Janet Napolitano once again exposes the lunacy that is the Obama presidency.

During the question and answer period following a speech to the Anti-Defamation League National Leadership Conference, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said she wants to repeal the REAL ID law. Here’s the question and Napolitano’s response:


Question: “Dave Coleman from McLean, Va. After the Holocaust, many survivors were very wary of any kind of government documents or identifying papers. Many Jews were even scared to circumcise their children for fear that the government could too easily identify them. How do we balance our need to identify people to protect our security with the kind of American feeling that they have a right to privacy and you have a right to not have to identify yourself to the government, and you should be able to just live anonymously about the government knowing too much about who you are or what you do every day?”

Secretary Napolitano:”It's tough, because we do have a sense, and really, a need for privacy. But on the other hand, you've got to have a Social Security number. You've got to pay your taxes. There are responsibilities that go along with being a citizen of the United States. There's a contract, in a way, between individuals and the United States.

So how do you have that contract and have it be a vital part of existence without undue infringement on privacy? One issue that has come up on is an issue called REAL ID, which was a bill passed by Congress several years ago, but they never put any money behind it. And the states, Democrat and Republican governors alike, resisted it because they didn't want to pay for it, quite frankly.

And so we've been, over the last weeks, meeting with governors of both parties to look at a way to repeal REAL ID and substitute something else that pivots off of the driver's license but accomplishes some of the same goals. And we hope to be able to announce something on that fairly soon. So, you know, that is a balance. But nobody really lives in the United States in a complete bubble. Right? There is a relationship there. The question is: how do you have that relationship in such a fashion that people's privacy rights are not violated?”


Napolitano’s remarks received sharp criticism from the author of the REAL ID law, Wisconsin Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner. Here’s an excerpt:

“I am angered to hear Secretary Napolitano’s comments today about repealing the REAL ID Act.  REAL ID is a necessary program for keeping America safe, it is the will of Congress and also a recommendation of the 9/11 Commission.

“Four years ago, I shepherded this bill through Congress to protect our nation from another 9/11 type attack.  The bill enhances our border security while disrupting terrorist travel.  Additionally, REAL ID makes it more difficult for terrorists and criminals to alter their identity by counterfeiting documents, such as a birth certificate, or using a false social security number to legally obtain a valid ID.  Without being able to change their identity, terrorists are easier to detect and their plans easier for law enforcement to thwart – making everyone safer. 

“We learned in 2001, that the 9/11 plane hijackers each had multiple forms of ID from various states.  In the hands of a terrorist, a U.S. driver’s license, or other form of valid ID, proves just as dangerous as a bomb. We absolutely cannot just hand out state drivers’ licenses to anyone, whether they are here legally or illegally.”

Read Sensenbrenner’s entire statement.

Remember, there’s a clear and simple reason why the Obama administration wants to go easy on those who desire to entire the country illegally.

“I think it's un-American. I think it's un-American."

The words of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, speaking to a group of legal and illegal immigrants abut raids enforcing America’s immigration laws. Nancy Pelosi is an embarrassment, Joseph Biden-like, a gaffe machine just waiting to go off.

Fox News has the story and the exclusive video.

It’s unfortunate that John McCain, during his woeful presidential campaign essentially caved and threw in the towel on the immigration issue. America, arguably, is its own worst enemy when it comes to the uncontrolled explosion of illegals here because it continues to enable the problem to spread like cancer.

We have a border fence that’s a joke.

Illegals are getting jobs from the stimulus money……….as predicted.

Yep, just come on in all you illegals! Uncle Sam wants you! The welcome mat is out!

On February 22, 2009, this picture was featured on my Photos of the Week blog:

People at the beach in Mexico look through gaps in the U.S.-Mexico border fence at Border Field State Park in San Diego Sunday, Aug. 3, 2008. The park is often used by families to communicate through the fence. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)

About a year ago, I blogged that our border fence is basically a joke.

Friday night on 20/20, ABC's John Stossel examines whether the fence is worth it or not.

I have often said that we (the United States) are our own worst enemy when it comes to our illegal immigration dilemma. Here's another example.

Illegal immigrants are being smuggled into America through the Las Vegas airport. Federal agents are aware. So are local agents in Las Vegas. The response the local agents get from the feds: ignore the problem.

HT: Dad29 via Moonbattery.

Prepare to be outraged.

One of the main reasons why America has such an out of control illegal immigration problem is that we are our own worst enemy. As a nation, we not only tolerate illegal immigration, we encourage it.

The most egregious example is in New Haven, Connecticut. In July 2007, I blogged about an outrageous action by New Haven officials. New Haven now offers illegal immigrants municipal identification cards that allow access to city services. Besides serving as identification for bank services and if police ask for ID, the card can be used at municipal locations such as libraries, beaches, and parks – and as a debit card for city parking meters and at more than a dozen  downtown shops.

Gee, you think New Haven might be a place illegal immigrants might flock to?

Over a year later, Governing Magazine has an update on how the red carpet continues to roll out for the illegals.

As you read the article, note the subtle, sympathetic spin by the reporter, with my spin in red that follows:

“Some have responded with a hard-headed approach, passing ordinances that call for fines or jail time for property owners who knowingly rent to illegal immigrants or employers who hire them.”
If you oppose illegal immigration, you are hard-headed.

“To backers of the idea, though, the card's greatest effect may never be measurable: the extent to which it eases the burdens of daily life for immigrant residents….”
Yes, it’s good and proper to make life easier for people here illegally.

“We have a percentage of our population that was afraid to do things, and now they're less afraid. They're more a part of the community than they were without the card."
Well, isn’t that special?

“The influx of immigrants from all over Latin America — both legal and illegal — has put Fair Haven on a more promising track…”
It’s so much more promising for a community to attract more illegal immigrants.

“When the city finally did introduce it (the ID card), there was an explicit attempt to broaden its appeal beyond immigrants, mostly by emphasizing that it could be useful for all residents.”
An ID card that offers all kinds of goodies for illegals is actually good for legal citizens, too. Huhhh????

“You've created this population that is — because of their fears and the status the federal government has created for them — afraid to interact with us.”
Uhh, HELLO! They’re supposed to have fear. They’re not supposed to be here!!!!

"They're here already," Ramos says of the illegal immigrants he visits. "They're here. Should we not protect their health and safety while they're here? Are we going to close our eyes? We can't turn our backs on them."
We’re here. We’re illegal. Tough. Get used to it.

"Cities and counties around the country have to think about local measures to address the realities of new immigrant populations and how institutions like libraries, the police, fire departments, hospitals and schools can adapt to the realities of those populations — whatever happens in Congress.”
Don’t you understand, you law-abiding, taxpaying citizens who subsidize all these illegals? You have to adjust that attitude and embrace policies that accept these illegal immigrants into our communities.


The Governing Magazine article is as informative as it is nauseating. But this is what’s going on in our own country. As the title of the article suggests, we are throwing down the WELCOME MAT for illegal aliens. Come to America. We won’t harm you. If anything, we’ll take good care of you.

Why this wasn’t a bigger Presidential campaign issue is beyond me, unless both candidates didn’t want to ALIENate the Hispanic vote.

That’s the question columnist Shirley Skeel asks on msn.money.com. She’s a print and radio journalist based in Seattle who has written for Bloomberg News, The Seattle Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph in London. She has also produced radio features for National Public Radio and its affiliates. That should tell you where she’s coming from.

Skeel answers her own question.  Get the crying towel out:


“Lettuce and strawberries would rot in the fields. Dirty dishes would pile up in restaurants. Thousands of farmers and builders would go bust. Predator aircraft drones would prowl the Mexican border. And chunks of Los Angeles and Houston would look like ghost towns.

The biggest losers would be middle-class families with two working parents, living in high-immigrant states such as California, Texas, Florida or New York. Why? They would pay more for food, housing, entertainment and child care as a shortage of low-skilled workers drove up some wages, and therefore, some prices. Meantime, their own pay would remain the same. What's more, the ripple effect of thousands of businesses shrinking or closing for lack of staff might put one of the parents out of a job. Not to mention the garbage collection going to pot and no one to polish the missus' nails.”


Skeel says there would be an impact on hotels and restaurants:


“There'd be a triple whammy here. Latino staff and customers would both be lost, while the price of fresh food would be driven up by shortages. Distraught restaurant owners would pin up job ads at colleges, when they weren't up to their elbows in dish soap. The billions of dollars spent annually by illegal immigrants would disappear, bad news for small restaurateurs and fast-food joints. But over time, the industry would adapt. Self-service cafés would pop up. And more restaurants would serve chicken parmesan prepared in a factory and warmed up in a microwave. Yum.”


Well, that’s certainly one take on the question, albeit a nauseating one. Strawberries would rot? My goodness, let’s invite more of them in if that’s the case!

Here's Skeel's column.

What if we threw all the illegal immigrants out of the United States? My responses:

There would one million fewer sex crimes committed.

The federal government deficit would shrink. Costs for Medicaid, food assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches, the federal prison and court systems would go down.

Billions of dollars would stay in America and not be wired to Mexico and other countries.

The financial burden on education and incarceration would be reduced. We wouldn’t be wasting dollars spent on earned income tax credits given to illegal immigrants.

So, what if we threw them all out?

I only wish we could.

I have blogged numerous times that America is often its own worst enemy when it comes to illegal immigration. For decades we sat back and did little while the problem exploded. Now we have millions of illegal immigrants we can’t handle, many of whom are out committing violent crimes against innocent, real Americans.

This story goes beyond outrageous. It’s one thing to throw up our hands and say the epidemic is such that any effort to stem the tide is futile. But to bend over backwards to assist illegals? That’s unconscionable, but it’s happening.

“San Francisco juvenile probation officials - citing the city's immigrant sanctuary status - are protecting Honduran youths caught dealing crack cocaine from possible federal deportation and have given some offenders a city-paid flight home with carte blanche to return.

The city's practices recently prompted a federal criminal investigation into whether San Francisco has been systematically circumventing U.S. immigration law, according to officials with knowledge of the matter.

City officials say they are trying to balance their obligations under federal and state law with local court orders and San Francisco's policies aimed at protecting the rights of the young immigrants, who they say are often victims of exploitation.

Federal authorities counter that drug kingpins are indeed exploiting the immigrants, but that the city's stance allows them to get away with ‘gaming the system.’

The practice, federal authorities say, does nothing to prevent offenders from coming back, while federal deportation legally bars them from ever returning. Federal officials also say U.S. law prohibits helping an illegal immigrant to cross the border, even if it is to return home.”

Read the rest in the SF Chronicle.

Your government, working on behalf of illegal immigrants. Is it any wonder we’re in the mess we’re in?

Thursday, May 1 has been designated as, “A Day Without Latinos.”

This is the day when people who are here illegally, know they are here illegally, and nothing is done about it swarm the streets to complain about how bad they have it here in America.

The militant group, Voces de la Frontera that instructs illegals on how to act when confronted by authorities is an active organizer and sponsor of this rally.

If you don’t know remember Voces de la Frontera, this is the bunch of goons that harassed former state Senator Cathy Stepp at her home a few years ago.

A day without Latinos?

I prefer to envision, “A Day Without Illegal Immigrants.”

One year ago, I blogged the following. It remains valid today.

Thursday, the local news media will be tripping over itself to cover a group advocating for criminals.

There’s rain in the forecast Thursday. Maybe the whole deal will be a bust.

I do know something else is going on Thursday, May 1, but I doubt it will get much media attention. Too wholesome and positive.

Last week, I blogged about the serious problems with stretches of the U.S.-Mexico border fence designed to keep illegal immigrants out.

The Christian Science Monitor offers more reasons to be concerned:

“After driving 10 miles along the expanded US-Mexican border fence near her farm, Dawn Garner offers her dour assessment. ‘Anyone can plainly see this wouldn't stop a flea, let alone a migrant or terrorist. This [fence] is just too easy to cut into, climb over, or go under or around,’ says Ms. Garner. Twenty to 40 illegal migrant workers cut across her five-acre farm daily, she says.”

Pretty sad.

We can put a man on the moon, but can we build a fence that really works?

Actually, the answer is, yes, we can.

But it better be tall. Otherwise, why bother.

Make sure you also check out this photo gallery.

The Associated Press is reporting:

“Illegal immigrants armed with torches, hacksaws, ladders and even bungee cords are making it around a section of the border fence hailed as the most efficient way to stop them.”

Great.





Supervisory Border Patrol Agent Victor Guzman points to an apparent cut mark on the border fence west of Columbus, New Mexico, port of entry.





A widening gap between posts, each set a few inches apart, as the ground settles, is seen in the border fence near Columbus, New Mexico.

“People who commit crimes who are aliens, whether legal or illegal … need to go back to their home countries. They have no business being in America.”

I certainly wouldn’t argue with the sentiments of Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell, a Republican.

But talk is one thing. What is Virginia doing about the problem?

Actually, a lot.

The state has joined efforts with the feds on “Operation Cold Play," a crackdown that  is deporting at least 171 illegal immigrant  sex offenders.

Here’s a report I’ve linked to in the past documenting how serious this problem is in America.

Meanwhile, back home in Wisconsin……how about we follow suit?

Jim Doyle?

J.B. Van Hollen?

Anybody paying attention?



RELATED STORY

That’s quite a story UWM’s online newspaper came up with.

After a three-month long investigation, Frontpage Milwaukee discovered that 188 previously deported felons identified as illegal immigrants by federal and local officials were booked into the Milwaukee County Jail on new criminal charges, municipal violations, and other violations in the past four years.

We’ve got illegal immigrants in our community offending and re-offending, being deported, yet finding their way back to commit more crimes.

Kudos to the student journalists at UWM. Here’s their story.

HT: Jessica Bucher

In Wisconsin, local law enforcement recently were given a manual courtesy of the Attorney General’s office on how to handle traffic stops of suspected illegal immigrants.

In a nutshell, if police stop an individual and discover after a check that he/she is in the country illegally, the illegal immigrant is not to be detained.

Wonderful.

Such an absurd policy has to be frustrating for some (not all) law enforcement officials.

Contrast that to the policy procedure now being discussed in Georgia, one that eminently has far more common sense.

From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:


Some Atlanta police welcome law that allows seizure of illegal immigrants' cars

By MARY LOU PICKEL
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 02/29/08

A proposal that would allow police to seize vehicles from illegal immigrants could help remove egregious drivers from the roads, some metro police say.

"I think it has the possibility of being a good thing," said DeKalb County Police Department spokesman Officer J.T. Ware. The seizure powers might be best used to focus on habitual traffic offenders, he said.

The proposed law, House Bill 978, was approved by the state House of representatives this week. It still must pass the senate. The measure would allow police to seize cars of illegal immigrants who are involved in accidents or violate traffic laws.

While the proposal stimulated debate on the House floor, including questions about how police could identify illegal immigrants during a traffic stop, the reality is that police already impound cars.

"It's really not going to change anything," said Gwinnett County Police Corporal Illana Spellman.

"If they don't have a valid license, the vehicle is going to be impounded anyway."

The usual procedure in DeKalb and Gwinnett counties is to arrest those found driving without a license rather than issue a ticket. As part of that arrest, the vehicle is often impounded because the officer can't leave it on the side of the road. In some cases, if a relative or friend has a valid driver's license, the officer allows that person to drive the car home.

Illegal immigrants cannot get a valid Georgia driver's license because they don't have the proper paperwork.

If the seizure bill were enacted into law, it's an open question how a police officer would identify a driver as an illegal immigrant.

Police say it would likely be up to the jail to determine.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has officers in some jails who review jail records and determine which inmates are here illegally. That's the case in Gwinnett and DeKalb counties. Cobb County has a special program where every inmate's legal status is checked, no matter the charge.

Other jails don't have ICE officers, and it could take longer to determine legal status. For the system to work, jails and police would have to cooperate.

"You have to work out what the line of communication would be," said DeKalb County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Mikki Jones.

Frank Rotondo, executive director of the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police, opposes the legislation, saying it would make extra work for officers. In many cases there are hearings before property can be seized and there's lots of paperwork to fill out.

"It could be very time consuming," Rotondo said.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution


And if you need a good reason and reminder why we should take their cars away…

 

CITIZENS FOR A SAFE WISCONSIN FUNDRAISER A HUGE SUCCESS!

I don’t claim to be an expert on immigration law but one thing I am pretty clear about is that the United States is partially blame for its out of control illegal immigration problem.

Wisconsin Attorney General A.G. Hollen admits wherever he goes, the topic that is most often brought up by others is illegal immigration. Van Hollen says the public has many questions but so does law enforcement. In an attempt at clarification, Van Hollen earlier this week issued an eight-page manual to help authorities deal with encounters with foreign nationals.

Here’s an excerpt:


Law enforcement officers may not stop vehicles solely on the basis of racial or ethnic profiling simply to question the passengers about immigration or citizenship status. Further, when officer make a lawful stop, they may not ordinarily detain the vehicle’s passengers beyond the period required for disposition of the matter that justified the initial stop.

The United State Supreme Court has held that reasonable suspicion of an INA (Immigration and Nationality Act) violation is not needed in order to ask any lawfully detained individual about his or her immigration status. Thus, there is no 4^th Amendment violation if an officer asks the driver of a vehicle that was lawfully stopped about immigration status.

Officers are not obligated by State or Federal law to question individuals about their immigration status. While an officer may ask an individual about his or immigration status during a stop, the individual does not have to respond. Officers have the authority to determine the identity of a driver of the vehicle, including the right to ask for identification necessary to run an NCIC (National Crime Information Center) record check. Officers can run an NCIC record check when individuals are lawfully stopped. 

While officers may not compel passengers to identify themselves in most circumstances, officers may ask passengers to provide e information that permits them to conduct an NCIC record check. However, the officer has no recourse if the passenger refuses to provide identifying information. Officers should not request immigration documents, but they may consider immigration documents drivers and passengers provide to them for purposes of conducting an NCIC record check. 


Sounds as clear as mud.

Let’s boil it down.

You can’t stop someone based on how they look.

OK.

You can’t stop someone just to ask them about their legal status.

OK.

You can stop someone for a suspected violation and ask about legal status.

But the people inside the vehicle don’t have to answer.

You can do a background check with the NCIC to see if an individual is in the country legally. If you find out the person is an illegal immigrant, the person can’t be detained. So the officer knows the person is in the United States illegally and can't detain him. He' s allowed to leave the scene, and we're fully aware of illegal immigrants who've had encounters with the law, only to be set free to commit more serious crimes.

Does this sound frustrating or what?

Why do we even bother?

There are groups right here in SE Wisconsin that are training illegal immigrants on what to do when confronted by police.

Is it any wonder our nation is bursting at the seams with illegals?

Here is Van Hollen’s entire guide.

 

ATTEND THE FIRST ANNUAL CFSW FUNDRAISER!

It was the greatest girl’s basketball team to ever play at Franklin High School.

In March of 1999, Franklin entered the state championship game against Kettle Morraine undefeated at 26-0. While the Sabers failed to capture the title, the team was clearly the best in school history.

One of its amazing stars was Christine Rathke, a gutty, hard-nosed player with tremendous hustle and determination, the unquestioned leader on the team.

In February of 2000, Bobbi Roquemore of the Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel wrote, “Over the past four years, Franklin has gone from a doormat to the dominant team in the Southeast Conference. Rathke, a flashy, do-it-all guard, has been the catalyst in the rise of Sabers' basketball program and has smashed records along the way. Rathke has played all four years on the varsity and owns the school's all-time scoring mark with 1,446 points.”

Roquemore told of little children in Franklin asking for Rathke’s signature.

"I didn't expect to be signing autographs, but I like it when the little girls come up and talk to me," Rathke said. "I tell them what it takes to get to that level."

After leaving Franklin, Rathke played for Southeast Missouri State University before transferring to the University of Wisconsin-Parkside in 2002.

On Sunday afternoon, February 16, 2003 at about 1:00 pm, Rathke was driving from a UW-Parkside team banquet heading west on Ryan Road at about 36^th Street when a car heading eastbound crossed the centerline and collided head-on into her car. Rathke died at the scene. She was 20 years old.

The driver of the other car was Victor Sanchez, who was 19 at the time and living on the city of Milwaukee’s south side. He was charged with homicide by negligent use of a vehicle. Sanchez was speeding and passed in a no-passing zone at the time of the fatal crash.

Former Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel reporter and WTMJ-AM talk show host and well-known blogger Jessica McBride has confirmed that Sanchez was an illegal immigrant. Another highly reliable source involved in law enforcement has confirmed for me that Sanchez was in the country illegally at the time he killed Rathke. Sanchez is no longer in the United States. He has been deported, not soon enough to save young Christine Rathke.

Rathke came to mind as my blood boiled reading the Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel’s report that some local police departments are caving in to a radical pro-illegal immigrants’ group. Voces de la Frontera is asking police departments to develop new policies to prevent officers from asking potential suspects about their citizenship status.

Shockingly, as the newspaper reports, “Some departments are going along.”  (The article is a typical Journal/Sentinel puff piece, relating incidents intended to drum up sympathy for illegals).

We also learned that the Milwaukee Police Department, under the leadership of outgoing Police Chief Nannette Hegerty, implemented its new policy in April. And yet, despite the normally chatty, far from camera shy Chief and her spokeswoman, we didn’t hear about the policy until October 8^th.

“Milwaukee police spokeswoman Anne E. Schwartz released a copy of her department's policy and confirmed that it was updated in April, but she declined to comment further. According to the policy, Milwaukee officers can question a person's immigration status or alert federal authorities only in cases of violent crimes, suspected terrorism, street gang crimes or other limited cases.”

This is outrageous on several counts.

The MPD institutes a new policy on procedures dealing with the public, but doesn’t go public about it for six months.

Police officers in Milwaukee are not going to question certain suspects about their immigration status in effect, giving them a free pass for possibly violating the law.

How many other police departments are going to cave to a radical pro-illegal immigrant group? Who’s in charge of protecting our streets, the police, or Voces de la Frontera?

Does Hegerty or any other police chief contemplating this go-easy policy need to be reminded that not long ago, one of their own, a Kenosha deputy was killed by an illegal immigrant?

Rathke’s and the deputy’s killer were both familiar with the criminal justice system prior to the offenses I referred to. Our lenient, politically correct methods let them back on the streets to break the law again, and this time, kill decent, innocent people. These deaths were preventable, but a system that isn’t tough enough on illegal immigrants is partially complicit for these deaths.

In our country, the rights of those here illegally are paramount. It’s disgusting and indefensible. Shame on any police chief or police department that develops a policy to look the other way when confronted with illegal immigrants.

Christine Rathke should serve as a reminder that too many people are in the United States illegally, and yes, a great many of them are not nice people who are only here to try to better themselves. Rathke’s picture should be posted inside every police department to remind our officers that illegal immigrants are here and they are committing violent crimes against the law-abiding citizens our police are entrusted to protect.

Last month, I wrote about a disgusting trend I saw developing in the pro-illegal immigrant movement: the exploitation of children.

More evidence of this trend is reported in today’s USA TODAY.

The goal is to whip up sympathy for children of illegal immigrants and essentially reward them for the illegal acts of their parents. 

Here’s the story.  

 

The United States shoulders a great deal of the blame for today’s current epidemic of illegal immigrants. Our country has done little for decades to stem the flow of illegals, and in many cases, not only tolerates the problem, but encourages it.

The LA Times reports, “A multimillion-dollar human smuggling enterprise is bringing thousands of Cubans to the U.S. on high-powered speedboats at a price of up to $10,000 a head, and the flourishing business has increased the number of Cubans illegally entering the U.S. by double-digit percentages in each of the last three years.”

At issue is an ill-advised policy known as "wet-foot, dry-foot” that allows Cubans Cubans who make it to dry land to then stay and obtain legal U.S. residence. Those intercepted at sea are sent back. It has led to an influx of thousands of illegal immigrants.

Here is the entire LA Times article:

Cuban smuggling business is thriving
The multimillion-dollar trade brings more immigrants to U.S. borders. Authorities propose targeting the money source: exiles paying for their relatives' passage.

By Carol J. Williams
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

September 17, 2007

MIAMI — -- A multimillion-dollar human smuggling enterprise is bringing thousands of Cubans to the U.S. on high-powered speedboats at a price of up to $10,000 a head, and the flourishing business has increased the number of Cubans illegally entering the U.S. by double-digit percentages in each of the last three years.

More than 16,000 Cubans have arrived illegally this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. Most arrived on remote beaches in the Florida Keys or in Mexico, where they could enter the U.S. Southwest through official border crossings.

Under a practice known as the "wet-foot, dry-foot policy" -- stemming from immigration accords negotiated between Washington and Havana -- Cubans who make it to dry land can stay and obtain legal U.S. residence. Those intercepted at sea are sent back.

Coupled with the 20,000 visas issued to Cubans each year for legal immigration, the numbers arriving now rival the 35,000 who crossed the Straits of Florida in 1994 to escape the poverty that gripped communist-ruled Cuba after the Soviet Union disintegrated, ending the billions in subsidies it once sent to Havana.

The mounting numbers have alarmed law enforcement officials.

"We don't know at 3 a.m. when we see a 'go-fast' boat running without lights if that's migrants seeking a better life or terrorists coming here to blow up a nuclear power plant," said Zachary Mann, senior special agent and spokesman for Customs and Border Protection.

The smugglers' success using so-called go-fast boats -- light, open craft fitted with powerful outboards enabling speeds as high as 100 mph -- has convinced South Florida Cuban exiles who put up the money for their relatives' passage that they are paying for a service rather than committing a crime, authorities say.

"I get calls here in my office all the time with people saying, 'Hey, my cousin Jose was supposed to have arrived last night and I haven't heard from him,' " Mann said.

"The families clearly know who's coming, when they're coming and where they're going. We have cases where families are waiting at the marina for them to arrive."

Stepped-up Coast Guard and Border Patrol surveillance has netted record numbers of go-fast boat operators and their human cargo. Authorities have also seized 159 of the specially outfitted vessels over the last year.

Fifty-eight men have been arrested and prosecuted over the last 18 months, according to the U.S. attorney's office for Florida's Southern District in Miami. There have been at least half a dozen deaths resulting from erratic maneuvers by boat captains trying to evade capture or from smugglers tossing paid passengers overboard to force authorities to stop chasing the boats and rescue the jettisoned men, women and children.

Some law enforcement officials and immigration policy analysts have proposed targeting the people whose money sustains the thriving network of smugglers.

"The bottom line is that anyone involved in a conspiracy may be held accountable and may be criminally charged," said Barbara Gonzalez, spokeswoman for the Miami office for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

But Miami's powerful Cuban exile community opposes any such move and appeared to have shot it down as soon as it was voiced by another customs official last week.

"We aim to pursue and identify the criminal infrastructure, the owners of the boats, the arrangers, the recruiters," said Gabriel Garcia, deputy special agent in charge. "Our focus is on the criminal enterprise itself."

The U.S. attorney's office also balked at the idea of going after the funding sources.

"To date, we have not charged family members who paid to have their relatives smuggled," said Alicia Valle, special counsel to the U.S. attorney.

Camila Ruiz-Gallardo, director of government relations for the Cuban American National Foundation, said prosecution of family members would be politically untenable.

"Everyone in this community can identify with the desperation of individuals who want to get their family out. We don't fault anyone trying to find whatever vehicle they can to do that," she said.

Not that we condone illegal actions, but how far do you go with this? Do you prosecute someone who gives a family member money who then uses it to buy drugs?"

Back on July 27, I blogged and predicted the following:

The next strategy that will be employed by illegal immigrants and their advocates will be a play on sympathy exploiting children.

(Chicago Tribune reporter Richard) Olivo writes about 36-year old Nixon Munoz who came to Minnesota from El Salvador and married Sara, a shy Mexican woman whom he met while she was visiting on a tourist visa to attend a wedding. They were very happy, Olivo reports, until last month. Cue the attempt at sympathy.

That changed last month. Arriving from the grocery store with his children, Munoz said he saw his terrified wife handcuffed in front of their two-story stucco home. With the family in tears, she was taken away and, eventually, deported to Mexico, where she tries to continue to parent her five children through long-distance calls.

The couple's eldest daughter, Joanna Munoz, who turned 14 the day before her mother left, has stepped in as a mother figure. The hazel-eyed teen cooks, cleans and tries to comfort Edwin when he calls for his mother at night, sometimes in uncontrollable tantrums during which he hurls himself against walls.

"He still thinks my mom is visiting family," she said of her brother, unsure how all this will affect her dream of attending college and becoming a marine biologist.

The impact that such arrests and deportation have on the estimated 5 million children of illegal immigrants in the U.S. is troubling, said Randy Capps, a researcher at the Washington-based Urban Institute who has been studying the aftermath of raids in several states.

Many of these children are likely to grow up harboring resentment against law enforcement. Others will have psychological problems that stem from seeing their parents ripped from their lives, he said.

"If they stay in the country, they've been through this traumatic experience and will continue to be separated from their parents for some time," Capps said. "These are people that didn't choose to come over."

Isn’t it true that American prisons are filled with inmates who have children on the outside? Do we still not lock these criminals up?

About 26,500 illegal immigrants (are) imprisoned nationwide on a given day, according to a recent report by the federal Government Accountability Office.

Again, that’s not a bad thing.

The pro-illegal immigrant movement is poised to use children as their pawns.

Betty Reyes, 9, tries to shrug off the experience with jokes or one-word replies. Occasionally, however, the facade crumbles in tears and she will not let anyone answer a door knock, friends and family members said.

Her experience has inspired plans for a "children's march" in the neighborhood clustered near a row of Mexican restaurants and shops that began sprouting along the Lake Street business corridor in the 1990s.

"We're training the children now to become activists," said Mariano Espinoza, director of the Minnesota Immigrant Freedom Network. "They are going to take this movement to the next level."

Here’s hoping America doesn’t fall for this nonsense.

----From my blog, July 22, 2007



Not surprisingly, the Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel editorial board fell for it. An editorial today entitled, “A little boy’s tears,” (of course) was basically a big sob job for children of illegal immigrants, citing the case of the deported Elvira Arellano.

The editorial had the sub-headline, “An 8-year-old boy is now without his mother — a reminder that we're talking about real families and real heartache as fallout from the lack of immigration reform.”

Far less sympathetic was commentator Ann Coulter. In a column on Townhall.com, Coulter wrote:

“……we were treated this week to a weeping Mexican woman on TV, claiming the U.S. government was tearing her from her infant son and saying she knew the American people would be outraged if she were deported. (I note that her message might have been more effective in English.)

Still, if Elvira Arellano is the best they've got to change public opinion on deporting illegal aliens, don't expect public opinion to change anytime soon.

Arellano has already snuck into the country illegally twice (that we know of). After being deported in 1999 -- under an administration that, astonishingly, was more serious about enforcing immigration law than the current one -- she illegally ran across the border again a few days later.

Only after 9/11 was she arrested again and convicted for using a stolen Social Security number to get a job as a cleaning woman at an airport. In lieu of jail time, Arellano was to be deported. Instead she took refuge in a left-wing "church" and began to bellyache about being thrown out again.

Despite living in this country illegally for a decade, Arellano hasn't mastered the most rudimentary English. She doesn't want to assimilate and become a "Mexican-American." She wants to be a Mexican-Mexican living in and off America.

So far, the only thing Arellano has contributed to America is one illegitimate child.”

Coulter concludes her piece with:

”Arellano can go, and take her kid with her.”

Read Coulter’s entire column.

Because liberal hearts bleed, watch for more of these tactics in the future, using children as pawns, just as I predicted.

Want proof? Look at this picture.



DON’T WANT A BIG INCREASE IN YOUR SCHOOL TAXES? CONTACT FRANKLIN SCHOOL BOARD MEMBERS NOW.

Could our country finally be taking some tough steps toward illegal immigrants?

Richard Olivo writes in today’s Chicago Tribune:

Breaking the silence in a middle-class enclave of tract homes and cul-de-sacs, federal immigration agents recently swooped in and grabbed Sara Munoz, carting away the illegal Mexican immigrant before her five crying U.S.-born children.

In nearby Minneapolis, community activist Juana Reyes was nabbed for her illegal status as she stepped out of her car, spurring a rapidly transforming neighborhood into action on behalf of her 9-year-old daughter, an American citizen.

And, 110 miles south in Austin, Minn., a divided community seethes after several recent deportation arrests. Latin American immigrants are afraid to open their doors, while longtime residents press the mayor to do more to stop the changes in a former union town built around the global headquarters of the Hormel Foods meatpacking operation.

Similar scenes nationwide are part of a ramping-up of federal arrests of illegal immigrants, activity that Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff recently warned is "gonna get ugly" after immigration legislation failed in Washington last month.

Arrests from workplace raids have skyrocketed from about 845 in 2004 to nearly 4,000 already this year, federal records show. Arrests of illegal immigrants who have ignored court orders to leave the country have doubled since last year to a rate of about 685 per week.

And this is bad, how?

Olivo continues:

"We're gonna do more enforcement actions," Chertoff said during a recent Chicago Tribune editorial board meeting where he lamented Congress' failure to move immigration reform forward and predicted extensive grief. "And, if they have kids at home, even if we make arrangements with social services to take care of the kids, the kids are gonna be scared because Mommy or Daddy is not coming home that day."

Though the arrests will be "as humane as possible," Chertoff said, "We do have to get control over this general problem of illegal immigration."

That’s a good thing, a very good thing.

Now, read the way reporter Olivo describes this new wave of enforcement:

As state legislatures and cities nationwide consider their own local measures for enforcement, a menacing cloud has swelled over America's immigrant landscape, advocates say.

Did you catch that......enforcing the laws of our country is compared to “a menacing cloud.”

"We have a tsunami coming at us in terms of enforcement measures," said Angela Kelly, deputy director of the National Immigration Forum, an immigrant advocacy group in Washington. "That's pretty terrifying in terms of what it means for the 12 million undocumented immigrants and their families."

It should be terrifying, lady! Those millions of people are here ILLEGALLY!!

The next strategy that will be employed by illegal immigrants and their advocates will be a play on sympathy exploiting children.

Olivo writes about 36-year old Nixon Munoz who came to Minnesota from El Salvador and married Sara, a shy Mexican woman whom he met while she was visiting on a tourist visa to attend a wedding. They were very happy, Olivo reports, until last month. Cue the attempt at sympathy.

That changed last month. Arriving from the grocery store with his children, Munoz said he saw his terrified wife handcuffed in front of their two-story stucco home. With the family in tears, she was taken away and, eventually, deported to Mexico, where she tries to continue to parent her five children through long-distance calls.

The couple's eldest daughter, Joanna Munoz, who turned 14 the day before her mother left, has stepped in as a mother figure. The hazel-eyed teen cooks, cleans and tries to comfort Edwin when he calls for his mother at night, sometimes in uncontrollable tantrums during which he hurls himself against walls.

"He still thinks my mom is visiting family," she said of her brother, unsure how all this will affect her dream of attending college and becoming a marine biologist.

The impact that such arrests and deportation have on the estimated 5 million children of illegal immigrants in the U.S. is troubling, said Randy Capps, a researcher at the Washington-based Urban Institute who has been studying the aftermath of raids in several states.

Many of these children are likely to grow up harboring resentment against law enforcement. Others will have psychological problems that stem from seeing their parents ripped from their lives, he said.

"If they stay in the country, they've been through this traumatic experience and will continue to be separated from their parents for some time," Capps said. "These are people that didn't choose to come over."

Isn’t it true that American prisons are filled with inmates who have children on the outside? Do we still not lock these criminals up?

About 26,500 illegal immigrants (are) impri

Illegal immigrants have chutzpah.

They will crawl, burrow, dig, run, leap, and do just about anything to entire our country.

Once here, they will flaunt their illegal status, and shove directly in our faces their demands for services, programs, and “their rights.”

This past Sunday, at St. Anthony’s Church on 9th and Mitchell where I usher, an area that has a heavy Hispanic population, I noticed in the vestibule of the church on the tables, someone had left a large pile of fliers promoting a forum or seminar for immigrants sponsored by the group, “Voces de la Frontera.” Also on the tables were stacks of the latest “Voces de la Frontera” newspaper.

The newspaper included a column entitled, “KNOW YOUR RIGHTS.”

It read:

PROTECT YOUR IMMIGRATION STATUS

1) The right to remain silent: If you are arrested, you have the right not to answer the questions of law enforcement officials. Do not lie. Do not say anything except “I need to speak with my attorney.” (Gee, that form of English they’re willing to learn).
2) If you are arrested, follow these steps:
a) Do not reveal to the agents or the government anything about your immigration status.
b) Do not lie.
c) Do not give the officials false documents.
d) Do not turn in documentation from another country. If you do, the government can use this information in order to deport you.
e) Show them the card below.

The card reads:

KNOW YOUR RIGHTS!

If you are detained by immigration or the police:

Hand the card to the official, and remain silent

The card explains that you are exercising your right to refuse to answer any questions until you have consulted with a lawyer.

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:

Please be informed that I am choosing to exercise my right to remain silent and the right to refuse to answer your questions. If I am detained, I request to contact an attorney immediately. I am also exercising my right to refuse to sign anything until I consult with my attorney. Thank you.


The column also offers advice on what to do if police or immigration comes to your workplace, detain you on the street or in a public place, and if arrested. One of the pieces of advice is to request bail.

Advocacy groups, like “Voces de la Frontera,” are providing how-to, stay out of jail cards to immigrants to flash when confronted by authorities. Even though here illegally, the immigrants, without knowing a lick of English, take out their handy dandy cards and demand the same rights of law-abiding U.S. citizens. They demand attorneys and bail.

By the way, the legal rights presentation the fliers in the back of my church were promoting is taking place later this month at a Milwaukee Public Schools’ high school….your tax dollars at work.

Come to America, illegally.

Get legal advice on how to deal with the authorities.

Learn about it, free, at a taxpayer supported public school.

America, what a country. A foolish, foolish country.