This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Illegal Immigrants

  • Naturalization ceremony for troops

    Naturalization ceremony for troops

    naturalization ceremony

    In case you missed the news, President Obama took time out today to witness the swearing in of our newest US citizens at a ceremony in the White House. Before the ceremony, this message came out from the White House staff;

    On Friday, July 4th, as our nation celebrates its birthday, President Obama will host a naturalization ceremony at the White House for active duty military service members and their spouses, as well as veterans and reservists. The President sees this important White House tradition as an opportunity to reiterate his commitment to an immigration policy that honors our rich history as a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws. The President has previously hosted and participated in naturalization ceremonies at the White House in 2009, 2010, 2012 and 2013.

    The ceremony, which the President will deliver remarks at, will recognize the contributions made by foreign-born members of the U.S. Armed Forces who have earned their American citizenship by serving our country, and the contributions that immigrants from all walks of life have made to our country throughout its history. Fifteen active duty service members serving in the Navy, U.S. Army, Marines, and Air Force, two veterans, one reservist and seven military spouses will receive their citizenship, together representing 15 countries. Joining these men and women at Friday’s ceremony will be military service members, their families, and community leaders who continue to advocate for commonsense immigration reform.

    On it’s face, it looks like another ceremony celebrating “the troops” from this administration, but the little cynical creature that lives in my head these days, read this line that I’d missed;

    The President sees this important White House tradition as an opportunity to reiterate his commitment to an immigration policy that honors our rich history as a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws.

    In other words, once again the President is dragging those in uniform into the political debate, and this time, it’s about immigration. He cloaks a political discussion in terms of the military. And, if anyone thinks that we are truly a “nation of laws” we wouldn’t be having this discussion about whether they’re illegal aliens or not.

    Yeah, generations ago, my antecedents immigrated here. My mother’s side of the family were early colonists in Massachusetts, while my father’s family came through Ellis Island in 1899 – you know, the legal way. My wife is an immigrant. We went through all of the paperwork to get her admitted legally and we jump through hoops every couple of years so she can remain. In the first few years she lived here, we had to report where she lived, until Jimmy Carter thought that it was unfair that they tracked aliens in this country – you know, how we lost track of many of the 9-11 terrorists until that fateful day.

    Somehow we’re supposed to believe that those thousands who are pouring across the frontier every day are all going to join the military someday – that they’re going to do their part in this nation. At this point, that’s hard to believe since they’re all becoming a burden on the government/taxpayers already.

    But it seems to me that every time the president finds himself in a jam, he stands behind those uniforms to deflect criticism. Maybe it’s just me.

  • Refugees to Fort Drum?

    The Fox affiliate WNYF in Watertown, New York is anxiously anticipating that some of the refugees from our southern border might be housed at Fort Drum;

    [Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Crosson, spokesperson for the Office of the Secretary of Defense] says it’s too early to tell if Fort Drum will be used, but if it is, the installation and its barracks would not house children until next month.

    “We can’t even offer those to Health and Human Services for their consideration until August, until they’re vacant and no longer being used by Army personnel,” he said.

    He was unable to release additional information.

    According to a classified ad placed by Occupational Health Connections, multiple positions will be available at Fort Drum for registered and licensed practical nurses, doctors and counselors.

    “FEMA is gearing up for potential of receiving 500 children up to the age of 17. These are children refugees who are crossing the border to escape drug cartels and will need healthcare,” the ad reads.

    The ad says the start date is unknown, but people will probably start after July 4.

    I’m not sure how many of you have been to Fort Drum, but I spent two years there. I loved it, but I love to hunt and fish, I’d spent the previous decade in Germany and Vermont so the winters didn’t bother me much. I doubt that any refugees from Central America will be impressed with the isolation and the mind-numbing lack of things to do. Remember the Cuban refugees rioting at Fort Chaffee, Arkansas?

    Sixty-two refugees were injured – some by gunfire – and 46 others were arrested. As Arkansas Times reporter Bob Plunkett wrote then: “Before El Domingo (Spanish for ‘Sunday’), the term used by the refugees to refer to the June 1 riot, Fort Chaffee’s only containment barrier was a limp cotton rope draped over a line of sawhorses place around the Cuban housing area.” After the riots, Gov.Bill Clinton and President Jimmy Carter ensured that the lightly fortified camp was turned into a prison, encircled with miles of concertina wire and 2,000 heavily-armed federal troops.

    That was after they had been a month. This administration doesn’t seem to have as much on the ball as Governor Bill Clinton and President Jimmy Carter had in 1980, I’m pretty sure any refugees at Fort Drum can plan on months of throwing pine cones at each other (the only way to pass time there).

    I should probably add that, if you don’t know it, winters there are brutal. One morning, I woke up to four feet of snow in my driveway – it was March. I’ve seen snow storms on Halloween and on Mothers’ Day. I’m sure they’ll like the first time they see the snow, but for some reason the novelty wears off after that. My marriage to a Central American for the past 37 years gives me a measure of moral authority in the discussion.

    It seems cheaper and easier to me to just drive those refugees to the Mexican border and point them south and let Mexico deal with the influx of illegal immigrants. We’ll see if the Mexicans can sparkle from the opportunity.

  • Pelosi, sparkle pony, visits border

    Pelosi, sparkle pony, visits border

    Pelosi sparkle pony

    I guess Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi visited a crisis center along the border between Texas and Mexico where thousands of Mexican children and women are flooding into this country based on village rumors that they would be taken care of when they arrived here. After apparently blazing up a doobie, Pelosi emoted all over the gathered news reporters. From the Washington Times;

    “This crisis that some call a crisis, we have to view as an opportunity,” Mrs. Pelosi said, Fox News reported. “If you believe as we do that every child, every person has a spark of divinity in them, and is therefore worthy of respect — what we saw in those [holding] rooms was a dazzling, sparkling array of God’s children, worthy of respect.”

    She made the comments over the weekend, at a time when Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator Craig Fugate was assigned as the point person to coordinate the U.S. response — and as President Obama announced plans to ask Congress for more than $2 billion to help with the border surge, Fox News reported.

    The California Democrat did admit that the pour of unaccompanied youth across the border “does have crisis qualities,” she said, Fox News reported. But at the same time, the situation is simply an “opportunity to show who we are as Americans, that we do respect people for their dignity and worth.”

    Yeah, I don’t know what she’s saying either, unless she’s advocating that we register all of these new criminals as Democrat voters instead of sending them back. If we sent them back, maybe that would stop the rumors that are wafting through the mud hut villages in Guatemala and El Salvador endangering the welfare of the countless perspective illegal immigrants.

    It is a crisis, no matter how you look at it, even if you see it through the blue haze of cannabis smoke, like Pelosi does, apparently. Folks are getting sick and eventually, some may die in these “crisis centers”. A resurgence of Dengue fever is sweeping through Central America and will probably accompany these refugees.

    They need to be sent back to their villages with the message that the rumors are not accurate. Having lived with Central Americans most of my life, I know how quickly and persistently rumors become fact to those people and the US government needs to send them back to their countries. For their own good.

    Here’s the ditzy Minority Leader, if you can stand to listen;

  • National Guard to border? Again?

    According to the Washington Times, some members of Congress are calling for the President to send National Guard members to the border with Mexico to help with the flood children who have been pouring across the frontier in recent weeks;

    Rep. Candice Miller, Michigan Republican and chairwoman of a key border security subcommittee, sent a letter saying that Border Patrol agents need to be put back on patrol duty rather than processing or babysitting for the children who have been caught trying to enter.

    Because that’s what the national Guard does; “babysitting”. They do it better than Border Patrol officers, apparently. And that’s all they’re good for, while the Border Patrol are more important, apparently. Well, that’s how I read the statement anyway.

    McClatchy reports that allegations of abuse against Border Patrol agents made by some of the detained children through “immigration advocacy groups”. I can only imagine how those charges, true or not, will increase against uniformed members of the armed forces.

    And, *gasp*, Associated Press reports rumors that the Border patrol leadership have warned agents against talking to the media without prior permission;

    An assistant chief patrol agent, Eligio “Lee” Pena, warned more than 3,000 Border Patrol agents that journalists looking for information about what Obama has described as a humanitarian crisis are likely to ask for information and “may try to disguise themselves.” The email, obtained by The Associated Press, said agents should not speak to reporters, on or off duty, without advanced permission and warned that anyone who does could be charged with a crime or disciplined administratively.

    Yeah, I’d really advocate sending national Guard troops, the guys who have been fighting the wars against terrorists into that volatile situation. For “babysitting” duties.

  • Illegal Alien working at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base

    Eggs sends us a link to ABC15 that reports an illegal alien was arrested in Arizona by local authorities. In their own background search on him, they found that he was using an alias and that he was working on Davis-Monthan Air Force Base for a construction contractor and had a secuirty clearance;

    Pinal County Sheriff’s officials say 37-year-old Mario Bustamante is being held on suspicion of using the identity of another person and possession of a forged device.

    A sheriff’s deputy made a traffic stop Dec. 26 on Interstate 10 and found the driver had a felony warrant for his arrest out of Texas.

    Bustamante was taken to the border patrol station in Casa Grande, where his identity was confirmed.

    Yeah, so after the Navy Yard shooting, aren’t the folks who do these investigations ready to start doing what they’re hired to do yet?

  • Uncle Omar is still here

    Any faith I had in the justice system in this country is quickly dissipating. Aside from the events surrounding our own situation in the Montgomery County, Maryland prosecutor’s office, today we read how the President’s uncle, who was ordered out of the country twenty-one years by an immigration court, had his day in court yesterday and the judge decided that Onyango Obama could stay because he is of high moral character, well except for the fact that he’s in this country illegally. The Associated Press reports;

    His immigration status didn’t become public until his 2011 drunken-driving arrest in Framingham. Police said after the arrest he told them, “I think I will call the White House.”

    Asked about the exchange by a prosecutor on Tuesday, he said he might have said that but couldn’t recall.

    The charge was dismissed after he completed a year of probation and 14 weeks of alcohol education classes.

    The judge said he considered testimony about Obama’s character, including letters from people who praised him for being a “kind and decent person,” and considered the drunken-driving charge and allegations of discrepancies in what he told immigration officials 20 to 30 years ago.

    “He appears to me to be a gentleman,” the judge said.

    He’s a gentleman who ignored a court order to leave the country two decades ago. There’s more at Michelle Malkin‘s place.

    Thanks to Andy for the AP link.

    ADDED: On the other hand, an Albanian woman has been told she has 24 hours to leave the country and to leave her 3 US-born children behind, acording to the Daily Mail;

    A Detroit family is being ripped apart after immigration officials gave a 40-year-old married mother 24 hours to leave the country despite having no criminal convictions, a husband who has lived here for decades and three U.S.-born children.

    Cile Precetaj, who came to the States seeking asylum 13 years ago, was ordered to report for deportation at Detroit Metro Airport at 10:30 a.m. today for a flight back to her native Albania, after receiving a letter from authorities Monday telling her to pack her bags.

    However, in a desperate bid to buy time, she deliberately missed the deadline, and is now waiting at home, with her family around her, until authorities take her to jail where she will be held until another flight is organized.

  • Hundreds of illegals captured on Fort Huachuca this year

    Old Trooper sends a link from News 4 Tucson in regards to the illegal immigrant problem that is being experienced at Fort Huachuca which is only 15 miles from the Mexican border. reporters have discovered that 331 have been arrested this year alone which is up significantly from last year’s 112 and less than a hundred the year before;

    Stoddard tells the News 4 Tucson Investigators, Fort Huachuca’s location in the Huachuca mountains makes it an attractive illegal entry point for border-crossers.

    “Once they get into the Huachucas, there is a very worn and established trail though there,” Stoddard says.

    Stoddard says the problems of illegal immigrants slipping onto the post isn’t a new one.

    “The military chooses to close its eyes and ignore it,” Stoddard says.

    In fact, officials at Fort Huachuca refused the News 4 Tucson Investigator’s request for an on-camera interview on the issue, saying “apprehending undocumented immigrants is a Department of Homeland Security mission and not a D.o.D. one.”

    Stoddard says he worries about the possibility that weapons could also be coming across the border, and through Fort Huachuca.

    Yeah, well, it seems to me that security of the base is a DoD issue regardless of the nationality of the intruders

    The video autostarts after the jump;
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  • Unmitigated gall

    The Washington Times highlights portions of the President’s speech to Mexican students today in Mexico City. Strangely enough, he doesn’t mention the “Fast & Furious” operation which put semi-automatic weapons in the hands of Mexican criminals when he promises the students that he’ll do everything he can to keep US guns from streaming into Mexico from the US;

    “Most of the guns used to commit violence here in Mexico come from the United States,” Mr. Obama said at Mexico’s Anthropology Museum. “I think many of you know that in America, our Constitution guarantees our individual right to bear arms. And as president, I swore an oath to uphold that right, and I always will.”

    But he drew cheers from Mexicans when he added, “At the same time, as I’ve said in the United States, I will continue to do everything in my power to pass common-sense reforms that keep guns out of the hands of criminals and dangerous people. That can save lives here in Mexico and back home in the United States. It’s the right thing to do.”

    First of all, the guns that have made it to Mexico recently did so under the watchful gaze of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. And the only “common-sense reforms” that have been proposed have focused on keeping guns out of the hands of law-abiding citizens. What could save lives in Mexico is arming the law-abiding citizens there. Since no one in Mexico can legally own guns, the citizens become targets of armed criminals and they have no way to defend themselves – sheep surrounded by wolves. And the police there, generally don’t show up until the firing has safely ended.

    I’m pretty sure that Mexican students loudly applauded for the President when he promised to disarm Americans. It would certainly make it easier for those students to invade our frontiers knowing that we’re defenseless.

    “So we’ll keep increasing the pressure on gun traffickers who bring illegal guns into Mexico,” Mr. Obama said. “We’ll keep putting these criminals where they belong — behind bars.”

    Really? How many of those bureaucrats at the BATFE have been jailed for irresponsibly forcing otherwise legitimate gun dealers to sell thousands of guns to criminals?