U.S. Funding Mexican Immigration Control Operations

A little noted change since 9/11 has taken place in U.S.-Mexican law enforcement cooperative programs according to The Arizona Republic. The paper notes that U.S. spending on military and police aid to Mexico has more than tripled in the past five years to $57.8 million in fiscal year 2005 with the hope it will help protect America's southern flank. Not everyone is sanguine that the money is well spent. According to Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo, "The government of Mexico is a co-conspirator in the smuggling of immigrants. This is how we reward them, with helicopters and ways to tap phones? . . . Somebody just has a lot more trust than they should have in Mexico's ability to be a good neighbor."

Read the full story.

A Smorgasbord of Press Negativism towards Immigration Law Enforcement

As the year ends, the opponents of the House-passed immigration law enforcement measure (H.R. 4437) are getting their cries of outrage into the press. The following is a sampling of negative press coverage that in some cases is cast as news and in others as commentary — all from NY:

• "Immigration bill outrages activists: They say measure that's passed House could send them to jail for helping people who are undocumented"

• "Immigration plan would ban social services"

• "US anti-immigration bill called racist"

• "Critics say immigration bill endangers gay couples"

Court Ordered Green Cards

A wire service story notes the coincidence of the Senate confirmation of Emilio Gonzalez as the new director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services just in time to deal with a federal judge’s order that green cards should immediately be given to some 6,000 people whom federal courts have decided should be given legal status rather than be deported. A CIS spokesperson notes that the government might yet appeal the judge’s ruling. The issue is whether the federal government should waive its normal processing procedures, including security and background checks, in these backlogged cases.

Read the full story.

Banks Follow Illegal Immigrant Wave

A story about a bank opening in Santa Cruz, California demonstrates a little noted aspect of the wave of illegal immigrants spreading around the country. In their wake comes an effort to cater to their needs. The news story describes the opening of a branch office of a Mexican bank that is luring customers who send remittances to family members in Mexico. The article notes that this is the 24th branch of the Mexican bank to open in California and notes that the manager is a Mexican who was transferred from Mexico to Santa Cruz.

Read the full story.

Illegal Immigration Debate in Colorado

An article in the Summit Daily News (CO) reports on both the effort by former INS Commissioner Doris Meissner to shape the current immigration reform debate and the issue as seen from the perspective of Colorado activists. Meissner again asserts that the illegal alien problem is a by-product of unrealistic laws that restrict the flow of low-wage workers into the country. This is expected to be one of the major thrusts of a report to be issued early next year by a Task Force on Immigration and America's Future which Meissner is directing. The task force is co-chaired by former Rep. Lee Hamilton (D-Ind.) and former Sen. Spencer Abraham (R-Mich.). On the local level, the debate focuses on a Colorado University-Boulder law professor who describes current concerns about illegal immigration as "…mistrust, misunderstanding or outright hatred and racism." On the same side of the issue is an immigration attorney who says people are, "…reacting out of fear." Stating the need for immigration reform is a Republican state representative from Colorado Springs who says, "..it's a myth that no one else will do the work."

(FAIR Comment: The lack of balance in reporting on immigration reform issues is demonstrated in this article by the 2-to-1 lineup of activists favoring accommodation of illegal immigrants plus the unanswered comments of Meissner.)

Read the full story.

Editorial Views Differ on Ending Birthright Citizenship

An Annapolis (MD) local paper editorially comments, "We hope to see more legislation on birthright citizenship - and we're confident it would get public support." The paper argues that, "…benefits [such as birthright citizenship] probably lead many of [illegal entrants] to conclude that this country isn't serious about its immigration rules. Take away these benefits, and perhaps these people will join the other immigrants who obey the law." On the other side is a Los Angeles paper that comments, "While some illegal immigrants no doubt take advantage of the birthright clause to get a foothold into American society, it's a tremendous leap of logic to conclude that removing that right would do anything to meaningfully slow illegal immigration."

Jack Kemp Goes to Bat for Employers of Illegal Alien Workers

Sounding like Sen. Ted Kennedy, former Reagan cabinet member Jack Kemp once again argues that the country needs the costly low-skilled, low-wage labor that comes with illegal alien workers. True to form, Kemp refuses to distinguish between legal and illegal immigration in a commentary in the Washington Times.

Read the full story.

Dan Stein Interview on Australian Radio

FAIR President Dan Stein appeared on ABC (Australian Broadcasting Cooperation) to discuss the problem of illegal immigration. He appeared on the "AM" show, which is similar to "All Things Considered" on public radio in the U.S. The interview is available at the ABC News site.

Fighting Illegal Immigration with Zoning Laws

The Washington Post reports on the effort in a Washington DC suburb (Manassas) to combat illegal immigrant settlement through an amendment to the zoning law that defines family as nuclear family rather than extended family. The measure responds to complaints that an increasing number of immigrants are living in over-crowded housing, parking too many cars on the street, burdening schools and other social services, and in some cases creating informal rooming houses in residential areas. Hispanic advocates complain that the new measure and its enforcement are “racist,” because Hispanics are bearing the brunt of the enforcement effort.

Read the full story.

Washington Post Editorial – "Bad Border Bill"

Reverting to style, the paper includes a criticism of the House immigration enforcement bill (HR 4437) based on the premise that our economy cannot function without the illegal alien workers who are already here, so legislation must accommodate their presence.

Read the full story.

Increased Immigration Enforcement requires Guestworkers

An overview of the immigration debate in Congress appears in the Los Angeles Times. Unsurprisingly, the coverage tilts towards the need to include a guestworker provision along with any new enforcement effort enacted. However, the paper also portrays a useful perspective of the need for comprehensive reform that includes interior enforcement and effective denial of jobs to illegal alien workers as key to greater control over the border. T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, is quoted as commenting, “Every commission that studied this came to the same conclusion, that you have to eliminate the jobs magnet if you want to eliminate illegal immigration."

Read the full story.

Colorado Foundation Proposes Guestworker Program Run by Business

As if the immigration reform agenda were not diverse enough, a Colorado foundation has come up with a new proposal that would contract out to the private sector the responsibility for running a new guestworker system. Though this proposal to put the foxes in charge of running the hen house has met with derision, it, nevertheless, has support from Governor Bill Owens. An editorial in the Denver Post is surprisingly receptive to the concept, noting that, "fresh ideas always are welcome on an issue that has become highly emotional and polarized."

Read the full story.

Colorado City Assesses Costs of Illegal Immigration

The increasing concern about the influx of illegal immigrants is leading to a greater effort across the country to assess the impact of this flow. The most recent to probe the issue is the Vail Colorado Daily newspaper. While noting that data are difficult to pin down because records are not kept of services to illegal aliens, the paper cites Mike Bloom, president at the Sunrise Community Health Center, which serves 25,000 of the 40,000 low-income, uninsured residents of northern Weld County for the medical and dental services the center offers, who estimates that between 15-25 percent of its patients are illegal immigrants. That accounts for about 5,000 of the 25,000 patients. He comments that, "even if it didn't have to serve this population, the center would still have 10,000 eligible patients it couldn't help".

Read the full story.

A Christmas Present for Mexican President Vicente Fox

The Christmas editorial of the Dallas Morning News was a call for not building a wall on the U.S.-Mexican border. The editorial does not offer any reason for its position other than the fact that the fencing proposal adopted by the House of Representative is annoying Mexicans, especially President Fox.

(FAIR Comment: The editorial ignores the fact that there is already fencing in heavily populated areas that used to be the major crossing points for illegal aliens and drugs. With the fencing the routes have shifted to more remote areas, making the extension of the fencing to those areas a logical next step towards gaining control over the border.)

Read the full story.

Colorado Representative Tancredo Unrepentant

A Los Angeles Times article says "GOP Lawmaker Relishes Role as a Flamethrower." It is profiling Colorado's Representative Tom Tancredo, who is the chair of the Immigration Reform Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives that was the major force between adoption of HR-4437 earlier this month that encompassed a broad number of long-overdue immigration law enforcement reforms. Asked whether tough border control measures supported by his group might not hurt the GOP in next year's elections, Tancredo is quoted as replying, "Party I couldn't care less about; If it gets hurt by this, it deserves to be hurt. There are times when being in the minority looks better to me. You can certainly be closer to your own principles. Maybe that's what this party needs is to get kicked in the butt."

Read the full story.

Federal Judges Take Swipe at Immigration Judges

The New York Times, which is consistently lax on immigration law enforcement, reports a swipe by some federal judges against immigration judges who have ruled against asylum claimants seeking to stay in the United States. The charges are that the immigration judges don’t know what they are doing. The article includes information documenting how immigration judges are inundated by the applications for asylum by persons illegally in the country, and the fact that much of an increased workload for federal judges is coming as a result of immigration lawyers appealing negative decisions of the immigration judges.

(FAIR Comment: It may be that the criticism of the federal judges is little more than frustration at the increased workload and their more liberal interpretation of the asylum law.)

Read the full story.

Thank You For A Great 2005

Plus:Year-End Audio Message

Thanks to you—our millions of readers and contributors for making 2005 the biggest year yet for the Stein Report! Your thoughts and comments are helping educate the American public about the immigration crisis and how we can best solve it. Keep up the good work. Speaking for all your hard working friends at FAIR, thank you and our very best to you and your family this Holiday season! You can also listen to my year-end audio message (Windows media)

Mexico's New P.R. Firm - Let Them Know Your Opinion

Mexico's new public relations firm, Allyn & Company, is best know for their work during Vicente Fox's campaign to become President of Mexico. However, the Allyn Co. also worked during the 2000 Republican primaries in the U.S. According to an April 6, 2000, article in the Dallas Observer, Rob Allyn was a key player in the George W. Bush campaign to discredit his rival for the 2000 Republican presidential nomination Senator John McCain. Millionaire Bush supporter Sam Wyly funded Republicans for Clean Air to attack McCain in key states during the 2000 primary campaign. Rob Allyn was paid $46,000 to help create the ads. Some Stein Report readers and other concerned immigration reformers have begun contacting Allyn & Co. to let them know their opinion. Here's the contact information for the Allyn PR firm. See Thursday's posting for more information and discussion.

Allyn & Company Main Office
3232 McKinney Avenue, Suite 660
Dallas, Texas 75204
Phone: (214) 871-7723
Fax: (214) 871-7767
info@allynco.com

Read the full story

Immigration Issue Resonates Across Party Lines

"With the House of Representatives' approval of a Republican-sponsored bill to tighten U.S. borders and increase penalties on illegal immigrants, Congress last week took the first steps into the murky waters of immigration. Early next year, the Senate will take up the issue, a complex subject that threatens to split both parties as lawmakers try to walk a tightrope between good policy and good politics. President George W. Bush has made immigration a top item on his domestic agenda, but his proposals - including a guest-worker program - have gone nowhere," the St. Louis Post-Dispatch says. "'There's no party divide on the issue, which is really interesting at a time when almost every issue is so partisan,' said Michael Dimock, associate director of the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. 'The balance of opinion is split in each party. For instance, on the question of guest workers, business-oriented Republicans like guest workers, but socially conservative Republicans or more blue-collar Republicans don't like it. They see immigrants as a burden on the country. But working-class Democrats are just as concerned about the impact of immigrants on our culture,' he said. 'The fact is that there are people on both sides in both parties.'"

Read the full story

Mexico Admits It Uses Same Penalties for Illegal Aliens As U.S.

"Mexico's federal Human Rights Commission acknowledged on Wednesday that the country uses some of the same methods in dealing with illegal migrants that it has criticized the United States for employing. The admission comes as Mexican Foreign Relations Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez called on Latin American countries to unite against a U.S. House of Representatives bill to toughen border enforcement," the AP reports. "Jose Luis Soberanes, president of the rights commission, said that Mexico also uses many government agencies, such as the police and the military, to detain undocumented migrants, even though Mexican law technically doesn't allow that."

Read the full story

Santa's Little Helpers?

Bill Schorr
United Feature Syndicate Dec. 9

Immigration Increase Dropped from Budget Reconciliation Bill

During the House's marathon session last weekend, the House cleared a budget reconciliation measure that excluded provisions that would have increased immigration by some 350,000 each year. Prior to consideration of the measure, House and Senate conferees dropped the controversial provisions in the face of widespread public opposition.

The offending provision was originally added to the Senate version of the bill by Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA) and Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA). The Senate provisions were cynically drafted to balance the budget by selling American jobs to foreign workers under the H-1B visa program and increase general immigration in exchange for revenue raised by immigration-related fees.

If approved the Specter/Kennedy language would have increased the number of H-1B workers by 30,000 each year, increased the number of permanent employment-based visas by 90,000 each year, and exempted families of these new workers from the 140,000 annual cap on employment-based immigration. This would have added an estimated 278,000 family members - many of who would also find jobs in the United States - to the number of high tech and permanent new foreign workers allowed under the plan.

Paul Egan, Director of Gov't Relations for FAIR

Inside the Debate over H.R. 4437, FAIR's Synopsis and Analysis

Growing demand from the public forced both the Administration and Congress to relent and address the current immigration crisis. As part of FAIR's mission to educate the public about immigration and the need for immigration reform, we're presenting an extended analysis of the debate around H.R. 4437 as well as a synopsis of what the bill does, and does not do. Please feel free to re-print or forward this analysis to friends.

Read the full legislative analysis

Overcrowding Another Problem Traced Back to Illegal Immigration

"Ordinances governing single-family neighborhoods in Fairfax County have been flagrantly violated for years. For example, a house located on a quiet residential street in Annandale was retrofitted with two additional front doors - for a total of three - in full public view. Despite numerous complaints from neighbors, nothing happened . . . County residents have complained for years that absentee landlords were turning residential properties into illegal boarding houses, but local supervisors either ignored them or made feeble, ineffectual attempts at enforcement," says the Washington Examiner in an editorial. "One of the high costs of cheap labor, overcrowding is an unacknowledged - but inevitable - result of looking the other way as illegal immigrants flood Northern Virginia to work at jobs that pay higher wages than where they come from, but still not enough to afford the overheated local housing market. In an area where even police officers and teachers have trouble finding affordable housing, where do public officials think these undocumented workers are going to live?"

Read the full story

Porous Border Shows Continuing Terror Threat

"Juan Carlos is just another unsuspected face. He speaks English with only a slight accent. His fair complexion and light hazel eyes rarely garner him a second glance once he's crossed into the United States. He's a gang member. He's an ex-convict. And he's here illegally . . . His ability to continually re-enter the country and hide his identity from authorities is a warning, many analysts and border critics say, that national security is at serious risk," says the Daily Bulletin. "Every time an argument for closed borders is made, the person is painted as a racist. This is not about race. This is about security – the security of this nation and all Americans. If a terrorist attack occurs again because we haven't protected our borders, it will be the worst of all tragedies," Rep. Gary Miller (R-CA) told the paper.

Read the full story

Mexican Gov't Hires PR Firm, Denounces Border Wall

"The Mexican government, angered by a U.S. proposal to extend a wall along the border to keep out migrants, has struck back with radio ads urging Mexican workers to denounce rights violations in the United States. Facing a growing tide of anti-immigrant sentiment north of the border, the Mexican government is also hiring an American public relations firm to improve its image," the AP writes. "It's hard to underestimate the ill-feeling the proposal has generated in Mexico, where editorial pages are dominated by cartoons of Uncle Sam putting up walls bearing anti-Mexican messages . . . "It isn't just a feeling of rejection. It's against what we see as part of our life, our culture, our territory," one Mexican told the AP.

Read the full story

Immigration Crisis Gone to the Dogs

"Puppy smugglers continue flooding the market with animals from Mexico, many of which die or pose health hazards to unsuspecting buyers, according to a recent survey. Animal welfare agency inspectors found 517 puppies, many concealed in vehicles and destined for swap meets across Southern California, during the two-week survey earlier this month at the San Ysidro and Otay Mesa ports of entry," the LA Times reports. "The survey by the Border Puppy Task Force, a consortium of California animal welfare organizations, was conducted to raise awareness amid a huge demand for cute small dog breeds. State law requires retailers to provide documentation of age and medical history of puppies, but the market for the Mexican puppies is largely unregulated."

Read the full story

Donald Collins: A CLEAR Victory, If We Can Keep It

"The shock of the House action which passed a true immigration reform bill last Friday, December 16th was heard all the way down to the lowliest P/R department person in corporate America and in every ethnic lobbyist’s office. It truly was a major accomplishment. Known as the Clear Act, introduced by U.S. Representative Charlie Norwood (R-GA), it represented, according to his news release, a ' big victory' after 'a nearly three-year lobbying campaign to address America's criminal alien crisis,'" says FAIR board member and author Donald Collins. "The passage of the amendment also marked the first time that the House has approved a recorded vote to withhold federal funds from local governments that refuse to allow enforcement of federal immigration laws, creating "sanctuaries" where illegal immigrants, including criminal aliens, can avoid arrest for immigration violations."

Read the full story

What the Wall Street Journal Won't Say About Illegal Immigration

"The Wall Street Journal published . . . an editorial last Friday, trumpeting the Editorial Page’s long-held belief in the economic wisdom of America entirely abandoning her borders. More than anything else, in my opinion, it shows that the central failing of the right-wing of the open borders lobby is viewing human beings as interchangeable parts -- to be self-traded like commodities across any frontier according to the simple dictate of supply and demand," says Mac Johnson. "When you discuss the idea of unrestricted human migration across national borders, you have to recall this. Immigration has economic consequences, but it is not exclusively an economic issue. It is not even primarily an economic issue. It is primarily a social or political issue. And when the immigration in question is illegal, then it becomes an issue of the rule of law as well."

Read the full story

The Collapse of Interior Enforcement

"Once undocumented immigrants are in the country, the story changes. Because the vast majority of the Border Patrol's resources are directly along the United States' international borders, the question arises: Who's enforcing immigration law in the nation's interior? The answer, in many ways, is no one," says the San Bernadino Sun. "Just a few thousand officers work for the agency charged with deporting criminal aliens, and an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants are in the country. And those immigrants have support networks made up of friends, family and advocacy groups that help them find work and avoid capture," the paper notes.

Read the full story

American Job Sellout Dropped from Budget Bill

"A Senate-passed measure to add more visas for foreign workers in high-tech and specialty fields was dropped from a budget bill that passed the House early Monday, disappointing high-tech and manufacturing firms in search of skilled workers," the AP reports. "Critics contend the visas give foreigners high-level jobs that should go to American workers, and the plan was opposed by some House Republicans as a backdoor way to boost immigration. House and Senate negotiators left it out of the final version of a $39.7 billion federal budget bill that passed the House 212-206 and was expected to get a Senate vote later in the day."

Read the full story

Border Patrol Concerned Over Mexican Military Incursions

"Border Patrol agents stationed along the nation's southwestern frontier increasingly are fearful of encountering armed and potentially hostile military units from Mexico. Also, agents say, officers are hamstrung in their response, citing concerns the U.S. government is often too deferential to Mexican authorities," Worldnetdaily writes. "Indeed, the confrontations have become so routine the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has issued written orders that agents carry with them regarding 'what to do' if confronted by Mexican military units, many of which are in the employ of Mexico's powerful drug cartels . . . [one California] paper said the cards also instruct agents to hide from Mexican military operating in their areas. Rather than engage in contact, agents are ordered to 'Avoid it.' One Arizona agent described the units to the paper, saying they 'are active Mexican military that have sold out to the cartels.'"

Read the full story

Rich Lowry: Tear Down This Analogy

National Review editor Rich Lowry debunks efforts by open-borders supporters to attack the border fence proposal in his latest column. "The Berlin Wall was the analogy of choice for opponents of the border-fence project, passed as part of an immigration-enforcement bill. Democrats invoked the analogy during the debate, and Mexico's Human Rights Commission denounced the 'tendency to criminalize migration with a wall that calls to mind the Berlin Wall,'" he says. "There is an elementary moral distinction between a wall built to keep people out and one designed to keep people in . . . certain [A] certain cast of mind fetishizes objects as such. During the Cold War, Soviet missiles and American missiles were considered equally immoral by arms-control advocates, no matter the differing nature and aims of the governments wielding them. A missile was a missile. Similarly, opponents of a border fence apparently consider any wall objectionable as a wall, whether it is an instrument of repression or a way for a nation of laws to see that those laws are obeyed. Americans can reinforce and extend their border fence with a clean conscience."

Read the full story

Minnesota Gov. Pawlenty Advocates Immigration Reform, Cites Bankrupting Costs

"Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty's controversial report on the cost of illegal immigration apparently has created an emerging political storm that will play out in the 2006 legislative session and next year's elections," the St. Paul Pioneer Press writes. "Pawlenty told a group of police chiefs Thursday that illegal immigration is a large and growing problem that will be at the top of his public safety agenda in the coming legislative session. Meanwhile, Democrats accused the Republican governor of using illegal immigration as a wedge issue to 'fire up his base' of social conservatives. They said it was part of a national strategy on the part of Republicans."

Interestingly, while most left-wing organizations attacked the governor or the report, the state's attorney general accused Pawlenty of being soft on illegal immigration. "Attorney General Mike Hatch, a DFL candidate for governor, charged that the Pawlenty administration has exacerbated the illegal immigration problem. He said he has received repeated complaints that the Department of Labor and Industry has failed to enforce labor, occupational health and safety and workers' compensation laws at businesses that hire illegal immigrants. He also has heard complaints that the Revenue Department isn't investigating allegations that those employers are failing to pay payroll taxes," the Pioneer Press says.

Read the full story

CLEAR Act Provisions Included in House-Passed Bill

"Congressman Nathan Deal of Gainesville says the bill passed by the House last week, which will enable local law enforcement to enforce immigration laws, is crucial to addressing the problem of illegal immigration. Deal, a Republican who represents the Tenth District, notes that two counties in his district - Hall and Gwinnett - are among the five fastest growing in the country when it comes to illegal immigrants," WDUN reports. Deal has a press release about the provisions on his site.

Read the full story

More Cubans Head to U.S., Most Since 1994

"The number of Cubans intercepted at sea while trying to reach the United States is at its highest level since tens of thousands took to the Florida Straits on makeshift rafts and in small boats in the 1994 exodus sanctioned by President Fidel Castro," the New York Times reports. "Coast Guard data show that as of Friday, 2,683 Cubans had been intercepted at sea this year, nearly double the number for all of 2004. And while the high season for migrant crossings, when the sailing tends to be smoothest, is already past, scores have kept trying the journey despite the perils."

Read the full story

Minutemen Grow Nationally, Combat Open-Borders Lobbying

"The Minuteman Project was the brainchild of Jim Gilchrist, a retired accountant from Orange County, Calif., and an unsuccessful congressional candidate there, who recruited participants through the Internet. He tied his efforts to an existing group, Civil Homeland Defense, which was already patrolling the Arizona-Mexico border," the AP reports. "Chris Simcox, one of the movement's founders, said three dozen new chapters had formed by mid-November, 'with another 100 waiting in the wings, for us to come up with a national strategy.' 'It has moved into politics on the local, state and federal level, what we hope is in every district in this country,' Simcox said. 'We mean business.'" FAIR President Dan Stein noted, "There's a genuineness to this that has won over the hearts and minds of the American public."

Read the full story

Sensenbrenner Bill Clears House, Guestworker Fight Expected in Senate

"The House acted Friday to stem the tide of illegal immigration by taking steps to tighten border controls and stop unlawful immigrants from getting jobs. But lawmakers left for next year the tougher issue of what to do with the 11 million undocumented people already in the country," the AP reported. "The House legislation, billed as a border protection, anti-terrorism and illegal immigration control act, includes such measures as enlisting military and local law enforcement help in stopping illegal entrants and requiring employers to verify the legal status of their workers. It authorizes the building of a fence along parts of the U.S.-Mexico border."

Read the full story

Wisconsin Debates Ban on Licenses For Illegal Aliens

"Should the state bar undocumented immigrants from getting a driver's license? The proposal easily passed the Assembly in September. Supporters say it is needed to comply with a federal anti-terrorism law, the Real ID Act, that will make driver's licenses invalid forms of ID if states don't tighten guidelines on how the licenses are issued. This could cause several problems, including barring driver's licenses as a valid form of ID when boarding a plane, and all 50 states are expected to comply with the act," the Journal Times reports. "Gov. Jim Doyle is undecided on the issue, said Melanie Fonder, a spokeswoman for the governor. He met with opponents, but also noted that the federal legislation may tie the state's hands." Related: 2,000 bogus Connecticut licenses in circulation

Read the full story

House Debate Update: More Votes Today on Sensenbrenner Bill

Your phone calls are still needed today to build support for House acceptance of strengthening amendments to H.R. 4437 by Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI). Special thanks to everyone who responded to our urgent alerts yesterday. Your calls helped kill the Flake sense of Congress language in support of a guest worker program! They also helped get the border fence strengthening amendment passed!

See FAIR's Alert for an amendment list as well as more detail about yesteday's developments

Yesterday's big developments:

Limited Border Fence Approved: "Late on Thursday, the House voted 260-159 to require construction of security fencing with lights and cameras along parts of the U.S. border with Mexico. The amendment would also require the Homeland Security Department to conduct a study on using barriers along the U.S. border with Canada," Reuters reports. Vote total here.

Kolbe-Flake Guestworker Language Kept Out: The guestworker endorsement has been kept out of the bill.

FOR TODAY: Please take these actions right away:
1) Call House Speaker Dennis Hastert's (R-IN) office (202-225-2976) and tell him that the American people expect the House to pass stronger enforcement legislation than what is currently in Sensenbrenner's bill.
2) Call your House member and ask him/her to support amendments to strengthen Sensenbrenner's bill - excluding those containing guest worker or amnesty provisions.

Read FAIR President Dan Stein's statement for more details. "This is a bill that controls the borders with reams of reports, studies and promises. The heart of the bill, intended to cut off the jobs magnet, does little more than the status quo -and as Ronald Reagan pointed out is 'just Latin for the mess we're in.' With the public overwhelmingly demanding substantive immigration enforcement, we are baffled as to why the leadership would offer a bill that does so little toward true enforcement," said FAIR President Dan Stein of H.R. 4437.

Read the full story

Backbone Award

FAIR congratulates Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ)on his speech on the House floor this morning about the true nature of the Sensenbrenner/King border security bill (note: FAIR believes this bill much weaker than TRUE Enforcement---which Hayworth supports—and could set the table for an indentured worker program coming from the Senate in the Spring). Hayworth repeatedly asked his colleagues to stop calling this “comprehensive reform” because it provides shallow enforcement, maybe, in years to come, while an indentured worker program is rammed down our throats by the Bush administration and House and Senate allies.

There is No Immigration Santa Claus

"The latest revisionism regarding the economic impact of immigration comes to us courtesy of the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA), a Dallas-based libertarian think tank. Its Daily Policy Digest (well worth signing up for) cites a highly theoretical study by Giovanni Peri of UC Davis and Gianmarco Ottaviano of the University of Bologna that claims that 'immigration actually increases domestic wages,'” writes Edwin Rubeinstein. "In other words, you find higher-earning Americans in cities where there are also lots of immigrants. Cities with heavy immigrant inflows may indeed exhibit higher native wages. But this happy correlation need not necessarily apply to the national economy . . . The pitfalls of extrapolating from local labor market trends to immigration’s national impact have been exhaustively enumerated by George Borjas. Pen and Ottaviano mention Borjas but don’t address his point."

Read the full story

James Edwards: Time to Shut Down the Jobs Magnet

"The U.S. House of Representatives has an opportunity this week to establish an actual immigration enforcement system that finally responds to the demands of the vast American majority . . . [T]he single most important part of H.R. 4437 is mandatory employment verification," James R. Edwards (author of the Congressional Politics of Immigration Reform) says. "Homeland Security has become so slack in employment enforcement, bogus information or identity fraud via the I-9 form is hardly ever found. The forms sit in a file, unchecked. This program [Basic Pilot] removes an employer’s guesswork, without requiring additional information from employees. It protects employers who rely on the verification system against legal liability. And it weeds out illegal workers well before a business has invested time and money in training them."

Read the full story

Hayworth Blasts Fox Fence Remarks

"U.S. Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R.-Ariz.) said Thursday that Mexican President Vicente Fox should 'shut up' about his opposition to, a proposed U.S.-Mexico border fence," Human Events writes. "Hayworth continued: 'What’s disgraceful is President Fox presuming to lecture the United States on how best to protect itself against an invasion -- an invasion that has his wholehearted advocacy. . . . He needs to stop his advocacy of an invasion of his countrymen into our nation. What’s shameful is that, as the president of the Republic of Mexico, he does nothing to stem this invasion. He actively endorses it.'”

Read the full story

Donald Collins: The Immigration Deluge Continues

"Immigrants now account for 12.1 percent of the total population, the highest percentage in eight decades. If current trends continue, within a decade it will surpass the high of 14.7 percent reached in 1910. The immigration flood noted by Time magazine and Lou Dobbs on his nightly CNN news hour rages onward," notes FAIR board member and author Donald Collins. "So what do we get from another respected news source, CBS's '60 Minutes' on Sunday, Dec. 11? A segment entitled 'More Migrants Dying to Get in,' hosted by Ed Bradley, which tells a truly sad story . . . It is so sad to see a distinguished news program use sob-sister story-telling to obscure the true nature of this complex problem of illegal immigration."

Read the full story

Update: Herndon Minutemen Greet Illegal Hiring Hall Opening

"An open-air, taxpayer-funded day-laborer center opened before dawn in Herndon yesterday, and although the frigid weather appeared to chill the job market, it did nothing to cool the passions of those on both sides of the controversial issue," the Washington Post reports. "While the workers, many of them undocumented immigrants, stood in the cold stamping their feet to stay warm, people both for and against the new site began gathering at the entrance to the center, which is in the back of the old police station on the Loudoun County line. About two dozen activists from two groups that oppose illegal immigration -- the Herndon chapter of the Minuteman Project and Help Save Herndon -- stood sign-to-sign with members of a recently formed pro-laborer organization, HEART (Herndon Embraces All in Respect and Tolerance)."

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2008 GOP Hopeful: No to Fence, Si to Guestworkers

"Potential 2008 Republican presidential candidate Sen. George Allen (Va.) declined Wednesday to support the idea of a fence separating the United States and Mexico, but said he would back a guest-worker plan as envisioned by President Bush. In an exclusive interview with Human Events, Allen passed on the opportunity to take a firm stance on immigration reform -- likely to be one of the key issues among Republicans in the 2008 presidential sweepstakes," reports Human Events. "The best way to do it, to securing the border then, what you can actually get done now is with more personnel, is with better use of technologies. You can call it a virtual fence, but using unmanned aerial vehicles that also have sensors that at night you can sense the heat from human beings and the detention centers," said Allen.

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"Well, It's A Little Difficult To Marginalize 70 Percent Of The American People"

Columnist and former National Review Editor John O'Sullivan explains the machinations behind the scenes as the White House continues to push for a guestworker amnesty plan. "Monday's 'Washington Post' reported that the White House was suffering anguish because the Republicans in the House, responding to their constituents, intended to vote for a bill that contained measures to improve border security without the guest worker/amnesty parts. The RNC chairman, Ken Mehlman, lamented that such a bill would endanger the GOP's outreach to Latinos. How can it possibly be electorally disadvantageous to adopt a policy supported by 70 percent of voters in order to win more support from Latinos who constitute less than 8 percent of voters? Even that question understates the absurdity of his argument because, as numerous polls show, Latinos are almost as divided as other Americans about legal and illegal immigration," O'Sullivan writes.

"The Latino argument provides cover for a policy of giving corporate America and Republican donors what they want -- cheap labor. This smuggling operation is failing, however, because the GOP is divided. GOP donors may want 'comprehensive' immigration reform but Republican voters oppose it bitterly."

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Fox: Don't Build the "Disgraceful and Shameful" Wall

"Concerned about the huge numbers of illegal immigrants streaming across the border and worried it could be an entry point for terrorists, a U.S. lawmaker has proposed building two parallel steel and wire fences running from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Coast. But Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has said a wall running the length of a border would cost too much. Mexico has expressed indignation at the idea," Reuters says. "Fox, speaking in Tamaulipas state across the border from Texas, said such extreme security measures would violate immigrants' rights. 'The disgraceful and shameful construction of walls, the increasing enforcement of security systems and increasing violation of human rights and labor rights will not protect the economy of the United States,' he said."

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$2 Billion Lawsuit Filed To Stop California's In-State Tuition for Illegal Aliens

"Contending that they are illegally charged higher tuition and fees than undocumented immigrants, a group of out-of-state students and parents filed a class-action lawsuit Wednesday against California's public university and community college systems," the LA Times reports. "The suit contends that 60,000 out-of-state students at University of California, California State University and public community college campuses have illegally been required in recent years to pay higher, nonresident charges . . . No specific amount of damages is sought in the suit, but the lead lawyer for the group of 42 named plaintiffs, Redwood City attorney Michael J. Brady, said the amount could total 'hundreds of millions' of dollars." FAIR media director Ira Mehlman told the Times, "We think this could be a major, precedent-setting case . . .[in-state tuition] is something that rewards illegal immigration [and] encourages more people to violate the immigration law." More coverage from the AP. [FAIR comment - see today's press release for more information] Update: KGO-TV has the video of their coverage available here.

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Debbie Schlussel: ICE and CBP Merger Needed

"After 9/11, Joe Lieberman and other clueless elected 'experts' on 'how to avoid another 9/11' got rid of the INS and the U.S. Customs Service. They did the idiotic thing and split both agencies' investigative agents from its inspectors, making two new agencies, ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and CBP (Customs and Border Protection). This may sound like an inside baseball story, but it should concern all Americans," says Debbie Schlussel. "This reorganization of federal law enforcement was an incredibly boneheaded move, as there is an incredible disconnect--and rivalry--between the two agencies that have similar, competing missions. The bureaucracy getting in the way between agents and inspectors, respectively, of the two agencies is the worst thing that could have been done in the fight against terrorism and the failing battle to protect our borders. Virtually every ICE agent who has contacted me--whether originally from INS or Customs--supports merging the agencies."

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Herndon Minutemen Will Report on New Illegal Hiring Hall

"The taxpayer-financed day-laborer center is scheduled to open tomorrow in Herndon, and the president of the local chapter of the Minuteman Project said yesterday that his group will be there to continue photographing and investigating employers," the Washington Post writes. "The Herndon Minuteman group already has been conducting surveillance at the town's informal labor gathering spot outside a 7-Eleven. Yesterday, George Taplin, president of the chapter, said his group had turned over the evidence gathered so far to several local and state agencies as well as the Internal Revenue Service." According to the Post, "[Taplin] said that members of the group followed employers from the 7-Eleven to job sites and found that none of the job sites was in the town. He questioned why Herndon would sponsor the job center when none of the work was being done there." What was Herndon Mayor Michael L. O'Reilly's response? "Whether the employers are coming from Herndon, that's looking at it backwards. The issue that we are trying to address is that there are workers gathering on a corner now, and that is what we are trying to do something about."

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"Terror Prof" Not Home Free, Still Faces Deportation

Despite being acquitted on terrorism charges, "[Sami] Al-Arian, who was arrested more than two years ago, is still jailed as federal prosecutors decide whether to retry him on the counts on which the jury deadlocked. Even if prosecutors drop the outstanding charges, immigration authorities have indicated that he will probably remain incarcerated while he is facing deportation proceedings," the Washington Post reports. "A videotape showed al-Arian saying "Death to Israel" and a letter found at his house had him praising a suicide bombing in Israel. A close associate at the university, Ramadan Shallah, left for the Middle East in 1995 and within months became the leader of Islamic Jihad."

Al-Arian's wife continues to defend her husband's remarks calling for the death of Jews, saying "What people do not understand is that victims say bad words about their victimizers. We are the victims. . . . We don't hate people. We don't hate the Jews. We hate the occupation." The Sarasota Herald Tribune summed up the acquittal by writing, "During a five-month trial that ended this week, the U.S. government demonstrated that former University of South Florida professor Sami Al-Arian is a hate-filled man who thinks suicide bombings are swell. But prosecutors failed to prove that he committed any crimes." See Jihadwatch for more coverage.

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Chamber of Commerce Begins Full Court Press to Stop Sensenbrenner Bill

"The House Republican leadership and the nation's business lobby, usually close allies, are battling each other over the issue of immigration. In a rare schism, employer groups led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are pressing to kill a Republican-sponsored measure that would require businesses to verify that all of their workers are in the United States legally and would increase penalties for hiring illegal employees," the Washington Post reports. " The business groups contend that the verification system, which has only been tried in experimental form, is too mistake-prone to give employers accurate results. They worry that, as a result, companies might be subjected to steep and misapplied penalties because of faulty computer readouts, and that individuals might have their working status jeopardized and their private backgrounds scrutinized needlessly."

According to the Post, "[Business] lobbyists acknowledge that the Republican bill, which emerged from committee last week, has been moving so quickly that they might not have enough time to stop it." However, the opposition by the Chamber and other business groups does not indicate that the measure is the strongest possible legislation. See yesterday's Stein Report post "Immigration Expert: New House Bill Could Let Amnesty Sneak In" for more details.

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L.A. Times Solution to Underground Economy? Subsidize It

"The number of recorded workers in legitimate businesses in Los Angeles is lower now than in 1990. More people are working, but not in the formal economy. That statistic comes from Dan Flaming, president of the Economic Roundtable, which was the partner of the Milken Institute in a recently completed project that studied the L.A. economy," the LA Times notes in an editorial. "There should be incentives to go legit, beyond access to capital [tax-subsidized loans for outlaw business]. Businesses could be offered amnesty for past transgressions. Business education programs could offer both strategic advice and help in obtaining capital for those willing to comply," the paper says. "Yes, much of this problem is tied to illegal immigration and economic desperation. Yes, dealing with the status of immigrants requires a federal solution. Despite that roadblock, the mayor and the governor should use their bully pulpits to make the social harm of the underground economy clear," conclude the Times' editors.

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Immigration Reform Group Charges AP Not Informing Public of Illegal Alien Threat

The Americans for Legal Immigration PAC points out that the AP refused to carry stories about the epidemic of drunk-driving accidents caused by illegal aliens with valid North Carolina licenses. "Most North Carolinians still have no idea how dire the situation has become due to the negligence of the gate keepers at the Associated Press (AP). For reasons unknown, AP has not told the whole state many important events and have certainly not connected the dots for our citizens," says William Gheen, President of ALIPAC. "Associate Press? Can you hear me? The citizens of North Carolina would REALLY like to know this information since you so loudly proclaimed that Mike Easley had secured our licenses from illegal aliens during the elections of 2004. Don't you think you should announce that he deceived everyone and that illegal aliens are still getting licenses hand over fist?"

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American Legion Endorses TRUE Enforcement

The American Legion is the latest group to endorse the TRUE Enforcement legislation (H.R. 4313) sponsored by Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) and Virgil Goode (R-VA). "The American Legion applauds your efforts to stop the invasion of illegal aliens into the United States and is pleased to lend its name as a supporter of the TRUE Enforcement and Border Security Act of 2005. H.R. 4313 addresses favorably no less than 12 American Legion resolutions concerning security and economic issues resulting from illegal entry into this country," writes National Commander Thomas L. Brock in the letter.

Read the full letter

Immigration Expert: New House Bill Could Let Amnesty Sneak In

"Don’t blink. The next major immigration bill in Congress may pass the House of Representatives before you know it. The "Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005" - H.R. 4437 - was introduced on December 6 by Rep. James Sensenbrenner, Jr. (R-Wisconsin), Chairman of the House Committee on the Judiciary," says Juan Mann, writing at Vdare. "First of all, H.R. 4437 is amnesty-free. No new "guest workers" or "temporary workers" are in sight. But that does not necessarily prevent the Senate from adding an illegal alien amnesty plan to their version of the bill, and forcing the issue behind closed doors at a House-Senate conference committee where dangerous compromises come with the territory," he continues.

Mann criticizes the employer sanctions provisions of the bill, saying, "As currently written, the employer-friendly H.R. 4437 doesn’t say "shall terminate" the illegal alien’s employment . . . So H.R. 4437 sees to it that employers are immunized from any criminal or immigration law liability, including Immigration Act Section 274 felony prosecutions, civil RICO violations, immigration-related discrimination against U.S. workers," he explains.

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Update: Your Calls Needed Now to Support Strong Amendments to House Bill

Thu. Update: Rep. Flake (R-AZ) has inserted a one-paragraph stealth guestworker endorsement into the legislation under consideration today. Read this for more information and call your Representatives in opposition to the Flake guestworker provision.

Wed.Update: immigration reform calls are making a difference! Read this story about how the House leadership was forced to open debate on the bill. "House leaders will allow wide-ranging amendments on border-security legislation expected on the floor Thursday after conservative Republicans who want stricter immigration controls threatened to sink the bill," Congress Daily reported.

Your phone calls are needed NOW through the end of the week to build support for House acceptance of strong strengthening amendments to border security legislation expected to be considered as soon as this Thursday. The legislation scheduled for consideration is Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner's (R-WI) Border Protection, Antiterrorism and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005, H.R. 4437. His committee approved the bill last Thursday by a party-line vote.

Please take these actions right away:
1) Call House Speaker Dennis Hastert's (R-IN) office (202-225-2976) and tell him that the American people expect the House to pass stronger enforcement legislation than what is currently in Sensenbrenner's bill.
2) Call your House member and ask him/her to support amendments to strengthen Sensenbrenner's bill - excluding those containing guest worker or amnesty provisions.

Read FAIR President Dan Stein's statement for more details. "This is a bill that controls the borders with reams of reports, studies and promises. The heart of the bill, intended to cut off the jobs magnet, does little more than the status quo -and as Ronald Reagan pointed out is 'just Latin for the mess we're in.' With the public overwhelmingly demanding substantive immigration enforcement, we are baffled as to why the leadership would offer a bill that does so little toward true enforcement," said FAIR President Dan Stein of H.R. 4437.

''If You Hire Illegal Workers, We'll Put Your Picture On The Internet"

"Conservative immigration reform groups are broadening their focus from the U.S.-Mexico border to the workplace -- in Southern California, Texas, Chicago, Virginia and elsewhere. Their method: Take photos of construction bosses and anyone else picking up day laborers, then post the photos on Web sites (such as www.wehirealiens.com and www.operationshameonyou.org), sometimes including home addresses and license plate numbers. They also give their footage to immigration officials," the AP reports. "In Herndon, Va., just outside Washington, D.C., members of the Herndon Minutemen have filed a suit against the town council for voting to set up a day labor site with public money, said group founder George Taplin. A similar suit has been filed in Phoenix, with others planned in suburbs of Chicago and Washington, D.C., said Simcox of the Minutemen."

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Immigration Hits Record High

"Immigration - both legal and illegal - continues to boom as Congress grapples with how to better control America's borders. A new report by the Center for Immigration Studies found that 7.9 million people moved to the United States in the past five years, the highest five-year period of immigration on record," the AP reports. "The report, released Monday, comes as the House prepares to take up a bill to curb illegal immigration by boosting border security and requiring workplace enforcement of immigration laws. There are 35.2 million foreign-born people living in the United States, according to the report, which is based on the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey from March. The report said an estimated 9 million to 13 million are here illegally."

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House Ready to Take Up Enforcement Legislation This Week

"Driven by the rising anger of their constituents, House Republicans are pushing ahead with tough legislation to tighten control of the nation's borders and clamp down on the hiring of illegal immigrants -- without offering new avenues for such immigrants to find lawful employment . . . President Bush and his handpicked Republican Party chairman, Ken Mehlman, have implored House leaders not to take up what they call an "enforcement-only" bill, arguing that such a punitive measure could jeopardize years of Republican outreach to Latinos," the Washington Post writes. "But just such a bill is barreling toward a House vote this week, Republican leaders have promised. Advocates, including the Republican leadership, say action is needed immediately to stem the flow of illegal immigrants, and such efforts should not be held up as lawmakers wrangle over the intricacies of the president's guest-worker program. 'With all due respect, this is not a political problem to be managed,' said Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-Ariz.). 'This is an invasion to be stopped.'" According to the paper, "The bill is moving so fast that business lobbyists have decided to let it pass and take a stand next year in the Senate. The tactic may ultimately work, but the political damage may have already been done, La Raza's Muoz said."

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Who's Trying to Cross the Border? Everyone

"Last month, when President Bush was promoting what he called a 'comprehensive strategy' on border security to prevent 'people from coming here in the first place,' few Americans had any doubt to whom the president was referring: undocumented Mexicans. Ignored in the rhetoric, as well as in U.S. policy, is a far more complex reality -- that the southern border is no longer just a border with Mexico. It is a global frontier that has become a conduit for illegal immigrants from all over the world," says Michael Flynn in the Washington Post. "More and more people from the so-called global south -- the nations of Africa, Central and Latin America, and most of Asia -- are abandoning their homelands to find better lives elsewhere. Destination numero uno on many people's list is America. Unable to go directly because of tight visa restrictions, they take what they see as the next best route -- through Mexico."

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Peggy Noonan: The American Way - Don't Break the Law on Your Way In

"Here is what is true of my immigrants and of the immigrants of America's past: They fought for citizenship. They earned it. They waited in line. They passed the tests. They had to get permission to come. They got money that was hard-earned and bought a ticket. They had to get through Ellis Island or the port of Boston or Philadelphia, get questioned and eyeballed by a bureaucrat with a badge, and get the nod to take their first step on American soil," says Peggy Noonan. "The questions I bring to the subject are not about the flow of capital, the imminence of globalism, or the implications of uncontrolled immigration on the size and cost of the welfare state. They just have to do with what it is to be human. What does it mean that your first act on entering a country--your first act on that soil--is the breaking of that country's laws? What does it suggest to you when that country does nothing about your lawbreaking because it cannot, or chooses not to? What does that tell you? Will that make you a better future citizen, or worse? More respecting of the rule of law in your new home, or less?"

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Houston Facing Pressure to Stop Sanctuary Policy

"Houston Mayor Bill White is facing increasing pressure locally and from the federal government to toughen a policy that has helped make the fourth-largest U.S. city a haven for illegal immigrants. City Councilman Mark Ellis is trying to force a vote on a plan directing police to enforce immigration law and requiring proof of citizenship for people receiving social services," Bloomberg News reports. "A lawsuit in Austin raises another issue for sanctuary policies: possible liability when an illegal immigrant who police could have had deported later commits a crime. The suit was filed Nov. 4 on behalf of a couple whose daughter was raped and murdered by an illegal immigrant. The family alleges that Austin police earlier had an opportunity to arrest the man on immigration charges and declined."

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Minutemen Having an Impact in Herndon Day Labor Fight

Day laborers complain the Minutemen are keeping them from getting jobs. "'The day is ruined. They're going to scare off the employers,' Alex Aleman, a 32-year-old Honduran in a black ski cap, told his friends in Spanish. 'When they come, we don't eat,'" the Washington Post writes. "The Minutemen train their lenses on contractors who drive to the lot at Elden Street and Alabama Drive to hire the day laborers, many of whom are in the country illegally. They say they plan to hand the photographs to the Internal Revenue Service for investigation."

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Pat Buchanan: No Amnesty, No Deal, Mr. President

"When the 17th Street levee broke and the floodwaters of Lake Pontchartrain inundated New Orleans, the immediate imperative was: Fix the levee. Before the cleanup could begin, before the refugees could return, the levee had to be repaired so water stopped flooding into the city. Everybody understood this. Why, then, has it taken five years for the White House to wake up to the first imperative in the immigration crisis: Fix the border, stop the flood? Why is President Bush still chattering on about a "guest worker" program that has nothing to do with the crisis?" asks Pat Buchanan. "The president's speech in Tucson was a kind of extortion of those who have fought for tough border protections. Bush is saying: Unless you give me what I want, a guest worker program, you're not getting what you want. But what a majority of Americans want is what they have a right to demand: That Bush do his sworn duty and enforce the immigration laws of the United States."

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Rep. Goode: TRUE Enforcement Is A Comprehensive Solution

Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA) tells Roanoke Times readers that TRUE Enforcement is the best shot at controlling illegal immigration. Goode's letter was prompted by an editorial run by the Times, attacking the bill. "The bill I introduced along with California Congressman Duncan Hunter does provide for construction of a fence along the U.S.-Mexican border. However, the fence is only a small part of the bill's plan to control mass illegal immigration. If your editors had focused on the whole bill, they would have discovered that we, too, believe that a fence alone will not solve this national crisis. What we and the 20 other original sponsors seek to do is systematically eliminate the reasons why people come to this country illegally. The bill would create an effective process for verifying the legal status of workers and punish employers who fail to comply. It would also deny employers a business expense tax write-off for illegal aliens on their payrolls."

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9 Years Later, Citizenship Test Revision Still Not Done

"The test to become a U.S. citizen will be revamped to emphasize civics instead of trivia. Alfonso Aguilar, the head of the Office of Citizenship at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, says he hopes to have the test redesigned by January 2007 and in place a year later," the Houston Chronicle reports. "'We're not going to give away citizenship,' Aguilar said . . . But Aguilar added that some immigrants come here with low education levels, and he does not believe they should be excluded from becoming citizens. The government began studying changes to the test in 1997. The effort is expected to cost more than $6 million."

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Poll: 65 Percent Disapproval for Bush Immigration Policy

"While most people asked say immigration is good for the United States, a Gallup Poll indicates displeasure with President Bush's handling of the issue. A November poll showed 26 percent of U.S. residents asked approved of the way Bush is handling immigration, while 65 percent disapproved, a Gallup Tuesday Briefing analysis said. The poll was conducted three weeks before Bush traveled to the U.S. Southwest to talk about immigration," UPI reported.

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Boston Area Raid Catches Illegal Employees

"Workers who fled a New Bedford hat factory after an immigration raid in the city have been fired by their employer, a company official said yesterday. The firings are the latest in a series of reverberations after 13 seafood processing workers were arrested for alleged immigration violations Monday. Immigrant workers all over New Bedford left their jobs Monday, and many did not return to work Tuesday, fearing further arrests," the Boston Globe reports.

The companion Globe story sheds more light on the situation. "Louis Juillard, owner of AML, said the immigrants who worked in his plant had documents showing they could work. They were employed through an agency, he said. ''We have no way to find out if they are legal or not legal,' he said. ''They give us the paperwork; we suppose they are legal. To verify the Social Security number and everything, it is not possible.'" That, of course, is a lie. All businesses can easily verify SSN's through the SSA.

The article explains that, "A waterfront sweep by the US Coast Guard and immigration authorities that resulted in the arrest of 13 men has sent panic through New Bedford's large immigrant community, causing workers at seafood processing plants to stay away from their jobs." Yet, a pro-illegal immigration spokesman told the paper the U.S. can't ''have an enforcement-only policy to deal with an immigration system that is broken." One raid, that arrested 13 people, managed to keep thousands of illegal aliens from working across an entire city. That's a pretty convincing refutation of the idea that enforcement doesn't work.

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Slate Discovers Illegal Aliens Trash Border Counties

"If you were to crash your stolen truck through the border fence, as smugglers do, then abandon it when the Border Patrol closes in, as smugglers often do, and then just started walking north, you would have extraordinary insight into the environmental damage undocumented immigrants are causing this nation's public lands," says Judd Slivka writing for Slate.com. "The southern part of Arizona is a wild and diverse place. At least four different ecosystems thrive along the border, and the one thing they all have in common is that they're being trashed by undocumented immigrant traffic. Of all the damage in the ongoing border war -- and it ranges from drug smuggling to a near-bankrupt health-care system to falling wages -- none will last as long as the footprints left by the men and women who pass through the deserts of southern Arizona. I've been at the border on and off for five years, and the damage only seems to get worse. There is more garbage, more tire damage, more evidence of people. Always, always more trashed landscape." See http://www.desertinvasion.us/ for more photos.

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"What We Have Is An Agency In Meltdown" Turf Fights Compromise Immigration Enforcement

"Top officials at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services acknowledged in internal e-mails that some of their employees are able to decide visa applications without being able to do full background checks, even in important national security cases," the Washington Times reports. "But the e-mails show turf battles within that agency and with other agencies in the Department of Homeland Security are hindering the department's national security mission. In one situation, the acting deputy director purportedly ordered one investigative branch not to provide information to a top-level team deciding the toughest cases because of turf conflicts with another branch." Rep. John Culberson (R-TX) told the paper, "The adjudicators are being denied the ability to do criminal background checks; they're being told not to ask questions they might not like the answers to; they are filing or throwing away criminal hits on applicants; and I understand perhaps even ignoring terrorists." Related: Immigration agency in big trouble?

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Gilchrist Loses California House Contest, Sees Immigration Reform

"A Republican state senator sailed to victory Tuesday in a special congressional election in coastal Orange County featuring a maverick, third-party candidate who sought to capitalize on growing fears of illegal immigration. In a race that drew national attention, Sen. John Campbell (R-Irvine) held a wide lead throughout the evening, ending the night with nearly 45% of the vote. But it was Minuteman Project co-founder and first-time candidate Jim Gilchrist of the American Independent Party who drew the spotlight with his one-issue campaign," the LA Times writes. "Gilchrist lost the election, but he found victory in his showing. 'This is just a start,' he said at a party Tuesday night in Lake Forest. 'We've got a huge victory tonight because we've issued a wake-up call to America…. Our cause is not over, nor is my aspiration for my political career.'" Campbell had help from Republican open-border heavyweights during the race. "Fundraisers on both coasts helped the former car dealer, who was elected to the state Assembly in 2000. Vice President Dick Cheney spoke at a Campbell gathering in Washington, and Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman traveled to Orange County for an event."

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Costa Mesa Approves Plan to Report Illegal Aliens

"About 200 people turned out Tuesday night as the City Council discussed enacting a controversial program that would train Costa Mesa police officers to enforce federal immigration law. A vote had not been taken as of 10 p.m., but the plan, which would be the first adopted by a U.S. city, appeared to have the support of three of the five council members," the Orange County Register reported. [The plan was approved last night]. "[Councilman Gary] Monahan said he wanted a program like the one the Sheriff's Department is pursuing, giving the power to jail personnel and certain investigators. Those deputies could detain illegal immigrants suspected of felonies." The Memorandum of Understanding order approved by the council is available in PDF format.

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El Paso Sheriff Gets Money to Patrol Border

"The county commissioners voted at their meeting Monday morning to authorize County Judge Dolores Briones to sign a grant application certification form that will bring in $367,500 from the state to pay for overtime for sheriff's deputies patrolling the Lower Valley. 'This money is for overtime to put officers on the border,' Sheriff Leo Samaniego said at the meeting," according to the El Paso Times. "Gov. Rick Perry awarded $6 million on Monday for Operation Linebacker statewide. The money would be granted to 16 counties along the Texas-Mexico border to strengthen security in those areas."

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Fake ID Trade Alive and Well in NY

"It is easy for an illegal immigrant - or a terrorist - to get false documents in New York. The New York Sun did it in about an hour this . week, just three days after President Bush promised to tackle document fraud. Our fake green card cost $100. Roosevelt Avenue in Queens is an open market for the manufacture of Social Security papers and driver's licenses, as well as the valuable green cards that certify permanent resident status," says the New York Sun. "Despite federal and local law enforcement pledges of investigations, including a sweep earlier this week of the operation where the reporter purchased the card, business is booming."

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GOP Leaders Ready Plan to Bypass Opposition, Pass Guestworker Bill

"Republican leaders will try to pass President Bush's controversial guest-worker proposal without putting it to a direct vote in the House. Observers say the new GOP strategy that begins today is for the House to deal only with the more politically palatable issue of increasing border security and clamping down on employers. Republican leaders then will let the Senate pass some form of a guest-worker plan," the Denver Post writes. "They're doing it this way because they know in the House they'll run into a buzz saw and maybe my name's on it," said Rep. Tom Tancredo. Related: House Won't Consider Worker Program

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Schlafly: Congress Is Selling Out American Workers On Immigration

"'Why is it taking you five years to get through college?' I asked a student attending one of my campus lectures. 'Because I changed my major from computer science to accounting after I discovered there are almost no jobs available for computer majors,'" writes Phyliss Schlafly. "Of course there are plenty computer jobs, but not for Americans because big business would rather hire foreigners. It's all a matter of money; corporations use their financial clout to get Congress to import foreigners who will work for half the salary Americans used to be paid for computer work. It's called the H-1B racket, and it's very profitable for the big corporations. This system is not the free market; it's politicians and corporations conniving to do an end run around our immigration laws in order to keep wages artificially low."

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Fruit Growers Turn to Technology

"Stymied in efforts to ease labor problems through a guest worker immigration program, Washington state orchardists have been advised to seek relief through technology. 'Labor costs are going up and availability is going down. It's quite likely that the availability will continue to go down. This is where technology can help us,' said Bob Brammer, president of Crane & Crane Inc. of Brewster," the Seattle Post-Intelligencer writes. "[Since guestworker programs are stalled in Congress], orchard operators are looking at wireless networks, database applications, electronic weather systems and digital sensors as well as new mechanical harvesters and robot tractors to reduce their dependence on human labor."

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New House Bill Would Tighten Worksite Enforcement

"The House Republican immigration-enforcement bill will include a measure aimed directly at ensuring that employers are taking steps to hire legal workers -- going a step further than the White House has gone in targeting businesses. The bill, which Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. of Wisconsin is expected to introduce today, calls on employers to check documents submitted by new employees against a database to verify their authenticity," the Washington Times reports. "Named the Basic Pilot Program, it began in the mid-1990s as a voluntary system for employers in a handful of states to check prospective employees' Social Security numbers. In 2003, it was expanded nationwide, but it is still voluntary. Mr. Sensenbrenner's bill would make it a requirement. Mr. Sensenbrenner, who as committee chairman is writing the bill, will call on employers to recheck the documents of all employees hired within the past six years."

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9/11 Commissioners: "God Help Us If We Have Another Attack"

"The U.S. is at great risk for more terrorist attacks because Congress and the White House have failed to enact several strong security measures, members of the former Sept. 11 commission said Sunday," the AP reports. "We believe that another attack will occur. It's not a question of if. We are not as well-prepared as we should be," said Hon. Lee Hamilton, who was part of the 9/11 Commission.

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Reform Activists Rally In Oregon to Oppose Matricula Cards

"Spirited but peaceful rallies dueled Saturday over the Mexican Consulate issuing controversial identification cards to its citizens. The consulate's Portland branch held its final traveling weekend session of the year at the offices of Northwest Treeplanters and Farmworkers United, processing applications from more than 250 Mexican nationals for the 'matricula consular' identification card," the Portland Oregonian writes. "U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not show at Saturday's event, despite pleas from Hickey's group. That's because the enforcement office prefers to target large-scale root causes of illegal immigration such as human trafficking and fake document operations, said Virginia Kice, West Coast spokeswoman."

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Gilchrist Campaign Highlights Illegal Immigration

"A California congressional election featuring the dark-horse candidacy of border-control activist Jim Gilchrist has thrust the issue of illegal immigration to the political forefront. Gilchrist became a lightning rod in the immigration debate by founding the local Minutemen volunteer border patrol and is a long-shot candidate in Tuesday's special election in one of California's most solidly Republican districts," Reuters says. "But political analysts say his presence on the ballot forced Republican Party favorite John Campbell and others to take a hard line on immigration -- or risk alienating voters frustrated over the issue."

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Border Fence is Too Vital to Ignore

"Tonight, more than four years after 9/11, thousands of foreigners will covertly enter the United States. This will happen again tomorrow night, and the night after, and every night of the year, until we take the simple step of erecting an effective border fence . . . The world now knows what our Mexican neighbors have known for a long time: Our borders are wide open, and anyone who wants to enter can, with little fear of getting caught. The governors of Arizona and New Mexico have declared border emergencies. The sea of illegal aliens provides a potential cover for terrorists and criminals - and a reliable means of entry," says Law Professor Jan Ting, a former INS assistant commissioner. "Critics complain about the cost. But they ignore the costs of not building a fence, of having to hire ever more Border Patrol agents, deploy ever more technology, spend ever more on prosecution, incarceration, and medical care for illegal aliens, as well as public education for the children. As long as the border is open, the crisis will continue, and businesses that try to hire only legal workers will continue to be noncompetitive with those that hire illegals at lower wages. Four years after 9/11, it is ridiculous to worry about our subways and trains and ports and factories yet leave our borders wide open."

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Dean: Republicans Will Use Immigration to Divide Americans

"Republicans plan to use the vast problems caused by illegal immigration to try and divide Americans voting in next year's midterm election, Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean said Saturday," the AP reports. "'Once again, the Republicans created problems so they think they can come in and solve them,' Dean told DNC members meeting in Phoenix . . . Dean said the government should have an 'earned legalization' program in which immigrants who contribute to society and pay taxes should be able to earn the right to become citizens."

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Bush "I Oppose Amnesty", But Let Millions More In

"President Bush is stepping up pressure on Congress to embrace his plan for a guest worker plan for foreigners while talking tough about illegal immigration and a need for secure U.S. borders. 'Those who enter the country illegally break the law,' Bush said Saturday in his weekly radio address," the AP reports. Despite favoring a plan that would legalize millions of illegal aliens, Bush told listeners he did not want an amnesty. "'I oppose amnesty,' he said. 'Rewarding lawbreakers would encourage others to break the law and keep pressure on our border. A temporary worker program will relieve pressure on the border and help us more effectively enforce our immigration laws.'"

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Clarence Page: Bush's "New" Plan is Re-Packaged Amnesty

"The president, a businessman who happens to occupy the world's most powerful political office, has come up with an immigration plan that tries to satisfy both worlds--and fails. For one thing, his plan is not new. It is the same temporary guest-worker program he unveiled in January 2004. It has only been repackaged with more emphasis on border security, much less on the guest-worker plan, which sounds to many in Bush's own conservative base like an amnesty like others passed since the 1980s. To critics, amnesties only reward lawbreakers," says Clarence Page in the Chicago Tribune. "We don't need tougher penalties for employers who knowingly hire illegals; we only need to enforce the tough penalties that already have been legislated . . . The result has been a make-believe immigration policy: The president pretends that undocumented workers will police themselves, and the rest of us pretend to believe him."

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Mexico Vows to Fight Border Wall Tooth and Nail

"Mexico will fight proposals to fortify part of the U.S.-Mexico border with a high-tech wall, Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez said on Thursday," the Boston Globe says. "'We will use all means necessary, and I am referring to things like international tribunals (and other) international action, to make it clear that this is not an act that would resolve the migration issue,' Derbez said. President George W. Bush pledged this week to step up the use of unmanned flying drones, fences and technology to tighten border security. A 14-mile (23-km) fence south of San Diego has already slashed illegal crossings there, officials say."

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DHS Promises More Tools For Worksite Enforcement

"Employers in the United States will soon be given a more reliable way to verify the immigration or citizenship status of new hires, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Thursday. That system will then be followed up with tougher enforcement of immigration laws, he said," the New York Times reports. "'We owe the employers tools to verify their employees in a prompt and accurate manner,' Mr. Chertoff said during a news conference. 'Once we give them those tools, though, they owe it to us to use those tools, and if they don't, we then have to sanction them' . . . [s]enior officials at Homeland Security said one change would probably involve revising the notification that employers receive when a Social Security number or other identification information provided by a new hire is rejected as invalid by the Social Security Administration."

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RNC Chairman Warns Against "Exclusionary" Focus

"Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman urged his party Thursday to oppose rising anti-immigrant sentiments in the debate over border security and illegal immigration, suggesting that the GOP risks being on the wrong side of history and electoral politics alike if it embraces an exclusionary message," the Washington Post reports. "Portraying most immigrants as hardworking and law-abiding, Mehlman said that Bush recognizes that 'family values don't stop at the Rio Grande.'"

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Congress Close to Approving Border Legislation

"From building a fence to keep them out to passing a law to help them stay, members of Congress have lots of ideas on how to respond to President Bush's challenge to take on the problem of illegal immigrants. There's a will to act but so far not much consensus," the AP writes. "The first stab at the problem could come in the next two weeks, when the House may vote on legislation to strengthen border security. That's the easiest of the three legs of immigration reform. The others, enforcing workplace hiring rules and setting up a guest-worker program that might incorporate illegal immigrants, are far more divisive."

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Bush Administration Plans to Weaken Passport Rule for Canada

"The Homeland Security and State departments are trying to come up with a cheap, convenient way for U.S. citizens and Canadians to prove their, identities while crossing the border. Faced with growing opposition to a proposal requiring people to show passports or other similar IDs, the Bush administration will propose new forms of identification next spring, Homeland Security spokesman Jarrod Agen said," USA Today reports. "The passport plan, proposed in April, is part of a post-9/11 effort to tighten security along the nation's vast borders. It would require U.S. citizens to show passports or similar IDs instead of just driver's licenses or birth certificates when re-entering the country from Canada, Mexico, Panama, Bermuda and the Caribbean. And it would require Canadians, who can now enter with driver's licenses, to show a passport to enter the USA."

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Local Officials The Antidote to Amnesty Push

"Last year, [Andrew] Thomas, the Maricopa County, Arizona Attorney, was the first local prosecutor elected on a platform of stopping illegal immigration. It helped him beat several favored candidates in the Republican primary for the open seat. He recently held an extensive forum on illegal immigration in Scottsdale (at which I was a speaker), featuring federal, state, and local officials from all over. The stars of the conference were Thomas and the many local elected officials like him, who are doing something to legislate at the State level what our federal officials are failing to do nationally," says Debbie Schlussel. "Then, there is Rick Jones. The Butler County, Ohio Sheriff is my hero (read his blog). He recently sent a bill to ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement)--the federal agency charged with enforcing immigration laws, but failing miserably to do so--for more than $71,000 to cover the cost of housing 15 illegal aliens he picked up."

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Tamar Jacoby's Latest Hatchet Job Book Review

Open-borders enthusiast Tamar Jacoby was picked by the Washington Post to review Stanley A. Renshon's book The 50% American. Unsurprisingly, the review is highly negative. Jacoby minimizes the real dangers of dual-citizenship and divided loyalties, and glosses over the problems of assimilation. For example, she writes, "Sure, the left-wing professors and multiculti activists he quotes on page after page say silly, wrongheaded things -- railing against borders and denouncing America. But Renshon goes too far when he suggests that it is easy for those born in another country 'to see the United States instrumentally,' argues that the identities of people with dual nationality are 'more likely to be conflicted than functional' and questions 'whether, given the importance of their national attachments to many people, it is possible to put aside those older attachments and give primary weight to the new ones.'"

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DHS Hotline Gets More Calls

"Each day, operators at the Law Enforcement Support Center hear stories that could be straight out of television drama: broken marriages that lead one spouse to report the other's illegal immigration status; disputes that lead one neighbor to report information about another; business owners reporting that their rivals are employing illegal immigrants," USA Today writes. "Julie Dowd, a center supervisor, says many calls come from disgruntled workers who say they have lost their jobs to people they believe are illegal immigrants. Along with that, she says, 'we do get a certain amount of crazies.'" The hotline has gotten almost 100,000 calls this year.

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Bush Promises More Drones At Border, But FAA Rules Bar Flights

"President Bush wants unmanned drones used along the U.S.-Mexican border as part of his broader immigration initiative unveiled this week, but border patrol officials are still negotiating with the Federal Aviation Administration about where and when it can deploy the systems," GovExec.com writes. "After more than two years of negotiations, the Homeland Security Department's U.S. Customs and Border Protection Directorate recently finalized a deal with the FAA to fly one drone in the Tucson, Ariz., area."

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CFAW Ads Rally Support for American Workers

FAIR President Dan Stein visited Pittsburgh yesterday to rally support for American workers facing displacement from immigrants. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette noted, "Pittsburgh lags most major cities in attracting immigrants, but that did not stop a Washington, D.C.-based group [Coalition for the Future American Worker] from airing ads here this week criticizing President Bush's suggested immigration reforms, or from using the images of blue-collar Americans to voice concerns about foreign workers 'who'll work for next to nothing.'" Stein told the paper, "We are at a crossroads in this country in terms of the future of the American labor force. "Are we going to commit ourselves to training our people or allow employers to continue this trend of [attracting] workers from other countries and leaving Americans with lower-paid retail service jobs?"

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