Send Troops to the Border, Now

Putting a substantial number of U.S. troops on the border is long overdue. During the past decade on scores of occasions Mexican troops and police have crossed our border without permission. These armed violations of our sovereignty are properly a military concern.

And now with the spiraling violence south of the border, with the Mexican government pitted against well-armed drug cartels, the time is more ripe than ever to deploy troops to secure the border. In February, Texas Gov. Rick Perry called for the deployment of 1,000 troops or enforcement personnel. Said Perry, "I don't care if they are military, National Guard or customs agents. We're very concerned that the federal government is not funding border security adequately. We must be ready for any contingency."

Following Perry’s statement, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer requested the deployment of several hundred National Guard troops. She stated, “Arizona communities and citizens are negatively affected by the impacts of the illegal drug trade and related border violence, and enforcement agencies in all jurisdictions are stretched as they attempt to address the enormity of the problems.”

The Obama administration is aware of the situation on the border, but it is not certain how quickly and effectively it will act. Less than encouraging was Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano’s statement downplaying the extent of violence spilling over into the U.S. Contrary to what she suggested, the cartels have crossed the border and committed crimes. And if they do not see a sufficient deterrent, they will take that as green light to keep on committing crimes here, and more often.

Now is the time to act. Sending a sufficient force of troops, National Guard or regulars, will effectively send a message to all factions in Mexico. It will inform them that we are no longer accepting the status quo of a border out of control, leaving us wide open to illegal immigration, drug traffic, violence and armed incursions.

Sending troops in significant numbers, rather than just relying on civilian enforcement, coveys a level of seriousness that heretofore we have not sent. Rather than sit passively and allow chaos in Mexico to overtake us, we should act proactively to keep the situation under control. The cartels are well-armed with military equipment. We need soldiers on the border to make sure the criminals don’t have an edge in firepower.

President Obama recently affirmed his commitment to the war in Afghanistan. What’s happening south our border should claim at least his equal attention.

Americans Are Un-American, Says Nancy Pelosi

            President Obama met with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and assured them that he is still committed to their apparent racial agenda of rewarding illegal aliens (most of them Hispanics) with legal status and eventual citizenship.

            “The president made it clear to us that he is a man of his word,” said Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-NY), who chairs the Caucus. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) added, “The president said more than any of us expected him to say. He was clear, eloquent and determined in letting us know that we’re all together on the route to comprehensive immigration reform [i.e. amnesty].”

            When the charge for amnesty comes, one of the people certain to lead it is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). At a recent meeting in San Francisco, generally not reported by the media, Pelosi made it known where her heart and loyalties lie. Before an audience of legal and illegal immigrants, the House speaker proclaimed, “You are a very special people. You are here . . . to take responsibility for our country’s future. That makes you very very patriotic.”

            Pelosi expressed opposition to federal immigration raids to arrest illegal aliens. Repeating the standard propaganda line of the illegal alien lobby, Pelosi claimed that the raids split families, forcing parents to go home and leave their children in the U.S. She tried to make this situation sound typical. In any case, when separations occur, it is the illegal parent who splits the family, by not taking the kids back with him or her.

            In Ms. Pelosi’s estimate, it would seem, the majority of Americans are un-American. A recent Rasmussen poll found that 67 percent of her countrymen support surprise raids to identify and deport illegal immigrants. But in her mind, one must conclude, there is nothing “special” or “patriotic” about loyal, law-abiding American citizens. For her, some of the most special and patriotic people are foreigners who show contempt for our laws.

            When is the amnesty train coming down the tracks? It’s hard to say, but given the leaders we have in the White House and Congress it is definitely coming. As loyal Americans prepare to stop it, just as they did in 2006 and 2007, they should recall the truly insulting remarks of Speaker Pelosi.   

The Senate Votes Against E-Verify System

            It was bad enough that Congress did not require firms receiving stimulus money to use the E-Verify system, which enables employers to check the legal status of their employees by accessing federal data bases. As a consequence of that move, says recearcher Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation, as many as 15 percent of stimulus jobs will go to illegal aliens.

But even worse was the recent 50 to 47 vote in the Senate to let E-Verify end in six months, rather than extend it five years as Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) proposed. At a time when 11 million American are out of work, one would think that all of our senators would fully endorse E-Verify, now used voluntarily by a large and growing number of businesses which seek to comply with law against hiring illegal aliens.

Unfortunately, too many senators—and House members too—are in the thrall of lobbies such as the Chamber of Commerce and the National Council of La Raza (The Race), which view illegal immigration as a source of monetary or political gain.

The word from AIC sources in Washington is that threatening E-Verify with termination is part of a strategy hatched by amnesty advocates in Congress, mainly Democrats. Their plan, according to these sources, is threatening to let E-Verify expire if they do no get amnesty, or at least some other major concessions for illegal aliens.

This extortion must not succeed. In the words of columnist Patrick Buchanan, “[T]his battle is not over. If Americans understand that the [Nancy] Pelosi-[Harry] Reid Democrats have no problem with illegal aliens talking jobs from Americans, that party can be made to pay a heavy price in 2010.

“As of today, there exists a Republican-Blue Dog Democrat coalition in both Houses that is serious about putting our country and countrymen first. . . . E-Verify is not dead. For the Reid-Pelsoi-Obama Left cannot survive the perception that it is aiding and abetting illegal aliens in taking jobs of unemployed Americans.”

Below is the tally of how the Senate voted on the E-Verify. A Nay vote was for extending the system five years.       

Alphabetical by Senator Name

Akaka (D-HI), Yea Alexander (R-TN), Nay Barrasso (R-WY), Nay Baucus (D-MT), Nay Bayh (D-IN), Nay Begich (D-AK), Yea Bennet (D-CO), Yea Bennett (R-UT), Nay Bingaman (D-NM), Yea Bond (R-MO), Nay Boxer (D-CA), Yea Brown (D-OH), Yea Brownback (R-KS), Nay Bunning (R-KY), Nay Burr (R-NC), Nay Burris (D-IL), Yea Byrd (D-WV), Yea Cantwell (D-WA), Yea Cardin (D-MD), Yea Carper (D-DE), Yea Casey (D-PA), Yea Chambliss (R-GA), Nay Coburn (R-OK), Nay Cochran (R-MS), Nay Collins (R-ME), Nay Conrad (D-ND), Yea Corker (R-TN), Nay Cornyn (R-TX), Nay Crapo (R-ID), Nay DeMint (R-SC), Nay Dodd (D-CT), Yea Dorgan (D-ND), Yea Durbin (D-IL), Yea

Ensign (R-NV), Nay Enzi (R-WY), Nay Feingold (D-WI), Yea Feinstein (D-CA), Yea Gillibrand (D-NY), Yea Graham (R-SC), Nay Grassley (R-IA), Nay Gregg (R-NH), Nay Hagan (D-NC), Yea Harkin (D-IA), Yea Hatch (R-UT), Nay Hutchison (R-TX), Nay Inhofe (R-OK), Nay Inouye (D-HI), Yea Isakson (R-GA), Nay Johanns (R-NE), Not Voting Johnson (D-SD), Yea Kaufman (D-DE), Yea Kennedy (D-MA), Not Voting Kerry (D-MA), Yea Klobuchar (D-MN), Nay Kohl (D-WI), Yea Kyl (R-AZ), Nay Landrieu (D-LA), Yea Lautenberg (D-NJ), Yea Leahy (D-VT), Yea Levin (D-MI), Yea Lieberman (ID-CT), Yea Lincoln (D-AR), Yea Lugar (R-IN), Nay Martinez (R-FL), Nay McCain (R-AZ), Nay McCaskill (D-MO), Nay

McConnell (R-KY), Nay Menendez (D-NJ), Yea Merkley (D-OR), Yea Mikulski (D-MD), Yea Murkowski (R-AK), Nay Murray (D-WA), Yea Nelson (D-FL), Yea Nelson (D-NE), Nay Pryor (D-AR), Yea Reed (D-RI), Yea Reid (D-NV), Yea Risch (R-ID), Nay Roberts (R-KS), Nay Rockefeller (D-WV), Yea Sanders (I-VT), Yea Schumer (D-NY), Yea Sessions (R-AL), Nay Shaheen (D-NH), Yea Shelby (R-AL), Nay Snowe (R-ME), Nay Specter (R-PA), Nay Stabenow (D-MI), Yea Tester (D-MT), Nay Thune (R-SD), Nay Udall (D-CO), Yea Udall (D-NM), Yea Vitter (R-LA), Nay Voinovich (R-OH), Nay Warner (D-VA), Yea Webb (D-VA), Nay Whitehouse (D-RI), Yea Wicker (R-MS), Nay Wyden (D-OR), Yea

La Raza (The Race) Slated for Taxpayers’ Money

Rep. Steve King (R-IA) has pointed out an outrageous situation. To appreciate the outrage, let’s consider a hypothetical situation: Let’s imagine that the House of Representatives passed an “earmark” to provide $950,000 to the Ku Klux Klan. Of course this would cause a great uproar, and people would demand why a supremacist group should be getting public money.

Now let’s imagine that the Klan’s Grand Wizard tries to justify the expenditure in the following manner. He states, “The money we receive will not go to our main organization, but to the Klan Development Fund, which helps people with housing and community development.” Would that explanation make the public less upset? Certainly not. Critics would reply that any money going to the Klan, even if it were limited to beneficial purposes, would work to promote the overall prestige and influence of the organization.

With that thought in mind, let’s consider what really happened. The House did indeed pass a $950,000 earmark, not for the Klan, but for the National Council of La Raza (The Race). La Raza is a well-heeled Hispanic group that consistently advocates benefits for illegal aliens, including amnesty, and opposes any effective steps to curtail illegal immigration. The transparent purpose of this encouragement of lawbreaking is to increase the political clout and power of “the race” at the expense of other groups. Given its Latino supremacist character, some have referred to La Raza as the “Tan Klan.”

A spokesman for the organization defended the earmark saying that it would go to its subsidiary group, the Raza Development Fund, for housing and community development. And that doesn’t benefit the whole organization? If the government wants to assist people with housing and other matters, let the work be done through a public agency, not a private outfit pursuing highly questionable goals. As Rep. King so rightly observed, “[T]he last thing Congress should be doing is handing out cash to apologists for immigration lawbreakers. American taxpayers do not support La Raza’s agenda or its position in support of amnesty for illegal aliens.”

If La Raza receives this federal money, it certainly won’t be the first time. For years it has received a steady stream of federal grants. And it’s not as if La Raza is poor and needy. The group has many deep-pocket contributors, most notably the Ford Foundation. If these private sources wish to fund La Raza and thereby promote its agenda, they have that right. But the “Tan Klan” has no right to take money from the many taxpayers who abhor what it stands for.

Ending public funding for La Raza and similar groups has been a goal of Americans for Immigration Control for some time. We will continue to raise this issue in Washington.      

      Illegal Aliens to Get Mortgage Assistance

Illegal alien homeowners can apply for mortgage relief under President Obama’s $275 billion mortgage assistance plan. This is the word from SaveMyHomeUSA, a group working with the government to help homeowners modify home loans they are having trouble repaying.

Said Chad Buchanan, a manager of that group, in an interview with WorldNet Daily (2/24/09), “We don’t target or go after illegal immigrant customers. But if an illegal immigrant owns a home legally, we could try to help them under our program.” He added, “A lot of mortgage modifiers out there never ask about the legal immigration status of the homeowner, and we do not ask either. This is the first time I’ve had that question asked. All we are looking to do is to modify the current note, regardless what the legal status of the client is.”

According to the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), approximately one million households in the U.S. headed by illegal aliens had acquired mortgages, as of 2007. A spokesman for CIS noted that “in most cases” mortgage lenders accepted that the taxpayer ID or the Mexican Matricula Consular card that illegal aliens often use to conduct business.

In point of fact, prior to the collapse of the housing bubble, numerous lenders and realtors encouraged illegal aliens and other “subprime” candidates to take out home loans they probably couldn’t pay back. This irresponsible behavior, both on the part of lenders and borrowers, played a significant role in creating the economic downturn we suffer today.

Now the Obama Administration is going subsidize the illegal aliens who broke our laws to come here and decided to live beyond their means. As another spokesman for SaveMyHomeUSA observed, “[The government] has provided millions of dollars to help people save their homes from foreclosure.” Those people who are American citizens, thanks to the largess to illegal aliens, will have to get by with less help than they otherwise could have had.

Also assisting illegals in the president’s stimulus bill is no requirement for companies receiving stimulus funds to use the E-Verify program. It enables employers to check federal data bases to determine the legal status of their newly hired employees. Without E-Verify, estimates researcher Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation, illegal liens could take as many as 300,000 of the construction jobs created by the stimulus.

Presdent Obama promised “change we need,” but with respect to illegal immigrants, he’s just offering more of the status quo: rewards for lawbreakers and second class citizenship for citizens.