Immigration Reform?

Well, I suppose deciding to enforce laws the way you want is a kind of reform. Read the original here.

Obama to deport illegals by 'priority'
Washington Times:

Bowing to pressure from immigrant rights activists, the Obama administration said Thursday that it will halt deportation proceedings on a case-by-case basis against illegal immigrants who meet certain criteria, such as attending school, having family in the military or having primary responsible for other family members’ care.

The move marks a major step for President Obama, who for months has said he does not have broad categorical authority to halt deportations and said he must follow the laws as Congress has written them.

But in letters to Congress on Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said she does have discretion to focus on “priorities” and that her department and the Justice Department will review all ongoing cases to see who meets the new criteria.

“This case-by-case approach will enhance public safety,” she said. “Immigration judges will be able to more swiftly adjudicate high-priority cases, such as those involving convicted felons.”

The move won immediate praise from Hispanic activists and Democrats who had strenuously argued with the administration that it did have authority to take these actions, and said as long asCongress is deadlocked on the issue, it was up to Mr. Obama to act.

“Today’s announcement shows that this president is willing to put muscle behind his words and to use his power to intervene when the lives of good people are being ruined by bad laws,” said Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez, Illinois Democrat, who has taken a leadership role on the issue since the death of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy in 2009.

The new rules apply to those who have been apprehended and are in deportation proceedings, but have not been officially ordered out of the country by a judge.

Ms. Napolitano said a working group will try to come up with “guidance on how to provide for appropriate discretionary consideration” for “compelling cases” in instances where someone already has been ordered deported.

Administration officials made the announcement just before Mr. Obama left for a long vacation out of Washington, and as members of Congress are back in their home districts.

The top House Republican on the Judiciary Committee said the move is part of a White House plan “to grant backdoor amnesty to illegal immigrants.”

“The Obama administration should enforce immigration laws, not look for ways to ignore them,” said Rep. Lamar Smith, Texas Republican. “The Obama administration should not pick and choose which laws to enforce. Administration officials should remember the oath of office they took to uphold the Constitution and the laws of the land.”

Immigration legislation has been stalled in Congress for years as the two parties have sparred over what to include.

Republicans generally favor stricter enforcement and a temporary program that would allow workers in the country for some time, but eventually return to their home countries. Democrats want the legislation to include legalization of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants now in the country, and want the future guest-worker program to also include a path to citizenship so those workers can stay permanently.

Since 2007, when the issue stalled in the Senate, more than 1 million illegal immigrants have been deported.

Democrats said those deportations are breaking up families and that it’s an unfair punishment for a broken system.

Hispanic voters are a key voter bloc as Mr. Obama seeks re-election next year, but many of them felt he broke his promise to them to work on legislation once he took office. Thursday’s move already was paying dividends as Hispanic advocacy groups praised the steps.

“After more than two years of struggle, demonstrations, direct actions and other activities, the administration has signaled that they are capable of delivering direct relief for immigrant families,” said Casa de Maryland, a pro-immigrant group. “We eagerly await confirmation from community members that their families can now expect to remain together.”

Two years ago, some staffers at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services had prepared a draft memo arguing that the administration retained broad powers that could serve “as a non-legislative version of ‘amnesty.’ “

But agency leaders and others in the administration had argued that the memo was inaccurate.

It was unclear Thursday how many people might be affected by the new rules. Pressure groups said up to 300,000 people could be eligible. In fiscal year 2010 alone, the government deported nearly 200,000 illegal immigrants who it said did not have criminal records.

Given the case-by-case basis of Thursday’s announcement, though, the groups said the actual number of people allowed to stay could be far lower.

In June, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency that handles interior immigration law enforcement, issued guidance expanding authority to decline to prosecute illegal immigrants. The goal, ICE leaders said, was to focus on catching illegal immigrants who have committed other crimes or are part of gangs.

The chief beneficiaries of the guidance are likely to be immigrant students who would have been eligible for legal status under the Dream Act, which stalled in Congress last year.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, who asked Homeland Security this year to exempt illegal-immigrant students from deportation, said the move will free up immigration courts to handle cases involving serious criminals.

© Copyright 2011 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.

Some people want a 51st state....

...and not Puerto Rico. Read the original here.

Liberals In Southern Arizona Seek To Form New State

TUCSON, Arizona (Reuters) - A long-simmering movement by liberal stalwarts in southern Arizona to break away from the rest of the largely conservative state is at a boiling point as secession backers press to bring their longshot ambition to the forefront of Arizona politics.

A group of lawyers from the Democratic stronghold of Tucson and surrounding Pima County have launched a petition drive seeking support for a November 2012 ballot question on whether the 48th state should be divided in two.

The ultimate goal of the newly formed political action committee Start our State is to split Pima County off into what would become the nation's 51st state, tentatively dubbed Baja Arizona.

Backers have until July 5 next year to collect the 48,000 signatures required to qualify for a spot on the ballot. If they succeed, it would mark only the first hurdle in a long, circuitous process that even the most determined of supporters readily acknowledge has little chance of bearing fruit.

"We at least need to get it on the ballot, as a nonbinding resolution, to ask the people of Pima County if they want to be a part of Arizona," Tucson attorney Paul Eckerstrom, a former Pima County Democratic chairman who launched the campaign, told Reuters. "All the stars would have to align for this to happen, but it could conceivably happen by the fall of 2013."

U.S. history is replete with efforts to carve one state from another -- from the creation of Kentucky and Tennessee in the 1790s to more modern misfires like proposals to partition Long Island from New York or to split California in half.

The last successful intrastate secession movement was the formation of West Virginia during the Civil War.

SIZE MATTERS

Although Baja Arizona would be created from just a single county, it would hardly rank as the smallest territory to be granted statehood. Pima County exceeds Rhode Island, Delaware, Connecticut and New Jersey in land mass and surpasses several other states in population, including Alaska, Montana, Wyoming or the Dakotas, according to the U.S. Census.

Partisan tensions have long been a fact of life between left-leaning Pima County and a Phoenix-based political establishment that has produced such conservative giants as Barry Goldwater and John McCain.

But the rift was heightened during the past two years as Republican Governor Jan Brewer and her allies in control of the statehouse pursued a political agenda Democrats saw as extreme, including a crackdown on illegal immigration and proposals, ultimately unsuccessful, to nullify some federal laws.

State lawmaker Ted Vogt, a Republican who represents about one-fifth of Pima County residents, dismissed the breakaway movement as posturing by disgruntled Democrats who see themselves losing clout in state politics.

The county's three mostly rural, Republican-leaning House districts are growing, and so is their influence, Vogt said.

"I don't think a majority of Pima County residents want to leave Arizona," he told Reuters.

Even Tucson's best-known Democrat, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, had to fight tooth and nail to fend of a Republican challenge in her bid for a third term in November.

The ballot measure sought by Arizona secession backers is a nonbinding measure asking Pima County voters if they support petitioning state lawmakers for permission to break away.

Before secession could occur, it would have to be approved separately by the Legislature, and by a second, binding referendum by residents of the proposed state.

If the Legislature refused, organizers could try to sidestep lawmakers with a statewide referendum. If both the Legislature and Pima County voters agreed, then it would be up to the U.S. Congress to grant Baja Arizona formal statehood.

The modern concept of Baja Arizona dates back to 1965, according to Hugh Holub, a local attorney widely credited with coining the term that year during anti-war protests at the University of Arizona. He supports the current effort.

"It sure sends a message to the rest of the world that we aren't like the folks in Maricopa (County)," he said, referring to the state's population center and capital.

But a more historical precedent can be found in Arizona's origins as a U.S. territory, more than half a century before statehood was granted in 1912. The northern bulk of Arizona was ceded by Mexico to the United States in 1848, six years before the lower portion of the territory, south of the Gila River, was separately acquired in 1854 under the Gadsden Purchase.

"It should have been its own state from the get-go," Holub said.

(Editing by Steve Gorman and Greg McCune)

San Francisco, sanctuary city for identify thiefs

San Francisco is issuing ID cards to any individual who lives in the city. These would be usable for a variety of services and would exclude gender identification, would be issued without regard to legal immigration status, and would require only a very simple determination of residence such as a bill. According to some reports, they may even exclude photographs. They would not be matched with legal name identifications, so even if you change your name legally you could obtain an id with your old name or even with a completely different, made-up name.

What's really upsetting about this has to do with how it will affect banking. I have serious issues with ID cards that are accepted for banking which:

1. Are so easy to obtain that you only need a phone bill to obtain one.
2. Do not have a photograph.
3. Do not match the name on state issued ID cards.
4. Are issued to individuals who the Federal government has not had a chance to ensure are not terrorists or drug smugglers.
5. Are not subjected to ensuring that the name matches the legal name of the card holder.

This is such a ridiculously large hole in financial protections afforded to banks that it's shocking. The ability for con artists, identity thieves, and defrauders to operate easily in San Francisco leads one to expect massive increases in white collar crime.

San Fransisco approves ID cards that exclude gender
USA Today

Next year, San Francisco will issue municipal identifications cards showing the usual name, birthday, and photo.

What the card won't include: gender.

When other cities considered issuing ID cards without regard to legal status, the debate was over illegal immigrants. In San Francisco, where the Board of Supervisors approved such an ID on Tuesday, transgender activists added gender to the discussion.

"Transgender" is a broad term for people who do not identify with their birth sex. Those who refer to themselves as transgender include cross-dressers and transsexuals.

Why isn't this obvious?

Nancy Pelosi is attempting to block legislation to allow companies to require that their employees speak a common language. I frankly have no idea how anyone could possibly have a problem with this. The ability to communicate within a company is essential. How can you work with someone if you don't speak the same language? Were I to get a job for Volkswagen and the requirement was that I speak German, then I'd sure as hell better learn German. Communication within a company is essential. Trying to require companies to hire employees who can't communicate with each other is ridiculous.

Mi Casa, Su Casa
Nancy Pelosi tries to force the Salvation Army to hire people who can't speak English
Opinion Journal for The Wall Street Journal

It's been less than a week since New York Sen. Hillary Clinton and Gov. Eliot Spitzer had to climb down from their support of driver's licenses for illegal aliens. Now House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has moved to kill an amendment that would protect employers from federal lawsuits for requiring their workers to speak English. Among the employers targeted by such lawsuits: The Salvation Army.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, a moderate Republican from Tennessee, is dumbstruck that legislation he views as simple common sense would be blocked. He noted that the full Senate passed his amendment to shield the Salvation Army by 75-19 last month, and the House followed suit with a 218-186 vote last month. "I cannot imagine that the framers of the 1964 Civil Rights Act intended to say that it's discrimination for a shoe shop owner to say to his or her employee, 'I want you to be able to speak America's common language on the job,'" he told the Senate last Thursday.

But that's exactly what the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is trying to do. In March the EEOC sued the Salvation Army because its thrift store in Framingham, Mass., required its employees to speak English on the job. The requirement was clearly posted and employees were given a year to learn the language. The EEOC claimed the store had fired two Hispanic employees for continuing to speak Spanish on the job. It said that the firings violated the law because the English-only policy was not "relevant" to job performance or safety.

"If it's not relevant, it is discriminatory, it is gratuitous, it is subterfuge to discriminate against people based on national origin," says Rep. Charles Gonzalez of Texas, one of several Hispanic Democrats in the House who threatened to block Ms. Pelosi's attempts to curtail the Alternative Minimum Tax unless she killed the Alexander amendment.

If this doesn't prove the point...

If this story doesn't prove that our immigration system is broken, nothing does. An illegal immigrant whose family members are under indictment for funding the terrorist group Hezbollah was able to obtain sensitive jobs at the CIA and FBI. She was then able to use those positions to look into the government's investigation of her family's alleged illegal acts.

If this doesn't show that we have a very serious problem with immigration and identity, then I don't know what will. Why we have any objection at all to biometric identifications in light of this is completely beyond me.

Fake U.S. citizen got FBI secrets from files
Hiring missed La Shish, terror links
Detroit Free Press

In an embarrassing breach of national security, a former metro Detroit woman whose family is suspected of having links to a Lebanese terrorist group got sensitive jobs at the FBI and CIA despite being an illegal immigrant, authorities said Tuesday.

Worse, they said, Nada Nadim Prouty, 37, of Vienna, Va., used her position at the FBI to access a classified computer system to find out whether she or her family members -- including fugitive La Shish restaurant chain owner Tatal Chahine -- were being investigated for terrorist activities. She also took home classified FBI information.

Prouty accessed the system a second time to find out about a Detroit-based investigation involving Hizballah.

Prouty, who resigned from the CIA last week, pleaded guilty to the charges Tuesday in Detroit.

No one is going to deport 12 million illegals

A CNN story reports on the recent ICE estimate of the costs for detaining and deporting all 12 million illegal immigrants. The total cost $94 billion.

This adds to the existing moral and anecdotal reasons that a full-scale deportation of all illegals in the U.S. is impractical, if it were even possible. There is no way that the U.S. can afford to deport every illegal immigrant and, even if they could, we have still proven that we can't close the border.

The solution, then, isn't dealing with the individuals. The solution is dealing with why they come here. The issue is two-fold: the poor economy in foreign countries, high crime rates, poor education, and political corruption combine to give people scant job opportunities, and jobs in the U.S. are available to illegal immigrants.

If we want to end the problem of the massive sieve in our borders and want to end the problem of people living illegally within our country, we need to deal with these two issues. First, we need to implement core reforms which will prevent those who are illegal from working here. If you take away the jobs, they'll have no reason to come. This can be done by enhanced enforcement, larger fines for those found to be violating the laws, a centralized database which indicates is tied biometrically to an individual and holds information as to if an individual can legally work, and enforcing laws against tax evasion, identity theft, and filing fraudulent tax documents. Secondly, we need to work with the governments of Third World countries to enhance outlook in them by assisting with education, infrastructure, and economic development.

The problems will never be solved by rounding people up, splitting up families, and deporting individuals The only way to solve the problem is the address the issues which drive it.

ICE: Tab to remove illegal residents would approach $100 billion
CNN

WASHINGTON -- It would cost at least $94 billion to find, detail, and remove all 12 million people believe to be staying illegally in the United States, the federal government estimated Wednesday.

Julie Myers, the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, gave the figure during a hearing before a Senate committee Wednesday.

She acknowledged it was based on "very rough calculations."

An ICE spokesman later said the $94 billion did not include the cost of finding illegal immigrants, nor court costs -- dollar amounts that are largely unknowable.

So much hypocrisy

Lou Dobbs has penned an impassioned column for CNN which admonishes Mexican President Calderon for his apparent hypocrisy regarding illegal immigration. His charge of hypocrisy is based on Calderon's earlier statements that the difference between him and his opponent is that he believes in the "rule of law."

Dobbs does not take the charge far enough. A much better comparison is the plight of Central Americans who immigrate illegally to Mexico. Last year, the San Diego Union-Tribune had an article detailing the treatment of illegals in Mexico, where illegal immigration is treated as a felony. The hypocrisy is not the difference between Calderon's statements supporting the "rule of law" and his calls to respect the lawmakers in the U.S., but rather between the Mexican government's reprehensible treatment of illegals in Mexico and their demands for benighted treatment of illegals in the United States.

Dobbs: Mexican president's blatant hypocrisy
CNN

NEW YORK -- Mexican President Felipe Calderon Sunday demanded the United States surrender its sovereignty, abandon the rule of law and accede to Mexico's inherent supremacy.

In his state of the union address to the Mexican nation, Calderon established his imperialistic imperatives: "I have said that Mexico does not stop at its border, that wherever there is a Mexican, there is Mexico. And, for this reason, the government action on behalf of our countrymen is guided by principles, for the defense and protection of their rights."

Calderon protested the United States government's increased raids on illegal employers of illegal alien employees and work site enforcement. In what is little more than a faint nod to the Bush administration's responsibility to enforce U.S. immigration law, the Department of Homeland Security had planned to send out notices to employers from the Social Security Administration informing them of non-matching records between an employees name and Social Security number. These employers would then be forced to resolve any discrepancy within 90 days or be required to dismiss the employee or face up to $10,000 in fines for knowing hiring illegal immigrants.

But then, ethnocentric advocacy groups and some labor unions, trying to bolster their membership, sued to stop the crackdown on hiring illegal alien workers. A federal judge in California last week issued a temporary restraining order blocking the plan, giving a victory to the AFL-CIO, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the National Immigration Law Center, all of which brought the suit alleging DHS exceeded its authority in making the rule.

Then treat her like an identity thief

Elvira Arellano has asked the President of Mexico to grant her a diplomatic post so she can return to the U.S. She wants to stop the federal government from treating her, in her words, like a "terrorist." I would agree that she shouldn't be treated like a terrorist. SHe should, however, be charged with the numerous felonies she has admitted to committing, including multiple counts of identity theft and filing fraudulent tax documents.

Deported Mexican migrant mom asks Mexican president to return to US as peace ambassador
The International Herald Tribune

MEXICO CITY: The recently deported illegal migrant and activist who took refuge in a Chicago church for a year, has asked the Mexico's president to appoint her "peace and justice" ambassador so she can return to the United States.

Elvira Arellano, 32, who sought refuge to avoid being separated from her U.S.-born, 8-year-old son, was arrested and sent back to Mexico on Aug. 19 after travelling to Los Angeles to attend a rally for the overhaul of U.S. immigration laws. Her son stayed in the United States.

"What I'm asking for is a diplomatic visa so that I can be an ambassador for peace and justice because I'm not a terrorist and the United States can't continue treating undocumented migrants as terrorists," Arellano told reporters after meeting with President Felipe Calderon at the presidential residence, Los Pinos.

In a news release, the president's office said Arellano asked the Mexican government to help her get a visa so she can enter the United States but it did not mention Arellano's request for a diplomatic appointment.

Quote of the Day

"We are obsessed with the undocumented aliens who are unskilled, but there is a major crisis with our skilled labor. It would be a national tragedy if they went back. We have our eyes focused on the wrong ball."

- Robert Litan, vice president of research at the Kauffman Foundation

It's so refreshing to see that the government is focused on making life easier for unskilled immigrants who jumped ahead in line, are either committing fraud or tax evasion, and snuck into the country illegally. I mean, why bother trying to bring in the highly-skilled, intelligent individuals who have worked through the system, have skills and abilities our country needs, and are living here legally?

1 Million Skilled Workers Stick in 'Immigration Limbo'
ABC News

Eight years ago, India-born Sacheen Kamath was hired by a U.S. technology start-up that was so successful it was quickly gobbled up by a California networking giant.

Although Kamath's work as a computer engineer has been stellar - he's led the development of a next-generation networking product - his life here has begun to fall apart.

With his temporary visa, he can't get a promotion because any change in his job description, or even his salary, would force him to reapply for a new visa. The temporary status makes it difficult to plan ahead and do simple things like look for a new job or even buy a house.

Kamath's wife is unhappy because under his visa she is considered a dependent and cannot work. It's a stressful situation, enough so that he has developed hypertension.

Kamath is caught in "immigration limbo" - like 1 million other talented legal immigrants waiting for a mere 140,000 permanent residency visas that are parsed out each year to highly skilled workers.

He applied for his so-called green card, which would give him legal resident status, in 2004, but when his company was bought out, he was forced to reapply, throwing him to the back of the line, meaning another four- to five-year wait.

Now Kamath wants to take his expertise and brain power home to India.

Does this mean Mexico will stop prosecuting Guatemalan illegals?

A Mexican Senate committee has passed a resolution in support of Elvira Arellano, who was recently deported back to her native Mexico. Ms. Arellano, remember, was the identity thief who sought sanctuary in a Chicago church for a year in an attempt to fight deportation. She was not charged with the numerous instances wherein she committed fraud and identity theft.

I do find it odd, however, that Mexican officials are so enthusiastic about supporting illegal emigrants to the United States when the government is so enthusiastic about punishing illegal immigrants from Guatemala.

Mexican Senate sides with mom deported from USA
USA Today

MEXICO CITY (AP) - A Mexican Senate committee passed a measure Wednesday urging President Felipe Calderon to send a diplomatic note to the United States protesting the deportation of an illegal migrant who took refuge in a Chicago church for a year.

The committee also approved a scholarship to help her 8-year-old U.S.-born son, Saul, who is an American citizen and stayed in the United States.

Elvira Arellano, 32, became an activist and a national symbol for illegal immigrant parents by defying her deportation order and speaking out from her sanctuary in the Adalberto United Methodist Church. She announced last week that she was leaving to try to lobby U.S. lawmakers for immigration reform.

On Sunday, shortly after she spoke at a rally in a Los Angeles church, she was arrested and deported to Tijuana, across the border from San Diego.

"We cannot remain quiet in view of this injustice and must ask for firm action from our authorities," Mexican Sen. Humberto Zazue said.

Quote of the Day

"Cheaper housing, coupled with higher wages for the unskilled. In the long run that sounds like a good combination, even if some of Jim Cramer's friends lose their jobs in the transition."

- Mickey Kaus on Slate.com, speaking about the housing bubble burst and it's relation to the recent crackdown on illegal immigration.

It should be obvious

Two illegal immigrants were charged in the killing of three promising college students in Newark.

This should have an obvious solution. If you're not screening immigrants, and allowing anyone who bothers to sneak over the border illegally and then live in this country through criminal means - either through direct criminal means like theft, drug dealing, and prostitution, or through identity theft, governmental fraud, or tax evasion - you're going to be unable to prevent criminals from entering the country.

Certainly, illegal immigrants are no more likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans. That isn't the point. The point is that by screening for criminals and those with violent pasts or lacking in job skills, we can eliminate some of the imported violence and that's something we're not doing.

We need immigrants coming into this country to make it work. However, if we're allowing immigrants into the country and immigrants desperately want to come here, why aren't we being selective about the ones who get here and keeping the violence ones out?

Newark Crime Spurs Immigration Debate
ABC News

Melvin Jovel, an illegal immigrant from Honduras, was arraigned this morning for the shocking execution-style killings of three promising college students in Newark, N.J., this month.

Fellow illegal immigrant Jose Carranza, from Peru, is already in custody for the shooting, and was arrested twice before this incident.

Their residency status has pushed this crime into the national debate over illegal immigration, with conservatives pointing to Newark as a sanctuary city that is hospitable to illegal immigrants. "Newark and it's political leadership share a degree of culpability...their actions have directly contributed to the deaths of these promising American kids," stated presidential candidate Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colorado.

"There is no excuse for city, county, and state governments to not have a rule that when you pick someone up for a felony, you automatically check to see if they're here illegally, or if, in fact, they are illegally in the United States," said former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich.

Identity thief sent back to Mexico

The illegal immigrant who was taking sanctuary in a church has been sent back to Mexico. Strangely, despite her arrest under an identity theft charge, working under another person's social security government, the government has declined to prosecute her for this fraud. I'm not sure why people are rallying around someone who has committed fraud against the government and stolen someone else's identity but the rallying point for the illegal immigration movement probably shouldn't be a criminal.

I just don't understand why we're flocking to grant amnesty to individuals who, like Ms. Arellano, are committing fraud to tax evasion instead of expanding the number of legal, law abiding immigrants. If we truly have all these jobs that American's won't do - often found to be an inaccurate description of the events - then what's wrong with selectively attracting the best qualified individuals who aren't identity thieves or tax evaders?

Immigration Activist Deported to Mexico
ABC News

An illegal immigrant who took refuge in a Chicago church for a year to avoid being separated from her U.S.-born son has been deported to Mexico, the church's pastor said.

Elvira Arellano became an activist and a national symbol for illegal immigrant parents as she defied her deportation order and spoke out from her religious sanctuary. She held a news conference last week to announce that she would finally leave the church to try to lobby U.S. lawmakers for change.

She had just spoken at a Los Angeles rally when she was arrested Sunday outside Our Lady Queen of Angels church and deported, said the Rev. Walter Coleman, pastor of Adalberto United Methodist Church in Chicago, where Arellano had been living.

"She is free and in Tijuana," said Coleman, who said he spoke to her on the phone. "She is in good spirits. She is ready to continue the struggle against the separation of families from the other side of the border."

Illegals Pay Taxes?

Here's a question - if you're an illegal immigrant, how are you paying taxes? If you are illegal, you don't have a social security number. Perhaps I don't quite understand how taxes get paid, but the last time I checked you need a social security number for social security, income, and property taxes. Since illegals have no social security number, we are left with one of two situations:

1) They are not paying taxes, or

2) They are committing fraud.

Personally, I'm not sure that the illegal immigrant advocacy groups should be advertising the idea that massive numbers of illegal immigrants are committing fraud and identity theft by paying taxes.

Illegal Immigrants arrested in terror plot

Three illegal immigrants, along with two legal resident aliens and a United States citizen were arrested in connection with plotting an attack on a U.S. Army base. Of course, the idea that trying to stop people from illegally entering the country is racist as these people clearly not a threat to the United States.

Fort Dix Plot Called "New" Form of Terror
Federal Officials Say 6 Foreign-Born Suspects Were Their Own Terror Cell
CBS News

One drove a cab, three were roofers. Another worked at a 7-Eleven and a sixth at a supermarket. Their alleged plot to attack Fort Dix was foiled by another blue-collar worker: a video store clerk.

Six foreign-born Muslims were accused Tuesday of planning to assault the Army base and slaughter scores of U.S. soldiers with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades.

The unidentified clerk is being credited with tipping off authorities in January 2006 after one of the suspects asked him to transfer a video to DVD that showed 10 men shooting weapons at a firing range and calling for jihad, prosecutors said.

"If we didn't get that tip," said U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie, "I couldn't be sure what would happen." FBI agent J.P. Weis called the clerk the "unsung hero" of the case.

Authorities said there was no direct evidence connecting the men to any international terror organizations such as al Qaeda. But several of them said they were ready to kill and die "in the name of Allah," prosecutors said in court papers.

So much for objective journalism

A couple of quick items:

1) Does it really surprise anyone that a leftist journalist is taking overt sides? Does everyone forget the U.K.'s journalist union coming out in direct support of Palestinians against Israel?

2) I always find it ironic that these sorts of things are going on during May Day. It really shows the true intentions of the people running these things that they chose the largest Communist holiday to hold their rallies.

NBC cameraman flies Mexican flag at march
WorldNetDaily.com

A cameraman for the NBC affiliate in Houston was captured on home video sporting a Mexican flag on his camera while covering a rally in the Texas city that supported illegal immigrants, drawing angry shouts from counter-protesters.

In the first of two clips posted on YouTube, a counter-protester with a bullhorn can be heard condemning the cameraman's flag.

"Why Does Channel 2 News have a Mexican flag on their camera?" the man asked.

KPRC News Director Skip valet told WND the cameraman's flying of the Mexican flag broke station rules.

"It violates our policy, because we're always objective observers of these situations," Valet told WND. "We don't take sides in news stories, we cover them. That policy was clearly violated."