help folks recover stolen drugs and drug money, and not prosecute the underlying crime?

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Posted by: Greg at 01:21 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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After all, we can't have Americans calling the authorities to report folks breaking the law, can we?

Latino leaders and faith-based organizations are calling for Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio to disconnect the hotline he created for people to report information about undocumented immigrants.

The hotline, they say, perpetuates a climate of fear within the immigrant community, raises the chance of racial profiling and opens the possibility for people to take revenge on former friends and family.

"What right does he have to investigate people based on the color of their skin, or their accent or the way they look," said Phoenix attorney Antonio Bustamante. "I want him to stop this nonsense and enforce criminal law instead of going after landscapers and nannies. He needs to stop this hotline."

* * *

"There's nothing unconstitutional about putting up a hotline," Arpaio said, pointing out that U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement have similar hotlines.

In fact, Arpaio told The Republic, he is stepping up efforts to crack down on illegal immigration by forbidding undocumented immigrants to visit friends and family in county jails. "Once they come in, we're going to have to arrest them and turn them over to ICE."

Actually, I'm all for a climate of fear in the border-jumper community. After all, since they are law-breakers they ought to be afraid -- very afraid.

What next -- will these folks protest CrimeStoppers as a violation of the rights of the Felon-American community?

Posted by: Greg at 03:17 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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And, of course, "religious leaders and civil rights advocates" are outraged by this attempt to enforce American law.

The spiritual leader of a mosque in Sharon was arrested yesterday on federal immigration fraud charges, sparking a protest outside the courthouse in Boston by a group of religious leaders and civil rights advocates who called the case a witch hunt.

Muhammad Masood, 49, imam of the 1,500 member Islamic Center of New England, is accused of lying repeatedly to federal immigration officials between 2002 and 2006 in a bid to obtain a green card and ultimately become a US citizen.

The criminal charges follow administrative charges brought by immigration officials last year. That case also drew wide protest from local Muslim leaders, who have accused authorities of ignoring efforts to smooth relations with members of various cultures.

A detailed affidavit filed in federal court alleges that Masood told authorities that after attending a master's degree program in economics at Boston University in the early 1990s, he returned to his native Pakistan for two years, as required by law, before returning to the United States in 1993 and later applying for residency.

But, the affidavit says, Masood never left Boston, and records show that he continued to live in Boston University housing with his wife and children, even though he was no longer a student. He was cited for a couple of traffic violations and was present when his fifth child was born in Boston in 1992, the affidavit indicates.

Authorities also allege that Masood did not disclose that he had collected state health benefits from 1997 to 2005 and initially denied ever being charged with any crimes, although he later acknowledged that he had been arrested for shoplifting in Norwood in 2000. The charge was later dismissed.

The protesters want to call this a witch hunt. The only problem is that the evidence clearly shows that Masood is guilty of the crimes with which he was charged. Let's hope we can get him shipped back to Pakistan as quickly as possible -- minus his fraudulently-obtained citizenship.

Posted by: Greg at 01:26 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I was shocked when I saw this quote in a column yesterday.

In fact, Tom Rodriguez, the executive manager of the Clark County School District's Diversity and Affirmative Action Programs, is quoted in today's newspaper saying no school system in the country tracks whether its students are in the country legally or not.

"You might find some people on the far right who would want to do that," he said, "but I can't think of any educators that would want to do that. Why would an educator not want to provide educational services?"

I find the comment by Tom Rodriguez to be laughable. I'm sure that if he were to ask the teachers of his district, he would find a large number of them certainly do want to track how many students are in this country illegally and turn them over for deportation. He'd find out that many of them are tired of seeing scarce educational resources diverted to special programs for the immigration criminals while the needs of American citizen children go unmet. He'd also find that many of them are believers in the concept of law and order, and therefore wish to see government agencies facilitating the enforcement of our nation's immigration laws rather than obstructing such enforcement.

Indeed, given that some 3/4 of Americans opposed the recent immigration bill with its amnesty provisions, I'd argue that Rodriguez is either a fool or a liar if he believes that those numbers do not generally reflect the attitude of educators. In other words, a great many educators in all parts of this country want real border enforcement and the removal of illegal immigrants from the United States.

But then again, what do I know -- I'm just a teacher.

Posted by: Greg at 02:44 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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This sounds like an overwhelmingly positive development to me.

The number of legal immigrants seeking to become United States citizens is surging, officials say, prompted by imminent increases in fees to process naturalization applications, citizenship drives across the country and new feelings of insecurity among immigrants.

That fourth word makes all the difference in my book -- and I salute them as they receive the most exalted rank that any human being can ever hold: AMERICAN CITIZEN.

Posted by: Greg at 08:12 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Just a little factoid to pull out next time that you hear open border advocates lament the "inhumane" policies of the United States in deporting border-jumping immigration criminals.

Those who enter Mexico illegally have committed a criminal offense, and under 1974 law are subject to two to five years in prison. This law is being revisited by federal legislators who don't want to be hypocritical in their objection to criminalizing immigration in this country.

The number of illegal immigrants detained in Mexico nearly doubled from 2002 to more than 240,000 last year. They came from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

For over 30 years, the Mexican government has been complaining about "harsh" US immigration policies while enforcing laws much more draconian than anything envisioned by th American government or the American people. The belated concern about hypocrisy rings quite hollow.

Posted by: Greg at 04:51 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I'm absolutely stunned by the gall of this woman and her supporters.

Hours after the Senate voted against advancing the immigration reform project, the Mexican activist Elvira Arellano announced a campaign of resistance against the U.S. government.

In a written statement, the leader of the movement Familia Unida (United Family) said that “if the Democrats and the Republicans cannot summon the courage to fix the broken law we will not sit quietly and see our families and our children cut to pieces on the broken pieces of that broken law."

She demanded an immediate moratorium on all raids and deportations.

Arellano, who has remained in a Northwest Side church since August 15 to avoid an order of deportation, said this would be the deadline the government will have to "revive and pass a comprehensive immigration reform.”

Otherwise, pro-immigrant organizers will begin a campaign “aimed at bringing this government and this economy to a halt.”

Representatives from the Centro Sin Fronteras and the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights also announced this morning they were prepared to take “economic actions” against corporations that support anti immigrant legislators and programming.

Also, a massive concentration of families and children is scheduled for July 17 in Washington D.C. to “confront the leaders of both parties and the President.”

So let me get this straight -- immigration criminals and their accomplices are going to "confront" the ineffective leaders of this country and demand that they stop even the half-hearted pathetic attempts to enforce our nation's immigration laws.

I've got a better idea -- not only does our government need to step up the raids and aggressively act to deport the immigration criminals rounded up, but they also need to kick down the doors of Adalberto United Methodist Church and haul out Arellano and (anyone who attempts to interfere with the enforcement of US law), and then ship her back to Mexico.

Posted by: Greg at 03:29 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Making it clear that he believes that it is not his role to represent either the membership of the GOP or the people of the state of Florida, Senator Mel Martinez vowed to hold his breath until he turns blue.

The Chairman of the Republican Party on Friday lambasted Democrats and Republicans who helped kill an immigration bill in the Senate and challenged them to come up with a solution beyond ``just build a fence along the border.''

``The voices of negativity now have a responsibility to come up with an answer,'' RNC Chairman and U.S. Senator Mel Martinez, R-Fla. said.

``How will you fix the situation to make peoples' lives better? How will you continue to grow the economy? How will we bring people out of the shadows for our national security and for the sake of being a country that is just?'' he demanded.

In other words, he still doesn't get that 75% of Americans reject the bill he supported, and that the bulk of the GOP grassroots found its provisions repugnant. Rather than attempt to represent the beliefs of the overwhelming majority of Americans (or even the overwhelming majority of Republicans), Martinez has made it clear that he refuses to do anything other than attempt to revive the dead bill for a third go-round.

Martinez promised to work with members of the U.S. House of Representatives to try to revive the legislation, a measure the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials supports.

Yep -- a real man of the people, that Mel Martinez. So much so that he is prepared to ram the flawed amnesty plan down the throats of the American people, whether they like it or not.

Well, Mel, I've got a plan for you, one that I articulated the other night after the American people one in the Senate. Here it is again, with an addition based upon your comments.

So this time American citizens win and border-jumping immigration criminals -- and the craven politicians who support them -- lose.

Now it is time for some real immigration reform.

Build the fence/wall IMMEDIATELY. Set up a working system to verify legal status of every employee -- if VISA and MasterCard can verify the validity of my credit card in a matter of seconds, the US government should be able to do the same with regard to eligibility to work. Impose meaningful fines upon those who knowingly hire illegals -- and follow up with prison sentences for repeat offenders.

And, of course, as always there is one more element.

Round 'em up! Ship 'em back! Rawhide!

But based upon Mel's comments, I'd like to include this little addendum to the plan.

1. Fire Mel Martinez as Chairman of the GOP.
2. Expel Mel Martinez from the US Senate.
3. Revoke the citizenship of Mel Martinez.
4. Deport Mel Martinez back to Cuba, where his top-down leadership style and contempt for the voice of the people would make him a valuable asset to the Castro regime.

Now who can we get to include this new addition in the next round of immigration legislation?

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Posted by: Greg at 12:38 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Has a stake been driven through the heart of the amnesty bill?

The Senate voted today to effectively block efforts to overhaul the nationÂ’s immigration laws, meaning that the issue is most likely dead until after the 2008 elections.

Needing 60 votes to bring debate on the contentious bill to an end — a step called cloture — and move it toward passage, proponents of the bill could only muster 46 votes in favor today, with 53 opposed.

In the debate leading up to the vote, Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania, said, “If we do not invoke cloture, the bill is dead.”

So this time American citizens win and border-jumping immigration criminals -- and the craven politicians who support them -- lose.

Now it is time for some real immigration reform.

Build the fence/wall IMMEDIATELY. Set up a working system to verify legal status of every employee -- if VISA and MasterCard can verify the validity of my credit card in a matter of seconds, the US government should be able to do the same with regard to eligibility to work. Impose meaningful fines upon those who knowingly hire illegals -- and follow up with prison sentences for repeat offenders.

And, of course, as always there is one more element.

Round 'em up! Ship 'em back! Rawhide!

Posted by: Greg at 05:27 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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After all -- who really gives a tinker's damn about what the American people think about this legislation?

Legislation to overhaul the nation's immigration laws cleared a key hurdle yesterday when the Senate voted 64 to 35 to take up the measure again after a nearly three-week break. But opponents of the proposal insisted they would scuttle it by week's end.

The procedural vote squeezed past the 60-vote threshold needed to bring the bill back for debate, but even advocates said that was the easy part. The immigration bill must run a gantlet of 26 politically charged amendments and clear another 60-vote hurdle tomorrow to cut off a filibuster before a final vote Friday.

The bill's most ardent opponents forced the Senate clerk last night to read all 26 of those amendments in their entirety as a delaying tactic. "This is going to begin some very heavy trench warfare," Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) said. "It's going to be like World War I."

Still, Bush administration officials who have championed the proposal insisted that a bill once left for dead was now on its way toward passage.

"We are confident in Senate passage, because we look at the alternative, and the alternative is nothing," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said.

"In the end, logic, common sense and wisdom will prevail," added Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez, in a shot against detractors, who continue to say the immigration bill's border security provisions are unworkable and its path to citizenship for 12 million illegal immigrants amounts to "amnesty" for lawbreakers.

And lest you doubt that this is an amnesty bill, even the President admitted that it is in a rare moment of truthfulness on the subject.

"You know, I've heard all the rhetoric — you've heard it, too — about how this is amnesty," Bush told supporters of the bill at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. "Amnesty means that you've got to pay a price for having been here illegally, and this bill does that."

Tony Snow and the White House Press office released a statment "correcting" the president's true statement.

Posted by: Greg at 02:10 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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You know, this argument is only persuasive if you accept its starting premise -- that those opposed to the current proposal giving amnesty to border-jumpers really hate immigrants and want to keep foreigners out of the US.

How do you justify a border fence? Why is it OK to consign millions of unskilled Mexicans to lives of desperate poverty? I'm told it's because Americans should care more about their countrymen than about a bunch of foreigners. OK, but how much more? Surely there's some limit; virtually nobody thinks, for example, that Americans should be allowed to hunt Mexicans for sport. So, exactly how much are you willing to hurt a foreigner to help an American? Is a foreigner's well-being worth three-quarters as much as an American's, or half as much, or one-quarter as much?

The column then goes on into a rather tiresome analysis of wages and ends with a fatuous comparison between our immigration policy and the three-fifths compromise (which the author gets precisely wrong -- but then again, so is his entire analysis) that is designed to paint advocates of border security as knuckle-dragging nativists who hate Mexicans.

The problem is, of course, that he is dead wrong. The overwhelming majority of us welcome immigrants from anywhere on the globe -- but what them to come here legally, and for our government to stop those coming illegally. Indeed, we recognize the need to make immigration from south of the border "safe and legal" -- not unsafe due to the means and location of illegal border crossing or dominated by criminals who have no regard for their human cargo.

Posted by: Greg at 04:38 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Maybe -- if the president and the bill's supporters in the Senate have their way.

Proponents of the immigration bill that stalled in the Senate regrouped Friday, holding strategy sessions and conference calls aimed at salvaging the overhaul.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) and other key negotiators said they would return soon to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) with a plan to move the bill toward passage.

The challenge is to whittle a lengthy list of amendments down to about 20, convince Republican critics that they are getting adequate opportunity to air their concerns and spend only two or three days of the Senate floor time to complete the bill, senators said.

“We are not giving up. We are not giving in,” Kennedy said. “The American people expect us to legislate. I think all of us look at the Senate the old-fashioned way: We are here to get something done.”

Kyl said they “have already begun the process of figuring how to get this back together and concluded in the next few weeks.”

And Reid signaled again Friday that he would accommodate them. “We are committed to finding room in the Senate schedule as soon as possible to get this bill passed,” said Reid’s spokesman, Jim Manley.

President Bush, who has staked his domestic agenda on immigration, will go to the Capitol Tuesday to meet with Senate Republicans during their weekly policy luncheon. And Saturday he will appeal to Congress in his weekly radio address.

“I urge senators from both parties to support it,” Bush said in an early transcript released by the White House.

The Kennedy quote indicates a fundamental flaw with the approach of the bill's supporters -- the notion that they are expected to pass some legislation is simply wrong. What is really expected of them is that they pass a good piece of legislation that actually solves the problems of border security and settles the illegal immigration problem once and for all. This piece of legislation will not do that -- and so the better course of action is to do nothing rather than allow a bad bill to become law.

Ultimately, the bill is probably doomed in the House, where teh bill faces bipartisan opposition.

Some House Democrats and Republicans declared the Bush-backed legislation dead, saying the only viable alternative would focus more heavily on tightening borders without granting lawful status to those who entered the country illegally.

"The Senate immigration bill was a deeply, deeply flawed proposal, and I'm glad it has finally landed in the political graveyard," said freshman Rep. Nancy Boyda, D-Kan. "America needs enforcement, not amnesty."

"This bill is dead," said Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Calif. He called for new legislation "that does not grant amnesty" but focuses instead on border security and workplace enforcement.

Let's have a bill come out of the House of Representatives -- the People's House -- first, and have the Senate approve that and the President sign it. The current approach has failed.

Posted by: Greg at 02:38 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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We can certainly hope so -- and that any future legislation does not include an amnesty program.

A bill that would overhaul immigration law suffered a crippling defeat this evening in the Senate, casting grave doubt on the prospects for changing the system any time soon.

The defeat was in the form of a motion to shut off debate and move the bill toward a yes-or-no vote. The vote was 50 to 45 against the motion. Thus, it fell 15 short of carrying, since 60 votes were required under Senate rules.

After the cloture motion failed to win Senate approval, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic majority leader, held out the hope this evening that the bill could be acted upon again within “several weeks.”

“I have every desire to complete this legislation,” he said.

Otherwise, Mr. Reid may shelve the bill for the year. He said beforehand that the lawmakers had to turn their attention to other issues.

Amnesty. Overturning court-ordered deportations. No significant enforcement mechanisms. No dealing with the problem of anchor babies. This legislation sucks, and must never see the light of day again.

Posted by: Greg at 01:33 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I received this in my email tonight, and am passing it on for your consideration.

Immigration Attitudes Survey

Increasingly, Americans are turning to the web for news about politics. This is a survey about online news coverage of the immigration issue. We are interested in your thoughts on this important political controversy. If you decide to participate in our survey, you will start off by answering a few questions about yourself and your political attitudes. Then you will watch a short news clip of an immigration story. After the clip, we will ask you some questions about your position on immigration policy. In total, the survey should take about 15 minutes to complete. The survey is completely anonymous and you can skip any questions you do not wish to answer.


Click here to take the survey:

http://www.ic.sunysb.edu/stu/crweber/TAKESURVEY/videohuddy.htm

Please feel free to contact Chris Weber or Mary-Kate Lizotte at Stony Brook University with any questions or concerns. Thanks for your help!

Posted by: Greg at 02:31 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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And the suporters call this comprehensive immigration reform/border control?

The Senate's immigration bill will only reduce illegal immigration by about 25 percent a year, according to a new Congressional Budget Office report, Stephen Dinan will report Tuesday in The Washington Times. The bill's new guest-worker program could lead to at least 500,000 more illegal immigrants within a decade, said the report from the CBO, which said in its official cost estimate that it assumes some future temporary workers will overstay their time in the plan, adding up to a half-million by 2017 and 1 million by 2027. "We anticipate that many of those would remain in the United States illegally after their visas expire," CBO said of the guest-worker program, which would allow 200,000 new workers a year to rotate into the country.

* * *

"CBO estimates that those measures would reduce the net annual flow of unauthorized immigrants by one-quarter," the report said. Still, with estimates of hundreds of thousands to one million illegal aliens per year, CBO is assuming a large problem will remain.

So if I get this straight, there will be 50,000 "overstayers" each year, plus 500,000 to 750,000 border jumpers.

In other words, we really won't see that much of a reduction in illegal immigration -- and we will need another amnesty 10, 20, or 30 years down the road, after the population of immigration criminals has again reached critical mass (remember, we did an amnesty like this in 1986 under Reagan, and it has clearly failed) Maybe then it will require super-duper comprehensive legislation to solve the problem.

H/T Confederate Yankee, Captain's Quarters

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Posted by: Greg at 05:05 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I guess he really does wants to alienate the pro-border GOP base in time for the 2008 election. After all, spewing insults at the party's front-line troops certainly isn't a wise move if he has any interest in party-building.

President Bush took on opponents of immigration legislation again today, accusing some of them of fear-mongering and prodding members of Congress to act despite their worries of a backlash at home.

While not saying so explicitly, some people “certainly allege or hint that probably the best way to deal with 11 to 12 million people is to get them to leave the country,” Mr. Bush said, referring to estimates of the number of illegal aliens in the United States.

“That’s impossible,” Mr. Bush went on. “That’s the kind of statement that sometimes happens in the political process aimed to inflame passion. But it’s completely unrealistic. It’s not going to happen.”

The president said the time for comprehensive immigration reform is at hand, with a sweeping bill emerging in the Senate, and with the House expected to take up a bill next month. “This is a good piece of legislation,” he said of the Senate work in progress.

Mr. Bush favors immigration reform that calls for more secure borders, allows for a guest worker program and offers illegal aliens an eventual path to citizenship.

Unfortunately, what most of the GOP base wants is the promised fence, border enforcement, and a road back to their home country for the border-jumping immigration criminals. I talk to Democrats all the time who want the same thing -- but we all seem to be ignored by the Kennedy-Bush axis in favor of amnesty.

Maybe that has a lot to do with the need to lay off the staff of the GOP fundraising call center.

Or posts like this one on blogs that generally favor the GOP.

But sometimes I'm just an old softie at heart. Like, for example, earlier today, I went over to GOP.com to give the Party a quarter, because I figured they might need it to call someone who cared. There's a saying, "even a whore has her pride," and so it is with the GOP. They wouldn't take my quarter. The minimum donation they would accept was four quarters. Being the old softie I am, I went ahead and gave them four quarters, so now they can call four people who care.

And now they know that, whatever the reason they're not getting any real money from me, it's not because I forgot about them, or because I'm just too lazy to make a donation. Now they know that I've put some thought into just how much I value their efforts out in Washington, and I went out of my way to contribute accordingly.

Michelle Malkin offers this option for disaffected GOP supporters to send in instead.

And Peggy Noonan offers this little gem in explaining why the GOP needs to start moving beyond George W. Bush immediately.

I suspect the White House and its allies have turned to name calling because they're defensive, and they're defensive because they know they have produced a big and indecipherable mess of a bill—one that is literally bigger than the Bible, though as someone noted last week, at least we actually had a few years to read the Bible.

The 2008 election is not that far away -- maybe it is time to find a leader to represent what the GOP base really believes.

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Posted by: Greg at 12:59 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Now here is a position on illegal immigration that I can support completely. The column itself is great, but the conclusion is short, to the point, and dead-on correct.

People who break our laws should be shipped back to wherever they came from and should be told never to dare to darken our doors again. As Sonny Bono said, “What’s to debate? It’s illegal.”

Hurrah!

And might I add:

Round 'em up! Ship 'em back! Rawhide!

Posted by: Greg at 08:56 AM | Comments (19) | Add Comment
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That proposal is set forth in a commentary by US District Court Judge Edmund V. Ludwig. Indeed, he argues that any guest worker program is doomed to failure if birthright citizenship is not ended.

If not faced and dealt with promptly, the geometric, or Malthusian-type, consequences of birthright citizenship will careen Birthright Citizenship even further out of control.

Birthright citizenship accounts for many more persons within than the annual influx of illegal immigrants. One striking example is the woman in Chicago who earlier this year was ordered deported and sought asylum in a church because her child was a birthright citizen.

Guest-worker programs, opportunities to earn citizenship and trying to close our borders deal only with the visible aspects of the huge and complex immigration iceberg. All of them are vulnerable to the insidious issue of birthright citizenship, which deserves immediate attention.

And he is right. Guest workers arrive, have kids, and the kids are US citizens -- making it possible, in many cases, for the "temporary" parents to stay on well past the expiration of their status as guest workers.

If we don't reexamine this issue in a public fashion, and consider the implications of birthright citizenship on guest worker programs, we are simply setting such programs up for failure.

Posted by: Greg at 01:31 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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This is the sort of stuff that explains why John Cornyn will be handily reelected to the Senate.

“The question I put to my colleagues is this: Should Congress permanently bar from the U.S. and from receiving any immigration benefit: suspected terrorists, gang members, sex offenders, felony drunk drivers, and other individuals who are a danger to society?,” Sen. Cornyn said. “I hope that every Senator would answer this question with a positive response.”

Go John! Go John! Go John!

H/T Jawa Report, Michelle Malkin

Posted by: Greg at 10:48 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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A little candor on the immigration bill.

House Minority Leader John Boehner, speaking to a private gathering of Republican activists last night, called the Senate’s immigration compromise bill a “piece of shit” but said that he had promised President Bush earlier in the day that he would let his teeth be a barrier to such thoughts in public.

Boehner spoke last night at a small reception for the Republican Rapid Responders on Capitol Hill.

“I promised the President today that I wouldn’t say anything bad about … this piece of shit bill,” he said, according to two attendees.

Now if heÂ’ll just start saying this stuff publicly, to keep this piece of shit bill from becoming a piece of shit law!

H/T Hot Air

Posted by: Greg at 08:44 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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I mean, really -- treating lawbreakers like lawbreakers! What could they have been thinking?

By the time he tugged on a pair of jeans and walked toward the living room, he could hear nearby voices shouting. He saw his mother on the couch, being peppered with questions by four immigration agents — questions about her papers, questions about his, questions about two single men who rented rooms from them. In his entire life, all 18 years, Alex had never seen her so close to crying.

In the end, the agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement accepted the proof that Alex and his mother, who has permanent resident status, were legal. The two renters, Roberto and Augustine, were led away in handcuffs, Roberto wearing only his boxer shorts.

Then Ms. Sorto discovered how the agents had apparently entered her apartment; the window of the locked side door, intact the previous night, was now broken.

Even after all the tumult, Ms. Sorto insisted that Alex go to school. Even though it was 8:30, and he had no classes for another hour, she drove him there. He watched her hands quake as she tried to steer. In art class, his favorite, he could not get his pencil to move. All he could think about was what would become of him if his mother were taken away.

Such was the triumph of Operation Cross Check, the federal raid against illegal immigrants that went on for four days last month in this community of about 18,500 people. To the Department of Homeland Security, the operation was a success, catching a convicted sex offender and several welfare cheats among its 49 arrests. In a news release announcing the toll, an immigration enforcement director for Minnesota said, “Our job is to help protect the public from those who commit crimes.”

Yet more than half of those arrested had committed no crime other than being in the United States illegally, doing the jobs at Jennie-O that prop up the local economy. And, as the experience of Alex Sorto demonstrates, the aggressive, invasive style of the sweep instilled lasting fear among WillmarÂ’s 3,000 Hispanics, many of them students born or naturalized in the United States. These young people are the political football in AmericaÂ’s bitter, unresolved battle about immigration.

“All of us are scared,” said Andrea Gallegos, a junior at the high school. “When you go to school, you don’t know if your parents will be there when you come home. I don’t feel safe anywhere — walking to the school bus, walking outside the school building.”

I don't know about you, but I'm getting tired of all these sob-stories about the poor persecuted border-jumpers and their kin, forced to live with the threat of having the law enforced. What next? Articles about how the children of drug dealers live with the daily threat of their parents being arrested?

Posted by: Greg at 09:48 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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