AntiBVBL

In a remarkably candid letter to members of Congress, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said her department could have to delay pursuits of illegal immigrants while waiting for horses to be brought in so agents don’t trample protected lands, and warns that illegal immigrants will increasingly make use of remote, protected areas to avoid being caught.

The above quote from the Washington Times makes one take note. In fact, Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah) has been crusading to shore up the gaps between DHS border control and environmental rules coming from the Dept. of the Interior. He confirms his displeasure over border initiatives to install towers associated with the virtual fence being denied because of wilderness designation.

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Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano has called for an overhaul of US immigration policy early next year. The move is expected to rekindle the immigration flames, which could be problematic in an election year.

Additionally, opponents and conservative media is billing any reform initiative as giving illegal immigrants amnesty. The Huffington Post quotes Napolitano:

Ms. Napolitano said the immigration landscape has changed sharply since 2007, when attempts at a comprehensive overhaul failed because many members of Congress lacked confidence in the government’s ability to enforce existing laws, she said. Immigration overhauls backed by the Bush administration and some congressional leaders from both parties foundered in part because critics portrayed them as rewarding illegal immigrants with “amnesty” for violating U.S. law.

Since then, government statistics show a 23% drop in the number of illegal immigrants caught trying to enter the U.S. in the past year, and a 67% decline since 2000, a trend Ms. Napolitano attributed to the weak economy and stronger enforcement. The government has also stepped up efforts to audit employers’ compliance with immigration laws, she said.

“These are major differences that should change the immigration conversation,” said Ms. Napolitano. Without congressional action, “what I fear is we will see another wave of illegal immigration” when the economy improves, she said. “When Congress is ready to act, we will be ready to support them.”

The Washington Times, a conservative newspaper, puts a different spin on Secretary Napolitano’s words:

Declaring success in border security and immigration enforcement, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Friday that the federal government has done its work and now it’s time for Congress to pass a broad bill to legalize illegal immigrants.

Her speech signals President Obama will make good on his promise to push Congress to pass an immigration bill next year – adding yet another hot-button issue to an already long and contentious list.

Ms. Napolitano said members of Congress and voters who balked at an immigration bill two years ago, fearing a repeat of the 1986 amnesty that only made the problem worse, can be assured this time is different. She said in those two years, the flow of illegal immigrants across the border has dropped dramatically and the government is doing more to catch fugitive aliens inside the U.S.

I have tried for several days to find a direct quote that sounds like what Ms. Napolitano was quoted as saying in the Washington Times. I have not been able to find it. It sounds incendiary to me and quite a stretch from what actually was said.

Here is the link to what DHS Secretary Napolitano did say. It is too lengthy to post here.

Apparently Prince William County is keeping a watchful eye on the White House and its policy on immigration, since President Obama took office, according to the News and Messenger.  What is being specifically watched is whether the 287(g) program will continue to be supported under the department of homeland security.  Certain supervisors fear that the program will lose its federal funding and basically cease to exist.  And if 287(g) is no longer funded as part of ICE, that leaves PWC without its program. 

The article includes a brief explanation of how the county partners with the federal government:

The 287(g) program is how the county jail and police partner with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to apprehend and process those with criminal backgrounds. Since July 2007, ICE has issued 1,606 detainers for those arrested in the county and 1,506 have been processed, according to county statistics received last week.  

The two supervisors who are most tied to the federal program are Chairman Corey Stewart and Gainesville supervisor John Stirrup.    Stewart explained the possible ramifications: 

“This is what I think is going to happen,” said Corey Stewart, R-at large, chairman of the Board of County Supervisors, looking at the national scene. “I think the administration is going to shift its enforcement focus from illegal immigration to the employer.”

Moreover, he continued, depending on federal budget decisions, the 287(g) program could lose funding. And if that happens, its fate in Prince William is jeopardized.

“If they defund it, it stops our program dead in the water,” Stewart said, rating the chances for such to occur at 50 percent. “It’s just based on the budget and the [actions of] Democrat members of Congress.”

A GAO report and Congressional testimony call for tighter control over the 287(g) program.  According to the written testimony of March 14 of Richard Stana, director of Homeland Security and Justice, to the House Committee on Homeland Security:

Specifically … guidance on how and when to use program authority is inconsistent, guidance on how ICE officials are to supervise officers from participating agencies has not been developed, data that participating agencies are to track and report to ICE has not been defined and … taken together, the lack of internal controls makes it difficult for ICE to ensure that the program is operating as intended,”

Stana’s statements were linked to a January GAO report entitled, Immigration Enforcement: Controls over Program Authorizing State and Local Enforcement of Federal Immigration Laws Should Be Strengthened

John Stirrup also expressed his concerns to the News and Messenger:

“I’m hearing the administration is going to use these [GAO] studies as a basis for defunding or reducing the 287(g) program locally,” said Supervisor John Stirrup, R-Gainesville, who was the original author of the county’s immigration enforcement policy. “We could seek assistance from the state … but it could be problematic.”

Meanwhile, county elected officials will probably have to take the wait and see approach.  Many local government people have quietly suggested that the problem with these federal programs is the very thing these 2 supervisors seemed to fear.  PWC has put much time, money and reputation into these programs.  At any minute, the Feds could pull the plug.  Should that happen, everything goes up in smoke.  All the training and county resources dry up and there is not plan to deal with criminal illegal immigrants.  Manassas City, who also participates in 287 (g) at the jail, was not quoted. 

Perhaps this county ought to look at a new motto:  Only fund and pay for that over which you have total control.

 (Just a thought….)

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According to CNN, Arthur Mkoyan, a California highschool validictorian planning to study medicine a California state university is now facing deportation just 10 days after graduation. Arthur’s family arrived in the United States in 1995 and have been trying to obtain legal status for over a decade.

Virginia can now follow in Arizona’s footsteps by asking immigrants to return after they have been told to leave.  Now this is almost too funny.  First, we tell them to go, and now need them to return.  According to this Washington Post article, entitled – ‘2 States Consider Guest-Worker Programs‘, Colorado and Arizona legislators are now under labor shortages and are investigating ways to ‘obtain their own foreign labor.’ 

Republican state Rep. Bill Konopnicki, a restaurant owner and an author of the bill, said the labor shortage in Arizona had been mounting for several years. It grew worse after passage of a new state law that punishes businesses for knowingly hiring illegal immigrants. That law has pressured many immigrants to leave.

 You know this reminds me of a song by The Clash: Should I Stay or Should I go?

Should I stay or should I go now?
Should I stay or should I go now?
If I go there will be trouble
An’ if I stay it will be double
So come on and let me know!

This indecision’s bugging me
If you don’t want me, set me free
Exactly who’m I’m supposed to be
Don’t you know which clothes even fit me?
Come on and let me know
Should I stay or should I go?

Is it just me or is this insanity?  We’re going to ask them to leave so we can ask them to return.  Here’s a radical idea – Let’s ask them to stay!  If they’ve been here a decade, pay taxes and aren’t criminals - put them on a path to legalization.

According to the Washington Times article, Gates urges a boost in skilled-worker immigration

Microsoft Chairman & Founder Bill Gates testified about the decline of skilled workers yesterday before the House cience and Technology Committee.  Last fall, Microsoft announced their intention to create an office in Vancouver, Canada so that they could ‘attract talent and avoid U.S. immigration issues.’

According to this article,

Mr. Gates has long been an advocate of reforming the H-1B visa program for skilled workers. The program’s annual cap of 65,000 was met last year on the first day that applications were accepted. At Microsoft, one-third of foreign job candidates were unable to obtain visas last year, Mr. Gates said.

This testimony from Bill Gates seems to re-affirm those pesky ‘paperwork problems’ again.

Let me state, in my work as a government contractor working in the technical field among many H1B visa holders, I can attest to the fact that this system, as well, needs an overhaul.  My suggestion would be to allot these visas but not allow the employers to control them.  Currently, if an employee is released from a company they have 30 days to find another job or leave the country.  This could lead to cases where employers take advantage of employees with these types of visas.  There are safeguards built into the system so that they should be paid a ‘prevailing wage’ so as not to undercut the wage system.

This leads nicely into a discussion about immigration reform.  Should we change our current system of ‘family re-unification’ into a ‘merit based system’ whereby more highly skilled workers would gain admission?  There are those who would argue that by allowing in the more highly skilled workers we would more greatly aid our flailing social security system because those admitted would have higher social security contributions.  And there are others that would say that the words on the Statute of Liberty have served us well, so why change.

From the Statute of Liberty -

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

Some people have a difficult time accepting that the federal government might have some ’paperwork problems.’  Why is this so hard to believe?  Is it because the federal government has done such a wonderful job in taking care of things like finding Bin Laden.  Because it’s now seven years later and they still haven’t found him.  Or is it because the federal government did such a good job of taking care of our citizens after Hurricane Katrina, does that instill some confidence in their abilities.  No?  Well, then how about the Department of Housing and Urban Development, surely the affordable housing that’s available, and our strong fraud-proof mortgage system is evidence that they are doing their jobs.  No? But surely the Department of Transportation has done a lot to decrease your commute times and the FAA makes sure that your flights arrive and depart on-time.  Then there’s the IRS which Huckabee suggested replacing with a fair-tax system but the same attorneys that wrote the tax code probably had a part in writing our immigration code which is equally as convoluted.  Do I need to continue?

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The notion that the ‘illegal invasion’ is starting in Northern Virginia is absurd especially when coupled with the assertion that ‘they are not here to work.’  Interestingly, a study has been conducted by UVa’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service entitled -‘Hispanic Immigrants and Citizens in Virginia.’ in which ‘the hypotheses of a strong labor migration’ is confirmed.

According to the study, Hispanics represent six percent of the population in the state of Virginia, compared to 15% in the United States.  However, what’s interesting is the concentration of Hispanics in Northern Virginia.  According to the report, Hispanics in Manassas Park comprise 30% of the population, Manassas City – 27%, Prince William – 9%, Arlington – 16%, Fairfax City – 13%, Alexandria 13%, and Fairfax County – 13%. Outside of Northern Virginia, three other spots in Virginia appear to have greater than 10% concentration of Hispanics, those areas being: Harrsisonburg, Winchester and Galax City which is in the south western part of the state.

The study analyzes United States Census Bureau data to ‘describe growth trends, characteristics and life in Virginia for resident Hispanics.’ 

Several points can be drawn from this study.

First, the majority of Hispanics present in Virginia are U.S. citizens. Forty percent are immigrants, including both authorized and unauthorized.

Second, when compared to the population overall, Hispanic immigrants are less educated, poorer, more likely to lack health insurance, and live in larger households. Their lower socio-economic status, however, does not necessarily make them heavy recipients of welfare and subsidies. Other than WIC, job training, and rent and school lunch subsidies, Hispanic immigrants receive very little or none of most other welfare programs. They tend to pool and share resources (such as housing and vehicles) with family and non-family members to reduce costs and risks. Hispanic immigrants are young and make up a significant portion of low-skilled, yet fast-growing, occupational sectors.

Third, adult Hispanic citizens do better than the overall population in terms of educational attainment and household income. They are well represented in all occupational sectors, and over-represented in Virginia’s military.
Fourth, cultural and socio-economic assimilation takes place over generations among Hispanic citizens and immigrants, with citizens doing especially well. While 60 percent of Hispanic citizens have at least one parent foreign-born, they speak English well. And while nearly 30 percent of adult citizens are first-generation (having both parents foreign-born), they share many characteristics with the overall population – they speak, educate, work and transport like typical Virginians. English proficiency among Hispanic immigrants improves as their years in the U.S. increase.

Finally, cultural values and traditions continue to influence Hispanics’ way of life. Households headed by Hispanic citizens, for example, tend to be bigger and are more likely to have co-residing relatives and non-relatives than Virginia’s households overall. The extent, however, is not as great as that for immigrants.
Virginia’s Hispanic population is complex, varied, and deeply engaged in significant sectors of the Virginia economy. Its presence in the overall population is likely to increase in the future years. According to the Virginia Employment Commission’s projections, Virginia’s Hispanic population will double between 2006 and 2030 as a result of both natural increase (births minus deaths) and migration to the Commonwealth. A thorough understanding of this population’s composition and characteristics provides a factual framework for policy deliberations.

This video was distributed by Supervisor Stirrup’s office prior to the July 2007 resolution, presumably to garnish support for the ‘Immigration Resolution’.  It appears to be a very popular piece of propoganda in the anti-immigrant debate but to use it for justifying in an ‘anti-illegal’ debate by individuals claiming to be ‘pro-immigrant’ is a concern.

It appears that the underlying factor motivating many people especially with respect to the Federation for American Immigration Reform(FAIR) is a concern about ‘population growth control’.  This video never identifies the speaker or the organization of which he represents but his name is Roy Beck, Executive Director of NumbersUSA.

 In terms of disputing the claims made in the video, the following was stated -

The gumball thing was cute but his charts are total b.s. His “red” dangerous population growth attributable to immigrants includes the descendents of immigrants who arrived post-1970. Descendents aren’t immigrants. By 2050, the great grandchildren of 1970s immigrants are included in the red portion. Are the great grandchildren of immigrants immigrants themselves? No. Are they part of the “immigration problem?” I myself am the great grandchild of an immigrant who came from Ireland 90 years ago. Am I part of the “immigration problem?” If he selected 1790 for his arbitrary start date rather than 1970, I’m sure about 98% of the American population would be in the red area.

Also, in the very beginning, he talks about how our infrastructure has had to double because immigration has doubled the population growth #. Immigration may have doubled our growth (maybe, i’m not sure), but it didn’t double the entire population (which = the demand for services). The demand for roads is growing astronomically not because there are tons of new immigrants on the roads, but all of us drive much more now and over greater distances now than we did 30 years ago.

Also, as he mentioned, about 200 million Americans are missing from his chart, in a green area you’ll have to imagine below where he cuts it off. It makes his eye-popping order of magnitude a bit exaggerated.

I’m not saying that the guy is entirely wrong in what his point is. But it’s not the most convincing argument, and if you aren’t distracted by the pretty colors and cute gumballs you’ll see that it’s not at all objective and presented in a manner of exaggeration to get a reaction.

Again, one of the problems w/the red line is that it includes people who are not ‘immigrants’.  The people who are not ‘immigrants’ are descendants of immigrants.  The red line represents future population increase in the U.S. attributable to current immigration presumably both legal & illegal.  My question is why is it that he is not considered a descendant of an immigrant?  For example, if we were to go back to 1700 and start the red line there, then just about everyone in the U.S. would be descendants of post-1700 immigrants.

In my opinion this video poses many difficulties and should not be taken at face value.

To clarify, I’m not opposed to the ‘Rule of Law’, but I don’t agree with 20 years of non-enforcement by the Federal government followed by a period of strict enforcement without making some accommodations for those individuals who in many cases have been entrapped by inconsistencies in our immigration policies.

Just a reminder, it’s only post 9/11 that we have required people to adjust their status by returning to their home countries.  But many of these individuals entered our country during a time period where we allowed them to gain work sponsorship after they arrived ILLEGALLY.  However ,now with changes in immigration laws these individuals who were once under the impression that they could adjust their status here have now been told that they must leave and in many cases for extended periods. Many times people have claimed that these people have had enough time to become citizens without the realization that this option hasn’t been offered for many years.  It doesn’t make sense to have these people abandon their homes, have their children lose years of an educational opportunity only to readmit them years from now.  It doesn’t seem to benefit our economy now or in the future and, our inconsistent policies are directly affecting the lives of many including our most vulnerable – US citizen children. Read more…