Pete The Elder

October 12, 2006

Illegal Immigrant House In San Antonio

This one was all over the local news last night and was on Drudge this morning. This took place about a mile or two from where I live. WOAI reports:

More than fifty immigrants were taken into custody Wednesday after a raid at a west side home. Police were called to the home on Senisa Street after they received a tip about stolen cars. When they arrived, they saw four people running from the house. They looked inside the 'stash house' and found 51 illegal immigrants 38 men, 12 women and a teenage girl all crammed into three bedrooms.

'This is a case where we obviously just can't walk away,' Sgt. Gabe Trevino with San Antonio Police said. 'We called the federal government to come out here and do their job.'

Although I am disturbed by the notion that SAPD thinks it can sometimes just walk away from crimes like this, Sgt. Trevino expresses what many of us have been feeling. The Federal Government needs to do its job. While this WOAI story mentions the stolen cars, last night one of the local news stations said there were stolen guns as well. Immagine that.

Related to police looking the other way, Bill Ritter is the Democrat nominee for governor in Colorado and is also the DA for Denver. If an immigrant (legal or illegal) is convicted of a felony they are deported. In Denver however, Ritter would intentionally allow them to plead guilty to 'aggricultural trespass' so that they would not be deported. This includes some pretty dangerous criminals. The Denver Post reports:

The Denver district attorney's office under gubernatorial candidate Bill Ritter approved plea bargains that prevented the deportation of illegal and legal immigrants charged with drug, assault and other crimes.

The office allowed defendants to plead guilty to trespassing on agricultural land instead of the crimes they actually were accused of 152 times from 1998 through 2004. Other counties Jefferson, Adams and Arapahoe had only 75 convictions combined for the crime, according to court records.

One case involved an illegal immigrant named Emmanuel Acosta-Martinez who repeatedly rammed his car into the car his pregnant girlfriend was riding in. Ritter let him plead to aggricultural trespass so he could stay in the country. Acosta-Martinez was latter arrested again for burglary. Another immigrant named Alfredo Gamboa-Torres was already on probation for DUI when arrested for drug possession. Ritter let him plead to agricultural trespass. Another immigrant was charged with theft and then plead guilty to agricultural trespass thanks to Ritter. He later took part in a drive by shooting and was charged with attempted murder. In Denver at least it is not just the Federal Government that is falling down on the job.

Posted by Pete at 09:49 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 17, 2006

Border Gunfire

Once again gunfire that might have been prevented by a border fence comes across our border. This time it lasted at least 5 minutes:

HARLINGEN South Texas sheriff's deputies on Thursday were investigating whether Mexican gunmen who fired on deputies and Border Patrol agents from across the Rio Grande had crossed into the United States.

Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Trevino said 200 to 300 shots were fired from automatic weapons Wednesday night, but no one was injured on the U.S. side, and police didn't fire back.

My main question is whether the shots were fired by or with the consent of Mexican government forces or if it was an independent gang.

Posted by Pete at 06:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 21, 2006

Mass Arrests

It is a start at least. But whenever I read stories about mass arrests like this I wonder why they were not arrested earlier. Breitbart reports:

In a blitz that began May 26, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has arrested nearly 2,100 illegal immigrants across the country. Officials said the raids are aimed at child molesters, gang members and other violent criminals, as well as people like Da Silva who sneaked back into the country after a judge threw them out.

The crackdown is called Operation Return to Sender.

Posted by Pete at 09:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 18, 2006

Senate Passes Immigration Ammendements

I am not quite as mad at teh Seante as I was a few weeks ago. They have passed two long needed ammendments that will likely be enacted into law. Firt we are getting a border fence:

The Senate voted to build 370 miles of triple-layered fencing along the Mexican border Wednesday and clashed over citizenship for millions of men and women who live in the United States illegally.

Amid increasingly emotional debate over election-year immigration legislation, senators voted 83-16 to add fencing and 500 miles of vehicle barriers along the southern border.

Second it looks like English may be on its way to becoming our official language:

The Senate voted Thursday to make English the national language of the United States. Sort of.

Moments after the 63-34 vote, it decided to call the mother tongue a 'common and unifying language.'

Posted by Pete at 10:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 16, 2006

Presidential Candidates on Illegal Immigration

Mexico is about to have an election too. Some have speculated that International ANSWER was partly motivated to sponsor such divisive protests by a desire to encourage the election of a leftist candidate in Mexico. But Obrador (the candidate) says that illegal immigration is Mexico's shame. In a way he is right since the Mexican government encourages emigration as a way to export its poverty problem, racism problem, and political dissent problem. Here is the article:

Illegal immigration to the United States is "Mexico's disgrace," caused by the government's failure to create enough jobs, the country's leftist presidential candidate said on Tuesday.

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who trails conservative Felipe Calderon in polls ahead of July 2 elections, accused President Vicente Fox's administration of causing the flight of millions of Mexicans to the north, which prompted President Bush to order National Guard troops to the border.

I did not watch the president's speech last night, partly because I was doing something else, but mainly because I long ago gave up on watching most American politicians speak. I can still watch the British Parliament, even though I disagree with pretty much all of them and do not know anything about half the issues they talk about. I read some excerpts and the plan seems ok. I think most hard-line illegal immigration opponents will be dissatisfied, but even though I would support a deport them all, throw their employers in jail, and put a machine gun manned fence up across the border policy, I realize I am in a minority on this. The ultimate workable solution is to put up a secure fence, deport the ones we do catch, and punish the people who hire illegals. Since we are not doing hardly any of that now, doing some consistently for a while will probably have a snowball effect. Bush's proposal seems to be a right step.

Posted by Pete at 09:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 10, 2006

New Illegal Immigration Post

Here is a large collection of links going over the pro illegal immigration pretest over the past few weeks. First some video clips from powerline news and the on the fence. These videos show the radical anti-capatalist, anti- american, and pro-communism views of many of the marchers.

Here are pictures from Sound Politics of the Seattle march, inluding reconquista rheotric and voting registration signs in Spanish. Reconquista, for those of you unfamiliar with the term, is the movement to reconquer the parts of the US that used to be of Mexcico. This rhetoric has been quite prominent in these marches. I do not want to get on too much of a rant here, but I still do not know why we do not have English only voting and registration. I know every time I vote I am given the option of voting in Spanish. Learning English is supposed to be a requirement for becoming a citizen so if you can not read the form in English you really should not be voting in the first place.

Speaking of reconquista, Mickey Kaus has a good explanation of how the currnet pro illegal immigration debate in a large part hinges on reconquista. To sum him up: 'Vast portions of the Unites States of today didn't used to be Ireland or Italy.'

Even though I do not think we should be governed by polls they do show that the vast majority of citizens are unhappy with the presence of so many illegal immigrants and want the government to secure the border. Gateway pundit has a good selection of polls to look at in reaction to the marches.

Mary Katerine Ham at Hugh Hewitt has a selection of quotes from Texas Senator John Cornyn that show he is fairly in touch with the mood of the country.

And finally Dave Gibson reminds us that many illegal immigrants are here not to find work, but to commit more crimes and that these crimes often cost police officers their lives. And that the governemnt of Mexico often will not extradite these cop killers when they flee back to Mexico.

Posted by Pete at 08:45 AM | Comments (10) | TrackBack

May 02, 2006

May Day

Pro illegal immigration protests occured across the country yesterday on May Day, the international holiday for communism. I did not see any protests from my vantage point in downtown San Antonio, but I did see about a dozen kids from Fox Tech high school goofing off in the morning who should have been in school.

Lou Dobbs has a good article on the influence of radical groups like the Stalinist front group international ANSWER in organizing these protests:

But only one newspaper, to its credit, reported that illegal aliens and their supporters' boycott of the national economy on the First of May is clear evidence that radical elements have seized control of the movement. The Washington Post, alone among national papers, reported that ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) has become an active promoter of the national boycott.

Some illegal immigration and open borders activists in the Hispanic community are deeply concerned about the involvement of the left-wing radical group. But others, like Juan Jose Gutierrez, whom I've interviewed a number of times over the past several months, manages to be both director of Latino Movement USA and a representative of ANSWER.

As Gutierrez told us on my show, 'The time has come...where we need to stand up and make a statement. We need to do what the American people did when they pulled away from the British crown. And I am sure that back in those days many people were concerned that was radical action.'

Glenn Reynolds makes a good point I had not of thought before. International ANSWER actually wants to create strife between illegals and American citizens to further its own agenda:

People are talking about backlash, and how these rallies are counterproductive. That's probably right, but I think that's what the A.N.S.W.E.R. folks are hoping for. Right now you have lots of immigrants who want to be part of America. The A.N.S.W.E.R. people have been stoking these demonstrations not because they want to help illegal immigrants, but because they hope to provoke a backlash that will make them angry at America instead. They don't have short-term ameliorative political goals -- they want shock troops for the revolution.

Some of the protesters turned violent by attacking police officers. The Orange County Reegister reports:

Police asked other law enforcement agencies for help this afternoon after a group of 1,500 protesters jammed traffic on Bristol Street near 1st Street and Edinger Avenue and some started to hurls rocks, plastic bottles and marbles at officers.

'It's starting to take a turn for the worse,' Santa Ana police Sgt. Lorenzo Carrillo said.

Posted by Pete at 07:59 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

April 21, 2006

Immigration This Week

Here is a set of recent immigration links. Senator Jon Cornyn has a good summary of why the Compromise bill that was defeating in the senate was such a bad idea and would have been an amnesty even broader than the one given by Reagan. His site has most of the relevant text of the bill:

The Compromise bill includes language that would prevent the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from detaining or deporting any alien who files an application with the government. The “safe harbor” provisions would apply even if the alien was ineligible for the amnesty because of prior criminal violations. Moreover, DHS would be required to issue the alien a secure travel and work authorization document while the application was pending.

The AP reports on a raid on a company. You hear about big raids like this every once in a while, but there are never enough of them to be a major deterrent. Until the government consistently prosecutes employers, we will have an illegal immigration problem.

Immigration agents arrested seven executives and hundreds of employees of a manufacturer of crates and pallets Wednesday as part of a crackdown on employers of illegal workers.

Authorities raided offices and plants of IFCO Systems in at least eight states, the culmination of a yearlong criminal investigation, law enforcement officials said.

Finally, here is a story out of Mexico. Note the hypocrisy of Mexican citizens complaining about how the US treats illegal immigrants, while remaining silent about the constant abuse heaped on true refuges in Mexico.

Considered felons by the government, these migrants fear detention, rape and robbery. Police and soldiers hunt them down at railroads, bus stations and fleabag hotels. Sometimes they are deported; more often officers simply take their money.

While migrants in the United States have held huge demonstrations in recent weeks, the hundreds of thousands of undocumented Central Americans in Mexico suffer mostly in silence.

And though Mexico demands humane treatment for its citizens who migrate to the U.S., regardless of their legal status, Mexico provides few protections for migrants on its own soil. The issue simply isn't on the country's political agenda, perhaps because migrants make up only 0.5 percent of the population, or about 500,000 people - compared with 12 percent in the United States.

Posted by Pete at 08:07 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

April 19, 2006

Service Protesting

I saved this link a few days ago and never got around to posting on it. Some students are getting school credit for attending the pro illegal immigration rallies.

The Montgomery County schools' decision to grant students community service credit for attending Monday's immigration rights protest is raising concern among some parents as well as activists who say officials should focus on education, not political advocacy.

Montgomery is the only Washington area school system offering students credit for taking part in the event, to be held on the Mall -- a decision Superintendent Jerry D. Weast said is consistent with how the system has operated.

'This is nothing new,' schools spokesman Brian K. Edwards said about the decision. 'Advocacy is allowed.'

I am ok with this, not because I think it is a good thing that students are promoting anarchy or that the school is in any way endorsing lawlessness, but because I think public school service requirements should be completely abolished. Whether or not someone does community service has nothing to do with them mastering the knowledge and skills they are supposed to be getting from a public school education. If the kids can get credit for their 60 hours of required service by doing something they would be doing anyways more power to them. This example also shows the flaws in service learning by showing how little children actually learn by doing serivce learning. What exactly will these kids learn by going to a protest? Those 60 hours would be better spent having them do science experiments, read a book, or go to a museum. And we wonder why our children are not learning.

And so far this ignores the moral problems of having a government entity forcing children into unpaid labor. I have worked with private school service learning projects before and the students did not learn anything there either, but at least those students and their families voluntarily picked a school that had that requirement.

Posted by Pete at 08:06 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

April 15, 2006

Immigration News

Here are some relevant immigration news links:

Arizona is set to follow a new trend in immigration enforcement by local law enforcement by treating all illegal immigrants as trespassers.

The AP reports:

Two days after a big immigration march in Phoenix, the Arizona Legislature on Wednesday approved legislation to make illegal immigrants subject to the state's criminal trespassing law.

The Senate approved the bill on a 17-12 vote and the House followed with a 33-27 vote, with both Republican-led chambers voting nearly along party lines.

And an illegal immigrant who became a minor celebrity in Minnesota for breaking and entering into a school (trying to further his education of course), surprisingly liked to break into other buildings as well. And he likes to attack the occupants of said buildings.

Breitbart reports:

A young illegal immigrant who became a cause celebre in Minnesota after secretly living in a high school for weeks has been arrested here on home invasion charges, months after he was supposed to have left the country.

Francisco Javier Serrano, 22, had waved goodbye to supporters and journalists who saw him off at the Minneapolis airport in January, but he apparently never boarded his plane for his home country of Mexico.

Two weeks ago, police arrested him after finding him with a knife in an apartment in Boston's North End, struggling with the tenant, who was unharmed, The Boston Globe reported Thursday. He remained in Suffolk County Jail facing home invasion charges and eventual deportation.

In Tuscon a man was arrested for burning a Mexican flag. I never understood why police ever allow protesters to burn flags, not because I think flag desecration should be illegal, but because I think setting stuff on fire in public should be illegal. It is dangerous.

The Arizona Daily Star reports:

A Tucson man was arrested Tuesday for his role in the burning of a Mexican flag as part of a counterprotest at a pro-immigration rally. At about 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Tucson police cited Roy Warden, 58, on suspicion of assault, criminal damage and reckless burning, and then released him, according to Sgt. Decio Hopffer.

Posted by Pete at 07:23 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

April 05, 2006

Immigration Roundup

I have time today so here a massive immigration issue roundup.

First off is International ANSWER, the Stalinist front group, which has supported tyrannical regimes from Slobodan Milosevic to Kim Il Jung. What does International ANSWER have to do with immigration you ask? Guess who organized the LA rally. And the next rally is planned for May Day. The Washington Times reports:

The Act Now to Stop War & End Racism (ANSWER) coalition, which organized the Los Angeles march to win "full rights for undocumented workers," is confident its new "national action" will prove successful.

ANSWER's steering committee includes the Free Palestine Alliance, the Partnership for Civil Justice, the Nicaragua Network, the Korea Truth Commission, the Muslim Student Association, the Mexico Solidarity Network and the Party for Socialism and Liberation. It denounces as racism attempts to criminalize illegal aliens.

Next is the lovely new trend spreading across our country's schools to ban the U.S. flag. Is it ok to question the patriotism of the school administrators who ban the US flag? CBS4 reports:

Students at Shaw Heights Middle School are no longer allowed to wear anything that is patriotic, including camouflage pants, because they have become a political symbol for a version of patriotism, CBS4 reports.

"It upsets me that we cannot support our troops -- the military," said Kirsten Golgart, an eighth grader who was told she'd be suspended if she didn't change her clothes. "We can't support our country. If we're American, I think we should be proud to be an American."

A letter went home to parents last week that explained for student safety, no clothes were allowed with political messages or flags of any sort.

In Houston a principal was disciplined after flying a Mexican flag over the school. The Houston Chronicle reports:

Reagan High School Principal Robert Pambello was ordered to remove a Mexican flag Wednesday morning that he had hoisted below the U.S. and Texas flags that typically fly in front of his school, a symbol he agreed to fly to show support for his predominantly Hispanic student body.

Here is San Antonio the principal of Lanier High School, Richard Solis, walked out with his students, but he says it was to make sure they did not cause any trouble. WOAI reports:

Many of the students said they were unclear about the political issues involved, and were going with their friends or simply taking an opportunity to get out of class and take a walk on a nice day. "Some of them may have just been copy cats and nothing else," explained Solis.

The students who protested will not face suspension for missing class. However, they will receive unexcused absences and be required to write a paper about what they learned from the experience. The SAISD has already said a handful of students who participated in a similar march on Friday will not be punished.

My kids will have to go to SAISD, but thankfully not to Lanier. Note to SAISD: If my kids ever walk out class like this, you have my permission to punish them and please let me know so I can punish them some more when they get home.

Rod Dreher has similar thoughts about schools allowing kids to walk out of class with no consequences:

Will DISD, or anybody else, impose consequences on these kids for what they've done? Or are we not in the business in this country anymore of imposing consequences for breaking the rules -- or the laws -- when it comes to the illegal immigration issue?

We said in our editorial today that we hope the demonstrations don't harden attitudes. Consider mine hardened. The nature of these school walkout demonstrations, which have (thank goodness) been peaceful, is still lawless. It reinforces for me the ugly fact that the country is being asked to look upon lawbreaking (coming into the US illegally) and bless it.

Michelle Malkin has a large flag/school walk out round up with lots of pictures here. This picture sums it up pretty well:

Related to this were vandals who stole a community's American flag and replaced it with a Mexican flag. It will cost around $500 to fix the flag pole and put the US flag back up. TCPalm reports:

"I woke up Sunday morning and looked up from my patio and then realized that the American flag wasn't on the flagpole," said Sue Miller a Chasewood North board member. "What captured my attention were the colors at first I thought it was an Italian flag, but one of our residents said it was the Mexican flag.

"I went to the flagpole, to see if the American flag was maybe on the ground, but they took it, and they cut the rope to get the American flag down and the Mexican flag up as well."

Gateway Pundit has a roundup of flag stories including this one from Victorville, CA:

'I don't know who did it or why. But I've had them on my car since 9/11 and it wasn't until now that anyone messed with them. I'm Mexican. All of this is embarrassing to me and my family,' Guzman said of the nationwide protests. 'I don't want people looking at me or my sister like we're one of those idiots protesting for a getout-of-jail-free card.'

Then there was this anti-assimilation email sent out by La Raza a while ago saying American values were dangerous for Hispanics. Kathryn Lopez reports:

Now to La Raza's concerns. Among them, in the e-mail I'm looking at, the La Raza staffer warns: 'while it doesn't overtly mention assimilation, it is very strong on the patriotism and traditional american values language in a way which is potentially dangerous to our communities.'

Also on the Corner Jonah Goldberg relates to what is one of my main frustrations with our current immigration policy that was supposed to be fixed 20 years ago by Reagan:

That's why my first choice for an immigration policy is to have one. Then, whatever it is, we have to enforce it ruthlessly and see what happens. Then we can make adjustments. The current policy is chaos, which means you can't make any meaningful fixes or adjustments. I'm certain I disagree with Derb and Mark's preferred policies on the details. But I would much, much, much rather have their dream scenario imposed and enforced with the caveat that it can be revisited as necessary than to stick with the status quo. Pick a policy and enforce it, from there progress can be made.

Goldberg also had a good column the other day about immigration and how Mexico's location and history make it different then other immigrant countries:

Our border with Mexico allows for levels of illegal immigration that have no historical precedent. In 1970, there were fewer than 800,000 Mexicans in America, according to the Center for Immigration Studies. In 1980, there were 2.2 million. In 1990, the number reached 4.3 million, and by 2000 it had climbed to 7.9 million. In 2005, there were 10.8 million a spike of 37 percent in half a decade. Today, roughly a third of all undocumented immigrants in America are Mexican, and they make up a disproportionate share of low-wage immigrants.

The Mexican government aids and abets illegal immigration in myriad ways, including giving prospective entrants to the U.S. a how-to guide for how to slip across the border, telling them not to wear heavy clothes, to drink plenty of water, and to keep your professional smuggler-guide in sight at all times. There's much less in the booklet about how to fill out the right forms and pass the naturalization exam.

The Mexican government is being perfectly rational. Mexico depends on the billions of dollars its fellow countrymen send back home, and it benefits (or hopes to) from the political clout Mexican-Americans have in our political system.

And here are some good columns from real clear politics. About the nature of protests, about the need to respect the law, about how illegal immigrants depress the wages of poor Americans, about the value and duties of citizenship, and about the racism of some of the protesters.

As much as we complain about our illegal immigrants, at least our immigrants are better than France's. (see photo below) So we have that going for us.

Posted by Pete at 10:08 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 31, 2006

Other Extremists

One of the most disturbing parts of the pro illegal immigration rallies has been the presence of extremist racist groups supporting the marches. There have been many extremist groups like MECHA that think non-Hispanics should be banned from any territory that used to be part of Mexico. There is also a significant anti-Semitic presence in these Aztlan groups. If you think I am exaggerating, read this:

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villagairosa, a Los Angeles Unified School District victim himself before he turned his life around, is already undertaking a bold moved to wrestle control of the district from a Jewish dominated school board and a White superintendent that are just fleecing the schools of much needed funds. School board Jews like Julie Korenstein, Marlene Canter, David Tokofsky, Jon Lauritzen and Mike Lansing are just enriching themselves and their cronies through crooked deals involving school construction projects, and contracts with so called consultants and vendors. The LAUSD is the second largest in the nation, next to New York, with a multi-billion dollar annual budget. It has an overwhelming Mexican and Latino student population. Jews have their own private schools so why are 5 Jews out of 7 school board members interested in governing the school district? The answer is all too obvious.

Here is another example of the hate groups that participated in the marches.

I wonder why the LA Times did not report on those posters.

Perhaps some of the organizers of the marches have denounced these hate groups, but if so, I have not heard of it.

I plan to do a larger immigration round up this weekend.

Posted by Pete at 07:52 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 29, 2006

Immigration Walkout Roundup

In cities across the country students are walking of class out to protest immigration reform. A year ago I wrote about my experience during the prop 187 protests while I was in high school. The protesters banging on classroom doors while I was trying to learn and their hanging a Mexican flag helped to convince me to oppose their position and support prop 187. The protestors seem to not have learned much in the past ten years and are still causing disruptions on campus, skipping class, and waving Mexican flags.

The Mexican flags are the dumbest part of the protests. If you want to convince Americans you are not a threat to their way of life, you respect their country, etc. I suggest waving U.S. flags. A big part of the hostility towards illegal immigrants comes from the fear that they do not want to assimilate and will bring the pathologies of their countries with them to the U.S.. Waving Mexican flags shows that fear to be at least partly correct. Americans do not like Mexico and do not want their country to become more like Mexico. Sure it may be a fun place to visit, but we have all heard horror stories of Mexican jails, poverty, corruption, drug lords, and its general sense of lawlessness. We know there is good reason why the immigration flow is almost completely one way. We do not want Laredo to become like Nuevo Laredo or San Diego to become like Tiajuana. Walking out of school and waving Mexican flags only reinforces this fear of illegal immigrants.

Jeff at Evil Twin went to high school with me and he is now a public school teacher in the LA area and he had students walk out this week.

He writes:

My view on the walkout: What did this accomplish? The only good thing to come from this was most of my students are now aware of the issue, which clearly effects a good number of their families. Since the end of school I have been switching around the conservative talk stations and the word "truants" has been thrown around and there are plenty of jokes about how many of these kids were just taking the day off. So now the people that are actually trying to do something to stop this ridiculous law have to deal with being connected to a bunch of idiot students. One teacher said that about 1/2 of the kids that were in the quad did not seem to really even know why they were not in class. Many of my students said that they had friends that just went home or to another person's house to "kick back." All in all, this type of protest accomplishes very little.

Things about this protest and all of the others that bothers me:

1. Why do you chant "Viva Mexico" and other pro-Mexico chants if you are trying to get the ear of the U.S. government?

2. I ran into a former student who asked me if she looked sunburned. Let me translate freshmanese for you. What she really said was "Look at me, Mr. Austin, I was part of the walkout today - aren't I cool?" I asked her what she thought that she accomplished today. "Nothing" So I asked "Why did you go?" "I don't know." I continued "so you lost a day of education to not accomplish anything?" Her genius response? "You don't understand because you're not Mexican." I told her that I probably understood the law better than her and had probably done more to try and stop it than she did and suggested that if she really cared that she should write a letter or call her Senator or even President Bush. She wanted no part of that.

3. Why do people who have no clue about what they are protesting always talk on the radio and TV? One radio show played interviews with students that had walked out.
Interviewer: So you think that immigrants should have equal rights?
Student: Hell Yeah!
Interviewer: What rights should they have?
Student: Martin Luther King Jr. gave us free speech.
Interviewer: What do you think this law would do?
Student: its racist against immigrants

Meanwhile Glenn Reynolds also thinks there will be a backlash:

I'm not sure how much of the political resonance comes directly from economics, though. I think there's a political aspect, too, having to do with the effort of people who aren't citizens, and aren't here legally, to wield political power within the United States. I think this has a particularly unfortunate resonance in light of recent events in Europe. It's not The Camp of the Saints, but I think it has overtones of that sort.

Meanwhile, the obvious tendency of this weekend's marches to provoke a backlash makes me wonder why they're happening. One possibility is that the organizers are dumb, and don't think there will be a backlash. The other possibility is that the organizers aren't dumb, and figure that they'll benefit from a backlash if it occurs.

Mickey Kaus thinks the Republicans have found their 2006 issue:

Have the GOPs Found Their 2006 Issue? Republicans are deemed to be in deep trouble in the Congressional midterms--and searching desperately, without obvious success, for a hot-button issue (gay marriage? flag-burning?) that could mobilize conservative "base" voters. But is it possible they've now found one hiding in plain sight--a tough anti-illegal immigration bill?

Immigration has several characteristics that suggest it's a good locomotive for GOP victory in November: 1) Voters say it's an important issue; 2) A majority wants some sort of border-control action; 3) The GOP base feels intensely about it; 4) Many Congressional Democrats are--by ideology or interest group pressure--locked in to a pro-immigrant, non-tough stance (or if they strike a tough pose it seems just that). In all these respects, immigration resembles welfare reform, a key hot-button base-mobilizing issue for Republicans in the 1994 midterms.

He also notes some rather shabby reporting from the LA Times about the number of Mexican flags at these protests. He also notes a banner that read: THIS IS STOLEN LAND. See my above comments about fear of immigrants turning this country into Mexico. Also the fact that several parts of the country used to be part of Mexico and some people want to restore this makes the fear of illegal immigrants not assimilating even more justified.

The corner has some good posts on the Jobs Americans Wont Do issue. Here is one which notes the similar complaints about child labor a hundred years ago and which notes the 11.3% unemployment rate among native born construction workers.

And here is a good NY Times article about unemployment among black males with little education:

The share of young black men without jobs has climbed relentlessly, with only a slight pause during the economic peak of the late 1990's. In 2000, 65 percent of black male high school dropouts in their 20's were jobless — that is, unable to find work, not seeking it or incarcerated. By 2004, the share had grown to 72 percent, compared with 34 percent of white and 19 percent of Hispanic dropouts. Even when high school graduates were included, half of black men in their 20's were jobless in 2004, up from 46 percent in 2000.

My own solution to the immigration is two fold: enforcement and then guest worker program. The first is draconian enforcement measures. The border can be sealed off, but I doubt enough people would support the rather violent means that it would take to do it (although I would). I would also start putting people in jail who knowingly employ illegals and do mass deportations. After that is taken care of, I would do a guest worker program for those still here who would be willing to register for it or those wanting to come here. Don't register for it and get caught and you are out permanently, with possibly a harsh prison sentence in the meantime. I would also look into the possibility of making birth in America when your parents are not citizens not enough to become a citizen, by amending the constitution if necessary. Note that I doubt any of my ideas will ever be implemented because they would work too well and be unpleasant for many people.

Posted by Pete at 09:18 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

December 12, 2005

Minutemen Part 14

Last week Slate had a good article describing the dangers of life on the border for law abiding citizens:

Owen has lived in Sasabe for 10 years and has owned the ranch for three. She has two college degrees and reasonable politics, but that only goes so far when people walk through your property night after night. ("I'd like George and Laura Bush and their daughters to spend a few nights on my ranch all alone. We'll see what happens to border security then.") Something happened to her, the way it's happened along the rest of the border. There's a rancher in the area who used to leave a hose out for migrants to drink from as they passed through. But then his ranch started getting trashed, and the storage sheds full of tools and ranch supplies started getting broken into and looted. And migrants would leave the water on, a cardinal sin in southern Arizona, where most wells have to be drilled to 400 feet before hitting water. He took away the hose. And then he cut the spigot off the standpipe before welding over the top. No water for anyone, now.

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November 11, 2005

Minutemen Part 13

Why do we have groups like the Minutemen? Because of stories like these told by sheriff Gonzalez of Zapata County near Laredo. WOAI reports:

"Illegal aliens will come across, and once they come across they will even change into better clothing, come out of the brush, and simply surrender to the Border Patrol," he said. "They get processed and they get a certificate telling them to go to a hearing before an immigration judge, and then they let them go. Of course, they don't show up for the hearing."

Gonzalez says border sheriffs and Border Patrol agents alike think the system, which is known locally as 'catch and release' or 'a notice to disappear' is ridiculous.

Gonzalez also blasted the system in place to check to see whether people coming across the border are criminals.

"You could have committed 100 murders in your home country, and your name wouldn't show up on this system because it does not register crimes committed out of the United States," he said.

At this point it seems like the Minutemen reporting the crimes they see do not even matter since even if the criminals are captured, they are released right away. At least the Minutemen have helped to publicize the problem. Yet one more failure of the Bush administration and the supposedly law and order Republicans.

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July 23, 2005

Minutemen Part 12

The new Border Patrol Chief seems to understand that he is supposed to serve the people of his own country first and that when citizens start to do the job of his employees, then something is wrong. If the Border Patrol was doing its job, we would not have groups like the Minutemen.

Here is the Washington Post Story:

The top U.S. border enforcement official said Wednesday that his agency is exploring ways to involve citizen volunteers in creating "something akin to a Border Patrol auxiliary" _ a significant shift after a high-profile civilian campaign this spring along the Arizona-Mexico border.

Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Robert C. Bonner told The Associated Press that his agency began looking into citizen involvement after noting how eager volunteers were to stop illegal immigration.

"We value having eyes and ears of citizens, and I think that would be one of the things we are looking at is how you better organize, let's say, a citizen effort," Bonner said.

In related news five more Nueva Laredo police were shot to death in the past few days

Two police officers were gunned down Wednesday while on their way to work, bringing to five the number of authorities that have been slain in this violent border city in four days.

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May 19, 2005

Minutemen Part 10

The Wall Strret Journal has a good column on the dangers of life on the border today. It is now impossible to live in safety near some parts of the border with contant destruction of livestock and property along with tresspassing, repeated break ins and threats made against residents lives by illegal immigrants who are alos drug runners or otherwise part of organized crime. Meanwhile the federal government barely makes an effort to protect its own citizens from foreign invasion. It is no wonder that most Arizona residents supported the minutemen. Here is the column and the disturbing description of border crime:

These border residents are routinely snickered at and called racist vigilantes. But most are decent folks caught up in the daily invasion of illegals who tramp across their land. Ranchers in hard-hit areas spend the first hours of every day repairing damage done the night before. They find fences knocked down and water spigots left on, draining thousands of precious gallons. And then there's the trash: pill bottles, syringes, used needles, and pile after pile of human feces.

Sometimes illegals hammer on residents' windows in the middle of the night, demanding to use the phone. Some even walk right into the ranch house and refuse to leave until the rancher pulls a gun and forces the issue. One rancher told me about illegals who rustled one of her newborn calves. The intruders beat the 12-hour-old animal to death with a fence post, then barbecued it on the spot.

How bad is it? In the Tucson Sector alone in January 2005, the Border Patrol arrested 35,704 people, seized 34,864 pounds of marijuana, and impounded 557 smuggling vehicles. In one month. High-speed chases and accidents on our back-roads are now common. Residents know to stay off certain roads at night because the smugglers--of people and drugs--own them, and if you're not careful they'll come around a bend at 100 mph and run you into a ditch or worse.

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May 13, 2005

Minutemen Part 9

The minutemen will be patrolling the Texas-Mexico border. The Laredo area is extremely dangerous with hundreds of unsolved murders in the area along with rampant drug trading and gang activity. A Laredo institution contacted me when I was looking for a job recently and it was the only place I did not interview with that contacted me, even though it was offering me the highest potential pay. Mostly that was because I do not know anyone in Laredo and my wife did not want to move there, but the fact that crime is out of control did not help either.

Here is the story from the Houston Chronicle:

Chris Simcox, the leader of the controversial Arizona group that is attempting to prevent the entry of illegal immigrants from Mexico, says he is considering October for the beginning of patrols along the Rio Grande in South Texas. Other patrols are being considered for New Mexico and California.

But Simcox says there are serious logistical problems for patrols in Texas. Most of the land along the Texas border is privately owned, and some of it is urbanized, unlike the open land the group monitored in Arizona.

Unfortunately the Border Patrol has supposedly reacted to the success of the minutemen by not doing their job and have purposely not arrested people in the areas once patrolled by the minutemen. Situations like this are why I think the minutemen are a necessary evil. The Washington Times reports:

U.S. Border Patrol agents have been ordered not to arrest illegal aliens along the section of the Arizona border where protesters patrolled last month because an increase in apprehensions there would prove the effectiveness of Minuteman volunteers, The Washington Times has learned. More than a dozen agents, all of whom asked not to be identified for fear of retribution, said orders relayed by Border Patrol supervisors at the Naco, Ariz., station made it clear that arrests were "not to go up" along the 23-mile section of border that the volunteers monitored to protest illegal immigration.

If this story is true the persons who ordered the agents not to arrest people should be fired and permanently banned from any law enforcement activities. Meanwhile the Mexican government is mad because we are trying to protect our borders from foreign invasion. The Financial Times reports:

Mexico has reacted furiously to a bill signed into law by the US this week that would fund a border wall and prevent illegal Mexican migrants from obtaining US driving licenses.

President Vicente Fox said he would lodge a diplomatic complaint, and was considering complaints to multilateral bodies if Mexico could not unable to resolve the problem bilaterally.

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May 09, 2005

Minutemen Part 8

One of the worst things about our current border policy is the number of dangerous criminals that constantly enter this country across our unsecured border. Life can be very dangerous for normal families that happen to live near the border with almost daily trespassing by drug smugglers and other criminals. If it was only people looking for honest work who illegally crossed the border, it would be far less of an issue than the massive criminal invasion we are subject to instead. Here is a report by one of the minutemen, who talks about the high number of drug smugglers they reported to the border patrol:

A common misconception about illegal aliens is that they are all peasants looking for work to support their families. Not so. Most of the 335 apprehensions resulting from reports by the Minutemen were of drug smugglers, men in their late teens to early 20s dressed in black and wearing cut-out black stocking caps.

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May 02, 2005

Minutemen Part 7

The other Texas senator now is praising the minutemen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson says that the minutemen show the need for more border patrol agents and as Michelle Malkin quotes,

This is not a matter of illegal aliens coming here to work, although that is a major issue in this country. It is a matter of national security.

First California governor Schwarzenegger came out in praise of the minutemen saying

They've done a terrific job. And they have cut down the crossing of illegal immigrants by a huge percentage.

and now potential Texas governor Hutchinson is following in his steps.

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April 22, 2005

Minutemen Part 6

Dangerous Dan pointed out a story to me the other day on the minutemen that borders on a causus belli for the United States. The minutemen are accusing the ACLU and the Mexican military of actively helping illegal immigrants to sneak across the border, including drug smugglers. I am wondering if the Mexican army actively helping people to illegally cross our border could be considered an invasion and an act of war by Mexico against the U.S.. Here is the story (which also contains pictures of ACLU volunteers smoking pot):

In addition to assistance from the ACLU, illegals _ including drug-runners _ are getting assistance from the Mexican army, say Border Patrol sources and other officials including a U.S. congressman.

Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., chairman of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus, has denounced the Mexican military for escorting illegals, their "coyote" human smugglers and drug-runners to other parts of the border unpatrolled by the Minutemen.

If border patrol agents know for sure that the Mexican military is helping illegals cross than it may be time to call in the National Gaurd to completely secure our southern border.

In related news the guy who held a group of illegal immigrants at gunpoint until police arrived won't go to jail after all because he was making a citizens arrest. Here is the Arizona Republic story:

No criminal charges will be filed against an Army reservist who held seven undocumented immigrants at gunpoint this month at an Arizona rest stop.

Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas said Thursday that Sgt. Patrick Haab had the legal right to make a citizen's arrest because the man smuggling the immigrants into the country was committing a felony and the immigrants themselves were conspiring with the coyote to commit a felony.

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April 19, 2005

Minutemen Part 5

It sounds like we have not seen the last of the Minutemen. Even though their current action seems to be over they are planning an even bigger operation in the fall that will try to cover the entire U.S.-Mexico border.

Minuteman Project organizers yesterday declared victory after shutting down a 20-mile stretch of the Arizona border to illegal aliens, but promised to rally "tens of thousands" of new volunteers for a blockade this fall on the U.S.-Mexico border from California to Texas.

For all their faults it seems like the Minutemen are getting results on an issue that has been left unsolved for over a decade.
I still remember the protests against California proposition 187 from when I was in highschool. These were some of the dumbest protest ever as they usually involved getting a bunch of highschool students to skip school or walk out of class, which is not a good way to protest a law whose effect is to kick some of these same students out of school.

The other big problem with those protests was the prominence of Mexican flags. The early protesters had prominently displayed Mexican flags and usually no U.S. flags, which is not a good way to build opposition to a law that is designed to punish citizens of another country who are in this country illegally. The high point of the demonstrations was when a group of young communists thugs wearing red shirts beat up a bunch of old people supporting proposition 187. If I remember correctly this happened on the Forth of July and the old people were even waving U.S. flags. As the election drew nearer and the proposition was getting more popular the protest organizers figured out that it would be better politically for them to have protesters waving U.S. flags and that commie thugs were not the way to win an election, even in California.

The protest at my high school consisted of a bunch of students skipping class and hoisting a big Mexican flag in the middle of campus on a school sign. Many of the protestors banged on classroom doors and yelled at and even threatened students who later had to walk by the protest as it wore on. I had several friends who said they could care less about proposition 187 until some protestor threatened them while standing before a big Mexican flag, which made them quick supporters of the proposition.

In related news the Immigration Blog has an unconfirmed report of an ACLU member assaulting a minuteman (who did not fight back).

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April 15, 2005

Minutemen Part 5

The Minutemen plan to do a follow up effort later on this year at another part of the border. The San Diego Union Tribune reports:

Organizers of a project using civilian volunteers to watch for illegal immigrants and smugglers along the Arizona border want to expand to other border states this fall.

Patrols would be concentrated in high-traffic smuggling areas similar to the stretch in southeastern Arizona where volunteers with the Minuteman Project are patrolling through April 30, said Chris Simcox, a project organizer.

Unfortunately the Minutemen did not catch one particular recent illegal immigrant who crossed over the border. The Boston Herald reports:

Officer Michael Shea was directing traffic around a utility crew around 10:30 p.m. on Wednesday when he was run down, according to the police report.

The 39-year-old officer was flown to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, where he was in fair condition Thursday afternoon with head injuries.

The driver, Leila Lopes, 17, of Brazil, was arrested at the scene. According to prosecutors, she told investigators she had illegally entered the country over the Mexican border just 10 days ago and was staying with a woman in Peabody.

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April 08, 2005

Border Issues

Last night I attended a panel discussion at Texas State University in San Marcos given by a group of writers who write about the Rio Grande Valley area. It was typical leftist university monolog with talk about how the area on the U.S. side of the border was "occupied Mexico", how terrible NAFTA and globalization are for Mexico, how much better off Mexicans were as poor farmers, how classcist Americans are, and how wonderful Mexican socialism is. It was interesting to see how the panelists assumed the leftism of their audience. No need to argue why these things are true, they are an accepted part of leftist faith. Of course there were no conservatives on the panel.

One of the panelists was Cecilia Balli who wrote about the border murders that occurred over the past few years for Texas Monthly (who was the one panelist fairly quiet about her politics). If you are unfamiliar with the story, there have been a large number of murders around the Texas/Mexico border over the past decade or so, with around 340 women murdered in the city of Juarez since 1993. The total number of women murdered may be much higher, but know one knows for sure. This reminded me of this story I had seen yesterday, with yet another journalist getting shot near the Mexican border. Three journalists were murdered last year near the border.

Also Brian Preston of the immigration blog links ot a story of how dangerous life on the U.S. side of the border is for typical working class families. Break ins, assault, trespassing, theft of livestock, etc. are a constant worry and unfortunately law enforcement officers offer little protection.

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April 04, 2005

Minutemen Part 4

Minutemen find and report 18 illegal immigrants. Bryan Preston points out,

No violence, no "vigilante" gun play. Just "There they are." The Mexican army troops stationed south of the border didn't even have to intervene.

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April 02, 2005

Minutemen Part 3

Laurie Roberts writes on the effectiveness of the minutemen in increasing border patrol efforts:

On Wednesday, just two days before the Minutemen assembled on the Arizona-Mexico border, the head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection hightailed it to Tucson to announce a "comprehensive strategy" to secure the border. Suddenly, Arizona is getting 534 new Border Patrol agents. Suddenly, Arizona is getting 23 aircraft to patrol the border, to bolster the 15 here. So urgent is the need, that 155 officers are en route. "The point is, we're determined to take control of our border," Robert Bonner, the border commissioner, said.

Arizona Senator Jon Kyl writes on the lawlessness of the Mexican government:

What make Fox's statements particularly galling are reports that Mexico consistently violates the rights of illegal immigrants crossing its own southern border from Central and South America. The State Department's February Human Rights Practices report cites abuses at all levels of the Mexican government, and charges that Mexican police and immigration officials not only abuse illegal immigrants, but actually participate in trafficking them.

I have no problem with a lot of immigrants coming into our country, but if the federal government is going to allow it, it needs to do while upholding the law. Large sections of our borders have descended into a state of anarchy and that is bad news for all involved.

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March 30, 2005

Minutemen Part 2

Here is an interesting column by Ruben Navarrette (who obviously does not like the Minuteman project) on how Ceasar Chavez was opposed to illegal immigration.

Here's the ironic part: Despite the fact that Chavez is these days revered among Mexican-American activists, the labor leader in his day was no more tolerant of illegal immigration than the Arizona Minutemen are now. Worried that the hiring of illegal immigrants drove down wages, Chavez – according to numerous historical accounts – instructed union members to call the Immigration and Naturalization Service to report the presence of illegal immigrants in the fields and demand that the agency deport them. UFW officials were even known to picket INS offices to demand a crackdown on illegal immigrants.

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March 28, 2005

Minutemen

The Minutemen that I talked about in this post are supposedly getting threats from central-american based gangs,

Members of a violent Central America-based gang have been sent to Arizona to target Minuteman Project volunteers, who will begin a monthlong border vigil this weekend to find and report foreigner sneaking into the United States, project officials say.

According to Drudge,

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials tell TIME’s Brian Bennett that they will announce a “significant increase in resources” this week to address the influx of illegal immigrants still crossing by land in Arizona.

I still think the Minuteman Project is probably a bad idea, but sometimes it takes people raising this sort of fuss for the powers that be to do anything.

Update 3/28/2005: I forgot to include this new blog that deals with immigration issues.

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