Tag Archives: Immigration

News

Obama threatens legal action over Arizona’s immigration enforcement law

2 Comments

The Arizona legislature just passed a law to enforce immigration laws.

Excerpt:

The measure – set to take effect in late July or early August – would make it a crime under state law to be in the U.S. illegally. It directs state and local police to question people about their immigration status if there is reason to suspect they are illegal.

[…]Currently, many U.S. police departments do not ask about people’s immigration status unless they have run afoul of the law in some other way. Many departments say stopping and questioning people will only discourage immigrants from cooperating to solve crimes.

Under the new Arizona law, immigrants unable to produce documents showing they are allowed to be in the U.S. could be arrested, jailed for up to six months and fined $2,500. That is a significant escalation of the typical federal punishment for being here illegally – deportation.

People arrested by Arizona police would be turned over to federal immigration officers. Opponents said the federal government could thwart the law by refusing to accept them.

Supporters of the law said it is necessary to protect Arizonans from crimes committed by illegal immigrants. Arizona is home to an estimated 460,000 illegal immigrants and is the nation’s busiest gateway for people slipping into the country.

Republican Gov. Jan Brewer, who signed the bill on Friday, said Arizona must act because Washington has failed to stop the flow of illegal immigrants and drugs from Mexico. Brewer has ordered state officials to develop a training course for officers to learn what constitutes reasonable suspicion that someone is in the U.S. illegally.

[…]The law has strong public support in Arizona, where passions have been running high since a rancher was killed close to the Mexican border last month, apparently by drug smugglers from across the border.

And here is Obama’s response from the Associated Press. (H/T Hot Air)

Excerpt:

President Barack Obama criticized Arizona’s tough immigration bill as irresponsible Friday and said his administration is examining whether it would violate civil rights.

Obama said the federal government must act responsibly to reform national immigration law — or “open the door to irresponsibility by others.”

“That includes, for example, the recent efforts in Arizona, which threaten to undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans, as well as the trust between police and their communities that is so crucial to keeping us safe,” Obama said.

If signed into law by Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, the legislation would require police to question people about their immigration status if there’s reason to suspect they’re in the country illegally. Civil rights activists say such a law would lead to racial profiling and deter Hispanics from reporting crimes.

Obama instructed the Justice Department to examine the bill to see if it would violate civil rights.

Ed notes that Arizona passed this law because the feds dropped the ball on law enforcement.

Just to re-iterate, I am myself a visible minority, and I am in favor of increased legal immigration for skilled immigrants, and a path to citizenship for skilled immigrants who continue to work, pay taxes, avoid committing crimes, etc. for a period of a few years.

Videos

ACORN’s CEO Bertha Wilson explains why she favors amnesty

Leave a comment

A new video clip of Bertha Wilson, the CEO of ACORN. (H/T Verum Serum)

Here’s an excerpt from the transcript:

Immigration is the next big battle. Immigration, immigration, immigration. And the reason this is so important is, you know, here’s the secret [whispers]:

We’re getting ready to me a majority, minority country. Shhhh. [applause] We’ll be like South Africa. More black people than white people. [laughter] Don’t tell anybody.

[…]My challenge to black folks, and to people of color and civil rights folks, are as this: the face of immigration needs to be a lot blacker than it is. Because once they can frame the immigration debate as about Latinos, crossing some mythical border, when in fact we have second and third generation black folks in this country who come from immigrant families. But they’re not standing up and marching with their Latino brothers and sisters, and saying “I am an immigrant too”…

Morgen (from Verum Serum) writes:

As a country, we have a proud history of accepting immigrants from all over the world, and we are better off for it. But we do not have a “mythical border”. It is the responsibility of our government to maintain our territorial integrity, and as citizens – through our democratic institutions – we should proudly seek to defend the laws and traditions which have made this nation great. There is nothing inconsistent between this and a rational immigration policy, as evidenced by multiple generations of immigrants who have peacefully and successfully assimilated into our way of life. (While enjoying unparalleled freedom to continue to honor their cultural and religious traditions, however they desire.)

But we should have no tolerance for those who ignore our laws, and seek to undermine the values we hold most dear through subversive means. This is the socialist agenda for America, and this is the “progressive” agenda for America – and it must be defeated.

I find it interesting that Bertha Wilson seems to be so concerned with race. Why is race so important to people on the left? There’s a word for people who judge people by the color of their skin, like Bertha Wilson does. Come to think of it, lots of Obama’s friends (Jeremiah Wright, Father Pfleger, etc.) seem to have a fixation on skin color. What is it about the left that makes them judge people by their skin color? Maybe it has something to do with the need to gain power by pitting some groups against other groups, then offering government as a solution.

My thoughts

I am myself a very dark person of color, and a son of a first-generation immigrant family. My parents came to this country with virtually nothing, and we worked our way up. I am the first person in my family to attend graduate school (computer science). And at no point did my skin color ever hold me back from achieving success. What matters in the capitalist West is a person can produce, not what a person looks like. This is the best place for me to succeed.

Like almost all conservatives, I am in favor of increased legal immigration – provided that those immigrants work hard, play by the rules, and are ineligible for social programs for at least a decade. Any legal immigrant who can stick to these rules for a few years should be put on a path to citizenship. America should welcome those who have skills that benefit all of us. But we should not be rewarding illegal immigrants just because they have the “right” skin color.

ACORN and Obama

ACORN, you remember, is Barack Obama’s former employer. He trained them in community activism. He helped them to sue Citibank, so that the bank would be forced to make loans to people who could not afford homes. This was a major cause of our current recession. Bertha Wilson endorsed Barack Obama for president.

Related posts

News

Obama backs plan to put illegal immigrants on path to citizenship

1 Comment

Story from the Washington Times.

Excerpt:

President Obama gave a thumbs up Thursday to the outline of a plan to legalize illegal immigrants and create a flow of low-skilled foreign workers for the future, saying the immigration bill being worked on by a Republican and a Democrat is “promising.”

In their broad blueprint, Sens. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, and Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican, call for illegal immigrants to be put on a path to citizenship, offer green cards to keep high-skilled foreign university graduates and would create a temporary program for low-skilled workers, with some also getting the chance to become citizens.

And from CNS News, WH spokesman Gibbs won’t rule out “deeming” the amnesty bill as passed without an actual vote.