Another local Community taking a stand

Cross posted from Morning Coffee

Elgin Illinois is city about 40 miles North West of Chicago, has a population of a little over 100,000, and it’s high school can include 5 Navy Admirals, a Nobel Prize winner, a Pulitzer Prize winner, a tony award winner, two men who produced academy award winning films, and a General Motors CEO among its alumni. The city is known for its historic architecture and landmarks from the Victorian era, including some fine examples of homes in the Queen Anne style.  It is also home to Doug Heaton, and Doug Heaton is mad. The last time he got mad he got elected. 

From the Daily Herald  

Problems with communication led him to run in 1995 and win a seat on the Elgin Area School District U-46 board.

The 51-year-old Elgin resident now insists his recent appearances before the Elgin City Council demanding police do a better job enforcing immigration laws have nothing to do with politics.

Heaton said it has everything to do with finding answers he believes are long overdue.

This time, a series of news stories slowly ignited his activism. The story that propelled him to action was about Patricia Henneken, 28, who was killed at Golf and Barrington roads when, police say, Javier Rico, driving drunk, ran a red light and slammed into her — even though Rico, an illegal immigrant, had three previous DUI encounters with police.

How could an illegal immigrant with a history of drunken driving still be in this country, Heaton wondered.

“I felt that people aren’t standing up and we’re not saying, ‘Wait a minute, this isn’t right,’æ” he said. “Silence implies approval, and I don’t want that to happen.”

He has since become a member of the Illinois Minuteman Project, which has created a binder of ways local police departments can enforce existing laws and provided examples of how other police departments have taken action.

He wants police to:

• Get training in fraudulent document detection and enforcement of fake ID laws;
• Request a valid passport when a Mexican driver’s license is presented;
• Use the Law Enforcement Support Center of the Department of Homeland Security;
• Assist and notify Immigration and Customs Enforcement when an illegal immigrant is in custody; and
• Begin training police to be deputy immigration officers as provided for under Section 287(g) of the federal Immigration and Nationality Act.

These suggestions posed to the Elgin City Council in June may soon spread throughout the suburbs. Minuteman members already have approached the McHenry County Board with similar questions.

Elgin Police Chief Lisa Womack on Wednesday will give the city council an overview of how police now handle illegal immigrants.

“Many of the things Mr. Heaton wants us to do we’re already doing,” Womack said.

Womack said officers rarely see Mexican driver’s licenses, but know to ask for passports if one is presented.

“To simply ask someone if they are a legal citizen just because they look Hispanic would fall under the purview of racial profiling,” she said. “And we stop people that don’t have their license with them all the time, could you prove you are a legal citizen right now?”

Womack said police pursue the immigration status of those arrested on serious charges.

“We’re not ignoring this issue,” she said. “We work closely with ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and provide information. They have priorities of following up.”

But Heaton said he believes local police can do more.

He points to how Ipswich, N.H., Police Chief Garrett Chamberlain arrested an illegal immigrant for being in the country by charging him with criminal trespassing. But what’s right for one community may not be right for all, said City Manager Femi Folarin.

“Elgin is not just folding our arms and saying, ‘Gee, that person is illegal and we’re not going to do anything about it,’æ” Folarin said. “But we can’t keep that person in Elgin forever. If we’re calling immigration and they’re not interested in picking up that person, what’s the point?”

Every time that happens, the city should demand federal authorities sign off on its refusal to pick up an illegal immigrant, Heaton said.

For now, he is happy to hear the chief will formally address the points he said have been ignored since June.

“I’m certainly no expert in law enforcement and I’m sure they figure I’m just a rabble rouser,” he said. “But I think I’ve raised some points that need to be considered.”

Mr Heaton is absolutely correct and brings up points that need to be addressed. Local and state officials have every authority to more strictly enforce immigration laws and the responsibility to their constituents to do so. Communities like Hazelton Pa. as well as states like Georgia, and Colorado are doing just that. Since it appears that any legislation that Congress will come up with will likely only worsen the illegal immigration problem insisting our local and stat officials live up to their responsibilities is more important now than ever before.

**This was a production of The Coalition Against Illegal Immigration (CAII). If you would like to participate, please go to the above link to learn more. Afterwards, email the coalition and let me know at what level you would like to participate.

Comprehensive Immigration Reform is Back!

Cross posted from The Uncooperative Blogger

From The Washington Times:

First: Secure our borders

Before any new temporary-worker program can begin, our plan requires the president to certify that all mandated border-security measures are completed. The Hutchison-Pence proposal embraces the tough border-security measures of the House and Senate bills. It would add border patrol agents, drug enforcement agents and port-of-entry inspectors; end catch and release; add security fences and other physical barriers at critical points; and employ American technology, such as unmanned aerial surveillance vehicles.

This sounds good, if they actually fund it.

Second: The Good Neighbor SAFE Visa and Ellis Island Centers

When the border has been declared secure, the Good Neighbor SAFE (Secure Authorized Foreign Employee) Visa will begin. This program offers noncitizens opportunities to fill jobs that employers attest to not being able to fill with Americans at market wage.

Under our plan, the estimated 12 million people currently residing illegally in America can come out of the shadows and earn a fair living by returning to their home countries to apply for a Good Neighbor SAFE Visa. This does not give amnesty to those currently in our country illegally.

Really? So they are just going to leave on their own, with no help from anyone? I don’t think so people.

Our plan would accomplish this by setting up a system of private employment placement agencies outside the United States (called “Ellis Island Centers”), licensed by the federal government, to match willing temporary workers with jobs that employers cannot fill with American workers. The private agencies would also perform health screenings, fingerprint the guest workers and provide that information for federal background checks.

Successful applicants for the Good Neighbor SAFE Visa could enter America legally provided they meet the visa requirements.

We call it a “Good Neighbor” SAFE Visa because the program would be limited to countries that currently enjoy a positive trade relationship with the United States in our hemisphere. Only residents of NAFTA and CAFTA-DR countries will be eligible to participate in this program. Good Neighbor SAFE Visas will be issued for two years, with the option to renew them in two-year increments for up to 12 years.

Again who decides the need for these people to come here?

Good Neighbor SAFE Visa participants are not eligible for welfare, Social Security or Medicare. All paycheck deductions will be made as for American citizens. Workers’ Medicare contributions will go into a fund to compensate hospitals for emergency medical expenses incurred while treating foreign workers. Worker Social Security deductions will be returned when a participant exits the program and returns to his or her home country. Employer Social Security contributions will remain in our country’s system.

At the end of the visa period, visa holders who have been gainfully employed with no violations may return to their country of origin or apply for a new X-Change Visa with an employer sponsor and continue working in the United States under the same conditions with no further renewals required. There is no automatic path to citizenship in the Hutchison-Pence plan. After five more years, the X-Change Visa holder would have the option of continuing to hold an X-Change Visa, returning home or applying for permanent adjustment of status.

There it is, even after 12 years they can stay and apply for permenent citizenship. That is not a guest worker program. I don’t know about you, but if a guest tries to stay in my house permenently the guest will have a rude awakening.

They are going to keep trying to force a path to citizenship down our throats.

Third: Verification and enforcement

For the system to be effective, it is necessary to implement a nationwide electronic employment verification system through which employers confirm the legality of each employee. Those who continue to hire unverifiable employees will be subject to stiff fines.

Two years after the date of enactment, employers will be required to verify the eligibility of all new employees, including temporary workers. After six years, verification will apply to all employees. While this may be unsettling to some, and there may be better ways to do it, we will never have complete knowledge of everyone who is in our country and their legal status without some capability for verification.

Good Neighbor SAFE Visas will provide businesses seeking to hire foreign workers with a secure method of confirming their legal status. If a temporary worker is fired, convicted of a crime or just disappears, the card will be canceled, preventing someone else from hiring the worker.

So basically, you facilitate people to come to this country and then they can just slip into society the way they are here now. Big deal, you canceled their card, that will show them.

Contact your elected cockroaches and tell them No to Pence/Hutchinson and the Kyl/ Cornyn plans. Make it clear no path to citizenship and no expansion of the guest worker program will be acceptable. We can debate the need for a guest worker program later. We want an enforcement only Bill or no Bill; just enforce the laws we have now.

Use Congress.org to find out how to contact your cockroaches and outsourcecongress.org which allows you to email their whole staffs at one time and go around the House email system.

My “comprehensive” plan:

• Secure the border by any means necessary. This includes the Military.
• Stiff penalties for employers, which are actually enforced.
• No taxpayer funded programs for illegals or their families. (including school for children of illegals and non-emergency medical care for any illegal)
• No “Anchor Babies” (no automatic citizenship for children of illegals born in the US)
• No path to Citizenship in any name or form for those here illegally.
• No Guest worker program until the above measures are put in place and the need can be PROVEN
• English only education and the official language of the USA

**This was a production of The Coalition Against Illegal Immigration (CAII). If you would like to participate, please go to the above link to learn more. Afterwards, email the coalition and let me know at what level you would like to participate.

Related Articles:

• Cornyn, Kyl seek $3.5 billion more for security
• Debating the Wall
• Immigrant Sweep Snags 58 at Fort Bragg
• Colo. OKs toughest U.S. immigration bills
• Republicans are losing the respect of Hispanic Americans
• Karl Rove Teams up With La Raza!
• Bill Clinton And Karl Rove To Speak At La Raza Event …
• How Eisenhower solved illegal border crossings from Mexico
• Welcome To The North American Union
• Super Corridor — or Super Hype …?
• Building a North American Union

Small Town Defenders

Cross posted from Border Pundit

Wouldn’t it be great if every city and town in the nation enacted laws like Mayor Barletta’s? Check out www.smalltowndefenders.com and submit the law to your own City Council for implementation.

Welcome to Small Town Defenders!

I’m Lou Barletta, the proud Mayor of the City of Hazleton, Pennsylvania.

Recently, our City has greatly suffered from a series of serious crimes and economic hardship including the murder of a city resident, the discharge of firearms at a local playground, high profile drug busts, and severe strains on our classrooms and health care system. All of these previously mentioned crimes involved illegal aliens and their large migration to our City have resulted in educational and economic strains that threaten our quality of life.

I could not sit back any longer and allow this to happen, I needed to act! That’s why I drafted the Illegal Immigration Relief Act, a measure that is designed to send a message. My message: To the residents of Hazleton, I say thank you for your support. To our recently arrived legal immigrants, I say welcome to our City. I wish you all the best and hope the United States and Hazleton can be a place where your dreams come true, just as my great grandfather’s did when he legally immigrated here. I am proud to represent you as your Mayor.

There are thousands of small towns and cities across America like Hazleton, Pennsylvania. I hope the steps we’re taking in Hazleton to defend ourselves will inspire others to become small town defenders.

Thank you for visiting Small Town Defenders! Be sure to visit our online petition page and let us know how you feel.

**This was a production of The Coalition Against Illegal Immigration (CAII). If you would like to participate, please go to the above link to learn more. Afterwards, email the coalition and let me know at what level you would like to participate.