|
FAIR Staff Contributions |
||
|
Latest Research
FAIR Press Release
7 Principles of Immigration Reform Resources & Links
All e-mail is subject to print, including your name. If you don't want us to publish your e-mail, or if you would like to remain anonymous, just let us know.
Add Stein Report headlines to your website or blog A notice to our readers: Comments on the Stein Report will only be posted when they seek to advance constructive debate and discussion, whether or not the poster agrees with the initial posting. Thank you. | ||
|
Check out FAIR on:
|
|
|
May 06, 2010 Students Punished for Wearing American Flag on Cinco de Mayo "Five students at a California high school were forced to leave school and then face disciplinary action yesterday for the crime of wearing clothing printed with American flag designs. If you're wondering how being patriotic could possibly merit punishment, it's because the kids displayed the American flags on May 5. And as everyone knows, American flags are absolutely verboten on May 5," says a write-up at Pajamas Media. "According to local TV stations KTVU and NBC Bay Area, this bewildering and deeply unsettling incident happened at Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill, a suburban town south of San Jose."
The IPC's Misleading Take on Crime, Arizona and Immigration by Jack Martin, FAIR Special Projects Director Last week the Immigration Policy Center, an organization that is the research and policy arm of the American Immigration Council - a mass immigration and amnesty advocacy organization - issued a short paper asserting that "Arizona's punishment doesn't fit the crime." The IPC's argument was that the assertion that one of the purposes for the adoption of SB 1070 was to lower the crime rate does not make sense because the crime rate in the state has already been dropping without a new law. (continued in full entry) The IPC argument was based on FBI crime data and correctly showed a decline in both the violent crime rate per capita and in the property crime rate per capita in Arizona. What the IPC report neglected to point out to its readers is that the crime rate in Arizona has been at or near the top of the FBI's national crime index every year since 2000. Furthermore, the FBI does not have a category in the crime data it collects for kidnappings - which are higher per capita in Arizona than anywhere in the United States and just about anywhere in the world. The IPC report dismisses the issue of kidnappings as mostly related to drug smugglers and human smugglers. That apparently is supposed to mean that if Mexican smugglers are committing crimes in Arizona, it's nothing to worry about as long a most of the victims are Mexicans. The IPC also has consulted its crystal ball and states, "...the undermining of trust between police and the community is precisely what Arizona's new law accomplishes." The report's authors were not deterred by the fact that the new law isn't even in force yet to describe the effect of it. Perhaps IPC and the Council are confident about the results of the law because they are committed to creating an environment of distrust between the immigrant population in Arizona and the police. Presumably they understand that the objective of the new law is not the harassment of immigrants, but rather the identification of aliens illegally in the country. Presumably they know - but choose to ignore - that foreigners legally in the country are given documentation by the federal government that establishes their legal presence. Finally, the IPC report asserts that "...immigrants are less [emphasis in the original] likely to commit crimes or be behind bars than the native-born." This claim is a standard bait and switch tactic. Moving from the illegal alien population to immigrants changes the population being analyzed dramatically. Immigrants are screened to keep out anyone with a criminal past - unlike illegal aliens who have sneaked into the country. It should also be noted that illegal aliens who commit crimes, if caught, are usually deported rather than being released back into the population. So the number of illegal aliens committing crimes should be reduced more for than native-born criminals who are released back into the population and may become recidivists. The report ignores other objective data that document that Arizona has a disproportionate problem with foreign-born criminals. That may be seen in data from the federal government's State Criminal Alien Assistance Program. Funds are distributed proportionate to the size of the deportable alien population held in state and local detention facilities. The state, which has 2.15 percent of the U.S. population, received 4.88 percent of the SCAAP funds in 2009 (add the county/city total to the state line item in the PDF). In other words, Arizona has more than double its share of alien criminals.
Polling Shows Immigration Enforcement A Winner for Politicians "New polling indicates broad public support for the [Arizona immigration] measure and illustrates the peril embattled Democrats could face this November over the issue. In the South and Midwest, where some of the most competitive congressional races will be fought, popular sentiment is overwhelmingly in favor of the controversial new law," Politico says. "And while Republicans tend to favor the law and Democrats line up in opposition, polls show independents siding with the GOP. A Gallup survey taken immediately after the bill was signed found that 50 percent of independents who had heard of the law supported it, while 39 percent opposed it. The Times/CBS survey also found half of independents -- 51 percent - supporting the law and 10 percent more saying it doesn't go far enough."
Rep. Steve King - Time for ICE to Send Illegal Aliens Home, Not to Work Rep. Steve King (R-IA) says he is introducing legislation that will keep employers from deducting wages paid to illegal aliens as a business expense. Incredibly, employers today can deduct those wages. King points out that ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) has gone as far as giving illegal aliens caught earlier this year a ride to their jobs at Gillette stadium in New England after processing them. "We know this strategy [of targeting employers] will work. As FAIR found in its report, after workplace enforcement actions during the Bush administration, the jobs vacated by illegal immigrants were filled by Americans and legal immigrants, including refugees. And the wages and conditions at the plants where the raids occurred have improved markedly."
Rubio Says Tweak to AZ Law Means He'll Support It "Marco Rubio now says he backs Arizona's controversial immigration law, after changes aimed at somewhat limiting the circumstances in which people can be asked for immigration papers, but leaving the central thrust of putting immigration enforcement in the hands of local authorities," Politico reported. The Christian Science Monitor had more detail about the changes, which focused on the requirement for police to have stopped someone for a criminal violation before they can request ID. "'Even without these amendments, police would not have been required to inspect the documents of people asking directions, or in situations in which such inquiries would interfere with their primary law enforcement responsibilities,' says Ira Mehlman of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). '[The law] was clearly meant to apply to situations in which police lawfully stopped an individual for some other offense and subsequently developed a reasonable suspicion that that person was in the country illegally,' says Mr. Mehlman."
Metcalfe Announces New PA Effort to Control Illegal Immigration "Take the handcuffs off police and put them on illegal aliens in Pennsylvania, who cost taxpayers $728 million a year for education, health care and incarceration, advocates for tougher laws said Tuesday. Republican Rep. Daryl Metcalfe of Cranberry says it's time to give illegal aliens living in Pennsylvania two choices: Leave or go to jail," the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported. "Dan Stein, president of the nonprofit that claims 250,000 supporters nationwide, attended the news conference where Metcalfe announced his bill. Stein said it is the federal government's role to enforce immigration laws, but it doesn't do so. States are acting because 'year after year, the federal government has failed in its mission: to enforce these laws.'"
Poll Finds Empathy but Concern Over Burden of Illegal Aliens "Two-thirds of Americans want the government to do a better job of securing the borders, but they are sympathetic to illegal immigrants who have been working hard and staying out of trouble, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds. Eight in 10 Americans are concerned that illegal immigrants burden schools, hospitals and other government services, and 77 percent worry that they drive down wages, the poll finds," the Arizona Republic says. "Bob Dane, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, said the numbers mirror the federation's positions against citizenship for illegal immigrants and for denying them jobs and benefits. 'Americans want enforcement, but they're fair-minded,' he said."
|
