Texas Sheriffs Seek Funds From Feds Over Border

From the Washington Times:

A coalition of Texas border sheriffs will testify at Capitol Hill hearings this week that illegal immigration and drug smuggling have sent law-enforcement costs soaring and exposed their deputies and communities to escalating violence.

Overwhelmed by a flood of illegal aliens, drug smugglers and rapidly increasing violence, the Texas Border Sheriff’s Coalition — which includes all the sheriffs from Texas’ 16 border counties — want the federal government to help them pay for manpower increases, rising fuel bills, vehicles and equipment.

“If anything happens along the border areas, we’re the first ones to respond, and it’s the local taxpayers who are footing the bills for the federal government’s inability to control the area,� said Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez.

Sheriff Gonzalez, who heads the coalition, has argued that the federal government’s failure to control illegal immigration and drug smuggling and to curtail growing violence along the 1,200-mile U.S.-Mexico border in Texas has forced county law-enforcement authorities into a “financial nightmare.�

“We have decided as a coalition to reach out to our fellow sheriffs in neighboring states to prove the issue is not about politics or a hidden agenda; it is about border security,� Mr. Glancey said. “You must have border security in order to have national security and homeland security.�

Don’t you think it is about time Congress did something about this problem? It is the federal Government’s job to protect our borders, and they need to do it NOW. Some police on the border has not worked and will not work. It is time to get the military on the border to secure it.

After we secure the border, we need to pass legislation that cut Illegal Aliens off from all taxpayer services and employment. We also need to stop recognizing children of illegal aliens born here as citizens; consider it the fruit of the poisonous tree. That will take care of the illegal flow into this country and encourage them to go back home.

Border Sheriff’s Fear For Their Children

Cross Posted From Jake at Freedom Folks

From The San Bernadino Sun

Sheriff’s deputies in Texas’ Hudspeth County have had bounties placed on their heads, and their families have been verbally threatened by men suspected of belonging to one of Mexico’s most dangerous drug cartels.

The deputies, some of whom testified last week before a House subcommittee in Washington, said they will not back down despite the threats by smugglers over enforcement actions along the border.

“We’ve placed guards at the schools for the children of the deputies just for precaution,� said Sheriff Arvin West.

“These men didn’t just threaten our deputies, but their wives and children,â€? he said. There is no doubt in my mind that the cartels have bought off Mexican military and government officials. Now they’re trying to scare us. – It’s not going to happen.â€?

Good on ya mate! But why in all that is holy are these brave folks facing this alone?

West said informants who have spoken to him from the Mexican side of the border said deputies have bounties on them as high as $100,000.

Three weeks ago, Texas Department of Public Safety troopers and Hudspeth County deputies took photographs and videotaped an armed standoff with men dressed in Mexican military uniforms assisting drug smugglers across the Rio Grande.

“They certainly aren’t happy with the truth coming out,� West said. “But we’re going to stay here, and they’re not going to intimidate us from doing our jobs.�

Again, I like the pluck. Spoken like a true American, but why are these folks standing alone?

One deputy, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said his wife was approached by men who told her to keep her husband away from the Rio Grande or “they would pay a high price.�

The Rio Grande, which is now only 200 yards wide and only three to five feet deep there, is easily crossed by drug smugglers bringing narcotics into the United States.

At the home of another deputy, the stakes got much higher, West said.

Suspected drug runners not only warned the deputy’s wife but informed her that they knew when, where and at what time her young children attended school.

I repeat…

“All we can do is hope and pray nothing happens,� West said. “I hope they listen to us and put more manpower down here and stick to their guns. If this was happening in downtown Chicago or Washington, D.C., I don’t think the federal government would hesitate to protect the city I don’t know why they’ve just ignored us.�

I think he’s absolutely right!

President Bush, I’m sorry that some American businesses will be hurt when the border closes, but let’s stop pretending that we have a relationship with our Southern neighbor. We don’t. We have an unstable source of danger. We have a nation where drug money controls things and that’s dangerous to us and them.

Most of all let’s not pretend that the Mexican government is in charge of things south of the border cuz they ain’t. The drug cartels are too rich, too powerful and too ruthless and they are too arrogant to take our efforts at controlling the border as anything but a declaration of war. I’m reminded of Tom Clancy’s ‘Clear and Present Danger’. Which if you’ve never read it deals with a drug cartel declaring war on America. Mr. Clancy has a pretty good track record when it comes to predicting the future. He did predict 9-11 after all.

There will be some violence, no way there won’t. We’ve let this situation simmer way too long. The only choice we have now is will we be pro-active or reactive.

Lives hang in the balance.

H/T Beyond Borders Blog

**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 me and let me know at what level you would like to participate.

Communist Party USA Immigrant Rights Action Packet

I thought you might like to know what the Communist Party of the USA thinks about illegal immigration.

Below are important sample materials that can help move the struggle
for immigrant rights forward. The Senate debate is expected in
February. Many grass roots organizations are beginning to move. As
mentioned in earlier memos we urge the Districts, clubs, activists to
raise the issues with their Senators and especially any that are
members of the Judiciary Committee. The materials can be adapted to
your local situation by coalitions or grass roots groups and/or used by
clubs as they are. (PDF versions of flyer and petition are attached.)

1. ENGLISH & SPANISH VERSIONS OF FLYER AND PETITION:

Defeat Anti-Immigrant HR 4437: A Statement by the Communist Party, USA

Last December, the House of Representatives passed anti-immigrant HR 4437, introduced by GOP Rep. James Sensenbrenner (Wis.).

• It would make all undocumented workers felons, as well as those
who help or work with them including teachers, clergy, union leaders,
social workers and family members.
• Employers would have to check the Social Security numbers of all their employees.

• An environmentally destructive wall would be built along the Mexican border.

• Local and state police would be deputized to arrest anyone they think
may be without documents. This would vastly increase racial profiling
and scare immigrants away from reporting crimes.

This is no solution! It is another way of diminishing the democratic
rights of the people in our country. HR 4437 must be defeated in the
Senate. Just and workable immigration reform should be passed instead.

What are the reasons for immigration?

Increased immigration is the result of the declining living standards
and job displacement caused by NAFTA and other pro-big-business
policies pushed by our government. To provide a better future for their
families, immigrants are pushed and pulled to come here, at great cost
and risk, to live without papers and suffer great indignities. This
puts immigrant workers in a vulnerable position and forces them into
substandard wages and working conditions. Employers and others use the
immigrants’ vulnerability as a lever to lower living standards and
quality of life for all.

Don’t buy the big lie.

Immigrants are accused of causing every social problem, and especially
of taking jobs and services they are not entitled to. This is not true.

Working people as a whole, including immigrants, pay a larger share of
the tax burden than the rich and receive fewer benefits. The profits
made from the work of immigrants and all workers are being taxed less
and less and sometimes not at all.

Immigrants don’t fire or hire people. They do not outsource jobs,
downsize workplaces, raise prices or premiums. They are victims of big
business too. For more jobs and services, we need to tax exploitative
profits!

We need positive immigration reform.

History shows that as long as extremes of inequality exist between
countries, labor migration will continue. The pro-corporate policies of
our government that impoverish other nations must be changed.
Immigration law should protect the interests of both immigrant and
non-immigrant workers.

Organized labor and community and religious groups urge the following constructive program for immigration reform:

• Legalization with a clear path to citizenship must be allowed for
existing undocumented immigrants, and future immigrants, with a
priority on family reunification.
• Immigrants must be able to participate in labor, religious, civic and cultural activities without fear of deportation.

• “Guest worker� programs have historically been prone to exploitation.
Separate has never been equal. Instead, implement improved labor
protections and stronger enforcement for immigrants and citizen
workers.

Repressive policies like those proposed in HR 4437 must be rejected.
They are unjust and counterproductive, and make immigrant workers more
vulnerable to exploitation and other injustices.

Immigration policy is scheduled for debate in the Senate in February.
Contact and urge your senators today to reject HR 4437 and all
repressive anti-immigrant measures, and to vote for legalization of
immigrants with a clear path to citizenship and full labor and civil
rights for all people. Call the congressional switchboard: (202)
224-3121.

This is my answer to the Commies:

• Secure the border by any means necessary.
• Stiff penalties for employers, which are actually enforced
• No taxpayer funded programs for illegals or their families. (including school for children of illegals and medical care for any illegal)
• No “Anchor Babiesâ€? (no automatic citizenship for children of illegals born in the US)
• No path to Amnesty 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

Got it?

**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 me and let me know at what level you would like to participate.

U.S. gives Mexico millions for Border Security

From The Washington Times:

The U.S. government has sent more than $376 million to Mexico in the past decade for that country’s military and police to help stop alien and drug smugglers, guard against terrorists and protect America’s southern border, including $50 million due this year.

The money, quietly authorized through State and Defense department programs, has been used to train and equip the Mexican military and police, drawing disagreement on whether those institutions are part of the solution for U.S. border security, or are part of the problem.

What?? Are they kidding? Take that money and put it towards our Border Security and screw Mexico. Considering these stories:
More Mexican Border Incursions
Another Border Incursion by Armed Mexican Soldiers
Mexican Army Crossing the Border while Drug Cartels make Elaborate Tunnels
Armed standoff along U.S. border
Mexican Army Crossing U.S. Border

I think TJ Bonner, no relation, has it right.

T.J. Bonner, a veteran U.S. Border Patrol agent who heads the 10,000-member National Border Patrol Council, described the program as “appalling,� saying it amounted to the U.S. government funding attacks on U.S. law-enforcement personnel along the border by rogue Mexican military troops.

“This funding program should cease immediately, and the Mexican government needs to be placed on notice that any further incursions by its military or police will not be tolerated,� he said, referring to recent incidents on the border in which men in Mexican military uniforms confronted U.S. law-enforcement officers in this country.

“If they have this kind of money to give away, there are better ways to spend it,� Mr. Bonner said. “Mexico cannot control its own military, and it makes no sense to give them better weapons and equipment they can use to attack and threaten our own law-enforcement officers,� he said.

Mr. President, with all due respect, put the Military on the border!

**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 me and let me know at what level you would like to participate.

The Most Dangerous Gang in America

Illegal Immigration and Gangs are becoming one issue these days.

National Geographic Explorer is doing a report on MS-13 tonight at 8pm ET. Tune in!

MSNBC has a story on MS-13
Google MS-13

**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 me and let me know at what level you would like to participate.

Previous:
MS-13 gang growing extremely dangerous, FBI says
Illegal Immigration And Gangs

Parent Group Wants Elementary Schools to Teach Spanish

This is just ridiculous…

From the Sun Sentinel:

But the school district’s Parent Advisory Council wants to change that. It recently asked Superintendent Frank Till to explore adding Spanish to basic elementary lesson plans.

“It does a disservice to our children not to learn the language,� said Melissa Izquierdo, mother of two children at Virginia Shuman Young Elementary in Fort Lauderdale. “We need to face the realities of growing up in South Florida.�

Till called the idea “something we need to study,� particularly as more students enter the school system speaking a primary language other than English.

Each of Broward’s middle and high schools offer Spanish as an elective. But parents say they prefer that children learn it sooner.

“Even if it’s just conversational Spanish, it’s good to start when they’re little,� said Wendy Frank, parent of a sixth-grader at Sunrise Middle in Fort Lauderdale. “If you’re first getting the basics in high school, it’s extremely foreign.�

Ya know, I now have to add to my illegal immigration reform that English be made the official language of the United States of America. Heck there are other countries making english their official language so why can’t we do it?

Public Schools have a hard enough time teaching the basics, there is no reason to teach a foreign language. Not to mention I would refuse to allow my children to be taught spanish. The whole world runs on English and that is good enough for me. Foreign language studies should be left to college, and yes I know they teach them in High School and colleges require a foreign language class. They are WRONG, there is no practical reason for the average person to learn anything but English. I would rather they concentrated on teaching our students MASTERY of the English language than teaching another language. Here is an idea, teach all the Spanish speakers English! Nah, that makes too much sense.

Maybe Public Schools should be ala carte! If you want your kid to learn something, you have to pay for it! I bet there wouldn’t be too many foreign language courses being paid for by the parents. Yet they are paying for it now whether they want it or not.

**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 me and let me know at what level you would like to participate.

Schools Discuss Hiring Illegal Immigrants

From KTEN News:

A heated debate has sprung up in the Dallas school district and could soon sweep through the rest of North Texas. A school board member has proposed a controversial way to fill the growing void for bilingual teachers.

The Dallas school board needs to hire about 400 more bilingual educators. The Denison Independent School District has also struggled to find certified bilingual teachers, but would they consider hiring illegal immigrants? That’s exactly what a Dallas school board member suggested.

Right now, federal law prohibits hiring undocumented immigrants. If a school district breaks the law a six month jail sentence could follow. In just over a decade the Hispanic populaton has risen nearly 10 percent and recruiters say it’s getting harder to find qualified teachers.

Still, local educators feel the idea is out of the question.

This is what the idiotic concept of bilingual education has gotten us. ALL children should be made to learn English first, and take all classes in English. The cost to us, the taxpayers, is too high. Books in different languages cost money, as do teachers that speak it.

Now to get specific, illegal aliens and their children have no right to a free education on our country; or shouldn’t. They are citizens of Mexico, and are not U.S. citizens. That makes their education Mexico’s problem, not ours. Now schools are considering hiring illegal aliens to teach in our schools?? When are people in this country going to say enough, is enough?

People, we have got to put an end to this once and for all.

**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 me and let me know at what level you would like to participate.

Illegal Immigrants Get Home Loans!

From Sign On San Diego:

A major U.S. bank has funded its first home loans to undocumented Mexican immigrants in San Diego County in a move that targets a lucrative, wide-open market while providing new grist for the debate over illegal immigration.

The local program, which uses tax identification numbers instead of Social Security numbers, is similar to programs run by small lenders – and two state agencies – around the country that have distributed millions of dollars to undocumented immigrants over the past few years.

“There is a huge untapped market out there, but it is a controversial program,� said Sarah Lumbert, office director of San Diego’s ACORN Housing Corp., part of a national group working with Citibank to provide tax-ID loans.

ACORN members, advocates on housing issues for low-and moderate-income people and Citibank have quietly recruited applicants in the county for more than a year. Their program has ramped up slowly because applicants need to establish credit and hunt for an affordable home.

But the market is vast and the level of interest in the program is high, especially since the loans typically offer below-market interest rates, down-payment assistance and require no mortgage insurance.

Wells Fargo recently seized on the market, joining Citibank as the only nationwide banks offering tax-ID loans. Wells Fargo started its pilot tax-ID loan program in Los Angeles and Orange counties in December.

Chuck Lemoine, a Wells Fargo senior vice president, said providing tax-ID loans is legal and that reaching out “is not only the right thing to do, it’s good business.�

So they are here illegally, and banks think it is not only legal, but good business, to give home loans to people in this country illegally? Let us not talk about the ethical problems with this, but the business side is questionable. What happens if they get deported? I hope they realize our tax dollars won’t go to help bail them out; or at least I hope not. What happens if the new immigration reform bill passes getting tough on employers? I foresee illegals out of work, so how will they pay a mortgage? I think we should call and let our elected cockroaches know they need to amend any immigration bill to include making giving loans to those in this country illegal, illegal.

**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 me and let me know at what level you would like to participate.

Another Border Incursion by Armed Mexican Soldiers

February 2, 2006 – Just a week after the Mexican government announced that they were ordering their military to stay two kilometers from the U.S.-Mexico border in the wake of an armed standoff between U.S. and Texas law enforcement and Mexican soldiers guarding a drug smuggling operation on U.S. soil in Hudspeth County, heavily armed Mexican soldiers were observed yet again on U.S. soil at the same location on Tuesday.

The soldiers were seen by a news crew from KFOX-TV and a Hudspeth County sheriff’s deputy. KFOX describes the incursion in a report on their website:

The latest incident happened just before sunset on Tuesday night, as a KFOX crew was on the scene. As a Hudspeth County sheriff’s deputy was describing what happened during a reported incursion last week – suddenly one ’soldier’ emerged from the brush on the Mexican side of the border and darted back under cover. Moments later though, two other men who appeared to be soldiers marched across a clearing, in plan view. Shortly after that, the Deputy spotted soldiers who were well hidden and out of camera range crossing into the United States – attempting to flank the Deputy and the news crew.

According to the Deputy “They are doing the classic thing, flanking around each side of us and actually coming up into the U.S. and trying to figure out what we are doing, they are looking at us very heavily.�

Reporter Ben Swann replied, “So I guess it’s time to go.� The Deputy responded “Yeah, it would definitely be time to get out of here.�

The U.S. Border Patrol reports that they were contacted by Mexican authorities who admitted the men were Mexican soldiers.

Well there you have it, Mexico admits it; so what’s their excuse?

“Mexican officials got in touch with our Mexican liaison unit to advise us that they had requested the assistance of the Mexican military and that they were down in Hudspeth County.�

Well, that seems reasonable doesn’t it?

But he tells us this contact only occurred after the Mexican soldiers had been spotted by the Sheriff’s Deputy.

Whoops! This sort of sounds like they are covering their ass doesn’t it?

Wednesday afternoon, the Mexican Consulate released a statement saying the heavily armed men were not Mexican Soldiers, but were State Police, investigating last week’s smuggling incident. Consulate officials say the men will be in the area for the next several days.

Excuse me? First they were Mexican soldiers responding to a call for assistance, and now they were Mexican state police? I guess the first guy messed up when he panicked huh?

This comes on the heals of an interview I just saw with a gentlemen who wrote a book explaining how countries south of the border find us vulnerable to an attack right now. They are considering an invasion since most of our military is over in the middle east right now.

I don’t know if his book has any validity or not, but it sure is a valid military assessment. The Mexican army has made numerous incursions into the U.S. and we have done nothing about it. What if they are feeling us out? How long would it take Washington to learn of an invasion by an army from the south? How far could they get before Washington even dispatched the military? How long would it take to mobilize the military effectively?

This puts the reasoning of our Founding Fathers into perspective when it comes to the Second Amendment, doesn’t it? This is one of the exact scenarios they envisioned; the U.S. being invaded. We the people are the militia, and the first line of defense. To all you people along the border that do not own firearms, I say shame on you for not doing your part to protect this country.

Chris Simcox, President of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, issued the following statement on the incident:

“With this latest armed incursion, the government of Mexico once again has demonstrated their contempt for the United States. It is disgraceful that American citizens, including law enforcement, live under the threat of a foreign army that enters our country at will.

“The House of Representatives has passed a bill (H.R. 4437) that is a first step toward securing our borders. The Senate needs to follow the House’s lead and pass strong legislation that will immediately secure our borders without getting bogged down on debating so-called guest worker programs. The safety of our nation and its citizens must not be secondary to lobbying by special interest groups.

“The Minutemen are not alone in urging the Senate to defend our borders. For too long the government has turned a deaf ear to the cries for help from those of us who live in daily terror from armed invasions on our southern border.

“It took the murder of 3,000 Americans on American soil for the government to take international terrorism seriously. With the Mexican army, drug smugglers, human traffickers and terrorists able to cross our borders with impunity, it seems that only the mass murder of Americans living on our border will cause the government to take decisive action to secure our borders.�

Are they right, will it take our border enforcement officers getting slaughtered on the border before we do anything about this problem? I say enough is enough, it is time to put the military on the border.

Here is another question; are the 9-11 million illegal Mexicans in this country a sleeper army? Paranoid, maybe; or maybe not…

**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 me and let me know at what level you would like to participate.

Previous:
Mexican Army Crossing the Border while Drug Cartels make Elaborate Tunnels
Armed standoff along U.S. border
Mexican Army Crossing U.S. Border

More Mexican Border Incursions

Yet another reported incident of Mexico violating our sovereignty!

From The Arizona Republic:

ARIVACA R.D. Ayers remembers hearing the heavy whirl and chop of helicopter blades cutting through the sky above the Tres Bellotas Ranch, a sprawling swath of oak trees and barberry brush right on the U.S.-Mexican border.

Even from inside the ranch house, Ayers could tell it must be a big helicopter. He headed outside, thinking it might be U.S. customs, maybe a drug bust.

Instead, Ayers walked right into a group of armed, masked men speaking Spanish and dressed like agents from the Federal Investigative Agency, Mexico’s FBI.

The encounter on U.S. soil would be investigated by the FBI, U.S. Border Patrol and Mexican authorities, one of the latest in a long list of suspected incursions from Mexico into U.S. border states.

After long downplaying the number of incursions along the Southwestern border, top Border Patrol officials now acknowledge such incidents are all too common. Over the past decade, the Department of Homeland Security has reported 231 incursions along the border, including 63 in Arizona. Homeland Security defines an incursion as an unauthorized crossing by Mexican military or police, or suspected drug or people smugglers dressed in uniforms.

Illegal immigration and border security are all tied up together people. This has got to stop before something real bad happens. What would we have done if that American Citizen was shot by those Mexican officers? What would have happened if that citizen opened fire on a bunch of armed masked men on his property? I would have I am telling you right now.

If our government does not defend our borders than I say, we the people will have to do it ourselves. To all those calling the minutemen vigilantes, shame on you. For those that say it is not a citizens place to enforce our laws or protect our borders I say, educate yourself sheeple! The government works for us! The government gets its authority from the people, so therefor, anything the government can do in this country, so can we the people.

I am beyond feed up with all the idiotic rhetoric surrounding this topic. Illegal aliens can suck it up, or get the heck out of my country. No, just get the heck out of my country! Mexico obviously needs a refresher in history, namely getting its butt kicked by America, yet again. We have got to stop being so wussy, PC in this country, it is time to toughen up before it is too late.

**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 me and let me know at what level you would like to participate.

Previous:
Another Border Incursion by Armed Mexican Soldiers
Mexican Army Crossing the Border while Drug Cartels make Elaborate Tunnels
Armed standoff along U.S. border
Mexican Army Crossing U.S. Border

Feds find weapons cache near Mexican border

Cross Posted from Freedom Folks:

(CNN)

A federal task force seized arsenals of illegal weapons and homemade bombs in Laredo, Texas, in connection with a Mexican drug trafficking battle, authorities said Friday.

The feds captured more than 30 homemade bombs, grenade components, assault weapons, silencers, machine gun assembly kits, bulletproof vests, police scanners and cash, Julie Myers, assistant secretary of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said in a statement.

Two of the bombs had been completed and others were under assembly, said officials from the task force that involved Immigration and Customs Enforcement, FBI, local authorities and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Authorities said they suspect last month’s three seizures in Laredo are associated with the warring Mexican drug cartels called the Federation and the Gulf Cartel.

Officials said they found the weapons in homes during January 12, 26 and 27 searches.

U.S. authorities have said they increasingly fear violence in Mexico will spill over into the United States.

About 170 deaths have been attributed to the cartel battles in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, in the past year, officials said. Nuevo Laredo is across the Rio Grande from Laredo.

The cartels have told us in no uncertain terms that they plan to bring this war home to us. Why won’t we believe them?

H/T Michelle Malkin

**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 me and let me know at what level you would like to participate.

Immigrant Groups Try to Convince Us Not To be Tough on Illegal Immigrants

I thought we would like to take a look into what illegal aliens think about the movement to stop it, and remove them from our country.

From Indy Bay titled No Soy Criminal:

Anti-immigrant legislation inspired by the “Minutemen� is passed by the House of Representatives. San Francisco passes an ordinance condemning it

I have been in the Estados Unidos for nine years. Everyday i wake up at 5:00 am and take two buses and a train across town to my job at a Chinese restaurant. Everyday I stand on my feet for twelve hours washing dishes for $6.00 per hour. Everyday as my hands swim through the soap and grease, my mind runs through the rios y playas I used to see in my country. Rios y playas that tourists spend thousands of dollars traveling to see.

Every night I get back on two buses and a train and return to my room. Every night I dream of going home. I am a hard worker. Sometimes I am a dreamer. I am not a criminal. No soy criminal

My POOR Magazine editor told me about a proposed law called “Border Protection, Anti-Terrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act� –HR 4437.

On December 16, 2005, the US House of Representatives passed HR 4437, which, among other things, proposes to turn undocumented immigrants like me who live in the US into aggravated felons. It would also criminalize US citizens and legal residents who have routine contact with undocumented immigrants, require day laborer centers and other non-profit organizations to verify workers’ immigration status, gut judicial review of immigration courts; to make detention of immigrants mandatory; and give the government unfettered discretion to designate individuals as gang members and make immigrants deportable as members of supposed gangs even if they have never violated the law.

Ever since the rise of “the minutemen� in the US there has been a nation-wide trend towards targeting Latino immigrants. Living in the Bay Area I am blessed by a conscious citizenry who is not willing to go along with this new brand of fascism. My friends living elsewhere are not so lucky. Last week a friend of mine living in Arizona ( where the “minutemen� are from) was followed down the street by two men in a truck. They called him names and threw rocks at him and told him to “go home�. The funny thing is he and parents were born in Arizona

Last week the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a resolution condemning the Minutemen vigilantes and the “Border Protection, Anti-Terrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act� –HR 4437—and committed to a non-compliance of its provisions.

“This Resolution should send a clear message to Washington that our day laborer center will never verify workers’ papers, and that San Francisco will never allow its Police Department to start arresting people who are suspected of being immigrants,� states Luis Herrera, of St Peter’s Housing Rights Committee a member of the immigrant rights coalition “Deporten a La Migra.�

“Immigrant communities in San Francisco are organizing to defeat this egregious proposal. We will go to jail before we turn anyone in,� states Renee Saucedo of the San Francisco Day Labor Program.

HR 4437 is expected to reach the US Senate for debate beginning in late February or early March. I hope for my sake and the safety of thousands of other hard-working migrant raza and Latino Americans that this racist bill is defeated.

Action Alert: Call-In week opposing the Sensenbrenner bill: Monday, February 6 to Friday, February 10

Well, I think we should call in during that week as well, so pass the word.
Contact your Senators

If they don’t like HR 4437 I sure like it! So, vaya con Dios; but vaya.

**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 me and let me know at what level you would like to participate.

More centers to help Illegal Aliens

From NY Newsday:

Spurred in part by a record wave of newcomers, the number of community centers that help immigrant workers defend their rights has soared from five in 1992 to at least 140 today, according to a nationwide study released yesterday.

She identified 140 centers nationwide not only in traditional immigrant gateways such as New York but also rural regions where large-scale immigration is a new phenomenon. She said the actual number is probably three or four times that since many operate “under the radar screen.� She estimated the centers serve about 3 million workers, many of them undocumented immigrants.

Amy Sugimori, an attorney at the Manhattan-based National Employment Law Project, said legislation passed by the House of Representatives and co-sponsored by Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford) would criminalize assistance to undocumented immigrants and force many of the centers to shut. King has denied that, but says he is willing to change the legislation’s language to appease the groups.

Yup, and that is exactly what we want to happen. Stop helping people violate our laws and sovereignty! Look at all this coming out now that a bill that is only marginally tough on Illegals is close to being passed? You all better keep bugging your Senators because they are still going to try and slip in a guest worker program in the Senate.

**This was a production of The Coalition Against Illegal Immigration (CAII). If you would like to participate please go to The Uncooperative Blogger or Freedom Folks and email us. We will add you to the blogroll, and send you the rest of the info you will need.