Trying To Split The Immigration Baby

The Associated Press reports that President Bush is moving toward allowing illegal aliens who came to the U.S. before February 2004 to qualify for guest-worker visas. Illegal aliens arriving after that date would be deported:

"They're trying to split the baby," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said of the White House plan, "and I don't think they can do that."

The proposed McCain-Kennedy approach to immigration reform would create 400,000 three-year visas for guest workers and would let undocumented workers stay in the U.S. while they apply for the program. The Cornyn-Kyl proposal would create two-year visas and require that guest workers and illegal aliens leave the U.S. before they can apply for the chance to work legally in the country.

According to the Associated Press, President Bush does not favor requiring illegal aliens to be sent home to apply for the visas.

From California Yankee.

Arizona's Restrictions On Illegal Aliens Survive Legal Challenge

Arizona's law prohibiting illegal aliens from receiving some public benefits has survived a challenge by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

The Washington Times reports that a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco dismissed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Arizona's Proposition 200:

"The appeal is dismissed for want of jurisdiction. The district court record reveals that there was no case or controversy between plaintiffs and the state of Arizona when pleadings were before the district court," the panel said.

Proposition 200, won approval from 56 percent of the voters in November's election.Under the law, state and local government employees to verify the immigration status of those seeking public benefits they are prohibited from receiving under federal law and to report to federal immigration authorities any applicant who is in violation of U.S. immigration law. State employees are also subject to criminal charges if they fail to report illegals aliens, and requires people to show proof of citizenship when registering to vote.

From California Yankee.

Tancredo Not Running for President - Yet

Despite four trips to early primary and caucus states this year, Colorado's Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo says he is not running for president.

The Washington Times reports that Tancredo will run unless a top-tier Republican candidate takes a strong position on cracking down on illegal immigration and lowering legal immigration:

"My task is to get one of them to take this on," Mr. Tancredo told about 50 members of the Christian Coalition of Iowa who gathered in a community center in Cedar Falls on Friday night. "If they don't do that, if I cannot find someone to do that, if they just give lip service to it and not the heart, yeah, I will run. I will do that."

Tancredo believes the reception he received in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Georgia are an indication of how important the issue of immigration has become.

From California Yankee.

Survey: Bush's plan caused illegal immigration spike

Documents obtained by Judicial Watch under the FOIA reveal the extent to which Bush's guest worker plan resulted in a spike of illegal immigration. The documents also reveal administration attempts to cover up that fact.

See Bush "Temporary Worker Proposal" Caused Increase in Illegal Immigrant Crossings, New Docs Show for the documents and Judicial Watch's summary.

According to the document entitled "U.S. Border Patrol Survey Analysis", the BP conducted a survey for three weeks beginning on January 7, 2004. They asked detained illegal aliens why they came to the U.S. About 45% said it was because of Bush's plan, which many considered to be an amnesty. The administration stopped the survey after just three weeks.

Judicial Watch also obtained a document entitled "White House Approved Talking Points", which contains:

"Do not talk about amnesty, increase in apprehensions, or give comparisons of past immigration reform proposals... Do not provide statistics on apprehension spikes or past amnesty data..."

President Bush promoted his immigration plan on various occasions long after January 2004, including during the presidential debates and on Bill O'Reilly's television show.

UPDATE: See Administration accused of withholding information on immigration for the administration's side of things.

UPDATE 2: On a related note, see "AP: U.S. Blocked Release of CAFTA Reports":

The Labor Department worked for more than a year to maintain secrecy for studies that were critical of working conditions in Central America, the region the Bush administration wants in a new trade pact...

USDA helping Mexican citizens buy U.S. property

The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently announced a new program to give loans and grants to Mexican citizens who want to buy property in the United States. From "Pact Aims to Help Mexicans Living in Rural Parts of United States":

...The programs also support loans to businesses through banks and community-managed lending pools, and offer technical assistance and information to help agricultural and other cooperatives get started and improve the effectiveness of their member services...

This is a partnership between the Mexican government and the U.S., and it's apparently only open to legal residents from Mexico, not illegal aliens or those from other countries. The Mexican consulates in the U.S. will be deeply involved in these programs. According to Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns:

"USDA looks forward to continuing to work with Mexican authorities to enhance outreach to the Mexican community," said Johanns. "USDA administers 43 rural development programs designed to assist rural residents and communities increase their economic opportunities and improve their quality of life. Expanding access to these programs in underserved communities in need, especially the Hispanic community, is a priority for the Bush Administration."

See also the long transcript of Johanns' remarks in Mexico City on May 13 for more, including the information that this is related to the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America.

Note that the press releases alternate between the "Mexican community" and the "Hispanic community", presumably referring to U.S. citizens. Of course, those two are not the same thing.

Currently, most Democratic politicians would probably react to these programs by suggesting that the USDA wasn't giving enough breaks to citizens of another country. However, perhaps in the near future a Democrat will decide to do the right and the politically popular thing and vociferously oppose such programs. That could prove quite damaging to the Bush administration and the Republican party.

On a related note, the FDIC is working with the Mexican consulate in Chicago to give home loans to illegal aliens. And, for a long-running case involving the USDA, see "Racism In The Fields".

Report Urges Troops On Mexican Border

According to the Washington Times, a report written by investigators for the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus urges the deployment of troops on the border with Mexico:

The deployment of 36,000 National Guard troops or state militia on the U.S.-Mexico border would stop the illegal flow of foreigners into America, says a congressional report that credits the Minuteman Project with proving that additional manpower could "dramatically reduce if not virtually eliminate" illegal immigration.

[. . .]

"The tide of illegal crossings on the borders of the United States is beyond unsatisfactory; it is catastrophic. It does not ebb and flow -- it only grows. It is rising without measure and eroding the very fiber of our safety, life and culture," the report said.

From California Yankee.

Border Patrol Ordered To Stand Down

The Washington Times reports that U.S. Border Patrol agents have been ordered not to arrest illegal aliens along the section of the Arizona border where protesters patrolled last month because an increase in apprehensions there would prove the effectiveness of Minuteman volunteers.

From California Yankee.

McCain-Kennedy Immigration Reform Introduced

Reuters reports that Senators John McCain and Edward Kennedy have introduced an immigration reform bill that would allow some of the estimated 10-12 million illegal immigrants in the United States to get legal jobs and eventual citizenship.

From California Yankee.

Illegal Alien Pleads Guilty To Trespass

The Union Leader reports Jorge Ramirez, a 21 year old illegal alien from Mexico plead guilty to Criminal trespass. Ramirez carried several pieces of false identification and admitted to being in the U.S. illegally.

Ramirez was ordered to pay $120 on a charge of operating without a license, and was given a $1,000 fine for the criminal trespass charge. The $1,000 fine was suspended, provided Ramirez stays out of trouble and reports to the federal Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office in Manchester by Friday.

From California Yankee.

Senate Rejects Amnesty For Illegal Aliens

The Senate yesterday turned back a proposed amnesty for up to 1 million illegal alien agricultural workers and their families.

According to the Washington Times, the Senate fell seven votes shy of the 60 required for the amendment, which would have offered the illegal aliens a three-step path to citizenship.

The defeated amnesty was part of Idaho Republican Larry Craig's "Ag-jobs" legislation:

Ag-jobs would have created a three-step path to citizenship for agricultural workers who were in the country illegally at the beginning of the year and had worked 100 days out of 12 months in the agriculture sector.

Under the proposal, the workers would earn temporary legal status, leading eventually to a green card denoting legal permanent residence, and then the chance to apply for citizenship.

"I don't call that amnesty; I call that hard-earned labor paid for to get the ability to stay and work," Mr. Craig said.

From California Yankee.

Illegal Immigration Issues Heating Up

Illegal immigration is heating up as an issue this week, after simmering just beneath the surface around the blogosphere for some time. I'm glad we're paying attention to the issue, but I also worry about some of the reactions I'm seeing. More on that below.

• Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice says al-Qaeda and other terror groups are doing everything they can to enter the U.S. from Mexico and Canada.

• The Arizona border with Mexico has been extremely porous - and well trod - for some time. According to the Washington Times,

"Currently, about 5,000 'unapprehended' illegal aliens trespass the Arizona-Mexico border daily, and another 5,000 invade the United States from the Texas, California and New Mexico borders. That's 10,000 a day ... over 3 million a year," said Mr. Gilchrist. [NOTE: the total population of the U.S. is 297 million.- rkb]

More than 1.15 million illegal aliens were apprehended last year by the Border Patrol while attempting to enter the United States. Nearly 40 percent of them were detained in southern Arizona along a 260-mile stretch of border known as the Tucson sector.

• The Mexican government has published a guide for migrants which some decry as advice for illegally entering the US and other say is meant to save lives - tragically, many people die in the Arizona desert while entering illegally.

Read the Rest...

House Approves Immigration Bill

The Associated Press reports that the House of Representatives approved Congressman James Sensenbrenner's Real ID Act of 2005, H.R.418 by a 261-161 vote.

The legislation will force the states to make sure they're not granting driver's licenses to illegal aliens, allow the federal government to complete a controversial fence on the border with Mexico, regardless of environmental concerns, and grant judges broader power to deport political asylum seekers.

States will have three years to comply with the new federal standards dictating what features driver's licenses must have. They could still issue special driving permits to illegal aliens, but those permits would not be recognized as identities for boarding airlines or allowing entry to federal buildings.

From California Yankee.

Proposed Legislation Restricts Illegal Aliens' Use Of Driver's Licenses

The Washington Times reports that House Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. introduced a bill to restrict illegal aliens' ability to obtain and use driver's licenses. According to the Times, Mr. Sensenbrenner's new bill includes four of the provisions that he fought for but which were dropped from the final intelligence overhaul bill last month:

The bill would fill a gap in the fence on the U.S.-Mexico border near San Diego, would extend the law so that terrorism-related grounds for excluding someone from entering the United States also become grounds for deportation for those already here and would revamp the asylum system to make it easier for judges to deny a claim for asylum.

But its major focus is to crack down on illegal aliens' ability to obtain and use driver's licenses.

The measure requires that any driver's license used as a form of identification to a federal official, such as a Transportation Security Administration screener at an airport, meet national standards that include a check on whether the holder is in the country legally.

The bill doesn't force states to change their laws, but makes driver's licenses from such states inadmissible for federal identification purposes.

From California Yankee.