Federal Judge Blocks Texas Immigration Law
May 22, 2007 Immigration
A Federal Judge blocked the law enacted in Farmer’s Branch Texas that would require the immigration status of people who wanted to rent a place to live. U.S. District Judge Sam A. Lindsay wrote:
Only the federal government can determine whether a person is in the United States legally
If this is true, why do employers have to get several types of documentation to prove a person is a US citizen before hiring that person? If it is the federal government’s job and only they can determine who is here legally, then how is it employers are allowed to determine who is here legally? The judge said it was not up to the states to do the federal government’s job. The law on this generally indicates that states and their law enforcement are allowed to enforce the criminal statutes such as catching someone actually coming in ILLEGALLY or finding someone smuggling in ILLEGALS but that just being here is a civil matter, not a criminal one and the federal government has exclusive rights to enforce the civil statutes. Interestingly, some of the statutes start off “Any person who knowingly…” If you are not allowed to check immigration status, how can you knowingly assist ILLEGALS? Seems ambiguous to me.
It also seems to me that if a person is here ILLEGALLY then they broke a criminal law regardless of whether their presence is just a civil matter. Why can’t local law enforcement arrest them for coming here ILLEGALLY (the criminal act) and let the federal government worry about the fact that are here (the civil part). It only makes logical sense that if a person is here ILLEGALLY then he committed a criminal act to do it. A police office may arrest a person who robbed a bank three years ago even though that officer did not catch the criminal in the act. Why can’t the same police officer arrest a person whose presence indicates that he committed a criminal act?
Perhaps states should take a different approach to this. There are certain documents required to get a job. I was born and raised in this country and every job I have ever taken required me to show these forms of identification to prove I was a citizen or here legally. Why don’t states enact laws that require these documents in order to rent a place to live or buy property. States do not have to say it is for immigration, they can just require the exact same items the federal government does for jobs as appropriate ID in order to rent or buy. When a person rents or buys he has to show ID. The folks renting or selling (especially banks) like to know the identity of the person with whom they are doing business. Each state could just enact a law indicating that these items are the only acceptable ones for identification. Maybe states could pass a law stating that in order to be in the state legally a person has to be in the country legally and then they would have the legal authority to check immigration status. I don’t know, but something needs to be done.
The federal government has hamstrung the states and it is those states that are paying for the ineptitude of the federal government. This is why there was a push to criminalize just being here. that way, states could handle the immigration problem. Of course, this was opposed by all the folks who see the inadequacies in the law as a method by which to circumvent the system.
Maybe the federal government and its lawyers are the only ones who can determine if a person is in the US legally but it should be a state’s right to determine if a person is in that state legally. It only makes sense if the will of the people is to be honored.
Other Source:
CRS Report for Congress (pdf)
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Immigration Amnesty Bill Overview
May 19, 2007 Immigration
I was looking at Chron.com and they have an item up from the AP that details the major provisions of the Amnesty Bill. This is not all inclusive because the Bill is nearly 1000 pages long so if it took that many pages to come up with just this, we have bigger issues.
— Major provisions of the bipartisan immigration compromise:
___CURRENT ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
_They could come forward immediately and receive probationary legal status.
_Bill creates a four-year, renewable “Z” visa for those present within the U.S. unlawfully before Jan. 1, 2007.
_Undocumented immigrants may adjust status to lawful permanent residence once they pay $5,000 in fees and fines and their head of household returns to their home country.
_People under age 30 who were brought to the U.S. as minors could receive their green cards after three years, rather than eight.
_Undocumented farmworkers who can demonstrate they have worked 150 hours or three years in agriculture can apply for green cards.
_No green cards for “Z” visa holders can be processed until “triggers” for border security and workplace enforcement have been met, estimated to take 18 months. Processing of green cards for holders of “Z” visas would begin after clearing an existing backlog, which is expected to take eight years.
___BORDER SECURITY
_Hire 18,000 new border patrol agents.
_Erect 200 miles of vehicle barriers and 370 miles of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border.
_Erect 70 ground-based radar and camera towers along the southern border.
_Deploy four unmanned aerial vehicles and supporting systems.
_End the program in which illegal immigrants are released upon apprehension.
_Provide for detaining up to 27,500 aliens per day on an annual basis.
_Use secure and effective identification tools to prevent unauthorized work.
___WORKPLACE ENFORCEMENT
_Require employers to electronically verify new employees to prove identity and work eligibility.
_Increase penalties for unlawful hiring, employment and record keeping violations.
___GUEST WORKERS (requires border security measures to be in place first)
_Create a new temporary guest worker program with two-year “Y visas,” initially capped at 400,000 per year with annual adjustments based on market fluctuations
_Workers could renew the Y visa up to three times, but would be required to return home for a year in between each time. Those bringing dependents could obtain only one, nonrenewable two-year visa.
_Families could accompany guest workers only if they could show proof of medical insurance and demonstrate that their wages were 150 percent above the poverty level.
___FUTURE IMMIGRANTS
_Spouses and minor children of U.S. citizens and permanent residents would be eligible for green cards based purely on their family connections, but other relatives such as adult children and siblings would not.
_380,000 visas a year would be awarded based on a point system, with about 50 percent based on employment criteria, 25 percent based on education, 15 percent on English proficiency and 10 percent on family connections.
_Apply new limits to U.S. citizens seeking to bring foreign-born parents into the country.
_Visas for parents of U.S. citizens would be capped annually at 40,000 and those for spouses and children at 87,000.
First of all it is important to note that this bill will only grant amnesty to people who were here prior to January 1st, 2007. There is no real way of know this and the government just stuck it in there to make you think they are trying to prevent people from rushing in here to receive their entitlements. In reality, people will lie about when they got here. If this Bill passes the coyote trucks full of immigrants will be working overtime and Jose and the family will be making a trek into the US because they can lie about when they got here. The government is relying on the honor system so in essence, the government is relying on people who broke the law to get here to tell the truth about when they got here. We have a bunch of dolts in the government.
Also, these are all nice gee whiz things but they will not stand. These issues for security triggers are all nice to look at and it sounds good to say that we will not begin processing people for green cards until certain security triggers are met but that will not happen. When they sit down to hash this out there will not be enough money for 18,000 border patrol agents so that will be cut. Other items will be cut and if they were really interested in security why did they reduce the length of the fence? In October they passed a bill that was signed into law to build a fence nearly 800 miles long. This bill cuts the fence length in half which seems like an apathetic attitude toward border security. I know there are those who say that they will use all the gee whiz high tech stuff the military uses. Ask yourself how well that is working in Iraq at keeping insurgents from crossing the border and you will know what to expect in Mexico. Also, electronic devices only tell you someone is there and they can be ignored. Think Clinton ignoring drone pictures of bin Laden. A wall is a physical barrier that will keep people out. There are also others, like Ted Kennedy, who will tell you that after this bill there will be no more problem. Kennedy authored the immigration amnesty bill in the mid 80s that granted amnesty to about 4 million ILLEGALS and he swore we would never face this again because of the security measures. A quarter of a century later and we have 3-5 times as many ILLEGALS and Kennedy wants to allow them in and promise it won’t happen again. Do your homework and read about the last amnesty that Kennedy was involved in. He is giving the country away.
ILLEGALS will be able to pay $5000 to remove that ILLEGAL tag. On the Ron Smith show on WBAL in Baltimore some employers were calling in about this and one guy said that the immigrant workers were saying they paid a coyote to get here they are not paying the government 5 grand as well. A commenter at Chron indicated that Kennedy is the new coyote demanding $5000 for them to stay here. Most of these people do not want to be legal and they do not want to be citizens. They come here because this is where the money is and they work to send it home to Mexico. Their labor does not benefit this country economically because they send most of their money home so little of it gets spent here. The economic benefits are to businesses that are overburdened with taxes and payroll. They hire ILLEGALS at lower than market rate to ease their burden. If these people wanted to be legal and they became so, does anyone think they will continue to work for low wages? They will then be eligible for the minimum wage (whatever it ends up being) so any small benefit of their presence will be lost in the salary increase.
This bill is packed with stuff to make it look good and right now the bipartisan support is very weak. A change in any item could lose support for this bill but change is what it is all about. Once this passes it will be easier for them to make changes. Hell, they can add items to other bills to screw with this one just like they add earmarks. Kennedy screwed America once with his last amnesty bill (he must need lots of Mexicans to do his landscaping) and I am ashamed to say Reagan signed it. I am also ashamed to say that Bush will sign this bill because he believes in open borders and he is looking for a legacy.
That legacy will be failure. It will be the legacy of a president who signed the bill leading to the downfall of America.
We need to defeat this bill. Call 202-224-3121 and ask for both of your Senators and your Representative and tell them you OPPOSE SB 1348 and that you will not vote for anyone who votes for that bill.
Together we can take back our country.
Big Dog Salute to AOW
New Poll on Immigration Bill
May 19, 2007 Immigration
I put up a new poll in the right sidebar asking about the new immigration amnesty bill that will allow millions of illegals to stay here with few consequences for their actions. Please take the time to respond.
Texas Town Says No Más to ILLEGALS
May 13, 2007 Immigration
ILLEGALS are parasites who sponge off this country. They use resources that they are not entitled to and that they do not pay for. Health care is just one item that is overburdened by the ILLEGAL population. Couple this with the burden on schools which are paid for with tax dollars from those working legally and the problems mount. The jackasses in Congress do not make this problem any easier to solve because they vote to allow ILLEGALS to collect Social Security and to receive welfare, more taxpayer money down the drain. I understand that many of these people are hard workers but that does not amount to anything when they are viewed as a whole. They got here by breaking the law and it does not matter whether they are hard workers or not. The executives at Enron were all hard workers but when they broke the law all hell broke loose and people, including the idiots in Congress, wanted their blood. This is because a lot of investors and employees lost a fortune because of those illegal acts.
Well, this country is losing a fortune because of the ILLEGAL acts of the immigrants who broke the law to get here. The fiscal strain is no less significant than it was for those affected by Enron but it goes unnoticed because it is spread out to all the taxpayers. You can bet that if this problem only affected the rich and famous then Congress would do something about it. But hey, they are use to using our money unwisely so it really does not matter to them because in the long run they (especially the Democrats) will gain a new voting base. Our nation is being over run by people who have no right to be here and we need to do something about it. One Texas town has.
Voters in Farmers Branch Texas made it clear that they do not want ILLEGALS living there. They passed a law that would require people renting property to determine that the prospective tenant is here legally or they will be subject to a fine. There are many who applaud this law and some who think it puts the burden of determining legal status on the wrong people. Lawyers representing people who are opposed to this say that the town has taken over something that is explicitly a federal task. The US Code is pretty clear that it is the duty of all law enforcement to report ILLEGALS. Be that as it may, there are many who will fight this new law. I think they should check each person who shows up to testify against it. They might be able to get rid of some more of the vermin.
I have heard the argument that it is the federal government’s responsibility to handle immigration. Those who oppose laws designed to stop this infestation have cited this a number of times. I believe that immigration is a federal responsibility but it is up to everyone to assist. Investigating bank robberies is a federal function but that does not preclude law enforcement from the states helping out. In any event, how about each state pass its own laws that say they will not allow ILLEGALS to be in the state and that they are allowed to check that at any time. Perhaps the states can not deport the ILLEGALS but they can arrest them for being ILLEGAL in that state and put them in jail for it. Perhaps the states could deport them to safe havens like San Francisco.
Regardless of how it plays out, one town in Texas has had enough and has decided to do what the federal government refuses to. This might be thrown out in court but we will never have success in thwarting the hoards of ILLEGALS unless we take a stand and try something new.
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Rights for Illegal Immigrants
May 1, 2007 Immigration
Last year on the first of May (a Communist holiday) a lot of immigrants in this country walked off their jobs in order to protest US immigration policy. The ILLEGALS have their panties in a wad because the US will not grant automatic and immediate citizenship to people who broke the law to get here. These folks nonetheless are fighting for what they say are their rights. They want rights!!!
Today, much the same was supposed to happen but it appears that extremely small crowds turned out. It would seem that the protesters learned form last year’s protest. Last year immigrants vowed to cripple the American economy by leaving their jobs to protest. When America continued to thrive and went on with business as usual the immigrants learned that they are not as vital as they want us to believe. This year they had token crowds shouting and demanding their rights. Either the protesters learned their lesson or were afraid that immigration officials would be on hand to arrest them. In any event, there were much fewer of these parasites out demanding their rights. However, since the Big Dog believes in people getting their rights, let me help the law breakers out:
You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say (no matter what language) may be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney and if you can not afford one (get real) one will be appointed for you (and as usual American taxpayers will foot your bill).
There you have it, the only rights to which an ILLEGAL is entitled.
Source:
al-Reuters