Immigration amnesty to ensure ‘progressive’ rule

Granting citizenship to millions of illegal immigrants would expand the “progressive” electorate and help ensure a “progressive” governing coalition for the long term, declared a recent adviser to President Obama whose union group is among the most frequent visitors to the White House.

“We reform the immigration laws, it puts 12 million people on the path to citizenship and eventually voters,” stated Eliseo Medina, international executive vice-president of Service Employees International Union, or SEIU.

Medina was speaking at a June 2009 Washington conference for the liberal America’s Future Now!

Medina said that during the presidential election in November 2008, Latinos and immigrants “voted overwhelmingly for progressive candidates. Barack Obama got two out of every three voters that showed up.”

“Can you imagine if we have, even the same ratio, two out of three? Can you imagine 8 million new voters who care about our issues and will be voting? We will be creating a governing coalition for the long term, not just for an election cycle.”

The SEIU is closely linked to the controversial Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN. SEIU President Andrew Stern was the most frequently logged White House visitor, according to an official list released in October.

Medina and the SEIU are top supporters of Illinois Rep. Luis Gutierrez’s Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America’s Security and Prosperity Bill, which seeks to document up to 12 million illegal immigrants inside the U.S.

During the most recent presidential campaign, Medina and Gutierrez served on Obama’s National Latino Advisory Council. Also on the council was Rep. Nydia Velazquez, D-N.Y., the co-sponsor of Gutierrez’s immigration reform bill.

Medina was a chief lobbyist credited with a change in the longstanding policy of the AFL-CIO, the largest union federation in the U.S. The union reversed its stance against illegal immigration in February 2000, instead calling for new amnesty for millions of illegals.

The New Zeal blog documents how Medina was honored in 2004 by Chicago’s Democratic Socialists of America for his “vital role in the AFL-CIO’s reassessment of its immigration policy.” That same year, Medina became a DSA honorary chairman.

The DSA also supported Gutierrez’s 1998 bid for Congress. In the mid-1990s, Gutierrez served on the board of Illinois Public Action alongside a number of DSA members, including Obama health-care advisor Quentin Young.

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British Border Agency long way from target of removals, says watchdog

The border agency is “a very long way” from removing failed asylum seekers from the country promptly, according to a highly critical watchdog report published today. The report discloses that two further immigration backlogs built up as the organisation struggled to deal with hundreds of thousand of old asylum cases and the deportation of foreign prisoners. Ann Abraham, the Parliamentary Ombudsman, is scathing about the poor standard of service provided to some migrants by the agency which in 2006 was described by the Home Secretary at the time as “not fit for purpose”.

Unsuccessful asylum applicants should promptly leave the country or be removed as soon as practicable, Ms Abraham said. She added: “In our experience the agency are a very long way from achieving this.”

Ms Abraham found many cases where the agency failed to meet the most basic standards of administration including keeping customers informed, meeting promised standards of service and dealing with the public helpfully. She said: “Indeed there are numerous examples where the agency has been unable to perform at even a basic level of administration, such as reading and replying to letters, keeping proper records, keeping case files together and in the proper place, and notifying the applicant of their decision.”

Many of those suffering the worst service are migrants in two new backlogs that emerged as the agency diverted staff to deal with 440,000 old asylum cases and tackle the deportation of foreign national prisoners who had served their sentences. Backlogs of 77,000 applications for residence from European nationals and 33,000 cases of people seeking leave to remain in the country built up. Ms Abraham said that she had found numerous instances when the agency failed to reply to letters or deal with complaints from applicants or even give migrants an indication of when they would receive a decision.

In the past three years, the ombudsman received more than 1,300 complaints from from MPs about the work of the agency and of those she investigated 97 per cent were upheld.

One man received a refund of £755 in fees and £2,500 compensation for severe distress and inconvenience caused by failings in handling his case. The man, known only as Mr P, was a Jamaican who was given indefinite leave to remain in 1990. It took the agency 3½ years to provide a stamp confirming his right to stay for his new 2004 passport. During that time, Mr P was threatened with deportation and missed funerals in Jamaica because he was afraid he would not be able to re-enter Britain, the report said.

Ms Abraham said that the agency had made significant progress in recent years towards clearing backlogs but she said, given the scale of its problems, there could be no short term fixes. She said that the agency still had a long way to go to meet principles of good administration and dealing with complaints.

Lin Homer, chief executive of the UK Border Agency, said: “We take the ombudsman’s recommendations seriously and welcome the assessment that our complaints systems are improving.” She said that the agency, which has a budget of £2 billion a year and 24,500 staff, was continuing to make progress in dealing with the legacy backlog of 450,000 older asylum cases and had already concluded more than 235,000 cases. “I am confident we are on course to conclude these cases by the summer of 2011.”

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Dreams of the US as Haitian exodus pushes on

The unfinished wooden boat rocks gently in the backwater of Cap-Haitien Bay, lulling 17-year-old Douna Marcellus and two dozen others to sleep as tight balls of mosquitoes hover overhead. Cicadas serenade them from the reeds on one bank and, on the other, black pigs root through rubbish.

Like the others in the boat, Douna is a refugee from Port-au-Prince and the unspeakable horrors of the earthquake and its aftermath. Her parents and sister were crushed in their home, just seconds after Douna walked out the front door to run an errand for her mother. The government offered free bus tickets out of town and Douna took one.

But this city on Haiti’s northern coast is just a waystation. When builders finish the boat in a few days, it will set sail with the teenager and at least 40 others for the US. If they survive the 965-kilometre crossing, and aren’t intercepted by the US Coast Guard, they’ll soon be walking the streets of opportunity. “America is a place where everybody can become someone,” Douna says. “It’s where everyone lives like human beings.”

The earthquake, and reports of a US administration newly sympathetic to undocumented Haitians, has meant opportunity for the shady world of Cap-Haitien boat builders who promise to make the dream of life in the US come true.

After the earthquake, the Obama administration announced it was granting “temporary protected status” to the more than 100,000 undocumented Haitians estimated to be living in the US, and suspending deportation proceedings. Some politicians expressed concern that it might trigger renewed efforts by Haitians to attempt to enter the US by sea.

Dorcilien Louis, a taciturn man of 40, is the captain of Douna’s 13-metre boat. During his 15 years as a captain, Mr Louis has made a dozen journeys to the Turks and Caicos Islands with passengers hoping to find a way to the US. Mr Louis changed his itinerary after the quake, when thousands of people began arriving from Port-au-Prince looking for a way to get to the US. He said 40 passengers had signed up for the trip and he was expecting another 20 from the capital. The boat is built for 40 people, “but can hold 60,” he said.

Among Mr Louis’s passengers is Fanise Jean, 24, who has twice attempted the journey. “It’s a lot of suffering,” she said. “People throwing up on you, you can’t take a shower, there’s little food, and the boat is always shaking back and forth.’ One of her journeys lasted 14 days because the captain got lost, and three people died. Leaving her family makes her sad, “but I’m not all that sad, because I’m going to look for a better life.”

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Australia Tightens Immigration Rules

Foreign doctors, nurses and school teachers who speak good English and have jobs already organised will be Australia’s top priority migrants under new policy

Australian Immigration Minister Chris Evans announced Monday several reforms to his country’s immigration policy, including several policy changes aimed at attracting more highly-skilled immigrants to the country.

Criticizing the ongoing trend for new immigrants to enroll for vocational courses for gaining residency, Evans said that Australia would change the current list of 106 skills in demand and review a points test based on qualifications, skills and proficiency in English currently used to assess migrants. He said that the present list will now be replaced by a “more targeted” Skilled Occupations List.

“We had tens of thousands of students studying cookery and accounting and hairdressing because that was on the list and that got them through to permanent residency,” Evans told Australian radio, adding that such courses will no longer be an assured path to permanent residence.

“The current points test puts an overseas student with a short-term vocational qualification gained in Australia ahead of a Harvard-educated environmental scientist,” Evans said.

“We want to make sure we’re getting the high-end applicants,” Evans said, stressing that the changes brought about by the new immigration policies would try to attract more health workers, including more doctors and nurses, as well more qualified professionals in the fields of engineering and mining.

“The new arrangements will give first priority to skilled migrants who have a job to go to with an Australian employer. For those who don’t have an Australian employer willing to sponsor them, the bar is being raised,” Evans said.

“If hospitals are crying out for and willing to sponsor nurses, then of course they should have priority over the 12,000 un-sponsored cooks who have applied and who, if they were all granted visas, would flood the domestic market,” he added.

Evans also pointed out that some 170,000 people applied for living and working permanently in Australia last year alone, when there were just 108,000 vacancies available. He added that all lower-skilled applications lodged before 1st September 2007 would be withdrawn and application fees worth A$14 million ($12.15 million) refunded.

The reforms in Australia’s immigration policy comes in wake of reports that thousands of students from overseas, mainly from Asia, were manipulating the existing system by providing fraud documents to enroll for vocational courses at private Australian colleges, purely to gain residency permits.

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British government has taken too long to address student visa abuse

Comment from Scotland below. The Scots welcome anybody, as long as they are not Catholic. But even they don’t like the blatantly fraudulent entry of “students” that the British government makes only token efforts to tackle

The Home Secretary was trying to talk tough yesterday as the government finally moved to tackle “the Achilles heel” of Britain’s immigration system. But in addressing the abuse of student visas, was Alan Johnson doing more than trying to score points in what promises to be a key fighting ground in the General Election?

In mid-2007, Andrew Denholm, The Herald’s education correspondent, exposed a number of bogus colleges in Glasgow that were taking large fees from overseas students for questionable or non-existent courses. There were hundreds of others across the UK, some of which were mere brass-plate operations with pretentious websites. Some acted as fronts for illegal immigration. Many of those coming in on poorly policed student visas were in Britain to work illegally, rather than further their studies. The same system can be a conduit for potential terrorists.

Britain is a popular choice for bright foreign students seeking further or higher education qualifications. They add at least £5bn a year to the UK economy and the full fees they pay are especially welcome in Scotland, where top-up fees from home-based students, an extra source of income, rightly have been resisted. But the widespread abuse of the student visa system besmirches the country’s well-founded reputation in this area, especially when the charlatans claim with bona fide institutions.

As Immigration Minister Phil Woolas admitted, bogus colleges are the Achilles heel of the immigration system. The new rules will impose a more exacting English language test and allow students on short courses to work no more than 10 hours per week. Institutions offering non-degree courses will have to feature on a new Highly Trusted Sponsors List. However, if this title is to avoid irony, it must be policed more rigorously than its predecessor. Some of the colleges highlighted by The Herald appeared on the previous Home Office list and one reappeared under a new name after being barred. The UK Border Agency often gives advance warnings of inspections and the problems have been exacerbated by the lack of exit checks at ports and airports.

In addition, the splitting of responsibilities between several government departments, as well as the police and trading standards, aggravates the issue, as does the misleading use of the term “college”.

Abuse of student visas serves to stoke support for those who adopt the “fortress Britain” approach, which is profoundly unhelpful in Scotland, a country that needs a steady supply of enthusiastic, hard-working immigrants and welcomes genuine students. Scotland has special need of a fair, coherent immigration system, not an easily abused student visa scheme, or colleges that exist primarily for the enrichment of their owners or as a backdoor for illegal immigration. It has taken the government far too long to get to grips with this issue.

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The self-selected immigrants are flocking in to Australia

Just utter the magic word “asylum” and the door is open. Comments below by Scott Morrison, Australia’s Federal opposition spokesman on immigration and citizenship

Christmas Island is overrun with asylum seekers to the point where the detention centre has become a visa factory for people smugglers. Ten days ago I stood on the shore at Flying Fish Cove on Christmas Island watching 30 Afghan asylum seekers transfer from HMAS Larrakia into the custody of immigration officials. Their boat was one of two that had been “intercepted” within 12 hours of each other the previous weekend. It’s usually not too hard to find these boats, because they are usually looking for us. Getting intercepted is the point. Christmas Island is no longer a deterrent, it’s the destination. The arrival of another boat is not a strange sight. It occurs twice a week these days. They’re more predictable than Sydney ferries.

Immigration, Customs officials and police have the transfer process down to a fine art. They should, they’ve been getting plenty of practice. Since August 2008, 78 boats have illegally arrived in Australian waters, carrying almost 3600 people. Just this year, there have been 10 arrivals at an average rate of 100 passengers per week.

When I left the island I was told they had 1848 beds (including 200 in tents) and there was currently 1556 people in residence. While this represented a ten-fold increase in the detention population over the past year, it was clear, things were only getting worse. Since then another 320 people have been intercepted or transferred to the island, including one large vessel, carrying 181 passengers that motored straight into the harbour. Another was picked up on Thursday morning near the Ashmore Islands. During the same time, only 89 people left the island.

Despite its denials, operations at Christmas Island, under the government’s failed border protection policies, are simply not sustainable. It is therefore no surprise that last week I was able to reveal in Parliament that the costs of running operations on Christmas Island had blown out by $132million this year, that’s more than a 100per cent increase.

We are a generous nation and this is reflected in the way asylum seekers are being treated. In fact, if we looked after our first Australians in central Australia, where I visited last year, as well as we do those on Christmas Island, then there would be no gap to close. The key difference is that within 100 or so days, the vast majority of those on Christmas Island will be living on the Australian mainland with a permanent visa. Indigenous children have no such guarantee of ever being released from their desperate situation.

One of the more pleasing elements of the visit was to see that the many reforms introduced by the former Coalition government, such as case management, parallel processing, community detention for those at risk, separate facilities for families, women and children and a range of other improvements, are making a real difference.

In fact there is not one practical reform you can point to on Christmas Island that has been introduced as an initiative of the current government. Where they have made changes is to undermine the fundamentals of our border protection regime, by providing permanent visas to those arriving illegally, doing special deals for the Oceanic Viking passengers that traded away national security and being prepared to compromise offshore processing by taking people to the mainland before their asylum claims have been determined.

The government’s changes have enhanced the product offered by people smugglers. They are now doing a roaring trade, but you can only come if you have the money. It is not uncommon, as I saw, for those arriving to have wads of cash in various currencies, in excess of $US1000 ($1140) at least. This is after paying up to $20,000 per person. Residence in Australia should not be driven by the highest bidder, where people smugglers ultimately decide who comes.

The government’s changes have created a sea highway to Christmas Island that has become a visa factory for people smugglers. As long as these policies remain and the government continues in denial, people will continue to risk their lives on this journey. Also, places for those waiting five years in Indonesia and generations in camps, like those in Thailand, will be asked to wait even longer. These seem to me to be good reasons to change these policies and stop the boats.

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France’s burka ban a boost for equality

OF all the countries of Europe, France has the best chance of coping successfully with large-scale Muslim immigration. That’s not to say it’s a very big chance, but it has some chance. This is because of France’s strong republican ideology. This enables it to confer benefits as well as responsibilities on citizens regardless of ethnicity. French republicanism demands something of the citizen and asserts certain fundamental values.

This is most evident in the law banning the hijab, or Muslim headdress, from state schools. Last week a French parliamentary committee recommended banning the full Muslim burka in government offices, public transport, hospitals and schools.

The hijab is a bit more than a loose scarf that covers all the hair and generally the shoulders. The niqab reveals only the eyes and the burka covers everything, allowing a woman to see only through some sort of mesh arrangement. However, burka is the term most commonly used in the West to mean full face-covering, body length female Muslim attire.

France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy has been the most effective Western statesman on these issues. He gave an eloquent speech last year in which he rejected the burka and said it offends French values. This was not primarily because of the distance and separation the burka enforces between its wearer and the broader society. Rather, it was because of women’s rights.

When, in 2005, the French banned the hijab, I thought they were making a mistake. Broadly speaking, I don’t really care what anybody wears. But I was wrong. Spending time in France last year, I realised the French see this as a great liberal reform in the interests of women’s rights. The French go to great lengths to distinguish secular from religious spaces. They have gone to great lengths to make this law non-discriminatory. At state schools, Christians cannot wear large crosses, Jews cannot wear yarmulkes, Sikhs cannot wear turbans.

The truth is this law was aimed at Muslims. And everyone knows this. One consequence of large-scale Muslim immigration, therefore, is that all of France has to become a little less liberal, in that Christians, Jews and Sikhs must suffer restrictions when there was no problem at all in their religious dress. But the hijab is both a symbol and a tool of the repression of women. The reform has been such a success because for several hours each day, young Muslim women at state schools are French women, with the rights and independence and respect that accrue to French women. They are for that time no longer subject to the rules of their brothers and fathers and the religious extremists in their communities.

Incidentally, the French rules are similar to those that have applied in Turkey for much of its modern history.

But the most important aspect of the French law is that it makes explicit to the Muslim minority the demand that to be a French citizen you must subscribe to, and live up to, certain French civic values, of which equality for women is one. The proposed limited ban on the burka is an extension of this. And here is a perplexing conundrum. If you really believe that women, but not men, should be fully covered, why would you want to live in a society such as France, or indeed Australia, in the first place?

Here we meet a hard truth of Muslim immigration to Europe, and perhaps to Australia. There is a strong body of belief that at least a large number of the African, and especially Maghrebi, Muslims who move to Europe do so not to embrace the European lifestyle, that is to pay the immigrant’s traditional compliment to the new society, but to recreate their Third World lifestyle at a European standard of living.

Diversity is a good thing and there is a vast range of values and traditions that are perfectly acceptable in most Western societies. But women’s inherent inequality is not one of them.

Muslim immigration to Australia and the US has so far been much more successful than Muslim immigration to Europe. This is often seen to be a consequence of our superior settlement policies, in particular that the US not only confers rights on immigrants but imposes civic obligations on them as well. The truth might be that it is just because the relative numbers of Muslims in the US and Australia are so much smaller.

Mass Muslim immigration challenges a liberal Western society in a way that no previous immigration did, in part because most mainstream interpretations of Islam see it as requiring its adherents to establish a political order as well as a religious order. The vast majority of Australian Muslims are perfectly law abiding, happy with the Australian civic order and in every way good citizens. But the experience of Europe strongly suggests this could be quite different if the Muslim minority were much, much larger.

For societies such as Australia and the US, the traditional pro-immigration bias, which I wholly share, may need some calibration in relation to Muslim immigration. Successful immigration involves acceptance and immersion in the core values of the new society. A state that tolerates open and socially destructive defiance of this is very weak.

These are very sensitive issues. But Western civilisation needs to stand for some positive values beyond an anything-goes relativism that will be destroyed by more vigorous belief systems.

The French are moving cautiously, incrementally, and in my view belatedly, but with almost unique courage and intelligence, to try to repair the outcome of the nihilistic trends in Western intellectual life and their interplay with a mass immigration that Europeans did not choose and have never understood. Vive la France!

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Australia’s immigration-fueled population growth too fast to be affordable

AUSTRALIANS must prepare for a fundamental shift in the way we live because the country cannot afford to cope with 36 million people. Economic modelling produced for the Herald by PricewaterhouseCoopers shows the task of building the new roads, houses, schools, supermarkets and recreation facilities needed by 2050 will be so great that the nation’s current pool of savings will struggle to cover it, even with the help of foreign capital.

As a consequence Australians will have to make major lifestyle changes. These range from dramatic increases in housing density and an end to our reliance on the car, to the creation of self-sustaining urban communities capable of generating their own energy to avoid the need for new power stations.

Planning experts say we must also consider whether population increases will be accommodated in larger regional centres rather than allowing cities such as Sydney to grow. “The bottom line is ‘prepare for change’,” the PWC economics and policy team leader, Jeremy Thorpe, said. “The task of providing this infrastructure is a very significant one and at the moment we don’t have the savings to cover it. Governments have to make a decision about what trade-offs they want to make to maintain a standard of living.” Using figures from the government’s intergenerational report, Mr Thorpe and his colleagues have calculated Australia will need 6.9 million more homes to cope with a population of 36 million by 2050. This represents 82 per cent of our existing housing stock.

Should Australians continue to rely on the car, the country will need 173,348 kilometres of new roads – a 51 per cent rise equivalent to the entire road network of Thailand. We would need 3254 new schools, 1370 new supermarkets and 1370 cinema screens.

In dollar terms, the amount spent by both government and the private sector on infrastructure would need to increase by approximately $2.5 billion every year until 2050.

The PWC economists say that while the government talks about increasing productivity, it makes no mention of the crucial role the national pool of savings plays in funding infrastructure. “The banks rely quite heavily on the savings of individual people to provide capital for investment in infrastructure. Because as a nation our savings are currently quite low, there is a real risk that there will be a significant shortage of credit.”

As a result, both the private sector and government have come to rely heavily on foreign capital. But the global credit crunch has dramatically lifted the costs of overseas borrowing, requiring government and companies to take on extra debt.

The ageing population exacerbates this situation as older people contribute less to the savings pool, and tend to draw more from government coffers in the form of social security and healthcare.

But a spokesman for the Treasurer, Wayne Swan, dismissed the analysis. “Australia’s reputation as one of the most attractive investment destinations in the world allows it to access large savings pools of foreign investors … to fund high levels of investment in our own economy,” he said. “We are able to be a net importer of capital because foreign investors are confident we use their capital so well.”

SOURCE

 

Fantasies of the Obama administration

If you are arresting fewer illegals entering the USA, does that mean that fewer are coming or that your enforcement activities have been less effective? Guess which the Obama admin wants you to believe?

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano (aka, J-No) in December 2009 assured the Senate Judiciary Committee that the Obama Administration had already made great strides in securing our borders, thus moving us one step closer to “Comprehensive Immigration Reform.”

“Our efforts are achieving their desired results at the border. . . . In short, the security of our southwest border has been transformed.”

–Testimony of Secretary Napolitano before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, December 9, 2009

As proof of this outrageously optimistic assertion, Secretary J-No pointed to a decline in the number of illegal aliens apprehended along the border.

“[A]pprehensions of illegal aliens at the border have dropped to their lowest levels in decades, signaling reduced traffic flows and fewer attempts to illegally enter the United States.”

–Testimony of Secretary Napolitano before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, December 9, 2009

Apprehensions have, in fact, dropped from 723,840 in FY 2008 to around 556,000 in FY 2009, and the FY 2009 figure is the lowest since the early 1970s. It is also likely that some of this decline reflects the fact that fewer illegal aliens are attempting to enter the United States, especially considering our double-digit unemployment. However, even DHS’s own inflated estimates acknowledge that the Border Patrol has “effective control” over only 939 of the 6,000 miles of land borders.

Moreover, when I visited with Border Patrol Agents in the Tucson Sector in mid-October of 2009 and asked if they believe the official DHS line that three illegal aliens successfully enter the United States for every one who is apprehended, they laughed. The reality, they said, is that 10 or more get through for every one who is caught. That was two months before Secretary J-No shared her rosy view with the Senate Judiciary Committee.

If the Border Patrol agents’ estimate is correct, that would mean that illegal aliens successfully penetrated our borders more than 5.5 million times in FY 2009. That doesn’t sound much like a “transformation” to me. In Secretary J-No’s world, however, this transformation explains why she has asked Congress for $11.6 million less in funding for “border security between ports of entry” and for $225.8 million less in funding for “border fencing, infrastructure, and technology” for FY 2011.

I also have to wonder if the marked increase in the number of armed illegal aliens and the astronomical increase in the number of reported incidents of violence against border agents are part of the “desired results” that Secretary J-No touted during the Senate hearing. The number of assaults against Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers along the Southwest border increased by 176% in FY 2008. While official data for FY 2009 have not yet been released, anecdotal evidence suggests that violence directed at CBP officers has continued to grow. It seems safe to say that this is not a desired result—at least not for CBP officers, in any case.

Speaking of armed illegal aliens entering the United States undeterred, the accompanying video was captured by “game cameras” (i.e., cameras with motion sensors to activate them) set up by a group of Arizona Minutemen in the Arizona desert in December 2009—the very same month that Secretary J-No was assuring the Senate that the Obama Administration has “transformed” the southwest border. The video you see here is actually three separate video clips caught when the game cameras were triggered on three different days in December. All three are from cameras set up in the Sonoran Desert National Monument, which is comprised of almost 500,000 acres southwest of Phoenix and is managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which has only a small handful of law enforcement rangers to patrol and protect this vast area.

The first two video clips were captured at the same location at two different times. The first clip shows two illegal aliens armed with rifles with scopes. The second clip shows a group of illegal alien drug mules (also called “backpackers” for obvious reasons) carrying bundles of marijuana on their backs. Each of the bundles weighs 40-50 pounds. The black jugs all these individuals are carrying are water jugs made specially for the Mexican drug cartels from black plastic, since regular plastic jugs reflect moonlight and so are easily visible at night. As I saw during my border visit in October, large parts of the desert are littered (no pun intended) with these black jugs.

When these backpackers reach a pre-designated place along a road or highway, they will stash the drugs near the road, but out of sight. The drugs will then be picked up by armed men in a vehicle with U.S. registration and driven to a stash house. The illegal-alien backpackers will either head back to Mexico for the next load or they will continue on into the U.S. city of their choice to join the existing illegal population, depending on whether they are employed by the cartels or were just working off part of their smuggling fee by carrying the drugs.

The third clip shows one illegal alien, followed shortly by a second illegal alien with a MAC-10 machine gun strapped over his chest.

Note that all three clips were captured in broad daylight.

I think we can probably all agree that the Southwest border has been “transformed.” I doubt, however, that most of us would associate this transformation with security or see it as a desired result.

Nevertheless, in Secretary J-No’s world this transformation (combined with double-digit unemployment) means it is time to concede the seven million American jobs currently held by illegal aliens and make sure those illegal aliens can keep those jobs permanently.

“We must seize this moment to build a truly effective immigration system that deters illegal immigration, provides effective and enduring enforcement tools, protects workers from exploitation and retaliation, and creates a tough but fair path to legalization for the millions of illegal immigrants already here.”

–Testimony of Secretary Napolitano before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, December 9, 2009

Note that Secretary J-No uses the oxymoronic term “illegal immigrant” here, but she uses the correct term, “illegal alien,” when she’s bragging about securing the border. (By definition, an “immigrant” is an alien who has been granted lawful permanent residence, and so cannot be illegal.) Hmmm.

Since taking office, Secretary J-No has dismantled many of our most effective enforcement tools. She has:

* Ended worksite raids;

* Prohibited state and local police from turning over regular illegal aliens (i.e., those who have not committed any crimes except illegal entry or other crimes associated with being in the United States illegally) to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE);

* Rescinded the so-called “No-Match Rule” which told employers to fire known illegal-alien workers; and

* Worked to repeal the REAL ID Act, which prevents illegal aliens from obtaining state driver’s licenses, among other things.

I have to agree that now is the time for “effective and enduring enforcement tools.” The problem is figuring out what this statement means in Secretary J-No’s world.

More HERE

 

Obama Proposes to Cut 180 Border Patrol Agents

But he is hiring more bureaucrats

Pres. Barack Obama’s newly proposed 2011 budget would reduce the number of Border Patrol agents along the Southwest border by 180 and cut the funding for the “virtual fence.” Homeland Security said it plans to cut the jobs through attrition, and it would result in increased pay for the remaining agents.

White House senior officials say the move will not compromise the effectiveness of the border patrol. But House Judiciary Ranking Member Lamar Smith (R-Texas) says otherwise.

The President’s budget proves once again that the Obama administration is not serious about enforcing our nation’s immigration laws.

The administration found money for 25 new positions in the Secretary of Homeland Security’s management office, but didn’t find funds for any of the following critical homeland security programs: there is no funding for a single new detention bed, no increase in funds to find and deport immigration fugitives or criminal aliens, no additional special agents to investigate workplace immigration violations, no funding to expand the visa security program, and no funding to build any more of the border fence.

The President ought to be using immigration enforcement to address key priorities such as jobs and national security. But instead of doing so, the Obama administration is maintaining the status quo. That means that citizens and legal immigrants will be forced to continue to compete with eight million illegal immigrants for jobs; and by underfunding key national security programs, we leave ourselves vulnerable to future terrorists attacks.

— Ranking Member Lamar Smith

The “virtual fence” would have funding cut by $226 million. The system is made up of cameras, radar and sensors placed on towers.

Obama’s budget does include an increase of $103 million for improvements to E-Verify.

SOURCE