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Immigration Tag

Wisconsin is trying to take measures to deal with illegal immigration and sanctuary cities. Naturally, detractors are describing the initiatives as racist and anti-immigrant. As a result, thousands of protesters showed up at the Wisconsin capitol yesterday, reminiscent of the anti-Walker protests of several years ago. Here's what it looked like in 2011, in case you've forgotten:

James Traub writes in Foreign Policy on the situation facing Sweden in its attempt to absorb the recent wave of Syrian/Iraqi/Afghan newcomers. At the outset of the article, the author may seem to be leaning towards blaming Europe for not being more magnanimous, and to be making a false analogy to WWII refugees---who may indeed have been from other countries, but who nevertheless were part of the same basic Judeo-Christian culture as the Swedes and held pretty much the same values. But that's actually not at all the direction in which the article ultimately goes, nor is it the way a lot of people in Sweden seem to be going at this point. And the trend may continue. But it's hard to talk about it in Sweden:
Diana Janse, a former diplomat and now the senior foreign policy advisor to the Moderate Party (which Swedes view as “conservative”), pointed out to me that some recent generations of Swedish refugees, including Somalis, had been notably unsuccessful joining the job market. How, she wondered, will the 10,000-20,000 young Afghan men who had entered Sweden as “unaccompanied minors” fare? How would they behave in the virtual absence of young Afghan women? But she could barely raise these questions in political debate. “We have this expression in Swedish, asiktskorridor,” she said. “It means ‘opinion corridor’ — the views you can’t move outside of.” Merely to ask whether Sweden could integrate Afghans today as it had Bosnians two decades before was to risk accusations of racism.

Amid a massive refugee crisis, the diplomatic relations between Germany and Poland have reached a post-WWII low. German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s EU-backed proposal to distribute large number of newly arriving Arab and North African migrants across Europe has been met with stiff resistance from the recently elected Polish government. The rhetoric coming from Germany has turned especially hostile in recent months. Leading members of Merkel’s government have talked about taking “punitive measures” against Poland and placing the country “under supervision.” Germany’s Deputy Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel has also called for economic sanctions against EU-members who refure to “shoulder the burden” and accept their “fair share” of migrants.

The refugee crisis in Europe is causing a huge number of problems for European governments and people, and now British "anarchists" from No Borders have traveled to Calais to incite refugees to violence. The Daily Mail reports:

British anarchists were among some 35 people under arrest in Calais on Sunday after leading a 'scandalous' invasion of the ferry port by some 500 migrants.

Not only did the thugs tear down security fences and threaten violence, but they also defaced a statue of France's wartime leader and former president Charles de Gaulle.

Masked agitators from the left-wing group No Borders were filmed during the trouble on Saturday afternoon as they tried to get people to the UK.

Apparently, the "anarchists" were attempting to force officials to allow the "migrants" to enter the UK.

The Mail continues:

The U.S. Supreme Court this morning granted a Petition by the U.S. government for review of lower court decisions putting a halt to Obama's executive immigration action. That action halted deportation for up to 5 million people in the country illegally. Our prior posts have the background: Interestingly, the Order granting Certiorari added a constitutional issue to the case. The lower courts had decided it based on Obama administration failure to follow proper administrative procedure: Texas Immigration Case Supreme Court Order granting Cert. ScotusBlog summarizes today's action and what is to follow:

The timing could not have been more eerie. As Germany faces its biggest social and political crisis since the Second World War, Hitler’s Mein Kampf has again hit German bookstores. After 70 years, Germans once again have a chance of legally owning the vicious rants of this notorious Austrian-born psychopath -- in a hard bound version for €58,99. The recent migration from Middle East and North Africa did not only increase the level of antisemitism in Germany, it has also given a new lease of life to Neo-Nazi outfits. Last year, Charlotte Knobloch, the former President of Jewish umbrella group the Central Council of Jews in Germany, warned member of the tiny Jewish community in the country to "avoid being recognizable as Jews" in public, calling this the most perilous time for Jews to be in Germany since 1945. Charlotte Knobloch (83), a Holocaust survivor herself, knows what she is talking about.

Marco Rubio has taken a lot of heat for his work with Chuck Schumer and the Gang of Eight, so it's a bit surprising that only this morning he's arguing that illegal aliens can stay in the U.S. as long as they are not felons, specifically excluding the violation of our immigration laws. Politico reports:
Sen. Marco Rubio says people who immigrated to the U.S. illegally but haven’t committed any major crimes could be allowed to stay. In an interview airing Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” the Florida contender for the Republican presidential nomination said felons shouldn’t be allowed to stay, but those who commit lesser crimes could still qualify. In this interview, he didn’t specify whether those allowed to stay would ever be able to become citizens. “If you’re a criminal alien, no, you can’t stay. If you’re someone that hasn’t been here for a very long time, you can’t stay,” he said. “I don’t think you’re gonna round up and deport 12 million people.”
The DC Caller has more:
Todd then asked Rubio, “Let me ask you on the 11 million [illegal immigrants already in America], are you still for finding a way for them to legally stay in the United States?”

Newly released documents from the State Department indicate the U.S. government has known Islamic extremists have been entering the country via Mexico for over ten years.

A cable obtained by Judicial Watch under the Freedom of Information Act shows the U.S. was aware of "smuggling networks" that specialize in the trafficking of suspected Islamic extremists across the U.S.-Mexico border. The 2004 cable was sent to the State Department by the American Consulate in Juarez, Mexico.

Perhaps most alarming was the mention of a top Al Qaeda operative by the name of Adnan el Shukrijumah. The 2004 cable indicates the U.S. had human intelligence leading to his "exact whereabouts." It was not until December of 2014 - ten years later - that Shukrijumah would be captured (or in this case, killed in Pakistan).

Shukrijumah was described by FBI as "a grave danger to the security of the United States" and had ties to 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed as well as to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Among other acts domestic and abroad, he helped plot the 2009 foiled bombing of Oprah Winfrey's Chicago studios and the Sears Tower.

Something maddening is happening in the European and Nordic countries which have opened their doors to millions of refugees from Muslim countries. Women of the host countries were sexually assaulted in numerous cities during holiday celebrations by refugees and it's being ignored in some cases and even covered up in others. In Sweden, these attacks have allegedly been going on for months. The Times of Israel reports:
Swedish police take flak for covering up refugee sex attacks Swedish police were criticized on Monday after admitting they failed to release information about alleged sexual assaults against women by young immigrants at a Stockholm summer music festival over the past two years. There were 38 reports of rape and sexual assault filed after the We Are Sthlm festival, which uses the postal abbreviation for Stockholm, in 2014 and 2015, according to police.

Back in November, Donald Trump asserted that if elected president he would have a "humane deportation force" to round up all illegal immigrants and deport them.  This statement is now being used in interviews with other presidential candidates who are opposed to amnesty and want to close the border and enforce existing immigration law. For example, in a Sunday interview, CNN's Jake Tapper harangued Ted Cruz on Trump's concept of a "deportation force." Watch:

Ted Cruz's video ad, Invasion, is getting a lot of attention for the scenes of suits running across the border. But it's not the key moment in the video. That key moment comes when the screen splits to view Marco Rubio next to Cruz, with a cotton-mouth expression on his face as Cruz slams the economic impact of illegal immigration: Marco Rubio Ted Cruz Invasion Video

The strains are showing throughout Europe from the current wave of migration from Muslim lands. The latest to bow to reality are Sweden and Denmark, which just implemented border controls. The Christian Science Monitor reports:
Denmark and Sweden tightened their borders on Monday in efforts to stem the flow of migrants entering Scandinavia from Germany. Just hours after Swedish rules went into effect requiring train passengers traveling from Denmark to show ID, the Danish government announced it had beefed up border controls with Germany as of noon Monday (1100 GMT, 6 a.m. EST). "We are introducing temporary border controls, but in a balanced way," Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen told reporters in Copenhagen, adding there would be no problem for "ordinary" Danes and Germans to cross the border.

Border Patrol agents at Texas' Rio Grande Valley Processing Center spent part of Christmas Day with unaccompanied immigrant minors. According to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection:
“These children are thousands of miles from home, and most of them are essentially alone for the holidays as they came here without their parents or another family member,” said Chief Patrol Agent Manuel Padilla Jr. “Christmas is a tough time to be without your family, so management at the CPC got together and raised money to purchase gifts for the kids and help make Christmas better for them.”

This is no surprise, particularly given the dismal economic situation in upstate NY. The government under pressure from political activists shut down any hope of fracking even though it works fine elsewhere and has kept parts of Pennsylvania economically alive for years; regulations and taxes are strangling businesses; and almost every day brings a news story about how much more control the state wants over our lives. So people continue to leave. (h/t @michellemalkin) The Albany Times Union reports on the large outflow, offset only by immigrants and immigrant children:
Once again more people are leaving New York State than arriving here, at least when it comes to people moving from one state to another. The Empire Center is out with findings, based on periodic Census updates, that “During the 12 months ending last July 1, 153,921 more residents moved out of New York than moved into it from other states.” ....

Just before Christmas, it was quietly announced that the Obama administration is going to deport a significant number of illegal immigrants after the holidays. That presents a political problem for Hillary Clinton, who will have to choose a side in a no-win scenario. The Washington Post reported:
U.S. plans raids to deport families who surged across border The Department of Homeland Security has begun preparing for a series of raids that would target for deportation hundreds of families who have flocked to the United States since the start of last year, according to people familiar with the operation. The nationwide campaign, to be carried out by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents as soon as early January, would be the first large-scale effort to deport families who have fled violence in Central America, those familiar with the plan said. More than 100,000 families with both adults and children have made the journey across the southwest border since last year, though this migration has largely been overshadowed by a related surge of unaccompanied minors.

Last week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel received a rockstar reception at her conservative party CDU's annual convention in Karlsruhe. Merkel received a nine-minute-long standing ovation from the party delegates for a speech in which she refused to put a fixed limit on migrant intake. Germany is expecting to take as many as 1.5 million migrant this year. With each migrant expected to bring 4-8 family member in the short-term, the real number for 2015 alone could be well over 7 million. However, some odd 30 party delegates dared to question Merkel's stand on mass migration -- out of roughly 3000 attending delegates. That's 99 percent approval by the party cadre for Merkel's open border policy. Even Stalin-era purges didn't East-German dictators that level of support. The British newspaper Independent reports:
[I]n her keynote address to more than 3,000 Christian Democrat (CDU) delegates at a party congress in Karlsruhe, Ms Merkel effectively threw down the gauntlet to the rest of Europe and insisted that it share the burden in helping to solve the problem. “We face the biggest refugee crisis since the Second World War,” she told the party faithful. Appealing to other EU members for help she called for solidarity, saying that Europe faced a “historic test” and insisting: “The fight for a unified Europe is worthwhile – of that I am deeply convinced.” Ms Merkel conceded that overcoming the problems facing Germany, which has accepted over a million migrants in 2015 alone, amounted to a “giant task”. But the Chancellor flatly refused to accept demands from within her own ranks to set an “upper limit” on the migrant influx, or for the installation of Berlin Wall-style fortifications and controls on Germany’s borders.

There's been quite a bit of drama surrounding the Marco Rubio - Ted Cruz exchange on immigration during the CNN debate and the Rubio-Schumer Gang of Eight immigration bill. Bret Baier's interview with Cruz following the CNN debate skirmish allowed Cruz to explain his rationale for proposing an amendment (one of several) that, had it been approved—and Cruz knew it would not be, would have legalized millions of illegals. When Cruz explains his "poison pill" amendment, it becomes clear that he was being not only smart but also quite savvy (and ultimately, and all that matters to me, successful in quashing the Rubio-Schumer amnesty bill). The amendment that Rubio is touting is an amendment that included the stipulation that no illegal immigrant would ever get citizenship.  Under any circumstances.  Cruz obviously knew that Rubio and the other Gang of Eight members would never agree to such a proposition when a path to citizenship was a key driver in their bill.