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Immigration Tag

Posted by Mike LaChance on July 20, 2014 13 Comments
If you're like most Americans, you may be wondering why the surge of illegal immigrants at the southern border happened all at once. People want to know the cause and what could have been done to prevent it. While answers have been scarce, the Washington Post has published a rather damning piece which claims that the Obama administration was warned ahead of time that this was going to happen. David Nakamura, Jerry Markon and Manuel Roig-Franzia contributed to this report:
Obama aides were warned of brewing border crisis Nearly a year before President Obama declared a humanitarian crisis on the border, a team of experts arrived at the Fort Brown patrol station in Brownsville, Tex., and discovered a makeshift transportation depot for a deluge of foreign children. Thirty Border Patrol agents were assigned in August 2013 to drive the children to off-site showers, wash their clothes and make them sandwiches. As soon as those children were placed in temporary shelters, more arrived. An average of 66 were apprehended each day on the border and more than 24,000 cycled through Texas patrol stations in 2013. In a 41-page report to the Department of Homeland Security, the team from the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) raised alarms about the federal government’s capacity to manage a situation that was expected to grow worse.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on July 20, 2014 9 Comments
Reports are beginning to surface from the 300-plus citizen-organized protests on July 18-19 focused on deep concerns about the immigration surge of supposed “refugees” swamping our border control resources, under the banner of the "National Days of Protest against Immigration Reform Amnesty & the Illegal Immigration Surge".
With a coalition of more than 50 groups and organizations of various sizes, protests against illegal immigration and the Obama inspired surge of illegals at America's borders took place in more than 300 locations. The protests were highly visible and some were small with a handful of people on overpasses with others being larger with hundreds of people.
The following report by J.D. Gallop in Florida Today is representative of many of the small-scale, but enthusiastically received, events.
Nearly a week after a social service agency announced it needs foster homes for Central American migrant children seeking asylum in the United States, protesters gathered alongside roadways near the government center to draw attention to the immigration crisis. "We got to stop the invasion of illegals and send them home now," said Connie Smith, one of the organizers of a rally that drew about 30 people to the four-way stop near the Brevard County Government Complex in Viera. ..The protesters – including one woman standing next to an upside down American flag she purchased at a yard sale - braved the noon day sun, holding up homemade signs reading "Path to Destruction" and "Send Them Home" as motorists honked horns and waved in support.
A Newscaller.com video from the Hesperia California event also offers a glimpse as to the style of these protests:

Posted by Leslie Eastman on July 17, 2014 18 Comments
While eyes are turned to Gaza and the Ukraine today, I wanted to offer some information about attempts to deal with a man-caused disaster on our own soil. Citizens across the country are organizing a series of protests addressing the immigration surge of supposed "refugees" swamping our border control resources. Over 250 events are being organized over the next new days, which include 41 locations in California, 34 in Texas, and 20 in Florida.
The purpose of the protest is to raise awareness of the impacts of illegal immigration and to show opposition to the administration's handling of the recent border surge of illegal alien youth. The events will take place in various cities around the country on the July 18th and 19th. Deemed the "National Days of Protest against Immigration Reform Amnesty & the Illegal Immigration Surge," the more than 300 protests currently scheduled nationwide will target state capitals and the offices of policy makers in support of amnesty programs and increasing levels of legal immigration. Political activist Paul Arnold is the organizer of this movement, and has received help in launching these protests from numerous grassroots organizations across the country.
In my home state, the 41 events include many small cities and Central Valley communities impacted by the surge directly. The ones in the Golden State's bigger locales are are follows:

Posted by New Neo on July 16, 2014 16 Comments
Obama is often criticized for refusing to enforce laws. But this time he's being criticized for enforcing the 2008 Act of Congress that requires that unaccompanied minors from countries other than Mexico and Canada be given special treatment. However, the bill in question---the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008---dealt with a very different set of circumstances and was never envisioned as applying to what's happening now. As its name suggests, it was aimed at stopping human trafficking, and only a small part of the law dealt with unaccompanied minors from other countries, and even that portion was written in the context of the children being presumed human trafficking victims. Back when the law was passed, there were no hordes of unaccompanied minors coming here from Central America in an attempt to gain entry on rumored promises of amnesty. Obama is also very inconsistent about his enforcement. He ignores the laws he doesn't like, or changes them, but with those that suit his purpose he falls back on the idea that he simply must obey the law. It's his intentionally selective enforcement that's the problem. In particular, if Obama enforced the laws on border security, Wilberforce wouldn't have become such a problem in the first place. Concerning Wilberforce, Charles Lane invokes the law of unintended consequences, legislative version:

Posted by New Neo on July 13, 2014 13 Comments
The Democratic Party creates its coalition by catering to a diverse group of ethnic interest groups, and sometimes the special interests of those special interest groups clash. In the following clip where people are talking about the border problems, we see a microcosm of the competing groups, as well as rifts within the black community itself. They may all be Democrats (it's hard to know for sure), but they demonstrate a diversity of opinion and a great intensity of feeling. The Vietnam vet has a quiet firmness, and the earnest younger man in the black shirt who says "This make no sense!" comes through loud and clear. It's true that our government's reaction to what's happening on the border makes no sense if we ordinary people look at it conventionally. But it makes plenty of sense to Obama and others in his party who think it will give them a permanent and unbeatable majority in the not-too-distant future, as well as placate the huge Hispanic voting bloc in the present. And if their formerly reliable ethnic group, African Americans, suffers as a result---well then, what are they going to do about it anyway? Turn Republican? After Democrats' successfully branding Republicans as racist for several decades, that would be a tough pill for many black people to swallow, and the Democrat know it. Towards the end of the tape, the soft-spoken guy on the right in the red shirt talks the hard leftist line of "Americans have caused all the ills of the world by interfering with it." Thank you, Howard Zinn! The young woman in the tank top with the thin straps counters him at the very end by saying the US does some good, too. It's a little microcosm of America, complete with the drumbeats of the Native American demonstrators who are using the occasion to air their grievances as well:

Posted by Amy Miller on July 12, 2014 11 Comments
The President would like you to know that your demands for him to lay eyes upon the wasteland of human degradation that is our southern border are nothing more than a blow to the dignity of the Office. This week, President Obama fielded a considerable amount of angst over his neglect of the U.S.-Mexico border. The President failed to go anywhere near the border during his recent fundraising trip to Texas, and when asked by the press why he was avoiding the area, he responded in kind:
Jeh Johnson has now visited, at my direction, the border five times. He’s going for a sixth this week. He then comes back and reports to me extensively on everything that's taking place. So there’s nothing that is taking place down there that I am not intimately aware of and briefed on. This isn’t theater. This is a problem. I’m not interested in photo-ops; I’m interested in solving a problem. And those who say I should visit the border, when you ask them what should we be doing, they're giving us suggestions that are embodied in legislation that I’ve already sent to Congress. So it’s not as if they're making suggestions that we’re not listening to. In fact, the suggestions of those who work at the border, who visited the border, are incorporated in legislation that we’re already prepared to sign the minute it hits my desk.
No one in the history of the meme has ever asked for it with a more aggressive lack of self-awareness. Via Digitas Daily: This, coming from the man who once snapped a selfie at a humanitarian's funeral. No, wait, it's worse. This, coming from the man WHO WAS MOCKED BY THE SUN for taking a selfie at a humanitarian's funeral:

Posted by RedDawn on July 02, 2014 13 Comments
Florida's 18th Congressional District has an interesting contender: Calvin Turnquest. Born in Nassau, Bahamas, Turnquest cites one of his proudest moments as taking the oath to become a United States citizen. A citizen by choice. Having been through the tedious American immigration system, starting as an international college student at the University of Miami, Turnquest hopes to be the GOP's new face of legal immigration. Turnquest, hoping to represent Floridians in Allen West's old district, has lived and worked in the district for 15 years. During that time, he and his wife (a practicing physician) have owned small businesses and Turnquest served as a Councilman and Vice Mayor for the Village of Tequesta. "Those of us who have been through the process feel disenfranchised by those who get to jump in front of the line," Turnquest said in an interview with me. A sentiment held by many who have been through the American immigration ringer. He hopes that in being able to share his story of working hard to achieve the American dream, other immigrants will be emboldened to choose citizenship legally. Believing Republicans too often and too easily concede to Democrats when it comes to immigration reform, Turnquest said, "Pandering is a bad move, we're handing this country and the votes to the Democrats." He went on to say, "I'm so tired of hearing Republicans say, "let's take a page from the Democrat's playbook," that's ridiculous! We need to be changing the conversation and driving the narrative." "Experience the American dream like I have. Go to the back of the line, pay the fees, pay your taxes and then you'll be welcome with open arms," Turnquest proposed. He also indicated that there reasons we have certain immigration regulations in place, like protecting American citizens. "When I went through the process, I had to present the U.S. Embassy with a certificate of health. One problem I see with illegal immigration; we don't know who's been vaccinated for what," he mentioned.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on July 02, 2014 27 Comments
Thousands of unaccompanied minors have flooded across our border, overwhelming border agents leading to immigration officials opening processing centers around the country. In the San Diego area, protesters force buses carrying undocumented immigrants to leave Murrieta, the local border patrol processing site designated to handle these arrivals.
Protesters gathered in Murrieta on Tuesday where around 140 undocumented immigrants, including lone children, were brought to be processed at a Border Patrol office. And when the buses arrived carrying the immigrants, the drivers ended up turning around and leaving when the protesters refused to let them pass. The buses instead headed for another border patrol station. The immigrants had arrived in San Diego earlier in the afternoon at Lindbergh Field.
The Desert Sun has additional details with a timeline (and a video at the link):
3:21 p.m.: Union representative Ron Zermeno tells The Desert Sun that the Murrieta Border Patrol station will not resume normal operations but instead send its entire staff to the San Diego area to help with the processing of the re-routed immigrant families. "It's just a matter of time," he said. 3:09 p.m.: With the protest too much in Murrieta, Border Patrol union representatives confirm the buses are heading to a San Diego County processing center. 2:55 p.m.: The crowd of protesters in Murrieta blocked buses from entering the Border Patrol station. Officials did not immediately say where they were going to be detoured.
The Desert Sun report also noted that 3 more flights of immigrants were slated to follow. Between the gross violation of law and risk of infectious diseases, Californians aren't the only ones unhappy with the crisis. For example, fellow blue staters in New York are also complaining.

Posted by RedDawn on July 01, 2014 40 Comments
Special Immigrant Juvenile Status. If you haven't heard of it before now, you probably will as tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors flood across the border, having been "abandoned" by their parents in Central America. A Legal Insurrection reader tipped us off to what could be a coming legal onslaught to give these children a right to stay in the U.S. permanently:
"Special Immigrant Juvenile Status is something that we attorneys on the border have been getting CLE training in for a while, but largely it has not been well known outside of CPS attorney work. With the invasion now taking place, it is going to explode.  No parents means that any immigrant child under 18 can apply for a Green Card as soon as they are deemed "abandoned" by their parents for 6 months by the court system.  There are some other minor rules, but that is the big one.... The bill renewal was the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008.  It modified and exempted application of certain rules which would normally result in inadmissibility....  Also, it set up an "expedited" review schedule that USCIS is REQUIRED to adjudicate SIJ petitions within 180 days of filing, and that interviews may be WAIVED for SIJ petitioners under 14 years of age or when it is determined that an interview is unnecessary. Further, per the Violence Against Women Act of 2005, a SIJ petitioner may not be required to contact an individual who allegedly abused, abandoned or neglected the Juvenile. What nobody is talking about (or maybe nobody has realized yet) is that this is going to flood the child welfare courts FIRST, before they get to the USCIS (certain findings of fact which can only be made by the state are prerequisites to SIJS applications) with a sudden influx of "abandoned" children, and put a strain on the CPS system like nothing that has ever been seen."
SIJS regulations are part of 8 CFR 204.11 Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) allows for children to obtain federal legal status in the U.S. if a state court deems they cannot be reunited with the parents and have suffered either abuse, abandonment, neglect or other similar offenses under state law. Children must also be unmarried, and it must be determined that it's not in the child's best interest to return to their country. SIJS is not the same as refugee or asylum status, which both bear very different legal tests.

Posted by RedDawn on June 30, 2014 34 Comments
In what appeared to be an attempt to divert the news cycle from another round of SCOTUS smackdowns, President Obama announced this afternoon that he will bypass Congress to enact "comprehensive immigration reform." However, at no point did he discuss what his plan would entail. Citing an attempt to work with Congress a year and a half ago, President Obama declared Congress' inaction and political posturing to be the reason he must take executive action. "I would sign an immigration bill into law today and Washington would solve a problem in a bipartisan way," President Obama said.  "For more than a year, Republicans in the house have refused to allow an up or down vote to fix our broken immigration system."  "I take executive action only when we have a serious problem and Congress chooses to do nothing," the President assured. The most chilling portion of his announcement was when he suggested,  "American cannot wait forever for them to act. That's why today, I'm beginning a new effort to fix our immigration system... on my own, without congress."

Posted by Bruce Carroll on June 27, 2014 12 Comments
Reports from the United States' southern border continue to worsen as thousands of illegal, unaccompanied minors are flooding through from Mexico.
More than 52,000 children have entered the country illegally in recent months, many of them coming into the U.S. through South Texas. Former Zapata County Sheriff Gonzales, who now works as a consult with law enforcement agencies along the Texas border, says space is running out to house the children and adults that are coming across.
As feared, the flood of Central American children and adults has begun to spread disease into the U.S. Border patrol agents are reportedly getting sickened from the refugees. Kenneth Wolfe, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, says the unaccompanied child was recently hospitalized after being diagnosed with swine flu, or H1N1. Wolfe says officials believe this is an isolated incident but are closely monitoring all children at Lackland and other similar shelters the agency is operating around the country. “That tells you that when you’ve got kids coming in from some of these countries where they don’t have great health systems, we gotta watch out,” says Cuellar. “I’ve talked to border patrol down in McAllen. They’ve seen TB; they’ve seen chicken pox; they’ve seen scabies. And according to Border Patrol, 4 or 5 of their agents have tested positive for those diseases.”

Posted by RedDawn on June 25, 2014 45 Comments
I never see an immigration conversation on the right that doesn't include some form of, "but we must secure the border first!" And only once the border is secure are we free to discuss immigration reform in opaque generalities. To be clear, I don't disagree that border security is the paramount issue, where I deviate though, is that I don't believe border security should be conditional for immigration reform. The border should be secured at all times -- period. To be sure, the issues are somewhat related. Border security strengthens our ability to mitigate would be illegal crossers, but I'd argue secure borders are predominantly a function of national security, protection of national sovereignty, and Constitutional obligation, none of which should be used as a bargaining chip for eVerify (or any other piece of immigration reform). Reality doesn't provide a scenario where in the context of immigration reform talks, troops are sent to secure the border and then comprehensive immigration reform is implemented. This will never happen. Not in this manner, anyway. Of course it's worth mentioning such a promise was made as part of Reagan's 1986 reform package and we all know how that panned out. Yet the right collectively includes border security as a prerequisite to make other immigration concessions. I understand the logic, but why handicap ourselves right out of the gate? Reform without secure borders isn't fixing every problem we have and certainly doesn't address the influx of illegal immigration filtering through our southern border. However, using border security as a means to come to the immigration table seems short sighted and ineffective.

Posted by Bruce Carroll on June 22, 2014 18 Comments
The Obama administration announced a plan to spend over $250 millions to help slow or halt the flow of undocumented children streaming across the U.S.-Mexico border. The Federal "immigration surge" was announced Friday as part of a coordinated government-wide response to the growing humanitarian crisis on the U.S. Southern border:
The plan includes almost $100 million in aid to the Central American governments of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to help reintegrate the illegal migrants whom the United States will send back, and to help keep them in their home countries, according to a White House statement. The administration also announced it will set aside $161.5 million this year for the Central American Regional Security Initiative (CARSI) programs because the programs "are critical to enabling Central American countries to respond to the region's most pressing security and governance challenges."
Meanwhile, Texas Gov. Rick Perry wasn't waiting for the Federal government to help. He announced a very ambitions border "surge" as well on Wednesday.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 11, 2014 12 Comments
Should be a bumper sticker for those who oppose immigration amnesty and voted last night to defeat Eric Cantor. Alternative national headline: "I'm against lawlessness, and I vote" That lawlessness is reflected at the border where tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors are crossing over in anticipation of amnesty, or at least being allowed to stay under Obama's administration DREAM provisions. The lawlessness also was reflected at Eric Cantor's campaign gathering last night, where pro-amnesty protesters charged into the room shortly after Cantor left and in the words of WaPo, created "chaos": Here's the report from CBS 6:

Posted by New Neo on June 09, 2014 35 Comments
The illegal immigration situation in this country seems to have gone from dreadful to utter chaos, with no end in sight. This is absolutely disturbing on so many levels it's hard to process. Also, as a side issue, are Jan Brewer and Arizona being punished by the Obama administration?:
Hundreds of migrants nabbed by the border patrol after illegally crossing the US-Mexico border through Texas have been flown to Arizona and left at Greyhound Bus stations in Tucson and Phoenix during the past month...Critics charge that released border-crossers will vanish into the woodwork. Immigrant advocates accuse the federal government of releasing migrants without providing enough basic necessities such as food and water on days that hover around 100 degrees F. Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) calls it "another disturbing example of a deliberate failure to enforce border security policies and repair a broken immigration system" in a letter to President Obama.
Yeah, a letter! That'll do it. Although to be honest, I don't know what the remedy would be. Even impeachment wouldn't do it at this point, because fixing this would require that both parties be dedicated to tightening both border security and lessening the cornucopia of services available to illegal immigrants, which would require some harsh and extremely difficult decisions that I don't think our politicians are up to. The CS Monitor offers more background here on why the number of illegal child immigrants has been increasing during the last two years:
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