Tag Archives: Illegal Immigration
Death on the Border
Our immigration laws need to be fixed before more potential immigrants die. Too bad the Democrats prefer to prioritize politics over… well… everything else.
On Monday, the bodies were discovered on the bank of the river near Matamoros, Mexico, across from Brownsville, Texas, and several hundred yards from where they had tried to cross, just a half-mile from an international bridge.
The southern U.S. border has seen a massive surge of illegal crossings in recent months, with more than 144,000 apprehensions in May alone.
Many of the migrants are from Central America, often in family units. Due to a patchwork of legal restrictions, Central Americans who cross the border illegally with children and request asylum are frequently quickly released into the interior to await a court hearing.
Posted by Owen at 2123 hours
Mexico to Try to Restrict Central American Illegals to South
Well, it’s something… maybe.
Mexico City (AFP) – Mexico said Wednesday that central American migrants will be given “regional visitor cards” near the Guatemalan border that restrict their movement to the south of the country, impeding their ability to reach the United States.
The restriction will be a blow to tens of thousands of migrants, fleeing the poverty and violence at home, who enter southern Mexico and travel across the country in so-called “caravans” in an attempt to seek asylum in the US.
The cards will be given out in the southeastern city of Tapachula, where Mexican media report there are around 5,000 would-be migrants planning to head to the US.
[…]
US President Donald Trump has warned of a raft of sanctions — including closing official border crossings — unless Mexico cracks down on migrants.
[…]
It is not clear what effect issuing regional visitor cards will have on the caravans given many of the migrants have entered Mexico illegally anyway.
Posted by Owen at 2134 hours
British Rapper and Felon to be Deported
Well, well… not exactly the “hiding in the shadows” story we usually get.
Atlanta rapper 21 Savage has been arrested by immigration officials who say he is actually from the UK, reports say.
The rapper, Shayaa Bin Abraham-Joseph, came to the US in July 2005 aged 12 and failed to leave when his visa expired a year later, officials said.
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spokesman said he was being held for removal proceedings.
He has previously described a childhood in Atlanta during interviews.
In an interview with Fader magazine in 2016 he said he had first seen a gun at the age of eight – although the article did not specify where this incident had taken place.
The 26-year-old is also quoted in the interview as saying he was expelled from school in Atlanta aged about 12 or 13 for taking a gun to class.
“His whole public persona is false,” a CNN reporter quoted an ICE spokesman as saying.
Other reports quoted ICE as saying the rapper was being held in the state of Georgia for being unlawfully present in the US and for being a felon. He was convicted of drugs charges in 2014.[…]
There are 10.6 million undocumented immigrants in the US, according to the Center for Migration Studies. That represents 3.25% of the US population.
Posted by Owen at 0732 hours
Jumping the Wall
I’m having a hard time mustering sympathy for the poor, oppressed, overweight woman in Nikes trying to illegally enter our country. I fail to understand why I should have to pay more taxes to support her choice to leave her own country.
Posted by Owen at 1355 hours
ICE Does Its Job
I didn’t know that church sanctuary was still a thing. In any case, hats off to ICE for finally catching the scofflaw.
An immigrant who sought refuge from deportation in a North Carolina church, staying there for 11 months, was arrested on Friday after arriving at an appointment with immigration officials.
The arrest led to protests and the arrest of some supporters of Samuel Oliver-Bruno, the 47-year-old Mexican national who, according to a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) news release, was detained at a Raleigh-area immigration office.
An advocacy group, Alerta Migratoria NC, said in a statement Oliver-Bruno went to have fingerprints taken so he could apply to stay in North Carolina with his wife and son.
He has been living in CityWell United Methodist Church in Durham since late 2017, to avoid the reach of immigration officers, who generally avoid making arrests at churches and other sensitive locations.
Ice said Oliver-Bruno, who has lived in North Carolina for two decades, had no legal basis to be in the US and had exhausted his “extensive” appeals. In 2014, according to court documents, Oliver-Bruno pleaded guilty to using false documents to try to re-enter the US in Texas.
Posted by Owen at 2112 hours
Madison Police Reiterate Sanctuary City Status
Madison Police Chief Mike Koval and Dane County Sheriff Dave Mahoney have reiterated their commitment to the Madison and Dane County community and not to enforcing immigration law.
Koval said Friday that he was not informed that ICE would be in the area even though the MPD has a standing agreement with the agency to be notified when agents will be in the community. Koval has reiterated that enforcement of immigration laws remains primarily with the federal government.
In the same breath, Police Chief Koval says he will not cooperate with ICE and then whines about ICE not informing him that they will be doing their jobs. Cooperation goes both way.
To the story itself, the Capital Times, liberal rag that it is, doesn’t even bother to get another side of the story. It merely parrots the complaints of an activist group and their supporters. A better headline would have been, “ICE Does its Job.”
Posted by Owen at 0752 hours
Illegal Immigration. Neat.
Here’s my full column that ran in the Washington County Daily News yesterday.
In an effort to whip up emotions for the midterm elections and drive racial divisions in America, the Democrats have allied themselves with the radical open borders fringe groups to call for the abolition of the Immigration and Customer Enforcement agency. While such a movement has very serious implications, it resulted in a comical exposition of hypocrisy and rank opportunism for a Wisconsin politician.
ICE is a massive federal agency with two central charters. The first is to enforce the nation’s immigration laws in the interior of the country. Customs and Border Protection is responsible for enforcing the nation’s borders, but once immigrants, illegal or otherwise, are inside, it is the responsibility of ICE to identify, apprehend and deport people who are illegally residing in the United States.
The second mission for ICE is to investigate activities that occur as a result of people illegally moving people and goods across America’s borders. This includes human trafficking, terrorism, drug smuggling, gang activities, cybercrimes, child exploitation, money laundering, the theft of intellectual property and the like.
When the Democrats talk about abolishing ICE, they are not talking about replacing it with another agency. They are talking about abandoning the enforcement of our nation’s immigration laws and just allowing anyone who makes it past the gauntlet of the border to just stay in America. Unable to muster the political power to change our immigration laws, some Democrats are seeking to negate the law by abolishing the agency tasked with enforcing that law.
When one considers how much ICE does for our nation, one realizes that abolishing the agency and abandoning its missions would unleash a wave of mayhem. According to ICE’s 2017 figures, the agency arrested 4,818 gang members including 796 from the evil MS-13 gang, rescued 904 children from exploitation, rescued 518 human trafficking victims, seized 6,967 pounds of heroin and 2,370 pounds of fentanyl, made 32,958 criminal arrests, and so much more.
When it comes to deportations, ICE, on orders from President Donald Trump, focused its resources heavily on deporting illegal aliens who had committed crimes. More than 89 percent of all illegal aliens deported by ICE in 2017 had either been convicted of a crime or had criminal charges pending. The largest percentage of crimes committed by deportees included drunk driving, drugs and assault. If ICE had not enforced our laws, all of those criminals would still be in America and if there is one thing we know about criminals, it is that they rarely stop committing crimes of their own accord.
All of this brings us to the hilarious theatrics of Wisconsin’s Congressman Mark Pocan. Hailing from the comfortably safe liberal District centered on Dane County, Pocan authored a bill to fulfill the fantasies of the radicals and abolish ICE. Under Pocan’s plan, the criminal functions of ICE would move to other agencies, but the enforcement of immigration laws would cease. Pocan apparently forgot he could write bills to change the immigration laws and instead opted for the anarchy of laws without an enforcement arm instead.
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, from the neighboring Wisconsin Congressional District, obliged Congressman Pocan’s effort and announced he would bring Pocan’s bill to abolish ICE to the floor. Despite the fact that Pocan is a member of the minority party, Ryan and the Republican leadership decided to call the vote and let the chips fall where they may.
As a member of the minority party in the Congress, Congressman Pocan intended his bill to be political posturing to feed the anger of the radical Left for the election. He never actually intended for it to be voted upon. Stoking the fires of hatred before an election is far more important to Pocan than serious immigration reform. With his bluff called and his shameless charade on display for the world to see, Pocan immediately called “foul” and said that he would vote against his own bill.
When people complain about the divisive state of political discourse in our nation, it is politicians like Congressman Pocan who is responsible. Instead of using the office entrusted to him by his constituents to work for rational immigration reforms, he chose to author a bill that even he would not support for the purpose of fueling rage before an election. Wisconsin, and the dedicated public servants of ICE, deserve better.
Posted by Owen at 0657 hours
Illegal Immigration. Neat.
My column for the Washington County Daily News is online. You can find the entire thing by picking up a paper or buying an online subscription. Here’s a snippet.
When the Democrats talk about abolishing ICE, they are not talking about replacing it with another agency. They are talking about abandoning the enforcement of our nation’s immigration laws and just allowing anyone who makes it past the gauntlet of the border to just stay in America. Unable to muster the political power to change our immigration laws, some Democrats are seeking to negate the law by abolishing the agency tasked with enforcing that law.
Posted by Owen at 0651 hours
Democratic Candidates Support Drivers Licenses for Illegal Aliens
The participants were former state Rep. Kelda Roys; Mahlon Mitchell, head of the Professional Fire Fighters of Wisconsin; political activist Mike McCabe and state Sen. Kathleen Vinehout.
Posted by Owen at 1250 hours
Trump Changes Detention Policy for Illegal Aliens
I really don’t like Presidents bypassing laws via executive order.
The executive order calls for:
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Immigrant families to be detained together while their legal cases are considered
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Expediting immigration cases involving families
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Requesting the modification of a court ruling that dictates how long immigrant children can be detained
But I do agree that detaining and deporting the families together is the best solution from a list of bad ones.
Posted by Owen at 2133 hours
Census to Ask About Citizenship
By Brendan O’Brien
(Reuters) – A question about citizenship status will be included on the 2020 Census to help enforce the Voting Rights Act, federal officials said on Monday, but California sued to block the move arguing that it would discourage immigrants from participating.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross decided to add the question to the count after a Department of Justice request based on the desire for better enforcement of the voting law, the U.S. Department of Commerce said in a statement.
“Secretary Ross determined that obtaining complete and accurate information to meet this legitimate government purpose outweighed the limited potential adverse impacts,” it said.
The census, which is mandated under the U.S. Constitution and takes place every 10 years, counts every resident in the United States. It is used to determine the allocation to states of seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and to distribute billions of dollars in federal funds to local communities.
While the census is used for a lot of things, it’s primary Constitutional function is to allocate representation for the citizens in the House and Senate. Illegal aliens are not citizens. They are not legally permitted to vote, and they should not have representation in a country they live illegally. By counting illegal aliens in the census, it shifts more representatives, and thus more power, to regions that are not entitled to it.
For example, Milwaukee and Albuquerque are about the same size in population. But if 30% of the population of Albuquerque are non-citizens, why should they get more representation in Congress (not to mention the state houses) than the citizens in Milwaukee? They shouldn’t.
If we had good border security, trying to tease out the number of illegals would be moot. But since we have allowed a massive illegal population to inhabit our nation, we need to take steps to ensure that our government is structured to represent citizens. If not, then what does citizenship really mean?
Posted by Owen at 0850 hours
Illegal Alien Steals Identity for 37 Years
Wow.
SAN DIEGO (AP) — A Mexican man who was deported twice and had a history of arrests was able to assume the identity of an American citizen and receive more than $360,000 in government benefits for nearly four decades, California court records show.
Andres Avelino Anduaga used a fake birth certificate starting in 1980 to develop a seemingly legitimate persona by applying for a California driver’s license, Social Security number and U.S. passport, according to documents obtained by the San Diego Union-Tribune . The official U.S. documents identified him as Abraham Riojos, born in Texas in 1958.
Anduaga, who’s actually 66 years old and a resident of Tijuana, Mexico, pleaded guilty last week in San Diego to theft of public property and being a previously removed unauthorized immigrant in the U.S., the newspaper reported Saturday.
Posted by Owen at 1816 hours
Trump Links Border Wall to DACA
Good.
The White House has tied any new deal on young undocumented immigrants to a clampdown on illegal immigration, including a border wall with Mexico.
US President Donald Trump is asking for funding for the wall, speedier deportations and the hiring of thousands of new immigration officials.
Last month he ended the Obama-era “Dreamer” programme which had protected some 690,000 immigrants.
Leading Democrats in Congress have rejected the latest proposals.
They accused Mr Trump of backtracking on a commitment not to include the border wall in negotiations over the status of young immigrants, who are mostly from Mexico and other Latin American countries.
Posted by Owen at 0650 hours
Trump Spins on DACA
Okay…. so somebody is lying. Given the track record of this crowd, it could be all of them.
Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump pushed back Thursday morning against claims by top congressional Democrats that a deal has been reached over legislation to protect hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants and that a border-security package would not include a wall along the US-Mexico border.
“No deal was made last night on DACA,” Trump tweeted. “Massive border security would have to be agreed to in exchange for consent. Would be subject to vote.”Late Wednesday, Democratic leaders Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Nancy Pelosi said they had “agreed to enshrine the protections of (the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program) into law quickly, and to work out a package of border security, excluding the wall, that’s acceptable to both sides.”But Trump also refuted that specific assertion by the Democratic leaders about a border wall, tweeting, “The WALL, which is already under construction in the form of new renovation of old and existing fences and walls, will continue to be built.”
Posted by Owen at 0635 hours
Delevan-Darien School District Tells Kids How to Avoid Law Enforcement
That’s a heckuva value lesson for kids.
It was a clear and pointed message to the Delavan-Darien School community: If immigration agents knock, don’t open the door, don’t sign or say anything and fight back.
It caught a lot of parents by surprise.
“I was surprised to receive that and have the school district giving advice on how to deal with a non-academic situation,” parent Sara Deschner said.
But school leaders said it had to be done.
Posted by Owen at 2127 hours
Illegal Aliens Fear Getting Caught
This is the problem with years and years of normalizing illegal behavior. People become acclimated and it makes it that much tougher on them when we decide to enforce the law. All of these sob stories just reinforce the notion that we should enforce our laws swiftly and consistently.
Tensions were high in the immigrant community even before Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke announced his deputies would act as ICE agents. Advisers to the undocumented said that decision has many going underground.
I always wonder about comments like this:
Schrank said he was at the jail meeting with an undocumented client Thursday to explain that the sheriff’s announcement means he’s likely to face deportation, leaving three little kids behind.
Why would he leave his kids behind?
Posted by Owen at 2123 hours
US to Widen Net for Illegal Aliens
Good.
The Trump administration has issued tough guidelines to widen the net for deporting illegal immigrants from the US, and speed up their removal.
Undocumented immigrants arrested for traffic violations or shop-lifting will be targeted along with those convicted of more serious crimes.
All 11 million or so undocumented foreigners in the US could be affected.
I don’t think we need to commit a ton of resources to find and deport illegal aliens, but when law enforcement runs across them in the normal course of business, they should be deported. They do not have a legal right to be in America.
Posted by Owen at 1241 hours
ICE Does Its Job
My, my… by the cries and wails of the Left, one would think that this is a big deal.
(Reuters) – U.S. federal immigration agents arrested hundreds of undocumented immigrants in at least four states this week in what officials on Friday called routine enforcement actions.
Reports of immigration sweeps this week sparked concern among immigration advocates and families, coming on the heels of President Donald Trump’s executive order barring refugees and immigrants from seven majority-Muslim nations. That order is currently on hold.
“The fear coursing through immigrant homes and the native-born Americans who love immigrants as friends and family is palpable,” Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, said in a statement. “Reports of raids in immigrant communities are a grave concern.”
The enforcement actions took place in Atlanta, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and surrounding areas, said David Marin, director of enforcement and removal for the Los Angeles field office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
First, advocates of immigration, of which I am one, are not concerned. Advocates of illegal immigration are concerned, and should be. But even then, this provides a little window into what’s going on:
Only five of 161 people arrested in Southern California would not have been enforcement priorities under the Obama administration, he said.
[…]
He said that of the people arrested in Southern California, only 10 did not have criminal records. Of those, five had prior deportation orders.
So a scant minority of those being picked up might not have been under Obama. And the vast majority of them are criminals, which even Democrats used to agree should be deported.
Why am I supposed to be outraged that ICE is doing its job? Don’t we pay them to find and deport illegal aliens? Don’t we tell them to prioritize ones with criminal records first? Yes, yes we do. And I thank them for their efforts.
Posted by Owen at 1715 hours
Illegal Alien Felon Finally Deported After 9 Years
(CNN)Guadalupe Garcia de Rayos went to Mass and said a prayer before her immigration check-in Wednesday in Phoenix.
It was her eighth visit since she was arrested in 2008 for using a fake Social Security number. After each meeting, the married mother of two went back to her family.This time was different. She was detained and within 24 hours she was deported to her native Mexico. She was turned over to Mexican authorities at a border crossing in Nogales, Arizona, according to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.Her lawyers claim she is a victim of President Donald Trump’s tougher stance on illegal immigration.[…]
“Ms. Garcia, who has a prior felony conviction in Arizona for criminal impersonation, was the subject of a court-issued removal order that became final in July 2013,” US Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a statement. “(Her) immigration case underwent review at multiple levels of the immigration court system, including the Board of Immigration Appeals, and the judges held she did not have a legal basis to remain in the US.”
Posted by Owen at 2157 hours
Hillary’s Plan for Executive Amnesty
Obama’s overreaches have set the precedent for years to come. Will Congress ever again have the stones to take back their power?
Once it quickly becomes apparent that immigration reform is stillborn on Capitol Hill, Clinton will take a dog-eared page out of President Obama’s playbook and accuse Republicans of “obstructionism” and declare that the immigration problem must be addressed “for the good of the nation” with legislation being written and passed in the West Wing instead of by Congress.
Obama took extra-consitutional action and was batted down by the Supreme Court, which blocked his decree legalizing millions of illegal immigrants who are parents of legal residents. What Clinton and Kaine surely know is that they won’t be facing the same problem.
Obama’s end run around Congress was stopped by a lower court and the ruling was let stand by a deadlocked 4-4 Supreme Court, which would have rejected it outright had Justice Antonin Scalia not passed away. During the same 100 days Clinton and Kaine will ostensibly be trying to push doomed immigration, the White House on a parallel tracking will be working to have Congress confirm a new justice who will provide the fifth vote needed to uphold the executive action written by Obama — and whatever other decrees Hillary and her claque can think of. By the time Hillary and Tim recoil in “disgust” from Congress, a new justice will be in place to solve the problem.
Posted by Owen at 2101 hours
