T-Fire News

Gringos and Pepe

2008-03-31T13:37:00.000-04:00

Gringos here in Mexico talk endlessly about how they love and admire the Mexican people, how friendly the natives are, how wonderful the culture is and, by strong implication, how wonderful the gringos are for appreciating Mexico. Actually they don’t. They live in gated communities in the hills, can’t speak three words of Spanish, and have surprisingly little contact with the country. They have invented a Mexico that doesn’t exist, and have fallen in love with it.

Thus many of their ideas about Mexicans are wrong, compounded equally of ideology and wishful thinking. The same happens in America. This will one day give birth to surprising children.

The truth is that Mexicans are about like people the world over, which means that regarding them with syrupy condescension as fuzzy heartwarming Pedros and Marias is a mistake. They don’t much like Americans, regarding them as arrogant and rich. The distaste is no more than distaste: they do not dream of lynching Yanquis. Nonetheless, regarding Mexico as a nation of smiling maids and obedient gardeners overlooks a somewhat darker picture. They would not be quite so smiling and obedient if they had a better economic choice.

An interesting observation: In five years I have encountered no hostility from Mexicans who have always lived in Mexico. The five or six men who were aggressively hostile all spoke barrio English. They had spent time in the US. Think about it.

The US would be well advised to take certain realities into account when it ponders today’s unrestricted immigration. Those who favor immigration tend to hold an idealized view of the newcomers. They are so-o-o-o hardworking! Yes, in the first generation. They just want a better life! So they do. They are just like Italian and Polish immigrants of the last century. No, they are not. They are Mexicans.

Mexico is a third-world country—yes, an upper third-world Latin American country, functioning reasonably well, and not Haiti or Bangladesh. It’s a nice place to live, which is why a half million North Americans are here. Yet Mexico is very, very different from America. If America and England are a few inches apart, Americans and France a few more, Mexico is several feet off in the distance.

While gringos and Mexicans live next to each other here in amity, they do not mix. They can’t. A retired executive from Boeing has nothing in common with a man with a fourth-grade education who will never read a book in his life. Pepe is smiling and amiable while working in the garden. He is also a grown man, not a teddy bear. If the retired engineer met Pepe in Pepe’s favorite bar, the engineer might come to a very different understanding of Pepe.

It is one thing to have Mexicans in America while they still fearful of being deported. They are polite and brown and eager to work. This encourages the tendency to which Americans are prone, to patronize them as just the nicest babysitters and garbage men. Why, they are almost like real people.

It will be a different thing when they are legal and have a voting majority in the Southwest. They understand perfectly that their day is coming. A couple of years back I listened on the radio to a Mexican-American politician from Texas. He pointed out that when the Mexican children now in school reach the age of eighteen, they will control the government of the state. He was not hostile, did not say as Barack Obama’s minister did, “God damn America.” Yet he saw what was coming, and was well pleased. From the Mexican point of view, they are getting back states which rightly belong to them.

They assuredly are. Shortly the US will have a southern tier of states under Mexican-American control.

The hopeful idea is that they will meld as did the Irish and Italians and Vietnamese. The flaw in this happy ointment is that they do very poorly in school—better than blacks, but well below whites and Asians. This is not a problem of the first generation only, in which case it might eventually cure itself, but of later generations also. It looks innate, or at least as if it will continue. Then what?

Then they will have no choice but to be waiters and garbage collectors. The first generation will tolerate it, happy to be making what seems to them good money. A few will succeed and move up. Most won’t. The second generation, relegated forever to jobs of low pay and less esteem, will become resentful. Inevitably they will see the relegation as indicating discrimination, not incapacity. The young, unable to compete, will gravitate toward others who can’t and we will have another permanent underclass. If you don’t believe me, watch.

The United States advertises itself as a land of opportunity, and in fact is, but only for the bright. A poor kid who pops 1500 on his SATs can get into a good university and come out as anything he chooses. Universities look for such students. A kid who barely reads has no chance. For him, there are no opportunities.

Why is it unlikely that the immigrants will improve scholastically? For reasons a fair few understand but nobody talks about. Intelligence. Mexico consists of three layers, or maybe two layers with a spectrum between. The governing class is white, and at about the European level on IQ tests, not surprising because they are European. You have the mestizos, who do conspicuously less well, and the pure Indians, lower yet. The white upper class is not swimming the river.

IQ is a forbidden topic, but it tracks reality depressingly well. No country below Laredo has ever produced anything important in the sciences. And while in any group there are exceptions, it is the majority who determine social results. This bears thinking about. Reality does not respect politics. Holding one’s breath and turning blue will change nothing. Insisting that something can’t be so or shouldn’t be so doesn’t change whether it is so.

Inequality can be seen in the streets here. In Guadalajara, una ciudad muy guera, a very white city, you have highly sophisticated people who talk of the arts on the radio as intelligently as any in America. They go to the opera, buy in good bookstores, and serve competently as doctors and technicians. In the villages you find people with far more Indian blood and almost no academic achievement or interest. Out in the hills there is, dead serious, a lot of witchcraft.

It’s a different world. And coming to a mall near you.

Congressman David Davis to Address T-FIRE

2008-01-27T11:35:00.000-05:00

Congressman David Davis (1st District-TN) will speak about illegal immigration, on Saturday, February 16, 2008, at the VFW in Morristown, TN, at 10:00 am.

Congressman Davis will address the massive tax burden placed upon all taxpayers as a result of illegal immigration and highlight actions that the government and citizens can take to curb this ever-increasing problem.

T-FIRE, an organization of Tennessee Taxpayers United Against Illegal Immigration, is hosting the event. A pancake breakfast will be served from 8:30-9:45. Tickets for the breakfast are $5.00. For tickets or other information, contact T-FIRE at 587-3711 or visit www.t-fire-org.

From the Morristown Police

2008-01-26T11:40:00.000-05:00

ROGER OVERHOLT

Chief of Police

MEDIA RELEASE

January 23, 2008

09:30 a.m.

For more information call: 423-585-4680

_______________________________________________________________________________

Two Morristown residents are in jail this morning and numerous items and two vehicles were seized as the result of two search warrants executed last night in the city limits of Morristown following a several months long investigation into a fraudulent document mill being operated out of two residences. A short time after 9:00 p.m. on 01-22-08 officers and agents of the Morristown City Police Department simultaneously executed two search warrants, one at 1105 Sherwood Drive, and the other at 423 Walters Drive. Officers also had in hand an outstanding warrant on one of the subjects arrested.

During the search of both residences, agents found multiple documents believed to be fraudulent, including international driver’s licenses, resident alien cards, social security cards, and passports. Also found and seized were computers and other electronic equipment allegedly used to manufacture the fraudulent documents, along with supplies associated with these items, to include cameras, scanners, laminators, labels, and laminate. Two vehicles believed to have been used to transport these items were also seized, a blue 1995 Chevrolet Blazer and a green 1995 Ford Contour.

Although no substantial amount of money was located during these particular searches, documents located at both residences indicate that money had been wired to Mexico on a regular basis.

Humerto Otero Cea, 30 years old of 423 Walters Drive, is charged with four counts of criminal simulation. An outstanding warrant for Mr. Cea was also served upon him concerning an incident during the undercover operation in which he sold one resident alien card and one social security card to an undercover informant working with the Morristown Narcotics / Vice Division. He was arrested at the 1105 Sherwood Drive location.

Rene Otero Bautista, 25 years old of 1105 Sherwood Drive, is also charged with four counts of criminal simulation. He was found to be in possession of a forged international driver’s permit, a forged social security card, a forged resident alien card, and a forged Tennessee identification card as a result of the search warrant, also at 1105 Sherwood Drive.

“At this time we do not believe these individuals to be legally documented to be in the United States,” stated Morristown City Police Chief Roger Overholt. “We will ask that the subjects be held without bond pending positive identification, and we will also request that Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.) place detainer warrants on the subjects.”

Morristown authorities continue to work to determine the extent of the operation. Records located at the residences indicate that the individuals arrested had worked in Hamblen and surrounding counties for more than one year, which leads police to believe they had been providing fraudulent documents to individuals during that time frame.

“It is vitally important that we as a local agency address these type operations,” continued the Chief. “By putting these fraudulent document mills out of business on a local level, we believe the effect will have an impact throughout the region. It is our intent to continue to aggressively investigate and prosecute those responsible for these types of crimes, as well as the individuals who use the fraudulent documents.”

As of this morning, both subjects are currently incarcerated in the Hamblen County Jail under an investigative detention which is in the process of being placed on them by I.C.E., according to the Morristown City Police Department Vice Unit. They will have their first court appearance today.

Hire Illegals? Your Business Licence Could Be Pulled

2008-01-26T11:37:00.000-05:00

On Jan. 1, Tennessee joined Arizona as the only states in the nation to threaten employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants with significant sanctions. In both states employers caught more than once can lose their business licenses.

In Arizona, a series of lawsuits brought by business, civil liberties and immigrant advocacy groups halted the law's enforcement until at least March 1.

But in Tennessee, the state is moving forward with plans to investigate reports of illegal workers on job sites. That got the attention of the state's private business owners.

No complaints, investigations or public hearings related to Tennessee's Illegal Alien Employment Act have been filed to date. But at Wednesday's meeting, the questions that came from business owners, activists, lawyers and workplace managers were laced with fear.

One wanted to know if documents an employer filed under a now defunct federal program to help a foreign-national obtain a visa to work in the United States could now be used in an Illegal Alien Act investigation.

Another wondered if the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development has plans to work with or share information with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also known as ICE.

"It's the topic of discussion," said Andy Hall of Franklin County. He is greenhouse manager at a wholesale nursery.

"It's trade show time in our industry, and I would say this is the topic of conversation. Folks are worried."

Hall said he left the forum with a better understanding of the letter of the law and the zeal with which it is likely to be enforced.

A Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development official spelled out the law's emphasis on punishing employers who knowingly hire illegal workers.

He explained that the law gives a pass to any business owner who has every employee complete a federal I-9 form or who uses a federal database known as E-Verify.

Each new hire must also allow his or her new employer access to some combination of identifying documents such as a driver's license, passport or Social Security card.

Enforcement questioned

As of Monday, just 563 of Tennessee's more than 117,000 employers had registered to use the E-Verify system, according to ICE data. Another 44,465 have inquired about it in fiscal 2008.

But Dan Bailey, the state agency's legal counsel, also acknowledged that given the lack of resources, money or staff, that came along with the new law, it is unclear just how the department will be able to enforce it.

Bailey would not rule out working with ICE.

Other questions pointed to some of the loopholes and what one business owner called "traps" that exist in state and federal immigration and hiring laws.

For instance, Hall said he learned Wednesday that while employers are required under long-standing federal law and the state's new law to go though the I-9 process with new hires, they are not required to keep copies of the supporting documents.

Those who do may inadvertently provide the government with evidence against their company and employees if raided by immigration agents, said Nashville immigration lawyer Mario Ramos.

Cooper La Raza

2008-01-05T01:02:00.001-05:00

If you had the mistaken idea that Tennessee Congressman Jim Cooper (D) takes his Oath of Office seriously, check out his immigration rankings.

David Davis Sponsors Good Immigration Bill

2008-01-05T00:50:00.000-05:00

By John Gullion, Tribune Managing Editor

For East Tennessee residents questioning why the federal government hasn’t done more to curb the rising tide of illegal immigrants. Congressman David Davis has a simple message: He feels your pain. Davis, R-Tenn., said a piece of legislation that he has sponsored, the Save America with Verification and Enforcement or SAVE Act, is the first step in turning the tide.

"The federal government has not been willing to do its job. I think it’s time for the federal government to do its job," he said Tuesday. "It’s one of the things that frustrates the people in America and it frustrates me as a congressman that the federal government has not done enough on this issue."The SAVE Act includes three main components, Davis said. First he wants to improve border security by adding 8,000 border patrol agents. The act would also provide for an aerial surveillance system using planes and satellite similar to one used in Israel, Davis said.

"We’d know who is coming across the border and who is approaching the border," Davis added.The second step basically would expand the verification program employers use to ensure that prospective employees are legal. Each citizen will be issued a card with a magnetic strip, like a credit card. Employers could then swipe those cards to verify an employees citizenship status."It would clean up the situation so that those employers are protected," Davis said.

"You’re never going to be able to send back 20 million illegals but you can make sure the ones that are here legally was the only ones that get benefits. We mandate employers only hire legal workers but there’s not a good system. It’s hard for an employer to really know who they are hiring."The second part of the SAVE act would also mandate improved cooperation and the cross checking of records between the Department of Homeland Security, the Internal Revenue Service and the Social Security Administration.The third part of Davis’ plan goes to improve a program that is already in place.

The 287 (g) program allows local law enforcement officers to become quasi-Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents. A move has been afoot in Hamblen County to get Morristown officers and county deputies into the program. However, Sheriff Esco Jarnagin said this week that he has been told by an unnamed government official that neither Hamblen nor Morristown police will be accepted into the program due to the fear that local officers could choke the federal system with too many illegal immigrants too quickly and it would be too expensive."What frustrates me," Jarnagin said at the time, "is that the federal government is not preventing illegal aliens from coming across the border, and we are not getting any support when illegal aliens overrun a community."

Davis said that’s not an acceptable answer. Davis wants to make it so that local officers who want to be trained can be. Davis said the answer Jarnagin got this week in unacceptable. Davis responded saying federal monies are available to offset the cost of the training as well as the cost of incarcerating illegal immigrants until ICE officers can process them into the system, Davis said."I talk to people across my district daily. This is an issue that weighs heavy on their minds," he said. "It affects their life either through increased taxes, increased (cost of) incarceration, increased (cost of) health care and increase burden on the educational system," Davis said. "This issue touches other issues that people care about."

"David Davis and I are on the same page," Jarnagin said Thursday morning. "I believe in Congressman Davis. I believe in his view point. Congressman Davis is very energetic about this problem."Davis said once this session is over in Washington, he plans to come to Hamblen County and host a meeting between a homeland security official, himself, Morristown Police Chief Roger Overholt and Sheriff Jarnagin."I’m frustrated with the Democratic leadership (of Congress) not wanting to take on this issue. I’m frustrated with the Republican administration of the executive branch," Davis said. "I think the American people are demanding a fix for this ever growing problem of illegal immigration."

Commissioner Joe Swann

2008-01-05T00:46:00.000-05:00

Based on information from a reliable source, the tax burden imposed on Hamblen citizens by the huge population of illegal aliens far exceeds any costs that would come from hiring and training local law enforcement to assist federal agents.

I believe its a fair assumption to make that Mr. Swann, who makes his living as an accountant, knows this and is engaged in a smoke screen operation with his claim that his opposition to the resolution was based on his fear that its ratification would result in a tax increase.

I know that he is a member of Thom Robinson's chamber of commerce and this alone is probably enough to explain his long winded explanation at the commission meeting. Still It would be interesting to see a list of clients who get their accounting done at Mr. Swann's firm. Just a thought.

What If They Went Home?

2008-01-05T00:41:00.000-05:00

*WHAT IF 20 MILLION ILLEGAL ALIENS VACATED AMERICA ?
*By Frosty Wooldridge
*
*www.frostywooldridge.com
*
* Tina Griego, journalist for the Denver Rocky Mountain News wrote a column titled, "Mexican visitor's lament" -- 10/25/07.
She interviewed Mexican journalist Evangelina Hernandez while visiting Denver last week. Hernandez said, "They (illegal aliens) pay rent, buy groceries, buy clothes...what happens to your country's economy if 20 million people go away?"
That's a good question - it deserves an answer. Over 80 percent of
Americans demand secured borders and illegal migration stopped. But what would happen if all 20 million or more vacated America ? The answers may surprise you!
* * In California, if 3.5 million illegal aliens moved back to Mexico,
it would leave an extra $10.2 billion to spend on overloaded school
systems, bankrupted hospitals and overrun prisons. It would leave
highways cleaner, safer and less congested. Everyone could understand one another as English became the dominate language again.
*
* * In Colorado , 500,000 illegal migrants, plus their 300,000 kids
and grand-kids - would move back "home," mostly to Mexico . That would save Colorado an estimated $2 billion, (other experts say $7 billion), annually in taxes that pay for schooling, medical, social-services and incarceration costs. It means 12,000 gang members would vanish out of Denver alone.
*
* * Colorado would save more than $20 million in prison costs, and
the terror that those 7,300 alien criminals set upon local citizens.
Denver Officer Don Young and hundreds of Colorado victims would not have suffered death, accidents, rapes and other crimes by illegal's.
*
* * Denver Public Schools would not suffer a 67 percent drop
out/flunk out rate via thousands of illegal alien students speaking 41
different languages. At least 200,000 vehicles would vanish from our grid locked cities in Colorado . Denver 's four percent unemployment rate would vanish as our working poor would gain jobs at a living wage.
*
* * In Florida , 1.5 million illegal's would return the Sunshine State
back to America , the rule of law and English.
*
* * In Chicago, Illinois, 2.1 million illegal's would free up
hospitals, schools, prisons and highways for a safer, cleaner and more crime- free experience.
*
* *
If 20 million illegal aliens returned "home" --
*
* *If 20 million illegal aliens returned "home," the U.S. economy would return to the rule of law. Employers would hire legal American citizens at a living wage. Everyone would pay their fair share of taxes because they wouldn't be working off the books. That would result in an additional $401 billion in IRS income taxes collected annually, and an equal amount for local state and city coffers.
No more push '1' for Spanish or '2' for English. No more confusion in
American schools that now must content with over 100 languages that degrade the educational system for American kids. Our overcrowded schools would lose more than two million illegal alien kids at a cost of billions in ESL and free breakfasts and lunches.
*
*We would lose 500,000 illegal criminal alien inmates at a cost of more than $1.6 billion annually. That includes 15,000 MS-13 gang members who distribute $130 billion in drugs annually would vacate our country. In cities like L.A. , 20,000 members of the " 18th Street Gang" would vanish from our nation. No more Mexican forgery gangs for ID theft from Americans! No more foreign rapists and child molesters!
Losing more than 20 million people would clear up our crowded highways and gridlock. Cleaner air and less drinking and driving American deaths by illegal aliens!
*
*Drain on America 's economy; taxpayers harmed, employers get rich. Over $80 billion annually wouldn't return to their home countries by cash transfers. Illegal migrants earned half that money untaxed, which further drains America 's economy - which currently suffers an $8.7 trillion debt.
At least 400,000 anchor babies would not be born in our country, costing us $109 billion per year per cycle. At least 86 hospitals in California , Georgia andFlorida would still be operating instead of being bankrupted out of existence because illegals pay nothing via the EMTOLA Act. Americans wouldn't suffer thousands of TB and hepatitis cases rampant in our country-brought in by illegals unscreened at our borders.
Our cities would see 20 million less people driving, polluting and grid
locking our cities. It would also put the "progressives" on the horns
of a dilemma; illegal aliens and their families cause 11 percent of our
greenhouse gases.
*
*Over one million of Mexico 's poorest citizens now live inside and along our border from Brownsville , Texas to San Diego , California in what the New York Times called, "colonias" or new neighborhoods. Trouble is, those living areas resemble Bombay and Calcutta where grinding poverty, filth, diseases, drugs, crimes, no sanitation and worse. They live without sewage, clean water, streets, electricity, roads or any kind of sanitation. The New York Times reported them to be America 's new " Third World " inside our own country. Within 20 years, at their current growth rate, they expect 20 million residents of those colonias. (I've seen them personally in Texas and Arizona ; it's sickening beyond anything you can imagine.) By enforcing our laws, we could repatriate them back to Mexico.
*
*High integrity, ethical invitation...

La Raza On the Dole

2008-01-05T00:32:00.000-05:00

La Raza has been on the governments dole for several years. They want to take away America as we know it. You doubt what I say? Check out their website AFTER you scroll down. I have put their website’s address at the bottom of this message.
Steve Merrill, Oklahoma

*** Illegal immigration should have stopped on September 12, 2001. Actually a few dozen years before that, but too many Amerikans cannot remember much further back than that.

*** Remember, if you are serious about doing something about illegal immigration, or more appropriately, the INVASION, at the very least, start by acting like an American and get, then STAY informed.

*** If the government of the United States was serious about the invasion, they would do more about it.

*** If you do not think this is an invasion, then try and stop it.

*** "The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil but because of those who look on and do nothing." --Albert Einstein

*** "You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass." --Japanese Admiral Yamamoto, 1941 (What has changed?)

*** "We have room for but one flag, the American Flag. We have room for but one language, the English language, and we have room for but one sole loyalty, and that is a loyalty to the American people." --President Theodore Roosevelt.

*** Turn in an illegal alien today. ICE Phone Number: (866) 347-2423. Toll free and you do not have to give your name. Just all the information you can think of.

*** The American media reports the news under the privilege granted to them under the First Amendment. But they also have the moral responsibility associated with that right to report it without a leftist slant.

2008-01-05T00:24:00.000-05:00

Recently, we ran a story here at T-FIRE News about a plant in Sprinfield, Tennessee that was exposed by the Nashville press as having knowingly or passively hired dozens of illegal aliens.

On December 15, "dozens of employees" left the Electrolux Plant when Human Resources finally did their job.

Pro-Illegal Groups Don't Like the Law

2008-01-05T00:19:00.000-05:00

The State of Arizona recently passed a tough new law requiring greater hiring verifications to insure that employees are legal residents and/or American citizens.

The illegal aliens don't like it one bit.

ICE Arrests 448

2008-01-05T00:13:00.000-05:00

If you don't think there are a lot of illegal aliens running around the Southeast-or you believe (as the head of the Morristown-Hamblen Chamber of Commerce does) that we don't have an illegal immigration problem-look what Immigration and Customs Enforcement recently found in five Southern States.

Spanish Debate?

2008-01-05T00:09:00.000-05:00

Now we are in trouble when the Republican Party conducts a debate in Spanish instead of the language of voting-English.

Identity Theft at Koch Foods

2008-01-04T23:57:00.000-05:00

By ROBRT MOORE

An identity-theft arrest of a Koch Foods employee Thursday is the sports equivalent of a slow, hanging curveball lobbed into the wheelhouse of Morristown City Council member Mel Tucker.

Tucker, the prime mover in a city council initiative designed to shift enforcement of some federal immigration laws to the Morristown Police Department, appears intent on hitting this offering way back.

The city council member says he plans to follow this case through the legal system in an effort to gain insight into whether Morristown companies are knowingly hiring illegal aliens.

The end of Thursday’s story is that a Koch Foods employee who identified herself as Lucia Perez was arrested at the chicken-processing plant in the East Tennessee Progress Center and charged with felony identity theft.

Perez had a company-issued photo ID card under the name of Julie Wheeler, according to MPD Detective Sgt. Randall Noe. Perez maintains she is 27. The real Julie Wheeler is 42.
Perez, a Mexican national, allegedly gave Wheeler’s Social Security number to Koch Foods human resources personnel when she was hired and assumed Wheeler’s identity, according to Noe.

The investigative trail that led to Perez’s arrest, however, began 1,100 miles away in the coastal hamlet of Swanville, Maine. That’s where Wheeler moved after she left Morristown in 2005. Wheeler, who says she qualified for disability benefits following a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress syndrome, received a troubling telephone call from the Social Security Administration earlier this week.

The SSA demanded that she repay $14,000 in disability payments. The reason that Wheeler owed the money is that Social Security records indicated that she had been working at Koch Foods in Morristown for the past two years. Wheeler says that she telephoned Koch Foods Thursday and asked a resources worker to write a letter to a Social Security office in Maine stating that she was not an employee. Wheeler alleges that a Koch Foods employee refused.

Tim Steffin, Koch Foods human resources manager, was unavailable for comment this morning. Noe says Koch Foods is cooperating with the investigation.

Wheeler says she strongly suspects that her former live-in boyfriend in Morristown, who Wheeler described as an illegal alien, stole her Social Security card during their relationship.
"The astonishing part of this is that (Perez) is obviously a Hispanic female and she was able to say that she is Julie Wheeler," Tucker said.

The city council member also says it’s hard for him to comprehend how the company could not have realized that Perez was not 42 years old.

"I have been saying that corporations here have been employing illegal aliens at very low wages, which in my opinion, has been depressing the wages for workers in Hamblen County," Tucker said this morning.

Tucker believes that this is the reason that the median family income actually dropped between 2000 to 2007.

It remains unclear whether Perez presented Wheeler’s Social Security card or just gave Wheeler’s Social Security number when she was hired at Koch Foods. Noe says he expects to learn that some time today.

"It will be gained either through cooperation or the legal process," Noe said this morning.
Noe asked that Perez be held without bond because he considers her a flight risk. Those convicted of identity theft face between two and four years in jail.

"That has resulted, in my opinion, in an insufficient disposable income for people to buy anything other than necessities here," Tucker added. "This resulted in an increase of the property tax of 40 percent last year."
____________

The disconnect between a Hispanic Koch Foods employee and a valid Social Security number, which surfaced with an identity-theft arrest at the Morristown chicken-processing plant Thursday, apparently wasn’t an uncommon phenomenon, suggest jail records.

Over the past two years, 39 Hispanics who identified themselves as Koch Foods employees have been booked into the Hamblen County Jail on a variety of charges, records indicate.
Only two gave corrections officers a Social Security number. The records did not indicate whether officers attempted to verify the numbers.

One of the workers, Juan Ramos Santiago, told corrections officers he was a citizen of Mexico, not the United States, according to jail records. The purported citizenship of the other man who gave a Social Security number, Jose Gregorio Vasquez, was not listed on his booking sheet.
Hamblen County jailers do not attempt to verify the places of employment for Hispanics or other inmates, so the possibility exists that the inmates could have lied about their connection to Koch Foods.

Tim Steffin, Koch Foods human resources manager, did not return telephone calls to comment. Other company officials were given the opportunity to comment but did not return calls.
Morristown Police Department Detective Sgt. Randall Noe, the lead investigator in the identity-theft case, says a Koch Foods human resources worker reported that Koch Foods visually verifies all prospective employees’ citizenship documents.

Noe said Koch Foods indicated the company does not keep copies of the qualifying documents — Social Security cards, alien-registration cards or passports — in employees’ personnel files.
Noe arrested 27-year-old Lucia Perez Thursday afternoon because she allegedly had assumed the identity of Julie Wheeler, a 42-year-old Maine resident who says her Social Security card was stolen when she lived in Morristown two years ago.

"It concerns law enforcement any time there is a perception that someone is breaking the law, whether it be federal or state law," Morristown Police Chief Roger Overholt said Saturday afternoon.

"Any time that these situations exist, we like to examine all the information to try to determine if there is a situation which warrants further investigation," the police chief added. "We know that it’s possible for undocumented individuals to obtain false documents and present them to employers."

Noe asked that Perez be held without bond because he considers her to be a flight risk. She was released from jail Friday after posting $10,000 bond.

All but three of the 39 listed said they were born in Mexico.
Only 12 of the 39 said they were U.S. citizens, and none of those who reported they were citizens possessed a driver’s license, according to jail records.
In fact, two of the three men who had Tennessee driver’s licenses, Santiago and Florentino Ramos, told jailers they were not U.S. citizens.

One man who told authorities he worked at Koch Foods, Julio S. Mendoza, had been deported two times under two different names, according to jail records.

He and 12 other Hispanics had known aliases. A man who sometimes went by Juventino Mendoza Aragon, tops the list. He has five known aliases reports indicate.

The Koch Foods Morristown plants, which employ more than 1,000 workers, have never been raided by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

Immigration officers arrested dozens of illegal aliens at the Fairmont Street facility when it was Burnett Produce.

In late August, I.C.E. swarmed a Koch Foods chicken-processing plant in Fairfield, Ohio and arrested more than 160 suspected illegal immigrants, according to agency releases.
Simultaneously, agents executed search warrants at Koch’s Chicago headquarters.

The charges filed against the Koch employees in the sting include illegal re-entry to the United States, identity theft, document fraud, Social Security fraud and forgery.

Koch’s Ohio operations were targeted in a two-year federal investigation "based on evidence that Koch may have knowingly hired illegal aliens at its poultry processing and packaging facility," according to an I.C.E. press release.

Springfield Plant A Magnet for Illegals

2007-12-10T01:11:00.000-05:00

SPRINGFIELD, TENN.-A hidden camera investigation conducted by NewsChannel 5 revealed Springfield's biggest employer may be the biggest offender when it comes to hiring undocumented immigrants.

Electrolux is one of the largest manufacturing plants in Middle Tennessee.
It employs thousands of workers.

But a NewsChannel 5 investigation uncovered some disturbing facts about many of those employees.

From city leaders to factory employees, several people said the same thing about Electrolux. They said illegal immigrants, not Americans, comprise a large portion of its workforce.

Three years ago, the company came to Robertson County and local residents were excited about the hundreds of new jobs it would bring.

"They tend to project a family-oriented business here," said an employee.
Its opening was seen as a surefire boost to the local economy.

"You know they care so it's a perfect place for a single mom to be," said an employee.
But how many of those jobs went to American workers?

"This is what Springfield, Robertson County is," said Amanda Clack, a former employee. "They are taking over."

Clack says few positions went to Americans.
She claims Electrolux is a big draw for immigrants.
"Ninety percent of that plant is Mexicans," she said. "Maybe 5 percent white, 5 percent black."

"There's only two people next to me who speak English, the rest of them are Hispanic around me," said an employee."They constantly want to say we're going to go to Mexico,' another employee said. "Why go to Mexico, when Mexico is here."

To get hired at Electrolux, applicants first go through a staffing agency called Randstad. Hiring occurs inside a trailer next to the plant. Four people equipped with hidden cameras went to the trailer to see what happens.

One person ventured into Randstad under the premise that she recently arrived in this country and needed a job.
While waiting to fill out paperwork, she met a man who was reapplying.
He allegedly reapplied using fake documentations.
The man told the decoy about someone he knew who provided fake documents.
Outside the trailer, he told her how much.
"Around $900 you will get a birth certificate, a social security number from Puerto Rico," he said. "It has a name and address and everything."
He showed her his own fake state identification
.
"It's easy to get the job, and you don't have to speak English," he said.
Around town, the decoys sent by NewsChannel 5 learned Electrolux is the best place to work for undocumented immigrants.
"It's around $800 to get a social security number," one man said.
They also learned about a Puerto Rican black market in which identities are bought and sold.No one seems to care if they're caught.

"They are reapplying because they are getting fired, and then they are reapplying with other documentations, and then getting hired again," said one decoy.
An applicant works for Randstad, but at Electrolux, for the first three while their papers are being verified.
"There's plenty of people there," one man said. "Some that will be fired today and they go and buy different papers, and then they go either to a different shift, or the same shift."
"Now, they need a lot of people, but there's no people to hire," he said. "And yes, they know those documents do not belong to us."

Randstad and Electrolux denied anything like this goes on.
But one man who urged the undercover decoy to apply with Randstad, saying Randstad knew his papers were fake, but rehired him anyway.
"Every one of us goes there and nothing happens," he said. "Don't be afraid. I worked there three years and nothing happened."

The situation at Electrolux has left many in Springfield with a familiar frustration.
"Since the Mexicans will work for lower amounts of money, they will hire them, and then leaving us out here, not being able to find a job," Clack said.

Randstad denies any wrongdoing.
A spokeswoman said they have an outside company that also checks to make sure the documents they receive are real. Springfield City Manager Paul Nutting said what the investigation revealed wasn't something new to him.
He said he's known about this issue for years and it's had a negative impact on Springfield.

In an interview Thursday, he discusses the Electrolux situation.
Electrolux also defended its hiring practices in a statement.

"We are confident that this process of independently verifying employee documentation minimizes the chances of undocumented workers slipping through," according to a written statement from a spokesman. "If any should, they eventually will be identified, and fired."

The Resolutions Pass

2007-12-10T01:04:00.000-05:00

The Morristown City Council has finally decided that illegal immigration is enough of a problem in Morristown and Hamblen County to call on our State and federal Governments to take action to relieve the community.

Is it just us here at T-FIRE, or are these resolutions-which were courageously brought forward by Councilman Mel Tucker-long overdue?

Huckabee a Disaster?

2007-12-10T00:55:00.000-05:00

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee is emerging as one of the top contenders for the 2008 Republican nomination. Groups that want to secure our borders and enforce America's immigration laws are warning that Huckabee could be disastrous on the immigration front:

Groups that support a crackdown on illegal aliens haven't settled on their champion in the race for the White House, but there's little doubt which Republican scares them most — former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. "He was an absolute disaster on immigration as governor," said Roy Beck, president of NumbersUSA, a group that played a major role in rallying the phone calls that helped defeat this year's Senate immigration bill. "Every time there was any enforcement in his state, he took the side of the illegal aliens." As Mr. Huckabee rises in the polls, his opponents are beginning to take shots at him on immigration. Just as problematic for the former Arkansas governor, however, is that the independent interest groups that track the issue are also giving him the once-over, and don't like what they see. "Huckabee is the guy who scares the heck out of me," said Peter Gadiel, president of 9-11 Families for a Secure America, a group instrumental in fighting

for the REAL ID Act that sets federal standards for driver's licenses.

Islamic Radicals Planned to Come Through Pourous Border

2007-11-30T16:20:00.000-05:00

By Sara A. Carter

The Washington Times

Fort Huachuca, the nation's largest intelligence-training center, changed security measures in May after being warned that Islamist terrorists, with the aid of Mexican drug cartels, were planning an attack on the facility.

Fort officials changed security measures after sources warned that possibly 60 Afghan and Iraqi terrorists were to be smuggled into the U.S. through underground tunnels with high-powered weapons to attack the Arizona Army base, according to multiple confidential law enforcement documents obtained by The Washington Times.

"A portion of the operatives were in the United States, with the remainder not yet in the United States," according to one of the documents, an FBI advisory that was distributed to the Defense Intelligence Agency, the CIA, Customs and Border Protection and the Justice Department, among several other law enforcement agencies throughout the nation. "The Afghanis and Iraqis shaved their beards so as not to appear to be Middle Easterners."

According to the FBI advisory, each Middle Easterner paid Mexican drug lords $20,000 "or the equivalent in weapons" for the cartel's assistance in smuggling them and their weapons through tunnels along the border into the U.S. The weapons would be sent through tunnels that supposedly ended in Arizona and New Mexico, but the Islamist terrorists would be smuggled through Laredo, Texas, and reclaim the weapons later.

A number of the Afghans and Iraqis are already in a safe house in Texas, the FBI advisory said.
Fort Huachuca, which lies about 20 miles from the Mexican border, has members of all four service branches training in intelligence and secret operations. About 12,000 persons work at the fort and many have their families on base.

Lt. Col. Matthew Garner, spokesman for Fort Huachuca, said details about the current phase of the investigation or security changes on the post "will not be disclosed."

"We are always taking precautions to ensure that soldiers, family members and civilians that work and live on Fort Huachuca are safe," Col. Garner said. "With this specific threat, we did change some aspects of our security that we did have in place."

According to the FBI report, some of the weapons associated with the plot have been smuggled through a tunnel from Mexico to the U.S.

The FBI report is based on Drug Enforcement Administration sources, including Mexican nationals with access to "sub-sources" in the drug cartels. The report's assessment is that the DEA's Mexican contacts have proven reliable in the past but the "sub-source" is of uncertain reliability.

According to the source who spoke with DEA intelligence agents, the weapons included two Milan anti-tank missiles, Soviet-made surface-to-air missiles, grenade launchers, long guns and handguns.

"FBI Comment: The surface-to-air missiles may in fact be RPGs," the advisory stated, adding that the weapons stash in Mexico could include two or three more Milan missiles.
The Milan, a French-German portable anti-tank weapon, was developed in the 1970s and widely sold to militaries around the world, including Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Insurgents in Iraq reportedly have used a Milan missile in an attack on a British tank. Iraqi guerrillas also have shot down U.S. helicopters using RPGs, or rocket-propelled grenades.

FBI spokesman Paul Bresson would not elaborate on the current investigation regarding the threat, but said that many times the initial reports are based on "raw, uncorroborated information that has not been completely vetted." He added that this report shows the extent to which all law enforcement and intelligence agencies cooperate in terror investigations.
"If nothing else, it provides a good look at the inner working of the law-enforcement and intelligence community and how they work together on a daily basis to share and deal with threat information," Mr. Bresson said. "It also demonstrates the cross-pollination that frequently exists between criminal and terrorist groups."

The connections between criminal enterprises, such as powerful drug cartels, and terrorist organizations have become a serious concern for intelligence agencies monitoring the U.S.-Mexico border.

"Based upon the information provided by the DEA handling agent, the DEA has classified the source as credible," stated a Department of Homeland Security document, regarding the possibility of an attack on Fort Huachuca. "The identity of the sub-source has been established; however, none of the information provided by the sub-source in the past has been corroborated."

The FBI advisory stated the "sub-source" for the information "is a member of the Zetas," the military arm of one of Mexico's most dangerous drug-trafficking organizations, the Gulf Cartel. The Gulf Cartel controls the movement of narcotics from Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, into the U.S. along the Laredo corridor.

However, the sub-source "for this information is of unknown reliability," the FBI advisory stated.

According to the DEA, the sub-source identified Mexico's Sinaloa cartel as the drug lords who would assist the terrorists in their plot.

This led the DEA to caution the FBI that its information may be a Gulf Cartel plant to bring the U.S. military in against its main rival. The Sinaloa and Gulf cartels have fought bloody battles along the border for control of shipping routes into the U.S.

"It doesn't mean that there isn't truth to some of what this source delivered to U.S. agents," said one law-enforcement intelligence agent, on the condition of anonymity. "The cartels have no loyalty to any nation or person. It isn't surprising that for the right price they would assist terrorists, knowingly or unknowingly."

She Was for It, Now She is Against It

2007-11-21T11:39:00.000-05:00

By DEVLIN BARRETT-Associated Press

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday came out against granting driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, after weeks of pressure in the presidential race to take a position on a now-failed ID plan from her home state governor.

Clinton has faced criticism from candidates in both parties for her noncommittal answers on New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's attempt to allow illegal immigrants in his state to receive driver's licenses. Spitzer abandoned the effort Wednesday.

"I support Governor Spitzer's decision today to withdraw his proposal," Clinton said in a statement. "As president, I will not support driver's licenses for undocumented people and will press for comprehensive immigration reform that deals with all of the issues around illegal immigration including border security and fixing our broken system."

Clinton stumbled when asked about the issue during a Democratic debate two weeks ago, and her new position comes the day before another debate where opponents are expected to raise the issue again.

Rival campaigns made clear they were not letting go of the issue.

"When it takes two weeks and six different positions to answer one question on immigration, it's easier to understand why the Clinton campaign would rather plant their questions than answer them," said Barack Obama spokesman Bill Burton, referring to the Clinton campaign's admission that aides had staged a question for her at an Iowa event.

Colleen Flanagan, a spokesman for Chris Dodd, called Clinton's position "flip-flopping cubed. She was for it before she was against it, before she was for it, before she was against it."

Spitzer met with New York lawmakers in Washington on Wednesday, and conceded that there was too much public opposition to his plan. Clinton did not attend the meeting.

"It does not take a stethoscope to hear the pulse of New Yorkers on this topic," he said.The Democratic governor introduced the plan two months ago with the goal of increased security, safer roads and an opportunity to bring immigrants "out of the shadows." Opponents charged the scheme would make it easier for would-be terrorists to get identification, and make the country less safe.

The decision is another example of the roadblocks high-profile immigration reforms have faced this year. Less than five months ago, Congress failed to pass legislation that would legalize as many as 12 million unlawful immigrants and fortify the border with Mexico.

"The federal government has lost control of its borders... and now has no solution to deal with it," Spitzer said.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff called Spitzer's reversal on the license issue "a good development" and said immigration is a federal issue for which his department has to "ramp up enforcement."

"What I want to make sure is that states aren't working at cross purposes with us and enabling the kind of conduct we're enforcing against," Chertoff told The Associated Press by telephone from London.

Hillarycare for Illegals

2007-11-21T11:34:00.000-05:00

By Robert Goldberg-New York Post

November 16, 2007 -- IF you thought Hillary Clinton had trouble making up her mind about drivers licenses for illegal aliens, wait until someone tries to pin her down about health care for illegals.

She fumbled for days after being asked about Gov. Spitzer's now-aborted plan to give licenses to illegals. But the New York governor is pushing ahead on giving free health care to the same folks. Washington recently told Spitzer that it wouldn't pay for chemotherapy for illegals under a Medicaid "emergency" program. That program was created in 1996 at President Bill Clinton's insistence to provide "temporary" coverage to illegals, who'd been barred from Medicaid the year before. In the years since, it's become a de facto entitlement for illegals - who in some states get the same benefits as everyone else on Medicaid (except for organ transplants). As a result, "emergency" Medicaid spending has ballooned across the country.

When the Bush administration told Spitzer that emergency Medicaid wasn't meant to cover chemotherapy, the gov decided that New York taxpayers (many of whom have to cover the cost of their own cancer drugs, due to inadequate private insurance) would foot the bill. Spitzer says the cancer care will "only" cost $10 million. Maybe so - until more people find out it's free.

Over to Hillary: Asked in September if the senator's new health plan would pay the tab for illegals, senior Clinton policy adviser Laurie Rubiner said, "That's one we're going to have to think through a little bit . . . We have not dealt with every single detail with this plan." This is one detail Clinton had better deal with quickly. No one wants to see suffering people denied health care. Illegal immigrants are more than welcome to pay out of pocket for health care - and many do. Many also buy private insurance - or at least did until it became public policy to give health care away for free as a reward for being here illegally.

But lots of voters will say states shouldn't provide free cancer care to people who are in this country illegally, when many Americans can't get their private health plans to pay for the same drugs. And Clinton has clearly supported spending taxpayer dollars on free health care for illegals in the past - and not just a decade ago, when Bill was pushing for the "emergency" program. Despite what the senator's adviser says, she has thought through this issue. Hillary voted to expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program to cover illegals and had counted on that money to bring down the cost of her own health care plan. And if "universal health coverage" is her goal, then supporting the Spitzer chemo handout is a slam-dunk. After all, illegals make up 9 million of the 45 million "Americans" she typically notes as lacking health coverage.

To be fair, no presidential candidate has so far taken on the issue of how to deal with health-care coverage for illegals. But it's only fair that Clinton go first: Her home-state governor and political ally is at the center of the debate. And health care is Clinton's signature issue, the one policy area that she claims the most experience and leadership. She has had plenty of time to "think." How she responds will tell us a lot about her health-care plan and her candidacy.

The Railroading

2007-11-21T11:19:00.000-05:00

By now, those following the issue of immigration law enforcement have heard about the Border Patrol Agents who were sentenced to prison for shooting those trying to cross our borders in violation of the law.

Now we learn that the men those agents shot at were scoundrels of the worst sort who were trying to smuggle drugs across the U.S. border. What was suspected has been confirmed.

So these men (who are Hispanic Americans) who have done their duty in protecting the sovereignty of the United States are put into prison where they are beaten (probably by illegal alien criminals), while the career criminal they shot might get 40 years, or might be deported only to return again.

Mel Tucker Fights the Power

2007-11-14T14:45:00.000-05:00

BY ROBERT MOORE, Tribune Staff Writer

Having suffered setbacks on two fronts involving illegal immigrants, Morristown City Council member Mel Tucker is moving ahead with a new four-prong offensive designed to prod goverment into action.

This time, he has a clear majority of council members on board, and the council is scheduled to approve Tucker’s policy package on Nov. 20

Tucker has enough votes to pass a resolution urging our federal legislators — Bob Corker, Lamar Alexander and David Davis — to adequately fund U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and to prod immigration officials to do their job.

The council member wants state legislators, John Litz and Steve Southerland, to introduce bills that would make it a felony offense to knowingly employ, transport or house illegal immigrants.

The state law Tucker seeks, which could be modeled after legislation that recently went into effect in Oklahoma, also would require law enforcement officials to detain illegals until they can be deported.

Third on Tucker’s illegal-immigration wish list is directing Morristown City Attorney Dick Jessee to conduct research on the powers of municipal governments to combat an influx of undocumented residents.

Finally, the councilman wants to try another approach to have MPD officers certified to perform certain duties of a federal immigration officer.

Tucker’s initial effort was thwarted, in part, because I.C.E. is reserving the limited training spots for agencies that operate a jail.

His new idea is to have Hamblen County Sheriff Esco Jarnagin deputize five MPD officers, then send them to school with five county corrections officers.

If this proposed end-run around the I.C.E. guidelines works, the MPD officers would be able to process criminal aliens into a federal database and initiate deportation proceedings without relying on a federal agent. .

The officers who complete the school also could document alleged illegal immigrants they encounter during the course of routine police work and forward their names to I.C.E., which could act on the information.

The officers would not have the authority to conduct raids.

"I think it’s our responsibility as a legislative and political body to be looking at this problem," Tucker said. "When I see and watch the news and every agency around the country says, ‘Why, that’s not my problem, that’s the federal government’s problem’... Well, you know, it’s our problem because it’s affecting us, in my opinion."

In August 2006, responding to complaints about up to 10 Hispanics living in a house on Rosedale Avenue, Tucker launched an initiative to set occupancy limits for residences inside the Morristown city limits.

Eight months later, Tucker got what he wanted, but it was a hollow victory. The city council essentially adopted the same occupancy guidelines enforced by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The federal rules permit up to 14 adults to live in a 1,900-square-foot house.

Tucker says groups with similar stated goals like the Tennessee Volunteer Minutemen have approached him with offers of support.

Tucker says he turned them down flat, and emphasizes that he’s not affiliated with any anti-illegal-immigration group.

"I always act on my on," Tucker said. "I’m not speaking for anyone else except myself. I believe that the laws of our land ought to be enforced. I think you move toward anarchy when you don’t do that, and the federal government needs to step up to the plate and do it’s job."

Tucker adopted a novel approach to drive home his point at Tuesday’s council meeting.

In a serious tone, Tucker proposed that the Morristown Police Department suspend enforcement of drunken-driving and all other alcohol-related laws.

Stunned silence filled Council Chambers. Council member Kay Senter’s draw dropped.

When everyone had time to weigh whether Tucker had lost his mind, he allowed that it was an absurd proposition but no less absurd than the federal government to not enforcing immigration laws.

Tucker believes that the influx of illegal immigrants in Hamblen County is at least partially responsible for the drop in median family income, which fell from $27,000 in 2000 to $26,300 in 2006.

He contends that Morristown might be a more attractive location for illegals than many other cities because it’s an "industrial-based, relatively low-wage community."

He maintains this is important for council members because sales-tax revenues fund a large portion of city government’s operations.

"Personally, I believe that people don’t have the disposable income to buy products that generate sales tax that we’ve relied upon in the past," Tucker said.

The Tucker Resolutions

2007-11-08T06:57:00.000-05:00

Morristown City Councilman Mel Tucker is fed up with illegal immigration, and he's tired of the Morristown-Hamblen County Chamber of Commerce pretending that it isn't a problem. What he proposed to do is for the Council to use its discretionary powers to demand via a resolution that our Representatives in Nashville and Washington take action (reports T-FIRE member and former Hamblen County Commissioner Linda Noe):

1. Draft a resolution to send to Senator Bob Corker, Senator Lamar Alexander, and Congressman David Davis requesting that ICE (Immigration and Custom Enforcement) receive additional funding and do its job enforcing the federal immigration laws.

2. Draft a resolution to send to state Senator Steve Southerland and Representative John Litz asking that they push legislation in Tennessee similar to Oklahoma HB 1804. This recently enacted Oklahoma law prohibits the issuance of government ID's (such as licenses) to illegal immigrants; prohibits public assistance to illegal immigrants; makes it a felony for a U.S. citizen to transport, harbor, or employ illegal immigrants; and requires that illegal immigrants be detained without bond until deportation.

3. Authorize city attorney Dick Jessee to research the issue and advise council of all legal means available to identify and take action against illegal immigrants.

4. Fund Hamblen County Sheriff Jarnagin's expenses for 10 "deputies" to attend ICE certification training that is reserved only for those agencies, such as Hamblen County, that operate jails. Among those ten would be 5 Morristown Police Deptartment officers who would be deputized by the Sheriff.

That last point is critical, because since the federal government refuses to enforce our immigration laws, our local law enforcement must rake up the burden.

Let's let Councilman Tucker know that we support his efforts!

What We are Really Looking For

2007-11-06T13:00:00.000-05:00

Investors' Business Daily's Michael Barone hits the nail on the head as to what the real impetus is for those of us who are concerned about the threat of illegal immigration into this country-and it isn't race:

You don't have to be a racist to be bothered by such things. You just have to be a citizen who thinks that massive failure to enforce the law is corrosive to society. That was apparent to me as I listened to a focus group of Republican voters in suburban Richmond, Va., conducted by Peter Hart for the Annenberg School of Communications.

One voter after another complained that the immigration laws were not being enforced. None of them made any derogatory remarks about Latino immigrants — two said they admired how hard immigrants work. They don't want to see Latinos banished from this country. They want the immigrants here to be legally here.

Here at T-FIRE, this is our collective sentiment-word for word.

Checkpoints are So Helpful

2007-11-06T12:44:00.000-05:00

Our border patrol agents are having such a difficult time, and the ladies and gentlemen manning our official border checkpoints have been such a help-they let 21,000 people through border checkpoints that did not have proper documentation.

Minuteman Leader: No Compromise On Illegal Immigration

2007-11-06T12:37:00.000-05:00

From The Tennessean

By COLBY SLEDGE Staff Writer
A leader in volunteer patrolling of U.S. borders said his group was at a "no-compromise position" concerning illegal immigration during a speech at Belmont University this morning.

"This is not about being anti-immigrant; this is not about hate," said Chris Simcox, president of the Arizona-based Minuteman Civil Defense Corps. "This is about citizens doing their duty."More than 170 students, faculty and community leaders attended the event at the Massey Business Center, according to estimates by Belmont officials.

More than 9,000 Minutemen volunteer for patrol trips on U.S. borders, primarily focusing on identifying and reporting people crossing illegally from Mexico into the United States.

Simcox spoke out mainly against the federal government, saying members of the U.S. Congress were ''selling out our citizenship'' in exchange for furthering American addictions to drugs and cheap labor.''Angst and anger and activism need to be directed at those we hired,'' Simcox said.

The audience mostly listened quietly during the 45-minute lecture, which included a question-and-answer session. Simcox drew ire from some students during the speech for insinuating that protesters at previous events were actually upset over crackdowns on drug cartels coming from Mexico.''Sometimes I think that's what they're really protesting, is losing their cheap drug supply,'' Simcox said.

Simcox will be at Middle Tennessee State University at 6 p.m. in the State Farm Room of the Business and Aerospace Building. The event is free and open to the public.

And They Tell Us it is No Problem

2007-11-05T04:50:00.000-05:00

The Morristown-Hamblen Chamber of Commerce thinks that there is no problem with illegal immigration in Hamblen County.

Here at T-FIRE we are certain of one thing, and it is that the percentage of school populations in Hamblen County Schools that are considered "Hispanic" was not nearly as high as late as five years ago as the Citizen-Tribune (a paper that all but favors illegal immigration) is reporting that they are this year:

Fairview- Marguerite, 33.7 percent Hispanic; Hillcrest, 26.6 percent; Lincoln Heights Elementary, 32.3 percent; and West Elementary, 25.7 percent.

Either there has been a massive influx of new legal immigrants from Mexico and Latin America who have followed the law, a large portion of the population of Puerto Rico have relocated en masse to East Tennessee, or there has been a massive increase in the number of illegal aliens in East Tennessee in the last decade, some of whom have had children while here so that they can milk the system.

What hypothesis do you think most likely?

Alien Sits on Local Jury

2007-11-05T04:34:00.001-05:00

Now here is a question to be asked...

According to this Citizen-Tribune report, the woman in question claims to have a Green Card, which if true means that she is legally entitled to live and work in the United States of America, but is NOT a citizen of said United States, or of the State of Tennessee. As a non-citizen, this woman should not be voting.

Perhaps she isn't voting...but as a non-citizen, if she is not on the voter roles of Hamblen County, she should not have been summoned for jury duty.

How did she get a jury summons? It stands to reason that she is on the roles somewhere in the County, and we have no way to know if she is voting or not.

If she is, how many other non-citizens are illegally casting ballots and influencing the process of election that is reserved for sovereign citizens alone? How many illegal aliens are voting? Is it any wonder that members of a certain political party in Nashville oppose mandatory identification for voters, lest a part of their voter-base be suddenly ruled illegal?

___________________________________________________________
By Robert Moore, TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

The inadvertent inclusion of a non-U.S. citizen on a Hamblen County grand jury Thursday required an extraordinary legal solution Friday afternoon that averted a complete do-over, officials say.

What was at stake was the integrity of 124 cases against 56 defendants, not counting the secret indictments, which are called presentments.

Criminal Court Judge John F. Dugger resolved the matter and found that all of the indictments and all but one of the presentments the grand jury returned Thursday were valid.

Dugger says state law requires that only 12 votes are required to indict an individual for a crime. The 12-member grand jury also had a voting foreman, June Zeigler, who was sitting in for regular foreman Sam Moore.

After questioning Ziegler under oath, Dugger learned from the grand jury foreman that the votes on all the indictments were unanimous.

That means that even without the non-U.S. citizen’s vote, the district attorney’s office has the necessary 12 votes to proceed with the cases.

A grand jury will consider the presentment that didn’t get 12 votes at a later date.
At one point Thursday morning before an attorney located the 12-vote state law, court personnel feared that the entire day’s work would be lost.

The non-U.S, citizen, a woman with a Hispanic surname, reported that she has a "green card" and has been working legally in the United States for seven years, according to Kathy Mullins, Hamblen County Circuit Court clerk.

Mullins says the woman speaks English well, but apparently didn’t understand that by taking the oath to serve on the grand jury the woman was affirming that she is a citizen and a resident of Tennessee.

Potential grand jurors are randomly chosen from a list of licensed Tennessee drivers supplied by the state Department of Safety, not from voter-registration information.

The court clerk says there was no intentional deception, and the woman will face no charges. Mullins says this is the first and last time that a mix-up of this nature will occur while she remains in office.

"It won’t happen again because we will be more specific in the future," Mullins said. "It caused a great deal of pain because she didn’t say anything (Wednesday)."

What’s not clear, Mullins says, is how the woman learned that her residency status could impact grand jury results. The woman phoned the clerk’s office Friday morning and volunteered the information that she is not a U.S. citizen.

Employee of Nuclear Plant Had Pipe Bomb in Truck - Facility in LOCKDOWN

2007-11-05T04:27:00.000-05:00

A couple of years ago there where about 6 illegal aliens working at Oak Ridge. They had access to a trailer which contained classified documents. Naturally the story to the public was "there is nothing to worry about." Oh really?

Anything Can Happen

Missouri Enforces the Law and Gets Sued

2007-10-30T05:09:00.000-04:00

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

2007-10-24T03:45:00.000-04:00

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

2007-10-24T03:43:00.000-04:00

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

2007-10-24T03:34:00.000-04:00

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

2007-10-17T01:28:00.000-04:00

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

2007-10-09T07:54:00.000-04:00

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

2007-10-04T07:43:00.000-04:00

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

2007-10-01T04:44:00.000-04:00

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

2007-10-01T04:39:00.000-04:00

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."

Illegal Aliens Engage in Bootlegging Beer

2007-09-30T02:03:00.000-04:00

BY ROBERT MOORE, Tribune Staff Writer

A new state law requiring identification for beer purchases and the abundance of illegal aliens in the Lakeway Area have converged to create a new niche market, Hamblen County Sheriff Esco Jarnagin said this morning.

What apparently was lacking in Hamblen County, the sheriff says, were stores that would sell beer to illegal aliens who don't possess legal identification.

"The Hispanics cannot purchase beer because they don't have IDs so they are opening up their little bootlegging outfits to cater to their fellow Hispanics," Jarnagin said. "We are regressing back to the bootlegging days. That's what it is."

The two entrepreneurs who responded to fill the void in the Hamblen County capitalist landscape allegedly are illegal aliens themselves, according to the sheriff.

Jose Diaz Ortiz, 44, and Pilar P. Perez, 33, allegedly were selling beer from the McDaniel Trailer Park on Fish Hatchery Road, which law enforcement officials sometimes call "Little Mexico."

When Hamblen County Sheriff's Department officials raided the trailer shortly after 2 a.m. today, they confiscated 40 cases of beer, including Corona, Model, Budweiser, Bud Light and Miller, according to the sheriff.

"They had about any kind you would want," Jarnagin said. "You could buy beer 24-7 out there. They were selling it basically at a dollar a beer. The price is not inflated a great amount. It's just serving the population, the illegals."

Authorities also confiscated a .22-caliber semi-automatic handgun.

Both Ortiz and Perez face charges of the illegal sale of alcohol and illegal storage of liquor for sale.

The sheriff said this morning that he would be contacting Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents today because neither suspect could provide a valid Social Security number.

Deputy Eric Carson, who led the operation, obtained a search warrant after an undercover informant purchased beer at the trailer on Sunday. In all, the sheriff says, Carson has three undercover buys there.

"It was so heavily populated that our informant had to wait about 15 minutes to get out of the parking lot at one time," Jarnagin said. "Everybody is to be commended on their participation in the search warrant. It went without incident, and nobody got hurt."

The sheriff says Ortiz and Perez were operating a mini-convenience store at the trailer. Sheriff's department officials confiscated receipts of foodstuffs from suppliers in Georgia and Florida, as well as establishments located on South Cumberland Street in Morristown.

Jarnagin says that deputies have been receiving reports of illegal beer sales in Hamblen County for "several months," but it took a long time to recruit an informant and get him inside the alleged Fish Hatchery Road bootlegging operation.

"Criminals, they don't have boundaries," the sheriff said. "We have to act within the boundaries set by the Supreme Court and the Constitution."

Tennessee Can Do It Too

2007-09-23T00:26:00.000-04:00

Living in the shadows: An illegal immigrant tells what life is like and why he's going home

from the Gainesville Times Here

Illegal alien lobby and UNIVISION to hold an early August "family health fair" event in Cobb County. If it is like the one from 2005 ( it will be), it is really a follow the money event. See the promo from GALEO here. See this write-up from the 2005 version. Here. (and here )

Georgia took effective action, and the illegals are packing up and getting out. Tennessee could do the same, if only our leaders had the will to do it!

The Reconquista?

2007-09-20T02:55:00.000-04:00

(Note: The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of Tennesseans for Immigration Reform and Education-T-FIRE. However, this piece does present an alternative view-the notion that the Mexican Government has another reason for encouraging so many of its people to come across the U.S. border illegally. It is worth pondering...)

This is tough news for all peace-loving Americans. But after the illegal immigrant protests over the last year or two, any American who doesn’t now recognize that we are engaged in a war of sorts with Mexican Reconquistas is either practicing aggressive ignorance or has sided with the Reconquistas against the USA.

This state of war exists now just as a state of war existed between the United States and the terrorists before September 11, 2001. Most Americans were too naive to see we were at war before the World Trade Center attacks burned that message into the national consciousness. The terrorists had been making war on the United States for years before 9-11, but we were too comfortable in our illusions to recognize that fact. However, we are no longer so naive.
As Americans, we have relearned a hard lesson since those attacks. We have relearned that we do have enemies in this world.

FIGHTING A WAR IN THE WRONG PLACE?

Thousands of our Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, Airmen and Coast Guardsmen are currently serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. These volunteer heroes are fighting to bring the refreshing waters of Stability, Democracy and Freedom to peoples who before have only known the parched deserts of tyranny and despotism. But while our own current ‘Greatest Generation’ fights across the sea, a foreign occupation force, the Reconquistas, are busy invading the United States of America. War has come to our homeland through our backdoor. We need our heroes to come home to defend us now!

VIVA LA AZTLAN!

Reconquistas are ‘illegal immigrant’ invaders from Mexico who, with their government’s support, are swarming northward, posing as itinerant, slave-wage workers.

The Reconquistas believe that California, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, Texas and other Southwestern states were ‘stolen’ from them in the First Mexican-American war of 1846. Using history as their excuse, the Reconquistas believe that they can grab undefended American territory for Mexico through policies of ‘illegal immigration,’ invasion, infiltration, intimidation and eventual re-conquest (thus the name ‘Reconquistas).

The Reconquistas already have a name for their future captured American lands… AZTLAN.

Federal Judge Does Bidding of Unions Rather Than Citizens

2007-09-18T05:47:00.000-04:00

Tennesseans for Immigration Reform and Education (T-FIRE) is crusading everyday to see to it that the immigration laws that we already have on the books are enforced in America. The most obvious way to enforce these laws is to run checks on social security numbers to insure that they are held by real citizens, and that people in the workforce are here legally if they can indeed produce such a number.

It sounds simple enough, but a federal judge just made it a whole lot harder.

Amnesty Included in Defense Bill?

2007-09-17T02:35:00.000-04:00

After a public outcry stopped the huge amnesty bill this year, its proponents are trying to slip bits and pieces of it into the Department of Defense authorization bill. If they succeed in all their efforts, this exercise in stealth will give them most of the outrageous elements of the "comprehensive" immigration bill that Americans rejected.

The main thrust of this plan is to add the DREAM Act's amnesty provisions as an amendment to the Defense funding bill in the Senate.

The plan would also include an increase in the number of H-2B non-agricultural seasonal visas and an increase in the number of "hi-tech" H-1B visas, both further jeopardizing American jobs for American workers.

Please click here to learn more and to take action

No to the DREAM

2007-09-17T02:32:00.000-04:00

Tell Your Senators to vote NO on the Durbin Amnesty Amendment!!

Summer is over and the grassroots victory on immigration seems like a distant memory to some Senators. The open borders crowd failed to push through their grand amnesty and now they are trying to do it piecemeal.

Illinois Senator Richard Durbin (D) will offer an amendment (S. Amdt. 2237) to the Defense Authorization bill ( H.R. 1585) next week that would grant amnesty to illegal aliens who came here before age 16 and have lived here at least five years. Though supporters claim this bill is "for the children," adults are eligible as well. Aliens aged 30, 40, or 65 are eligible as long as they meet the amnesty requirements and their "initial" illegal entry was before they were 16.

The bill sets "no numerical limit" on the number of illegal aliens who can apply for the amnesty. Conservative estimates, including those published by the Migration Policy Institute, put the number of those granted amnesty to at least 1 million people.

The bill will also grant in-state college tuition to illegal aliens. In addition to reduced tuition fees, which millions of U.S. citizens are not afforded, this bill also allows federal aid in the form of loans and work-study to help subsidize tuition for illegal aliens.

Congress and the Administration should continue focusing on enforcement. Adding in any kind of amnesty will immediately shift the focus of Homeland Security to processing the amnesty, instead of beefing up enforcement.

Senators are expecting they can push this amnesty through without you noticing. Prove them wrong! Just because your senator voted correctly on the grand amnesty, doesn't mean they will vote correctly this time. Be sure to call and get your friends and family to call as well.

Illegal Aliens Sponsor Pot Operation

2007-09-14T21:18:00.000-04:00

East Tennessee newspapers are reporting that one illegal alien (and perhaps more) may be behind what has been termed one of the "biggest" marijuana fields ever discovered in the Third Judicial District. The Third Judicial District is composed of Hawkins, Hamblen, Greene, and Hancock counties.

The street value of the 8-12,000 marijuana plants was pegged at nearly $1 million dollars.

Four Hispanic guards armed with various weapons including an AK47 assault rifle were posted around the illegal weed. One of the guards was captured. He had no identification, and it is assumed at this point that he entered the US illegally.

Three other Hispanic "guards" escaped on foot.

In what is probably the understatement of the day, Scott Castle, director of the 3rd Judicial Task Force said things could have been disastrous if the guard with the assault rifle had opened up on the officers with the AK47.

Castle's remark about facing an AK47 with standard .40 caliber law-enforcement side arms, "It would have been a problem."

Illegal marijuana in East Tennessee---grown by and protected by illegal aliens armed with rifles and an AK 47.

SECURE OUR BORDERS NOW.

Rudy Won't Punish Illegals

2007-09-14T11:27:00.000-04:00

Thinking of supporting former New York City Mayor Rudy Guiliani for the Republican nomination? He doesn't think being in this country illegally-sneaking across the border-should be a crime.

Speaking on the Glenn Beck radio program last week, Mr. Giuliani said that illegal entry into the U.S. is not a federal crime and that he doesn't think it should be, either: "It shouldn't be because the government wouldn't be able to prosecute it. We couldn't prosecute 12 million people."

If you are concerned about the safety and security of the United States of America and you were thinking of supporting Mr. Guiliani for the Republican Presidential nomination in 2008, you may want to think again.

Don't Keep the DREAM Alive

2007-09-14T11:24:00.000-04:00

This week, there have been increasing reports from the Hill that Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) intends to offer the DREAM Act as an amendment to the FY08 Department of Defense Authorization Bill (H.R.1585). Debate of this legislation and the Durbin Amendment is expected NEXT WEEK! Yesterday, Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) held a press conference alerting the Capitol press corps to the growing possibility that the DREAM Act would be resurrected. Calling the bill "amnesty," he said, "We may be headed for another immigration battle."

The DREAM Act does two things: (1) it grants amnesty to illegal aliens who entered the country before the age of 16 and have met certain educational requirements and (2) it reverses current law to allow states to provide in-state tuition to illegal aliens while charging non-resident U.S. citizens out-of-state tuition.

The DREAM Act creates a three-tiered system to grant amnesty to illegal aliens who arrived in the U.S. before the age of 16.

Illegal aliens who are over 12 and are enrolled in primary or secondary school are eligible for a stay of removal.

Illegal aliens who have obtained a high school diploma or a GED, or have simply been admitted to an institution of higher education, are eligible for conditional lawful permanent resident status (conditional LPR status). There is NO CAP ON THE NUMBER OF ALIENS who may receive conditional LPR status, there is NO AGE LIMIT, and such status MAY BE EXTENDED INDEFINITELY.

Illegal aliens who have already obtained conditional LPR status under the act and have also completed at least 2 years of a degree program or 2 years in the military are eligible for legal permanent resident status (LPR status).

Act now to stop the DREAM Act!!! Supporters of the DREAM Act insist that the legislation is not an amnesty and that it is only intended to help children. However, the details of the bill clearly prove that their claims are false! Please call your Senators TODAY, FRIDAY, and NEXT WEEK to let them know you oppose the DREAM Act. Tell them you strongly oppose rewarding illegal immigration with amnesty. Even if the children only entered with their illegal alien parents, those illegal alien parents are rewarded when their children become eligible to receive a U.S. education paid for by taxpayer dollars and are then granted amnesty.

PLEASE CALL YOUR SENATORS NOW AND URGE THEM TO REJECT THE DREAM ACT! To find the phone number of your Senators, click here.

Is the Cost Too High?

2007-09-14T11:20:00.001-04:00

Biased? Sure, but.....you can't explain away everything. Whether it is a basic human right to be free from governmental control or not, can we afford it?

Perhaps you need documentation?

President Bush is already being blamed for spending too much money on the war and that's why the bridges are falling down. We could repair a few bridges with this amount of money. These are stunning numbers and apparently easily verifiable...Proves once again that Washington just doesn't get it!

__1. $11 Billion to $22 billion is spent on welfare to illegal aliens each year.http://tinyurl.com/zob77__

2. $2.2 Billion dollars a year is spent on food assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches for illegal aliens. http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html__

3. $2.5 Billion dollars a year is spent on Medicaid for illegal aliens.http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html__

4. $12 Billion dollars a year is spent on primary and secondary school education for children here illegally and they cannot speak a word of English!http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.0.html__

5. $17 Billion dollars a year is spent for education for the American-born children of illegal aliens, known as anchor babies.http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html__

6. $3 Million Dollars a DAY is spent to incarcerate illegal aliens.http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html __

7. 30% percent of all Federal Prison inmates are illegal aliens.http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html__

8. $90 Billion Dollars a year is spent on illegal aliens for Welfare & social services by the American taxpayers.http://premium.cnn.com/TRANSCIPTS/0610/29/ldt.01.html __

9. $200 Billion Dollars a year in suppressed American wages are caused by the illegal aliens.http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html __

10. The illegal aliens in the United States have a crime rate that's two and a half times that of non-illegal aliens. In particular, their children, are going to make a huge additional crime problem in the US. http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0606/12/ldt.01.html__

11. During the year of 2005 there were 4 to 10 MILLION illegal aliens that crossed our Southern Border also, as many as 19,500 illegal aliens from Terrorist Countries. Millions of pounds of drugs, cocaine, meth, heroine and marijuana, crossed into the U. S from the Southern border. Homeland Security Report: http://tinyurl.com/t9sht__

12. The National Policy Institute, "estimated that the total cost of mass deportation would be between $206 and $230 billion or an average cost of between $41 and $46 billion annually over a five year period." http://www.nationalpolicyinstitute.org/pdf/deportation.pdf__

13. In 2006 illegal aliens sent home $45 BILLION in remittances back to their countries of origin. http://www.rense.com/general75/niht.htm__1

4. "The Dark Side of Illegal Immigration: Nearly One Million Sex Crimes Committed by Illegal Immigrants In The United States ". http://www.drdsk.com/articleshtml

Senate Passes Amendment to Halt Mexican Trucks on U.S. Highways

2007-09-13T02:26:00.000-04:00

Washington DC - The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) congratulated Senators Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) for sponsoring an amendment to the Transportation Appropriations bill that cuts-off funding for a program that would have allowed hundreds of Mexican trucks to haul cargo on U.S. highways. The amendment was approved Tuesday by a 75 to 23 margin.

The program, promoted by the Bush Administration, would have cost many Americans their jobs and endangered motorists on our interstate highways because of laxer safety standards for Mexican trucks. The Mexican trucking program would also have posed a threat to homeland security, compounding the already difficult task of inspecting cargo entering the U.S. Fittingly, the vote on the amendment took place on the sixth anniversary of 9/11.

"FAIR joins everyone who is concerned about protecting the jobs of American workers, protecting the safety of people who drive on our highways, and protecting the security of our nation, in congratulating Sen. Dorgan for putting these interests ahead of the desire of large corporations to cut their trucking costs," said Dan Stein, president of FAIR. "It seems it is finally dawning on members of Congress that the American people believe there are important national interests that must take precedence over the desire of some to save a buck."

The overwhelming approval of this amendment, combined with the support of organized labor, is a hopeful indication that a new coalition that supports border and immigration enforcement may be developing. "People are becoming aware that ill-conceived trade policies and unenforced immigration policies are a threat to national security and to our embattled middle class," Stein noted. "Whether by default - because we do not enforce laws against illegal immigration - or by design, such as policies that open our highways to foreign truckers, there are actual American workers and their families who pay a heavy price for some businesses' insatiable thirst for lower cost labor.

"Likewise, whether we have people and goods moving across our borders illegally, or whether we institute policies that allow people and goods to enter with little or no inspection, the consequence is the same. America's homeland security is compromised," declared Stein.

The same principles that were applied to the decision of Congress not to allow Mexican trucks to haul good across the U.S., must be applied to our border policies in general. "The basic litmus test for determining immigration policies should be, Will American workers be harmed? Will public safety be compromised? Will homeland security be put at risk? If the answers to any of these questions is yes, then the policies need to be reconsidered," concluded Stein.

The Jobs of Illegals

2007-09-11T00:59:00.000-04:00

Becoming active in a political movement is the most enthralling, the most terrifying, and the most complex task I have ever participated in.

I like to arrange the events in my life according to that formula, and up until now, I had settled on my marriage, and subsequent divorce as the hardest undertaking. Now, I look back with a sigh of relief and an incredulous giggle--HA! That was a piece of cake compared to becoming involved with a political cause.

Then, I was fighting against ONE idiot. Now, I'm taking on an entire nation of complacent unscrupulous liberal individuals that are so caught up in steadying the boat that any deviation from the formula is unheard of. I find myself frustrated at times by the complete lack of backbone that is necessary to stand up against people who want to do nothing but shut you up by calling you a racist, and thereby continue their money making ventures. That's right, I said it. Letting illegals into this country is about money. That's all. It's not even about the money they are making, even illegal supporters don't really care about their welfare. Look at the jobs that criminal employers are giving them: Construction, cleaning, hospitality, farming---very physical, back breaking work. The most common argument that I have heard FOR the continued practice of illegal immigration is this: they do jobs that we Americans don't want to do.

What? Is that the best you have? So, there is a job out there, that an illegal is doing, that JUST HAS TO BE DONE SO BADLY that without the filling of that job the United States will cease to prosper. Just let me get this straight....we want to continue to let illegals in unchecked, so that our convenience is still maintained? Wow...I think that line of logic, or lack thereof, was used by Slavery Supporters 400 years ago. Really, now, who is the racist is this argument?

Christa

The Brits Do It Better

2007-09-10T02:05:00.000-04:00

Apparently, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hasn't taxed enough of our hard-earned money. Now, she wants a "windfall" profits tax on any stock earnings you might have. Who would benefit from this new tax? Among other groups, Pelosi wants to give the money to illegal aliens!

"We need to raise the standard of living of our poor, unemployed and minorities. For example, we have an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in our country who need our help along with millions of unemployed minorities. Stock market windfall profits taxes could go a long ways to guarantee these people the standard of living they would like to have as "Americans."

So Pelosi's solution is to dole out ever-more taxpayer dollars to illegals by raising taxes on citizens and legal residents, so that those in this country legally will have to subsidize those who are not on a writ-large basis.

Contrast this to Britain, whose Labour Government (a party that has its roots in the socialist trade union movement of the 19th Century) is preparing to limit its quota of non-European immigrants to those who have learned English before they are allowed into that country. Note that the position of the Conservative Party in Britain, traditionally the champion of the middle class, religion, and the nuclear family, is now in a bind. In the Tories' rush to be seen as the "compassionate" party, they have (up to now) neglected to address the immigration problem in Britain. Sound familiar?

Perhaps the Mother Country can teach us a thing or two again

Lawyer Harasses Citizens Who Report Immigration Crimes

2007-09-07T19:38:00.000-04:00

DESCRIBE YOUR COMPLAINT IN DETAIL. Use the back of this page or attach other pages for more space.
Jeffrey Dale Ridner, Esq. was retained by our landlords Chris and Karl Chmelar who live in the Netherlands, E.U. By certified letter Mr. Ridner attempted to intimidate my wife and me with the threat of eviction if we did not turn a blind eye to a possible federal immigration crime and associated conspiracy involving him, his clients, their relatives and the roofing company (a copy of his certified letter dated August 24, 2007 is attached herewith as Exhibit A), to wit:
That 6 - 8 men of Central American descent arrived at our (leased) home at approximately 2 PM Wednesday afternoon (August 22, 2007) and commenced stripping the slate off the roof with the intention of re-shingling the house. None of the workers could speak English and there was no supervisor present with whom I could communicate.

That because of the clear and present danger posed by illegal immigrants to our national sovereignty and security, I was suspicious of these workers and immediately began soliciting help to determine their immigration status by contacting: 1) the Grundy County Sheriff’s Department, 2) U. S. Congressman Lincoln Davis’ Washington office, 3) the Department of Immigration’s Immigration & Custom Enforcement task force (ICE) and finally the roofing company that sent the questionable workers (Porter Roofing of McMinnville, Tennessee).
That the Sheriff’s Department was at a loss of what to do regarding the matter although they sent a Deputy the following morning who agreed with my concern about possible undocumented workers continuing the roofing job (see Exhibit B).

That Congressman Davis’ Washington assistant asked me to memorialize the facts and fax them to Washington and to Mr. Davis’ Rockwood, Tennessee office where his Immigration Specialist was assigned (Beth Hickman, phone: 865-354-3323). I complied with this request and received an email from Ms. Hickman Monday morning (August 27, 2007) stating that ICE had logged the possible crime which would trigger an investigation.

I had already contacted ICE on Wednesday (August 22, 2007) and related the facts to them.
That while the workers were still on the roof Wednesday afternoon (August 22, 2007) I called Porter Roofing in McMinnville and asked them to either provide proof of legal status for these men or in the alternative to put “Tennessee boys” on the roof. I was told by “Miguel,” an individual with a very thick Hispanic accent, “this is none of your business” and in effect, “go fly a kite.” Shortly thereafter Mrs. Chmelar’s sister Julia Ray (of LaFayette, GA) also told me over the telephone (screaming) that the matter was “none of my business.”

That in a letter sent by certified mail on Monday (August 27, 2007) Mr. Ridner laid out erroneous facts relating to the events that had transpired the preceding Wednesday (August 22, 2007) including the false accusation that I had ordered the workers off the roof and that I had forbidden them from returning to complete the job (Exhibit A). I addressed these misrepresentations in my return certified letter to him attached as Exhibit B.

That in his letter Mr. Ridner - by implication - threatened my wife and me with eviction if we did not ignore the possible illegal status of the workers and allow them to continue roofing. In effect his demands were designed to bully us into ignoring the possible violations of federal immigration law including a conspiracy between him, his clients, their relatives and the roofing company.

That I was in no way responsible for any work stoppage. I merely requested that Porter Roofing obey federal immigration law or use local workers.

That Mr. Ridner knew or had a duty to know that a potential crime - including a conspiracy - was being committed by Porter Roofing and his clients yet he chose to intimidate my wife and me by threat of eviction if we did not ignore the potential federal crimes being perpetrated.
That Mr. Ridner’s oath as a lawyer includes reporting crimes and not encouraging that state and federal laws be broken.

That my wife and I feared retaliation from Mr. Ridner and it arrived by certified mail Friday, August 31, 2007 (Exhibit C). We have leased this property at 448 Wonder Cave Road; Pelham, Tennessee for 25 months. Our lease payment has never been late and we have had no complaints from the Chmelars until this incident which triggered the lease termination by Mr Ridner. It is intuitively obvious to the casual observer that Mr. Ridner’s termination of our lease was to punish my wife and me for reporting a possible crime.

Mr. Ridner’s actions have been unscrupulous and designed to bully while ignoring a serious violation of federal immigration law at a defining moment in our nation’s history. His conduct has been at least unethical and certainly not in keeping with the high standards demanded by his oath before the bar.

I request that this matter be investigated and if my recitation of the foregoing facts prove to be true, that Mr. Ridner be severely reprimanded and/or suspended if not disbarred.
I declare under penalty of perjury that the information given in this complaint is true to the best of my knowledge, understanding and belief. I am aware the the lawyer may be notified of my complaint.

DATE: September 1, 2007
cc: Jeffrey D. Ridner, Esq.
***************
August 26, 2007
Jeffrey D.Ridner
Haynes, Hull, Rieder, Ewell & Ridner, P.A.
214 NE Atlantic Street
Tullahoma, Tennessee 37388

Re: Tenancy at property on 448 Wonder Cave Road, Pelham, Tennessee and the possible commission of federal immigration crimes including a conspiracy.
and my DECLARATION under penalty of perjury

Dear Mr Ridner,
This is my response by way of DECLARATION under penalty of perjury to your letter dated August 24, 2007 to clarify the facts in this matter (this letter & enclosures will be faxed and mailed to all parties by USPS certified mail).

I will address the erroneous points in your letter, to wit:

“It is my understanding that when the contractor arrived at the property, Mr. Mauldin voiced an objection to the presence of certain workers unless identification was provided to him”

FACT: The 6-8 workers arrived at our house by storming over the front fence rather than walking through the open gate. No one could speak English and the promise of a “supervisor” to oversee the initial work to insure that care was given to the newly installed gutters was not kept (I had cordially discussed the re-roofing at length with Mr. Dennis Ray, the Chmelar’s brother-in-law, and was aggressively looking out for the Chmelar’s interests by telephoning Mr. Ray on more than one occasion alerting him to problems with the delivery of the roofing material, etc.)

FACT: The above mentioned workers appeared to be of Central American decent and my wife who is from San Antonio, Texas and has 50+ years experience with Mexicans voiced her concern regarding their rough appearance especially since no supervisor was present to act as a go-between. Furthermore, one of the workers took my shovel up on the the roof without my permission and used it the rest of the day shoveling slate into their trailer.

FACT: I said nothing (made no “objection”) to these workers - if for no other reason than I don’t speak Spanish. The workers did not arrive until approximately 2 PM Wednesday afternoon August 22nd and worked until the end of their self-determined workday. They left on their own motion. At no time did I order them off the property.

FACT: On Wednesday afternoon August 22nd while the workers were on the roof, I contacted the Grundy County Sheriff's office and reported the possibility of illegal aliens on the property and the possible commission of a federal immigration crime including a conspiracy.

FACT: On Wednesday afternoon August 22nd while the workers were on the roof, I contacted the U.S. Department of Immigration and their Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) office to report possible undocumented workers on the property and the possible commission of a federal immigration crime including a conspiracy.

FACT: On Wednesday afternoon August 22nd while the workers were on the roof, I contacted my U.S. Congressman Lincoln Davis’ office in Washington to report this possible crime and to enlist his assistance. His office agreed to help and asked me to memorialize the facts and to fax the letter to them which I did. My letter to Congressman Davis requested an investigation of Porter Roofing, the contrator in question, and if an immigration crime was discovered that the parties who were responsible be prosecuted including anyone aiding and abetting the possible crime and/or any co-conspirators (as you know, a conspiracy is simply the agreement to commit an illegal act followed by one overt act in the furtherance of the agreed upon crime).
Mr. Mauldin voiced an objection to the presence of certain workers unless identification was
provided him.

FACT: On Wednesday afternoon August 22nd while the workers were on the roof, I contacted Porter Roofing (McMinnville, Tennessee) by telephone. A worker with a thick Spanish accent at their office returned my call. His name was “Miguel.” I told him that Thursday (August 23rd) I wanted to be shown proof that their workers had legal immigration status (not “identification” as you suggested) or in the alternative to put “Tennessee boys” on the roof. He told me it was none of my business and to effectively “go fly a kite.” I was also screamed at over the telephone by Mrs. Chmelar’s sister Julia Ray who also told me “it was none of my business.”
“As a result of the objection, the contractors left the property.”

FACT: See above... and

FACT: At no time did I order the workers off the roof nor did I forbid them from returning. I did ask Porter Roofing to comply with federal immigration laws or to use local workers.

FACT: Thursday morning August 23rd Grundy County Sherriff’s deputy Wiley drove into our driveway. I went out to greet him thinking it was in response to my call the previous day. He stated he was there on behalf of the Chmelar’s to say it was okay for the workers to continue re-roofing. I related the facts to him. He stated that he agreed with me, got in his cruiser and drove off.

“In accordance with the Default provision of the Annual Rental Agreement, letter is a demand by the Chmelars that the two of you allow the contractors to do the work.”

FACT: I have not and do not intend to physically or verbally prevent the work from continuing .

FACT: As a former Commander in the U.S. Navy who repeatedly swore to defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic, I have witnessed a potential federal crime and I fully intend to pursue its possible prosecution including all involved parties. To quote Edmond Burke, “all it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” I love my country and I have a solemn duty to report the commission of a potential crime.

If within three (3) days of your receipt of this correspondence the default is not cured, then Mr. and Mrs. Chmelar will have no alternative than to explore additional remedies available to them under the agreement.

FACT: I can only construe this statement to be the threat of eviction because you are suggesting that I turn my back on the commission of a possible federal crime and associated conspiracy.
I suspect that like my oath as a Naval officer your oath as an attorney requires you to report possible crimes known to you. I have identified a possible crime that you may want to look into so the Tennessee Bar Association and the United States Attorney will be satisfied with your due diligence in this matter.

I join you in “hoping” that it will not be necessary to explore additional remedies and that no additional measures will be necessary.

I look forward to hearing from you within the three (3) days you laid down to resolve this matter as we may get the rain we so badly need and part of the subject roof only has tar paper on it.

For the soverignty of the United States of America and for the prosecution of federal immigration crimes & conspiracies... under penalty of perjury I declare that the foregoing statements are true and correct to the best of my knowledge, understanding and belief,

Davis Mauldin

cc: Congressman Lincoln Davis (with copy of your letter dated 8/24/2007)
Tennessee Bar Association (with copy of your letter dated 8/24/2007)
Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) (with copy of your letter dated 8/24/2007)
United States Attorney, Nashville, Tennessee (with copy of your letter dated 8/24/2007)
Senator Bob Corker (with copy of your letter dated 8/24/2007)
Senator Lamar Alexander (with copy of your letter dated 8/24/2007)

The New Slave Traffic

2007-09-06T10:52:00.000-04:00

Back in 2003, Professor Victor Davis Hanson of Cal State Fresno wrote a book called Mexifornia that caused a sensation. It was the issue that, as Hanson put it, is "the 800-pound gorilla that nobody wants to touch." The cultural Mexicanization of the Southwest:

I got interested in the issue because I’m a fifth-generation farmer and I’ve watched changes in my community. The local school that I used to go to, which was about 60 percent Mexican or Mexican-American, [featured] assimilation, no ideology of “the border crossed us, we didn’t cross the borders”; no bilingual education, Chicano history, just simple assimilation. Those products of that school are quite successful; they run our hometown now. However, just before I came I looked at the rates of schools that are meeting California achievement levels, and in that same school – it’s a mile and a half – it’s 100 percent Mexican, and 9 percent met the minimum level of reading competency, and about 7 percent in mathematics, so something radical has happened.

But the key to it all in history is that the people who join this society must do it in numbers or in a fashion that allows them to be fully integrated and assimilated. Helots in Sparta didn’t work. Metics in Athens didn’t work. Resident aliens in Rome didn’t work, but people in the Empire who were given citizenship did work, and when they were assimilated with Italian culture, it worked.

Hanson is right, of course. Many people like to say "the border crossed us, we did not cross the border." The great difference between the days of the Texas Revolution and the Mexican War, and our day today is that the Tejanos and the Californios of that time were thrilled to be free of Mexican rule, they were very proud of their new country, and they wanted to be Americans. Today, many Hispanic children aren't being taught in the English language in American class, and are being taught as if they are Mexicans or Latinos before they are Americans. In some cases they are told that they aren't Americans at all. Part of this is because of the environment and the labor that migrants and their children are subjected to as much as it is the education system.

One way I wanted to write the book, then, is to say, how did this system perpetuate and will it continue and who benefits and who loses? So I looked at each different group. Ostensibly, a person who comes from Mexico and makes $10 an hour in cash feels that he’s reached a bonanza compared to $10 a week, let’s say, in Oaxaca, and it looks great. But I’ve noticed a tragic life cycle: that we and the Mexican government almost traffic in human capital. While it looks good in the beginning, somebody typically – and again, I’m generalizing, but I’ve seen empirically, over my lifetime – people will come from Mexico at 18, 20, usually single males predominantly, they’ll work very, very hard, they’ll be delighted that they’ve had more money in their life, they can send money back and become almost heroic in their village for doing so. But if you follow that work in concrete, hotels, restaurants, landscaping, agriculture, that’s not a rite-of-passage job for people who are here illegally and who don’t know English. It becomes a permanent position, and human nature being what it is, your body cannot withstand that type of work.

So ultimately, at the age of 40 or 50, that dream has sometimes turned into a nightmare because a person may have a bad back, a bad shoulder, and then the employer who either paid cash or low wages or didn’t have a health plan says, well, go to the neighborhood clinic, workman’s comp, Section 8 housing, and the entitlement industry then picks up that added cost. Meanwhile, the children of that immigrant, whose father or mother may not know English and may not be documented, then develops a very different idea. Often he has not, or she has not, been to Mexico. She doesn’t speak Spanish in the same fluency as her parents did, doesn’t read Spanish necessarily, doesn’t know English to the same degree that people that he or she will have to compete with, and has a very different view of America. Often rates of incarceration or gang activity are higher commensurately with the population. But more importantly is the reaction to the employer, and they will tell you, don’t bring anybody onto the cement crew who speaks English because the second generation will not work like the people from Oaxaca. This is the standard – and so then we just renew the cycle and traffic in human capital.

So employers who hire illegals are not interested in bringing new Americans here and melding them into our larger cultural mosaic of peoples from all over the world (as many on the Left say), but are more interested in trafficking in human beings in what has become a modern version of the slave trade.

How are we treating American citizens of Mexican heritage who are here legally and who have done everything right according to the law? In Dr. Hanson's example, pretty crappy:

And this whole illegal universe ripples in very strange places. For example, when I'm teaching a class in the humanities, a student will come to me, often Mexican, of Mexican heritage, who’s a citizen, or a person from any heritage, from Nevada, Arizona, and say, why do I have to pay $5,000 for tuition when somebody who’s here illegally from California pays two thousand? And I usually use the standard argument, well, perhaps their parents – well, no, no, he’s only been here five years, or he doesn’t pay California State income tax. And often they’ll say, well, should I go down to Mexico and come in illegally and then perhaps I’ll get a discount?

And Californians, says Hanson, have come to depend on the new slavery to maintain their wealthy way of life.

In between it’s the California suburban average citizen who likes the idea of cheap food, going to a restaurant pretty cheap, and has developed the lifestyle of the 19th century aristocrat in some ways. Whoever thought that a Californian who was middle class, perhaps with a combined income of $100,000, could have somebody from Mexico here illegally to cut his lawn, clean his home, watch his children? And then at the same time that’s happening, he’s upset that if he goes and he looks at certain statistics of poverty, incarceration, education, that some of these groups who come from Mexico are represented in proportions that are higher than their representation in the population. So there’s all of this strange political mix, and the result in California, which we’re always a therapeutic society, is simply not to talk about it.

We have it pretty good here in Tennessee. We have a low cost of living, pay no income tax, and in East Tennessee many-if not the majority of us, are landowners. With the thousands upon thousands of people who are now pouring into our towns and hamlets from south of the Border each year and who are performing backbreaking labor at a menial wage, are we endanger of becoming dependent on a "new slave traffic," just as Hanson says has happened in California?

No Border Under Hillary

2007-09-05T10:07:00.000-04:00

Want a good reason to make sure that New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton isn't elected President?

Here's one from an address to the National Council of La Raza in 2005:

Clinton touched on nearly every issue that was important to Hispanics, the nation's largest ethnic group and a crucial voting bloc. She said she wanted to make sure Hispanic children got a fair education, and that families had medical insurance to ward off health problems such as asthma and lead poisoning that affect kids. She also talked of supporting legislation that would make it easier for immigrants to send money back home, which Hispanics do at a rate of about $200 per month.

Gosh Hillary, you might as well hang a big sign on the Southern border that says "Lawbreakers and Border Ruffians Welcome."

To be fair, Ms. Hillary said this while addressing the National Council of La Raza (The Race), a left-of-center Hispanic racist organization, so of course Hillary had to pander to this racist group because they are predominantly made up of Democratic voters.

La Raza is actually pretty tame compared to the militant anti-American Marxist group MEChA, which seeks the return of the entire Southwest to Mexican sovereignty, or the formation of an autonomous state that they call Aztlan. Of course, some members of La Raza are also members of MEChA.

Hillary said this back in 2005-who will Hillary protect-America or "Aztlan"?

Are the Illegal Aliens Who Work On Your Local Bridges Certified?

2007-09-05T09:52:00.000-04:00

Since the Minneapolis bridge collapse, a national discussion has begun to take shape over the state of our national infrastructure, especially the state of our bridges. Has an illegal alien who may not be appropriately licenced to do specialized work been working on a bridge you might cross every day? A report from the Biloxi Sun-Herald says it has happened in Mississippi and two other Southern States:

The owner of Tarrasco Steel, a company that supplied workers on the Biloxi Bay Bridge, was arrested and charged with hiring illegal immigrants on projects in three states. Some had improper welding certification.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Jose S. Gonzalez, 32, at his office in Greenville Thursday, according to a news release. Tarrasco Steel was hired as a subcontractor for rebar installation services to major bridge projects in Mississippi, Louisiana and Tennessee. The federal government considers those bridges as critical infrastructure, and they were part of routine inspections of facilities that if damaged could pose a threat to national security and public safety.

So we have people who weren't certified as welders attempting to weld vital bridges, some in this State-and these people were here illegally? That is a concern for the general public safety.

"There is a serious public safety concern when illegal aliens, who are not authorized to work in the country legally, and who do not possess valid welding certifications, are employed in the construction of bridges in our communities," said Michael A. Holt, special agent in charge of the Customs Office of Investigations in New Orleans, in a news release.

Mr. Holt is correct, of course. So how can the government put a stop to this serious threat to public safety? By enforcing our borders and keeping illegal aliens out of our country.

My Part to Stop the Invasion

2007-09-04T00:53:00.000-04:00

It has been almost a year since I started trying to fight the invasion of illegals into this community, and overall into this country. No one event sparked my interest in this issue, except that I'm an American Citizen, and my safety in this country is threatened by people who come to this country unbeknownest to the Government, and live here without any fear of being arrested. For almost a year, I have written, called, emailed, faxed, and basically done everything I can think of to be "the change" in the world that I wanted to see. I had become a one person resource of action in the movement against illegal invasion.

As I have researched this issue, I have found that most people agree with me. They want enforcement of current immigration policies, they want to see the borders secured, they want to see the Federal Government stop permitting people to come into this country without documentation; however, they don't want to be labeled a racist, an isolationist, or a nihilist. What they don't understand is that this issue has absolutely nothing to do with race. It has to do with preserving the United States of America.

What if our Founding Fathers had been fearful of name calling? They were labled radicals, rebels, merely adolescents "pitching a fit". If they had fallen victim to the political strategy of the opposition, we would not be worrying about this issue right now. We would not be concerned with the preservation of the USA, it would be non-existent.

It takes one person to bring about change. That person is the spark that ignites a movement. I have been fortunate in meeting the members of T-FIRE. I am now a part of a group of determined and dedicated people that believe that our Government needs to be called to task for letting we Citizens down on this issue. I hope that those of you who read this blog, and visit our site, find the spark within you to become apart of this movement. We look forward to your support and your participation.

Christa

What Message Are We Sending?

2007-09-04T00:28:00.000-04:00

As has been pointed out both at T-FIRE public events, and even at T-FIRE board meetings in discussions among our most active members, our organization is not opposed to immigration or to immigrants. We are opposed to illegal immigration-or more precisely, we are opposed to illegal aliens entering our country without going through the prescribed process for legal entry. The influx of illegal aliens places a strain on every fabric of our social structure from the health care system to education to the welfare apparatus.

Since it is often pointed out by those on both sides of the debate that we are a nation of immigrants, we must ask ourselves a much deeper question: What does it teach this latest batch of new arrivals about the meaning of law and civic duty in America if the government does not enforce the law regarding who may enter the United States and how they may do so? If you are a new arrival to the United States in the present climate, and the government allows you to simply waltz across the border as you please in violation of the law, and then expends little or no effort to apprehend and punish you for breaking your first law in America, what does that teach you about the value of law and order in American society?

It would seem to teach the new arrivals that in America, the law is only selectively enforced whenever Americans find it convenient to enforce the law.

If those who are coming here as illegal aliens are to be accepted as part of American society as many would have it, are these same people comfortable with the message they are sending to the latest arrivals-that it is okay to break the law in America?

The New Exploiters

2007-09-03T00:31:00.000-04:00

The good news in this story is that this man knowingly hired illegal aliens, and now he is going to jail. His excuse? Everyone else is doing it!

From the Knoxville News-Sentinel August 28:

“This is happening every day in Mexican restaurants,” attorney Charles Torres argued on behalf of Pun Wun Chan. “As an immigration practitioner, I see these types of situations every day. It’s hard for me to take it as a serious crime because it’s a constant ongoing (thing).”

U.S. District Judge Tom Varlan sided with Assistant U.S. Attorney Will Mackie, who told the judge, “I don’t think there’s any justification because others may do this.”

Varlan sentenced Chan, 51, to a year in prison for conspiring to harbor, house and employ as many as two dozen Hispanic illegal immigrants at his Number One China Buffet restaurant on Papermill Drive from December 2003 to January 2005. That restaurant has since been torn down.

So because everyone else is doing it, and because even the federal government does it (in violation of its own laws) that's okay:

Citing a recent article in a Washington, D.C., newspaper, Torres contended that even the federal government has hired illegal immigrants.

“This country is somewhat dependent on this type of thing,” he said of the employment of illegal immigrants.

Everyone hears all of the so-called positive arguments for bringing illegals here and hiring them. The fact is, however, that we are bringing them here, and they are doing extremely hard manual labor for a fraction of the pay that labor is worth if the employee is a legal U.S. resident or an American citizen.

They are being taken advantage of and exploited, but very often, both the government and our Leftist friends (many of whom love to proclaim themselves to be in favor of justice for the poor) ignore that harsh reality.

Do Your Part to Fight the Invasion

2007-09-01T15:37:00.000-04:00

*** Illegal immigration should have stopped on September 12, 2001. Actually a few dozen years before that, but too many Americans cannot remember much further back than that.

*** Remember, if you are serious about doing something about illegal immigration, or more appropriately, the illegal INVASION, at the very least for God's sake, start by acting like an American and get then STAY informed.

*** If the government of the United States was serious about stopping the invasion, they would do more about it. If you do not think this is an invasion, then try and stop it, or it will become one.

*** "We have room for but one flag, the American Flag. We have room for but one language, the English language, and we have room for but one sole loyalty, and that is a loyalty to the American people." -- President Theodore Roosevelt.

*** Turn in an illegal alien today. ICE Phone Number: (866) 347-2423. Toll free and you do not have to give your name. Just all the information you can think of.

Promoting criminal behavior

2007-08-30T17:07:00.000-04:00

Virginia Republicans are being called all sorts of nasty names for daring to introduce a bill that would insist in law that-God forbid-the universities of the Commonwealth of Virginia should not be allowed to admit students who are not in the United States of America in a legal capacity.

"If a legal Virginia resident is applying to schools, should they be admitted? Or should that slot be set aside for someone who has arrived here illegally?" asked James K. "Jay" O'Brien Jr. (R-Fairfax), the sponsor of the proposal.

It gets even worse! This proposal would actually require that the Commonwealth of Virginia treat illegal aliens as if they are *gasp* illegal! Perish the thought!

The Republican proposal would also require city and county jails to check a defendant's immigration status and to have at least one person on duty who has been certified by the federal government to detain illegal immigrants until deportation proceedings. It would also routinely deny bail for illegal immigrants charged in a crime and suspend the business licenses of anyone convicted of hiring illegal immigrants.

Of course, so called "immigrants' rights" groups are accusing the Virginia GOP of trying to "scare voters." We are all for immigrants' rights here at T-FIRE, provided those immigrants are actually legal. What kind of people might encourage folks to come here illegally and break the law?

People at the Highlander Research and Education Center might. In years past, Highlander was also called by some the Highlander "Folk School," and has been a hotbed of pro-Communist sentiment and quasi-Marxist "organization" in years' past. Now, Highlander is going about encouraging illegal aliens to continue breaking the law:

Six or seven years ago, in response to an increased number of Latino immigrants settling in the Appalachian region, Highlander started a new outreach program called Pueblos de Latinoamérica.

“The mission was to help support organizing in immigrant communities in the Southeast and help some of the people that were doing the community organizing to feel less isolated,” said Mónica Hernández, director of the program and board chair of Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition.

What’s more, the current political environment is “very hostile toward immigrants, so the community is really afraid,” she said. “It makes it hard to organize and engage people in trying to be active because … they’re trying to live under the radar.”

They are trying to live under the radar because that is what people who are breaking the law-and illegal aliens are breaking the law. Highlander is, in this latest effort, encouraging people to break the law. (Note the three dots after the word "because"-that means Ms. Hernandez said something else.)

How encouraging is it to know that a group of radicals here in East Tennessee are leading the effort to promote criminal behavior? In New Market, no less!

Feds Abandon Constitutional Duty

2007-08-29T11:21:00.000-04:00

In a continuing show that the federal government simply does not care about securing our borders, over 1,000 Immigration and Customs officials have been reassigned to customs only, in a federal move that significantly reduces the government's ability to both secure the border and deport those who have come to this country in a manner that is in overt violation of our laws.

"[Detention and Removal] is a rapidly expanding program with the responsibility for ensuring that all removable aliens are detained in a safe environment and expeditiously removed from the United States. DRO has the responsibility for detaining and removing illegal aliens apprehended by ICE, [Customs and Border Protection] and, as resources allow, other law enforcement entities," states the Aug. 20 memo. "It is the vision of ICE for DRO to assume primary responsibility for non-investigative administrative arrests, for example, state and local law enforcement response to interdiction of immigration violators or probation and parole referrals."

Resources and manpower, however, are scarce, ICE agents say.

"They're just not there," said Jim Brown, a spokesman for American Federation of Government Employees. "Again, the bottom line is our folks are going to work this to the best of their ability, but the agency is leaving us short by not providing staff and resources. I don't think our members will be able to carry out that mission. Eventually, something is going to give."

Is there any question now that the federal government has abrogated its constitutional mandate to defend this nation against a foreign invasion?

Cost of Citizenship

2007-08-28T14:04:00.000-04:00

Some open-borders advocates have suggested that current fees associated with becoming a U.S. citizen are exorbitant and place too high a burden on applicants. However, when compared to typical daily expenses incurred by Americans, it becomes clear that the price of U.S. citizenship is quite low.

To file Declaration of Intent to apply for U.S. Citizenship
$235

Request hearing on decision on naturalization application
$605

Naturalization (to become a U.S. citizen) through service in the U.S. armed forces
No fee

Naturalization for all others, including filing and biotmetric fees
$675

Preserve residence for naturalization purposes
$305

Replace Naturalization/Citizenship Certificate
$380

Recognition of U.S. citizenship for biological child
$460

Recognition of U.S. citizenship for adopted child
$420

SOURCE: USCIS Fee Schedule; U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services* Effective July 30, 2007

In contrast, what does it cost the average American household to live?

Typical Annual Expense Items
2004*

Number of households (in thousands)
116,282

Income before taxes
$54,453

Averages:

Age of referrence person
48.5

Average annual expenditures
$43,395

FOOD
$5,781

Food at home
$3,347

- Cereals and bakery products
$461

- Meats, poultry, fish and eggs
$880

- Dairy products
$371

- Fruits and vegetables
$561

- Other food at home
$1,075

Food away from home
$2,434

Alcoholic beverages
$459

HOUSING
$13,918

- Shelter
$7,998

- Utilities, fuels, and public services
$2,927

- Household operations
$753

- Housekeeping supplies
$594

- Household furnishings and equipment
$1,646

Apparel and services
$1,816

TRANSPORTATION
$7,801

- Vehicle purchases (net outlay)
$3,397

- Gasoline and motor oil
$1,598

- Other vehicle expenses
$2,365

- Public transportation
$441

Healthcare
$2,574

Entertainment
$2,218

Personal care products and services
$581

Reading
$130

Education
$905

Tobacco products and smoking supplies
$288

Miscellaneous
$690

Cash contributions
$1,408

PERSONAL INSURANCE AND PENSIONS
$4,823

- Life and other personal insurance
$390

- Pensions and Social Security
$4,433

*SOURCE: Consumer Expenditures in 2004; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, April 2006

Illegals and Illegitimacy

2007-08-28T12:16:00.000-04:00

One of the great myths of those who advocate that we should do nothing about the illegal immigration problem on our Southern border is that the illegals who are coming here have tremendous family values-a moral compass that would put many Americans to shame.

Apparently, this morality does little to prevent the rising number of out-of-wedlock births to Hispanics, many of whom are illegal. An April report by the Center for Immigration Studies shows that the number of illegitimate births to immigrants is rising faster than the total immigrant share of the population.

"Among native-born Hispanics, the illegitimacy rate is almost 50 percent, compared to the 42 percent for immigrant Hispanics. But for native-born Asians, it’s almost 30 percent. And among native-born whites, as I said before, it’s 24 percent."

This is alarming because it shows only an eight percent difference in the illegitimacy rate between immigrant and native-born Hispanics. It shatters the myth that many neocons are trying to spread that there is not an immense social and economic cost to the influx of new illegal aliens into the country. If nothing else costs us (and it does) the cost to society of having absent fathers is truly staggering.

This problem is already too widespread among the natural-born. Now we are being asked to help make the problem worse.

Illegal Immigration and Politics

2007-08-25T22:33:00.001-04:00

In the current political climate, the issue of illegal immigration is a very hard one to deal with. Many Tennesseans and Americans fail to understand that the reason our elected leaders fail to act to curb the current tide of illegals streaming into this country is often purely political.

One party depends on the votes of illegal aliens to remain viable in certain jurisdictions, and in some cases the votes of illegals and others ineligible to vote in an election bring about the results that party is seeking. The most famous example of this is the faux-victory of Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez over Republican Bob Dornan in conservative Orange County, California. Sanchez "won" that election by 984 votes, and a later Congressional investigation found that 624 votes were cast by non-citizens-not enough, Congress said at the time, to turn the election in favor of Dornan. To this day Dornan alleges that illegal aliens were allowed to vote and those votes were counted. The Dornan case has proven to be far from isolated.

The other party, while not dependent on the votes of illegals, is very dependent on money from certain interest groups who exploit the cheap labor given by many illegals-because after all, if you hire an illegal alien, you don't have to bother with paying him or her a standard wage or even (in many cases) the minimum one. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce doesn't want restrictions on immigration enforced, lest some of its members have to prove their workers are legal. In pursuit of money, that party has lost touch with the majority of the American people and even its own base.

This is the political part of the problem that we have to deal with-but politicians can't win without votes. Not only do we need to primary and/or defeat politicians who are pro-illegal, but we need to recruit citizens to step out of their personal comfort zone and be willing to sacrifice a part of their privacy and their time with their family and run for office.