More sarcastic than I (but funny)

This guy’s comments are funny but very irreverent….
http://freedomfolks.com/

The dangers of allowing really stupid people to immigrate
From the television last summer
“As CBS 2 North Suburban Bureau Chief Katie McCall reports, activists are protesting increased police powers. The protesters say the Waukegan police are abusing the power they already have, but the department says there is no evidence of wrongdoing.
Waukegan resident Gustavo Flores says he was walking into a drug store when a Waukegan police officer stopped him and handcuffed him.
“He said ‘OK then I’m going to put you under arrest because there’s a warrant for your arrest’ and I said ‘can you tell me why?’” Flores said. “And he said ‘you’ll find out when you get there.’”
Flores was arrested after the officer ran his license plates and determined he had an outstanding warrant on a 2003 violation for failure to show proof of insurance. His car was towed and impounded because he did not have a valid Illinois driver’s license.
Flores spent eight hours in jail and was fined $500. He believes he was targeted because he is Latino.
“I would say that if I’m not this color I’m not gonna get pulled over,” he said.
Waukegan police say the stop was by the book.
“I don’t believe there was any profiling at all involved in this particular case,” said Waukegan Police Department Chief Bill Biang.
Waukegan has applied for a new federal program called 287 G, which would give Waukegan officers the authority to deport criminals they arrest.
Some activists worry that power will be abused.
“We have persons we have innocent people who are being arrested and deported,” said Margaret Carrasco of Casa Mexiquense.” End of TV report

Here begins the blogger’s analysis of the story…………………
Let’s review. The retarded individual at CASA MEXIQUENSE sez…
“We have persons we have innocent people who are being arrested and deported,”
But in reality our illegal (oh, the irony!) amigo was arrested because…
he had an outstanding warrant on a 2003 violation for failure to show proof of insurance. His car was towed and impounded because he did not have a valid Illinois driver’s license.
And just for grins and giggles I wouldn’t mind something other than this jackasses assertion that “INNOCENT” people are being deported. Is the new definition of “INNOCENT” to have crossed the border illegally (Oh, the rich, rich irony), operated a vehicle illegally (stop it, you’re killing me!) and having outstanding warrants?
Is that the new definition of “INNOCENT?” It’s so hard to keep up with these things.
So, just to be clear, an illegal alien is allowed to commit any crime and according to the budding MENSA candidate at CASA MEXIQUENSE! they are innocent because?
This would make a fun gameshow. Ready, let’s play…
1.) He’s brown!
2.) The crispy delicious factor!
3.) He’s remarkably stupid!
4.) The good folks at CASA MEXIQUENSE!! are remarkably stupid!
5.) or, because all the “Bronze” peeps in mexico are too delightful and vivacious to be bothered with the “white man’s” laws!!*
*Which of course has the added benefit of making this nation a whole lot more like Mexico!! Which I think we can all agree is win-win!
The correct answer is: You’re a racist!
Thank you for playing the all new, leftist rules, “Such a deal for Mexicans!”
Don Pardo what have they won?
Thanks Phil, today’s contestants win these lovely Tan Klan dolls…

Just pull the string and they utter such adorable phrases as: “You’re a racist!” “Viva Mexico” “It’s my right!”
Just one of the many benefits of allowing really, really, remarkably stupid people to cross our undefended border!
(I told you this guy was irreverent. I post it here so you can compare my sarcasm to a real pro. Alien Rants)

Understatement Awards

It happens every year. We go along for eleven months and then there is this spike in activity as people submit their entries for “best of the year” award. There is a strategy involved. You might win if you enter at the end of the year because your entry will be fresh in the minds of the judges.

I’m talking about the coveted “Understatement of the Year Award.”

And this Johnny-come-lately entry is from Utah.

A minivan rolled over on I-15 in Southern Utah early Wednesday morning. It is believed the driver fell asleep at the wheel and over-corrected, causing the van to roll two times. Most of the passengers exited the vehicle, but one remained inside when the van was struck by a semi.

Now, here is an exact quote from the Deseret Morning News: “When one of the witnesses started calling 911, all but two of the occupants ran into nearby fields.”

Then comes the clincher: “Authorities said it is possible the people inside the van are illegal immigrants.”

That understatement is going to be hard to beat.

Two guys from Elgin

There’s a new organization in Elgin fighting against the influx of illegal aliens. They’ve got a name, a P O Box, a website, a blog, and some press coverage.

They call themselves AFLA, the Association for Legal Americans (sounds like a duck is involved to me) and they’ve been sending out letters to citizen.

They even put an ad in the Courier where people can cast their votes for seven proposals.

1- 100% screening for illegal aliens arrested. A la Colorado, New Jersey, and Costa Mesa. The chief won’t like that; she saves up her favors with ICE for when she needs them.
2- Social Security number verification. A good idea. Too bad it’s illegal in Illinois.
3- 287(g). How many times does the city have to say “NO” to this idea? But when you look around, lots of towns are saying “YES”.
4- Full time ICE officer in the jail. A la Costa Mesa. It is a great idea. It puts the work on the backs of the feds where it belongs. But you don’t get it without making noise. From the Costa Mesa presentation to the city council a couple of weeks ago, they said that the old INS used to be in the local jail on a “semi-regular” basis. After Homeland Security was formed and ICE came to be, the program stopped. Now they have their own list of bad guys. Costa Mesa had to get very public and apply for 287(g) to get the attention of the feds.
5- No insurance and your car is towed. This is a no-brainer and should have been part of the package they passed in Elgin a few months ago.
6- English only. Good luck. The city will tell you that you have to communicate with the residents to have any hope of civilization. On the other hand, have you ever seen a city newsletter in Farsi? Or Korean? Besides, English is the official language of Illinois.
7- Contractors to only hire legal workers. I think they do that. But do they audit the contractors? Also, see number 2 above for the wrinkle.

It’s a good campaign and the timing is good as well, after the New York License fiasco and the presidential candidates throwing up all over themselves.

But they’ve got a tough battle with the city council. I don’t see much support for change up there. It will take some serious public pressure to make this thing happen.

On the plus side, they’ve got some libs writing letters to the papers and making fools of themselves with all this “no person is illegal” nonsense.

It’ll be fun to watch.

John Laesch...

...wants to be my Congressman. He wants to replace Denny Hastert.

Let’s see what he has to say about illegal aliens.

I’m looking at this and I see an article for The Onion without much rewriting at all! Unfortunately, it is a real news story.

The scene: “Standing in the rain outside the World Relief Immigration and Citizenship Services office in downtown Aurora.”

“We need to reject the idea that any human being is illegal. We may have different skin colors and different cultures and backgrounds, but we all belong to the human race." (I think he’s missing some points along the way, but it sounds like he should be running for Congressman of the universe. That’s the world he lives in.)

He didn’t like Oberweis and his ads about enforcing immigration laws. "These ads are designed to make people afraid by blaming immigrants and keeping people distracted from the real issues like stagnating wages, unfair trade agreements, out of control health care costs and the war in Iraq."

“We should not let the fear of the unknown, of different cultures, take America down the path of a national ID card.” (How about the fear of identity theft? Or do you intend the most radical form of socialism where EVERYTHING is for the good of the order?)

Now, Laesch is a carpenter by trade. I wonder if he’s ever sat down on a saw horse with his lunch bucket and listened to his co-workers. We all know the union leadership embraces the illegal alien, but I think the guys who pay the union dues are not so excited. How can they be, knowing that the illegal alien has stolen jobs and depressed the wages of our workers?

The idea that the kid down the street or your own son would someday be a laborer and work his way up to journeyman has all but vanished. The rank-and-file in the trades are against illegals and Laesch knows it.

The unions are focusing in on service workers. They’ve got a shot at chambermaids and janitors. That’s their target.

Well, if Laesch represents the mainstream Democrat, this election will be the GOP’s to lose.

By the way, I just checked his website. Nothing there about immigration. Maybe it isn’t up yet, or maybe John needs to rework things a bit.

What's going on with public opinion?

There is a political consultant by the name of Lionel Sosa. His forte is the Hispanic vote. He did some work for President Bush.

But he says the conservatives have ruined everything. He says the fence at the border is a bad idea. He says that the comprehensive immigration reform a la Bush, Kennedy, and McCain is the answer to the problem.

But Sosa says the political climate right now is a product of hate-mongering by radical conservatives. It has nothing to do with polls about licenses for illegals that have frightened the candidates.

So, he’s busy at work painting the illegal aliens as hard working people who are good for the economy. And he’s telling us to be tolerant and inclusive. And he’s working hard to get people to see illegals and legals as joined at the hip. If you point the finger at one, you must be a racist. That’s it…you hate all Hispanics.

Methinks Mr. Sosa has been spinning for so long he doesn’t know which way is up. But he does know which side his bread is buttered on and is trying to keep a job for himself. The more Hispanic citizens who identify themselves a just plain Americans, the less of a power base he has.

Citizenship in the News

If you’ve watched any news in the last 30 days you probably saw the reports about the backlog of citizenship applications. The citizenship office has been backlogged for quite some time due to the new processing fee. Get your papers before the price goes up!

You’ll recall that Obama came out against the increase because it would be a hardship on the immigrants. (Translation: Some of the people likely to vote for me won’t be able to afford the fee.)

The backlog deadline is to get caught up before the presidential primary so all these people who were motivated to apply for citizenship because of a PRICE INCREASE will be able to vote.

First, a little history about our percentage of foreign born and the percentage of those who actually became naturalized citizen. It comes from a U S Census document called Working Paper #29:

Year…..% Foreign Born…..% Naturalized Citizens
1890………14.8%..........................64.1%
1900………13.6%..........................66.6%
1910………14.7%..........................50.6%
1920………13.2%..........................49.5%
1930………11.6%..........................57.8%
1940………..8.8%..........................67.7%
1950………..6.9%..........................78.7%
1960………..5.4%..........................N/A
1970………..4.7%..........................63.6%
1980………..6.2%..........................50.5%
1990………..7.9%..........................40.5%
2000………11.1%..........................40.3%
2006………12.5%..........................42.0%

I didn’t know much about Bill Clinton’s “Citizenship USA” campaign in 1995-96 until I read up on it today. The goal was to find and naturalize one million Hispanic green card holders in preparation for the presidential election.

And they pulled out all the stops. Even Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore was deeply involved. They broke all sorts of rules about fingerprinting, background checks, tutoring for the exam. Why, they even used Democrat-laden Latino activist groups to conduct the drive and fill out the paperwork.

Doris Meissner was the Commissioner of Immigration at the time and she testified before a House investigation that "We made mistakes in Citizenship USA. We have corrected those mistakes and put in place a series of new measures to prevent them in the future." But six months after that statement a KPMG audit of the immigration processing offices found that only 1 of the 24 offices was “compliant” with the procedures.

So, where is Doris Meissner now? Banished to Little Rock, perhaps? Certainly not. Doris is a Senior Fellow at the Migration Policy Institute. Her bio lauds her successes at INS thus: “Her accomplishments included reforming the nation's asylum system; creating new strategies for managing US borders; improving naturalization and other services for immigrants; shaping new responses to migration and humanitarian emergencies; and strengthening cooperation and joint initiatives with Mexico, Canada, and other countries.” Things sure were swell when she left Washington in 2000.

Of local note, Doris was also a member of the advisory panel that gave Gov Blago the report on his New Americans initiatives, including his welcome centers for illegal aliens. The weird part about that report is that it was put together by the same people who form Latino protest groups. Hardly seems like a balanced approach to me.

So, even though there was a push for citizenship in the mid-1990s, we are still lagging behind the percentage of foreigners who earned citizenship just 40 years ago. I think it is unfair to criticize Washington for this backlog. Literally MILLIONS of the foreign-born could have been applying for citizenship but they have not. Maybe their hearts are somewhere else. What we have here is a failure to assimilate.

ICE lets us down again

We have a suspect
Finally, there is a named suspect in the Brenetta Beck murder case. He is Hezekiah Hamilton. Mr. Hamilton has been over at Immigration for a few days. He is subject to deportation because of past criminal activity.

My comment? It is a little late for that now that a mother of two is dead.

“According to Cook County court records, Hamilton was arrested in 2002 for aggravated vehicular hijacking and was sentenced to 7 years in prison after pleading guilty. He was paroled in 2005. Records show he also had been convicted of possession of cannabis and retail theft.” Chicago Tribune.

So, he got out of jail in 2005, somehow slipped through the cracks at ICE, fathered two children with Beck, broke up with her, started a relationship with another woman, and went on to become the prime suspect in Brenetta’s murder.

Now, what if Hezekiah had been deported when he was released from jail way back in 2005? Well, I think there would have been no relationship with Beck, no birth of Tamia, no birth of Trevion, and no need for a funeral.

Right now his deportation order is on hold while we try him for murder. But watch him close; anything can happen in our court system. We’ll be paying for his public defender and Hezekiah might be acquitted. Or he might be paroled. Or he might make bail. Someone needs to be absolutely certain that he doesn’t get away from us again.

Our choice legal system

This isn’t an immigration blog. It is an indictment of our court system and just how far we’ve slipped.

Sandra Vasquez, 23, offered to drive some teenagers home from a party last winter. Some of the kids were drunk. Sandra was drunk. They piled nine teenagers into her car and five of them died on the ride home.

Vasquez was tested at 0.101 BAC at the hospital. All but one of the teens had alcohol in their systems as well, the highest at 0.17 BAC. The car was an Infinity sedan. Vasquez was going 20 mph over the speed limit when she crashed the car. No other vehicles were involved.

That was in February and now the search for loopholes is on. Listen to these:

Judge Thomas Mueller ruled that the cops got it all wrong when they read her her rights. “Mueller determined Oswego officers gave Vasquez her Miranda warnings in a cursory, speedy manner and asked her a two-part question – ‘Do you understand your rights and do you have any questions?’ -- but only received one answer.” As a result the jury will not be allowed to view her taped confession.

So, the Kendall County State’s Attorney was trying to get the judge to change his mind. And Judge Mueller was just as adamant. But I think his reasoning is telling. Check this out.

“Mueller again denied the prosecutor's motion. The judge said due to her injuries, Vasquez was not free to leave and police were interrogating her, although they referred to it as a ‘Q and A.’"

“Mueller said the timing of the interview -- just hours after the crash -- also affected his decision. After watching the tape, he felt officers took advantage of Vasquez's weakened state. ‘It was obvious how she felt,’ Mueller said. ‘She was a mess.’"

So, how is that supposed to work, Judge Mueller? You let them go home, get some rest, have a good meal, talk to a few lawyers, THEN come back and answer questions?
The prosecutor has asked for a review of the situation by another judge. Meanwhile, what happens to Vasquez?

“In the meantime, all conditions of Vasquez's bond will be withdrawn. Vasquez will be taken off an electronic monitoring device, will be allowed to travel wherever she wants, and her parents' house -- which was posted as bail -- no longer will be held.”

But he’s an impartial judge. Sandra’s attorney wants her clothes back. “Mueller also denied a defense motion to declare the seizure of Vasquez's clothes illegal.”
(This info is from a Beacon News article dated 11/21/07)

Happy Thanksgiving

I like what VP Dick Cheney wanted to name the pardoned White House turkeys: Lunch and Dinner.

Here's a turkey living in the shadows.....

And here's the one that didn't get away....

Enjoy the day!

Gee, I don't know what to say

The above statement is my recommendation for the official platform statement of the Democratic Party regarding illegal aliens.

Hillary stumbled on the drivers license question way back in October. So, by the time the November 15th debate rolled around, you would think that all the candidates would have put together their thoughts and had the answer to the question surely to be asked, “Should illegal aliens be given drivers licenses?”

Not only did they each have time to ponder the question, but they also had New York polls and the actions of Governor Spitzer to guide them.

You would think…but what actually happened at the Las Vegas debate?

Hillary’s answer: “No.”

Obama’s answer: "When I was a state senator in Illinois, I voted to require that illegal aliens get trained, get a license, get insurance to protect public safety. That was my intention,"
"And - but I have to make sure that people understand. The problem we have here is not driver's licenses. Undocumented workers do not come here to drive. They don't go - they're not coming here to go to the In-N-Out Burger. That's not the reason they're here,"
(Obama humor. Try funny, maybe that’ll get Wolf to change the subject.)
"They're here to work. And so instead of being distracting by what has now become a wedge issue, let's focus on actually solving the problem that this administration, the Bush administration, had done nothing about it,"Blitzer comes back, "Do you support or oppose driver's licenses for illegal immigrants?"Obama says, "I am not proposing that that's what we do. What I'm saying is that we can't ...”

That made the audience laugh, even if his earlier attempt failed, so Barack goes on, "No, no, no, no. Look, I have already said, I support the notion that we have to deal with public safety and that driver's licenses at the same level can make that happen. But what I also know ... Wolf, is that if we keep on getting distracted by this problem, then we are not solving it."
Finally, the interrogation ended when Blitzer asked him, “Yes or no?” and Obama said, “Yes.”

John Edwards felt the need to also give an explanation. Edwards said, “No, but I don't accept the proposition that we're not going to have comprehensive immigration reform.”
“What I do support, and what I will do as president of the United States, is move this country toward comprehensive immigration reform. And anyone who's on the path to earning American citizenship should be able to have a driver's license.”

If I could venture a translation, Edwards believes that if you give them amnesty the problem goes away. Duh!

Dodd: “No, my belief is that giving a -- as I've said in the very beginning here, I think drivers' licenses are the wrong thing to be doing, in terms of attracting people to come here as undocumented.” That was a pretty good answer on the heels of a plug for amnesty.

Richardson said yes. Biden said no. Kucinich said cancel NAFTA.

So there appears to be strong support among the Democratic candidates for amnesty. I haven’t heard any of them tell America that our immigration quotas are out-of-whack and the last thing we need is to legalize 12 million more. That’s what we need to hear, but we won’t.

I’m looking for a candidate (any candidate from any party) who will say, “We need to pare back our total annual LEGAL immigration to 200,000 a year, end chain migration, set up a points system based on qualifications, and remove the 12 million illegals here now. Legalization is out of the question since the number of illegals equals a 50 YEAR SUPPLY OF IMMIGRANTS! They came here the wrong way, they don’t have the skills and education we need, and we need to send the message that those who sneak in will not be allowed to stay.”

Please let me know when you find a candidate saying that.

Clean up

Here are a couple of loose ends from past posts.
First, Elvira Arellano seems to be getting on nicely back in Mexico. Her skills as a martyr for the cause are being put to good use south of the border.

She attended a two day conference entitled (I am not making this up): “First Parliament of Mexican Migrant Leaders Who Live in the U.S.” She took one look at the menu for the conference and immediately announced a hunger strike. Good idea, Elvira; no bottled water.

Her comments at the conference included:
“I want our government to listen, to act, to defend our migrant families.”
“Is Mexico prepared to receive all of these deported people and their families?” (I think she knows the answer to that. Remember the Mexican Congressmen who came to visit Chicago and DEMANDED that the US NOT send Elvira back? There’s your answer.)
“Is it prepared to guarantee an education to their children, who are U.S. citizens?” (Do I read into her statement that Saul and other children of illegals are NOT Mexicans? I certainly hear her say that birth in the US comes with entitlements.)
“Or is it prepared to defend them against all these attacks?” (It is interesting to me that being returned to her beloved homeland is characterized as an “attack”.)

I’m still under the assumption that Saulito is living with her in Mexico.

The other loose end is Mirthala Salinas. You remember her, don’t you? She’s the TV reporter who carried on an affair with the mayor of Los Angeles. She was punished with a two month suspension from Telemundo but didn’t report back to work They were all set to assign her to a beat far away from the mayor and she went AWOL.

Hopefully we’ve heard the last from her on this blog, unless she comes to work for the media in Chicago.

Washington understands

Never again can we say that Washington doesn’t understand. They “get it”. They have their fingers on the pulse of America.

On November 15th the Director of the Department of Justice, Executive Office for Immigration Review issued a news release regarding the immigration courts. It seems that former Attorney General Alberto “I owe my success to La Raza” Gonzalez felt that too many illegal aliens were showing up in immigration court without legal representation. So Gonzalez “mandated an expansion of pro bono efforts” to allow more free legal help for these folks.

So The Department of Justice went to work on the problem. Here’s the upshot from the memo: “In the past year, EOIR has doubled the size of the Legal Orientation Program for unrepresented detained aliens, expanded pro bono programs for unaccompanied alien children, and increased the number of court-sponsored pro bono attorney training programs.”

It sounds to me like “pro bono” is costing you and me some tax dollars.

The appeals process works like this. An illegal alien is caught in the United States. The search for loopholes begins. Lawyers, judges, Centro de Informacion y Progreso (a United Way agency), and other do-gooders look for some reason to allow this person to stay. No Draconian measures here.

A favorite ploy is to seek asylum, claiming that going home would create danger for the person either due to politics or religion. It doesn’t work very often but it does buy the illegal alien more time in the United States.

After all the hearings and reviews, the illegal alien is ordered deported and given a date to report to leave the country. This document is called a “run letter” aka “Notice to Disappear”. It means that the appeals have been exhausted and it is time to go into hiding. Fortunately, this isn’t very difficult. You get another fake name, fake ID, and blend in with the other 12 million people who are here illegally.

IF you have a “run letter” order and IF they pick you up again, and IF they are able to figure out who you really are…you are in the express lane to go back home. Otherwise, you can buy four or five years of extra time in the US just by playing the appeals process.

That’s why immigration attorneys always talk about the deportation process being “complex”, “nuanced”, and “complicated”. It also explains why they charge their clients thousands of dollars to move them through the process.

Here’s the actual press release:
http://justice.gov/eoir/press/07/ProBonoEOIRExpandsImprove.pdf

If any of my readers can explain how this works in relation to the end of catch and release as declared by Bush, I certainly would like to hear it.

What a relief

Here’s a quick Mexican history lesson. We, the arrogant, ugly Americans can always use a little enlightenment. (Although I’m hearing complaints from activists that the new citizenship test is WAY too hard for immigrants, so maybe they should hit the books as well.)

Anyway, Father Miguel Hidalgo was a Catholic priest who “encouraged” the people of Mexico to rise up against the Spaniards and declare independence. This was in September of 1810, hence the Mexican Independence Day. (I’m seeing church and state WAY too close together here, but I’m not sure if the MCLU even exists.)

So anyway, the Catholic Church excommunicated Father Hidalgo. Depending on who you ask, he was either excommunicated for violence against other priests or rebellion against Spain.

All’s well that ends well. After extensive research the Catholic Church has determined that Hidalgo was reinstated as a member of the church via deathbed confession just prior to his execution in 1811. They wanted to get this mess all cleared up before the 200th anniversary of the revolution in 2010.

Just another tidbit of trivia here. Hidalgo was shot with three other rebels by the Spanish Army. They were on their way to the United States to seek protection from President Madison (some things never change) but they never made it. After execution, the heads of the four rebels were put on display in Guanajuato for ten years just to show people what happens when you fight the motherland.

Maybe the Feds aren't stupid after all

When someone uses a fake Social Security number and earnings are withheld, what happens to that money? It winds up in the Earnings Suspense File along with all those records that don’t match the name (like newlyweds who didn’t change their name or the dyslexics who wrote down the wrong number on their job application).

That account grows by about $6 BILLION a year. At the end of 2004, it had $519 BILLION in it!

So you can see why Congress and the President would be slow to fix the illegal alien problem.

So, how many combinations of wrong names, wrong numbers, and fake numbers are in this file? 250 MILLION records!

And this also means that the IRS is withholding taxes as well, taxes that will never be refunded because a return will never be filed. Uncle Sam sees no reason to clean up the problem. Perhaps if they would bail out the schools, hospitals, police departments, and fraud victims, maybe we could all embrace the illegal aliens among us. But they keep the money in DC as a windfall instead.

Fix the anchor baby problem? No thank you. Anchor babies and illegal aliens are counted in the U S Census (as much as possible given the stealth nature of the illegal population) so the more the merrier. Every body counts toward redistricting you know.

Washington is going to have to hear from us loud and clear before they are going to do the right thing and crack down on illegals. They’ve got it good right now and they know it.

Clinton keeps on giving

No, this isn’t about Hillary, but it is a warning about liberal presidents (from either party).

Federal Judge Robert Gettleman has ruled that atheist Rob Sherman’s daughter was subjected to religion in school by virtue of Illinois’ new law about the moment of silence. And so there will be no moment of silence in her school. At least this Sherman is a freshman in high school, unlike the 7-year-old son Sherman paraded in front of the world over the Pledge of Allegiance back in 1989. Anything to help the family business, I suppose.

Sherman could not have picked a better judge for such anti-school nonsense. This same Judge Gettleman was the one who first heard the discrimination complaints about schools in U-46.

He heard the plaintiff’s complaint, declared that they did not have a case, then proceeded to PERSONALLY COACH THE PLAINTIFFS AS TO WHAT THEY NEEDED TO DO SO THEY WOULD HAVE A CASE.

Nice touch, don’t you think? Essentially he told them if they would do this and that and the other thing, they would then have a case and he would hear it.

There was no mention that the judge extended his free advice to the school district as well, telling them what he thought would be the best defense.

Here we are three years later and the school district is THREE MILLION DOLLARS poorer (legal fees) and we aren’t even getting to the meat of the case yet.

The lesson here is that if you’ve got an ax to grind with the school system, try to get Gettleman for the judge. Have we any hope that our judges will stop picking fly-poop out of pepper? As long as the crowd is buying tickets, they will keep performing.

And the Clinton connection? Gettleman was appointed a federal judge by Bill Clinton in 1994.

Who you callin' Hispanic?

There’s a racial profiling war going on in Chandler Arizona. One of the Spanish radio stations is calling the police racists (shouldn’t that be “ethnicists”?) for their description of a rapist on the loose.

Even the ACLU isn’t backing the radio station, so that should tell you something.

I’ve blogged before about the definition of Hispanic. The most accurate way to describe a Hispanic is someone who thinks himself to be one. Of course, it is to the advantage of Latino activists if more people are included in the group. And advertisers like to bunch them together and treat them the same. And it gives punch to media reports.

The term was really the brainchild of the government, who didn’t want all those scorekeeping forms they use to have 30 different choices. It all sort of falls apart anyway when dad is from Guatemala and mom is from Fiji.

But when you think about it, the same problem exists for everyone else.

It is about as accurate as the term Caucasian. Technically, unless you can trace your roots to the small mass of land between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, you have no claim to call yourself a Caucasian. Even the term Caucasoid is of incorrect origin.

I guess I’ve never identified myself with the term Caucasian, although I check the box because it seems to be the most likely substitute for White. They never have a choice called “American.” I’m often tempted to check the box “Other” and write in “Caesarian” but I was always afraid of perjury if they checked my birth certificate.

So, how do the Hispanics themselves feel about the label? According to a Pew Hispanic Center/Kaiser Family Foundation survey in 2002, 54 percent said they primarily identify themselves in terms of their or their parents' country of origin. About one quarter choose "Latino" or "Hispanic," and 21 percent chose "American."

Indeed, that question may be the litmus test for assimilation, or at least the willingness to work at it.

Anyway, you decide if the radio station has a valid gripe. Here are bits and pieces of the police bulletin about the suspect:

“The male was described as late 20’s to mid 30’s, approximately 5’03” to 5’05” tall. The suspect had short, dark hair, Hazel/brown eyes, and an unshaven face. He had dark brown/black thick, well-defined eyebrows.”

“The suspect spoke very clearly in English with a Spanish accent. Additionally he spoke Spanish clearly and fluently.”

“…male, about 5’06” tall who speaks clear English fluently but with a Spanish accent.”

One thing we are sure of…the truck he was driving was white.

The Feds are working too hard

I’ve never known a bureaucrat to sign up for extra work, but it seems to me that the feds are doing this thing the hard way. Let me explain a couple of enforcement efforts.

Last week there was a raid at O’Hare Airport where they caught 36 people in a fraudulent ID, illegal alien worker scheme.

Now, here’s an accounting of the program which netted 27 illegal aliens and nine citizens (if I read the newspaper reports correctly):
1) The investigation took eight months.
2) It involved several ICE agents and the Special-agent-in charge.
3) Also involved was the Cook County State’s Attorney.
4) U S Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald also participated.
5) The Chicago Police Department was involved.
6) The Chicago Department of Aviation had a hand in it.
7) TSA was also involved.

By my accounting you’ve got six government agencies, each with scores of man-hours devoted to the problem, and they netted 36 people.

This is not an isolated case. Remember the Little Village raid back in April? The three year investigation took 60 agents from ICE, the FBI, the Secret Service, and the U S Attorney …and it netted 12 arrests.

Or the sweep in October 2006 that netted 16 illegals who defied deportation orders. It took hours of preparation and investigation, seven agents, and four days to round them up.

Plain and simple, these folks are working too hard.

Compare these numbers to the ICE agent stationed in the Costa Mesa City Jail. He sits in the office and the local police bring him suspects in handcuffs. Sometimes the interview is conducted over the phone.

The people he is interviewing are accused of recent criminal acts in the community, not just running from an old deportation order.

So, how’s the productivity of this single Maytag repairman sitting at a desk in Costa Mesa? About 47 a month for each of the last ten months! That’s 468 deportation detainers from one police department in less than a year.

Now, don’t get me wrong; I’m glad they did these other sweeps. Those folks needed to go. But pound-for-pound, screening at the local level is obviously far more productive.

Of course, we need these special investigations. What I don’t understand is the resistance to the local programs, especially when they are taking the active criminal element off the street.

Spitzer sputters

Well, Gov. Spitzer of New York has abandoned his three tier drivers licenses for illegal aliens. His surrender sounded like, “I was only trying to help, but if you don’t want it, FINE! Just FINE!”

Well, Mr. Governor, if you want to work on this ignored federal problem, how about banning sanctuary cities in your state? Get a load of this report from Heather MacDonald in City Journal for a little background on the problem (and a nice slam at Prez-candidate Rudy):

“Immigration politics have similarly harmed New York. Former mayor Rudolph Giuliani sued all the way up to the Supreme Court to defend the city’s sanctuary policy against a 1996 federal law decreeing that cities could not prohibit their employees from cooperating with the INS. Oh yeah? said Giuliani; just watch me. The INS, he claimed, with what turned out to be grotesque irony, only aims to “terrorize people.” Though he lost in court, he remained defiant to the end. On September 5, 2001, his handpicked charter-revision committee ruled that New York could still require that its employees keep immigration information confidential to preserve trust between immigrants and government. Six days later, several visa-overstayers participated in the most devastating attack on the city and the country in history.

“New York conveniently forgot the 1996 federal ban on sanctuary laws until a gang of five Mexicans—four of them illegal—abducted and brutally raped a 42-year-old mother of two near some railroad tracks in Queens. The NYPD had already arrested three of the illegal aliens numerous times for such crimes as assault, attempted robbery, criminal trespass, illegal gun possession, and drug offenses. The department had never notified the INS.

“Citizen outrage forced Mayor Michael Bloomberg to revisit the city’s sanctuary decree yet again. In May 2003, Bloomberg tweaked the policy minimally to allow city staffers to inquire into immigration status only if it is relevant to the awarding of a government benefit. Though Bloomberg’s new rule said nothing about reporting immigration violations to federal officials, advocates immediately claimed that it did allow such reporting, and the ethnic lobbies went ballistic. “What we’re seeing is the erosion of people’s rights,” thundered Angelo Falcon of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund. After three months of intense agitation by immigrant groups, Bloomberg replaced this innocuous “don’t ask” policy with a “don’t tell” rule even broader than Gotham’s original sanctuary policy. The new rule prohibits city employees from giving other government officials information not just about immigration status but about tax payments, sexual orientation, welfare status, and other matters.” (end of City Journal excerpt)

And the Big Apple is only one of TEN sanctuary cities in your state. Here’s the list:
Bay Shore, NY
Brentwood, NY
Central Islip, NY
Farmingville, NY
New York City, NY
Riverhead, NY
Shirly/Mastic, NY
Spring Valley Village, NY (Added 7-25-07)
Uniondale, NY
Westbury, NY

How about getting your AG to follow the program of New Jersey and order screening for all criminals in custody?

Or, what do you say about getting your state troopers deputized as immigration agents. Give a call down to Alabama and find out why they have 60 troopers trained as 287(g) officers.

Wanna help, Governor? Then do an honest study of the cost of illegal aliens in the state.

Or maybe a state law that forbids marriages unless the couple can prove lawful presence?

Or browse this website for over a thousand pieces of state legislation aimed at doing something about this problem:
http://www.ncsl.org/programs/immig/2007Immigration831.htm

And give a call up to Albany. If Hillary isn’t on the campaign trail, maybe she can help you get something done about this problem.

But we’ve all had enough of state and local leaders simply wringing their hands and pointing to Washington. There’s plenty of support for governors taking some sort of action; you just picked the wrong approach.

Kiss my...

…fence. A group of open border types decided to protest at the fence near Calexico (about 120 miles inland on the California side). A fellow by the name of Rich Macgurn with No Borders Camp set up the stunt at the wire mesh fence.

The plan was to kiss some Mexicans with the fence in between. But the Border Patrol instructed the people to move away from the fence. Pepper spray and batons were eventually used. Three were arrested.

The article from the San Diego Union Tribune only tells the story from the side of the protesters (though they sought comment from the Border Patrol) but it is still an interesting tale.

It should be noted that this protest went on for a week with parties and dances. They put banners up on the wall and a hole magically appeared in the fence.

I particularly enjoyed the typo in the article that went like this: “Somebody taped a piece of paper over a whole in the wall and called it 'cross-border kissing booth.”

The video (taken by the protesters) shows an army of Border Patrol agents and a bunch of young adults who were in no hurry to obey instructions. Even from the biased video it looked like the BP used appropriate force after a week of restraint.

The newspaper allows readers to make comments about the article and I found them to be much more entertaining than the article itself. Here’s a sample:

DrewSD said, “They should of used their new Air Cannon to clear away all the protesters. You know what Kissing leads to. The USA having to pay for another Illegal giving birth In a USA hospital so they can be GRANTED, not EARNING, USA citizenship.”

MisterZeke said, “Aw heck (spit) Even our own president only gives lip service to the immigration problem.”

Borderview said, "All of the Illegals lovers in the U.S. do not have the GUTS to cross to the other side (Mexico) and start a grass roots effort over there. Because they know what would happen to them ;)”

God bless America for allowing the protest and the video to be made public. In most countries the camera AND THE CAMERAMAN would have disappeared for good!

I do hope these groups don’t tie up too much agent time. We need all of them we can get.

A top cop riddle

Why is it that the police chiefs who endorse drivers licenses for illegal aliens because they allow them to keep track of them…are the same ones who are opposed to 100% screening?

En ingles, pues.

Rough translation: In English, OK?
It could be my imagination but I’m hearing a little less “Press one for English” these days. Maybe the advertisers are sensing a little backlash.

For example, in Arlington Heights Illinois they have a party every year at the community center called “Hispanic Festival”. This year they are calling it “Fiesta Cultural”. More palatable for the Anglos? Perhaps.

Then there is the Spanish-language newspaper Reflejos. Last year the billboards were in English and Spanish; now they are in English only. And the bus banners are also in English; no Spanish at all except the name.

Then there's the government. They are still pushing Spanish down our throats.

Here in Kane County Illinois they are looking to hire 50 interpreters for election day in February, all part of a court order. (Thanks, US Dept. of Justice.)

Who started it? The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund who filed suit saying that the ballots in Spanish were not enough. What if someone shows up at the wrong polling place? Who will explain to them where they need to go?

How much? They need at least 50 people who will be paid $125 for their services.

Now, citizenship requires a basic understanding of English, right? So if these folks can’t find the right polling place on their own how are they possibly going to be informed voters?

Gee, you’d think non-citizens were voting.

Cruel and unusual punishment

Well, it certainly isn’t cruel but I found it rather unusual that our government is willing to grant amnesty to the illegal alien boy who ran away to Mexico with his school teacher.

And his parents and siblings are eligible as well. If all goes well, it will be visas for all and a path to citizenship in exchange for his testimony. The other boys in the class feel he’s been rewarded enough already.

I’m glad to see the U Visa finally being used somewhere. It was originally intended to get the wives who are victims of domestic violence to turn in their husbands. It is supposed to help these senoras decide between beatings and deportation of the old man.

Bu like most immigration law, it seems prone to loopholes and scams.

The real question is whether such an offer is necessary in this case.

And it begs the question as to whether or not such a deal constitutes preferential treatment. Just imagine extending something like this to the family of a citizen. (“Let’s see, Mr. Jones, if Johnny testifies against his teacher, we’ll make sure you’re never prosecuted for tax evasion and identity theft. Would that be enough to win your cooperation?”)

It is just one more example of the thought process in Washington that being an illegal alien is no big deal. That mentality has contributed to the problem. It is really hard to keep people out when so many of us send the message that it is OK to be here.

The Media Gets Tired

We’ve gone from this:

on the front page September 14th, complete with maps of all the shootings…

To this:
“Gunshots were reported at 1 a.m. Friday on the 100 block of North Liberty Street. No one was injured. A shell casing was found and police are investigating.” found on page 4 Police Reports section November 10th.

This is in the same area as the other gang crimes that made so many Elgin headlines this summer. Maybe it got to cold for the gangbangers to shoot at each other every week. Maybe there are enough police cars on the streets to remind people to behave.

Still, most of the shootings (including the murders) have not been solved.

For some reason the papers have grown bored of this toy and moved on to other things. I would hope they keep covering the problem; it keeps the cops and the mayor honest.

Update, November 13th: Another shooting, this time on South Liberty Street Sunday evening. A car pulls up, shoots at another car, then drives away. It shows up on the police blotter, page four.

Now, what DID make the front page is that the city council is meeting to discuss the creation of a special committee made up of police, citizens, clergy and politicians to discuss the after school activities that will fix the gang problem. Get enough people involved and you can spread the blame around.

Mayor Daley pontificates

On Halloween a 39-year-old Mexican woman died in the middle of gang crossfire in Chicago’s Back-of-the-Yards neighborhood. Mayor Ritchie Daley showed up the other night for a neighborhood vigil and here’s what he told the crowd: "You know who did it," he said. "Don't be blaming the police. Look in the mirror and say, 'I can do better.'" He also said: "If you don't turn these individuals in, you'll be marching for the rest of your life.”

I think that is a solid message, but it sounds a bit foolish coming from a man who has perpetuated the status of Sanctuary City from his first year in office.

I wonder if he ever thinks about the foolishness of it all? I wonder if he thought of that when they arrested over 30 illegal aliens at O’Hare Airport the other day? (Yes, the count has gone up; they announced ten more arrests today.) His “Don’t ask. Don’t tell,” policy has resulted in a security breech wide enough to drive a dirty bomb through. Yes, the Chicago Department of Aviation reports to the mayor.

Now, astute readers will say I’m jumping to conclusions about the immigration status of the at-large shooter. Perhaps. But there was a little tidbit of information in the article about the wake for this woman. It reads: “But (Manuel) Flores himself won't be able to say his final goodbyes at his wife's funeral and burial in Guerrero, Mexico. If he returns to his homeland, he might not be able to come back to Chicago because he overstayed a visa allowing him to be in the United States.”

The official designation for the husband is illegal alien, out-of-status, subject to deportation. (But the newspapers don’t know how to write that. They prefer softer language.)

Here’s chapter and verse:
United States Code
Title 8, Chapter 12, Subchapter II, Part IV, Section 1227 (a)(1)(C):
(i) Nonimmigrant status violators
Any alien who was admitted as a nonimmigrant and who has failed to maintain the nonimmigrant status in which the alien was admitted or to which it was changed under section 1258 of this title, or to comply with the conditions of any such status, is deportable. (end of quote)

He could, of course, take his family back to Mexico and stay there. Why don’t they ever think of that? And they’d be flying the flag and honking their horns on the right holidays to boot!

I wonder if Daley is puzzled by the silence from the witnesses? After all, the sanctuary policy is supposed to improve cooperation with the police.

The truth is, that neighborhood is loaded with illegal aliens. No one knows how many. No one seems to care. But you can’t have it both ways, Mr. Daley. You can’t wink at lawbreakers on one side of the street and expect order on the other. The chickens have come home to roost.

P.S. – If you really want the Olympics here, it would be a good idea to be in tight with Homeland Security. Maybe you ought to rethink this whole sanctuary business. And they’ll want a nice, secure airport as well.

"and two, if by sea..."

Or, The Mexicans are coming, the Mexicans are coming…”on the rising tide, like a bridge of boats.”

News comes to us from San Diego that an increasing number of abandoned boats have been found on the beaches of San Diego County. The activity is taking place between Imperial Beach on the south and Del Mar on the north.

Border crosser apprehensions have been UP 7% in the area this year, which runs counter to the trend elsewhere along the border where apprehensions are down 20%. It’s hard to say if the difference is one of activity or enforcement.

Maritime approaches were predicted long ago as a byproduct of tougher enforcement measures at the border, which only strengthens the theory that we need to dry up the REASONS they want to come here and have a vigorous deportation program.

Here’s how it works: They take an old pleasure boat, fill it with illegal aliens, and make a beach landing somewhere on the U S side. Imperial Beach is only three miles from the Mexican border so they aren’t making a long journey.

The boats are in bad shape to begin with so they just walk (or should I say, run) away from them and into our society, leaving it behind.

It must be somewhat embarrassing for our government since the area is peppered with active military installations along the coast. Here’s a list:

Imperial Beach Naval Air Station
United States Naval Radio Station
United States Naval Amphibious Base
North Island Naval Air Station
Halsey Field
Fort Rosecrans Military Reservation (where the remains of soldiers killed in the Mexican-American War are buried)
Camp Pendleton Marine Base
(I left off Miramar Air Station which is seven miles inland)

Here’s an eyewitness account, courtesy of The San Diego Union Tribune (They do provide us with something besides Ruben Navarrette): “In September, a 24-foot boat washed ashore at La Jolla's Wipeout Beach, south of the lifeguard tower at Children's Pool. A homeless woman who had been sleeping nearby told lifeguards she had seen about 10 people come out of the water and run away. She said they had been wearing black.”
Why do I see mental images of DDG67 when I read that?

We need a little Longfellow about now. “A cry of defiance and not of fear.”

A lesson repeated

You all remember Elvira Arellano, don’t you? She’s the Mexican illegal alien who was holed up in a storefront church in Chicago, safe from the feds. I think she is now living in Mexico and her son Saul is with her.

But she made the news in Chicago today. You see, in 2002 agents raided O’Hare Airport and found Elvira and 14 other illegal aliens working in secured areas.

Well, déjà vu! The feds raided the airport yesterday and found 24 illegal aliens working out on the tarmac with access to the cargo and cabin areas of United, KLM, and Quantas planes. My guess is that there are more than that because they found 110 badges that didn’t match the people using them.

I wonder if there are any Elviras in this bunch; you know, a martyr who will step forward and defend the rights of the illegals?

Maybe this batch of illegals can find a judge like the one I wrote about in Kane County. In that courtroom they looked at the total person and decided he was a nice man who bought a house and a car and used his own name along with someone else’s Social Security number. That makes ID fraud and unlawful presence OK in Kane County.

So, they’ll shop for a kind-hearted judge who will look the other way for all these deportable folks. Only this time Patrick Fitzgerald is the federal prosecutor. It’ll be a tough sell.

But what are the passengers supposed to think about O’Hare? It wasn’t just the temp agency, you know. The airport itself and TSA are supposed to be checking the employees, not just letting the contractor do all the checking. Where were they?

And this comes on the heels of a dismal screening record recently released about O’Hare. Investigators found that passengers could sneak dangerous items on board aircraft 60% of the time without being detected by TSA.

And where are the Washington bigmouths when things like this happen? Where’s Luis Guitierrez? Where’s Rahm Emanuel (the Democrat wunderkind who created the U S House take-over during the November 2006 election)? Where’s Durbin?

Not their kind of event I suppose. They’re more into photo ops with crying kids clinging to relatives. Never show the criminals; show the victims. And propose that the government can fix the problem. Does anybody buy that anymore?

Let's get FIT

Remember this acronym: FIT. It stands for Foreigner Impact Tax. I’ll get back to it in a minute.

I used to think that the money sent home to Mexico (called remittances) was a big deal. It was about $23 billion out of our economy and in to the Mexican economy. By comparison, oil revenue is number one, then remittances, then tourism (about $20 billion a year).

But Mexico is only one country. The rest of South America receives over $20 billion combined. And Central America gets $11 billion.

When you look at all the countries in the world, the vast majority of $300 BILLION flows out of the United States in remittances every year! Here’s an agency of the United Nations with the report:
http://www.ifad.org/events/remittances/maps/

So, here’s my plan. Let’s impose a tax on these remittances equal to the percentage of illegal aliens among the foreign-born population. That percentage would be 30% right now according to a 2006 report by Pew Hispanic Center.

We’ll call it the Foreigner Impact Tax. That would give us tens of billions of dollars to work with.

On the receiving end a state would be required to provide information about the number of illegal aliens residing there and the impact. Minnesota and Texas have done a good job of analyzing the problem. Utah says $85 million a year is spent educating their children but hasn’t done much in the other areas. Illinois opens welcome centers instead so they wouldn’t qualify for any of the funds.

Instead of HIDING the fact that these folks are illegal, bureaucrats would actually try to find each and every one of them so they could get a slice of the federal money.

What could we do with the money? We could build a fence. We could deport additional aliens. We could find more detention beds. We could repay the local schools. We could pay hospitals that treated illegals gratis. Cities could hire more code enforcement officers and policemen.

Most of all, it might slow down countries like Mexico who distribute comic books telling people how to sneak into the United States. It might also create a little healthy respect for America among the legal permanent residents from other lands when their illegal brothers cost them money.

So, who’s for a 30% FIT on all personal money sent back to the old country?

Selling your birthright

You know the Bible story. I won’t repeat it. But every time I see our leaders failing to act in the face of this illegal alien invasion I can’t help but make a comparison.

Right here in Elgin, Mayor Schock was defending those who have trespassed into our land and taken advantage of us. He said things on the radio the other night that upset me, but I couldn’t understand why.

Like when he said that the economic growth of our town in the last 30 years was made possible by the illegal alien workers. He picked up that tidbit from some Latino feel-good conference and he bought the whole package. For him, getting along with people from other cultures trumps the fact that they are here illegally.

All is forgiven in his eyes because these people have allowed our economy to grow. Well, that growth is about as legitimate as buying shoes from a child-labor sweat shop.

And I think I’m upset because he’s sold out to foreigners who could care less about the things that make America America.

We ask him to do his part to take back our country and he wants no part of it. He has no understanding of what our country stands for, and neither do the illegals. He praises them for having the desire to pursue the American dream, but has no idea what that really means. He won’t stand up for our country. Instead he honors the immigrant and endorses their native festivals and cultures. What’s left? Our identity is not worth preserving where he’s concerned. Is he ashamed of our culture? It appears so since he casts it aside at the drop of a hat.

Let them stay here. They deserve it. The trail of identity theft, tax evasion, overcrowded housing, and theft of services can all be forgiven. Why? Because they are an oppressed minority.

Mr. mayor, you’ve sold your birthright for $500 off the cost of a new roof. You’ve sold out to a landscaping crew, a chambermaid, or a busboy. I guess America wasn’t that important to you after all.

The times...

…they are a-changing
I am hopeful that the immigration issue is finally getting some attention with the Democrats. I’ve written about the Hillary question. That is exactly what needs to happen. It does my heart good to see some debate about it. It is no longer taboo for a reporter to ask about tougher enforcement.

And it is no longer acceptable for a politician to take a vague stand, leaving themselves some room to move on the issue.

I also see that the DREAM act has failed again. This is supposed to be the softball issue. After all, you’ve got these college kids willing to go to school and earn citizenship that way. Who could be against that?

Well, the Senators are getting an earful just like they did last time DREAM came up. And just like they got when they tried to railroad the nation on comprehensive immigration reform.

We are seeing some movement at the state level as well. The Oklahoma package seems to be holding with the courts. Illinois has been trying to muster enough votes in the state senate to pass their Driving Certificates for illegals, but they have been three or four votes short for over three months now.

With the whipping they are giving Spitzer in New York, I think the general climate will give them pause at this point.

And I just read that Chertoff over at Homeland Security ended the fiscal year with 261,000 deportations, a fine showing for an administration that hates doing it. Now, my theory is that the lesson will be learned once we reach about one million deportations in a years’ time. If we can do that for a couple of years, visibly and without apology, we will deter future illegal entry.

There must be some high visibility prosecutions of employers as well. And effective screening of job applicants. And tough border security. But this can work.

I’m convinced that you don’t need to “seal” the border; just have an active and tough presence there. And they must perceive that there is a better than even chance they will either be denied a job or be caught in a raid at work.

Then they will take their families and go home. Then they will tell friends and family on the other side of the border, “Things are not like before. It is too risky to come to America. The old days are over.”

Latino activists want us to believe the illegals feel they have a right to be here. I think they know they have no legitimate case for being here and are more than willing to go home when pressure is applied.

Something stinks

When the wind shifts and blows from the south, I can smell something rotten down in Aurora. It’s coming from the police station.

On October 30th Brenetta Beck, a 25-year-old black woman, was found murdered in her apartment, stabbed to death. So, they picked up her 24-year-old boyfriend on Wednesday and released him to Immigration on Friday.

But the police haven’t given this man a name, except to say he is a suspect. He was turned over to Immigration “based on his past criminal record, which could lead to his deportation.” So, ICE took him into custody and probably agreed to hold him so Aurora could buy some time to process evidence. The case isn’t quite there yet to charge him, but they are pretty sure they have their man.

But why aren’t they releasing his name? We have a couple of high-profile cases going in the area of wives disappearing. One is the Lisa Stebic case and the other is Stacey Peterson. In both cases they lack a body but the police and the press have named their spouses as “persons of interest”, which has brought hoards of cameras and microphones to their front yards. Both women were young, white, and attractive.

Here we have a suspect (obviously foreign-born) who is in custody but not named.

Now, Aurora is a Hispanic enclave (46% of the population in 2000). We have no clue as to the nationality of the suspect. He could be from Chad or Cambodia or Columbia or even Canada.

And he could have his papers. We sometimes forget that even those with green cards are subject to deportation if they break serious laws.

So, why all the secrecy about his identity? I certainly hope it isn’t simply a tactic to keep people thinking that illegal aliens are just as safe as everyone else.

That appears to be the MSM view, you know. Here’s a headline from the Sun Times a day before the murder: “Wrongly accused. IMMIGRATION: Think illegals are more likely to be involved in crime? Think again”

I fired off this letter to the editor but it was never published:
Editor – Chicago Sun-Times 29 October 2007
Dear Sir:
I must take issue with your recent article regarding illegal aliens and crime. You were absolutely right to declare, “Reliable statistics on crime by undocumented immigrants are hard to come by.”

The truth is, no one in Illinois knows how many illegal aliens are in the prison system because we don’t identify them. Locally, the problem is exacerbated by the fact that Chicago and Cook County are sanctuary jurisdictions. From the cop on the street to the warden himself, little effort is made to discover residency status and request a detainer hold.

One could scarcely blame them, since our local Immigration office (ICE) is particularly weak in the area of enforcement. A case in point is the Little Village raid last spring. ICE representative Elissa Brown went out of her way to assure residents that they were only looking for those 22 suspects and no other illegal aliens were in danger of arrest.

It is reminiscent of the announcement Brown’s office made in advance of the May 1, 2006 rally that no enforcement activities would be carried out that day; illegal aliens were free to protest with impunity.

The L A Times reported earlier this month, “In Orange County, officials found that about 10% of the 46,000 inmates that have gone through the system since mid-January were illegal immigrants.”

To see the impact of 100% screening at time of booking, one should look at the track record of the Costa Mesa City Jail. Similar to Elgin in size and Hispanic population, they have discovered that 11% of people booked in their jail are deportable illegal aliens.

It would also be wise for you to clarify the research of Dr. Ruben Rumbaut, one of your cited “experts”. His research does not distinguish between illegal aliens and foreign-born prisoners with lawful presence, yet many journalists fall for the data as “proof”.

Additionally, your readers ought to know that Rumbaut’s research on the subject was funded by two groups; The American Immigration Law Foundation and The Immigration Policy Center. One would do well to know the agenda of these organizations before accepting the “data” at face value. (end of unpublished editorial)

I don’t know why they never printed it…

MRSA in Washington

Numerous politicians, mostly Democrats, have contracted the deadly MRSA.

MRSA is the common abbreviation for Muddled Ridiculous Soundbite Ailment. The first case was Senator Harry Reid who argued with himself about wildfires and global warming last week.

(By the way, did you read about the IPCC member who has defected? He came out in a letter to the Wall Street Journal to debunk his fellow scientists who are so confident about humans causing global warming. My favorite quote from Dr. John Christie is this one: “It is my turn to cringe when I hear overstated-confidence from those who describe the projected evolution of global weather patterns over the next 100 years, especially when I consider how difficult it is to accurately predict that system's behavior over the next five days.” I love it!)

Hillary was infected with MRSA the other night in Philadelphia when she debated herself on Drivers Licenses for illegals in her home state of New York. I’ll bet there are times when she wishes she had shipped her carpetbag to another state when they left the White House.

Even Obama had a touch of it that night when his answer was less than direct, but the moderator let him off the hook.

Here locally another Democrat was infected with the written form of the disease called MRCI (pronounced “murky”) for Muddled Ridiculous Correspondence Illness when he gave a friend of mine his position on licenses for illegals in Illinois. State Senator Mike Noland wrote (the entire, unedited message): “I want to thank you for your continued interest in this matter and willingness to inform me of your concerns. I take the matter of how immigration, legal and otherwise, impacts our communities very seriously. What I’m sure people who have strong feelings on both sides of this issue find frustrating about my view in this regard is that I believe both sides are right.

“On the one hand, I recognize that our nation’s generosity, boundless as I know it is, may not be equaled by its capacity to accommodate every willing entrant into its borders. And softening our laws locally may only invite increased numbers of undocumented persons into this country.

“On the other hand, when we consider the millions of dollars we pay police, prosecutors and judges to preside over traffic cases indirectly related to immigration status, and the resulting higher cost of automobile insurance, I suggest that this is an awfully high price to pay for continuing the status quo.

“While some would urge that only a comprehensive approach at the federal level will bring the needed relief our communities, our state and our nation deserve, I am of the belief that there are at least a few things at the state, and, perhaps, at the local level we can do to address the issue.

“I believe my responsibility is to reduce the cost borne by taxpayers in my district. Having significant experience in the criminal justice system as a practicing attorney, and understanding that the majority of law enforcement, judges and attorneys on both sides of this issue agree that our courts are unduly burdened by maintaining our current policy in this area, I am inclined to try something different. Concerns about terrorism are not withstanding.

“Having said that, I remain open to any quantifying information you may have in this regard. We must look at the numbers and take the emotion out of this consideration. And, after this vote is taken – should it be so in the coming days, I would very much like to work with you and others to take what additional measures we can to reduce the cost of immigration to taxpayers.
With Highest Regards,
Senator Michael Noland” (End of Noland message)


I told him I’d share it with my readers in hopes that someone can translate it for us. Feel free to leave a message so all of us can enjoy what he said.

Now, MRCI is much more serious because it is easier to misspeak than it is to write something out, reread it, and then send it. We’ll hope there is a cure besides simply not responding to questions, a tactic far too common among elected officials.

One thing is for certain, the Democrats are learning that they can no longer simply say, “I’m in favor of rights for the immigrants.” Now the voters are asking them to be a bit more specific about legal vs. illegal and how much the program is going to cost us. Most Americans are jaded enough now to understand that Washington has lost control of this problem and the politicians are being asked more specific questions.

Finally, it is no longer a foregone conclusion that the Left supports illegal immigration and the third world flood. It’s about time!

Playing the children card

As the number of work site raids increases so do the complaints. Chertoff has vowed to step up enforcement efforts in response to the public’s outcry about amnesty. He has also put us on notice that “advocacy groups” will complain.

Well, the raid activity has picked up considerably this year. It is a step in the right direction. I would like to see more prosecution of the employers as well. There have been some byproducts of the raids that also are part of the solution, such as finding and prosecuting those who deal in fake documents.

After raiding the McDonalds restaurants in and around Reno, protests followed. The photo ops were of children left without their parents as a result of the raids.

In the Chicago Tribune yesterday there was an article about a “report” regarding the impact of these raids on the children. The opening line of the article reads, “The federal government's escalating enforcement against illegal immigration is taking a heavy toll on children.”

And it is peppered with phrases like these:

Children “left without proper care or psychological support, creating lingering trauma with potentially broader social effects.”

“The potential impact on children carries broader social repercussions.”

“Several children expressed feelings of depression or abandonment that could later lead to deeper problems in school or elsewhere.”

The report was written by La Raza, so I’m certain it is an unbiased look at the problem. NOT. And the Urban Institute.

Now, ICE is being as sensitive as they can with these folks. They get phone calls, opportunities for appeal, and hardship releases all the time. But they are not entitled to apologies. They have committed crimes, they know they have, and they are subject to the consequences just like anyone else who is arrested.

Latino activists try to paint these arrests as a violent blitz on a job site, followed by isolation, with an immediate trip to the border in the middle of the night.

Not so! ICE coordinates the raids with local social service agencies so people are on hand to take care of child-care details. The arrestees are entitled to phone calls and legal representation. Only the few who are fugitives of prior deportation orders are actually subject to immediate deportation. The rest are processed and released, usually the same day.

I’m really sorry that they weren’t able to be home in time to pick up the kids from school, but that’s the price you pay.

Society will not be held accountable for those who father children, then lead criminal lives. Those kids are at risk only because of the actions of the parents.

I’m not buying La Raza’s pity campaign, and neither should you.