Country.Issues
- US Intelligence failure
9/11 report - Illegal-immigrant relatives of Sept 11 victims
to get legal US status - BROKEN BORDERS
of ARIZONA - ILLEGAL CARGO
- Outsourcing
TAX DOLLARS -
Arizona Tax Dollars
pay for workers
outside of Arizona
and America - Arizona House
Incumbents - DECISION
2002 -
Arizona State
Elections - House of
Representatives -
46th Legislature
Members - College Point -
Arizona Government
Entities - Arizona Right to Life -
Election Endorsement - Directory
of
Arizona Candidates,
2002 - Arizona
House
of Representatives - Immigration Mistake
costs illegal alien (dishwasher) $59,000 - Tough Immigration Law
Forces Mexican wife of US Citizen to leave USA - Indian Illegal Immigrants
Grow Rapidly in US - Illegal immigrants can get
N.Y. driver's licenses
The United States' immigration policy focuses on putting the squeeze on the Mexican border to stop illegal immigrants from entering the country. But the real threat, some say, comes from lax Canadian immigration laws that may be putting Americans at risk.
Ray Barnes District 7 Representative
(incumbent) Arizona State Legislature
AN ILLEGAL ALIEN
An illegal alien is an individual who enters a country at a place other than a designated port-of-entry, in violation of that country's laws.
(CNN) -- The United States is facing an extraordinary immigration crisis, but our solutions have done nothing to alleviate the situation. The overburdened Border Patrol and local law enforcement, particularly in the Southwest, are apprehending thousands of illegal aliens on immigration violations every day. Yet surprisingly, many of those arrested are freed shortly after their detainment. Many illegal aliens are no longer held in jails to await deportation or processing. Rather, they are simply handed a notice to appear in court and released into the country. As you'd probably expect, somewhere between 70 and 90 percent never show up for their court date. Even Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security, admits that nearly half a million people have been arrested and released, and have failed to show up for court. Local law enforcement and Border Patrol agents say the issue is one of resources, that federal agencies have limited funds for detention and deportation. Instead, their focus has primarily been shifted to illegal aliens who have committed or are wanted for crimes. But even so, 85,000 of those released into the United States are known criminals. So much for the plan to target criminal aliens for deportation. But Steven Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, blames the lack of enforcement on political issues, rather than practical ones. "The problem with immigration has always been the same: It's very heavily penetrated by very powerful interest groups, and that makes it very hard to enforce the law," he said. "The ethnic advocacy groups provide the moral outrage and racial politics, while the business community provides the political influence, the big guns and the big money to prevent law enforcement." It's a problem that needs a real solution, however, whether it be practical or political. There are as many as 12 million illegal aliens currently living in the United States, about half of them emigrating from Mexico. The direct net cost of illegal immigration to our economy, including social services, is now roughly $45 billion annually, according to the Federation for American Immigration Reform.
Those costs to the American taxpayer have more than doubled since Dr. Donald Huddle's original study in 1996. And they will continue to grow unless we reform our approach to illegal immigration. There is one new tactic from the U.S. government, but it'll be a while until we see real results. The government has launched a controversial new program to fly some illegal aliens deep into Mexico, instead of merely dropping them off at the border. Homeland Security officials say the program is designed to save lives and break the smuggling cycle. The United States has approved about $12 million for this voluntary repatriation program to run through September, with each chartered flight costing American taxpayers almost $30,000. This is step in the right direction, but still, there's no guarantee this program will work at all. While this may deter some, a few of those interviewed following this week's maiden voyage said that they'll just try to get back into the United States as soon as they can. Camarota believes the new program might be effective, seeing as how part of our immigration problems starts south of the border. "Mexico has no incentive, no interest and no capacity to in any way prevent illegal immigration into the United States," he said. "Given that reality, it's always a question of how is it you prevent people from coming back. You don't want a situation where you just dump them over the border and they just try again." No, we certainly do not want a situation like that. But what we want couldn't be simpler: We want the current administration and both political parties to take this problem seriously, to enforce the laws already on the books and to create a national immigration policy that will secure both our borders and a healthy future for our country.
Visa Entry Reform Act
Bush Signs Law Enhancing Border Security
Wednesday, May 15, 2002 WASHINGTON ? Hoping to beef up border security, President Bush signed legislation Tuesday that he said will prevent terrorists, drugs and illegal immigrants from entering the country but does not restrict the flow of commerce and tourism. "No nation can be totally secure or more secure unless we're well protected, and unless our borders are well screened. We must know who's coming into our country and why they're coming. We must know what our visitors are doing, and when they leave. That's important for us to know; the knowledge is necessary to make our homeland more secure," Bush said in a White House ceremony. The Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act calls for the development of machine-readable, tamper-proof passports and requires foreign visitors to carry documents that use biometric technology, like fingerprint and retina scans. Bush said the measure will not only help keep out people who don't belong in this country, it will help keep track of visitors while they are here. The bill provides the authority to hire 400 more Immigration and Naturalization investigators and inspectors processing the 500 million people that cross U.S. borders each year. The bill hikes the pay of border patrol agents and creates a database of suspected terrorists that would be accessible at every entry point, and against which every person entering the country would be checked.
FRIEND of the TAXPAYER for 2004 - RAY BARNES.- as seen by AFTA
The Arizona Federation
of Taxpayers Association is a non-partisan, non-profit organization
dedicated to advocating for limited government as described in the
Constitutions of the State of Arizona and the United States, especially
in relation to the taxes the public pays to support government.
Georgia Latinos Object to 'Illegal Aliens' Label Friday, February
27, 2004
ATLANTA ? Each year, nearly 1 million foreigners unlawfully sneak
into the United States. But don?t call them "illegal aliens" because
that's the moral equivalent of a racial slur, according to the Georgia
Association of Latino Elected Officials . "We do find that term very
offensive and liken it to the 'n' word as well," GALEO Executive Director
Kerry Gonzalez said, referring to the derogatory term used to describe
black people. Gonzalez is urging Georgia lawmakers to use the term
"undocumented workers" when referring to foreigners who enter the
United States. But immigration control advocates say it's just an
attempt to use political correctness for political gain. While racial
epithets are used to harm the innocent, the word "illegal" describes
those who break the law. "When we have public discourse we have to
talk about illegal aliens. After all, U.S. law refers to all of these
people sneaking into our country as illegal aliens," said Phil Kent
of the American Immigration Control Foundation.
Canadian intelligence experts say that country's immigration policies are a disaster. Twenty years ago, Canada admitted 500 refugees from around the world, but last year, 40,000 people were allowed in. Terrorism experts say it's not just how many illegal immigrants are being allowed in, but who is entering the country that is a concern. After the Sept. 11 terror attacks, the United States tightened security measures and set up an immigration registration system. Rather than registering, many Middle Eastern men went to Canada where laws allow refugees to enter with little scrutiny and stay indefinitely. "Given the lack of restriction on those claiming refugee status in Canada at the border, I don't know how you could assert we are not bringing in terrorists among other well meaning people," said Dave Harris, a Canadian intelligence expert. For example, Ahmed Ressam (search), an Algerian convicted of plotting to bomb Los Angeles Airport (search) on New Year's Eve 2000, lived in Canada as a refugee. He was arrested in December 1999 as he tried to bring explosives across the U.S. border from Canada. Arab-Americans accuse the United States of selective enforcement, discriminating against millions to find a few people. They say they're unfair victims of an immigration dragnet that is sending law-abiding Muslims to Canada, home, or underground. But security experts say to catch a few terrorists, U.S. law enforcement needs the cooperation of many, and right now, Canadian immigration laws aren't helping.
Protests Against New Immigration Regulations.
Pakistani community in the United States
has strongly condemned the mass arrest of Muslims
in various parts of the United States and described
the newly introduced immigration regulations as
racial profiling and religious persecution.
NEW YORK, United States:
Dec 28 (PNS) -
Addressing a news conference here Wednesday, Bobby Khan of Coney Island Avenue Project, strongly criticised new regulations. He said these regulations are new attack on Muslims, South Asians and Arab communities who are being detained, tortured and deported. He claimed there are 1000, and 2500 males who have been detained as these Muslim immigrants have made voluntary attempts to comply the orders to register themselves with immigration authorities. Mr. Khan added that immigration laws should be applied equally to all communities and not on the basis of religion and ethnicity. He pointed out Muslims and South Asian men have been picked up in droves and subjected to harsh detention, deportation despite o. any linkage with terrorism. Flanked by other member of Pakistani community, the office bearers of the Project said, hardworking people who came to America like generations of Americans before are being denied basic due process rights, thrown into jails with no recourse to courts and after discovering their innocence, are deported away. Giving figures they said, there are about 10 million undocumented immigrants in US, vast majority of whom are European and Latin countries. By targeting only Muslim immigrants the Immigration Department and the jsutice Department are engaged in worst kind of racial profiling. Bobby Khan said despite the assurance of the US government that there would be no discrimnation on the basis of religion and ethncity, the government officials have gone into business houses, neighbourhoods and apartment buildings looking only for Pakistani immigrants. The Coney island Project in association with other similar organizations including civil liberties, interfaith, labour and immigrant groups have decided to mobilize community support to bring an end to these unjust detentions and deportations. In the first phase they plan to hold weekly public pickets in front of immigration headquarters.
Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) of 1952 .
The basis of immigration law enforcement today
is the McCarran-Walter Act or INA
Home loans for illegal aliens?
The American dream of home ownership, complete with the
white picket fence, is alive and well for those who break our
laws and break down our fences to get in. Last week, the Washington
Post published a rosy front-page tale headlined, "Illegal
Immigrants Buy Into Homeowning Dream." The article detailed
how illegal aliens in the Washington, D.C., area are successfully
hooking up with cunning mortgage brokers and complicit lenders
to secure home loans. Despite federal laws making it illegal to
violate the borders, overstay visas and recruit, harbor and encourage
illegal aliens, the Post notes that the illegal-alien home-loan
schemes are "legal." Here we are, nearly two years after
the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks underscored the need for consistent
immigration law enforcement, and the lesson continues to be ignored
in the nation's capital. The Post's heart-warming story began:
Gerardo Cabrera fell in love with the house immediately. There
was the bay window in the living room, the fireplace in the den,
and ? most enchanting to a man raised amid the concrete of Mexico
City ? the woods in the back yard. And so the auto mechanic and
his wife, a secretary, decided to pay $200,000 for their own piece
of suburban Gaithersburg, a classic tale of immigrants achieving
the American dream. Except for one detail: At the time, they were
in the United States illegally. While law-abiding homebuyers must
supply airtight proof of identity, legal residence and a Social
Security number to lenders, illegal alien purchasers such as Cabrera
(a visa overstayer who recently received a green card) need only
supply a "taxpayer identification number" issued by
the Internal Revenue Service. No criminal background check is
required before applying for a TIN, which many banks now accept
from illegal alien customers as a primary form of identification.
Cabrera's broker, Alma Preciado of Metropolitan Financial Services
in Silver Spring, told the Post that about 10 percent of her mainly
Latino clientele qualify for home loans using a TIN instead of
a Social Security number. That's just the tip of the illegal-alien
homeowners' iceberg. The Post failed to note that Federal Housing
Administration-approved loans through the U.S. Department of Housing
and Urban Development do not require lenders to obtain proof of
citizenship or legal permanent residence. These FHA-HUD programs,
primarily targeting minorities and first-time homebuyers, are
federally insured and require minimal down payments. A 25-year
veteran of the mortgage industry in California confided to me
recently: "It boggles the mind to think how many illegal
aliens are homeowners in this country thanks to these programs,
all fully insured by our government. Because of fear of lawsuits
for discrimination, I can also tell you that a lender may have
a borrower who speaks little or no English who claims to be either
a citizen or resident alien and it will not be questioned, nor
any proof required. Since FHA does not require any such documentation,
a lender cannot cite their regulations as a basis for the request
as they can on conventional loans." Another easy avenue to
home ownership is through the use of bogus Social Security cards.
Moneylenders have no access to a verification system to check
Social Security numbers before approving loans. A Department of
Homeland Security investigator informs me that an ongoing federal
probe of FHA-HUD-backed loans found that "a staggering number
were approved to persons with false Social Security numbers."
The Denver metro area alone accounted for 20,000 to 40,000 of
the FHA-approved loans for suspected illegal aliens. "Even
if a small percentage of the loans were foreclosed, HUD could
be bankrupted," the Homeland Security official said. A spokeswoman
for the U.S. General Accounting Office told me this week that
the agency's office of special investigations plans to report
on the results of the probe later this fall. But "considering
the size of Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Houston and other
large cities throughout the United States known to be inundated
with illegal aliens," says my source, "I don't think
the federal government is willing to expose this problem for financial
reasons as well as for fear of political repercussions."
America: Still the world's home sweet illegal-alien home.
Amnesty Eyed for Illegal Aliens
A dramatic increase in the number of
Latino residents over the last decade has made
Arizona, once a Republican stronghold, a key battleground for
President Bush and Sen. John Kerry, who have proposed
widely different approaches to immigration.
PHOENIX ? Sen. John Kerry yesterday promised an amnesty for most illegal immigrants who have been in the United States for at least five years. "It is time to fulfill the promise of America, so that those who work hard and take responsibility and build a better life for them and their families, and live by the rules, and pay their taxes and raise their families have a right to share in America and its citizenship in the fullest," the Democratic candidate for president said. Mr. Kerry, speaking to the National Council of La Raza's national conference, said that within 100 days of taking office, he would propose a four-part plan that would give a citizenship path to illegal immigrants who have paid taxes while living here and who pass a security screening. Mr. Kerry joins a roiling debate over how to deal with the estimated 8 million to 12 million illegal immigrants. Hispanic advocacy groups have called for an extensive amnesty for most of those immigrants, and Mr. Kerry's proposal yesterday drew the strongest applause of his 50-minute speech. Mr. Kerry's plan goes much further than President Bush, who has proposed a guest-worker program that would allow current illegal immigrants and foreigners living overseas to apply for a renewable three-year temporary visa. Mr. Bush also proposed increasing the number of green cards issued each year, though he didn't specify by how much. But Mr. Kerry called Mr. Bush's plan "exploitative," dismissing it as "work in America for low cost and never have a chance to be a citizen." Mr. Bush's plan was labeled an amnesty by those who want stricter controls on immigration, and Mr. Kerry's plan is bound to draw the same charge. Several immigration plans are already pending in Congress, including one by Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Republican, that would create a temporary-worker program but require participants to return home at the end of their period. Mr. Cornyn yesterday said he was happy Mr. Kerry joined the debate, but said his plan goes in the wrong direction. "It is an agenda, I'm afraid, that does little beyond encouraging further illegal immigration, and certainly does nothing to re-establish respect for the law or address the underlying economic issues," Mr. Cornyn said. Mr. Kerry's proposal resembles other pending bills ? one by his Massachusetts Democrat colleague Sen. Edward M. Kennedy and two key House Democrats; and the other by Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, South Dakota Democrat, and Sen. Chuck Hagel, Nebraska Republican. The Daschle-Hagel plan requires that the immigrants have worked here for four years, including at least a year after the bill becomes law, and that they pay a $1,000 fine. Mr. Kerry did not say whether his plan also included any fines, but said he would have the immigrants take civics and English classes. He said he believes in enforceable borders, and promised to work with Mexico "to reduce the incentive for people to come here illegally, and to increase the ability of people to come here legally." Mr. Kerry made a brief mention of increasing border security, and said he wants to fix terrorist watch lists. He also pledged to sign two bills now pending in Congress: the Dream Act, which would legalize many illegal immigrant college students, and an agriculture guest-worker program. Earlier yesterday in Chicago, Mr. Kerry proposed a $4,000-per-year tax credit to help students pay for college, and a $10 billion fund for states to invest in public colleges and universities, as long as states commit to keeping tuition increases at the rate of inflation. Speaking to the Rev. Jesse Jackson's Rainbow-PUSH Coalition conference in Chicago earlier yesterday, Mr. Kerry painted a bleak picture of education in America, arguing that schools aren't graduating enough math and science students. He said schools seem to kill women's and minorities' interests in those fields, and he promised to lead a campaign to change that. "As president, I will give all Americans, especially women and minorities, the same encouragement, and we have to give it early on," he said, adding that he will support all-girls schools, some of which have graduated many students interested in math and science.
Alleged Hizballah Member Snuck into U.S. from Mexico : Prosecutor
Posted Jan 20, 2004 An illegal alien from Lebanon, who snuck into the United States from Mexico, has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Michigan for allegedly providing material support to the Hizballah terrorist group, a federal prosecutor announced this week. The statement by the U.S. attorney's office described Hizballah as "a worldwide terrorist network which has conducted numerous high profile terrorist attacks in the name of Islamic fundamentalism, including the murder of U.S. Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel William R. Higgins while serving in Lebanon as a United Nations Peace Keeper." "Material support is defined under the law as including 'currency or monetary instruments or financial securities, financial services, lodging, training, expert advice or assistance, safe houses, false documentation or identification, communications equipment, facilities, weapons, lethal substances, explosives, personnel, transportation, and other physical assets' not including medicine or religious materials," the statement explained.
U.S. beefs up border prosecution Ashcroft in Arizona to tout new efforts
Jul. 10, 2004 12:00 AM An infusion of federal prosecutors and two new agents to combat violent crime and border smuggling in southern Arizona was announced Friday by Attorney General John Ashcroft. In separate appearances in Phoenix and Tucson, Ashcroft said he had authorized the permanent assignment of seven new attorneys and a half-dozen support staffers to Arizona to focus on immigration-related prosecutions. Four more Justice Department attorneys and two agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also were assigned in May to a "Violent Crime Impact Team" focusing on crime in select Tucson neighborhoods. The program will last at least six months. "We are allocating resources so as to focus them where we think they will do the most good," Ashcroft said. The attorney general arrived in Arizona on Thursday to meet with federal law enforcement agencies and tour the border. He said Friday that the state faces "tremendous challenges" in trying to police 350 miles of international border and combat violent crime that federal officials believe is often linked to drug- and immigrant-smuggling activities.
The INS Report
The INS report identified Mexico as the number one illegal
alien sending country. California was the number one illegal alien
destination. The INS estimates that approximately one-third of
the seven million illegals are living in California. Overall,
approximately 4.8 million are from Mexico ? that?s 68 percent
? more than two-thirds of the total.
Relaxed rules mean Mexican visitors can stay longer-
Aug. 10, 2004 05:25 PM U.S. to also deport some illegal
border crossers more quickly... The Bush administration announced
Tuesday it would speed up deportation proceedings against thousands
of non-Mexican immigrants who illegally try to enter the United
States through Mexico or Canada. At the same time, administration
officials said they would loosen visa rules for Mexican visitors
who have passed extensive background checks. Those visitors approved
for "border crossing cards" would be allowed to remain in the
United States for up to 30 days instead of the current 72 hours.
