Ever talk to a knucklehead about securing the border? Let me give you a taste of what you can expect:

“Oh, you can’t deport at 12-20 million. What are you going to do with all of the illegals? Hmm? Hmm? Hmm?”

And then you would be accosted with the same attitude when you said that if the opportunities for illegal immigrants were not there, they would just leave. And Arizona is proving that idea right:

Arizona is seeing signs of a flight by Mexican immigrants out of the state and back across the border. Local reformers credit the state’s recent crackdown on illegal immigration. Indeed, sanctions against employers are playing a key role.

The new state law — which goes into effect March 1 — punishes employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants by suspending their business license for 10 days on the first violation and revoking it for a second offense.

At the same time, the county sheriff in Phoenix has been helping enforce federal immigration laws by rounding up people living there illegally.

How many people are trying to get back into Mexico? “The consulate is reporting an “unusual” 400% increase in parents applying for Mexican birth certificates for their anchor babies and other documents they need to return to Mexico.” Seems to me that if you enforce the laws, illegals will go back home.

Fact is, some 30,000 illegal immigrants plan to leave Arizona sometime before March 1, when the state’s tough new immigration laws kick in, according to a survey conducted earlier this month by Chicanos Por La Causa. And CPLC can hardly be accused of anti-immigrant bias — it’s a nonprofit immigrant-support group.

Illegal immigration is more than getting enough people in America to pick lettuce or roof houses. While the people who crash the border to do those jobs take jobs from legal citizens, it is far from the most damaging of issues. Not everyone who comes to America is here to do jobs Americans won’t do.

Some are here doing things too many Americans are already doing.

Virginia’s Attorney General Bob McDonnell announced yesterday that the state police, along with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), identified one hundred seventy-one members of the state’s sex offender registry that are in the country illegally. These were criminals who were already convicted on sexual assault charges and were on the state’s registry.

“Operation Cold Play” began when the Virginia State Police checked the Sex Offender Registry and submitted a list of more than 500 foreign born criminals to immigration.

More than half of those offenders were in this country illegally. Eighty-four of them have already left the country or been deported and 135 are in jail and now being processed for removal. But, 36 were out on the streets.

Thirty-six sex offenders back on the streets is bad enough, but it is compounded when the child rapist is not even supposed to be in the country. (more…)

I’ve been thinking about something, and it’s kind of starting to make me angry.

Most of the Mexicans who come into the country illegally perform manual labor like washing cars, picking fruit and cleaning hotels. They generally work for cash and make less than minimum wage. They’re not going to get a promotion, and they’re no matter how smart they are, or how good they are at what they do, they’re not going to be able to get a business license. They basically have no chance for advancement. This amounts to a huge class of people who are just slightly better off than slaves would be.

I think we need to secure our borders and reform immigration laws, and I’ll tell you why. As it stands now, there are a lot of jobs that are drawing immigrants across our southern border. There is a demand for labor, and immigrants are filling that demand. If we were to suddenly to have to depend on legal immigration to fill the demand for labor there we wouldn’t have enough. This is because the way the system is set up, we don’t allow enough legal immigrants into the country to meet the demand for labor. In effect, we have a system that encourages illegal immigration.

Once all these people are here - as I said before - they are second class citizens. I believe that because of this, there is racism inherent in the system. But when I talk about changing the laws and securing the borders, I am more often than not accused of being a racist. How dare I try to stop these people from coming to America! After all, they just want to make a better life for themselves and their families.

Well I have a one word response to that. The word is “bull”.

If we do nothing, we’re going to continue to have a huge Mexican population living in the United States that are going to be second class citizens. If we change the immigration laws and allow a more realistic number of people to enter the country legally, then all those people won’t be limited to doing the under the table jobs. It is not racist to advocate for changes that will allow these people to be here legally, make a decent wage, and have the same rights that you and I have.

In short, the current system is a bad deal for immigrants. Fixing it is not racist.

Feel free to comment on this. I will be disappointed if at least one person doesn’t call me a racist.

If an illegal immigrant manages to live through the trip across the border without dying from exposure, drowning or being gang raped, they are then free to move about the country.
While a majority of illegal immigrants can count the actual border crossing as their only crime here, there are far too many who cannot. The cost of their being here weighs heavy on the victims of their crimes.

MS-13

Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13 is one of the most violent gangs in the world. In fact, Lisa Ling from National Geographic called them the “World’s Most Dangerous Gang.” Ling details her trip to El Salvador and the effects MS-13 is having there. (more…)

One of the guys arrested had anti-tank ammo at his house:

Authorities now have three people under arrest as they conduct an investigation into unspent anti-tank shells found in a Raleigh metal scrap yard.

A federal agent says three Hispanic men were being held on immigration violations, but declined to elaborate about the case.

Disposal operations ended Friday at the plant. Raleigh police said Army experts detonated 34 explosive devices.

Sanford police say they found similar shells at one man’s home and were told it came from the Fort Bragg area.

The FBI didn’t offer much more information, but what they did is worth noting:

How the scroungers got the shells is still a mystery. An FBI spokeswoman in Charlotte said Friday that she couldn’t release any new information about the investigation.

Working from identification given to the scrap yard, investigators traced the explosives to Sanford, and the two men detained by the Sanford police said the munitions had come from the Fort Bragg area, said Sanford police Capt. David Smith. He declined to elaborate, saying he did not want to harm the federal investigation.

“That’s what the suspects told us in the course of our involvement,” he said. “They gave us specific information, but I can’t go into that.”

Smith said his department found several spent shells and at least one live artillery round in the yard of a home in Sanford.

A spokesman for Fort Bragg, Tom McCollum, said Thursday that base officials had no idea whether the munitions had come from Bragg or how someone might have acquired them if they did.

From what I can find so far, no one knows where all this ordinance came from.

I don’t know about you, but I find that disturbing.

The guy was caught driving a Chevy Venture with 13 people in it:

A man who already has been caught and deported 14 times has been picked up in Colorado again on charges of human smuggling.

Eagle County authorities arrested Israel Robles-Gaytan during a traffic stop on Interstate 70 in Eagle County Monday morning.

Deputies said they found him driving a Chevrolet Venture van with 13 people who didn’t have proper immigration papers. The traffic stop was initiated because the vehicle’s license plates were obstructed, according to the deputies.

What good is deporting these criminals if we are just going to keep the door wide open for them to come back in, and bring as many people as they can fit into a Chevy Venture?

Secure the border first. The fact that this guy has been deported 14 times is a testament to how porous the border actually is.

Speaking of the human cost of illegal immingration:

A teenage boy passed away Monday night after being run down by a hit and run driver in St. Joseph County. It happened around 6p.m. Sunday night on M-60 near Fischer Lake Road, just northeast of Three Rivers.

…

Deputies say Onofre was westbound on M-60 when he went off the road and hit 14-year old Daniel Turner, who was walking with a friend.

Investigators say Onofre then kept on driving dragging the 14 year old. He then hit another vehicle, a large bush, and then took off running.

Deputies tracked the driver through the snow, into a nearby neighborhood, where a witness led them to the suspect.

Now remember, this isn’t about his being here illegally. It’s about drunk driving. Right. Tell that to the the father of this kid. Tell him that his son was dragged under a car, driven by an illegal immigrant, a person who if the federal government was doing their job would not even be in teh country.

Tell Daniel’s mother that this isn’t about illegal immigration.

What is the cost of illegal immigration in human numbers?

The cost can be broken into two parts. First, what is the cost of human life in just trying to get into the country? Coming to America illegally is a dangerous and deadly way to immigrate. It often results in a hundreds of deaths each year.

It is a number that doesn’t have to even exist. (more…)

It is estimated there are currently anywhere from 12 to 20 million illegal immigrants in America. While the millions of illegal Mexicans in America may not be a national security threat, they help create a need for false documentation and identities. This underground network is a great asset to those who are threats to us.

Julie L. Myers, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for ICE made a profound statement in June of 2006, following the arrest of twenty-two illegal immigrants who worked for a company that provided services for Camp Pendleton. She said, “Those who use fraud or false documents to gain employment mask not only their true identities, but also their motives. Moreover, they could be open to exploitation by terrorists or other criminals.”

The examples of illegal immigrants found working on military installations or for companies that provide services on military bases is incredible. (more…)

(more…)

Hey America, thanks for the money, we got you something too.

It’s tax time, and you know what that means. The federal government has been skimming money out of your paycheck all year long and now it’s time for you to fill out the forms and ask them nicely if you can have some of it back. While you’re filling out your tax forms this year, I want you to look at box 2 on your W-2 form. That’s how much money the government took from you last year. Now I’m going to tell you how that money is being spent.

We can’t finish our own border fence, properly supply our immigration agents and border patrol with all the equipment and resources they need, or get our house in order. Yet, the Bush administration wants to fork over $1.4 billion to Mexico and Central America–with much of it going into the hands of corrupt law enforcement officials and government bureaucrats who have worked tirelessly to undermine our immigration laws. The funding is tucked into the 2008 supplemental budget.

Naturally, the State Department has taken a lead role. They’ve held meetings in secret and cut out members of Congress from discussion. You’ll love the explanation for the secrecy: Mexico is “sensitive,” you see. Also, according to one expert, “Mexico is very protective of its sovereignty and very worried about any incursion of U.S. security forces or private contractors—like Blackwater—coming in to train Mexicans.” Yeah, they’re worried about incursions and sovereignty. [Michelle Malkin]

They’re calling it the Merida Initiative.

The national debt stands at $9,250,315,514,442.17 and will be more by the time you read this. We don’t have a secure border in our own country, and we’re going to write a (hot) check to our good friends in Mexico for one and a half billion dollars to help them get a secure border. This is your government at work, folks.

When you sign your tax return this year, keep in mind how your money is being used. The next time you’re a little short of cash to pay the gas bill or buy groceries, remember the dollar amount from box 2 of your W-2 form and ask yourself what it would be like if you had that cash in your wallet. And then don’t be afraid to call up your elected officials and thank them for spending your money so wisely.

Remeber when a Muslim wife in Germany was told that she should expect to be beaten by her husband because Islam allows it, regardless of what German law says? If not, read up because that mentality has come to Great Britain. But in Great Britain, they aren’t even seeing a government official, they are going to sharia courts:

Youth worker Aydarus Yusuf, 29, who was involved in setting up the hearing, said a group of Somali youths were arrested by police on suspicion of stabbing another Somali teenager.

The victim’s family told officers the matter would be settled out of court and the suspects were released on bail. A hearing was convened and elders ordered the assailants to compensate the victim.

“All their uncles and their fathers were there,” said Mr Yusuf. “So they all put something towards that and apologised for the wrongdoing.”

An Islamic Council in Leyton also revealed that it had dealt with more than 7,000 divorces while sharia courts in the capital have settled hundreds of financial disputes.

The wonders of multiculturalism. Rule of law has no business there. Assimilation? Forget about it. You will assimilate to their way of life. It’s all part of the plan:

“Just look at the development within Europe, where the number of Muslims is expanding like mosquitoes,” Krekar said. “Every western woman in the EU is producing an average of 1.4 children. Every Muslim woman in the same countries are producing 3.5 children.

“By 2050, 30 percent of the population in Europe will be Muslim.”

And it isn’t limited to Europe.

This is why Teddy warned about hyphenated Americans.

There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. When I refer to hyphenated Americans, I do not refer to naturalized Americans. Some of the very best Americans I have ever known were naturalized Americans, Americans born abroad. But a hyphenated American is not an American at all. This is just as true of the man who puts “native” before the hyphen as of the man who puts German or Irish or English or French before the hyphen. Americanism is a matter of the spirit and of the soul. Our allegiance must be purely to the United States. We must unsparingly condemn any man who holds any other allegiance. But if he is heartily and singly loyal to this Republic, then no matter where he was born, he is just as good an American as any one else.

This is why assimilation is so important.

When are we going to start taking this seriously:

The death, the first for the Border Patrol in 2008, drew a sharp response from U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who called the incident a “heinous” act.

“Dangerous criminal groups have chosen to respond to our tougher security posture at the border with increased violence,” Chertoff said in a statement. “They mistakenly believe that we will give way in the face of violence. We will continue to show them how wrong they are.”

The incident was being investigated by the FBI, as well as officials from the Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the statement said.

Schappell said Border Patrol agents spotted a Hummer and a second vehicle that had crossed the border from Mexico illegally and chased them west on Interstate 8. The people inside the vehicles apparently saw they were being followed and turned into the dunes toward Mexico. The agent was attempting to stop them by placing spike strips in their path when he was struck by the Hummer, the spokesman said.

The agent died at the scene.

There is a new law in Arizona that took effect on January 1 of this year. The law punishes business owners who knowingly hire individuals who don’t have valid legal documents to work in the United States. Penalties include a ten day suspension of a business license for the first offense, and loss of the business license for the second offense. We already have laws in place that prohibit the hiring of illegal aliens. The new law brings the hammer down on businesses that knowingly break that law. It is a good law.

But what will be the effect on our neighbor to the south, the Mexican state of Sonora?

[San Luis Rio Colorado, Mexico Mayor Ruben] Espino said the city will need financial assistance from Mexico’s federal government to handle the anticipated influx of immigrants, who sometimes remain homeless in cities across the border from the United States after their deportations.

Espino and officials in other Mexican border cities have predicted the Arizona law will cause a reverse wave of migration. [source]

I think that “reverse wave” a good thing, and a lot of Arizonans agree.

Arizona has contributed to the education, health care, social services, and police services of illegal immigrants for far too long. I’ve waited in the emergency room for 4 hours before waiting to be seen by a doctor… and I can guarantee that many of the people ahead of me were not legally here. I’m sorry if Mexico feels that it can not provide for their own citizens, but what makes them think that we want to?

-Brooke Lorren, Apache Junction, AZ

I’m not obligated to take care of the family that lives next door to me, why should I be expected to take care of the people who live in the next country over? I’m happy to do what I can for my neighbors, especially if they’re in trouble, but if I find them breaking into my house to grab a snack and a shot of nyquil I’m going to throw their asses out and go get better locks. Most people would do the same. Why would we act any differently on a national level?

A delegation of nine state legislators from Sonora was in Tucson on Tuesday to say Arizona’s new employer sanctions law will have a devastating effect on the Mexican state.

At a news conference, the legislators said Sonora - Arizona’s southern neighbor, made up of mostly small towns - cannot handle the demand for housing, jobs and schools it will face as illegal Mexican workers here return to their hometowns without jobs or money. [source]

“What do we do with the repatriated?” he asked. “As Mexicans, we are worried. They are Mexicans but they are also people - fathers and mothers and young people with jobs” who won’t have work in Sonora.”

He said the Arizona law will lead to “disintegration of the family,” as one “legal” Mexican parent remains in Arizona and the other returns to Mexico. [source]

Oddly enough, this new law doesn’t require anybody to stay in the United States. If my wife had to leave the country for some reason, you’d better believe I’d be right by her side.

It all comes down to the root cause of the problem; criminal activity. If a man is in the country legally, and his wife sneaks across the border (a criminal act) then it’s hard for me to blame anybody other than her for breaking the law. Did she have a strong motivation to break the law? Yes. Does that exempt her from the consequences for breaking that law? No. If there’s any “disintegration of the family” taking place, the fault lies with the person or people that broke the law. If I were to rob a bank and go to prison I would be separated from my family and it would be my own fault for breaking the law.

Mexico is free to complain about all the “migrants” going back to Mexico, but I have no sympathy. Illegal immigration is a problem, and it has been for a long time. It’s about time Mexico got to taste the fruit of the seeds they’ve been cultivating for so long.