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If this suprises you, read prior story in this blog and also go to http://www.house.gov/mccaul/pdf/Investigaions-Border-Report.pdf
It isn't a question of whether or not Illegal Immigration is bad for our National Security because the proof is already here. Unless we control this and remove Illegals NOW, we will have a massive Fifth Column Group or groups within our borders which cares nothing about our way of life, our government, or you and your family.
-----------------------------------------------------
Lawmen under siege along Mexico border
By Jerry Seper
The Washington Times,
November 15, 2007
http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071115/NATION/111150077/1002
Alien and drug smugglers along the U.S.-Mexico border have spawned a rise in violence against federal, state and local law-enforcement authorities, who say they are outmanned and outgunned.
'They've got weapons, high-tech radios, computers, cell phones, Global Positioning Systems, spotters and can react faster than we are able to,' said Shawn P. Moran, a 10-year U.S. Border Patrol veteran who serves as vice president of the National Border Patrol Council Local 1613 in San Diego.
'And they have no hesitancy to attack the agents on the line, with anything from assault rifles and improvised Molotov cocktails to rocks, concrete slabs and bottles,' he said. 'There are so many agent 'rockings' that few are even reported anymore. If we wrote them all up, that's all we would be doing.'
Assaults against Border Patrol agents have more than doubled over the past two years, many by Mexico-based alien and drug gangs more inclined than ever to use violence as a means of ensuring success in the smuggling of people and contraband.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff acknowledges that although the department has begun to make progress against 'the criminals and thugs' operating along the U.S.-Mexico border, 'we are beginning to see more violence in some border communities and against our Border Patrol agents as these traffickers ... seek to protect their turf.
'We must provide the manpower and resources they need to carry out their duties, and we are working hard to make sure they get them,' Mr. Chertoff said during a speech in Houston this month.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the investigative arm of Homeland Security, stated in a report earlier this year that border gangs were becoming increasingly ruthless — targeting rivals, along with federal, state and local police. ICE described violence on the border as rising dramatically over the past three years in what it called 'an unprecedented surge.'
But many agents think they are viewed as 'expendable' by the managers within Homeland Security and the Border Patrol. They say that while the number of agents overall has increased dramatically over the past year, the actual number of line agents has not seen a corresponding jump.
Several noted that one six-mile section of border near San Diego, regarded as one of the most dangerous alien- and drug-smuggling corridors in the country, previously was assigned as many as 50 agents, but has been expanded to 13 miles and has one agent posted for each mile.
'That kind of situation is becoming increasingly common,' Mr. Moran said. 'The status quo is unacceptable. Agents are being assaulted four to five times per shift. Ironically, the region has often been touted as the cornerstone of Operation Gatekeeper. Well, the cornerstone is crumbling and if changes don't happen soon, we will lose an agent.'
Operation Gatekeeper was a Clinton-era security initiative that put 300 agents on the U.S.-Mexico border near San Diego, along with more fencing and lighting. It was based on a similar program in El Paso, Texas, where agents were stationed within sight of one another at main crossing points in order to form a human wall.
'Where are all these new agents they say they're hiring?' Mr. Moran asked. 'It's hard to believe that Mr. Chertoff means it when he says his job is to provide the manpower and resources the agents need to carry out their duties, to give them the means to protect themselves against violence from criminal traffickers.'
Mr. Moran noted that many agents are being assigned to 'non-border activities,' including jobs at Border Patrol headquarters in Washington. He said the agency's headquarters soon may be the largest regional office in the entire Border Patrol, 'assigned the task of telling the public what a good job we're doing.'
Several agents noted that many of the alien- and drug-smuggling gangs targeting law-enforcement authorities are doing so with sophisticated weaponry. They noted that in February, an ICE-led task force seized two completed improvised explosive devices, materials for making 33 more devices, 300 primers, 1,280 rounds of ammunition, five grenades, nine pipes with end caps, 26 grenade triggers, 31 grenade spoons, 40 grenade pins, 19 black powder casings, a silencer and cash during raids in Laredo, Texas.
'Keeping explosives and other high-powered weaponry out of the hands of violent criminal organizations is a central focus of the new Border Enforcement Security Task Force in Laredo,' Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Julie L. Myers, who heads ICE, said in announcing the seizures. 'ICE is working day and night with its task force partners to stem the tide of violence that has been ravaging border communities in south Texas.'
--------------------------------------------
So, watch this story and realize that until many Border Patrol, ICE, and our other Law Enforcement Officers are killed will any Liberal Left Media pick this story up, and I will bet they blame this on not making Mexico a State.
Close the border, arm our guys with better firepower and the option to shoot first.
Showing posts with label Issues. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Issues. Show all posts
Thursday, November 15, 2007
But the Democrats said it first?!?!?
So as you read the following article, you will see the L.A. Times decry Tom Tancredo for saying we have Muslim Radicals in our country, but I will show you where he got his information, and it was from the Democrats.
Maybe someday the Liberal Left Media will actually report the truth...
-----------------------------------------------------
Tancredo campaign ad sets off bomb
By James Rainey
Los Angeles Times,
November 13, 2007
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/la-na-tancredo13nov13,1,4500509.story
Republican presidential candidate Tom Tancredo on Monday unveiled a television ad depicting a hooded terrorist detonating a bomb inside a shopping mall, a message the Colorado congressman said he hoped would vault illegal immigration to its rightful place at the center of the campaign.
Critics accused Tancredo of fear-mongering.
The 30-second spot, which began airing on cable television in Iowa, casts Tancredo as the only candidate brave enough to buck political convention and discuss the true threat of immigration -- terrorists crossing into the U.S. To view the ad, click here. http://teamtancredo.org/
It ends with the image of a backpack abandoned in a crowded mall, a black screen and the sound of a loud explosion. An on-screen message declares: 'Tancredo . . . before it's too late.'
Tancredo, who has lagged in a large primary field, introduced the ad and an accompanying radio spot in Des Moines. Iowa is to hold its first-in-the-nation caucuses Jan. 3.
'The consequences of uncontrolled immigration are far more serious than our leaders want us to believe,' the candidate said in a prepared statement. 'The safety of Americans and the security of our way of life are on the line.'
Dennis Goldford, a professor of politics at Drake University in Des Moines, called the Tancredo spot 'an incredibly fear-based kind of advertisement that some might say is trying to terrorize people into supporting his view.'
Goldford said the commercial's culminating explosion evoked memories of a 1964 ad by President Johnson that used a little girl plucking petals from a daisy and a mushroom cloud to suggest that Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater, the Republican presidential candidate, would set off a nuclear war. To see the famous daisy ad and an archive of presidential campaign ads from the beginning of television, click here. http://livingroomcandidate.movingimage.us/index.php
The new ad says Tancredo would protect Americans from 'jihadists who froth with hate.' An immigration activist says it's Tancredo 'frothing with hate.'
'I think this is political pandering at its worst,' said spokeswoman Clarissa Martinez of the Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform, which backed a congressional compromise that would have allowed some illegal immigrants to gain citizenship. 'Unfortunately, we may see more ads like this in 2008.'
Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, declined to comment on the ad because the nonprofit is not supposed to engage in political advocacy. But his organization has voiced some of the same concerns as Tancredo. 'FAIR has been saying for a long time you can't have the border open only to allow gardeners and busboys into this country and not expect terrorists to take advantage,' Mehlman said Monday.
The Tancredo ad begins with the image of a gloved hand jamming a bomb into a backpack. Then it follows a hooded figure, whose face cannot be seen, strolling through a mall as a narrator decries '20 million aliens who have come to take our jobs' and 'Islamic terrorists [who] now freely roam U.S. soil.'
Footage of bombed-out trains and a boy bloodied in an overseas terrorist attack follow, then pictures of shoppers and a woman pushing a stroller through an airy mall. As the hooded figure leaves the backpack beside a bench and walks away, the narrator announces: 'The price we pay for spineless politicians who refuse to defend our borders against those who come to kill.' Then the explosion sounds.
The ad appears to play off a report last week that Al Qaeda might target shopping malls in Los Angeles and Chicago this holiday season. Counter-terrorism officials have downplayed the warning, saying it was based on an uncorroborated report from a foreign intelligence source.
Tancredo spokesman Alan Moore said the ad will air next in New Hampshire and then nationally, although he did not provide details on how widely the cash-strapped campaign can afford to place the spots.
When candidates last reported on their finances at the end of September, Tancredo had $110,079 on hand. That would seem to limit use of the ad, titled 'Tough on Terror.'
In an accompanying radio spot, the congressman promises to 'prosecute those who provide sanctuary to anyone who would harm us, deport all those who do not belong here, and put the military on the border if necessary.'
+++
Tancredo Ad Links Immigration to Terrorism
The Wall Street Journal Blogs,
November 13, 2007
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2007/11/13/tancredo-ad-links-immigration-to-terrorism/
--------------------------------------------------
Ok, here is where this information originally came from.
A Line in the Sand:Confronting the Threat at the Southwest Border
PREPARED BY THE MAJORITY STAFF OF THE
HOUSE COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY
SUBCOMMITTEE ON INVESTIGATIONS
MICHAEL T. McCAUL, Chairman
http://www.house.gov/mccaul/pdf/Investigaions-Border-Report.pdf
I highly recommend that everyone reads this, and then shares it with everyone they know. Tom Tancredo was not the first to say this. The Majority Staff (Democrats) wrote this report.
Maybe someday the Liberal Left Media will actually report the truth...
-----------------------------------------------------
Tancredo campaign ad sets off bomb
By James Rainey
Los Angeles Times,
November 13, 2007
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/la-na-tancredo13nov13,1,4500509.story
Republican presidential candidate Tom Tancredo on Monday unveiled a television ad depicting a hooded terrorist detonating a bomb inside a shopping mall, a message the Colorado congressman said he hoped would vault illegal immigration to its rightful place at the center of the campaign.
Critics accused Tancredo of fear-mongering.
The 30-second spot, which began airing on cable television in Iowa, casts Tancredo as the only candidate brave enough to buck political convention and discuss the true threat of immigration -- terrorists crossing into the U.S. To view the ad, click here. http://teamtancredo.org/
It ends with the image of a backpack abandoned in a crowded mall, a black screen and the sound of a loud explosion. An on-screen message declares: 'Tancredo . . . before it's too late.'
Tancredo, who has lagged in a large primary field, introduced the ad and an accompanying radio spot in Des Moines. Iowa is to hold its first-in-the-nation caucuses Jan. 3.
'The consequences of uncontrolled immigration are far more serious than our leaders want us to believe,' the candidate said in a prepared statement. 'The safety of Americans and the security of our way of life are on the line.'
Dennis Goldford, a professor of politics at Drake University in Des Moines, called the Tancredo spot 'an incredibly fear-based kind of advertisement that some might say is trying to terrorize people into supporting his view.'
Goldford said the commercial's culminating explosion evoked memories of a 1964 ad by President Johnson that used a little girl plucking petals from a daisy and a mushroom cloud to suggest that Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater, the Republican presidential candidate, would set off a nuclear war. To see the famous daisy ad and an archive of presidential campaign ads from the beginning of television, click here. http://livingroomcandidate.movingimage.us/index.php
The new ad says Tancredo would protect Americans from 'jihadists who froth with hate.' An immigration activist says it's Tancredo 'frothing with hate.'
'I think this is political pandering at its worst,' said spokeswoman Clarissa Martinez of the Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform, which backed a congressional compromise that would have allowed some illegal immigrants to gain citizenship. 'Unfortunately, we may see more ads like this in 2008.'
Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, declined to comment on the ad because the nonprofit is not supposed to engage in political advocacy. But his organization has voiced some of the same concerns as Tancredo. 'FAIR has been saying for a long time you can't have the border open only to allow gardeners and busboys into this country and not expect terrorists to take advantage,' Mehlman said Monday.
The Tancredo ad begins with the image of a gloved hand jamming a bomb into a backpack. Then it follows a hooded figure, whose face cannot be seen, strolling through a mall as a narrator decries '20 million aliens who have come to take our jobs' and 'Islamic terrorists [who] now freely roam U.S. soil.'
Footage of bombed-out trains and a boy bloodied in an overseas terrorist attack follow, then pictures of shoppers and a woman pushing a stroller through an airy mall. As the hooded figure leaves the backpack beside a bench and walks away, the narrator announces: 'The price we pay for spineless politicians who refuse to defend our borders against those who come to kill.' Then the explosion sounds.
The ad appears to play off a report last week that Al Qaeda might target shopping malls in Los Angeles and Chicago this holiday season. Counter-terrorism officials have downplayed the warning, saying it was based on an uncorroborated report from a foreign intelligence source.
Tancredo spokesman Alan Moore said the ad will air next in New Hampshire and then nationally, although he did not provide details on how widely the cash-strapped campaign can afford to place the spots.
When candidates last reported on their finances at the end of September, Tancredo had $110,079 on hand. That would seem to limit use of the ad, titled 'Tough on Terror.'
In an accompanying radio spot, the congressman promises to 'prosecute those who provide sanctuary to anyone who would harm us, deport all those who do not belong here, and put the military on the border if necessary.'
+++
Tancredo Ad Links Immigration to Terrorism
The Wall Street Journal Blogs,
November 13, 2007
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2007/11/13/tancredo-ad-links-immigration-to-terrorism/
--------------------------------------------------
Ok, here is where this information originally came from.
A Line in the Sand:Confronting the Threat at the Southwest Border
PREPARED BY THE MAJORITY STAFF OF THE
HOUSE COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY
SUBCOMMITTEE ON INVESTIGATIONS
MICHAEL T. McCAUL, Chairman
http://www.house.gov/mccaul/pdf/Investigaions-Border-Report.pdf
I highly recommend that everyone reads this, and then shares it with everyone they know. Tom Tancredo was not the first to say this. The Majority Staff (Democrats) wrote this report.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
No, I do not think so.
I will have my comments at the end of this article.
-------------------------------
Cisneros: GOP stand on immigration risky
By Robert T Garrett
The Dallas Morning News, November 13, 2007 http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/politics/national/stories/DN-cisneros_13tex.ART.State.Edition1.41c1015.html#
Austin -- While many GOP presidential hopefuls are quick to deplore illegal immigration, they should be careful, former U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros warned Monday.
They risk driving Hispanic voters into Democrats' arms for years to come, he said.
Mr. Cisneros, in an interview before he spoke to the Hispanic Scholarship Consortium in Austin, said that though the Republicans use immigration to fire up their base, they may wind up deeply angering Hispanics.
'Those who have simply focused on security at the border and not on the other humane aspects' of the immigration issue offend Hispanics, he said.
Mr. Cisneros predicted Hispanic voters would respond by voting more heavily for Democrats, as has happened in California since the mid-1990s. There, he said, many Hispanic voters have memories of Republican Gov. Pete Wilson's scary TV ads about immigration, which he used to successfully revive his re-election bid in 1994.
Speaking of Republicans running for president, Mr. Cisneros said, 'The harder the Republican line on immigration, the more Latino votes are likely to be lost, and not just for the short run.'
Mr. Cisneros, a staunch Democrat and former San Antonio mayor, said that the Democrats seeking the White House should have 'a little bit easier' time staking out a position on immigration.
He said they can support a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, coupled with border security improvements and a guest worker program, because business leaders and President Bush have endorsed such items in a comprehensive immigration overhaul bill.
While the bill stalled in Congress, Democratic candidates can 'be in the mainstream' by demanding tough enforcement and yet a recognition of the economic contributions of illegal immigrants, Mr. Cisneros said.
While he served in the Clinton administration and is 'highly impressed' with Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton, Mr. Cisneros said he supports New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson for his party's presidential nomination.
He cast Mr. Richardson's candidacy, even if unsuccessful, as crucial to the eventual election of a president who is Hispanic.
Mr. Cisneros said that next year, 'just the sheer numbers' of Hispanics in potential battleground states will make the Hispanic vote 'more important than it has ever been.'
While it's hard to predict turnout and Hispanic voters' sympathies until the two parties decide on their tickets, Mr. Cisneros said Democrats should keep in mind that there is a large, possibly crucial Hispanic vote in swing states such as Florida, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada and Arizona.
'Obviously, a Bill Richardson presence on the ticket somewhere could be very helpful,' Mr. Cisneros said.
Of the Republicans running for president, only John McCain 'has any potential to woo Latino votes,' Mr. Cisneros said.
He said the Arizona senator has been 'very responsible on immigration. ... It has cost him votes among Republicans that he's been so courageous and balanced.'
Mrs. Clinton's recent debate flub on an immigration-related question won't hurt her, Mr. Cisneros predicted.
Mrs. Clinton hedged on whether she backed an effort in New York to grant driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. She said she understood why governors are forced to take such steps but didn't necessarily agree.
---------------------------------------
OK, my issue is right here where he said "they can support a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants".
What? We should reward illegals with citizenship? Why? Should we also reward bank robbers with a free car, or a rapist with a free house?
They are ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS, so why should we roll out the red carpet for them? I notice that he made this a racial issue by saying Hispanics. The last time I looked at the meaning of Illegal, it wasn't related to any race. What about the Illegals from China, or Europe, or the Middle East? I highlighted every racial group mentioned here. Do you see multiple groups? Go look back and count the highlighted groups mentioned.
Do you see this? He only mentioned one group.
Did he do this because he is bigoted against non-hispanics? Or is he the racist? Perhaps he just overlooked this error in his thinking without malice.
This issue does not deal with only one group, unless you look at the Illegal part. Illegals are male, female, white, black, red, yellow, brown, and shades of all the aforementioned. How did he fail to mention all of the other Illegals?
If you watch Democrats, you will see that they want special treatment for a special group and usually no-one calls them on it, but Dear God if a Republican called for special treatment for a special group because they would be smeared through out every media venue in our nation.
When I see the complete list of crimes we are going to reward people for, I will have to see which crime I want to commit to get special treatment. Oh, wait, we do have special treatment for criminals that regular citizens do not get. Jail and Prison.
Now explain to me why these criminals should be given the right to vote. Dear God, isn't that the most protected right we have in our nation? The right for citizens to vote for citizens to do what is needed to help citizens. If we give that away to anyone who comes to our nation legally or not, you might as well declare all people in this WORLD Americans and send them ballots.
I see no other country in the world doing this, and I do not believe we should be the first. Actually, I do not believe we should ever be part of anything like that. If you want to see what would happen search for the things the United Nations has done, and show me which ones actually helped the people, not the select few, but the people. Look to "Food For Oil" program to learn more and see all of the corruption there. At least here while we have home rule, if we catch someone commiting a crime, we can punish them. Who is serving prison out of the UN for what they did? Anyone? I thought not....
-------------------------------
Cisneros: GOP stand on immigration risky
By Robert T Garrett
The Dallas Morning News, November 13, 2007 http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/politics/national/stories/DN-cisneros_13tex.ART.State.Edition1.41c1015.html#
Austin -- While many GOP presidential hopefuls are quick to deplore illegal immigration, they should be careful, former U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros warned Monday.
They risk driving Hispanic voters into Democrats' arms for years to come, he said.
Mr. Cisneros, in an interview before he spoke to the Hispanic Scholarship Consortium in Austin, said that though the Republicans use immigration to fire up their base, they may wind up deeply angering Hispanics.
'Those who have simply focused on security at the border and not on the other humane aspects' of the immigration issue offend Hispanics, he said.
Mr. Cisneros predicted Hispanic voters would respond by voting more heavily for Democrats, as has happened in California since the mid-1990s. There, he said, many Hispanic voters have memories of Republican Gov. Pete Wilson's scary TV ads about immigration, which he used to successfully revive his re-election bid in 1994.
Speaking of Republicans running for president, Mr. Cisneros said, 'The harder the Republican line on immigration, the more Latino votes are likely to be lost, and not just for the short run.'
Mr. Cisneros, a staunch Democrat and former San Antonio mayor, said that the Democrats seeking the White House should have 'a little bit easier' time staking out a position on immigration.
He said they can support a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, coupled with border security improvements and a guest worker program, because business leaders and President Bush have endorsed such items in a comprehensive immigration overhaul bill.
While the bill stalled in Congress, Democratic candidates can 'be in the mainstream' by demanding tough enforcement and yet a recognition of the economic contributions of illegal immigrants, Mr. Cisneros said.
While he served in the Clinton administration and is 'highly impressed' with Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton, Mr. Cisneros said he supports New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson for his party's presidential nomination.
He cast Mr. Richardson's candidacy, even if unsuccessful, as crucial to the eventual election of a president who is Hispanic.
Mr. Cisneros said that next year, 'just the sheer numbers' of Hispanics in potential battleground states will make the Hispanic vote 'more important than it has ever been.'
While it's hard to predict turnout and Hispanic voters' sympathies until the two parties decide on their tickets, Mr. Cisneros said Democrats should keep in mind that there is a large, possibly crucial Hispanic vote in swing states such as Florida, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada and Arizona.
'Obviously, a Bill Richardson presence on the ticket somewhere could be very helpful,' Mr. Cisneros said.
Of the Republicans running for president, only John McCain 'has any potential to woo Latino votes,' Mr. Cisneros said.
He said the Arizona senator has been 'very responsible on immigration. ... It has cost him votes among Republicans that he's been so courageous and balanced.'
Mrs. Clinton's recent debate flub on an immigration-related question won't hurt her, Mr. Cisneros predicted.
Mrs. Clinton hedged on whether she backed an effort in New York to grant driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. She said she understood why governors are forced to take such steps but didn't necessarily agree.
---------------------------------------
OK, my issue is right here where he said "they can support a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants".
What? We should reward illegals with citizenship? Why? Should we also reward bank robbers with a free car, or a rapist with a free house?
They are ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS, so why should we roll out the red carpet for them? I notice that he made this a racial issue by saying Hispanics. The last time I looked at the meaning of Illegal, it wasn't related to any race. What about the Illegals from China, or Europe, or the Middle East? I highlighted every racial group mentioned here. Do you see multiple groups? Go look back and count the highlighted groups mentioned.
Do you see this? He only mentioned one group.
Did he do this because he is bigoted against non-hispanics? Or is he the racist? Perhaps he just overlooked this error in his thinking without malice.
This issue does not deal with only one group, unless you look at the Illegal part. Illegals are male, female, white, black, red, yellow, brown, and shades of all the aforementioned. How did he fail to mention all of the other Illegals?
If you watch Democrats, you will see that they want special treatment for a special group and usually no-one calls them on it, but Dear God if a Republican called for special treatment for a special group because they would be smeared through out every media venue in our nation.
When I see the complete list of crimes we are going to reward people for, I will have to see which crime I want to commit to get special treatment. Oh, wait, we do have special treatment for criminals that regular citizens do not get. Jail and Prison.
Now explain to me why these criminals should be given the right to vote. Dear God, isn't that the most protected right we have in our nation? The right for citizens to vote for citizens to do what is needed to help citizens. If we give that away to anyone who comes to our nation legally or not, you might as well declare all people in this WORLD Americans and send them ballots.
I see no other country in the world doing this, and I do not believe we should be the first. Actually, I do not believe we should ever be part of anything like that. If you want to see what would happen search for the things the United Nations has done, and show me which ones actually helped the people, not the select few, but the people. Look to "Food For Oil" program to learn more and see all of the corruption there. At least here while we have home rule, if we catch someone commiting a crime, we can punish them. Who is serving prison out of the UN for what they did? Anyone? I thought not....
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Now this is scary!
Two Dozen Illegal Immigrants Arrested Using Fake Badges to Work at O'Hare International Airport
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
AP
CHICAGO — Nearly two dozen illegal immigrants were arrested Wednesday, accused of using fake security badges to work in critical areas of O'Hare International Airport, including the tarmac, authorities said.
The 23 illegal workers were employed by Ideal Staffing Solutions Inc., whose corporate secretary and office manager also were arrested after an eight-month investigation that involved federal, state and Chicago authorities.
The company contracted work for carriers including United Airlines, KLM and Qantas, said Elissa A. Brown, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent.
"The investigation identifies a vulnerability that could compromise national security, while bringing criminal charges against individuals who built an illegal work force into their business practice," Brown said.
Ideal Staffing officials did not return a telephone message left after business hours Wednesday by The Associated Press.
Much of the investigation centered on the airport security badges issued by the Department of Aviation, said U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald. Agents found that 110 of the 134 badges issued to Ideal Staffing workers did not match the individuals who carried them, he said.
The discrepancies were first noted in March by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection inspector, Fitzgerald said.
"If we are to ensure public safety, we must know who has access to the secure areas of airports," Fitzgerald said. "A fundamental component of airport safety is preventing the use of false identification badges, and punishing those who commit or enable such violations."
Mary Gurin, 36, of Carpentersville, and Norinye Benitez, 24, of Franklin Park, were each charged with one federal count of harboring illegal immigrants for gain and one federal count of misuse of Social Security numbers. They were scheduled for a preliminary appearance later Wednesday in U.S. District Court, Brown said.
Benitez is believed to be an illegal immigrant from Mexico, and Gurin employed her and signed her airport badge application while knowing her illegal status, Brown said.
The workers arrested, 21 from Mexico and two from Guatemala, were being held in the Cook County jail. They face state criminal charges and deportation, Brown said.
According to affidavits in a complaint against Gurin and Benitez unsealed Wednesday in U.S. District Court, the applications for the 110 bogus badges listed Social Security numbers that either did not exist or belonged to other individuals, some of whom were dead.
One affidavit from a temporary worker who cooperated with authorities said Benitez told him to look through a box containing about 20 airport security badges and to pick one with a picture that resembled his own face.
The affidavits allege that Ideal Staffing told workers they needed to have identification, but that the documents did not have to be legitimate, and also accused the company of supplying some workers with deactivated badges issued in other names.
Brown, Fitzgerald and other officials declined to answer questions about how workers could use deactivated badges to enter secure areas of the airport, saying that the investigation continued and that not all details could be revealed.
Cook County State's Attorney Richard A. Devine said his office has issued more than 100 arrest warrants in the case.
---------------------------------------
Has anyone ever heard of OPSEC? Operatioal Security...
Now, quite honestly it should BLOW YOUR MIND that this is even possible since September 11 2001. Or have we forgoten aleady? A quick refresher.
The Box Cutters used by the Terrorists were ALREADY ON THE PLANES planted by others.
Hmmm, and this is what we offer our citizens as protection since then. Fake badges offered to illegal aliens.
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
AP
CHICAGO — Nearly two dozen illegal immigrants were arrested Wednesday, accused of using fake security badges to work in critical areas of O'Hare International Airport, including the tarmac, authorities said.
The 23 illegal workers were employed by Ideal Staffing Solutions Inc., whose corporate secretary and office manager also were arrested after an eight-month investigation that involved federal, state and Chicago authorities.
The company contracted work for carriers including United Airlines, KLM and Qantas, said Elissa A. Brown, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent.
"The investigation identifies a vulnerability that could compromise national security, while bringing criminal charges against individuals who built an illegal work force into their business practice," Brown said.
Ideal Staffing officials did not return a telephone message left after business hours Wednesday by The Associated Press.
Much of the investigation centered on the airport security badges issued by the Department of Aviation, said U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald. Agents found that 110 of the 134 badges issued to Ideal Staffing workers did not match the individuals who carried them, he said.
The discrepancies were first noted in March by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection inspector, Fitzgerald said.
"If we are to ensure public safety, we must know who has access to the secure areas of airports," Fitzgerald said. "A fundamental component of airport safety is preventing the use of false identification badges, and punishing those who commit or enable such violations."
Mary Gurin, 36, of Carpentersville, and Norinye Benitez, 24, of Franklin Park, were each charged with one federal count of harboring illegal immigrants for gain and one federal count of misuse of Social Security numbers. They were scheduled for a preliminary appearance later Wednesday in U.S. District Court, Brown said.
Benitez is believed to be an illegal immigrant from Mexico, and Gurin employed her and signed her airport badge application while knowing her illegal status, Brown said.
The workers arrested, 21 from Mexico and two from Guatemala, were being held in the Cook County jail. They face state criminal charges and deportation, Brown said.
According to affidavits in a complaint against Gurin and Benitez unsealed Wednesday in U.S. District Court, the applications for the 110 bogus badges listed Social Security numbers that either did not exist or belonged to other individuals, some of whom were dead.
One affidavit from a temporary worker who cooperated with authorities said Benitez told him to look through a box containing about 20 airport security badges and to pick one with a picture that resembled his own face.
The affidavits allege that Ideal Staffing told workers they needed to have identification, but that the documents did not have to be legitimate, and also accused the company of supplying some workers with deactivated badges issued in other names.
Brown, Fitzgerald and other officials declined to answer questions about how workers could use deactivated badges to enter secure areas of the airport, saying that the investigation continued and that not all details could be revealed.
Cook County State's Attorney Richard A. Devine said his office has issued more than 100 arrest warrants in the case.
---------------------------------------
Has anyone ever heard of OPSEC? Operatioal Security...
Now, quite honestly it should BLOW YOUR MIND that this is even possible since September 11 2001. Or have we forgoten aleady? A quick refresher.
The Box Cutters used by the Terrorists were ALREADY ON THE PLANES planted by others.
Hmmm, and this is what we offer our citizens as protection since then. Fake badges offered to illegal aliens.
Border Fence report
This is only good news if they actually increase border agents and interior enforcement, otherwise it is a waste of money. Let us hope and continue to contact our Congress to make all parts of immigration control complete.
----------------------------------------
Border Fence Update
By Amanda Carpenter
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
To date, there have been 270 miles of pedestrian and vehicle fencing constructed along the Southwest border, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said in a Tuesday briefing to reporters about progress being made to secure the border.
By the end of 2008 Chertoff said he expects to have 670 miles of border barriers erected, as long as Congress continues to appropriate money for construction.
“I sometimes get asked, why does it take so long to build fencing?” Chertoff said. “There's a reason for that: You don't build fence a mile at a time.” He listed preparation work like surveying and grading land that must be done before installing fence. Chertoff said, “Only at the end do you see an escalation towards the goal that we reached in the last fiscal year. And that is, in fact, what you're going to see as we go forward.”
Since border fence construction began, DHS has been challenged by environmental groups, like Lawyers for Defending Wildlife and the Sierra Club, that claim barriers hurt wildlife and wetlands. Chertoff has used waiver authority granted to him by Congress to trumps local environmental laws in order to install fences in Arizona and California. In some cases, Chertoff said DHS erected temporary river barriers that could be removed during flood season or special gates that “do not permit the spread of invasive weeds or result in storm water pollution” to appease environmentalists.
He has not yet been forced to use his waiver authority in Texas, but said he would not hesitate to do so.
“The bottom line is this,” Chertoff said. “We will continue to use the authority that Congress gave this department in a way that’s sensitive to local concerns, that is mindful of the need to protect the environment, but that does not allow the process of securing the border to get bogged down in endless litigation or procedural wrangling that will result in years going by before we complete the mission.”
Amanda Carpenter is National Political Reporter for Townhall.com.
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/AmandaCarpenter/2007/11/07/border_fence_update
----------------------------------------
Border Fence Update
By Amanda Carpenter
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
To date, there have been 270 miles of pedestrian and vehicle fencing constructed along the Southwest border, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said in a Tuesday briefing to reporters about progress being made to secure the border.
By the end of 2008 Chertoff said he expects to have 670 miles of border barriers erected, as long as Congress continues to appropriate money for construction.
“I sometimes get asked, why does it take so long to build fencing?” Chertoff said. “There's a reason for that: You don't build fence a mile at a time.” He listed preparation work like surveying and grading land that must be done before installing fence. Chertoff said, “Only at the end do you see an escalation towards the goal that we reached in the last fiscal year. And that is, in fact, what you're going to see as we go forward.”
Since border fence construction began, DHS has been challenged by environmental groups, like Lawyers for Defending Wildlife and the Sierra Club, that claim barriers hurt wildlife and wetlands. Chertoff has used waiver authority granted to him by Congress to trumps local environmental laws in order to install fences in Arizona and California. In some cases, Chertoff said DHS erected temporary river barriers that could be removed during flood season or special gates that “do not permit the spread of invasive weeds or result in storm water pollution” to appease environmentalists.
He has not yet been forced to use his waiver authority in Texas, but said he would not hesitate to do so.
“The bottom line is this,” Chertoff said. “We will continue to use the authority that Congress gave this department in a way that’s sensitive to local concerns, that is mindful of the need to protect the environment, but that does not allow the process of securing the border to get bogged down in endless litigation or procedural wrangling that will result in years going by before we complete the mission.”
Amanda Carpenter is National Political Reporter for Townhall.com.
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/AmandaCarpenter/2007/11/07/border_fence_update
Nice Change in Greeley CO.
I hope as time goes by we will continue to see more stories like this one around the state and the country.
------------------------------------
Challenger Clark wins Greeley mayoral race
By Monte Whaley
The Denver Post,
November 7, 2007
http://www.denverpost.com/ci_7389151
Greeley -- Challenger Ed Clark ousted incumbent Mayor Tom Selders handily Tuesday night in an election overshadowed by issues of illegal immigration.
Clark, a school security guard and former Greeley police officer, bested Selders by 7,858 votes to 5,015. Selders, a longtime fixture in city government and a two-term mayor, couldn't be reached for comment Tuesday night.
Selders earned the ire of many conservatives in Greeley for traveling to Washington, D.C., earlier this year to complain that raids by Immigration Customs and Enforcement agents at Swift meatpacking plants were disruptive to families.
At least two outside groups targeted Selders for his stance, saying he was soft on illegal immigrants. One group — Alliance for a Better Greeley — distributed a mailer showing a group characterized as gangsters flashing gang signs under text that read 'Tom Selders is Good for Business.'
Clark said he had nothing to do with the campaign against Selders. Clark — a former officer in Greeley's gang unit — said he wanted to add at least 20 new officers to the Greeley force and get the city more involved in after-school programs for kids.
Clark drew criticism for pulling a weapon on an intruder at University Schools, where he works. School officials backed Clark's use of the gun.
-------------------------------------------------
The fact that this man is a former Gang Officer leads me to believe he has a much better grasp of what is going on regarding illegal aliens then most anyone else has.
Since people in charge ignore the advice and information which is available regarding the increase in gang activity, drug smuggling, and other crimes violent or not, we need to put those who do know in power.
If we do not, we are going to lose our country.
------------------------------------
Challenger Clark wins Greeley mayoral race
By Monte Whaley
The Denver Post,
November 7, 2007
http://www.denverpost.com/ci_7389151
Greeley -- Challenger Ed Clark ousted incumbent Mayor Tom Selders handily Tuesday night in an election overshadowed by issues of illegal immigration.
Clark, a school security guard and former Greeley police officer, bested Selders by 7,858 votes to 5,015. Selders, a longtime fixture in city government and a two-term mayor, couldn't be reached for comment Tuesday night.
Selders earned the ire of many conservatives in Greeley for traveling to Washington, D.C., earlier this year to complain that raids by Immigration Customs and Enforcement agents at Swift meatpacking plants were disruptive to families.
At least two outside groups targeted Selders for his stance, saying he was soft on illegal immigrants. One group — Alliance for a Better Greeley — distributed a mailer showing a group characterized as gangsters flashing gang signs under text that read 'Tom Selders is Good for Business.'
Clark said he had nothing to do with the campaign against Selders. Clark — a former officer in Greeley's gang unit — said he wanted to add at least 20 new officers to the Greeley force and get the city more involved in after-school programs for kids.
Clark drew criticism for pulling a weapon on an intruder at University Schools, where he works. School officials backed Clark's use of the gun.
-------------------------------------------------
The fact that this man is a former Gang Officer leads me to believe he has a much better grasp of what is going on regarding illegal aliens then most anyone else has.
Since people in charge ignore the advice and information which is available regarding the increase in gang activity, drug smuggling, and other crimes violent or not, we need to put those who do know in power.
If we do not, we are going to lose our country.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
California 'Repeals' Supreme Court Immigration Ruling
California 'Repeals' Supreme Court Immigration Ruling
By William Perry Pendley
Monday, November 5, 2007
In 1982, Emil Vassileu—born in Pernik, Bulgaria—arrived legally in the United States, a political refugee from Bulgaria’s Communist regime. Because he was a top student, he studied at university; but, there was “no future, no freedom” in Bulgaria. When he reached Cleveland, Ohio, he sought out the Dean of Case Western Reserve University. Although he spoke little English, he so impressed the Dean that he was admitted as a junior. In 1985, he received a B.S. in civil engineering and left for California. In 1986, after working briefly for others, he started a business, Van Elk, Ltd., a welding and steel-working company that bids on private and public works projects. Today, Van Elk, Ltd. has grown to ten full-time employees and has enjoyed over two decades of success.
Over the years, Mr. Vassileu sought to teach his craft to his employees to allow them the same opportunities he enjoyed. His employees always returned the favor; that is, they did, until September 2003, when four former employees sued Van Elk arguing that they had not been paid in accordance with California’s mini-Davis-Bacon law, which sets “prevailing wages” for public works projects. Mr. Vassileu’s first response was that five of the eight projects named by the former employees were not public works projects; instead, they were purely private projects. As to the remaining three claims, they were for off-site work at Van Elk’s shop and were not subject to prevailing wages.
During the course of discovery, Van Elk’s California lawyers learned that the former employees were in the United States illegally and, if a 2002 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court applied, could not file a lawsuit to collect unpaid wages. Thereupon, in July 2004, Van Elk’s lawyers argued that, if the matter went to trial, the facts would show that Van Elk had paid all that was owed the former employees. In the meantime, however, argued Van Elk’s lawyers, the court lacked jurisdiction to hear the case because of that Supreme Court ruling, which deprived the illegal aliens of their right to sue. In November 2004, the Los Angeles Superior Court agreed, holding that, in accordance with Hoffman Plastic Compounds, Inc. v. National Labor Relations Board, 535 U.S. 137 (2002), the former employees could not sue for unpaid prevailing wages because they were illegal aliens.
In Hoffman, the Supreme Court held that federal labor laws did not supersede federal immigration laws by ruling, 5-4, that illegal aliens could not sue to collect backpay. The Court noted that labor laws sought to prevent and remedy unfair labor practices, which required employer penalties and sanctions as well as the ability of wronged employees to sue. At the same time, recognized the Court, granting illegal aliens the rights citizens enjoy would both “trivialize the immigration laws” and violate Congress’s intent to end the unlawful employment of illegal aliens, which Congress called a “magnet . . . attract[ing] aliens here illegally.” Plus, held the Court, “traditional remedies,” including civil and criminal proceedings, are a sufficient “spur and catalyst” to ensure that employers obey the law and do not hire illegal aliens.
Hoffman was too much for California legislators who responded by enacting prevailing wage statutes that provided that, notwithstanding the Supreme Court’s ruling in Hoffman, in determining whether an employee could sue for prevailing wages, his immigration status was “irrelevant.” Therefore, when Van Elk’s former employees appealed, the California Court of Appeal seized upon the language in California’s post-Hoffman statutes and reversed the lower court’s ruling. Likewise, the Court of Appeal rejected Van Elk’s lawyers’ argument that, by overturning Hoffman, the California Legislature violated the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause.
On October 22, Van Elk asked the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether Hoffman applies or should be extended to apply to its situation. The real question that the Court needs to determine, however, is who is in charge of immigration policy, Congress or California?
William Perry Pendley is President and Chief Legal Officer at the Mountain States Legal Foundation.
http://www.townhall.com/Columnists/WilliamPerryPendley/2007/11/05/california_repeals_supreme_court_immigration_ruling
By William Perry Pendley
Monday, November 5, 2007
In 1982, Emil Vassileu—born in Pernik, Bulgaria—arrived legally in the United States, a political refugee from Bulgaria’s Communist regime. Because he was a top student, he studied at university; but, there was “no future, no freedom” in Bulgaria. When he reached Cleveland, Ohio, he sought out the Dean of Case Western Reserve University. Although he spoke little English, he so impressed the Dean that he was admitted as a junior. In 1985, he received a B.S. in civil engineering and left for California. In 1986, after working briefly for others, he started a business, Van Elk, Ltd., a welding and steel-working company that bids on private and public works projects. Today, Van Elk, Ltd. has grown to ten full-time employees and has enjoyed over two decades of success.
Over the years, Mr. Vassileu sought to teach his craft to his employees to allow them the same opportunities he enjoyed. His employees always returned the favor; that is, they did, until September 2003, when four former employees sued Van Elk arguing that they had not been paid in accordance with California’s mini-Davis-Bacon law, which sets “prevailing wages” for public works projects. Mr. Vassileu’s first response was that five of the eight projects named by the former employees were not public works projects; instead, they were purely private projects. As to the remaining three claims, they were for off-site work at Van Elk’s shop and were not subject to prevailing wages.
During the course of discovery, Van Elk’s California lawyers learned that the former employees were in the United States illegally and, if a 2002 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court applied, could not file a lawsuit to collect unpaid wages. Thereupon, in July 2004, Van Elk’s lawyers argued that, if the matter went to trial, the facts would show that Van Elk had paid all that was owed the former employees. In the meantime, however, argued Van Elk’s lawyers, the court lacked jurisdiction to hear the case because of that Supreme Court ruling, which deprived the illegal aliens of their right to sue. In November 2004, the Los Angeles Superior Court agreed, holding that, in accordance with Hoffman Plastic Compounds, Inc. v. National Labor Relations Board, 535 U.S. 137 (2002), the former employees could not sue for unpaid prevailing wages because they were illegal aliens.
In Hoffman, the Supreme Court held that federal labor laws did not supersede federal immigration laws by ruling, 5-4, that illegal aliens could not sue to collect backpay. The Court noted that labor laws sought to prevent and remedy unfair labor practices, which required employer penalties and sanctions as well as the ability of wronged employees to sue. At the same time, recognized the Court, granting illegal aliens the rights citizens enjoy would both “trivialize the immigration laws” and violate Congress’s intent to end the unlawful employment of illegal aliens, which Congress called a “magnet . . . attract[ing] aliens here illegally.” Plus, held the Court, “traditional remedies,” including civil and criminal proceedings, are a sufficient “spur and catalyst” to ensure that employers obey the law and do not hire illegal aliens.
Hoffman was too much for California legislators who responded by enacting prevailing wage statutes that provided that, notwithstanding the Supreme Court’s ruling in Hoffman, in determining whether an employee could sue for prevailing wages, his immigration status was “irrelevant.” Therefore, when Van Elk’s former employees appealed, the California Court of Appeal seized upon the language in California’s post-Hoffman statutes and reversed the lower court’s ruling. Likewise, the Court of Appeal rejected Van Elk’s lawyers’ argument that, by overturning Hoffman, the California Legislature violated the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause.
On October 22, Van Elk asked the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether Hoffman applies or should be extended to apply to its situation. The real question that the Court needs to determine, however, is who is in charge of immigration policy, Congress or California?
William Perry Pendley is President and Chief Legal Officer at the Mountain States Legal Foundation.
http://www.townhall.com/Columnists/WilliamPerryPendley/2007/11/05/california_repeals_supreme_court_immigration_ruling
Saturday, November 3, 2007
Quotes from the other side...
So, if you are new here to my blog, you might believe I am over reacting. Here are quotes from some of the groups fighting for the amnesty and protecting Illegal Aliens.
-----------------------------------------------------
Go back to Boston! Go back to Plymouth Rock, Pilgrims! Get out! We are the future. You are old and tired. Go on. We have beaten you. Leave like beaten rats. You old white people. It is your duty to die. Through love of having children, we are going to take over.” — Augustin Cebada, Brown Berets
“They’re afraid we’re going to take over the governmental institutions and other institutions. They’re right. We will take them over. We are here to stay.” — Richard Alatorre, Los Angeles City Councilman
“We have an aging white America. They are not making babies. They are dying. The explosion is in our population . . . I love it. They are shitting in their pants with fear. I love it!” — Professor Jose Angel Gutierrez, University of Texas
“Remember 187–proposition to deny taxpayer funds for services to non-citizens–was the last gasp of white America in California.” — Art Torres, Chairman of the California Democratic Party
“We are politicizing every single one of these new citizens that are becoming citizens of this country . . . I gotta tell you that a lot of people are saying, ‘I’m going to go out there and vote because I want to pay them back.’” — Gloria Molina, Los Angeles County Supervisor
“California is going to be a Hispanic state. Anyone who doesn’t like it should leave.” — Mario Obledo, California Coalition of Hispanic Organizations and California State Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare under Governor Jerry Brown, also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton
“We are practicing ‘La Reconquista’ in California.” — Jose Pescador Osuna, Mexican Consul General
“We need to avoid a white backlash by using codes understood by Latinos.” — Professor Fernando Guerra, Loyola Marymount University
“The American Southwest seems to be slowly returning to the jurisdiction of Mexico without firing a single shot.” — Excelsior, the national newspaper of Mexico
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Does this sound to you like people who are coming here to become American Citizens? I think not. It is an invasion, pure and simple.
-----------------------------------------------------
Go back to Boston! Go back to Plymouth Rock, Pilgrims! Get out! We are the future. You are old and tired. Go on. We have beaten you. Leave like beaten rats. You old white people. It is your duty to die. Through love of having children, we are going to take over.” — Augustin Cebada, Brown Berets
“They’re afraid we’re going to take over the governmental institutions and other institutions. They’re right. We will take them over. We are here to stay.” — Richard Alatorre, Los Angeles City Councilman
“We have an aging white America. They are not making babies. They are dying. The explosion is in our population . . . I love it. They are shitting in their pants with fear. I love it!” — Professor Jose Angel Gutierrez, University of Texas
“Remember 187–proposition to deny taxpayer funds for services to non-citizens–was the last gasp of white America in California.” — Art Torres, Chairman of the California Democratic Party
“We are politicizing every single one of these new citizens that are becoming citizens of this country . . . I gotta tell you that a lot of people are saying, ‘I’m going to go out there and vote because I want to pay them back.’” — Gloria Molina, Los Angeles County Supervisor
“California is going to be a Hispanic state. Anyone who doesn’t like it should leave.” — Mario Obledo, California Coalition of Hispanic Organizations and California State Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare under Governor Jerry Brown, also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton
“We are practicing ‘La Reconquista’ in California.” — Jose Pescador Osuna, Mexican Consul General
“We need to avoid a white backlash by using codes understood by Latinos.” — Professor Fernando Guerra, Loyola Marymount University
“The American Southwest seems to be slowly returning to the jurisdiction of Mexico without firing a single shot.” — Excelsior, the national newspaper of Mexico
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Does this sound to you like people who are coming here to become American Citizens? I think not. It is an invasion, pure and simple.
Friday, November 2, 2007
OK, this is such BS!
Ok, I am going to bold the section of which is utter BS. Then I will explain at the bottom.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Oklahoma targets illegal immigrants with tough new law
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/11/02/oklahoma.immigration/index.html
By Ismael Estrada and Keith Oppenheim
CNN
TULSA, Oklahoma (CNN) -- Weeks of protests, rallies, lawsuits and candlelight vigils failed to stop a new state immigration bill -- HB 1804 -- from becoming the law in Oklahoma.
The law went into effect Thursday and is intended to make life difficult for illegal immigrants in Oklahoma.
Its authors say they're sending a very clear message: If you're an illegal immigrant, you are not welcome.
"I'm convinced illegal aliens will not come to Oklahoma, or any other state, if there are no jobs waiting for them." said state Rep. Randy Terrill, a Republican and the law's author.
"They will not stay here if there are not taxpayer subsidies and they certainly won't stay here if they ever encounter one of our fine state and local law enforcement officials," he added. "They'll be physically detained -- until they're deported."
The new law restricts the ability of illegal immigrants to obtain government IDs or public assistance. It also gives police authority to check the immigration status of anyone arrested, which can lead to deportations.
It doesn't stop at illegal immigrants. The law also makes it a felony for U.S. citizens to knowingly provide shelter, transportation or employment to illegal immigrants.
The message has been received loud and clear. Many in Oklahoma's Latino community say people are staying home, fearful police will arrest and deport them.
"They're afraid they're going to get deported. They're just afraid," said Alex Yoguez, a juice store owner who relies on Latino customers for her business to survive.
Yoguez said her business is normally filled with customers. "We are down 50 percent just today," she said Thursday, the day the law went on the books.
Latino supporters are up in arms about the way the state now views illegal immigrants who have been here for many years.
"You are guilty of ethnic cleansing in this community! You are going against my community!" said the Rev. Miguel Rivera of the National Coalition of Latino Clergy.
The clergy group filed a federal lawsuit against the state saying the state has overstepped its bounds by enforcing immigration law, which is under federal jurisdiction. A hearing in the case is scheduled next week. An earlier attempt to get an injunction to prevent enforcement of the law was turned down by a judge.
It's not yet clear how the law will be enforced. Illegal immigrants in Oklahoma fear police will use the law for roundups of anyone working and living in the state illegally.
"I don't know if we're going to be actively looking for them," said Tulsa Police Capt. Steve Odom, who works in the Latino district of Tulsa. "If we come across them in the course of a call, or a course of an investigation, certainly we'll take the appropriate action."
The Tulsa Police Department said it has not received guidance from the district attorney's office on how to enforce the law. The department points out that suspicion of illegal activity is not enough, and proving the intent of U.S. citizens is a challenge.
Still, many in Oklahoma say Latinos have been leaving by the thousands since the law was passed in May.
"We are losing a lot of business, a lot of business," said Antonio Perez, who owns Mexican grocery stores. "I would say between the four stores we have lost about $300,000 a month in sales."
So far, the absence of the Latinos on the streets may be the only visible result of the law.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All right. Ethnic Cleansing? Are you kidding me? Deporting Illegal Immigrants is not ETHNIC CLEANSING.
Hitler murdering the Jews, that was Ethnic Cleansing.
Rwanda with the Hutu's vs. the Tutu's, that was Ethnic Cleansing by Machete's.
I can go on and on of what Ethnic Cleansing is, but deporting people back to there home country after they illegally came to our country is Due Process.
Now, when you see our government digging massive pits and dumping bodies into them after having killed the illegals, that would be Ethnic Cleansing.
However, I have a question....
Which ethnic group is ILLEGAL? I thought illegal was a legal term. Maybe I am wrong, but lets find out.
Illegal: not according to or authorized by law : unlawful, illicit;
I see no mention of race, ethnic group, creed, religion, sexual preference, political alignment, or anything other than someone broke a law or laws.
Do you understand? These laws are against law breakers. It starts and ends there. This is America people. Or does everyone not know what Rule Of Law means anymore?
We have so many laws protecting people of, shall we say, special status or protected being. These are not being set aside to create Race Laws. I believe since Martin Luther King Jr. that we as a country, more so a government, has grown beyond that. If we have Race Laws in this country of any type, they are to protect people, not harm them.
Illegal is illegal, plain and simple.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Oklahoma targets illegal immigrants with tough new law
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/11/02/oklahoma.immigration/index.html
By Ismael Estrada and Keith Oppenheim
CNN
TULSA, Oklahoma (CNN) -- Weeks of protests, rallies, lawsuits and candlelight vigils failed to stop a new state immigration bill -- HB 1804 -- from becoming the law in Oklahoma.
The law went into effect Thursday and is intended to make life difficult for illegal immigrants in Oklahoma.
Its authors say they're sending a very clear message: If you're an illegal immigrant, you are not welcome.
"I'm convinced illegal aliens will not come to Oklahoma, or any other state, if there are no jobs waiting for them." said state Rep. Randy Terrill, a Republican and the law's author.
"They will not stay here if there are not taxpayer subsidies and they certainly won't stay here if they ever encounter one of our fine state and local law enforcement officials," he added. "They'll be physically detained -- until they're deported."
The new law restricts the ability of illegal immigrants to obtain government IDs or public assistance. It also gives police authority to check the immigration status of anyone arrested, which can lead to deportations.
It doesn't stop at illegal immigrants. The law also makes it a felony for U.S. citizens to knowingly provide shelter, transportation or employment to illegal immigrants.
The message has been received loud and clear. Many in Oklahoma's Latino community say people are staying home, fearful police will arrest and deport them.
"They're afraid they're going to get deported. They're just afraid," said Alex Yoguez, a juice store owner who relies on Latino customers for her business to survive.
Yoguez said her business is normally filled with customers. "We are down 50 percent just today," she said Thursday, the day the law went on the books.
Latino supporters are up in arms about the way the state now views illegal immigrants who have been here for many years.
"You are guilty of ethnic cleansing in this community! You are going against my community!" said the Rev. Miguel Rivera of the National Coalition of Latino Clergy.
The clergy group filed a federal lawsuit against the state saying the state has overstepped its bounds by enforcing immigration law, which is under federal jurisdiction. A hearing in the case is scheduled next week. An earlier attempt to get an injunction to prevent enforcement of the law was turned down by a judge.
It's not yet clear how the law will be enforced. Illegal immigrants in Oklahoma fear police will use the law for roundups of anyone working and living in the state illegally.
"I don't know if we're going to be actively looking for them," said Tulsa Police Capt. Steve Odom, who works in the Latino district of Tulsa. "If we come across them in the course of a call, or a course of an investigation, certainly we'll take the appropriate action."
The Tulsa Police Department said it has not received guidance from the district attorney's office on how to enforce the law. The department points out that suspicion of illegal activity is not enough, and proving the intent of U.S. citizens is a challenge.
Still, many in Oklahoma say Latinos have been leaving by the thousands since the law was passed in May.
"We are losing a lot of business, a lot of business," said Antonio Perez, who owns Mexican grocery stores. "I would say between the four stores we have lost about $300,000 a month in sales."
So far, the absence of the Latinos on the streets may be the only visible result of the law.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All right. Ethnic Cleansing? Are you kidding me? Deporting Illegal Immigrants is not ETHNIC CLEANSING.
Hitler murdering the Jews, that was Ethnic Cleansing.
Rwanda with the Hutu's vs. the Tutu's, that was Ethnic Cleansing by Machete's.
I can go on and on of what Ethnic Cleansing is, but deporting people back to there home country after they illegally came to our country is Due Process.
Now, when you see our government digging massive pits and dumping bodies into them after having killed the illegals, that would be Ethnic Cleansing.
However, I have a question....
Which ethnic group is ILLEGAL? I thought illegal was a legal term. Maybe I am wrong, but lets find out.
Illegal: not according to or authorized by law : unlawful, illicit;
I see no mention of race, ethnic group, creed, religion, sexual preference, political alignment, or anything other than someone broke a law or laws.
Do you understand? These laws are against law breakers. It starts and ends there. This is America people. Or does everyone not know what Rule Of Law means anymore?
We have so many laws protecting people of, shall we say, special status or protected being. These are not being set aside to create Race Laws. I believe since Martin Luther King Jr. that we as a country, more so a government, has grown beyond that. If we have Race Laws in this country of any type, they are to protect people, not harm them.
Illegal is illegal, plain and simple.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Do It Now! No Bail for Illegals!!
I hope that this goes into law! I hope and ask that the Colorado House and Senate pass this into law immediately.
----------------------------
Words of advice for North Dakota and Minnesota, pass these laws too. Once they get pushed out of the Southwest, they are coming towards you. You have no idea how bad it will be and how it will effect your jobs and wages, not to mention taxes.
----------------------------
GOP returns to illegal immigrants,
Legislators seek to deny bail to those accused of repeat DUI or other serious crimes.
By Jennifer Brown The Denver Post, October 31, 2007 http://www.denverpost.com/ci_7325132
Statehouse Republicans want to deny bail to illegal immigrants accused of repeat drunken driving and serious felonies, and require proof of citizenship to vote.
The proposals announced Tuesday were part of the GOP's 2008 legislative package aimed at advancing a state crackdown on illegal immigration.
'We don't know when the feds are going to act, if ever,' said Senate Minority Leader Andy McElhany of Colorado Springs. 'Some of these things are common sense that we can do.'
Democrats, who previously have shot down similar proposals, countered that Colorado passed some of the toughest immigration laws in the nation last year.
'Until the federal government acts to find a meaningful solution,
we can pass immigration laws until we're blue in the face,' said Senate President pro tem Peter Groff, D-Denver. 'It's still an unfunded federal mandate on our state.'
Among the most contentious of the proposals is a plan to deny bail to illegal immigrants arrested for serious felonies, repeat drunken driving and drunken driving with extremely high blood-alcohol levels.
The resolution - which would require a constitutional change - would have to win a two-thirds vote in the House and Senate instead of a simple majority and then go to a vote of the people.
'It is not aimed at law-abiding illegal immigrants,' said Rep. Bob Gardner, a Colorado Springs Republican who will sponsor the measure. 'This is aimed at a particular category of illegal immigrants that are frankly causing some pretty serious problems because they break the law with impunity and don't have any ties to the community.'
Republicans said their proposal was prompted by cases such as that of Jose Carranza, an illegal immigrant from Peru who surrendered to authorities after the execution-style killing of three students in New Jersey last summer. He had twice been released on bail for other felonies.
Gardner said he was unsure how much the measure would cost.
'Should it be a question of cost?' he asked. 'Or should it be a question of public safety?'
Democrats argued that feeding, housing and clothing inmates 'indefinitely' could eat up money intended for education and other priorities.
Another Republican proposal released ahead of the legislative session starting in January would require jails to determine the immigration status of all detainees when they are booked.
Other measures focus on ensuring only citizens vote in elections.
One would require photo identification at the polls and another would call for proof of citizenship to register to vote.
Republicans concede they don't believe many illegal immigrants are voting, but said that's not the point.
'If one person casts a vote who shouldn't, I think that's a problem,' said Rep. Frank McNulty, R-Highlands Ranch.
House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, D-Denver, said it 'would be a great concern' if Republicans had evidence of voter fraud.
------------------------------------------
GOP eyes people in Colo. illegally
Bills for next year include denial of bail, voter IDs
The Associated Press, October 31, 2007
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5735779,00.html
---------------------------------------
I do not think this had anything to do with the letters I sent to the Colorado GOP, but if it did, I am glad they listened. I am sure they were doing as I did, waiting and seeing if it would survive the courts in Arizona, which it did!Words of advice for North Dakota and Minnesota, pass these laws too. Once they get pushed out of the Southwest, they are coming towards you. You have no idea how bad it will be and how it will effect your jobs and wages, not to mention taxes.
Flips Flops in October
First she says she is for it, against it, for it, and then blames it on not giving millions amnesty. It is a bad deal not matter how you cut it unless it ends in the removal of illegals.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Monday, October 22, 2007
Stop illegal immigration to protect illegals
Smugglers Torture Illegal Immigrants in Phoenix Drop House
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,303798,00.html
Sunday, October 21, 2007
AP
PHOENIX — Police raided a drop house for illegal immigrants and discovered several, including a pregnant woman, whose handlers had beaten and tortured them, authorities said.
Police took 54 people into custody after the raid Friday, including four children and seven suspected smugglers.
One man's head had been wrapped in a plastic bag and submerged in a waste-filled toilet, said Maricopa County sheriff's spokesman Capt. Paul Chagolla. The man's pregnant wife was severely beaten and will probably lose her baby, he said.
Deputies are investigating reports that smugglers held at least five other immigrants at gunpoint and demanded more money.
Women and children were screaming inside the home when deputies entered, Chagolla said. There was little food and no furniture inside, he said.
"Toilets were filled with human waste and buckets were dispersed throughout the house as makeshift toilets," he said.
Sheriff's officials learned of the drop house during an investigation into human smuggling, Chagolla said. The home is the third discovered in a ring of related drop houses, and 80 people have been arrested under immigration laws, Chagolla said.
The seven suspected smugglers arrested Friday were booked on charges of aggravated assault, kidnapping, illegal control of an enterprise and human smuggling for profit.
-------------------
I am against illegal aliens, but when they are victims, we need to stop this problem not only to protect our own people, but them too. Close the border, remove the business' which draw illegals, and enforce the laws already on the books. Our removal of illegals protects them, and that is a fact. Maybe it would drive them to overtake the problems back in their homes and improve things there.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,303798,00.html
Sunday, October 21, 2007
AP
PHOENIX — Police raided a drop house for illegal immigrants and discovered several, including a pregnant woman, whose handlers had beaten and tortured them, authorities said.
Police took 54 people into custody after the raid Friday, including four children and seven suspected smugglers.
One man's head had been wrapped in a plastic bag and submerged in a waste-filled toilet, said Maricopa County sheriff's spokesman Capt. Paul Chagolla. The man's pregnant wife was severely beaten and will probably lose her baby, he said.
Deputies are investigating reports that smugglers held at least five other immigrants at gunpoint and demanded more money.
Women and children were screaming inside the home when deputies entered, Chagolla said. There was little food and no furniture inside, he said.
"Toilets were filled with human waste and buckets were dispersed throughout the house as makeshift toilets," he said.
Sheriff's officials learned of the drop house during an investigation into human smuggling, Chagolla said. The home is the third discovered in a ring of related drop houses, and 80 people have been arrested under immigration laws, Chagolla said.
The seven suspected smugglers arrested Friday were booked on charges of aggravated assault, kidnapping, illegal control of an enterprise and human smuggling for profit.
-------------------
I am against illegal aliens, but when they are victims, we need to stop this problem not only to protect our own people, but them too. Close the border, remove the business' which draw illegals, and enforce the laws already on the books. Our removal of illegals protects them, and that is a fact. Maybe it would drive them to overtake the problems back in their homes and improve things there.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Doing jobs, oh, sorry, crimes Americans won't do!
Feds Arrest 34 in Sweep of Mexican-Linked L.A. Gangs
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
AP
LOS ANGELES — More than 60 people allegedly linked to a Hispanic street gang have been charged with racketeering and drug trafficking in an indictment that accuses them of attacking blacks in South Los Angeles to maintain control in certain neighborhoods.
Of those under indictment, 34 were arrested during sweeps Tuesday following a three-year investigation, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
They are suspected members of the Florencia 13 gang, which authorities say is controlled by the Mexican Mafia.
Prosecutors accuse the group of shooting blacks, rival gang members and innocent residents.
"In their attempt to intimidate African Americans in the community, they targeted innocent citizens," U.S. Attorney Thomas P. O'Brien said.
A total of 61 defendants were named in two indictments — one charging violations of federal racketeering laws and the other charging federal narcotics trafficking violations. The indictments were returned by a federal grand jury on Sept. 27 and unsealed Tuesday.
Besides the 34 arrested, some of the others are already in custody or listed as fugitives, authorities said.
Those named in the racketeering indictment face 20 years to life in prison if convicted. The narcotics indictment carries 10 years to life in prison.
------------------
So how many of these are illegal immigrants? So if they all were, border control and immigration enforcement would have prevented all of there crimes and the crimes of all other illegals? I bet yes, which makes any crime by an illegal Preventable!
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
AP
LOS ANGELES — More than 60 people allegedly linked to a Hispanic street gang have been charged with racketeering and drug trafficking in an indictment that accuses them of attacking blacks in South Los Angeles to maintain control in certain neighborhoods.
Of those under indictment, 34 were arrested during sweeps Tuesday following a three-year investigation, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
They are suspected members of the Florencia 13 gang, which authorities say is controlled by the Mexican Mafia.
Prosecutors accuse the group of shooting blacks, rival gang members and innocent residents.
"In their attempt to intimidate African Americans in the community, they targeted innocent citizens," U.S. Attorney Thomas P. O'Brien said.
A total of 61 defendants were named in two indictments — one charging violations of federal racketeering laws and the other charging federal narcotics trafficking violations. The indictments were returned by a federal grand jury on Sept. 27 and unsealed Tuesday.
Besides the 34 arrested, some of the others are already in custody or listed as fugitives, authorities said.
Those named in the racketeering indictment face 20 years to life in prison if convicted. The narcotics indictment carries 10 years to life in prison.
------------------
So how many of these are illegal immigrants? So if they all were, border control and immigration enforcement would have prevented all of there crimes and the crimes of all other illegals? I bet yes, which makes any crime by an illegal Preventable!
Friday, October 12, 2007
More Interesting news
Stone Age Columbus - programme summary
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2002/columbus.shtml
Who were the first people in North America? From where did they come? How did they arrive? The prehistory of the Americas has been widely studied. Over 70 years a consensus became so established that dissenters felt uneasy challenging it. Yet in 2001, genetics, anthropology and a few shards of flint combined to overturn the accepted facts and to push back one of the greatest technological changes that the Americas have ever seen by over five millennia.
The accepted version of the first Americans starts with a flint spearhead unearthed at Clovis, New Mexico, in 1933. Dated by the mammoth skeleton it lay beside to 11,500 years ago (11.5kya), it was distinctive because it had two faces, where flakes had been knapped away from a core flint. The find sparked a wave of similar reports, all dating from around the same period. There seemed to be nothing human before Clovis. Whoever those incomers were around 9,500BC, they appeared to have had a clean start. And the Clovis point was their icon - across 48 states.
An icon that was supremely effective: the introduction of the innovative spearpoint coincided with a mass extinction of the continent's megafauna. Not only the mammoth, but the giant armadillo, giant sloth and great black bear all disappeared soon after the Clovis point - and the hunters who used it - arrived on the scene.
But from where? With temperatures much colder than today and substantial polar ice sheets, sea levels were much lower. Asia and America were connected by a land bridge where now there's the open water of the Bering Strait. The traditional view of American prehistory was that Clovis people travelled by land from Asia.
This version was so accepted that few archaeologists even bothered to look for artefacts from periods before 10,000BC. But when Jim Adavasio continued to dig below the Clovis layer at his dig near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he found blades and blade cores dating back to 16,000BC. His findings were dismissed as erroneous; too astonishing to be credible. The Clovis consensus had too many reputations behind it to evaporate easily. Some archaeologists who backed Adavasio's conclusions with other similar data were accused of making radiocarbon dating errors or even of planting finds.
Decisive evidence would have to come from an independent arena. Douglas Wallace studies mitochondrial DNA, part of the human chromosomes that is passed unchanged from mother to daughter. It only varies when mistakes occur in the replication of the genetic code. Conveniently for Wallace's work (piecing together a global history of migration of native peoples) these mistakes crop up at a quite regular rate. The technique has allowed Wallace to map the geographical ancestry of all the Native American peoples back to Siberia and northeast Asia.
The route of the Clovis hypothesis was right. The date, however, was wrong - out by up to 20,000 years. Wallace's migration history showed waves of incomers. The Clovis people were clearly not the first humans to set foot across North America.
Dennis Stanford went back to first principles to investigate Clovis afresh, looking at tools from the period along the route Clovis was assumed to have taken from Siberia via the Bering Strait to Alaska. The large bifaced Clovis point was not in the archaeological record. Instead the tools used microblades, numerous small flint flakes lined up along the spear shaft to make its head.
Wallace's DNA work suggested migration from Asia to America but the Clovis trail contradicted it. Bruce Bradley stepped in to help solve this dichotomy, bringing with him one particular skill: flintknapping and the ability to read flint tools for their most intimate secrets.
He spotted the similarity in production method between the Clovis point and tools made by the Solutrean neolithic (Stone Age) culture in southwest France. At this stage his idea was pure hypothesis, but could the first Americans have been European?
The Solutreans were a remarkably society, the most innovative and adaptive of the time. They were among the first to discover the value of heat treating flints to increase strength. Bradley was keen to discover if Solutrean flintknapping styles matched Clovis techniques. A trawl through the unattractive flint offcuts in the storerooms of a French museum convinced him of the similarities, even though five thousand kilometres lay between their territories.
The divide was more than just distance; it crossed five thousand years as well. No matter the similarities between the two cultures, the possibility of a parallel technology developing by chance would have to be considered. More evidence emerged from an archaeological dig in Cactus Hill, Virginia. A bifaced flint point found there was dated to 16kya, far older than Clovis. Even more startling was its style. To flintknapper Bruce Bradley's eye, the Cactus Hill flint was a technological midpoint between the French Solutrean style and the Clovis points dating five millennia later. It seemed there is no great divide in time. The Solutrean flint methods evolved into Clovis.
If time could be discounted, Bradley's critics pointed to an obstacle that was hardly going to go away: crossing the Atlantic Ocean in small open boats. How could Stone Age people have made such an epic journey, especially when the Ice Age maximum would have filled the Atlantic with icebergs.
Dennis Stanford returned to his earlier hunch, looking for clues among the Arctic Eskimo peoples. Despite the influx of modern technologies, he was heartened to discover that traditional techniques endured. Clothing makers in Barrow, Alaska, recognised some Solutrean bone needles he showed them as typical of their own. The caribou skin clothing the Inuit still choose to wear could equally have been made by people in 16,000BC. And for Eskimo peoples the Arctic is not a desert - but a source of plentiful sea food. If the Solutreans had the Clovis point it would have made a formidable harpoon weapon to ensure a food supply. Would modern Eskimo ever consider a five thousand kilometre journey across the Atlantic?
The answer it seems is yes - they have undertaken similar journeys many times.. Most encouraging was the realisation that Inuit people today rely on traditional boat building techniques. 'Unbreakable' plastic breaks in the unceasing cold temperatures whereas boats of wood, sealskin and whale oil are resilient and easily maintained. The same materials would have been available to Solutrean boat builders. Even if the Stone Age Europeans could make those boats, would it survive an Atlantic crossing?
Stanford believes the boats' flimsiness is deceptive. With the Atlantic full of ice floes it would be quite possible for paddlers in open boats to travel along the edges, always having a safe place to haul out upon if the weather turned in.
All this evidence was still essentially circumstantial, making the Solutrean adventure possible not proven. Douglas Wallace's DNA history bore fruit once more. In the DNA profile of the Ichigua Native American tribe he identified a lineage that was clearly European in origin, too old to be due to genetic mixing since Columbus' discovery of the New World. Instead it dated to Solutrean times. Wallace's genetic timelines show the Ice Age prompted a number of migrations from Europe to America. It looks highly likely that the Solutreans were one.
The impact of this new prehistory on Native Americans could be grave. They usually consider themselves to be Asian in origin; and to have been subjugated by Europeans after 1492. If they too were partly Europeans, the dividing lines would be instantly blurred. Dr Joallyn Archambault of the American Indian Programme of the Smithsonian Institute offers a positive interpretation, however. Venturing across huge bodies of water, she says, is a clear demonstration of the courage and creativity of the Native Americans' ancestors. Bruce Bradley agrees. He feels his Solutrean Ice Age theory takes into consideration the abilities of people to embrace new places, adding, "To ignore this possibility ignores the humanity of people 20,000 years ago."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2002/columbus.shtml
Who were the first people in North America? From where did they come? How did they arrive? The prehistory of the Americas has been widely studied. Over 70 years a consensus became so established that dissenters felt uneasy challenging it. Yet in 2001, genetics, anthropology and a few shards of flint combined to overturn the accepted facts and to push back one of the greatest technological changes that the Americas have ever seen by over five millennia.
The accepted version of the first Americans starts with a flint spearhead unearthed at Clovis, New Mexico, in 1933. Dated by the mammoth skeleton it lay beside to 11,500 years ago (11.5kya), it was distinctive because it had two faces, where flakes had been knapped away from a core flint. The find sparked a wave of similar reports, all dating from around the same period. There seemed to be nothing human before Clovis. Whoever those incomers were around 9,500BC, they appeared to have had a clean start. And the Clovis point was their icon - across 48 states.
An icon that was supremely effective: the introduction of the innovative spearpoint coincided with a mass extinction of the continent's megafauna. Not only the mammoth, but the giant armadillo, giant sloth and great black bear all disappeared soon after the Clovis point - and the hunters who used it - arrived on the scene.
But from where? With temperatures much colder than today and substantial polar ice sheets, sea levels were much lower. Asia and America were connected by a land bridge where now there's the open water of the Bering Strait. The traditional view of American prehistory was that Clovis people travelled by land from Asia.
This version was so accepted that few archaeologists even bothered to look for artefacts from periods before 10,000BC. But when Jim Adavasio continued to dig below the Clovis layer at his dig near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he found blades and blade cores dating back to 16,000BC. His findings were dismissed as erroneous; too astonishing to be credible. The Clovis consensus had too many reputations behind it to evaporate easily. Some archaeologists who backed Adavasio's conclusions with other similar data were accused of making radiocarbon dating errors or even of planting finds.
Decisive evidence would have to come from an independent arena. Douglas Wallace studies mitochondrial DNA, part of the human chromosomes that is passed unchanged from mother to daughter. It only varies when mistakes occur in the replication of the genetic code. Conveniently for Wallace's work (piecing together a global history of migration of native peoples) these mistakes crop up at a quite regular rate. The technique has allowed Wallace to map the geographical ancestry of all the Native American peoples back to Siberia and northeast Asia.
The route of the Clovis hypothesis was right. The date, however, was wrong - out by up to 20,000 years. Wallace's migration history showed waves of incomers. The Clovis people were clearly not the first humans to set foot across North America.
Dennis Stanford went back to first principles to investigate Clovis afresh, looking at tools from the period along the route Clovis was assumed to have taken from Siberia via the Bering Strait to Alaska. The large bifaced Clovis point was not in the archaeological record. Instead the tools used microblades, numerous small flint flakes lined up along the spear shaft to make its head.
Wallace's DNA work suggested migration from Asia to America but the Clovis trail contradicted it. Bruce Bradley stepped in to help solve this dichotomy, bringing with him one particular skill: flintknapping and the ability to read flint tools for their most intimate secrets.
He spotted the similarity in production method between the Clovis point and tools made by the Solutrean neolithic (Stone Age) culture in southwest France. At this stage his idea was pure hypothesis, but could the first Americans have been European?
The Solutreans were a remarkably society, the most innovative and adaptive of the time. They were among the first to discover the value of heat treating flints to increase strength. Bradley was keen to discover if Solutrean flintknapping styles matched Clovis techniques. A trawl through the unattractive flint offcuts in the storerooms of a French museum convinced him of the similarities, even though five thousand kilometres lay between their territories.
The divide was more than just distance; it crossed five thousand years as well. No matter the similarities between the two cultures, the possibility of a parallel technology developing by chance would have to be considered. More evidence emerged from an archaeological dig in Cactus Hill, Virginia. A bifaced flint point found there was dated to 16kya, far older than Clovis. Even more startling was its style. To flintknapper Bruce Bradley's eye, the Cactus Hill flint was a technological midpoint between the French Solutrean style and the Clovis points dating five millennia later. It seemed there is no great divide in time. The Solutrean flint methods evolved into Clovis.
If time could be discounted, Bradley's critics pointed to an obstacle that was hardly going to go away: crossing the Atlantic Ocean in small open boats. How could Stone Age people have made such an epic journey, especially when the Ice Age maximum would have filled the Atlantic with icebergs.
Dennis Stanford returned to his earlier hunch, looking for clues among the Arctic Eskimo peoples. Despite the influx of modern technologies, he was heartened to discover that traditional techniques endured. Clothing makers in Barrow, Alaska, recognised some Solutrean bone needles he showed them as typical of their own. The caribou skin clothing the Inuit still choose to wear could equally have been made by people in 16,000BC. And for Eskimo peoples the Arctic is not a desert - but a source of plentiful sea food. If the Solutreans had the Clovis point it would have made a formidable harpoon weapon to ensure a food supply. Would modern Eskimo ever consider a five thousand kilometre journey across the Atlantic?
The answer it seems is yes - they have undertaken similar journeys many times.. Most encouraging was the realisation that Inuit people today rely on traditional boat building techniques. 'Unbreakable' plastic breaks in the unceasing cold temperatures whereas boats of wood, sealskin and whale oil are resilient and easily maintained. The same materials would have been available to Solutrean boat builders. Even if the Stone Age Europeans could make those boats, would it survive an Atlantic crossing?
Stanford believes the boats' flimsiness is deceptive. With the Atlantic full of ice floes it would be quite possible for paddlers in open boats to travel along the edges, always having a safe place to haul out upon if the weather turned in.
All this evidence was still essentially circumstantial, making the Solutrean adventure possible not proven. Douglas Wallace's DNA history bore fruit once more. In the DNA profile of the Ichigua Native American tribe he identified a lineage that was clearly European in origin, too old to be due to genetic mixing since Columbus' discovery of the New World. Instead it dated to Solutrean times. Wallace's genetic timelines show the Ice Age prompted a number of migrations from Europe to America. It looks highly likely that the Solutreans were one.
The impact of this new prehistory on Native Americans could be grave. They usually consider themselves to be Asian in origin; and to have been subjugated by Europeans after 1492. If they too were partly Europeans, the dividing lines would be instantly blurred. Dr Joallyn Archambault of the American Indian Programme of the Smithsonian Institute offers a positive interpretation, however. Venturing across huge bodies of water, she says, is a clear demonstration of the courage and creativity of the Native Americans' ancestors. Bruce Bradley agrees. He feels his Solutrean Ice Age theory takes into consideration the abilities of people to embrace new places, adding, "To ignore this possibility ignores the humanity of people 20,000 years ago."
Interesting news
Evidence grows N. America's first colonizers were European
http://www.trussel.com/prehist/news168.htm
LONDON — Stone Age Europeans were the first trans-Atlantic sailors. Columbus and the Vikings were mere ocean-crossing latecomers, according to a leading American anthropologist. Dennis Stanford, of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, says Neolithic fishermen and hunters sailed the Atlantic in tiny boats made of animal skins 18,000 years ago and colonized the eastern United States.
Such a journey would represent one of the most astonishing migrations ever undertaken — the Earth was then in the grip of the Ice Age and much of its high northern and southern latitudes were desolate wastelands blasted by storms and blizzards.
On the other hand, much of the planet's water was locked in icecaps and glaciers, and sea levels would have been much lower than today's. The edges of the continents would have extended further into the oceans.
"The gap between Europe and America was greatly reduced," Stanford said. "It could have been quite feasible for fishermen and whale and seal hunters to sail around the southern rim of the packs of sea-ice that covered the North Atlantic and reach land around the Banks of Newfoundland."
Stanford's theory — outlined at a recent archaeology conference in Santa Fe, N.M. — is based on discoveries indicating ancient American people were culturally far more like the Neolithic tribes of France, Spain and Ireland than the Asian people whom scientists had previously thought to be the sole prehistoric settlers of North America.
Stanford also points out although modern Native Americans possess DNA similar to that of Asians, they also carry some variants found only in European people. This genetic input could only be explained by accepting Stone Age people could sail ocean-going boats, he said.
"We now know that human beings learned to sail 50,000 years before the present," he said. "Mankind settled in Australia then and it was not linked by any land bridge to Asia. It could only have been reached by boat. Clearly, we had mastered sailing tens of thousands of years before America was colonized, so we should not be surprised by the idea that people took boat trips across the Atlantic 18,000 years ago."
The theory that prehistoric Europeans colonized America was first put forward in the 1950s by archaeologist Frank Hibben, but was discredited by evidence supporting the notion the continent was populated 20,000 to 15,000 years ago by Asian migrants who walked across the land bridge then linking Siberia with Alaska, and who then trekked south through the continent.
Stanford does not disagree Asian folk colonized ancient America, but argues current genetic and archaeological evidence shows an influx of Europeans must also have taken place. The prime candidates for these migrants are the Solutrean people who lived in Spain 23,000 to 18,000 years ago and later colonized parts of France and Ireland.
They designed and made beautifully crafted fluted stone blades that bore a striking similarity to those made by the Clovis people who lived in America 11,000 years ago. Like the Clovis, the Solutreans made stone scrapers to prepare hides and kept stores of stone implements, buried in red ocher, round the countryside. These ancient Spaniards therefore must have been among the first New World settlers, Stanford says. Native Americans are Iberian, not Siberian, in origin.
The theory's main problem stems from the fact an Atlantic crossing in tiny Ice Age boats would have been an awesome undertaking. However, Stanford argues it would have been a less arduous undertaking than might be expected. "If a storm arrived, they would have camped on an ice island until the weather got better. Eventually they would have drifted west until they reach eastern America," he said.
http://www.trussel.com/prehist/news168.htm
LONDON — Stone Age Europeans were the first trans-Atlantic sailors. Columbus and the Vikings were mere ocean-crossing latecomers, according to a leading American anthropologist. Dennis Stanford, of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, says Neolithic fishermen and hunters sailed the Atlantic in tiny boats made of animal skins 18,000 years ago and colonized the eastern United States.
Such a journey would represent one of the most astonishing migrations ever undertaken — the Earth was then in the grip of the Ice Age and much of its high northern and southern latitudes were desolate wastelands blasted by storms and blizzards.
On the other hand, much of the planet's water was locked in icecaps and glaciers, and sea levels would have been much lower than today's. The edges of the continents would have extended further into the oceans.
"The gap between Europe and America was greatly reduced," Stanford said. "It could have been quite feasible for fishermen and whale and seal hunters to sail around the southern rim of the packs of sea-ice that covered the North Atlantic and reach land around the Banks of Newfoundland."
Stanford's theory — outlined at a recent archaeology conference in Santa Fe, N.M. — is based on discoveries indicating ancient American people were culturally far more like the Neolithic tribes of France, Spain and Ireland than the Asian people whom scientists had previously thought to be the sole prehistoric settlers of North America.
Stanford also points out although modern Native Americans possess DNA similar to that of Asians, they also carry some variants found only in European people. This genetic input could only be explained by accepting Stone Age people could sail ocean-going boats, he said.
"We now know that human beings learned to sail 50,000 years before the present," he said. "Mankind settled in Australia then and it was not linked by any land bridge to Asia. It could only have been reached by boat. Clearly, we had mastered sailing tens of thousands of years before America was colonized, so we should not be surprised by the idea that people took boat trips across the Atlantic 18,000 years ago."
The theory that prehistoric Europeans colonized America was first put forward in the 1950s by archaeologist Frank Hibben, but was discredited by evidence supporting the notion the continent was populated 20,000 to 15,000 years ago by Asian migrants who walked across the land bridge then linking Siberia with Alaska, and who then trekked south through the continent.
Stanford does not disagree Asian folk colonized ancient America, but argues current genetic and archaeological evidence shows an influx of Europeans must also have taken place. The prime candidates for these migrants are the Solutrean people who lived in Spain 23,000 to 18,000 years ago and later colonized parts of France and Ireland.
They designed and made beautifully crafted fluted stone blades that bore a striking similarity to those made by the Clovis people who lived in America 11,000 years ago. Like the Clovis, the Solutreans made stone scrapers to prepare hides and kept stores of stone implements, buried in red ocher, round the countryside. These ancient Spaniards therefore must have been among the first New World settlers, Stanford says. Native Americans are Iberian, not Siberian, in origin.
The theory's main problem stems from the fact an Atlantic crossing in tiny Ice Age boats would have been an awesome undertaking. However, Stanford argues it would have been a less arduous undertaking than might be expected. "If a storm arrived, they would have camped on an ice island until the weather got better. Eventually they would have drifted west until they reach eastern America," he said.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Man charged for burning flag
Man cited for burning Mexican flag
Web Posted: 10/09/2007 10:11 PM CDT
Joe CongerKENS 5 Eyewitness News
It caused some controversy, but it was supposed to. Now, one man is headed to municipal court for burning a Mexican flag in protest in front of the Alamo.
The city is charging 46-year old David Bohmfalk with burning without a permit, even though no one gives permits to burn a flag.
"I was raised to respect my country," Bohmfalk said.
All the rallies and talk of amnesty for undocumented immigrants in May 2006 lit the fires of patriotism for Bohmfalk, he said.
"I just got angry," he said. "I decided I had to do something, make my statement, and that's what I did."
Bohmfalk had his own protest in front of a building known for revolution, where Davy Crockett and James Bowie made a stand. So did Bohmfalk but he used a lighter instead of gunfighter.
Park police cited Bohmfalk for illegal burning of rubbish, even it was a Mexican flag he set ablaze.
"Because of what it's made out of, it took a little while to burn it. It took me two minutes, but I got it lit," Bohmfalk
Authorities say his actions left some of the Mexican nationals in the Alamo crowd feeling burned. However, Bohmfalk's attorney, Jason Jakob, says, freedom of speech is Bohmfalk's constitutional right.
"My client felt so strongly, and exercised protest, by burning that flag," Jakob said.
Bohmfalk says while he was detained by police, he was harassed, his life was threatened, and he was even assaulted by some tourists who spit on him. Ironically, all these offenses are punishable by law. Jakob says flag burning is not.
"In America, every day we see people burning the American flag and it's become desensitized," Jakob said. "If we can allow that, we can certainly say that the Mexican flag can be burned."
As a former Texas police chief and military veteran, Bohmfalk says he knows his rights, and is fighting for them.
"Why should a foreign flag get any better protection than the American flag?" he said.
The city has not returned calls for comment. As for Bohmfalk's right to a speedy trial, that's been delayed as well. His trial has been reset three times.
Web Posted: 10/09/2007 10:11 PM CDT
Joe CongerKENS 5 Eyewitness News
It caused some controversy, but it was supposed to. Now, one man is headed to municipal court for burning a Mexican flag in protest in front of the Alamo.
The city is charging 46-year old David Bohmfalk with burning without a permit, even though no one gives permits to burn a flag.
"I was raised to respect my country," Bohmfalk said.
All the rallies and talk of amnesty for undocumented immigrants in May 2006 lit the fires of patriotism for Bohmfalk, he said.
"I just got angry," he said. "I decided I had to do something, make my statement, and that's what I did."
Bohmfalk had his own protest in front of a building known for revolution, where Davy Crockett and James Bowie made a stand. So did Bohmfalk but he used a lighter instead of gunfighter.
Park police cited Bohmfalk for illegal burning of rubbish, even it was a Mexican flag he set ablaze.
"Because of what it's made out of, it took a little while to burn it. It took me two minutes, but I got it lit," Bohmfalk
Authorities say his actions left some of the Mexican nationals in the Alamo crowd feeling burned. However, Bohmfalk's attorney, Jason Jakob, says, freedom of speech is Bohmfalk's constitutional right.
"My client felt so strongly, and exercised protest, by burning that flag," Jakob said.
Bohmfalk says while he was detained by police, he was harassed, his life was threatened, and he was even assaulted by some tourists who spit on him. Ironically, all these offenses are punishable by law. Jakob says flag burning is not.
"In America, every day we see people burning the American flag and it's become desensitized," Jakob said. "If we can allow that, we can certainly say that the Mexican flag can be burned."
As a former Texas police chief and military veteran, Bohmfalk says he knows his rights, and is fighting for them.
"Why should a foreign flag get any better protection than the American flag?" he said.
The city has not returned calls for comment. As for Bohmfalk's right to a speedy trial, that's been delayed as well. His trial has been reset three times.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Tom Tancredo rips Bush
Tancredo slams Bush over immigration
By Kevin Landrigan
The Nashua Telegraph (NH),
September 25, 2007 http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/articleAID=/20070925/NEWS08/309250087/-1/news08
Nashua -- Republican presidential candidate Rep. Tom Tancredo, of Colorado, said President Bush's failure to enforce existing immigration laws is 'despicable' and leading to a domestic crisis.
If elected, Tancredo, 61, said he'd ask Congress to require the withdrawal of Social Security taxes from all employee wages to make it easier for the federal government to track and deport illegal aliens.
'If we don't like our immigration laws, if we think they are wrong, repeal them. If we don't think they are wrong, enforce them,' Tancredo said during an interview with The Telegraph editorial board at Nashua High School South.
'Don't keep ignoring our laws, which this president has been doing, which is despicable,' Tancredo said.
To Tancredo, Bush's failure to crack down more on employers who employ undocumented workers and to maintain border security amounts to a high crime. 'If he could be impeached for dereliction of duty, a bill could be brought. Unfortunately, that is not grounds,' Tancredo said.
'He has avoided dealing with this issue to a point where we are at a crisis, I believe, and it is just unconscionable.' A six-term congressman, Tancredo said illegal immigration has become the centerpiece of his campaign, due to the role it's played in rising health-care costs, availability of jobs and crime.
'It is the most serious domestic policy we face, it has enormous ramifications for America, legal or illegal immigration, period, because of the lack of assimilation that has occurred,' Tancredo said.
Employers need to increase the wages of the low-skill jobs instead of hiring illegal immigrants, Tancredo said. He insisted the private economy cost for such a move would be lower than the costs of educating and caring for those who are here illegally.
Tancredo said an illegal alien serving in the military should be placed on a path to citizenship, but all other undocumented citizens must return to their former home. 'I have compassion for people who have done it the right way,' Tancredo said.
On Iraq, Tancredo said after this November, U.S. combat forces should disengage from serving as that country's police force and redeploy much of its troops elsewhere in the Middle East. 'I think we'll have to be in Iraq proper, in the oil fields. The numbers I don't know yet,' said Tancredo who serves on the House International Affairs Committee.
Tancredo defended his statement on a Florida radio talk show in 2005 when he favored 'taking out' Muslim holy sites if he learned fundamentalist extremists used nuclear weapons to attacks the U.S. 'What can you do to create a deterrent? I put this out there as a proposal,' said Tancredo, adding he's received death threats in response to it. 'You have to think what is motivating them . . . I think they are acting because of a religious interpretation they have of Islam.' Dave Burgess, of Hudson, a member of The Telegraph Reader Advisory Network, asked if the attacks against Iraq and Afghanistan were justified based on the terrorist attacks against the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001, even though al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden has not been captured. 'I think the response against the Taliban in Afghanistan was absolutely appropriate,' Tancredo responded. 'To call Iraq a response to 9-11 is inaccurate.'
A former junior high school teacher and federal education official, Tancredo said the U.S. role in public schools should be limited, the reason for his opposition to the federal No Child Left Behind law. Tancredo supports converting federal spending to education block grants for the state and taxpayer-financed vouchers that let parents pick the public, private or parochial school of their choice. 'I want to focus on the kid and not the system,' Tancredo added.
Consumers should be able to buy their own health insurance with the help of tax-free health savings accounts rather than get it primarily through their private employers, Tancredo said.
And he supports President Bush's threatened veto of the House-passed expansion of the Child Health Insurance Program for the states. After the interview, Tancredo spoke and then took questions from social studies students in the school auditorium.
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