The Amboy Times

McCain Relaunches Amnesty and Earmarks

I really thought McCain would at least pretend to care about conservatives until election day.

On Cinco de Mayo, John McCain launched his Spanish-language website and began what will likely be his steady march back to his original and true position on illegal immigration. What is McCain's position today? In his words from yesterday's speech:

"I believe that the majority of Hispanics share our view that the border must be secured, and the border must be secured first," McCain said. "But they also want us to have an attitude, which I think most Americans do, that these are God's children and they must be taken care of, or the issue must be addressed, in a humane and compassionate fashion. And I will continue to carry that message with the priority that we must secure our borders first."

Most significantly, McCain came back to his "comprehensive" (i.e. amnesty) roots in a speech designed to cater to Latino voters. McCain said, "We get in this kind of a circular firing squad on immigration reform in the Congress of the United States, and the lesson I learned from it is we've got to have comprehensive immigration reform" Read more at Fire Society.

And what does La Raza expect in return? Via Michelle Malkin.

Take a look at this political giveaway – “Assistance for the Raza Development Fund” – straight from the text of the bill:

(c) ASSISTANCE FOR RAZA DEVELOPMENT FUND.—

(1) USE.—The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development may make a grant to the Raza Development Fund for the purpose of providing technical and financial assistance to local non-profit organizations to undertake community development and affordable housing projects and programs serving low- and moderate-income households, particularly through organizations located in neighborhoods with substantial populations of income-disadvantaged households of Hispanic origin. Assistance provided by the Secretary under this subsection may be used by the Raza Development Fund…

(2) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.— There is authorized to be appropriated for grants under this subsection—

(A) $5,000,000 for fiscal year 2008; and
(B) $10,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2009 and 2010.

Now that's comprehensive!

The lesson I've learned from this is McCain cost $25 million. For more background on La Raza, Check out the Top Ten Reasons McCain Should Repudiate La Raza.

 

Study: Illegals depress wages by $1.4 billion in Arizona

Hat tip, Virtuous Republic. McCain, are you listening?

Illegal immigrants depressed wages in Arizona to the tune of $1.4 billion in 2006 and dipped lower-skilled legal workers' pay by 4.7 percent.

That is according to a study by a Harvard University economist commissioned by the Maricopa County Attorney's Office. The MCAO had the study done as part of its defense of the state's new employer sanctions law.

Business and Hispanic groups have challenged that law questioning its validity and arguing it would hurt the state's economy.

The study by Harvard economist George Borjas said hiring illegal immigrants depresses wages because they work for lower pay and sometimes are paid under the table. The study said illegal immigrants primarily impact wages and jobs held by legal workers with lower education levels. Borjas said that illegals make up 10 percent of all state workers and decrease all wages by 1.5 percent. Read more...

MS-13 Vandalizes War Memorial?

It could have been MS-13 wannabe's, but an unchecked border allows for this kind of mentality to fester.

Veterans are outraged that a war memorial in New Haven has been vandalized.

The Vietnam War Memorial at Long Wharf was spray painted  with the threatening words “Kill whites MS 13.”

Seeing this just crushed the veterans we spoke to. The names on that wall that are covered in paint, are the names of those who fought and died for this country in the Vietnam War. Tonight, police are investigating whether this is the work of a violent street gang, but the veterans we spoke to, say whoever they are, aren’t as tough as they might think.

“This irks me.  This hurts me deep to my heart,” Vietnam Veteran Emery Linton Sr. said…

Whoever did it sprayed “MS-13″ all over the place. According to law enforcement, MS 13 is a violent international gang with roots in El Salvador. Members are involved in drug trafficking, weapons trafficking and even human trafficking and their presence is growing in the U-S. Just this summer, police in the Boston area did a big round-up of MS 13 gang members.

That said, New Haven police say there hasn’t been any documented MS-13 activity so far in the city. But they are investigating this incident.

Presidential Candidates on Border Security

Roy Beck of Numbers USA has posted a grid of the 2008 Presidential candidates based on

Here is what you have to know about the GRID:

My rating of a candidate's past performance in political office is at the bottom of the grid. It can't be changed by new promises. Hence, even though Huckabee now has a lot of green ratings for promises, he still has a red "bad" for his past work as governor.

The rest of the ratings are indeed based on promises. The GRID is primarily forward looking. We want to know what a candidate says he/she will do as President. Many of you are cynical; you believe the candidates will just lie to get your votes and then will do the opposite of what they promise. I don't see it that way. Part of what all of us are doing during this campaign cycle is forcing candidates to make better and better promises in more and more public ways. I think it will be very dangerous for any of them to back out after being so public.

The GRID is so much more important than anything you have heard in the debates and ads which have mainly majored in the minors. All the argument between Romney and Guiliani, for example, about sanctuary cities has been about something that is important but rather minor compared to most of the other items on the GRID.

The grid breaks down border security into 16 specific issues and rates each candidate, side by side, with a green (good to excellent), black (fair to poor) or red (bad to abysmal) rating. The number rankings are my own, based on which candidate has the most excellent/good ratings.

Here's how the GOP stacks up.

1. Tancredo  Excellent 16.
2. Hunter      Excellent 7, Good 9.
3. Thompson Excellent 5, Good 8, Fair 1,  Poor 2.
4. Huckabee  Excellent 5, Good 6, Fair 1,  Poor 3, Bad 1.
5. Paul          Excellent 1, Good 10, Fair 2, Poor 3
6. Romney      Excellent 4, Good 6,   Fair 1, Poor 3 Bad 2.
7. McCain      Good 4, Fair 3, Poor 2, Bad 4, Abysmal 3
8. Giulliani    Good 2, Fair 3, Poor 6, Bad 3, Abysmal 2.

This is how the Democrats fared.

1. Obama        Good 2, Fair 1, Poor 4, Bad 3, Abysmal 6.
2. Dodd    Excellent 1, Fair 4, Poor 2, Bad 7, Abysmal 2.
3. Edwards     Good 1, Fair 1, Poor 8, Bad 5, Abysmal 1.
4. Clinton       Good 1, Fair 3, Poor 4, Bad 3, Abysmal 4.
5. Richardson Good 1, Fair 2, Poor 5, Bad 5, Abysmal 3.
6. Biden          Good 1, Fair 3, Poor 3, Bad 7, Abysmal 3.
7. Kucinich     Good 1, Fair 1, Poor 4, Bad 7, Abysmal 3.

I should note that Numbers USA is a zero population growth group. Four of the issues listed pertain to legal immigration. Personally, I wouldn't have a problem with increasing legal immigration if the borders were secured.

However, I believe Roy Beck's information to be reliable, and a useful tool for examining where pols stand on specific border issues. The grid is laden with links for each issue anddetailed reports on each candidate.

You can also research your local Congressman's immigration report card here.

 

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Terror Threat to AZ Army Base pt II

Terrorists have been involved in the drug trade for decades. The southern border is a major pipeline for the drug trade...so what could happen? Nothing. At least not in the minds of a country that can't understand why Mitt Romney doesn't want to allow Muslims on his cabinet. Not in the minds of a press that can't remember Ft Dix, 9/11, USS Cole , or even connect what those incidents have in common.

Fort Huachuca, the nation's largest intelligence-training center, changed security measures in May after being warned that Islamist terrorists, with the aid of Mexican drug cartels, were planning an attack on the facility.

Fort officials changed security measures after sources warned that possibly 60 Afghan and Iraqi terrorists were to be smuggled into the U.S. through underground tunnels with high-powered weapons to attack the Arizona Army base, according to multiple confidential law enforcement documents obtained by The Washington Times.

"A portion of the operatives were in the United States, with the remainder not yet in the United States," according to one of the documents, an FBI advisory that was distributed to the Defense Intelligence Agency, the CIA, Customs and Border Protection and the Justice Department, among several other law enforcement agencies throughout the nation. "The Afghanis and Iraqis shaved their beards so as not to appear to be Middle Easterners."

According to the FBI advisory, each Middle Easterner paid Mexican drug lords $20,000 "or the equivalent in weapons" for the cartel's assistance in smuggling them and their weapons through tunnels along the border into the U.S. The weapons would be sent through tunnels that supposedly ended in Arizona and New Mexico, but the Islamist terrorists would be smuggled through Laredo, Texas, and reclaim the weapons later. Read more.

Related posts, Terror Threat to AZ Army Base? and The Real Problem with the Border.

 

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Terror Threat to AZ Army Base?

The Tancredo ad being played out?

KOLD News 13 is the only news outlet to obtain this FBI urgent report outlining a possible terrorist threat right here in southern Arizona. It speaks specifically to Fort Huachuca in Sierra Vista.

The document gives no timetable or explanation of how the threat will be carried out. But does say, “a group of Iraqis may have entered the United States through tunnels from Mexico into Arizona,” and those same “Iraqis are believed to be the ones who will perpetrate the attack on Fort Huachuca.”

Lt. Colonel Matthew Garner of the United States Army says, “The military is always a target, I believe.” For security purposes, Lt. Col. Garner wouldn’t tell us what’s been done or what’s being done to stop the threat. But he did say the U.S. Government takes this very seriously. And that Fort Huachuca is fully aware and prepared for anything that comes its way. ...

Remember Ft Dix?

 

According to the report which cites sources and sub sources within the DEA, the Iraqis may currently be located on an “unidentified Indian reservation” in Arizona. The Tohono O’odham nation is one possibility, with more than 2 and half million acres that start near Casa Grande and continue south all the way to the Mexico border. ...

One former Congressman, who asked not to be identified for this report, said the document seems “dubious” and “without merit.” Not only that, it’s dated May 14th, 2007. That was six months ago. And Fort Huachuca hasn’t seen an attack yet. ...

Still, what’s most troubling about the report is the mere possibility - and nobody’s disputing the fact this could happen.

Lending fuel to that possibility, the report says, is an arsenal of weapons already in the United States. They include two Milan—surface to surface, anti-tank missiles; some Soviet made surface to air missiles; and an unspecified number of grenade launchers.

That's The Real Problem With The Border, OTM's in the form of Hezbollah or al-Qaeda. You just can't have homeland security without border security. Here are more examples of jihadists using our border as a means of getting into the US.

Speaking of Tancredo...

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Terrorists at the Border

This has always been one of my peeves, a wide open border that somehow magically filters out potential terrorists. Not just because that is the easiest way for terrorists to get in the U.S., but the way this story is ignored by the MSM while they drool all over Britney. VDARE sites the latest example, of which there have been many.

Texas' top homeland security official said Wednesday that terrorists with ties to Hezbollah, Hamas and al-Qaida have been arrested crossing the Texas border with Mexico in recent years.    

"Has there ever been anyone linked to terrorism arrested?" Texas Homeland Security Director Steve McCraw said in a speech to the North Texas Crime Commission. "Yes, there was."

(...)

McCraw identified the most notable figure captured as Farida Goolam Mahomed Ahmed, who was arrested in July 2004 at the McAllen airport. She carried $7,300 in various currencies and a South African passport with pages missing. Federal officials later learned she waded across the Rio Grande.

   

After her arrest, U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued a release saying she was wanted for questioning about the bombing of a U.S. Consulate office, jibing with similar statements from a U.S. congressman.

(...)

McCraw also said that since March 2006, 347 people from what he called "terrorism-related countries" have been arrested crossing the border in Texas. The number of Iraqis captured at the border has tripled since last year, he said.

   

"A porous border without question is a national security threat," he said.

Quick, do nothing!

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Iraqi's Crossing the Border?

Mexicans? Here's the Real Problem With The Border. OTM's in the form of Hezbollah or al-Qaeda. You just can't have homeland security without border security. Here are more examples of jihadists using our border as a means of getting into the US.

Hat tip, JW. Residents in the close-knit community of Chaparral were surprised to hear that undocumented Iraqi and other Middle Eastern immigrants may be part of a human smuggling ring based here.

"Out of so many places, why here?" Chaparral resident Fabiola Gardea asked. "This is near my house. It scares me a lot because I never thought they would be this close."

She said it would be easy for human smugglers to do well in the community.

"There's a lot of empty houses and land everywhere," she said.

Gardea said the possibility that some undocumented immigrants might be from Iraq is unsettling.

"It makes me think of terrorism," she said. "They're so close. Anything can happen. It's very scary."

ABC News reported that the FBI was investigating the possibility that Iraqi and other Middle Eastern immigrants might have been entering the country illegally through a smuggling operation based in Chaparral for more than a year.

"We've received numerous calls about an FBI intelligence bulletin that claims Iraqis are being smuggled into the U.S. in our area. The El Paso Division does not have specific information regarding this claim," local FBI spokes woman Andrea Simmons said in an e-mail. "I would remind you that some intelligence information is provided in a raw, unsubstantiated format. That information can later be proven or disproven, but is often provided in this raw format to inform the intelligence community of possible threats."

Doña Ana County Sheriff's Department spokesman Bo Nevarez said his department often gets reports of human smuggling.

"We have received reports in the last week. Human smuggling reports are fairly common," he said, but did not detail how many reports have been received, where they occurred or the nationality of the people involved. He said the reports are turned over to other agencies.

Many Chaparral residents were surprised to hear the claim that some of the undocumented immigrants in their area might be from the Middle East.

The report referred to by ABC News said the smuggling ring had shifted from trafficking Mexicans to those from the Middle East because of the money to be made in this area. Smuggled Iraqis reportedly paid between $20,000 to $25,000 to enter the country.

Some said those entering the country through this alleged ring may simply be looking for a better life.

"It doesn't really scare me. It surprised me, but that was it," Chaparral resident Luz Domin guez said. "Maybe they just want to move from where they live."

"Somebody that wants to make a change and doesn't want to be in the conflict, I say (there's no problem). If they're going to harm our country, I say yes," Chaparral resident Raymond Massey said.

Some people just want all illegal immigration stopped.

"Half of Chaparral is illegals, so what's the difference?" Chaparral resident George Farkas asked. "It doesn't matter whether they're from here or 10,000 miles from here. Get rid of them."

Chaparral resident Michael Chavez said he hoped security was increased in light of the alleged smuggling ring.

"Our community needs to provide more security as well as law enforcement," he said.

He is ready to step up if need be. "You don't know how powerful the people are and what they would do," Chavez said. "If we have a conflict here in Chaparral, I wouldn't mind putting on a uniform and fighting for Chaparral. I'll fight for what I believe in."

We have the people, now all we need is a government willing to defend itself.

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The Drop House

Reading this post over at Linknzona reminded me of my old neighborhood in Southern California.

I lived two doors down from a "drop house" in the mid eighties. One day while coming home from work I saw about ten Mexican men bolt from a van into the house while the van sped away.

When I mentioned this to one of my neighbors, he said, "oh yeah, thats a drop house"

I asked him what a drop house was,
"it's a place for illegals to stay overnight on their way to L.A., the coyotes drop them there"

I called the Border Patrol. They thanked me for the information and told me that there were too many places like that for them respond to them all. Basically telling me they weren't going to do anything.

About a year later, my next door neighbor complained that there were men urinating outdoors in the backyard of the "drop house". He was a Korean immigrant and couldn't understand how his neighbors could get away with that. His wife was very upset as their fence was only four feet tall, and the smell was becoming unbearable on that side of the house.

My wife called the Department of Health and complained. Finally, something was done! Our Korean neighbors thanked us profusely for solving the problem, and the coyotes finally stopped coming.

I don't live in California anymore, but I'm sure this kind of problem is even worse than it was 20 years ago. Linknzona tells of his own experience of the bureauratic run around  one typically gets when a citizen tries to report illegal aliens.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

ICE is located on the Internet at http://www.ice.gov/

If you call any ICE office to report illegal aliens, they refer you to the “Tip Line” at 1-866-347-2423.

Here you are given the option of pressing 1 for help with immigration and obtaining citizenship and pressing 2 to report illegal or suspicious activity. Of course, they warn you that you will be prosecuted for giving false information and then say that all personnel are busy please stay on the line. Then you are disconnected. Repeated calls get the same treatment and then are disconnected.
Another example of telephone games and tricks the government plays to keep the border open and to protect illegal aliens. Is it any wonder that the majority of the people did not trust the government to enforce existing or any new laws and opposed the Senate amnesty bill? We knew it was 100% amnesty and 0% enforcement.

Recall that just before the cloture votes on the Senate bill, opponents had to call the Senate offices and pay a long distance fee but that supporters of the Senate bill could use a secret, toll free line. As Michelle Malkin reported earlier and I repeated on June 16, The amnesty hotline number to get through to your senator was
1-800-417-7666.

Ted Nugent on Border Security

Hat tip, Freedom Fighter Radio

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