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

Category: Illegal Immigrants

  • Grassley ties Boston to immigration debate

    The Washington Times reports that Senator Charles Grassley brought up the relationship between the Boston bombing and our immigration laws and the reforms being proposed in the Senate;

    “Given the events of this week, it’s important for us to understand the gaps and loopholes in our immigration system,” the Iowa Republican said. “While we don’t yet know the immigration status of people who have terrorized the communities in Massachusetts, when we find out, it will help shed light on the weaknesses of our system.”

    He was speaking at a hearing called to examine the new Senate immigration bill, which would legalize illegal immigrants and expand avenues for overall legal immigration — though it would eliminate the diversity visa lottery and cut the ties used to bring in siblings of immigrants.

    Before the trolls start calling me a xenophobe, my wife has a green card, so does my step-daughter and her daughter, so I’m pretty familiar with the immigration process since I’m their sponsor. The difference between my family immigrating and the illegal aliens is that we went through the process three times, and we pay for renewing that whole process periodically.

    When my wife first came here, we had to report to the Immigration authorities every year, until Jimmy Carter changed that, for some reason. We have complied with every regulation and kept up with the regulations – because, just like gun regulations, immigration regulations only burden those who abide by the law.

    But, yeah, we need to be more careful about who we let into this country as the string of crimes committed by illegals become more well-known during the current discussion, crimes that cost legal residents their lives. And, certainly, this whole thing in Boston illustrates too clearly that we need a process to track these people.

    And how much is this search in the Boston area costing taxpayers, you know, the legal residents.

  • ICE’s Mulligan

    The Washington Times reports that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Bureau has had to start rounding up some of the detainees that they released during their preparation for the sequestration thingie. It seems that some of the gentle souls happened to be “level one” offenders;

    U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director John Morton testified to Congress that his agency released 10 “level one” offenders, and has gone out and apprehended four of them. He said the other six are nonviolent.

    Mr. Morton also acknowledged that overall, 2,228 immigrants were released — far more than the several hundred the agency had initially acknowledged. Of those, 629 had criminal records, though Mr. Morton said they were low-level offenders.

    The releases have drawn a stern rebuke from Republicans, who said it showed mismanaged priorities. They also said ICE’s concession that it released far more immigrants than it first acknowledged dents the agency’s credibility.

    Whatever. As long as everyone gets to feel the pain of sequester, what difference does a couple more criminals on the streets matter? It’s all the Republicans’ fault anyway.

  • White House didn’t release illegals, they say

    Apparently, I was wrong when I said that the Obama White House was behind the release of hundreds of illegal immigrants from detention. The White House said today that it wasn’t their idea – US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Bureau did it all on their own without even asking the White House if they could says the Washington Times;

    “This was a decision made by career officials at ICE without any input from the White House as a result of fiscal uncertainty over the continuing resolution as well as possible sequestration,” spokesman Jay Carney told reporters.

    He didn’t say whether the White House agreed with the decision, but seemed to defend it, saying that all of the immigrants released remain subject to deportation and are still being supervised either electronically or by being required to check in regularly.

    Yeah, I totally believe them. Just like I believe Bite Me when he said that he knows secret stuff about the Newtown massacres that he can’t tell us – especially after his performances over the last few days.

    “Twenty innocent babies riddled – riddled with bullet holes – were the press not here, I could tell you what is not public yet about how gruesome it was,” Biden said, revealing that he spoke to State Troopers about the investigation.

    Yeah, if it wasn’t for the press, you know those people who are supposed to keep the people informed, he’d tell us details that we can’t imagine for ourselves. They won’t even be forthcoming about the weapons that were used that terrible day, but we’re supposed to believe there’s more stuff that’s secret that would make us want more gun control.

    Call me when this administration tells the truth – now THAT would be a news story.

  • Hundreds of illegals released

    You’ve probably already heard this, but the Obama Administration has released hundreds of illegal aliens from custody in preparation for sequester cuts. Republicans say that the folks released were dangerous criminals, but folks who defend the release say that they shouldn’t have been detained in the first place. From the Washington Times;

    U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency that runs the detention facilities, said that with sequesters and the annual spending bills looming, officials have tried to find places to cut, and releasing low-priority immigrants is one of those ways.

    “Over the last week, ICE has reviewed several hundred cases and placed these individuals on methods of supervision less costly than detention,” ICE said in a statement. “All of these individuals remain in removal proceedings. Priority for detention remains on serious criminal offenders and other individuals who pose a significant threat to public safety.”

    While being released from detention, the illegal immigrants are still subject to supervision — either by electronic device or by being required to check in with ICE by phone or in person.

    I’m kind of thinking that we’ll never see those people again, and I think it’s a bit of theater on the part of the administration. Just a few days ago Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano warned that sequestration would allow dangerous criminals into the country because of staffing cuts, so they release a bunch that we already have in custody? I don’t understand why they didn’t at least send them back to their entry point. That would have saved even more money.

  • Oh, so now illegals are a national security risk, huh?

    The Washington Times is reporting that Janet Napolitano is threatening to let in more illegal aliens in the event that the sequester takes effect, you know, the same illegal aliens who last week we were supposed to make room for and coddle, but this week are are threat to our national security;

    “There’s always a threat,” she said at the White House. “We’re going to do everything we can to minimize that risk. But the sequester makes it awfully, awfully tough.”

    And she said there’s an increased risk of illegal immigrants crossing the borders.

    “Yes it does affect our ability to keep out illegal migrants,” she said.

    It’s odd that when a Republican says that illegals are a threat, he’s a racist, but when the Obama Administration says it, we’re supposed to scared into some kind of action.

    While we’re on the subject of sequestration, that right wing hack, Bob Woodward from that far-right rag, the Washington Post claims that Obama has been “inconsistent” on the facts of how the sequester came about. The President has said that it was purely a Republican Congress thing, but Woodward tells a different story;

    The finger-pointing began during the third presidential debate last fall, on Oct. 22, when President Obama blamed Congress. “The sequester is not something that I’ve proposed,” Obama said. “It is something that Congress has proposed.”

    […]

    My extensive reporting for my book “The Price of Politics” shows that the automatic spending cuts were initiated by the White House and were the brainchild of [White House chief of staff, Jack] Lew and White House congressional relations chief Rob Nabors — probably the foremost experts on budget issues in the senior ranks of the federal government.

    Obama personally approved of the plan for Lew and Nabors to propose the sequester to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). They did so at 2:30 p.m. July 27, 2011, according to interviews with two senior White House aides who were directly involved.

    So, I guess when the recently-classified-as-dangerous illegal aliens flood across our borders because the sequester has cut the number of patrol officers, we can roundly blame the Obama Administration.

  • Sometimes arresting illegals doesn’t require profiling

    Some bozo in the Phoenix New Times is complaining that Sheriff Joe Arpaio is violating a judge’s order to refrain from profiling when he arrests a crowd of illegals. How is it profiling when officers observe a Chevy Astro with California plates speeding and changes lanes without signaling?

    A deputy saw right away that a middle bench to the van had been removed and the vehicle was packed with 12 people, some lying down on the floor with no space to move freely.

    The Spanish-speaking passengers were disheveled, dusty and nervous. They had no luggage.

    In other words, it appeared to detectives that the group was in the country illegally.

    “At this point, detectives recognized this as a human smuggling incident,” a deputy wrote in court paperwork.

    Yeah, that’s not profiling, dipshit. People who look like they’ve spent days in the desert and packed in a van in Arizona and headed north are probably illegal aliens. And they were in a van that was breaking the law. Profiling would be pulling over every Mexican driving a van while obeying all of the laws.

  • There’s that camel’s nose again

    Greg sends us a link from a local NBC station in New Haven, CT which reports that New Haven Mayor, John DeStefano, has asked the state legislature for permission to let illegal aliens vote in his local elections;

    DeStefano said on Tuesday that the proposal would build a more engaged community and follows the lead of other cities, the New Haven Independent reports.

    The Independent reports that New Haven has about 10,000 non-citizen immigrants.

    Immigrants who are in the U.S. legally or illegally and cannot vote now would still be unable to vote in state or federal elections.

    DeStefano, a Democrat, said illegal immigrants pay taxes indirectly through rent and send their kids to New Haven schools and should be able to vote.

    From the New Haven Independent;

    DeStefano made the disclosure Tuesday morning after a press conference […] where he and other politicians gathered to announce their opposition to the federal “Secure Communities initiative” to deport more immigrants who are here illegally.

    Maybee he’d like to throw open all of the banks so robbers would have an easier time plying their business, too.

  • Thank you, come again

    This is brilliant; the Obama Administration plans to install unmanned self-service kiosks along our southern border monitored by border agents hundreds of miles away from the crossing point according to an Associated Press link from Old Trooper;

    By the spring, kiosks could open up in Big Bend National Park allowing people from the tiny Mexican town of Boquillas del Carmen to scan their identity documents and talk to a customs officer in another location, at least 100 miles away.

    The crossing, which would be the nation’s first such port of entry with Mexico, has sparked opposition from some who see it as counterintuitive in these days of heightened border security. Supporters say the crossing would give the isolated Mexican town long-awaited access to U.S. commerce, improve conservation efforts and be an unlikely target for criminal operations.

    Damned right wing rethuglicans, can’t they see how intuitive this administration is? It’s not like there’s millions of Mexicans trying to get into this coutnry illegally or anything…so why shouldn’t we make it easier for them to come here and spend their millions in our country?