Illegal Immigration

[Soldier4Christ]

California landlords barred:
Can't ask immigration status
Powerless to limit illegals: 'You have cities that want
to deal with the problem and this bill would stop them'

California is again forging its own path on immigration reform by becoming the first state to prohibit landlords from asking tenants' immigration status.

Amid frustration over the federal government's failure to reform immigration laws, cities across the country have taken their own action to keep out illegal immigrants, including barring property from being rented to undocumented tenants.

The law signed this week by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenneger elicited a sigh of relief among landlord associations concerned that without it, they'd be forced to take on the cost and the liability of enforcing federal laws as “de-facto immigration cops,” said Nancy Ahlswede, executive director of the Apartment Association, California Southern Cities.

“We have huge anti-discrimination obligations,” said Ahlswede, whose organization was among the legislation's sponsors. “We understand the frustration, but that burden shouldn't be placed on landlords.”

California has often staked new ground on immigration, whether with anti-immigration measures like Proposition 187, a 1994 ballot initiative meant to deny illegal immigrants social services, health care, and public education, or by hosting massive pro-immigration rallies and promoting trends like the “New Sanctuary Movement,” in which churches seek to protect undocumented immigrants from deportation.

The state has more immigrants than any other, and between 2.5 to 2.8 million of them are undocumented, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.

This latest law pushes against a national trend that finds tensions over immigration and shifting demographics increasingly being dealt with on a city-by-city and issue-by-issue basis. The law also specifies that landlords can't, on their own, decide to verify prospective tenants' immigration status.

More than 90 cities or counties nationwide have considered ordinances that aim to discourage illegal immigrants from settling by making their daily life more difficult. Those include rules forbidding renting to undocumented immigrants, punishing businesses that hire them or requiring police to ask about immigration status.

Proponents of immigration control view the California law as another attempt to block citizens from defending their interests in an area where the federal government has failed.

“It's clear that Washington, D.C. doesn't want to deal with this problem,” said Rick Oltman, with Californians for Population Stabilization. “You have cities that want to deal with the problem and this bill would stop them, making them powerless to deal with the illegal alien community.”

This view is reflected across the country. Hazleton, Pa., for example, has become a city whose name is synonymous with local action against unauthorized immigration.

Hazleton passed an ordinance last year penalizing landlords who rent to them and employers who hire them. The rule was struck down in federal court as unconstitutional. The city is appealing, and a hearing is expected in the spring.

California's law “certainly adds salt to the wound for mayors who are trying to protect their legal residents and their budgets from the burden of illegal immigration,” said Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta.

The mayor is hoping to take the issue to the U.S. Supreme Court, aiming for a ruling that would bring relief to cities around the country trying to follow the same path.

But organizations that have taken local governments to court on the issue argued laws asking landlords to pry into their tenants' immigration status infringes privacy and discrimination statutes, and pre-empts the federal government's authority.

“If the federal government wants to go after someone, they can do that, but a city can't,” said Kristina Campbell, an attorney with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, who worked on the lawsuit against Escondido, Calif., which also passed an ordinance punishing landlords who rent to undocumented immigrants.

The suit was settled out of court when costs ballooned, city officials said.

Generally, any proposition that orders those not trained in immigration law to determine whether an immigrant is in the country legally is fraught with potential problems, immigrant advocates said.

The law is complicated and a property owner trying to hazard a guess about someone's immigration status could rely on someone's looks or their accent, leading to discrimination, said Reshma Shamasunder, director of the California Immigrant Policy Center.

Greg McConnell, who has two rental properties and helped organize landlords in Berkeley to support the bill, said he's just glad to be out of the cross-hairs of a “bitter and inflammatory” debate that's much larger than they are.

“It's not a question of where landlords stand on the immigration issue, it's a question of who's to enforce those laws,” he said

[Soldier4Christ]

Illinois a sanctuary state?

The head of a grassroots immigration organization is very concerned about the number of cities in the United States that have basically said they will not respect federal immigration laws and will provide sanctuary for illegal aliens. But the immigration activist says there is one state that has pretty much declared itself a sanctuary for illegals.

Roy Beck, president of Numbers USA, had hoped that an amendment put forth by Senator David Vitter (R-Louisiana) would have gone a long way to prevent cities from providing sanctuary. The amendment, defeated on a 52-42 vote, would have cut federal funding to law enforcement programs in cities that prohibited law enforcement officials from asking suspects about their immigration status or reporting them to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Beck says places like Illinois will remain out of control when it comes to aiding and abetting illegals. "The governor himself [Rod Blagojevich] has basically declared the entire state of Illinois a sanctuary for illegal aliens, [and] has prohibited any employer from even using the federal program to verify whether a person is an illegal alien or not," he says.

The activist is referring to E-Verify, an Internet-based program developed by Congress in the mid-1990s for companies to verify employees' identity and employment eligibility and to cut back on the number of illegal aliens hired by employers. According to the program's government website, E-Verify is not designed to verify a new hire's immigration status. (See related story)

According to Beck, Illinois is even more tolerant of illegal aliens than is California, which has a far larger population of such individuals. "They don't have as many illegal aliens [in Illinois as in California], but they have a lot -- it's maybe the number-three or number-four state for illegal aliens," he explains. "But their government is far more irresponsible than California. In Illinois, I mean, there's just a mass encouragement of illegal immigration."

Another sanctuary state, he points out, is New York, where the governor has even ordered officials to begin issuing drivers licenses to illegal aliens. Beck concludes that when it comes to illegal immigration, there is anarchy in much of the U.S. at this point.

[MusicMedic5150]

Pastor we all need to hit the streets on our local towns and start a movement on this. I am sick of all these law breakers. 

[Soldier4Christ]

I agree totally.

[Soldier4Christ]

States pass divergent laws dealing with illegal immigration

An immigration reform activist says while some states are taking steps to discourage illegal immigration, others unfortunately are throwing out the welcome mats.

The Washington Post recently reported that while the Bush administration and Congress sit gridlocked on an immigration overhaul, the states are jumping into the debate as never before. The number of states passing immigration-related bills has skyrocketed this year, and the widely divergent laws seem to follow the red-state, blue-state divide reminiscent of the past two presidential elections.

Susan Tully of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) points to red-state Oklahoma, which passed some of the toughest immigration laws in the country, prompting many illegal immigrants to leave the state. "Oklahoma is losing their illegal immigrant population -- so the taxpayers are going to see a relief in the burden of education, healthcare, and other costs that they've had to pay to illegal aliens," she says.

Tully contends that on the other hand, blue-states New York and Illinois are encouraging illegal aliens to come and break federal immigration statutes. "They're on the way to New York because the governor says he's going to give them driver's licenses, and Illinois has never seen a piece of legislation for illegal aliens they didn't like," she states. Those states in effect, she says, have "set out the welcome mat" for illegal aliens.

According to the immigration reform activist, it is clear that illegal immigrants will go to states where the laws favor them and leave states that want to enforce the rule of law.

[Soldier4Christ]

Reid reviving 'amnesty' for illegals 
Democrats put DREAM Act on fast track for vote tomorrow

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is reviving and fast-tracking plans to grant amnesty to millions of illegal aliens already within U.S. boundaries, and a vote is expected as early as tomorrow, according to opponents.

Just a few months after intense pressure from U.S. citizens triggered the rejection of President Bush's comprehensive immigration plan, a compromise supported by Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. – the DREAM Act proposal by Sen. Dick Durbin, R-Ill. – is being rushed through the Senate.

Durbin's office refused to return a WND call requesting comment.

"In many ways this bill is worse than Bush-Kennedy because this is blatant deception on the part of the Senate to get a massive amnesty passed," asserted Steve Elliott, president of Grassfire.org.

Some of the provisions of the plan, called DREAM for Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors, include:

    * Conditional legal status for any illegal alien who claims to have arrived in the U.S. prior to age 16.

    * Any illegal alien can apply for the program.

    * Those who gain legal status then can sponsor any family members, allowing additional millions to access the program.

    * There would be a ban on deportation for anyone who applies.

    * Illegals would be granted taxpayer-funded in-state tuition rates for college.

Elliott's organization and others, including Numbers USA, have launched telephone, online and fax petitions for voters to contact their senators and let them know their opinions on the plan.

"This is not a drill. This is the real thing," Numbers USA warned in an alert to constituents. "Our Capitol Hill Team just contacted me and reported that Senate Majority Leader Reid has just filed for 'cloture' on S. 2205 (the DREAM ACT amnesty.)"

"Reid is hell-bent on getting this amnesty through the Senate as fast as possible and before we can fully mobilize the country as happened when we defeated his Comprehensive Amnesty bill in June," the group said. "He is using the Rule 14 … to avoid any committee debate, hearings or deliberations. Filing for cloture means that he can bring the amnesty up on Wednesday."

An estimated 12-20 million illegal aliens are already in the U.S., but Numbers USA warned the legislation would "entice millions more people to become illegal aliens here."

Further, the plan includes "no extra enforcement" to provide any stability or security to national borders, the group said.

In a commentary, Eagle Forum founder Phyllis Schlafly said it creates the circumstances where the violation of U.S. immigration law is rewarded.

"The illegal immigrant who applies for the DREAM Act can count his years under conditional green card status toward the five years needed to attain citizenship. That's a fast track to citizenship that is not available to aliens who are lawfully present in the United States," she said. "Giving in-state college tuition to illegal immigrants is so unpopular with many Americans that the only way a congressman could support this bill is by hoping it passes before the public discovers how bad it is. Arizona's Proposition 300, which specifically bars Arizona universities from giving in-state tuition rates to illegal immigrants, passed in 2006 with a majority of 71.4 percent."

As WND reported, Durbin brought up the DREAM Act after Bush's comprehensive plan died in June.

[Soldier4Christ]

N.Y. governor leading Dems to crash?
Spitzer pushing hard to give driver's licenses to illegals

Top Democrats fear that Gov. Spitzer's controversial plan to grant driver's licenses to illegal aliens has endangered their party's candidates across the state -- and even threatens the presidential prospects of Hillary Rodham Clinton, The Post has learned.

A half-dozen senior Democrats told The Post that Spitzer's licensing plan is producing what one called "a mass exodus" away from the party's candidates that may lead to unexpected losses in November's local elections.

They are also warning that growing voter unhappiness with Spitzer on the licensing and other issues - illustrated in several recent polls - could carry into next year and end the Democrats' hope of winning control of the GOP-dominated state Senate.

"The driver's-license issue is a killer for us in the suburbs," a senior party strategist said.

"The Nassau County Legislature is in danger, and so are the big Buffalo races," said a prominent elected Democratic official, referring to election battles to retain slim, Democratic control in Nassau County and carry hotly fought contests for county executive and clerk in Erie County.

Another senior Democrat predicted that Sen. Clinton, who has repeatedly refused to say whether she backs Spitzer's plan, would soon be forced to reject it.

"The immigrant license issue is one of the most politically dangerous in the nation, and Hillary will have to come out against it," the Democrat said.

[Soldier4Christ]

When lawmakers left in June, it was troopergate. When they returned in October, there was one issue on the top of everyone's tongue.

“Obviously the DMV issues is out there as a topic of conversation,” said Spitzer.

With both chambers meeting for special sessions this week, Governor Elliot Spitzer continued to defend his plan to give illegal immigrants driver’s licenses.

“When you have Richard Clark speaking from the perspective of terrorism counter and bill brattion speaking from the perspective of police saying this is the right thing to do I think we are in the right stay on this issue,” said Spitzer.

But not without opposition. After hundreds rallied against the measure Monday afternoon, leaders in both chambers announced measures to stop the governor's plan in its tracks.

“Sometimes you say we're toothless tigers but we're not we have fangs on this issue,” said James Tedisco.

Assembly Minority Leader Jim Tedisco has threatened a lawsuit against Spitzer as a last resort. He is also planning on forcing a vote on the plan during Tuesday's session, so all members will have to go on the record with their position.

“If they vote against our legislation they are siding with Elliot Spitzer. If we move it forward it will become law and siding with, we believe, public safety,” said Tedisco.

And on the Senate side Majority Leader Joe Bruno put up a bill making it mandatory to have a social security number to obtain a drivers license.

“We think it's unconstitutional federally. We think it's against the law in the state,” said Joseph Bruno.

And while the governor said he is within the bounds of the law, Republicans are testing him. Rensselaer County Clerk Frank Merola has filed a law suite against the state DMV, seeking to prevent the measure from moving forward and other county clerk's could follow suit.

[nChrist]

Brothers and Sisters,

All I can say is that I greatly appreciate the INSANE work of people like Reid, Pelossi, and Spitzer. They are helping to wake up the public and see the path of insanity that many LOONS want to lead this country down.

Never mind that this is illegal and Unconstitutional, but do consider the horrible cost in too many ways to list. The first is total disrespect for the law and the Constitution. The second is loss of national sovereignty and respect. The third is making hard-working and legal citizens pay the bills for illegal aliens. The fourth is exposing our public to terrorists, dope runners, and many kinds of criminals that we will all pay for. The list goes on and on and on. Anyone with any common sense will simply say NO! - You can't do that! - You won't be allowed to do that! - If you try it, we'll file criminal and civil charges and remove you from office!

The Rule of Law Prevails Here - the Law of the People. Our elected representatives had best enforce our laws or face the consequences! If they want our laws and Constitution ignored, they WILL let the people vote on the issues. Otherwise, our representatives need to be sent to prison and learn there is a consequence for dereliction of duty.

[Soldier4Christ]

DREAM of 'open borders crowd' dies in Senate

Yet another effort in the Senate to pass legislation that would grant amnesty to millions of illegal aliens has been defeated.

The Senate has rejected a motion to move forward with the DREAM Act, which would award citizenship to children of illegal aliens who claim to have entered the U.S. before age 16. Fifty-two senators voted in favor of cloture, including Trent Lott (R-Mississippi), Sam Brownback (R-Kansas), Larry Craig (R-Idaho) and nine other Republicans. Sixty votes were needed to advance the measure.

Jim Edwards, an adjunct fellow with the Hudson Institute, says the DREAM Act was the best hope of the "open borders" lobby. "These are the most sympathetic case they could come up with. But everybody understands their circumstances, and sort of their heart goes out to them. But if the open borders crowd could not win cloture on the DREAM Act, they can't win cloture on any amnesty," he states.

The bill was even opposed by President Bush, who strongly backed the previous "grand compromise" on immigration reform.

[Soldier4Christ]

Chicago store owner being squeezed out by illegal alien street vendors

An immigration reform organization is trying to help a Chicago storeowner who is being squeezed out by unlicensed street vendors who are in the country illegally.

Susan Tully of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) says her organization is appalled that the city of Chicago is refusing to do anything to help the shop owner who is paying $2,500 a month rent, as well as all the licensing fees to legitimately run his business. Tulley says the illegal aliens are operating over a dozen carts in the vicinity of the store.

"The city code enforcement officers who do the business license inspection have told him that the council person in charge of that area has told them hands off. They're not allowed to require a health permit or a business license of those food carts -- and here he is expected to compete," she says.

Tully says FAIR wants to show that reverse discrimination is taking place in Chicago. She says it is very difficult for the shop owner to compete when illegal immigrants have more rights than he does. She laments that illegal aliens have "a whole set of rights and free reign" to do whatever they want, but an American citizen who wants to do the right thing is penalized.

[Soldier4Christ]

Yep ... illegal immigrants aren't taking jobs from legal citizens.   

[Soldier4Christ]

Missouri governor sued in illegal immigration case

A lawsuit filed Thursday accuses Gov. Matt Blunt of racial discrimination and abuse of power for firing a state janitorial contractor that employed illegal immigrants.

Blunt called the lawsuit "ludicrous" and defended his decision to cancel the contract of Sam's Janitorial Services and bar the company from state work.

About 25 company employees were arrested in a March 6 sting at a Jefferson City state office building by federal and state law enforcement officers. The lawsuit says just eight of those people were charged and only four have pleaded or been found guilty of possessing forged documents showing they could work in the United States.

The lawsuit seeks to reinstate nine canceled contracts, asks to reverse the company's ban from state work and requests an unspecified amount of money for damages.

It claims Blunt exceeded his gubernatorial powers when he terminated the contract and disqualified Sam's Janitorial from future state work.

It also alleges racial discrimination because Sam's Janitorial is owned by an African-born U.S. citizen and the state contract was subsequently given to B&G Cleaning, owned by white contractors. At that time, B&G Cleaning also employed three of the four people who ultimately were found guilty, the lawsuit says.

"That's ludicrous," Blunt responded when asked about the lawsuit at a Capitol news conference.

Blunt said he didn't know the race of the owner of Sam's Janitorial, K. Asamoah-Boadu, when he issued the executive order March 6 to cancel contracts with any companies found to be using illegal immigrants.

The lawsuit by Asamoah-Boadu, filed in Cole County Circuit Court, claims Asamoah-Boadu hired only those people who appeared to have proper work documents. It says he provided the Missouri State Capitol Police and the state Division of Purchasing and Materials Management with copies of Social Security and worker registration cards for each employee who was not a U.S. citizen.

The state "approved each and every employee," the lawsuit says, and did not notify him of any problems with the proposed workers.

In March, Blunt credited the state's manager of custodial operations for first noticing inconsistencies in the janitorial employees' work documents. Capitol Police were notified, and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency ultimately got involved in the investigation.

On Thursday, Blunt insisted that Sam's Janitorial Services had employed illegal immigrants "in a very negligent way."

"This wasn't one or two people that might have slipped through the cracks of employment verification; this was a large portion of his work force," Blunt said. "I am confident that we have taken the appropriate action, the sort of action that Missouri taxpayers expect and deserve their government to take."

[Soldier4Christ]

Feds strike ID deal over New York licenses 
Compromise creates more secure document for U.S. citizens, allows illegals to get version

The Bush administration and New York cut a deal Saturday to create a new generation of super-secure driver's licenses for U.S. citizens, but also allow illegal immigrants to get a version.

New York is the fourth state to reach an agreement on federally approved secure licenses, after Arizona, Vermont and Washington. The issue is pressing for border states, where new and tighter rules are soon to go into effect for crossings.

The Arizona deal announced in August does not contemplate issuing licenses to illegal immigrants, said Jeanine L'Ecuyer, a spokeswoman for Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano.

The proposed Arizona version would not be available to anyone illegally in the country, since one of the intended uses of the 3-in-1 identity card would be to prove U.S. citizenship, L'Ecuyer said. It could be used as a license, as proof of citizenship and as a passport-like document valid for travel in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. It would be voluntary and available for a small extra fee.

"It is something that clearly would not be available for people who are in the county illegally," L'Ecuyer said.

The New York deal comes about one month after Gov. Eliot Spitzer announced a plan whereby illegal immigrants with a valid foreign passport could obtain a license.

Saturday's agreement with the Homeland Security Department will create a three-tier license system in New York. It is the largest state to sign on so far to the government's post-Sept. 11 effort to make identification cards more secure.

Spitzer, who has faced much criticism on the issue, said the deal means New York "will usher in the most secure licensing system in the nation."

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said he was not happy that New York intended to issue IDs to illegal immigrants. But he said there was nothing he could do to stop it.

"I don't endorse giving licenses to people who are not here legally, but federal law does allow states to make that choice," Chertoff said.

The governor made clear he is going forward with his plan allowing licenses for illegal immigrants. But advocates on both sides of the debate said Spitzer had caved to pressure by adopting the administration's stance on tighter security standards for most driver's licenses.

GOP Rep. Thomas Reynolds, who represents the Buffalo suburbs, said he was glad Washington had heeded his concerns about border identification. But he said he feared that Spitzer "is taking this state down a risky path" by giving any kind of license to illegal immigrants.

Under the compromise, New York will produce an "enhanced driver's license" that will be as secure as a passport. It is intended for people who soon will need to meet such ID requirements, even for a short drive to Canada.

A second version of the license will meet new federal standards of the Real ID Act. That law is designed to make it much harder for illegal immigrants or would-be terrorists to obtain licenses.

A third type of license will be available to undocumented immigrants. Spitzer has said this ID will make the state more secure by bringing those people "out of the shadows" and into American society, and will lower auto insurance rates.

Those licenses will be clearly marked to show they are not valid federal ID. Officials, however, would not say whether that meant local law enforcement could use such a license as probable cause to detain someone they suspected of being in the U.S. illegally.

"Besides being a massive defeat for the governor, I can't imagine many — if any — illegal immigrants coming forward to get the driver's licenses, because they'd basically be labeled as illegal," said New York Rep. Peter King, the top Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee.

New York has between 500,000 and 1 million undocumented immigrants, many of whom are driving without a license and car insurance or with fake driver's licenses, Spitzer said in September when he announced his executive order.

[Soldier4Christ]

Clerks alerting cops about illegals accused of 'profiling' 
Say they also took oath to uphold Constitution – will defy N.Y. gov

The Spitzer administration and immigration rights groups say the county clerks in Erie and Niagara counties will be engaging in inappropriate profiling with their plan to alert police when illegal immigrants seek to obtain driver’s licenses.

Critics said the clerks will be acting purely on a hunch and that people in the country legally could find themselves being inappropriately detained by police because they were wrongly suspected of being illegal immigrants.

“It’s an attack on undocumented immigrants. It’s not the job of county clerks to enforce the immigration laws. It’s a federal problem,” said Norman Eng, an immigration attorney with the New York Immigration Coalition, an umbrella group of 200 organizations.

The Spitzer administration said it was taking very seriously the threat by Erie County Clerk Kathleen C. Hochul and Niagara County Clerk Wayne Jagow to turn over to local or federal police agencies suspected illegal immigrants who come into their motor vehicle offices to get a driver’s license.

Gov. Eliot L. Spitzer is beginning a new policy in which illegal immigrants can obtain a license if they show a valid foreign passport and other identification. It ends a post-Sept. 11 policy requiring production of a Social Security number or a letter from the federal government stating that the person is not eligible for a Social Security number.

“Under this policy change, applicants will not be required to provide documents that demonstrate their immigration status in this country so there will be no evidence that a person is indeed an undocumented immigrant,” said Spitzer spokeswoman Jennifer Givner.

“Any clerk making a report to federal immigration officials regarding a license applicant’s immigration status will be reporting only their subjective suspicions regarding an individual’s status,” she cautioned.

The Buffalo News reported Thursday on a plan by Hochul and Jagow, with the cooperation of local law enforcement and the knowledge of federal homeland security officials, to alert police if someone suspected of being an illegal immigrant tries to get a driver’s license. Such individuals would be presenting a foreign passport, which will now be permitted under the Spitzer policy, as a form of identification.

Both clerks oppose the new Spitzer policy, but unlike 20 other county clerks statewide threatening to buck the governor, Hochul and Jagow said they have a legal obligation as agents of the state to carry it out. At the same time, however, they say they also take an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States, and that they cannot ignore someone coming into one of their offices without the legal documentation to be in the country.

“I think it’s an idea in the minds of a lot of clerks who are still on the fence,” said Kathleen Marchione, the Saratoga County clerk who is president of a statewide association of county clerks. Most of the association’s members oppose the plan, but many say they will still implement it because they feel legally bound. Spitzer has threatened legal action against clerks who ignore his mandate.

“This is another way of not having to issue driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants,” Marchione, one of the 20 clerks bucking Spitzer, said of the plan by Hochul and Jagow.

But critics say there is a problem with the approach. An illegal immigrant seeking a license can do so with a valid foreign passport after checking a box on the application that says he is not eligible for a Social Security number. But Eng said there are many legal immigrants in the state — such as a college student on a visa or the spouse of a visiting college professor — who are not eligible for Social Security numbers. Such people could face undeserved run-ins with law enforcement if the clerks go ahead with their plans, he said.

“I think it’s outrageous that they are threatening to turn people over.”