President Cuts Border Security in Proposed Budget

by Jim Kouri

While telling the American people that national security is a priority in his administration, President Barack Obama submitted a 2011 budget proposal that includes cuts to U.S. border security.

The proposed budget cuts include a reduction in Border Patrol agents and a cut in the amount of money allocated for the so-called "virtual fence" on the U.S.-Mexico border, which critics claim is a pipe dream in lieu of a real border fence.

In the midst of a firestorm over Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano's failure to appear before a Congressional committee hearing, officials from her office confirmed the proposed cuts on Monday.They said, however, that there would be no lay-offs of Border Patrol agents and the reduction in positions would be achieved through attrition as agents retire or transfer to other Homeland Security departments.

In order to ward off vocal condemnation of this latest Obama proposal, White House officials claim the cuts won't reduce the effectiveness of the U.S. Border Patrol, which President George W. Bush doubled in size. At it's apex, there were more than 20,000 agents assigned to northern and southern borders.

This latest White House attempt to reduce the amount of resources allocated for border protection will undoubtedly be met with resistance from the Senate and House of Representatives, who will be vote on proposed budget cuts, according to several national security experts.

"The Republicans are expected to kick up a fuss over this latest effort to minimize the protection of U.S. borders. But, this is an election year and Democrats do not want to appear weak on security, especially when control of both houses of Congress is at stake," said former NYPD detective and Marine intelligence officer Sid Frances.

"Look at it this way: New York City has a police department that numbers well over 40,000 officers and another 10,000 civilian employees, yet the U.S. Border Patrol agents, who are responsible for thousands and thousands of miles of border, number only 20,000. And Obama wants to cut that number," said Frances, now the owner of a private security firm.

Obama's proposed budget cut also would eliminate $226 million that had been allocated for an electronic "virtual fence" system along the border. Known as "SBInet," the strategy is to install cameras, radar and sensors to detect humans and contraband coming into the U.S..

Obama White House officials told reporters that even though the President is seeking cuts in border programs, the administration is seeking an additional $10 million to create Border Enforcement Security Task Forces in Honolulu, San Francisco, and Massena, N.Y.

These multi-agency teams work to identify and stop criminal organizations that transport drugs and other contraband across U.S. borders.

"This is only the beginning," said political strategist Mike Baker. "There will be more cuts made to Immigration and Customs Enforcement since President Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others have been critical of agents going after illegal workers. This budget is going to be all smoke and mirrors."

Jim Kouri, CPP is currently fifth vice-president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police and he's a columnist for The Examiner (examiner.com) and New Media Alliance (thenma.org). In addition, he's a blogger for the Cheyenne, Wyoming Fox News Radio affiliate KGAB (www.kgab.com). Kouri also serves as political advisor for Emmy and Golden Globe winning actor Michael Moriarty.

He's former chief at a New York City housing project in Washington Heights nicknamed "Crack City" by reporters covering the drug war in the 1980s. In addition, he served as director of public safety at a New Jersey university and director of security for several major organizations. He's also served on the National Drug Task Force and trained police and security officers throughout the country. Kouri writes for many police and security magazines including Chief of Police, Police Times, The Narc Officer and others. He's a news writer and columnist for AmericanDaily.Com, MensNewsDaily.Com, MichNews.Com, and he's syndicated by AXcessNews.Com. Kouri appears regularly as on-air commentator for over 100 TV and radio news and talk shows including Fox News Channel, Oprah, McLaughlin Report, CNN Headline News, MTV, etc.

Read more >>

AMERICA RUNNING BLOOD RED DEFICITS: BUT STILL GIVING BILLIONS TO ILLEGALS ALIENS

By Frosty Wooldridge

Take a look at these figures:  NBC reported 26 million Americans unemployed or working half time because they cannot obtain a full time job.  Countless millions lost their homes to foreclosures in the past three years.  At the same time, 35 million Americans subsist on food stamps. Yes, you may check Google for that figure.  Our national debt wallows at $12 trillion.

In the same breath, last month, our U.S. Congress injected around 200,000 to 238,000 legal and illegal immigrants into this country. Month in and month out! Year in and year out!   They injected 2.4 million last year and they will inject another 2.4 million in 2010.  Most go on welfare and many stay on the public dole.

Former Colorado Governor Lamm said, “Are we in dreamland? The United States has had zero net job growth since 2000, yet we imported more than 10 million permanent immigrants in the same period. Our real U.S. unemployment rate is 17.3 percent when we consider the discouraged workers, more than 20 million, and yet some in Congress along with Udall and Bennet, propose increasing legal immigration and giving amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants, who themselves will be allowed to bring in their spouses, parents, children, brothers, sisters and spouses and children of brothers and sisters. America has its plate full putting our own workers back to work.”

Jack Barnes, Fort Collins, Colorado, said, “Why is allowing more than 12 million current illegal aliens to become citizens considered “immigration reform”?  What will we call it when another 10 or 20 or 100 million citizens from other countries cross our borders in defiance of our laws and sovereignty and demand to become citizens?  I see not positive outcome in sight following the current ‘reform’ logic.”

DOES ANY OF IT MAKE SENSE TO AMERICAN CITIZENS?

The answer? A resounding “NO!”  None of it makes any sense whatsoever!

Last year, Roy Beck of www.numbersusa.com directed his team to visit all 535 U.S. Congressional offices with facts, graphs and figures on immigration’s impact.  His staff showed every U.S. Senator and House critter the impacts of adding 100 million people to the USA within 25 years.  His staff asked Congressional members to consider lowering legal immigration back down to pre-1965 levels of less than 200,000 annually.

Not one, solitary, zinc-hearted, stinkin’, friendless, soul-less, conniving, scheming, shrewd, sagacious and you take your pick of names--Senator or House member would sponsor a simple bill to reduce legal immigration! That shows you how many rats live under our nation’s capitol dome each day!  Whomever they represent, it’s not U.S. citizens!

Does anyone understand that we suffer 20 to 26 million Americans out of work or full time employment?  How about 35 million American citizens subsisting on food stamps because they cannot find a job?  Does anyone understand that 1.5 million homeless Americans live on the streets?  Over 13.4 million American children, according to Katie Couric, live below the poverty line and go to bed hungry every night?

In America?  In the most advanced first world country in the world?  In our own communities?

WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE? 

California, loaded with five million illegal aliens and their children, presents a model of this human tragedy.  California adds 1,700 legal and illegal immigrants daily!   (Source: www.capsweb.org)

Last year, “San Bernardino County spent $64 million on welfare for illegal immigrants' American children” by Stephan Wall, http://www.sbsun.com/news/ci_14217638, 1/18/10

Why?  Because Governor Schwarzenegger would not enforce immigration laws, because ICE would not arrest illegal employers, because all those elected to uphold the U.S. Constitution would not follow their sworn oaths.  Therefore, California taxpayers spent not just $64 million, but a total of over $10 billion on illegal aliens. Senators Boxer and Feinstein sat on their butts watching it happen as well as 37 California House members.  Amazing!

U.S. taxpayers shelled out, according to the Edwin Rubenstein Report, www.thesocialcontract.com , $346 billion. They continue to shell it out year in and year out.  That coincides with the fact that we add 200,000 to 240,000 immigrants every 30 days.

“Nationwide, one-in-three immigrant-headed households uses at least one major welfare program, compared to 19 percent of native households, according to the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington D.C.-based think tank that advocates immigration reduction,” said Wall. “In California, 192,660 citizen children are getting welfare checks passed through their illegal immigrant parents. That costs $546 million a year in state, federal and county funds.  Some lawmakers say it's an expense California can't afford as the state struggles to close nearly $20 billion budget gap.”

"We should never be giving benefits to people in this country illegally," said state Sen. Bob Dutton, R-Rancho Cucamonga.

“County officials provided data from August 2009 to show the funding and number of American-born children of illegal immigrants receiving aid and food stamp programs,” reported Wall. “Information for all of 2009 was not easily retrievable, officials said, but the August figures are an accurate reflection of a monthly total during the year. The maximum CalWORKs grant for a family of three in the county is $661 per month. The maximum amount of food stamp assistance that a family of three can get is $526 a month. In August, the county spent nearly $3.3 million for CalWORKs and about $2 million for food stamps for the American-born children of illegal immigrants. The two programs totaled nearly $64 million when multiplied over 12 months.”

Over 400,000 illegal mothers annually birth “anchor babies” in the USA at a cost of billions both in medical, food, housing and educational outlays for K-12.

“The welfare expenses don't count pregnancy-related services that were provided last year to about 2,350 illegal immigrant women in the county through Medi-Cal, a health-care program for low-income California residents,” reported Wall. “The welfare costs also don't include the roughly $11 billion the state spends annually for education, unreimbursed health care and incarceration of illegal immigrant criminals, said Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation of American Immigration Reform, a Washington D.C.-based group that favors strict immigration limits.”  www.fairus.org

"The American people are fed up with illegal aliens depleting our tax dollars by overrunning our schools, our hospitals and our welfare system," said Raymond Herrera, founder and president of We the People California's Crusader, a Claremont-based anti-illegal immigration group.

Yet, each month, your U.S. Senators and House members in your state will not lift a finger to stop legal and illegal immigration. Countless U.S. citizen employers hire illegals for work.  Worse, most of you will vote them back into office while your own kids and this country race toward the bottom of the economic, social and cultural barrel. It makes no sense to me!

Go to:  www.frostywooldridge.com  and click on “Audio/Video” tab

Frosty Wooldridge has bicycled across six continents – from the Arctic to the South Pole – as well as six times across the USA, coast to coast and border to border.  In 2005, he bicycled from the Arctic Circle, Norway to Athens, Greece.  He presents “The Coming Population Crisis in America: and what you can do about it” to civic clubs, church groups, high schools and colleges.  He works to bring about sensible world population balance at www.frostywooldridge.com  He is the author of:  America on the Brink: The Next Added 100 Million Americans.  Copies available:  1 888 280 7715

Read more >>

A Practical Way to Reduce the Number of Uninsured

By John W. Lillpop

As President Obama, Majority Leader Reid, and House Speaker Pelosi survey the smoldering ruins of what they once considered to be a blank check issued by the American people, one is struck by the resiliency of some truly foolish ideas on the liberal agenda.

Take, for instance, amnesty the outrageous notion that America should legalize 12-30 million uneducated, non-English speaking invaders at a time when unemployment is at 17 percent and upwards of 15 million Americans are without gainful employment.

Even in robust economic times, allowing millions of illegal aliens to violate our borders and ignore our immigration laws is just plain stupid, because it makes a mockery of rule of law and poses a serious threat to homeland security.

It also costs American taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars each year in services and goods stolen by those who should not even be here, much less on the public dole.

Illegal immigration disrupts our economy, threatens established values and culture, and has a negative impact on social order.

Incidentally, illegal aliens are also a huge factor in soaring US health care costs and have caused many an American hospital to go bankrupt.

American citizens are losing access to medical services and or are paying more because millions of illegal aliens do not pay for services, although many still find a way to send money back to third-world Mexico each year.

If only there were a single solution that would address both illegal aliens AND the huge population of uninsured in America.

But, there is such a solution, fellow patriots.

A simple, practical, non-PC solution exists if only moon bat politicians would listen to common sense.

Namely, rather than granting amnesty to criminal invaders, enforce the damn law by deporting each and every last one of the despicable outlaws.

By simply enforcing laws currently on the books, 10-20 million uninsured would be removed from the population and hundreds of billions of dollars now wasted on criminals would be saved.

Looking to reduce the ranks of the uninsured, Mr. President, Madam Speaker, and Mr. Majority Leader?

Then enforce the damn law!

Read more >>

Still Think You Earned a B+, Mr. President?

By John W. Lillpop

Getting out of bed on the first anniversary of his inauguration as America’s 44th president will be particularly galling for President Obama this morning.

There was a political blood bath overnight in Massachusetts which, like it or night, was a referendum on Obama and his far-left policies. This was no vast right-wing conspiracy or the work of Nazis, Astroturf clowns, or right wing extremists.

This was the ultra-blue state of Massachusetts sending Obama an unmistakable message, loud and clear: The American people do not want nor need your brand of far-left radicalism.

Let us be clear: This is still America, a capitalist, free-market representative democracy. We intend to keep it that way!

You were hired, Mr. President, to steer the good ship America clear of hazards and some very hard times. No one expected you to replace the vessel of American life and culture with your own Marxist agenda.

Change with a small C, rather than CHANGE! was what most Americans envisioned. A course adjustment, rather than a radical turn left, was the only mandate approved by the people in November, 2008.

The big question on the morning after: Will this president and his liberal conspirators pay heed to the people’s message or will they defiantly buck prevailing currents in a futile attempt to rekindle the fires of Obamamania, long since extinguished in town hall meets and Tea Parties from coast-to-coast?

Of course, health care will be impacted, as will cap and trade and other foolish excesses on the Obama agenda.

But what about amnesty for 12-20 million invading criminals that Obama would like to add to the rolls of Democrat Party voters?

With America’s economy still in the doldrums and 15 million Americans out of work, just how eager will liberals be to advance an amnesty that would reward illegal aliens for breaking and entering into America?

Will the "Browning of Massachusetts" on Tuesday force liberals to see common sense on this issue?

If not, let me be the first to issue the following challenge: When it comes to granting amnesty to illegal aliens at the expense of American jobs, BRING IT ON, Mr. President!

Read more >>

Thousands protest Sheriff Joe's immigration efforts

By JACQUES BILLEAUD

Thousands of immigrant rights advocates marched in front of a county jail in Phoenix Saturday in a protest that was aimed at Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's immigration efforts and was marked by a clash between a small group of protesters and police officers.

Organizers say the protest was meant to show officials in Washington that Arpaio shouldn't handle immigration enforcement, and that Congress and the Obama administration need to come up with a way for immigrant workers to come to the country legally.

The three-mile walk that started in a west Phoenix park ended by afternoon at the Durango Jail Complex, a collection of five jails, where officials played music, including a record by singer Linda Ronstadt, to drown out noise made by protesters. Ronstadt took part in Saturday's protest.

Protesters chanted "Joe must go" as they approached the jail complex. One person carried a sign that said "We are human" and bore a picture of a lawman with a wolf's face. A family of five wore T-shirts saying "Who would Jesus deport?"

For his part, Arpaio said he wasn't bothered by the protesters and that they should be directing their frustrations at Congress because it has the power to change America's immigration laws.

"They are zeroing in on the wrong guy," Arpaio said. "They ought to be zeroing in on the president."

The demonstration was peaceful until police say protesters near the end of the procession started throwing water bottles at officers. Phoenix Police Lt. Pat Hofmann said officers used pepper spray as they tried to separate protesters from an officer who was trying to take away the bottles.

Phoenix police spokesman Sgt. Andy Hill said on-scene supervisors described a group of demonstrators purposefully disrupting the demonstration by assaulting several police officers and a police horse.

He said one demonstrator struck a police sergeant on the head and chest with a flagpole. Two others threw water bottles, possibly containing rocks, at other officers, but missed.

Hill also said a police officer on horseback was assaulted while her horse was mobbed, punched and pushed. The officer used pepper spray to stop the assault.

"Most regrettably, a nearby 2-year-old child was hit by some of the pepper spray," said Hill, adding that the Phoenix Fire Department was called to the scene to treat the girl. "I am told she was released and was expected to be OK."

No one else was seriously injured, he said.

Phoenix police said Saturday night that five people were arrested during the protest and taken to Maricopa County Jail. Four were booked on suspicion of aggravated assault on police. The other faces disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

Though the scene of the disturbance was cleared within minutes, the aftermath was chaotic. Protesters yelled obscenities at police officers in riot gear. One officer shook his pepper spray canister as he ordered people to keep moving. One protester wore goggles, and several others wrapped bandanas around their mouths.

Critics have accused deputies working in Arpaio's immigration efforts of racial profiling, which the sheriff denies. He says his deputies approach people when they have probable cause to believe they had committed crimes.

Ten months ago, Arpaio learned he was under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department for alleged discrimination and unconstitutional searches. He says the investigation was prompted by his immigration efforts, although federal authorities haven't provided details.

Since early 2008, Arpaio has run 13 immigration and crimes sweeps involving officers who flood a section of a city — in some cases heavily Latino areas — to seek out traffic violators and arrest other violators.

Arpaio's power to make federal immigration arrests was stripped away three months ago by officials in Washington, but he continues his immigration efforts through the enforcement of two state laws.

A federal grand jury also is investigating Arpaio and his office on allegations of abusing his powers.

Read more >>

Ariz. sheriff launches immigration sweep

By JACQUES BILLEAUD

SURPRISE, Ariz. — An Arizona sheriff known for cracking down on people who are in the country illegally launched a crime and immigration sweep in northwestern metro Phoenix on Friday, a half day after officials in Washington limited his powers to make federal immigration arrests.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, whose sweeps have led to allegations of racial profiling, said the rebuff from Washington won't stop him. He said he can still arrest immigrants under a state smuggling law and a federal law that gives all local police agencies more limited power to detain suspected illegal immigrants.

"It doesn't bother me, because we are going to do the same thing," said Arpaio, whose deputies had arrested 16 people by Friday evening on unspecified charges. "I am the elected sheriff. I don't take orders from the federal government."

The officers were participating in a federal program that grants a limited number of local police departments special powers to make immigration arrests and speed up deportation. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement stripped Arpaio of his power to let 100 deputies make federal immigration arrests, but renewed another agreement that allows 60 jails officers to determine the immigration status of people in jail.

The sheriff's sweeps in some heavily Latino areas of metro Phoenix have drawn criticism that Arpaio's deputies racially profile people. Arpaio said people pulled over in the sweeps were approached because deputies had probable cause to believe they had committed crimes and that it was only afterward that deputies found many of them were illegal immigrants.

The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating Arpaio's office over allegations of discrimination and unconstitutional searches and seizures.

"He is doing this to thumb his nose at the Obama administration," said Lydia Guzman, president of the Hispanic civil rights group Somos America.

The sweeps have discouraged some Hispanics who have witnessed or been victims of crime to refuse to call Arpaio's deputies, for fear of mistreatment, Guzman said.

Observers who are part of Guzman's group fanned out across the area of the sweeps with video cameras to record exchanges between deputies and motorists.

Arpaio said volunteers will use cameras owned by his agency to video-record deputies so viewers can see for themselves that they weren't doing anything wrong. Arpaio responded angrily to a question during a news conference about the costs of the cameras, saying they were paid through seizures in drug cases. "Dope peddlers bought the cameras," Arpaio said.

A dozen anti-Arpaio protesters yelled throughout the news conference. At one point, they chanted: "Order equals K-K-K — here's what Arpaio has to say."

Kris Kobach, a law professor at the University of Missouri at Kansas City and an advocate of expanding local immigration efforts, said Arpaio's office — like every other local police agency — can detain people suspected of immigration violations for a day or two until federal authorities come to pick them up.

In the past, Arpaio could have held such immigrants for longer than two days and conducted investigations of smuggling rings, Kobach said.

"It's really a slight narrowing, but it's not much," said Kobach, who worked as an immigration law adviser to then-U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft from 2001-2003.

Dan Pochoda, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing people who filed a lawsuit over the sweeps, said Arpaio still can't pull over motorists solely because they are suspected of being illegal immigrants.

"He can't do it under the terms he is claiming. He has indicated that he can stop people without the suspicion, based on what they look like, what they sound like," Pochoda said.

Arpaio said the Bush administration had no complaints about his use of the special federal powers, but all that has changed with the Obama administration.

"What's changed?" Arpaio asked. "Politics has changed, because they don't like us going on the streets to catch illegals."

This round of sweep, Arpaio's 12th, is set to end late Saturday.

Read more >>

California Governor Schwarzenegger Establishes ‘Harvey Milk’ Day!

On Sunday night, California Governor Arnold Schwarzengger signed two pro-gay laws to push the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) agenda on California.

SB 54 overturns the will of the voters over gay marriage. It grants to gay couples moving to California who were married in other states all of the privileges and rights of marriages that were available prior to Proposition 8 passing. Prop. 8 was a constitutional amendment that defines marriage as a union of one man and one woman. SB 54 would allow for all homosexual marriages performed in other states prior to Prop 8’s passing in 2008 to be valid and recognized here in California.

The second bill is SB 572 which declares May 22 as “Harvey Milk Day” throughout California. Harvey Milk was a gay San Francisco politician gunned down in the late 1970s. Milk has admitted that he cruised for gay sex in public parks when he lived in New York City.

“Governor Schwarzenegger has, once again, aided the LGBT agenda in California by signing these terrible bills into law,” said TVC Chairman Rev. Louis P. Sheldon. “He has ignored the will of the voters by signing SB 54 and will subject children to gay propaganda every May 22.

“This is an outrage. Harvey Milk Day will open the floodgates for the glorification of controversial homosexual leaders and the homosexual lifestyle in all California schools. 

“Harvey Milk died in a political, workplace disagreement that had nothing to do with homosexuality. He is no martyr and no school kid should have to listen to stories about his involvement in the homosexual movement or about his sexual affairs with young men. Milk and his lifestyle have no place in California’s schools. Harvey Milk is not the pride of the Golden State; rather, he is an embarrassment.”

 “Surely there are more worthy individuals to honor with their own day. Why not honor the contributions of such accomplished Californians as Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, John Wayne, Sonny Bono, Clint Eastwood, Joe DiMaggio, George Lucas, Mark Spitz, Hiram Johnson, John Fremont, or Walt Disney?

“Why pay honor to a man for how he engages in sex? California’s children will be taught about the gay lifestyle every May 22 instead of learning the three Rs.”

Read more >>

White House strips immigration policing powers from Arizona sheriff

Sheriff Joe Arpaio has previously been attacked by critics for racial profiling among illegal immigrants

By Daniel Nasaw

A controversial Arizona sheriff known for taking a hard line against illegal immigrants has been stripped of some of his powers in what he described as a political move by the Obama administration.

Joe Arpaio, a gruff lawman who styles himself as America's toughest sheriff, has won acclaim from US anti-immigrant forces for his relentless pursuit of mostly Hispanic illegal immigrants in Maricopa county, Arizona, a fast-growing county of 4 million people that is home to Phoenix, the nation's fifth largest city.

Arpaio's aggressive tactics include the jailing of illegal immigrants in tent cities surrounded by barbed wire in the middle of Arizona's searingly hot summers, the reduction of meal costs to 20 cents per day, the use of pink jail clothing for men, and chain gangs for women inmates.

Arpaio also came in for criticism when he appeared on the Fox reality show Smile: You're Under Arrest.

Under a two-year-old agreement with the federal department of homeland security, Arpaio and his deputies had been authorised to enforce federal immigration law by arresting suspected illegal immigrants in the field and by checking the immigration status of people arrested on other offences.

But after drawing thousands of complaints and a civil rights investigation from the justice department, Arpaio was this week stripped of his federal authority to make immigration arrests. County attorney Andrew Thomas, one of Arpaio's supporters, condemned the "setback in the fight against illegal immigration".

For his part Arpaio has promised to continue chasing illegal immigrants using state laws. In an angry press conference, he called US homeland security officials "liars" and said he would personally drive those caught on the streets to the border if federal officers refused to take arrested illegal immigrants into custody. "I'll take a little trip to the border and turn them over to the border," he said.

Arpaio's critics decried his continued plans to arrest illegal immigrants and said the Obama administration should sever all ties with him.

The now-rescinded authority to conduct field sweeps of illegal immigrants yielded only about 300 out of the roughly 33,000 total arrests of illegal immigrants since 2007, the Obama administration has done little to curtail Arpaio, said Frank Sharry, executive director of immigration reform advocacy group America's Voice.

"He's going to go down in history as a man who terrorised the Latino community for the sake of his own visibility and political popularity," Sharry said. "The fact that the Obama administration would lend any of its legitimacy to any of his activities is surprising and disappointing."

Arpaio was first elected sheriff in 1993.

"The department of homeland security is making a historic mistake if it continues its relationship with Sheriff Joe Arpaio," said Paco Fabian, spokesman for immigration reform advocacy group America's Voice. "The federal government is lending its full force and legitimacy to a rogue cop certain to go down in history as a serial violator of civil rights and an enemy of the Latino community."

An estimated 12 million illegal immigrants live in the US. The federal government is virtually paralysed over how to react, with conservatives like Arpaio calling for the arrest and deportation of illegal immigrants and increased border enforcement. Obama, many Democrats and some Republicans call for a system that will allow most to gain legal status after paying a fine and learning English, but reform efforts in 2006 and 2007 withered under sustained rightwing opposition.

More than 60 law enforcement agencies across the country have signed onto the same programme under which local officers are effectively deputised to enforce immigration law. But critics of the programme say it wastes police resources needed to fight street crime, promotes racial profiling of Hispanics, targets peaceful workers, breaks up families and breeds distrust of police among immigrants, who become afraid to report crime for fear they will be asked for immigration papers.

Read more >>

In Arizona desert, illegal immigration's mysterious spike

Any of you readers out there want to make some good guesses as to why? Post your comments!

Authorities work to decipher meaning of an influx of Chinese

Sebastian Rotella

NOGALES, ARIZ. - Amid an overall drop in arrests of illegal crossers at the U.S- Mexico border, an intriguing anomaly has cast new light on the global underworld of immigrant smuggling.

Authorities report an almost ten-fold spike in arrests of clandestine migrants from China in the southern Arizona desert, the busiest smuggling corridor on the international line.

The Border Patrol in the Tucson sector has caught at least 261 Chinese crossers this year, compared toan average of 32 during the past four years, officials say.

"They are the main [non-Mexicans] we catch," said Agent Juventino Pacheco of the Patrol's international liason unit here. "Lately we have been catching more Chinese than Central Americans in Nogales."

As agents find groups of exhausted Chinese migrants hiding in gulches and huddled in smuggling vehicles, the Border Patrol scrambles for the services of professional interpreters. The sector's only Mandarin-speaking agent, a former Mormon missionary in China, has kept very busy.

The increase remains but a fraction of the overall activity at the Nogales station, which is the biggest in the entire Patrol and guards 31 action-packed miles abutting Nogales, Mexico.

This year, the Tucson sector that encompasses the Nogales station recorded a total of 226,000 apprehensions -- a 24% decline that reflects the impact of the U.S. economic crisis and tougher enforcement, officials say. The great majority of those arrested were Mexicans.

In the lexicon of the Border Patrol, Chinese immigrants belong to a rarefied category known as OTMs: Other than Mexicans. Although just a small percentage of border-crossers, OTMs are big business for smuggling gangs that overlap increasingly with Mexico's violent drug mafias.

Compared to Mexicans who pay about $1,500, smuggler fees for Central Americans and South Americans reach $6,000 for the trek across a sun-seared landscape, as dangerous as it is majestic. A group of bewildered Haitians intercepted in Tucson after three nights hiking in circles in a canyon had coughed up $10,000, with another $10,000 due on arrival in the Chicago area.

Chinese pay the most of all. They often work off fees between $30,000 and $70,000 over the course of several years as indentured servants in the sweat shops and kitchens of New York and other cities.

Sophisticated Asian mafias organize long, intricate journeys. A typical route leads from Beijing to Rome to Caracas, Venezuela to Mexico City to the border, according to Matthew Allen, the chief agent of the Phoenix office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

"It's much more elaborate" than smuggling Latin Americans, Allen said. "Waiting in hotel rooms, calls on cell phones, code words…The trend [in increased arrests] stands out as apprehensions are going down overall."

What explains the increase here? Does it reflect a major influx of Chinese illegals into the U.S.?

Enforcement officials say it's not clear. At the border, facts are elusive. Statistical barometers are imperfect. Differing interpretations, political spin and the mysteries of the criminal underworld complicate the picture. High-priced smugglers are better at dodging defenses, so it's hard to assess the correlation between arrests, crossing rates and the number of illegal immigrants who succeed.

Chinese smuggling made headlines at its chaotic peak in the early 1990s. Fetid smuggling flotillas swarmed the coasts of Southern California, Mexico and Central America. Seven people died in June, 1993 when the ship Golden Venture ran aground in New York carrying 286 migrants, more than the total captured this year at the Arizona border. A crackdown at sea and tighter political asylum rules reduced the flow.

Asian smuggling kingpins are known as snakeheads; like killer snakes, they react with stealth and agility. Thus, changing border-crossing patterns reflect reconfigured tactics abroad as the flow persists.

Today, mafias favor air routes and exploit favorable visa policies for Chinese travelers in countries including Ecuador, Honduras and Venezuela, which are hubs for their travel to Mexico, officials say. Many migrants report also stops in Cuba, officials say.

U.S. investigators have gathered intelligence about thousands of Chinese who have settled temporarily in Ecuador with the intention of being smuggled into the United States, according to a high-ranking federal official.

"The smugglers are attuned to nuances in South American visa policies, and will adapt," Allen said. Apprehensions of Chinese along the southwest boundary oscillate. Border-wide arrests hit 2,060 in the 2006 fiscal year, dipped to near 700 during the next two years, and then rose to 1,221 as of August, according to Border Patrol statistics.

The Patrol's McAllen sector in South Texas, a high-volume corridor for non-Mexicans because of its relative proximity to Central America, led all sectors with at least 667 arrests of Chinese by August, officials say. But the Tucson area experienced the most dramatic proportionate surge.

The convergence of drugs and illegal immigrants in the Sonora-Arizona area helps explain that, officials say. The dominant drug mafia in the region, the Sinaloa cartel, "saw an opportunity to get into Chinese smuggling," said Mario Escalante, a Border Patrol spokesman.

The evolving alliance between traffickers of drugs and immigrants, once separate specialties, is complex. Investigators say that drug lords use their firepower to control turf and tax migrant smugglers for use of border corridors, known in Spanish as "plazas," charging from $50,000 to $100,000 a week, officials say.

"The drug trafficking organizations in the plazas control who smuggles, what they smuggle, where they smuggle," said Allen, the ICE chief in Phoenix.

At times, when drug mafias are at war or when moving drug loads is difficult, muscling in on the human smuggling racket brings easy profit and less risk, Pacheco said. Unlike cocaine loads, smugglers do not invest money in moving high-priced migrants. Violent retaliation among traffickers, common after a major drug bust, is less likely if migrants get caught, he said.

"Losing Chinese, you lose money but not an investment up front," Pacheco said. "They don't buy the Chinese, they charge them."

Nonetheless, the partnerships have limits.

"The drug and alien smuggling groups are still separate entities," Allen said. "Once human smugglers make it into the US with their loads, there is not coordination. They do not have a relationship here with the drug traffickers."

In Arizona, expert Mexican smuggling guides head for Phoenix to stage for trips west or east. Chinese clients are less likely to die in the desert during clandestine forced marches that have killed hundreds. Border Patrol agents have found at least 191 corpses in southern Arizona this year; most are believed to have been illegal immigrants.

As in the past, the Chinese come almost exclusively from the province of Fujian. Another fixture of the trade: corruption speeds the passage of precious human cargo. In the 1990s, Mexican investigators broke up Chinese smuggling rings assisted by Mexican authorities.

And in May, two Mexican immigration police officers based at the Mexico City airport were arrested. Alerted in advance by smugglers, the two allegedly met Chinese travelers arriving on international flights. The officers allegedly gave the migrants fraudulent documents and sent them north to the border where the crossing continues, desperate but quiet.

Read more >>

Unlawful Immigration and a Jammed Judiciary

By Marion Edwyn Harrison, Esq.  

Yet another manifestation of the troublesome impact the inundation of unlawful immigrants, mostly crossing the Mexican Border, now is felt by our Federal Judiciary.  The negative impact, of course, not only inundates Federal Judges and their staffs but also United States Attorneys and their entire prosecutorial staffs, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, litigants before the affected Courts - and many businesses and citizens situate in the bordering States of Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas, particularly Arizona and Texas.

Statistics reveal some of the growing, and very dangerous, trouble.  Here are only a few.

United States Border Patrol agents cover about two-thirds of the huge geographic area constituting the State of Arizona.  Illegal drugs are smuggled over, under and around the southwest portion of the Border to the point at which the quantum is estimated to be a majority of all drugs smuggled into the United States of America.  In the first half of this year more than 1.2 million pounds of marijuana were seized.  During the same six months felony - not misdemeanor but felony - prosecutions filed in the United States District Court for the District of Arizona increased 42%.  The United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, also covering part of the Border, is expected to have 3,800 criminal cases this year; there were 400 in 1994. 

The Mexican Border is about 2,000 miles long.  All kinds of unlawful, often very dangerous, people and instruments of destruction - explosives, for example - manage to sneak into our country.  Their crimes often are committed far away from the Border.  The fence, counting both vehicular and pedestrian, covers less than one-third of the Border.  It is evaluated as very valuable even though by tunneling and otherwise criminals to some extent surmount it.  Many experts believe it should be vastly extended.

Two means of attempting to curtail illegal entry are very different from a fence.  One is sniffer dogs.   (That reminds me of one of my favorite cartoons.   An irritated dog looks up at a human being.  The dog thinks: “No, I can’t speak words but I can smell smells you didn’t even know existed.”) The other is technology.  A technology example:   A truck with a portable x-ray can drive beside an incoming vehicle and often detect spaces in the vehicle in which are hidden illegal immigrants, narcotics and/or explosives.

So much for some examples.  No wonder it is that the United States District Courts for the Western District of Texas and for the District of Arizona are inundated.   No wonder also it is that no one accurately can count the number of unlawful immigrants in this country although there appears to be general agreement that there are at least 11 million.

If one can stand reading more misery on this subject, this commentary has addressed it on June 25, May 26 and March 5, 2009; June 24 and April 9, 2008; each available on the Free Congress Foundation website, www.freecongress.org.

Marion Edwyn Harrison is President of, and Counsel to, the Free Congress Foundation.

Read more >>

Dems: No need for Illegals to show I.D...

By Jeffrey Young 

 

Senate Finance Committee Democrats rejected a proposed a requirement that immigrants prove their identity with photo identification when signing up for federal healthcare programs.

Finance Committee ranking member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said that current law and the healthcare bill under consideration are too lax and leave the door open to illegal immigrants defrauding the government using false or stolen identities to obtain benefits.

Grassley's amendment was beaten back 10-13 on a party-line vote.

The bill, authored by committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), would require applicants to verify their names, places of birth and Social Security numbers. In addition, legal immigrants would have to wait five years, as under current law, after obtaining citizenship or legal residency to access federal healthcare benefits such as Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program or receive tax credits or purchase insurance through the exchange created by the legislation.

But the would not require them to show a photo ID, such as a drivers license. Without that requirement, the bill "remains dearly lacking when it comes to identification," Grassley said. "Frankly, I'm very perplexed as to why anyone would oppose this amendment," he said.

But Democratic Sen. Jeff Bingaman, who represents the border state of New Mexico, said that the type of fraud Grassley said he wants to prevent is highly uncommon. "The way I see the amendment, it's a solution without a problem," Bingaman said.

Read more >>