Tag Archives: Illegal Immigration

NC Billboard: “Immigrants Make Us Stronger.” – Agreed, But What About Illegal Immigration?

By Duane Lester - - 5 Comments

A North Carolina billboard is embracing the American melting pot. It features a Muslim husband and wife with their child and a caption that reads, “Immigration makes us stronger.”

Have a look:

I couldn’t agree more with the sentiment of the billboard. America has a rich history of opening her doors to immigrants who are looking for the opportunity to excel and rise above their current station, opportunities they didn’t have in their home countries.

Most of these immigrants came to America and fell in love with the country. They are proud to call themselves Americans. In fact, many immigrants are more patriotic than Americans born in the country. I think it’s because they have a deeper appreciation of the freedoms this country offers than someone who has always know them.

I love immigrants, which is why this comment by one of the people who posted the billboard confuses me:

“We’ve watched states like Alabama and Arizona be torn apart by fear and anger about immigrants,” Rabbi Eric Solomon of Beth Meyer Synagogue in Raleigh said in a statement. “Here in North Carolina, we have an opportunity to do better than that. In this holiday season, let’s remember that, when we talk about immigration, we are talking about human beings who have the same hopes and desires that any of us do.”

This one baffled me also:

“Our goal is to invite people outside the polarized policy debate on immigration,” Chris Liu-Beers, Uniting NC’s board chairman, said in a statement. “We want to help people see that immigrants are not frightening invaders. They are our neighbors. They are people with stories much like our own, who are trying to make a good life for themselves and their families. The fabric of our state is stronger when we engage with everyone in our communities to see the values that bring us together.”

You get it now?

This liberal outfit is equating opposition to illegal immigration to opposition to legal immigration.

I have not seen Arizona torn apart by fear and anger about “immigrants.” I have seen Phoenix become the kidnapping capital of America.

Why?

“We’re in the eye of the storm,” Phoenix Police Chief Andy Anderson told ABC News of the violent crimes and ruthless tactics spurred by Mexico’s drug cartels that have expanded business across the border. “If it doesn’t stop here, if we’re not able to fix it here and get it turned around, it will go across the nation,” he said.

Illegal immigration.

No one in the government of Arizona or Alabama is advocating a complete stop to immigration. They are advocating the federal government do it’s job and control the borders, and if they won’t, the state government will.

While UnitingNC.org is crowdsourcing funds to put up these misdirected billboards, drug smugglers from Mexico control American soil in the mountains of Arizona.

I’d suggest Mr. Liu-Beers put that on a billboard, but the federal government already has:

It’s easy to sit in North Carolina and decry the hateful, anti-immigrant rhetoric coming out of Arizona. It’s another to see the effects of an open border on a daily basis and not try to fix it. And to paint the effort as being against immigration as a whole is a flat out lie.

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AIM: CASA de Maryland: The Illegals’ ACORN

By Accuracy in Media - - 0 Comments

An Accuracy in Media Special Report by James Simpson:

The illegal immigration debate has become an urgent focal point of American politics. Liberal politicians from the White House on down have vigorously advocated for illegal immigrant amnesty and lax border enforcement in a naked attempt to bolster prospective voter rolls.

This controversy has been brewing for some time in Maryland, whose Hispanic population more than doubled between 2000 and 2010. Under Governor Martin O’Malley’s sanctuary policies the state has become an illegal alien magnet. The current cost of illegals in Maryland is estimated to be $1.7 billion per year, more than three-quarters of the state’s $2 billion structural deficit.

Taxpayer ire overflowed this March with the passage of Maryland’s Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, granting in-state college tuition rates to illegals. A nonpartisan coalition of concerned Marylanders launched a petition drive to delay the measure and place it on the 2012 ballot as a referendum. They needed 55,736 signatures. They received twice that amount.

 

CASA de Maryland

The driving force behind the DREAM Act was CASA de Maryland, an increasingly vocal advocate for Maryland’s illegals. The group’s aggressive tactics and questionable dealings helped provoke the outrage that drove the DREAM Act petition to overwhelming victory. CASA’s defeat, however, did not deter them. They recruited longtime Democratic National Committee chief lawyer, Joseph E. Sandler, an attorney who specializes in harassing conservatives with frivolous litigation threats. They have now sued Maryland’s Election Commission to overturn the petition.

CASA receives about 40 percent of its funding from Maryland state and local governments—almost $5 million of taxpayer dollars in 2010—and spends most of it lobbying for illegal immigrant perks and exceptions. Their recent lawsuit is a blatant attempt to derail the democratic process itself. So it is a fair question to ask: what is CASA de Maryland?

CASA de Maryland was founded by a young activist named Bette “Rainbow” Hoover. CASA’s name is a metaphor for the organization’s duplicitous nature. CASA means “house” or “home” in Spanish; however, “CASA” is actually an acronym for Central American Solidarity Association. It is more in keeping with the designs and philosophies of other Central American solidarity organizations formed at the time, like the communist-founded6 Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES).

It was incorporated on February 28, 1985, but Hoover said it actually began operating in 1983, based out of Takoma Park Presbyterian Church in Takoma Park, Maryland. From its modest beginnings, CASA has grown into a multi-million dollar operation, with influence reaching to the Obama White House. It is headquartered in the newly-renovated (with $10 million in taxpayer dollars), 18,000 square foot, 28-room, Langley Park Mansion, right up the street from Takoma Park. It boasts a community center and five day-labor centers spread over a 35-mile radius from the Washington, D.C. metro area to Baltimore. Recently, CASA created a political-action arm, “CASA in Action,” based at Takoma Park Presbyterian Church, bringing CASA full circle back to where it all began.

Hoover described CASA’s early days: “We just had to do something. People were coming here who really needed help…” She said that virtually all were illegals fleeing El Salvador’s civil war. Hoover added that they decided early on to help all comers, including communist guerillas of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN).

Click here to read the complete report.

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Joe Wilson was Right: Obamacare Funded Clinics Won’t Check Immigration Status of Patients

By Duane Lester - - 2 Comments

When President Barack Obama stood before Congress and told them the taxpayer money funding ObamaCare would not be used to proved health care to illegal immigrants, Rep. Joe Wilson promptly shouted, “YOU LIE!”

Rep. Wilson was forced to apologized, however, he was right:

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced on Tuesday that it has awarded $28.8 million to 67 community health centers with funds from the Obamacare health reform law.

Of that $28.8 million, “approximately $8.5 million will be used by 25 New Access Point awardees to target services to migrant and seasonal farm workers,” Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Spokeswoman Judy Andrews told CNSNews.com. HRSA is a part of HHS.

Andrews said that grant recipients will not check the immigration status of people seeking services.

“Health centers do not, as a matter of routine practice, ask about or collect data on citizenship or other matters not related to the treatment needs of the patients seeking health services at the center,” Andrews said.

Further, the grant recipients are required to serve “all residents” who walk through their doors.

There will not be enough grant money. There will be shortages. There will be rationing. Citizens who need treatment that could have been provided by charities will not be provided treatment by clinics underfunded by the government.

As usual, liberalism results in the exact opposite of its stated intent.

I think Obama owes Joe Wilson an apology.

Hat Tip: Weasel Zippers

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Attn: Wasserman Schultz – Is an Illegal Alien’s Murder of a Houston Cop a crime? – Updated

By Duane Lester - - 4 Comments

Before we get into the meat of the post, I want to thank the brains behind the Democratic National Committee for naming Debbie Wasserman Schultz as the face of the DNC. This will undoubtedly create as much comedic content for the conservative blogosphere as naming Joe Biden as second did.

For example, Wasserman Schultz recently went on national television and exasperatingly announced that Republicans want the act of crossing the border illegally treated as a crime!

This is pretty much the Democratic line. Remember, Sen. Harry Reid called illegal aliens “Undocumented Americans.”

So I have to ask Debbie, if an illegal immigrant kills a Houston police officer, are they guilty of that crime? Or do they get a pass on it also?

The reason I ask is because one just did. It was the sixth straight officer killed in Houston to be killed by an “undocumented American”:

The suspected drunken driver accused of killing a Houston police officer on Sunday is an illegal immigrant from Mexico who twice was deported after trying to enter the U.S. by claiming to be a citizen, records show.

Johoan Rodriguez, 26, is accused of driving through a police barricade on the 610 North Loop freeway where officers were investigating an accident and striking HPD officer Kevin Will.

Prosecutors said Will, 38, was killed instantly, and his body was dragged along the freeway. Police found a small bag containing cocaine in Rodriguez’s pocket and preliminary blood tests showed his blood alcohol content was .238 — nearly three times the legal limit, officials said.

The Democrat party is against securing the borders. Unfortunately, the Republican party has been on board with comprehensive immigration reform as well.

Is it really so hard to see that we need to secure the borders first, regardless of what happens afterwards? Amnesty, laws that encourage self-deportation, or Deatheaters rounding up illegals like guests at a Weasley wedding party. It can happen after we get the borders secure.

You would think everyone would be able to agree to that, but unfortunately they are more concerned with securing votes for the next election than they are securing the border for the next generation.

Update:

Don Surber notes that Officer Will leaves behind a pregnant wife and two step children. Also worth noting, Rodriguez was deported…twice.

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DHS Budget Doesn’t Add One More Mile of Border Under Effective Control This Year…Or Next Year

By Duane Lester - - 2 Comments

Currently, the federal government has signs in the Arizona desert, warning Americans that the mountains they are looking at are too dangerous for them to hike because they are inhabited by heavily armed Mexican drug gangs.

And DHS Secretary is ok with that for this year…and next year:

According to Napolitano’s budget plan, the Border Patrol had 1,007 miles of the U.S. border under “effective control” at the end of fiscal year 2010, and DHS aims to stick with exactly that number through this year and next.

The 3311-page document released by Napolitano–”Congressional Budget Justification: FY 2012″–also says DHS does not intend to add a single additional Border Patrolmen in fiscal year 2012, after adding 859 this year. Nor, the document says, does DHS intend to deploy a single additional Border Patrol agent to either the U.S.-Mexico or U.S.-Canada border in fiscal year 2012, capping Border Patrol deployments at the two borders at this year’s level.

I wonder if they have any spare change for plywood and paint so they can warn Americans to stay out of anywhere else the invaders decide to conquer.

Perhaps they could find some loot in the $53 billion they have planned for high speed rail. Because, global warming or something.

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Big Sis Dresses Down Reporter Who Dares Ask About Murdered Border Agent’s Family

By Duane Lester - - 3 Comments

A reporter outside the funeral of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry had the gall to ask the Director of Homeland Security janet Napolitano to address the concerns of his family, specifically regarding the lack of government presence on the border.

She was not in the mood to be held accountable for this administration’s apathy:

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, leaving the funeral of a murdered Border Patrol agent Wednesday, scolded a reporter for asking her to address the victim’s family’s concerns that not enough is being done to secure the southern border.

The family of agent Brian Terry had complained that Napolitano had offered them “empty words” when she called to express her condolences. Terry’s father, Kent Terry, in an interview with ABC affiliate KGUN, said he told Napolitano to “wake your man up in the White House,” to which she replied that he’s done more in two years than any president.

…

After being told the concerns came from his father, mother and stepmother, she continued: “Listen, we are here today, the commissioner is here today, the chief of the Border Patrol is here today and we are here and his comrades are here with the family, who said other things to me by the way, so I really don’t think it appropriate for the media to try to pick this as a fight,” she said. “This is a moment to remember a fallen agent.”

Obama has done more in two years than any president?

He’s played more golf maybe, but he’s done jack squat to secure the border, unless you count putting up signs to keep Americans from entering areas they surrendered to Mexican drug gangs.

In fact, the unarmed troops that were sent to the border had strict orders not to enforce immigration law.

What has this administration done on the border that is worth anything?

They tried to jumpstart a virtual fence in 2009, only to scrap the plan in 2010 after wasting $1 billion.

Anything else?

Anything?

The sad fact is, Obama isn’t the only one to blame here. Bush didn’t do anything either.

Will anyone? Is there anyone with the backbone to secure the border before trying to sort out the mess we have created since 1965, when Ted Kennedy “assured jittery senators that ‘our cities will not be flooded with a million immigrants annually.’”

(Yeah, if you don’t know, you want to read that last link from start to finish.)

This is another problem that can’t be solved simply, but it starts simple enough. Send the military to secure the border. Once the flood starts, let’s start work on the rest. But trying to figure everything out at once is nothing but an excuse to do nothing at all.

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Illegal Immigration is No Joke (Video)

By Duane Lester - - 38 Comments

Last Friday, Congressman Zoe Lofgren, chairman of the immigration subcommittee, invited comedian Stephen Colbert to Congress to testify on the subject of illegal immigration.

Colbert testified in character, a parody of Fox News Bill O’Reilly.

Nancy Pelosi said, “It can bring attention to an important issue like immigration. I think it’s great.”

Steny Hoyer thinks Colbert was an embarrassment. Not to Congress, but to himself.

Here’s my take:

What do you think?

Cross posted at Right Wing News.

Update:

Linked up at Liberty Pundits. Thanks, Clyde!

Update 2:

Michelle Malkin linked me! SWEEEET! Thank you, Michelle. and welcome Malkin fans!

Also, Ben Howe linked here, and posted the video. Thanks Ben.

Update 3:

Now with it’s own Memeorandum thread.

Also linked at Gateway Pundit. Thanks, John.

John also put it up on his site, Infidels are Cool. Links are cool, too. Thanks again.

And linked at Verum Serum. Thanks, John!

And thanks to NiceDeb for her compliment and link.

Memeorandum says I’m linked up at Hot Air, but I’m not seeing the link. But since I’m such a generous linker, I’ll link back.

Update 4:

Van Helsing at Moonbattery linked and posted over there.  Thanks!

And Skye posted the video in the Featured Video section of Midnight Blue.  Thanks to you too!

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Congress Serious About Immigration Reform, Calls Steven Colbert to Testify – Updated

By Duane Lester - - 7 Comments

I don’t know if this is some kind of stunt to endear themselves with the base, or if they seriously think a television character that mocks a Fox News host has something of substance to add to the discussion, but for some reason, Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert is scheduled to speak before the House Immigration Subcommittee this Friday:

A House Judiciary Committee spokeswoman, confirming Colbert would testify, said the hearing matter was a “serious issue . . . this is not a TV stunt.”

Some Republicans have already expressed unhappiness with Colbert witnessing at the hearing, thinking it would make light of a serious issue.

The hearing is before the House Judiciary Committee’s immigration subcommittee.

The Democrats are calling a comedian to discuss illegal immigration.

Keep that in mind when you read about the rape of a 4 year old girl by an illegal immigrant from El Salvaldor:

Circuit Court Judge Burke F. McCahill sentenced Carlos Mauricio Ruano, 23, to 35 years in prison for the rape.

“It is incomprehensible how horrible this crime was,” McCahill said during the sentencing proceeding. “This child suffered incalculable damage. No child should ever be subjected to such an offense.”

It’s not the only example.  A 14 year old Texas girl was raped by two illegal immigrants recently.

This isn’t a joke.  But by calling Stephen Colbert to the Hill to testify makes a mockery of the pain these girls, and their parents, still suffer.

While conservatives are labeled as racists for demanding secure borders, Democrats are busy calling television characters to testify.

Your Democrat party, hard at work protecting America.

Updated:

Here’s his “testimony,” as ridiculous as expected:

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Palin Questions Obama’s Testicular Fortitude

By Duane Lester - - 4 Comments

Sarah Palin has the Obamatons apoplectic again, this time for questioning the testicular fortitude of Teh One, asserting that Arizona Governor Jan Brewer has more balls than he does:

Though the Obama administration this month will begin deploying 1,200 more National Guard troops to the southwest border, Palin said on “Fox News Sunday” that Brewer is tackling border security and putting her faith in legal immigration where Obama is not.

“Jan Brewer has the cojones that our president does not have,” she said. “If our own president will not enforce our federal law, more power to Jan Brewer.”

Fox fails to mention that the 1,200 guardsmen going to the border are not going there to enforce border security, but to do, um, stuff:

US National Guard troops being sent to the Mexican border will be used to stem the flow of guns and drugs across the frontier and not to enforce US immigration laws, the State Department said Wednesday.

The clarification came after the Mexican government urged Washington not to use the additional troops to go after illegal immigrants

Yeah, because we take our immigration cues from the Mexican government!

How could Palin question Obama’s dedication or courage in securing the border?

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Alex Nowrasteh, Your Opinion Means Nothing

By Duane Lester - - 10 Comments

While browsing through the Wall Street Journal during lunch today I came across an opinion column, on the topic of the new Arizona Immigration Law, written by Alex Nowrasteh, an Immigration Analyst who lives and works in Washington D.C. I’m generally not at odds with the opinions of Alex Nowrasteh, but in this article he was dead wrong on a couple of things.

Mr. Nowrasteh makes a couple of points. First, he claims that the new immigration laws will spawn a whole new round of lawsuits, enriching trial lawyers, because it gives citizens the right to sue the government if they fail to enforce the law. I agree with his assertion although I don’t believe it’s a bad thing for the people of Arizona to expect their elected representatives to enforce immigration law. This new law will give the people a way to hold politicians and agencies accountable if they choose to ignore laws. Will lawyers make money from these lawsuits? Absolutely. But that’s not a good reason to prevent enforcement of the law.

The second point in the article was that the people of Arizona don’t like Illegal Immigrants because they bring crime with them.

Arizona’s law is popular partly because Arizonans fear an illegal immigrant crime wave. But crime rates in Arizona are at historic lows. According to the state Bureau of Justice, violent crime rates in 2008 (the latest year for which data are available) were lower than any point since 1976. Property crime rates have declined even more steeply, with 2008 figures lower than at any point since 1966. It is a myth, then, that illegal immigrants bring a wave of crime in their wake.

Mr. Nowrasteh points out that violent and property crime rates are declining, and this is proof that Illegal Immigrants don’t bring a wave of crime with them. Sounds pretty cut and dry, right?

Although violent crime is more glamorous and easier to talk about when quoting statistics, it isn’t the crime that the people of Arizona are up in arms about. The very act of crossing into the United States without proper documentation is a crime. The crimes that conveniently don’t get analyzed by this Washington analyst include failure to pay the federal and state income taxes, identity theft, and the loss of jobs and diminished wages due to the glut of under-the-table Mexican labor.

Having spent the past five years living in a racially diverse Phoenix neighborhood, I believe I am qualified to say that Alex Nowrasteh doesn’t know what he’s talking about. He has statistics, but they are incomplete. He has opinions, but they were formed 2000 miles from the center of the debate.

The people of Arizona, fed up with the lack of action on a federal level, have taken action toward stopping Illegal Immigration. They have been met with misinformed criticism with each step they take, and it will only get worse. But the point is, they are tired of the Washington politicians who can’t seem to find their spines when it comes to enforcing immigration laws. Arizonan’s aren’t afraid, they are angry. And while their new law may not be a quick, clean or nationally popular solution to the problem, at least they are doing something.

What do you think about all of this? Leave a comment and let me know.

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