Illegal Immigration Documentary - 2012

2012 Documentary - Exploring the Socio-Economics of Illegal Immigration

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Shamnesty Redux

Michelle Malkin has detailed the "shamnesty" issue in her article  Suicidal GOP senators join open-borders Dems for Shamnesty Redux.

Some excerpts:

• [D]id someone set the clock back six years in Washington? Because today looks a hell of a lot like the dawn of the Bush-Kennedy-McCain 2007 illegal alien amnesty. Deja vu all over again.
• According to a five-page document provided to POLITICO, the sweeping proposal — agreed to in principle by eight senators — would seek to overhaul the legal immigration system as well as create a pathway to citizenship for the nation’s roughly 11 million illegal immigrants. But establishing that pathway would depend on whether the U.S. first implements stricter border enforcement measures and new rules ensuring immigrants have left the country in compliance with their visas. Young people brought to the country as children illegally and seasonal agriculture industry workers would be given a faster path to citizenship.
• If the Kabuki promise of “securing the border first” sounds familiar, it’s because it’s the same empty, bullcrap promise that shamnesty peddlers have pitched since the Reagan years.
• Question: If GOP senators were serious about cracking down on the systemic, dangerous, ongoing, persistent problem of illegal alien visa overstayers and the failure to enact an effective visa tracking system since before and well after 9/11 (read THIS), why haven’t they pushed for fixing it SEPARATE AND APART from amnesty measures?
  Answer: Because these cynical panderers are not serious about ending the backlog of more than 750,000 unvetted visa overstay records.
  
  And another government “commission” to “ensure the new enforcement mechanisms take effect?” Spare us another phony, dog-and-pony Blue Ribbon Panel to Nowhere.
  
  Please. Rubio is winning praise from some of my conservative friends for noting that we’ve been living under de facto amnesty.
• Since repetition is key in the age of the low-information voter and the bonehead GOP, let me repeat at length what I said after Election Day:GOP “moderates” and strategists assume that waving the magic amnesty wand and opening up the welfare/entitlement state to generations of illegal immigrants will translate into electoral gains for the party. They’re deluded. They pretend amnesty will come at no cost to legal immigrants and native-born Americans. They pretend they can “secure the border first” by making the same empty, token gestures that have left our borders a bloody joke for decades.
  
  The promise of “securing the border first” is a Kabuki compromise.
  
  These GOP amnesty-peddlers are as deluded now as they were in 2007 when Bush/McCain/Kennedy spearheaded a failed amnesty campaign. They’ve learned nothing.
  
  How about clearing naturalization application backlogs instead of expanding illegal alien benefits? How about tracking and deporting violent illegal alien criminals instead of handing out driver’s licenses to illegal aliens? How about streamlining the employee citizenship verification process for businesses (E-verify) and fixing outdated visa tracking databases instead of indiscriminately expanding temporary visa and guest worker programs?
  
  Let’s drop the semantic games. Whether Shamnesty Twins Graham and McCain call it a “pathway to citizenship,” “regularization,” or “comprehensive immigration reform,” they are talking about permanently rewarding and incentivizing more mass illegal immigration above all else.
  
  I repeat: There is no such thing as a temporary amnesty. And amnesty begets more amnesty. Since Reagan, there have been seven illegal alien amnesties passed into law since 1986:
  
  ·The 1986 Immigration and Reform Control Act blanket amnesty for an estimated 2.7 million illegal aliens
  ·1994: The “Section 245(i)” temporary rolling amnesty for 578,000 illegal aliens
  ·1997: Extension of the Section 245(i) amnesty
  ·1997: The Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act for nearly one million illegal aliens from Central America
  ·1998: The Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act amnesty for 125,000 illegal aliens from Haiti
  ·2000: Extension of amnesty for some 400,000 illegal aliens who claimed eligibility under the 1986 act
  ·2000: The Legal Immigration Family Equity Act, which included a restoration of the rolling Section 245(i) amnesty for 900,000 illegal aliens]
  
  Not one of those amnesties was associated with a decline in illegal immigration. On the contrary, the number of illegal aliens in the U.S. has tripled since President Reagan signed the first amnesty in 1986. The total effect of the amnesties was even larger because relatives later joined amnesty recipients, and this number was multiplied by an unknown number of children born to amnesty recipients who then acquired automatic US citizenship.
  
  Obama’s amnesty-by-executive order will produce more of the same.
  
  Better Get Out The Vote efforts and data-mining by Republicans won’t solve the root causes of new generations of Democrats’ collective alienation from a common civic culture, core American values, and the sanctity of individual rights over the collective.
  
  Left-wing academics and activists spurned assimilation as a common goal long ago. Their fidelity lies with bilingualism (a euphemism for native language maintenance over English-first instruction), identity politics, ethnic militancy, extreme multiculturalism, and a borderless continent.
• In the report from the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform following up on her work, the panel wrote:
  
  We believe these truths constitute the distinctive characteristics of American nationality:
  
  *American unity depends upon a widely-held belief in the principles and values embodied in the American Constitution and their fulfillment in practice: equal protection and justice under the law; freedom of speech and religion; and representative government;
  
  *Lawfully-admitted newcomers of any ancestral nationality—without regard to race, ethnicity, or religion—truly become Americans when they give allegiance to these principles and values;
  
  *Ethnic and religious diversity based on personal freedom is compatible with national unity; and
  
  *The nation is strengthened when those who live in it communicate effectively with each other in English, even as many persons retain or acquire the ability to communicate in other languages.
  
  As long as we live by these principles and help newcomers to learn and practice them, we will continue to be a nation that benefits from substantial but well-regulated immigration.
  
  Those principles have been abandoned, scorned, and sabotaged. You have not heard an iota about them from Washington. It is the erosion of Americanization and the ascendancy of the collectivists that helped create the conditions for Election Day.
  
  Amnesty instead of assimilation is a recipe for even greater GOP losses at at the ballot box.
  
  Amnesty instead of assimilation is a recipe for the furtherance of American decline.

.... [Read Full Article]

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Tags: Michelle Malkin, Shamnesty, GOP, amnesty, illegal aliens To share the post, click on "Post Link." Please mention / link to Blogs for Borders. Thanks!

Amnesty and Workers and National Security

They Come To America A scene from They Come to America 2.

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Tags: Amnesty, Workers,
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Here We Go Again | Pathway To Citizenship For Illegals

Gary Bauer, Campaign for Working Families: Yesterday a gang of eight senators -- four Democrats and four Republicans -- announced plans to try yet again to push comprehensive immigration reform through the Senate. The plan is based largely on a 2007 bill that failed after a bi-partisan filibuster.

We don't know much at this point. All the senators offered yesterday was a brief outline of principles. The details will follow later. But as the saying goes, "The devil is in the details."

We do know that this plan includes a "pathway to citizenship" for illegal immigrants in the country. However, the senators claim they are making border security a priority because illegal immigrants would not be allowed to apply for citizenship until the borders are secured and verifiable systems are in place to make sure that foreign visitors are not overstaying their visas. The plan would also require the use of an employer verification system.

Critics are blasting the plan because it essentially grants illegal immigrants an immediate "probationary legal status," allowing them to stay and work in the country as long as they can pass a background check. This is a quasi-amnesty that effectively codifies the controversial executive orders halting deportations that Barack Obama issued last summer.

Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) has been involved in this effort. He called into Rush Limbaugh's show today to stress that he would not back any final bill that did not include strict border security triggers.

Meanwhile, President Obama is unveiling his plans for immigration reform at a rally in Las Vegas today. According to various reports, the president's proposal would have a faster pathway to citizenship because it would not include border security mandates. No surprise there.

Obama's plan is also expected to pander to the homosexual rights crowd by granting green cards to the foreign same-sex spouses of U.S. citizens regardless of the marriage laws of their states. Leave it to Obama to make gay marriage a priority in immigration reform!

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Tags: Gary Bauer, Campaign for Working Families, gang of eight senators, immigration reform, Barack Obama, gay marriage, illegals, amnesty, illegal aliens To share the post, click on "Post Link." Please mention / link to Blogs for Borders. Thanks!

Opposition To Immigration Reform Amnesty Weighs In With National Media

Americans for Legal Immigration PAC, which played a key role in defeating Comprehensive and Dream Act Amnesty legislation 2006-2010, is weighing in on today's announcement by six Senators and John Boehner that some kind of agreement has been reached in secret meetings to pass immigration reform that includes a controversial path to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants.

"These secret meetings are completely inappropriate and harmful to our system of open government," said William Gheen, President of ALIPAC. "These lawmakers have conspired behind closed doors because they know that illegal immigration and any path to citizenship for illegal immigrants is a form of amnesty and is opposed by most Americans because it will harm American workers, students, taxpayers, and voters!"

Senator John McCain is playing a lead roll in the agreement announcement despite the fact he openly promised Arizona voters that he would no longer pursue citizenship for illegal aliens if they would reelect him against a strong primary challenge from retired Congressman JD Hayworth in 2010.

Senator Robert Menendez is playing a lead roll in pushing this legislation despite recent revelations that his campaign employed an illegal alien sex offender whom the Obama administration ordered ICE agents not to arrest until after the elections. It has also been revealed that Menendez has been investigated by the FBI for possibly hiring underage child prostitutes in the Dominican Republic.

Senator Lindsey Graham is pushing Amnesty as well despite the fact his approval ratings in his home state dove to unelectable levels after the question was raised that his hidden sexual orientation was being used to manipulate his performance as a Senator during a Tea Party rally in Greeenville, SC, on April 17, 2010. Graham fled the amnesty negotiation table with Janet Napolitano 8 days after the speech was reported in the national media.

Senator Jeff Flake is pushing this amnesty legislation after recently campaigning on the pledge that he "opposes amnesty" for illegal immigrants.

"They have assembled a real motley crew of corrupt lawmakers to push this nation destroying legislation that would radically alter the future of America's elections and borders," said William Gheen of ALIPAC. "We are going to do all in our power to stop this power grab."

Americans for Legal Immigration PAC plans to call for protests outside the home offices of each Senator and member of Congress pushing for amnesty for illegal aliens at a time of historic unemployment. These protests will take place in February.

For more information or interviews please visit www.alipac.us

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Tags: ALIPAC, Amnesty bill, immigration reform, illegal aliens To share the post, click on "Post Link." Please mention / link to Blogs for Borders. Thanks!

An illegal immigrant by any other name … is still illegal

by Chad Groening, OneNewsNow.com: A public interest group that pushes for tougher immigration enforcement says the University of Maryland is using a propaganda campaign to try to eliminate use of the term "illegal alien" on campus.

The University of Maryland is trying to take political correctness to the next level. Recently, CampusReform.org reported that the school allocated $15,000 in 2012 to revise language deemed by its administrators to be "insensitive." One of the targeted terms is "illegal alien," which the school believes should be replaced by "undocumented citizen." The poster campaign is aimed at trying to foster an environment on campus that is not offensive to illegal immigrants, homosexuals and other minority groups.

Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, says illegal aliens are what they are, no matter what name they are given.

Mehlman, Ira (Federation for American Immigration Reform)"I think that they say the preferred term is 'undocumented citizen,' which is kind of a contradiction in terms because if you're here illegally, you can't be a citizen," he points out.

"I think the American public has limits on its ability to swallow these sorts of politically correct terms. Illegal aliens are what they are. They are here illegally, so they are illegal aliens. That is a legal definition."

Mehlman says using propaganda to control language is ultimately intended to control thought.

"Propaganda entails controlling language," he adds. "You go back through history, demagogues have traditionally tried to control thought through the language that is used. And if you can define somebody who is here illegally as an undocumented citizen, that's one way to get people to look at things a whole lot differently."

Mehlman says universities have traditionally been a bastion for political correctness and that no one should be surprised that this propaganda campaign is going on.

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Tags: amnesty, illegals,  illegal aliens, University of Maryland, liberal, propaganda, undocumented citizen To share the post, click on "Post Link." Please mention / link to Blogs for Borders. Thanks!

Amnesty Still Amnesty, Even If It's From Republicans

by Taylor Rose, WND: An advocate for legal immigration, contending an unrestricted flow of illegal aliens into the U.S. isn’t in the country’s national interest, is blasting a GOP “amnesty” plan by Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.

As the White House presses for immigration “reform” that would create a pathway to citizenship for illegal aliens, Rubio has begun introducing parts of his plan incrementally.

In a recent Wall Street Journal article,he elaborated on his plan for a pathway to citizenship that would screen out criminals, increase worksite enforcement provisions, boost the number of seasonal work visas for agricultural workers and tighten border security.

Bob Dane, the communications director of Federation of Americans for Immigration Reform, told WND that Rubio is just recycling old ideas.

“There literally is nothing novel to his proposals. Rubio is trying to triangulate all of these competing special interests that want to be at the table,” he said. “It really is just Groundhog Day, it is a sequel of 2007″

The organization’s statement on Rubio’s plan said the senator “described the exact same eligibility requirements found in the 2006 and 2007 amnesty bills.”

Dane said Rubio is getting pressured from “the business lobby and the Chamber of Commerce” to support an amnesty plan, because those groups are leading the charge for cheap labor.

Additionally, he said, “The Republicans are operating under this false premise that they need to capture the Hispanic [vote] via amnesty.”

The Rubio plan, however, has been drawing some support from conservatives, with radio and TV host Sean Hannity saying, “I got to be honest. I think it’s probably the most thoughtful bill that I have heard heretofore.”

Additionally, Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said on his Facebook page, “Senator Rubio is exactly right on the need to fix our broken immigration system. I support the principles he’s outlined.”

Dane is baffled.

“The Republicans have an opportunity to revitalize their core constituency by demonstrating that they understand the people’s concern with mass immigration and its impact on the jobs market,” he said.

He also noted the growing skepticism from many conservatives over the Republican fixation with reaching out to Hispanic voters.

“If they pander to Hispanics they will wind up empty-handed, by never getting the support of Hispanics and losing support from conservatives,” Dane said.

“The Republicans are setting the stage of their own destruction,” Dane warned.
He said if Republicans support Rubio’s plan, it will do four things.

“Firstly, it will split the party between the more conservative elements and the more establishment elements. Secondly, it will alienate the working class away from the Republican Party. Thirdly, the Republican Party will never get any credit for granting amnesty, and it will not endear Hispanics to them. The Democrats will steal the credit, claim victory and it will be a victory for them and the Republicans will look like they caved to the Democrats.”

And finally, he said, the Republicans will be “importing” themselves out of office, because “the overwhelming majority of illegals are government-dependent,” hence, according to Dane, they have no connection with the message or platform of the Republican Party and will vote for the Democrats all the time to keep their government benefits coming.

Dane said it appears April is when the debate over amnesty will start, and he hopes Republicans and Democrats will move away from supporting amnesty.

He said it’s possible the plan “could ironically be that the bill gets loaded down with so much enforcement that the Democrats vote against it.”

Additionally, Dane said, “With this high unemployment it is going to be difficult to convince the working class why they should support candidates that favor the importation of cheap labor” that will displace their jobs.”

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., recently said he expects the Senate Judiciary Committee for the 113th Congress to be working this spring on “comprehensive immigration reform.”

Dane said the actual solution is rather simple.“All we really need to do is just enforce our current laws and give a mandatory e-verify,” he said.
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Do to a potential national emergency regarding wholesale amnesty, this article was shared fin whole for educational purposes under the fair use Doctrine. 

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Tags: amnesty, is still amnesty, illegal aliens, Republicans, To share the post, click on "Post Link." Please mention / link to Blogs for Borders. Thanks!

Obama Admin Shutting Down Major Border Surveillance System

Submitted by Velcro, Conservative Observer AZ.

From Texas GOP Vote.com, via Before It's News.com, and CAV News.

The Obama administration continues its attack on America by having quietly decided to shut down the low-level radar surveillance system used on the U.S.-Mexico border, and other locations. From an email (below) leaked from within the company that operates the program, the U.S. government has only given them 60 days notice, closing the program March 15, 2013. Our border will now be vulnerable to the drug cartel low-level flights, but also any other bad guys (like, terrorists) who want to fly in unnoticed and do something bad.



Tethered Aerostat Radar System (TARS)

If you have driven down around Ft. Huachuca in southeastern Arizona anytime over the past few years, you have probably seen a little "mini-blimp" like this one, tethered and floating in the breeze. That mini-blimp houses the Tethered Aerostat Radar System (TARS), developed and operated by the ITT Exelis Company for the U.S. military (e.g., NORAD and others), as well as U.S. Borders and Customs Protection, as part of the border sovereignty and drug interdiction missions.

From the Exelis web site:

"TARS provides cost-effective, low-level radar surveillance for the US-Mexico border, the Florida Straits, and a portion of the Caribbean in support of USNORTHCOM’s and USSOUTHCOM’s Counterdrug/Counter-Narco Terrorism (CD/CNT) missions. In addition to the CD/CNT mission, TARS surveillance data also supports North American Aerospace Defense Command’s (NORAD) air sovereignty mission for the continental United States. The TARS program is optimized primarily to detect low, slow flying aircraft. Operational locations are in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, the Florida Keys, and Puerto Rico with support locations in Newport News, VA, and El Paso, Texas."

From The Exelis program manager:

"Email Sent to all Exelis Employees January 17th, 2013 Announcing Closure of TARS Air Defense Sites:

Subject: TARS Contract Update

Tuesday, 15 January 2013, we received a government request for a proposal (RfP) to de-scope and close the TARS program by the end of the fiscal year. The government indicated that it does not intend to exercise the final two option years for the TARS contract. In the RfP, the government also indicated its intent that aerostat flight operations will cease on March 15, 2013, and that the remainder of the fiscal year will be used to deflate aerostats, disposition equipment, and prepare sites for permanent closure. We are currently reviewing all the details of the RfP and evaluating the possible impacts on the program and our workforce. We continue to communicate with the government on this matter, and we will have more information in the coming days and weeks.

The TARS program provides a critical capability to the U.S. government and we should remain focused on providing that service in an uninterrupted and robust manner.

The best thing we can do right now is to continue to provide the outstanding TARS support that has become the Exelis hallmark, while allowing the company and the government time to continue discussions on how to best support the customer, the program, and our workforce. We will provide regular updates as we know more. Should you have a specific question, please address them to Tim Green, Program Manager.

Tim Green, PMP
Program Manager
Tethered Aerostat Radar System
Exelis Systems Corporation"

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Tags: Tethered Aerostat Radar System (TARS), military closures, ITT Exelix, border security, Mexico border, BCP, Homeland Security. To share the post, click on "Post Link." Please mention / link to Blogs for Borders. Thanks!

Immigration Reform Needs Problem-Solving Approach, Not Comprehensive Legislation

By Matthew Spalding, Ph.D., Jessica Zuckerman and James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., the Heritage Foundation: In his upcoming State of the Union Address, President Obama will very likely address our nation’s broken immigration system. Unfortunately, the President is expected to call for “comprehensive” immigration reform legislation. This very same approach has failed to garner support in Congress time and time again, and is likely only to foster greater division. We invite the President to instead take a problem-solving approach and welcome a discussion about finding real solutions to fixing our dysfunctional immigration system and advancing real immigration reforms.

Immigration reform can move forward on many fronts at the same time, focusing on some commonsense initiatives that begin to address the practical challenges of our immigration system. The key is that just as the many aspects and elements of immigration are not all the same and immigrants in this country are not a monolithic block, there is not one comprehensive policy that will deal with all matters all at once. In fact, comprehensive legislation, likely to be written behind closed doors and loaded with measures for special interests, will make the problems it seeks to solve worse. A varied problem, instead, requires varied solutions which address each of our immigration system’s challenges on its own track. America needs a comprehensive approach—not comprehensive legislation.

Lack of Strong Presidential Action
Four years ago, then-candidate Obama promised his administration would put forward an immigration bill within his first year in office. Yet even when Democrats controlled both houses of Congress and the White House, the Administration failed to offer up legislation to address the problems of our immigration system. Even the President’s favored Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act did not receive a serious push from the Administration.

Instead, as the time ticked down on the end of his first term, the President chose to abuse his “prosecutorial discretion” to allow as many as 1.7 million illegal immigrants brought to this country as children to have their deportation action temporarily deferred. The move not only abused presidential authority but also circumvented the legislative process and undercut a developing proposal by Senator Marco Rubio (R–FL). The President’s deferred-action policy served to poison the well for collaborative reform efforts, and complicates attempts for finding long-term solutions through the legislative process.

The President is expected to push for a “comprehensive” immigration bill in his State of the Union Address on February 12. This approach has been tried and failed. Indeed, since the U.S. last passed such comprehensive legislation in 1986, the estimated illegal immigration population in the U.S. has quadrupled. And the very same approach has failed to garner support on either side of the aisle since President George W. Bush last proposed comprehensive immigration legislation in 2007.

That is because messy, compromised political deals will not solve problems. In fact, bills designed to solve everything, often loaded with payoffs for special interests and often introducing measures that contradict each other, frequently wind up creating as many and perhaps more problems than they intended to solve. But perhaps in the view of some, failure is the preferred option, one in which they can demagogue the issue and blame their opponents for failure.

Need for a Problem-Solving Approach
In order to solve our nation’s immigration challenges we must not—and need not—compromise on principle or security. By its founding principles, this nation embraces those who come to this country honestly, armed with their work ethic, in search of the promises and opportunities of the American Dream.

Today, however, because of our misguided immigration policies, we lack a fair, orderly, and efficient immigration system. Far too many individuals are in the shadows. Still others, particularly poor and low-skilled immigrants, are caught in a generous welfare, education, and health system that breeds dependence rather than self-reliance. Immigrants come to America seeking a better life, and so we must restore for everyone an America of opportunity, upward mobility, prosperity, and the blessings of liberty.

Instead of a comprehensive bill, a problem-solving approach that treats each of the many issues in our immigration system in its own lane can offer a better solution. In this manner, reforms can move forward in multiple areas at the same time and advance toward meaningful and effective solutions. In so doing, lawmakers should:

• Reform the legal immigration system. Such reforms would ensure that those who wish to come here legally can do so in a fair and efficient manner. These should include reforms at United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, the streamlining of current visa programs, and enhanced avenues for the entry of skilled workers, particularly those educated in the U.S. For those who stay, we must have a deliberate and self-confident policy of immigrant assimilation.
• Make immigration more responsive to the needs of the economy. Such efforts should include a targeted temporary worker program tied to market and workforce demands that would supply a rotating, temporary workforce. Not only would a temporary worker program help to ensure employers’ labor needs are met, but it would also help to disincentivize illegal immigration by supplying another avenue for legal entry and employment.
• Reinvigorate interior enforcement measures. Measures and programs such as Social Security No Match, random workplace inspections, checks of I-9 forms, and E-Verify help to discourage the use of illegal labor and send the message that the country takes enforcement of immigration laws seriously.
• Enhance border security efforts. Through the use of technologies like unmanned aerial vehicles and cameras/sensors, the Border Patrol can enhance monitoring and detection along the border in order to better protect U.S. sovereignty and halt illegal border crossings. Cooperation between Mexican and U.S. law enforcement through Border Enforcement Security Task Forces and the Merida Initiative, as well as ensuring that the U.S. Coast Guard has the resources they need, also remain essential.
• Recognize state and local authorities as responsible partners. Through programs like 287(g), which allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement to train state and local police to enforce federal immigration laws, state and local authorities can enhance enforcement efforts and work with the federal government to play a significant role in immigration policy.

By beginning with the issues we agree on rather than those that divide us, we can make progress in immigration reform and rebuild an immigration process in harmony with our highest principles and best traditions.

Comprehensive Legislation Is Not the Answer
With comprehensive legislation everyone loses—our nation’s immigrants, our employers, our citizens. Rather than continuing to play politics with immigration reform, our nation’s leaders should take the responsible path and develop real solutions to address our immigration systems’ core problems.
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Matthew Spalding, PhD, is Vice President of American Studies and Director of the B. Kenneth Simon Center for Principles and Politics; Jessica Zuckerman is a Research Associate in the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies, a division of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for International Studies;and James Jay Carafano, PhD, is Vice President for Foreign and Defense Policy Studies and Director of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for International Studies at The Heritage Foundation.

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Tags: immigration reform, problem solving approach, not comprehensive legislation, amnesty, illegal aliens To share the post, click on "Post Link." Please mention / link to Blogs for Borders. Thanks!

GAO Report On Border Corruption Among Federal Customs Agents

Grits For Breakfast Reports: From a GAO report published earlier this month related to corruption in border security operations:

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data indicate that arrests of CBP employees for corruption-related activities since fiscal years 2005 account for less than 1 percent of CBP’s entire workforce per fiscal year. The majority of arrests of CBP employees were related to misconduct. There were 2,170 reported incidents of arrests for acts of misconduct such as domestic violence or driving under the influence from fiscal year 2005 through fiscal year 2012, and a total of 144 current or former CBP employees were arrested or indicted for corruption-related activities, such as the smuggling of aliens and drugs, of whom 125 have been convicted as of October 2012. Further, the majority of allegations against CBP employees since fiscal year 2006 occurred at locations along the southwest border. CBP officials have stated that they are concerned about the negative impact that these cases have on agencywide integrity.

See related MSM coverage from Fox News, "Study finds corruption on rise among border agents, rep says security at risk," which included this tidbit from Texas Congressman Mike McCaul: "In fiscal year 2011 alone, the DHS Inspector General received almost 900 allegations of corruption from within CBP and ICE."

Though unrelated to the Customs service, the corruption angle provides an opportunity to link to a remarkable story from the Houston Chronicle about a Houston PD cop caught laundering cartel drug money: "Ex-HPD officer faces 25 years for running drug money."

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Tags: GAO, corruption, DHS, Border Agents, smuggling illegal aliens, smuggling drugs, drug money To share the post, click on "Post Link." Please mention / link to Blogs for Borders. Thanks!

Police Chief Says 75% of Tijuana's Crime Committed by Migrants

By Allan Wall, VDare.com: The police chief of a major city has announced that 75% of the crime committed in his city is committed by migrants. Isn't that controversial? No, because this is a Mexican police chief, speaking about a Mexican city.

Specifically, it was Javier Viruete, police chief of Tijuana, Mexico, which is across the border from San Diego. A big problem that Tijuana has is that illegal aliens deported from the United States wind up there. And instead of returning to their homes elsewhere, most of them stay in Tijuana. . . .

What Chief Viruete should do is request that the government of Mexico discourage Mexicans from entering the U.S. illegally. After all, it's actually illegal under Mexican law for Mexicans to enter the U.S. illegally. . . . Read More

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Illinois Passes Drivers Licenses for Illegal Immigrants

by Warner Todd Huston: After a vote on January 8, Illinois is set to join only two other states, New Mexico and Washington, to allow illegal immigrants to apply for state drivers licenses. A third state, Utah, allows illegals to drive on temporary permits.

The 65-46 vote where 11 Republicans, some in leadership positions, joined Democrats to extend legal licenses came after a long, heated debate (SB 957).

Conservative activist William J. Kelly criticized the law.

"This kind of legislation has spurred a serious fraud problem in New Mexico and other states where it has been enacted," Kelly wrote in the State Journal-Register. "Papers have been forged, auto repair shops have been regularly listed as places of residence, and more illegal driver’s licenses schemes have caused headaches for law enforcement as foreigners from other countries come to the state to fraudulently receive a U.S. driver’s license."
Indeed, New Mexico's Governor has been fighting to repeal her state's licenses for illegals law.

Safety concerns were foremost in mind of detractors of this bill. One of the biggest concerns was that fingerprinting is not included in the law.

Supporters claimed that the bill would show Illinois to be a "welcoming" place for law-abiding illegal immigrants that just want to work and make a living.

"Our entire state would benefit from Senate Bill 957. If only half the 250,000 get [temporary licenses] and get insured, Illinois insurance policy holders would save $46 million per year," said Rep. Edward Acevedo (D-Chicago) on January 7. "Police officers would be able to know who they're stopping."

But at least one Illinois police chief disagreed with Rep. Acevedo. During the debate on the bill Hanover Park Police Chief David Webb told the House Transportation Vehicles & Safety Committee that there just weren't enough safety measures in the bill.

"Without these basic public safety and homeland security safeguards, this bill is unsafe," Chief Webb said.

Despite Rep. Acevedo's claim that more drivers will become insured with his law, the bill does not require proof of insurance before an illegal immigrant can get his license. Supporters say that such a requirement is unnecessary as the law already states that drivers have to be insured to drive in the Land of Lincoln. Further a provision in the law maintains that a police officer can confiscate the license if the illegal immigrant cannot produce proof of insurance on demand.
Detractors also point out that number of insured drivers did not materially increase in Washington or Arizona after those states passed their drivers licenses for illegals bills.

Some illegal immigrant activists said that the bill may not make much difference because lawbreaking illegals won't likely trust subjecting themselves to the government to sign up for the new privileges.

"It's asking immigrants to hand over all their information to the state and I just think there's going to be a real reluctance there if the people are not legal citizens in the country," said Cristobal Cavazos, Immigrant Solidarity DuPage.

Applicants must be able to show residency in the state for a year before being afforded the three-year license which will called a Temporary Visitor Driver’s License.

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn said he will sign the bill.

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