Missouri Enforces the Law and Gets Sued

A company called Sam's Janitorial Service has sued Missouri Governor Matt Blunt.

Why?

Governor Blunt fired Sam's Janitorial Service from its regular position as the service which cleans many Missouri State office buildings. Now, the company that has apparently violated the law says the State of Missouri is guilty of racial discrimination.

"This wasn't one or two people that might have slipped through the cracks of employment verification; this was a large portion of his work force," Blunt said. "I am confident that we have taken the appropriate action, the sort of action that Missouri taxpayers expect and deserve their government to take."

Illegal Aliens Love New York

Remember the fight here in Tennessee during the last legislative session over the "driver certificate program" that allowed illegal aliens to drive?

Apparently the State of New York wants to lure all the illegal aliens there, so that the whole State may harbor them illegally.

A Bad Dream

ALIPAC ALERT

Senator Harry Reid has brought the Bad Dream Act Amnesty back and is using procedures designed to vote it into law before the nation can react.

While we have defeated the Bad Dream Act Amnesty four times already, Reid has invoked "Rule 14", which allows him to move quickly on the bill and without much debate. He and the AMNESTY supporters have filled the act as a bill this time, instead of trying to amend it onto other legislation.

At the time of this e-mail, our DC sources tell us they plan to vote on the Bad Dream Act Amnesty as early as tomorrow or Wed so you must call today for your voice to be heard! There may be some time on Wed. for you to get your calls in, but do not count on that unless you must.

Please locate your US Senators on our directory at this link....
http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-63874.html

Call your Senators and say, "This is ______ from (Your city and state) and I am appalled that Senator Reid is pushing the Bad Dream Act AMNESTY again today. This measure has already been defeated four times! I want Senator _______ to vote NO on CLOTURE and NO on S.2205 submitted by Senators Durbin, Hagel, and Lugar. Americans overwhelmingly oppose this legislation and are sick and tired of DC lawmakers pushing Amnesty. I will be watching the cloture votes closely and expect my Senator _____ to vote NO ON CLOTURE"

For those of you who are new, it requires 60 votes in the Senate for Cloture which allows the bill to proceed for a final vote. Our best chance to stop it is by defeating the cloture vote so proper wording is essential.

ICE Won't Let Morristown Police Enforce the Law

MPD officers won’t enforce immigration laws
BY ROBERT MOORE, Tribune Staff Writer

Immigration officials refuse to grant Morristown police officers expanded powers to enforce laws against illegal aliens, in part, because the anticipated caseload increase could choke the system, police say.

Morristown City Council member Mel Tucker, who pushed the initiative, is steamed and adds he’s not taking "no" for an answer.

The Morristown Police Department approached the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency about having two MPD officers trained to perform certain duties of a federal immigration agent.

The so-called 287(g) program would have expanded police powers in two ways, according to Lt. Chris Wisecarver, MPD training officer who was assigned to sort out the details.

First, it would have allowed officers who encounter illegal immigrants during the course of routine police action to document their illegal status and begin deportation proceedings.

In cases of casual contact like a traffic stop, in which an illegal immigrant had committed no crime, the officers could not take the foreign national into custody.

Once an illegal alien was booked into jail, however, the officers would be able to process them into the I.C.E database without relying on a federal agent.

Wisecarver says he was told that MPD officers would not have access to the training by Agent Roland Jones, regional program manager of the 287(g) program.

"He went on to say that the Knoxville I.C.E. office is not equipped to handle transportation of more detained illegals than they currently experience," Wisecarver wrote in a summation to Police Chief Roger Overholt.

Tucker says that when he learned his months-long initiative had hit the wall, he felt "absolute anger."

"This whole issue for me is getting more and more significant," Tucker said Friday. "I think when you have a government — literally — that refuses to enforce the law, that’s the first step toward anarchy. And that’s what our federal government is doing."

The council member says the federal government’s unwillingness to enforce immigration laws is no less absurd than if the police department decided to suspend enforcement of laws against drug trafficking.

"I do not intend to let this issue sit there and say, ‘We just can’t do anything about it,’" the council member added.

Tucker says his next step will be to speak with U.S. Rep. David Davis to get his input on what Congress can do to assist communities like Morristown that are attempting to cope with thousands of suspected undocumented residents.

The vast majority of suspected illegal immigrants in Morristown are Latinos from Mexico and other Central American countries, but Tucker says his beef with the federal government over immigration policy has nothing to do with race or nationality.

Tucker says it’s about enforcing existing laws.

I.C.E agents routinely pick up illegal aliens at the Hamblen County Jail after the inmates finish serving their time.

In most cases, however, the illegal immigrants are given a court date to appear before an immigration judge, then released on their own recognizance.

What normally happens, immigration officials have said, is the illegal immigrants fail to appear in court and continue their lives on the lam.

Wisecarver said that in turning down the MPD for the 287(g) program, I.C.E maintained that the required computer equipment, which could cost as much as $30,000, would be too expensive to support just two officers.

"When asked if things would change if we trained more officers... (Jones) stated not currently," Wisecarver wrote in his summary to the police chief. "The local office just does not have the support personnel to handle it."

I.C.E. falls under the jurisdiction of the Department of Homeland Security. Nearly a third of this year’s DHS $35.6 billion budget is earmarked for improving border security and immigration enforcement.

Neither Jones nor his superior officer, William Black, I.C.E. senior special agent in charge of the 287(g) program in New Orleans, were available for comment Friday.

Wisecarver says that I.C.E.’s current 287(g) focus is on training jail personnel. All 287(g) training slots are filled until mid-2008, according to Wisecarver.

"Agent Jones suggested that we continue to do what we are doing as far as notifying the local I.C.E. officer when a suspected illegal alien is arrested and utilize the local office on operations as we currently do, when possible," Wisecarver wrote in his summation.

"He stated that local agents are already doing exactly what trained local officers would do and we probably would be taking on something that would not be as big a benefit as (we) first thought," Wisecarver added.

The police lieutenant said that I.C.E pointed out that booking an illegal alien into the federal system takes two to three hours, and this would take police off the streets.

Also, after illegal immigrants finish serving their jail terms, they can only be held for 72 hours before they must be shipped to an I.C.E.-certified detention facility.

The closest I.C.E.-certified detention facility to Morristown in the five-state immigration region is in Memphis, 438 miles away.

"I.C.E. doesn’t have enough manpower to do the transportation," Wisecarver said.

A Law Worth Passing

By James S. Tyree
CNHI News Service

OKLAHOMA CITY — For most teenagers, getting their driver's license means they have arrived.

That feeling was deeper for Maria Karalus-Hass, now 20, than most would ever know.

After living several years in the United States illegally, she became a legal resident last August - a status that gives her in-state college tuition, a gateway to better-paying jobs and yes, her driver’s license.

“Oh, it was the biggest relief,” said the Midwest City resident from Venezuela.

Though all her family members are now legal residents, Karalus-Hass still bristles at the idea of illegal immigrants draining public resources and taking jobs from Americans.

“To hear the stories, I mean, wow - we don’t leech off the country,” she said.

But people like Tom Roach say they do. The Coalition to End Taxpayer Subsidies for Illegal Aliens says tightening laws against illegal immigrants is needed not only at the federal level, but also in Oklahoma.

“The state of Oklahoma provides an outrageous pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for the alien who comes here in violation of the law,” he said. “… A free people cannot have laws and governors who allow one class of people free rein to violate the law.”

The debate over how to cut illegal immigration and what to do about immigrants already here is raging throughout the nation and in Oklahoma. The lightning rod in the Sooner State is House Bill 3119.

The legislation, written and championed by Rep. Randy Terrill, R-Moore, would prevent illegal immigrants from receiving public entitlements like food stamps and Medicaid. It also requires state employees outside of education to report illegal immigrants to a law enforcement agency.

Passion for and against state legislation has prompted two rallies outside the state Capitol this weekend. Groups and individuals opposing the legislation will meet noon to 2 p.m. Saturday, followed by a rally organized by Roach’s coalition at 3 p.m. Sunday.

An estimated 10 million to 12 million people live illegally in the United States, including tens of thousands in Oklahoma. The U.S. Census estimates 135,000 foreign-born people living in Oklahoma in 2004, but that figure includes legal and illegal residents.

According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 1.24 million illegal immigrants were apprehended in 2004. Though they came from nearly 200 countries, about 1.1 million, or 92 percent, came from Mexico.

McAlester police have seen the movement first hand, stopping vehicles filled with illegal immigrants twice in March. Chief Jim Lyles said a police team began monitoring Highway 69 for drug trafficking a few months ago and the project happened to net the two stops.

Neither vehicle had drugs but in the most recent case, a truck was filled with 17 people.

“It doesn’t mean the influx has gone up," Lyles said. "We’re just more aware of it now.”

Terrill’s HB 3119 has other sections that require proof of citizenship or legal residence to get a government-issued ID or to vote, authorizes state and local law enforcement agents to detain illegal immigrants longer until federal agents arrive and repeals a 2003 law that allows illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition and state-sponsored financial aid.

HB 3119 passed the House but won’t get a hearing in the Senate, effectively killing the bill, because co-author Sen. Jeff Rabon, D-Hugo, pulled the bill in committee. Terrill and others say the senator caved to direct or indirect political pressure but Rabon said no.

“We were about to ask agencies to become border control agents - education, medical facilities, Department of Human Services, and on and on, election board offices,” Rabon said. “I’m not so sure they were ready to handle it. I didn’t see any other resources available to them to do that. It was too much, too quick, quite frankly, for me.”

Another failed bill introduced this year, HB 2613, would have required all public employees except emergency personnel to report suspected illegal immigrants.

Terrill’s provisions are far from dead. He is talking with Sen. Kenneth Corn, D-Poteau, about adding sections of HB 3119 into the senator’s bill. SB 1769 would establish an anti-illegal immigration unit within the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.

If parts of HB 3119 are added to Corn’s bill, the House and Senate could vote on them sometime in May. Regardless of what happens this year, Terrill said stopping illegal immigration has become a state priority.

“If the federal government will not do its job of protecting our nation’s borders, then it’s clear that the states not only can … but we must and we will,” Terrill said. “The second reason is I am convinced illegal aliens will not come here if there are no jobs waiting on them, and they will not stay here if there is not government subsidy.”

Terrill said the Health Care Authority this week reported illegal immigrants received $7.8 million of Medicaid benefits last year. He didn’t know about the cost to other programs like food stamps.

“In addition to the taxpayer subsidy to the presence of illegal aliens, I do think, in fact, their presence here illegally, as productive as they may be, is a problem,” Terrill said. “The reason why is … that it creates a whole underground economy.”

That economy, he said, drives down wages for jobs Americans would otherwise do for more money.

Cora Curtis, a Choctaw woman who supports the tougher legislation, believes supporting illegal immigrants hurts most people, whether they are taxpayers, low-income Americans, or the immigrants themselves being exploited.

Curtis said she empathizes with people wanting a better life. She is active in a church that sponsors impoverished people, and the small construction and engineering company her husband runs hires immigrants - as long as they’re here legally.

“I do know what it’s like to be poor,” she said. “You have to help, not hinder. We sponsor people and we hire people as long as they obey our laws. It’s un-Christian to hinder them in any way, as long as they obey our laws.”

But many illegal immigrants believe they have no choice. Shirley Cox, an immigration attorney and spokesperson for Catholic Charities, said it could take years for someone to emigrate legally.

“We have a system that allocates a certain number of visas in certain categories, and these categories are all backlogged,” she said. “There are not enough visas and each year you can fall further and further behind.”

Of those categories, the longest wait is for legal residents applying for a visa for a spouse, child under 21 or unmarried son or daughter. The three categories for U.S. citizens applying for someone can involve a lengthy wait, but not as long.

Karalus-Hass gained legal residency last year. She said her father had a well-paying job with IBM and a visa to work in the United States. When President Hugo Chavez came to power in Venezuela, though, the family felt it was time to get out.

They entered the country with legal documents that, except for her dad’s case, eventually expired. Without a valid driver’s license or social security card, Karalus-Hass said, it was difficult to find work, get around and pay for college. She even won a prestigious scholarship taken away when she couldn’t show proof of legal residence.

Her mother borrowed and they all worked to pay about $10,000 in fees and fines to become legal. Karalus-Hass now enjoys the peace of mind of being a legal resident, but she remains concerned about how many view illegal immigrants.

“I think what concerns me is they’re making illegal immigrants out to be a threat,” she said. “They’re not being realistic. Most illegal immigrants are too terrified to apply for anything. It’s not an option for them.

“Where is the fear," she said, "when they’re not taking anything except jobs so demeaning that people on welfare do not accept (them) and the housing is very, very substandard, below the poorest American family? So they shouldn’t feel threatened.”

Corn, whose immigration bill is still alive, said he understands people wanting to come to this country or state to find a better life. The senator said the state must play a role in stopping illegal immigration within its borders.

“The bottom line for Oklahomans is they want everybody to live under the same rules and pay the same taxes and meet the same criteria as every other Oklahoman has to meet,” Corn said. “I think that’s the bottom line.”

Spineless Republicans and the La Raza War

Why are Republicans so spineless? Love them or hate them, at least thecrazy left is willing to fight for possession of this country.
Look at "LaRaza"-they are openly calling for war against European-Americans. (They don't like blacks much either).

Then there are the attacks by the left against Michael Savage, Bill O'Reilly, and Rush Limbaugh. Name the Republican that has stood up against these attacks. It certainly wouldn't be Hatch, Graham, McCain, Spector, Martinez, Lugar,Lott, Kyl, Craig, Hagel, Brownback or Ensign. Ten of these twelve are outright turncoats. They would all fit comfortably in the Democratic partyand love giving America to the illegals. So, at best, you have 36-37 Republican Senators and even some of them are suspect.

When you study the numbers you realize why we can't get sensible legislation and why we have to fight like hell to stop a cloture (60+) vote on bad legislation. So will the Republicans have enough votes to sustain a veto of the S-CHIP legislation that increase the current cost from $9 Billion to $32-60Billion? It will be nip & tuck because most of the spineless politicians will not stand up to reign in spending. They will simply vote to buy thevotes they need to get re-elected.

However, there is one hope. If they can convince 22 million non-smokers people to smoke at least a pack a day, they can hold the excess spending to about $20 billion. Guess they're all silent salesman for the cigarette companies. Remember: The major concern with CHAMP & SCHIP (respectively from eachchamber) is that this bill increases illegal immigration costs to Americans.The R. J. reported that 2/3 of the state's children on this program are Spanish Speaking.

Illegal Aliens Degrade the Environment

At last, a senior official with the Presidential administration that has been among the most friendly to illegal aliens in half a century admits that illegal aliens not only damage the economy, they pose a danger to the environment.

Illegals at McDonald's

It has been said that the illegal immigration problem, while becoming increasingly untenable in other parts of the country, is at its most acute in the American Southwest. Apparently, a number of Nevada McDonald's restaurants got into the habit of hiring illegals and were subsequently raided after an identity theft complaint tipped federal authorities.

I never thought I would say this, but hurrah for the feds!

As for the McDonald's Corporation's reaction:

Lisa Howard, a spokeswoman for McDonald's Corp., based in Oak Brook, Ill., said the company had no comment on the arrests.

"This is a local situation with a local operator," she said.

It really makes one wonder how many McDonald's franchisees in Tennessee are hiring illegals as well.

Raid and Then Release

For the life of me, I don't understand how it is that the federal government is supposed to be able to deport illegal aliens after arresting them when they release them into the general population of the Union while the illegals await their deportation hearings.

Why do they do this?

For "humanitarian reasons."