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Hispanics Support Obama - Reject Deportation Policy

photo: 

In a recent survey nearly 70 % of hispanics living in the U. S. would vote for Obama over any republican candidate, while nearly 60 % disapprove of the current deportation policy of illegal immigrants.  Hence, the president is still their best hope for change.  Most recognize the disastrous effects on their culture if a Republican wins the election.

                                        photo compliments of weaselzippers.us

Immigration Experiment Under the Microscope: Very Costly, Unintended Consequences

Another community reports that its effort to rid itself of immigrants, ends up costing dearly.  For some the goal is to GET RID OF both legal and undocumented immigrants.  (It's pretty easy to call this Racism.)  For others it is an unintended consequence.  Either way, the community pays, both financially and through lost enrichment of life.

“The Hispanic businesses and malls are empty. You used to see 100 people at the shopping center, and after the resolution, you'd see five. You noticed the difference."

This quote describes the fallout from Prince William County’s polarizing local immigration law which was passed in 2007 and modified in 2008. A three-year, $385,000 University of Virginia study of the policy released this week found that it drove out a significant number of immigrants—both legal and undocumented.
Under the original policy, local police were directed to check the immigration status of any individual they had probable cause to believe was in the country without authorization. After much controversy, Prince William limited the measure in 2008 to require police officers to check the immigration status of all arrestees.
Clearly, Prince William’s immigration actions cost the county the contributions of thousands of immigrant taxpayers, workers and consumers. From 2006 to 2008, Prince William’s non-citizen Hispanic population dropped by 22 percent, or by 7,700 people. During the same period, the undocumented population decreased by an estimated 3,000 to 6,000 people.
Immigration hawks are quick to separate legal from undocumented immigrants; we’re told harsh laws aren’t anti-immigrant because they only target undocumented immigrants. The UVA study shows us that this is a naïve assumption. Too often, restrictive immigration enforcement and the corresponding policy debates also impact legal immigrants and the broader Hispanic community.

Whether UVA’s findings are indicators of the policy’s success or troubling evidence of collateral damage depends on who you ask. For county supervisors, driving out legal immigrants and Hispanics was never a goal of the measure, but an “unintended consequence.” For others, this was a victory. From the report:

Some actors in the drama of the resolution’s passage had quite different goals. Some in the community who advocated the policy made clear…that they were hoping to “take back the County” by reversing the tide of rapid in-migration of Hispanics to Prince William County.

Immigration restrictionists also counted this as a win for “attrition through enforcement,” a strategy that calls for crafting harsh laws to make life so untenable for undocumented immigrants they choose to leave—an approach best described as “a product of delusion and cruelty.”

Should other localities follow Prince William’s approach to immigration enforcement? The authors conclude that their results should be only applied to other jurisdictions with “great caution.” ..... Moreover, these less-than-stellar results cost Prince William almost $3 million to implement. One author of the study advises would-be copycats: “This not a free policy…Don’t try this if you don’t want to spend some money.”

See more of this article:  http://www.dmiblog.com/archives/2010/11/under_the_microscope_one_count.html

Arizona Anti-immigrant Law Backfires. Mexicans Welcome Back

Arizona's anti-immigration law is causing tremendous economic hardships on Arizona's businesses and citizens.  In a radical change of heart, many are calling for a new worker visa program in order to bring mexican workers back to Arizona.

Selective Deportation of Illegal Immigrants: Obama's new approach to inmigrantes.

By Christopher Goffard, Paloma Esquivel and Teresa Watanabe,
 Los Angeles Times
August 19, 2011

The Obama administration said it will review the cases of 300,000 illegal immigrants currently in deportation proceedings to identify "low-priority" offenders — including the elderly, crime victims and people who have lived in the U.S. since childhood — with an eye toward allowing them to stay.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced the review as the Obama administration has sought to counter criticism that it has been too harsh in its deportation policies. By launching the case-by-case review, officials said they are refocusing deportation efforts on convicted felons and other "public safety threats."

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/aug/19/local/la-me-0819-obama-immigration-20110819

Do Latinos still support Obama and his immigration efforts?

Latinos supported Obama in 2008 by 60% after an inspiring speech that sounded like music to them.

But the magic of the moment fizzled soon after President Obama was elected. The party favors, orchestra, and minstrels soon disappeared and the defiant and catchy melody turned grave and bewildered.

While there were a few well-meaning efforts to address immigration reform in the House and Senate under Democratic leadership, no progress was made. Outside Washington, DC, between President Obama's first day in office and the end of June 2011, one million immigrants and families have been detained, deported, or fired from their place of work. In addition, the well-oiled enforcement machine led by ICE in collaboration with local police departments under the rubric of the wrongly-named "Secure Communities," I-9 audits, and 287(g) agreements, just to name a few, is running full speed ahead.
Understandably, when the president argued once again at this year's NCLR conference that he is unable to do much on his own unless Republicans acquiesce and change our broken immigration laws, the chorus of "yes, you can" politely and in crescendo interrupted him.
During his speech, President Obama went to great pains to remind listeners that his administration is "keeping our promises." The audience must have nodded that when it came to the economy, gay and lesbian rights, and women's issues, the president has indeed delivered. But when President Obama pivoted to immigration reform, he blamed Republicans for the impasse, chided those who call on him to use his executive authority to alleviate the suffering of immigrant families, and committed to keep up the fight while encouraging the community to "keep the heat on me and Democrats." Lastly the Pied Piper in Chief, dressed in a most charming outfit, conceded he knows "very well the real pain and heartbreak that deportations cause" and he made an appeal we have heard once before: "Let's be honest. I need a dance partner, and the floor's empty."
It must not be an easy for President Obama to be at a party and not have a partner he can enjoy the music with. Although his political advisors are telling the president he has Latinos in the bag in 2012, the jury is by far out deliberating whether or not this president means it when he says he will fight the fight with us on the moral and practical issue of immigration reform. Does he meant it when he says we will not be stepped upon again? Thousands and thousands, millions even, of families throughout the United States are suffering on a daily basis the failure of this administration and this Congress to update our immigration laws. In the absence of real reform, immigrant communities everywhere have endured two and a half years of sustained torture led by none other than another "friend" of the community, Secretary Janet Napolitano, and face an increasing chorus of legislatures approving anti-immigrant, discriminatory, and unconstitutional laws. This song's tune is not for dancing.
Thus, the president must have surely felt the heat even while he read his speech at the NCLR conference. If he did, he kept his composure and was as eloquent and convincing as he was in 2008. But President Obama, Republicans and Democrats should recognize that we have danced together quite a lot during the past two years and a half and our feet are getting tired. Not tired enough to stop our fight for justice and changes in immigration laws so that they accurately reflect our nation's compassion, values, and interest. Not tired enough not to register millions more and switch the tune at the ballot box if this one does not suit us. Certainly we are not tired enough to remind our national elected leaders that even the most avid dancer can trip if he is not careful.

Source:  Jorge-Mario Cabrera,   The Huffington Post:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jorgemario-cabrera/obama-immigration-policy-and-latino-vote_b_910328.html

Send them HOME !

They are stealing our jobs.  They aren't paying any taxes.  They are a drain on our society.  They are having babies so they can claim social services and stay in our country.  They don't speak our language.  Send them HOME !

Send us your huddled masses.

 Irish immigrants a century ago.

Republican Senator of turns against Hispanic heritage

"I can't think of a more generous immigration policy than the one his parents benefitted from," Gutierrez, a liberal from Chicago of Puerto Rican descent, told POLITICO on Wednesday. "All they had to do was show up."He was referring to Sen. Marco Rubio (R- Fla), the newly elected representative born of Cuban immigrant parents.

"It is the story of a bartender and a maid in Florida. Today their son serves here in the Senate, and stands as a proud witness of the greatness of this land." says Rubio.

So what does this star example of the American Dream advocate in the way of today's immigration reform efforts? 
"Senator Rubio repeatedly and consistently stressed border security and E-Verify would be his immediate priorities."....Rubio has dismissed the DREAM Act as “blanket amnesty” for illegal immigrants.
America's Voice blasted : "Marco Rubio Sells out Hispanic Community."

“Marco Rubio has become a go-along Washington insider overnight," said Lynn Tramonte, deputy director of America’s Voice. "By championing mandatory E-Verify, the big government program with a 50 percent fail rate, Rubio has thrown Hispanics under the bus in order to cozy up to anti-immigrant ‘leaders’ in Congress like Sen. Grassley and Rep. Lamar Smith. ...
"The fact that Marco Rubio put his name on this bill shows that he just doesn’t get it. He is incapable of being a real bridge to the Latino community for the GOP."

Read more of this and other articles:  http://www.politico.com/blogs/glennthrush/0611/Gutierrez_goes_after_Rubio_on_immigration.html

Maria Gonzales: illegal alien. What will you do with her?

Raul’s family has lived in Texas for 4 generations.  He is a US Citizen.  Six years ago he married Maria, whose parents brought her to the US illegally when she was a teenager.  Raul and Maria now have two boys and are expecting another in three months.  Raul works hard and pays all this taxes and mortgage on their home.  Maria confides in you that she is an illegal alien and that her boss is paying her under the table so she can save on her payroll expenses.

You have a choice.  What will you do?

1.       Report Maria and her boss to the authorities, so Maria will be deported.

2.       Keep quiet, do nothing and allow Maria to continue supporting her family even though she arrived here illegally and her boss illegally hired her.

3.       Try to find a way for Maria to become legalized and for her boss to pay all her taxes.

E-Verify: a dagger in the heart of Agriculture

By Mahwish Khan
[Last weeks] Supreme Court ruling to uphold Arizona’s law requiring state businesses use the E-Verify system strikes a crushing blow to the Arizona agriculture industry.  If other states follow Arizona’s lead, or if Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) gets his wish and rams through a mandatory E-Verify law this summer, it will be the beginning of the end for American farms, domestic food sources, and related jobs held by Americans in production, processing, transportation, and marketing. In the absence of Comprehensive Immigration Reform at the federal level, mandatory E-Verify will deport farms and jobs. This will hurt all Americans.


According to Lynn Tramonte, Deputy Director of America’s Voice Education Fund:

Yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling is a dagger in the heart of Arizona agriculture.  If this type of law spreads nationwide, we will essentially deport the entire agriculture industry—including jobs held by Americans—and be forced to import more of our nation’s food supply.  Passing a mandatory E-Verify law without comprehensive immigration reform will kill American jobs and farms, burden small businesses, reduce tax revenue, and drive undocumented workers further underground. 

http://americasvoiceonline.org/blog/entry/arizona_e-verify_law_supreme_courts_immigration_decision/ 

80 Yrs in Jail: Employers of Illegals

The crackdown against illegal immigration is moving in a different direction.  Local, state and federal authorities are changing the emphasis, increasingly going after employers while relaxing a bit the large scale factory-type of raids rounding up undocumented workers.

Photo:  mouthnews.com

According to the Seattle Times, " immigration authorities have greatly expanded the number of businesses facing scrutiny and cases where employers face severe sanctions.
In a break with Bush-era policies, the number of criminal cases against illegal-immigrant workers has dropped sharply in two years."


"Among those who have felt the impact of the tactics are two owners of Mexican restaurants in the Chuy's Mesquite Broiler chain, popular for their laid-back Margaritaville mood and broiled mahi tacos. On April 20, immigration agents descended on 14 Chuy's restaurants in Arizona and California, detaining kitchen workers and carrying away payroll books and other evidence.
The only criminal defendants were the owners, Mark Evenson and his son Christopher, and an accountant, Diane Ingrid Strehlow. If convicted on all charges of tax fraud and harboring illegal workers, the Evensons each face more than 80 years in jail."

Read more of this and other articles in the Seattle Times
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2015184911_immig30.html

Undocumented Immigrants: a burden or benefit?

Myth: Undocumented workers are a burden on the U.S. economy.

Reality: Immigrants not only pay taxes, but they also contribute significantly to the economy.In a 2007 report, the White House Council of Economic Advisers concluded that..

-. Immigration increases the U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by roughly US  $37 billion each year.

- Given that employment has been the main driver behind undocumented immigration to the U.S. in recent decades, it should come as no surprise that this group is particularly hard working and has a high employment rate (96%).

 According to the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. Census Bureau, Hispanic owned firms increased by nearly 44 percent between 2002 and 2007, growing from 1.6 million businesses to 2.3 million.

Employment at Hispanic-owned firms also grew by 26 percent from 1.5 million to 1.9 million workers, a growth rate significantly higher than that of non-minority-owned firms.

Hispanic-owned businesses generated US$  345.2 billion in sales in 2007, up 55.5 percent compared with 2002.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/05/25/2233839/sc-house-approves-immigration.html#comment#ixzz1Nkjydl6z

Supreme Court on Immigration

Supreme Court Upholds Arizona Law Penalizing Businesses For Hiring Illegal Immigrants

Protesters in Phoenix rally against Arizona's new immigration law July 29, 2010. (AP)

BOB CHRISTIE and MARK SHERMAN   05/26/11 08:07 PM ET  

PHOENIX — The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld an Arizona law that penalizes businesses for hiring workers in the country illegally, buoying the hopes of supporters of state crackdowns on illegal immigration.
They predicted the ruling would lead to many other states passing laws that require employers to use the federal E-Verify system to check that workers aren't illegal immigrants. And some said the ruling bodes well for the prospects of a much broader and more controversial immigration law in Arizona, known as SB1070, to be found constitutional.
The state is appealing a ruling blocking portions of that law from taking effect.
But some legal experts said the ruling should not be read as a broad validation of such tactics. While they acknowledge that other states will now pass similar employer sanctions, they cautioned that the court did not make any sweeping endorsement of states' rights to enforce federal immigration laws.

See more of this and other articles on :  The Huffington Post

Economic, Demographic, and Fiscal Effects of Immigration

 

The New Americans: Economic, Demographic, and Fiscal Effects of Immigration

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The New Americans: Economic, Demographic, and Fiscal Effects of Immigration is a 1997 study on the demographic, economic, and fiscal consequences of immigration to the United States by the National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academy of Sciences The NRC report found that although immigrants, especially those from Latin America, were a net cost in terms of taxes paid versus social services received, overall immigration was a net economic gain due to an increase in pay for higher-skilled workers, lower prices for goods and services produced by immigrant labor, and more efficiency and lower wages for some owners of capital. The report also notes that although immigrant workers compete with domestic workers for some low skilled jobs, some immigrants specialize in activities that otherwise would not exist in an area, and thus are performing services that otherwise would not exist, and thus can be beneficial for all domestic residents.  The U.S. Census Bureau's  Survey of Business Owners: Hispanic-Owned Firms: 2002 indicated that the number of Hispanic-owned businesses in the United States grew to nearly 1.6 million in 2002. Those Hispanic-owned businesses generated about $222 billion in revenue.^[3] The report notes that the burden of poor immigrants is not born equally among states, and is most heavy in California.^[4]
On the poor end of the spectrum, the "New Americans" report found that low-skill low wage immigration does not, on aggregate, lower the wages of most domestic workers.

Click to see more of this article from Wikipedia

Illegal immigration and drug cartels

Source:  The Hill.com
By Armstrong Williams - 09/17/10 09:39 AM ET

Are the Mexican drug cartels more effective at stopping illegal immigration than our own Border Patrol? Immigrants seeking to illegally enter the U.S. from Central America are faced with a new and growing threat, cartels. The question is: What does this say about the cartels?

In August, an Ecuadorian immigrant venturing to the U.S. was detained by the Zetas — a notorious Mexican drug cartel — with a group of 72 other immigrants containing both men and women. Due to their unwillingness to work for the cartel, all were shot dead while the one escaped.

There are two ways this can be viewed: Either the cartels are growing bigger, so they need more people to smuggle drugs into the U.S. — and there is no better way than to use those who are successful at getting in — or the cartels are weakening and have no choice but to coerce illegal immigrants to do their bidding.

I might have to go with the latter. When cartels are not generating high drug revenues from their core business, they tend to resort to other illegal activities, such as prostitution and people-smuggling.

Click to see more of this article.  Source: The Hill's Pundit's Blog

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Geo Group Locations

Graphic source:  The Geo Group Inc

What is the Geo Group?
They are located at all the dots on this map.


You are paying them close to 2 billion dollars a year to do something.


For one point of view on what they do:  Click on the map.

(Notice the dot in Cuba?  That's Guantanamo Bay, one of their locations.)

Click to see more about Geo Group Inc.

AMERICANS ON BOTH SIDES OF THE FENCE

Some Americans have to cross the Border Fence to get back into America.

According to Reform Immigration for America, The federal government has spent over $2 billion already building a border fence with Mexico that even Sen. John McCain called ineffective. And for what? Apparently, to keep Americans on the other side:

Lately, though, there’s been a distinctly surreal flavour to Ms Taylor’s colourful display of patriotic identity. About 350 metres from her porch, an imposing metal fence looms into view. It is supposed to divide the US from Mexico, but by a cruel twist of fate, the 83-year-old grandmother’s family home has ended up on the “wrong” side. Four years ago, amid the seemingly endless hand-wringing over the flow of drugs and illegal migrants across their southern border, Washington politicians voted to erect a tall fence that would stretch thousands of miles from San Diego, on the Pacific coast, to Brownsville, on the Gulf of Mexico. The best-laid political schemes do not always work out as planned, though. When government engineers arrived in Ms Taylor’s neighbourhood, their plan hit a snag: the Mexican border follows the meandering Rio Grande in this area. And the river’s muddy banks are too soft and too prone to flooding to support a fence.
As a result, this corner of south-eastern Texas had its barrier constructed on a levee that follows a straight line from half a mile to two miles north of the river, leaving Ms Taylor’s bungalow – along with the homes and land of dozens of her angry neighbours – marooned on the Mexican side.

Click to see the rest of this story:  Reform Immigration For America