Senator Cornyn and the Arab Invasion

These days I'm working on an essay about U.S. Bill 4437, the very nasty anti-immigration bill that was passed in the Congress in late 2005.  

As the Republicans were preparing for their fight on the floor - they were holding press conferences and secret meetings.  One of the more interesting events was a press conference held by Senator Cornyn on November 21, 2005.  He told Human Events Online that he had found evidence of Al Qaeda's presence near Laredo, Texas.  

Must have been an exciting day for him.

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Human Events Online

November 21, 2005 Monday 5:09 PM EST

Exclusive Tex. Senator Shown Evidence of Arab Personal Effects at Mexican Border

Sen. John Cornyn (R.-Tex.), chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Citizen-ship, told HUMAN EVENTS he has seen anecdotal evidence of Arabic belongings--including juice boxes with Arabic writing and an image of a plane hitting a building--that were discovered in Larado, Tex., near the Mexican bor-der.Cornyn, one of the key players in the ongoing debate over immigration reform, said he learned of the discoveries when he was shown pictures of them by a government official.When asked why the White House wouldn't make such information publicly available--particularly in light of the threat of al Qaeda--Cornyn said it's a matter of intelligence...

link to photo

No Need to Hate

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From the Charlotte Observer
Posted on Thu, Jun. 05, 2008

This tide of meanness needs to stop

MARY SCHULKEN

“I don't see no Americans, I see trespassers, Irish harps doing a job for a nickel a nigger does for a dime and the white man used to get a quarter for.”

William “Bill the Butcher” Cutting, a hardcore nativist who had a bald eagle in his fake eye, ranks among the most vicious film villains of all time.

His character, portrayed stunningly by Daniel Day Lewis in the 2003 movie “Gangs of New York,” led the city's white gangs in battle in the early 19th century against their Irish counterparts.

The Butcher (http://www. youtube.com/watch?v=djU2b_E WuDE& feature=related) was skilled with sharp knives. He hated immigrants – especially the Irish – like cockroaches, and lived to smash them.

He made the “I don't see no Americans” comment to New York City's Boss Tweed as the two watched a shipload disembark on the city's busy waterfront.

Those words are made-up, of course. They were scripted for a character who was a man of his time – an era when the rule of law had not yet taken root in a young nation.

In its place, fear, bigotry and violence had melded in a lethal mixture.

“If only I had the guns, Mr. Tweed, I'd shoot every one of them before they set foot on American soil.”

Today's subtle bigotry

Such blunt menace would seem outrageous today.

Or would it?

Listen closely. The scapegoating aimed at illegal Hispanic immigrants in North Carolina right now may be more subtle, but it's no less fervent than the bigotry of Bill the Butcher. And it's just as dangerous and self-defeating.

“We have a destructive human tsunami headed our way,” said William Gheen of Americans for Legal Immigration, a political action committee based in Raleigh that pushes anti-immigrant legislation. “N.C. lawmakers must act now to protect American jobs, tax resources and lives. Our state must … batten down the hatches immediately.”

In Beaufort County, some 80 miles east of Raleigh, county commissioners asked the health and social services departments to count Spanish surnames to determine illegal immigrant clients. Commissioners want to cut off water service to households of illegal immigrants and scrap state and federally funded programs that cannot be closed to immigrants, such as health clinics and prenatal care for the poor.

“When you're a pregnant lady sitting there, that's a personal problem,” said commissioner Hood Richardson. “That's not a public problem.”

This tide of meanness needs to stop.

Don't let fear lead the way

An estimated 380,000 illegal immigrants live in North Carolina. It's true they broke the law to come here. It's true they put pressure on our publicly funded law enforcement, public schools and health care resources.

But they also perform jobs that are vital to our economy – and our communities. Most of those jobs are hard, dirty, repetitive and dangerous. That's why most of us don't want to do them.

Honestly? This change in our demographics is here, whether we want it or not. We need to take a deep breath and stop letting fear lead the way we respond politically and culturally.

“You can't fight forever,” Boss Tweed told Bill the Butcher.

“I can go down doing it,” the Butcher said.

“And you will,” Tweed replied.

And he did.

for link to article click here

thanks to PMBS for telling us about this article

We don't know how it feels to be undocumented

Undocumented people in Prince William County Virginia have seen their environment turn hateful. People are rude who were courteous a few months ago. The recent anti-immigration laws - and continuing xenophobic rhetoric are making it almost impossible for immigrants to live there.

There are very few people in the U.S. that live day by day wondering if ICE will come by. This is one of those situations that is impossible to imagine if you are not at risk yourself.


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The Frustration of Being Illegal
Prince William Political Climate Adds to Deportation Fear

By Marcela Sanchez
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, February 11, 2008; B05

Celia Llanes came to the United States 4 1/2 years ago with typical immigrant aspirations. She hoped to provide for her family, earn enough to buy a patch of land back home and perhaps take her girls to Disney World. Today, her wish is far simpler: that when she is deported her girls will be deported with her.

"I am waiting for immigration," she says with a matter-of-fact tone. She has begun sending some of her more valued belongings (such as a set of Royal Prestige pots she paid for in installments) to Guatemala because, she says, "they don't let you take anything."

As the anti-illegal-immigration backlash grew last year in Prince William County, where Llanes lives, the 32-year-old Manassas resident said she started to feel the world around her change. She said supermarket cashiers suddenly grew annoyed and acted as if they didn't understand her. She said her girls told her, "Mami, las maestras prefieren a los Americanos." ("The teachers prefer the Americans.")

Prince William county supervisors voted in October to enact some of the region's toughest policies against illegal immigrants, including the use of police to enforce immigration laws. Llanes says the new measures have become such a source of personal anxiety that she is convinced they are taking a toll on her health. She has sharp stomach pain apparently caused by gallstones, and her frequent headaches have gotten worse.

Llanes, her husband and their children don't venture far from home for fear of being stopped while driving without a license. In the summer, she did not take the girls to the neighborhood pool because she has heard of raids at public places. On Christmas, they only went to a brother-in-law's house nearby and did not stay long.

Llanes is resigned and, in a way, agrees with those anti-illegal-immigrant forces around her. As someone who entered the country illegally, she does not feel she is entitled to much.

"If they are going to take me away, let them; after all, this country is not ours," she often says.

These days, she most fears that she'll be alone when she is finally stopped and deported, just as she heard happened recently to a young man whose mother had sent him to buy shrimp at the local Global Food market. She can't bear the thought of leaving her girls behind. One separation "already cost me too much," she says.
Building a New Life

Llanes started her journey north in summer 2003. She left the girls in the care of a friend in Tecun Um¿n, near the Mexican border, telling them only that she was going to Mexico to visit one of her brothers in the hospital.

Indeed, her brother, who had been attacked by bandits with machetes in his first attempt to get to the United States, was a main incentive for Llanes to leave. She hoped to send him enough money so he could pay for a safer way north. She soon began also sending money, clothes and toys to the girls.

As daughter Yancy's fifth birthday was approaching, Llanes sent money for a cake. But it was that day, Oct. 4, 2005, when Hurricane Stan hit. Floods destroyed many homes and were responsible for the deaths of more than 1,500 people in Guatemala. Yancy later told her mother that she saw their few belongings -- and her cake -- floating away in the muddy waters.

It was then when Llanes and her husband decided to scrape together $12,000 to pay a smuggler to get the girls here.

At the time ages 3 through 11, the girls were arrested by U.S. authorities after crossing the border. Llanes left their youngest, born in Manassas, with her husband and boarded her first plane.

Two days before Thanksgiving 2005, Llanes sat nervously in a waiting room of an immigration office in Phoenix. Suddenly agents surrounded her, and one asked the girls, who had just walked in the room, if they knew who she was.

"They ran and hugged me saying 'mami,' " Llanes recalls through tears. It had been almost 2 1/2 years since she had seen them.
An Unfavorable Change

Llanes was allowed to stay with the girls in the country. At one point she consulted immigration advocates in Washington to explore their legal options but dropped the idea once she was told how much it would cost.

Despite "backbreaking" jobs, they've never had money to spare. On top of the political climate, they've been badly hurt economically. The housing crisis, which hit Prince William particularly hard, has meant much less work for construction workers such as Llanes's husband.

What's more, the four-bedroom brick rambler she and her family share with relatives is soon to be repossessed by the bank. A friend who bought it for nearly half a million dollars last year can no longer pay the mortgage.

Llanes, who had no education except for the few months at age 13 when a relative took her in and sent her to school, inculcates in the girls the importance of taking advantage of their opportunity to study and learn English. "I wish I [had] that opportunity," she tells them.

Llanes makes about $25 every weekday taking care of friends' children, and from Friday through Sunday earns $6.60 an hour making tacos. That money covers most of their food expenses, she says.

"With the situation as it is, I want to leave," she said.

She says her girls and the other children she cares for provide a welcome distraction. Still, she recalls a Spanish expression: "caras vemos, corazones no sabemos" (faces we see, hearts we don't know) to explain that she carries her share of anguish. Or as she put it, "only God knows how one is feeling inside."

for link to article click the title of this post

Having a Democratic President Better than a Driver's License for Undocumented Immigrants?

Photo by Ron Petroncelli. Fabian Nuñez and Don Perata



Democrats debating immigration will tell us where they really stand. Do they want to look more like Republicans on this issue? California Assembly Speaker, Fabian Nuñez made a statement that could make people cringe. He told the LA Times "I'd rather have a Democrat in the White House than get the driver's licenses passed."

Who says having a Democrat in the White House would make things better. Remember the 1996 anti-immigration laws passed during Clinton's tenure? It was here that in-state tuition was banned for DREAMERS.

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A fine line for Democrats on border issues

Some think the party can toughen its image on illegal immigration without straying from traditional positions.
By Peter Wallsten, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
November 11, 2007


WASHINGTON -- Top Democratic elected officials and strategists are engaged in an internal debate over toughening the party's image on illegal immigration, with some worried that Democrats' relatively welcoming stance makes them vulnerable to GOP attacks in the 2008 election.

...The internal debate has grown emotional in recent days, boiling over on Friday during a tense encounter on the House floor between Rep. Joe Baca (D-Rialto), chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.).

The caucus was upset because some House Democrats had backed a Republican measure protecting employers that impose certain English-only rules -- the latest in what Baca called a series of frustrations with the party leadership's approach to immigration.

"We're tired of people trying to scapegoat the immigrants or Hispanics as a platform," Baca said. "Republicans have done it, and Democrats have followed . . . because they're afraid they're going to lose their elections. But we got elected to represent all communities, not to vote based on whether we're going to get reelected."

...Compassion and justice for illegal immigrants ends when taxpayer interests begin," the group said.

Several Democrats said last week that Clinton's difficulty with the driver's license issue, which first arose at a candidates debate Oct. 30, illustrated the very struggle many in the party will face next year

..."As soon as I saw that come up at the debate, I thought, 'Oh, this is a bad issue for Democrats,' " said California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez (D-Los Angeles).

Nuñez added that he thought Democrats should pick their shots and probably avoid advocating driver's licenses for illegal immigrants.

"I'd rather have a Democrat in the White House than get the driver's licenses passed," he said.

peter.wallsten@latimes.com


For complete article: http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-na-immig11nov11,1,6588376.story

Photo: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2006/08/30/us/600_greenhouse.jpg