Georgia Senate Press Release HERE

Senate Supports Incentives for Utilizing U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Programs

ATLANTA (March 24, 2010) – Today the Senate took action to provide monetary incentives for local governments to utilize U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Section 287(g) and Secured Communities programs by passing Senate Bill 385 (SB 385). State Sen. John Wiles (R-Kennesaw) sponsored the legislation to help relieve monetary burdens from local governments and the state by quickly turning criminal illegal aliens over to the proper federal authorities. The bill passed 37-11.

“Georgia welcomes anyone who wants to be a law-abiding citizen to make a better life for themselves and their family. For those who choose to break the law, they must suffer the consequences,” said Wiles. “I’m pleased my colleagues chose to help local and state budgets by quickly identifying criminal illegal aliens, get them out of local jails and to the ICE.”

Wiles’ bill (SB 385) would provide a 20 percent bonus from the state to local governments that utilize the ICE 287(g) program and a 10 percent bonus from the state for those that utilize the Secured Communities program. ICE ACCESS (Agreements of Cooperation in Communities to Enhance Safety and Security) provides local law enforcement agencies an opportunity to team with ICE to combat specific challenges in their communities. Due to fiscal constraints, this bill will take affect when funds are available to be appropriated.

The Section 287(g) program is only one component under the ICE ACCESS umbrella of services and programs offered for assistance to local law enforcement officers. ICE developed the ACCESS program in response to the widespread interest from local law enforcement agencies who have requested ICE assistance through the Section 287(g) program, which trains local officers to enforce immigration law as authorized through Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

Secured Communities is a Department of Homeland Security initiative that improves public safety by implementing a comprehensive, integrated approach to identify and remove criminal aliens from the United States. The Secure Communities Program Management Office coordinates all ICE planning, operational, technical, and fiscal activities devoted to transforming, modernizing, and optimizing the criminal alien enforcement process.

Sen. John Wiles serves as Chairman of the Special Judiciary Committee. He also serves as Chairman of the Cobb Legislative Delegation. He represents the 37th Senate District which includes a portion of Cobb County. He may be reached by phone at 404.657.0406 or by e-mail at john.wiles@senate.ga.gov.

PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release:
March 24, 2010
For Information Contact: HERE
Raegan Weber, Director
raegan.weber@senate.ga.gov
404.656.0028

Posted March 24th, 2010 in John Wiles, Senate Press Release. Tagged: Senate Supports Incentives for Utilizing U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Programs

http://senatepress.net/senate-supports-incentives-for-utilizing-u-s-immigrations-and-customs-enforcement-programs.html

Buchanan.org

The Sydney Carton Party

By Patrick J. Buchanan

“It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known.”

From “A Tale of Two Cities,” Sydney Carton’s words, as he rode the tumbrel to the guillotine, came to mind on reading the latest statistics on what open borders has done to a Republican Party that altruistically embraced it.

The Center for Immigration Studies reports that, since 1980, some 25.2 million immigrants have entered legally and been granted permanent status with “green cards” to work and become citizens.

“Immigration, Political Realignment and the Demise of Republican Political Prospects” is the title of the CIS report, which understates the crisis. Bottom line: The more immigrants in an electoral district, the more grim the GOP prospects. Consider a few of the largest counties in the nation.

Between 1980 and 2008, Los Angeles, No. 1, grew by 2.5 million to 10 million people. The immigrant share went from 22 percent to 41 percent. Over those decades, the GOP share of the presidential vote fell from 52 percent in Ronald Reagan’s rout of Jimmy Carter to 29 percent for John McCain.

Orange County, the bastion of Barry Goldwater conservatism, saw its population rise from 1.9 million in 1980 to 3.2 million in 2008, with the immigrant share rising from 13 percent to 34 percent. Reagan swept Orange County with 68 percent. McCain got 50 percent.

Consider Cook County, the nation’s second largest. While Cook grew by 350,000 from 1980 to 2008, the character of Chicago changed, with the immigrant share of the population rising from 12 percent to 25 percent. In those 28 years, the GOP share of the presidential vote fell from 40 percent to 23 percent.

In Kings County (Brooklyn), the immigrant share of the population rose from 24 percent to 44 percent and the Republican share of the presidential vote plummeted from 38 percent to 20 percent.

Richard Nixon and Reagan carried California seven times on presidential tickets. Both carried New York and Illinois in their greatest victories. Yet the GOP has not won one of those three pivotal states even once in the last five elections.

If California, New York and Illinois are moving out of reach for GOP presidential candidates and the party is being annihilated in New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago, our three largest cities, what of red states Arizona, Texas and Florida?

They are going the same way.

Harris County, Texas, the nation’s third-largest, grew by 1.4 million since 1980. Its immigrant population tripled as a share of total population to 25 percent. Where Reagan carried Harris with 58 percent, McCain lost it with 49 percent.

Dallas County added a million people to hit 2.5 million by 2008, as its immigrant population surged from 5 percent to 27 percent. Where Reagan won 59 percent of Dallas County, McCain got only 42 percent.

Phoenix is sited in the fourth-most-populous county, Maricopa. Its population in 30 years has gone from 1.5 million to 3.8 million. Where 5.5 percent of Maricopa was immigrant in 1980, the percentage is now above 15 percent. And where Reagan carried Maricopa with 65 percent, McCain, an Arizonan, carried Maricopa with only 54 percent.

In Dade (Miami), the immigrant share of the population has gone in 30 years from 36 percent to 58 percent and the GOP share of the vote has fallen from 60 percent to 42 percent. In Broward (Ft. Lauderdale), legal immigrants tripled as a share of the population, while the GOP presidential vote fell from 56 percent to 32 percent.

The correlation seems absolute. The more immigrants who come in and become citizens, the more Democratic the country becomes.

Why? Almost all immigrants, legal and illegal, are poorer and less skilled than Americans, and depend far more upon government.

According to CIS, of recent immigrants who became citizens by 2008, by 55-30 they identified as Democrats. Among immigrants who have not yet become citizens, 70 percent identify as Democrats, 15 percent as Republicans. The sooner Democrats get them naturalized, registered and voting, the sooner the bell tolls for the Grand Old Party.

Is the GOP problem its hard line on illegal immigration?

This is a myth. According to a Zogby survey done for CIS, 56 percent of Hispanics and 68 percent of African-Americans say legal immigration is too high. Only 7 percent of Hispanics and 4 percent of African-Americans say it’s too low. On no issue is the gulf between elites and the people so wide and deep.

What would be a GOP policy that advanced both the national and party interest?

First, an offensive against the administration for laxity in enforcing our immigration laws against businesses that hire illegals. Each time a business is forced to let illegal workers go, the jobs go to some of our 25 million unemployed and underemployed.

Second, a Put-Americans-First moratorium on legal immigration until U.S. unemployment falls below 6 percent.

And what is Republican Lindsay Graham up to? Collaborating with Sen. Chuck Schumer on a path to citizenship for illegal aliens.

The Sydney Carton Party at work.

Read more at:
http://buchanan.org/blog/the-sydney-carton-party-3791

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Duluth attorney gets prison for immigration fraud

A Duluth attorney was sentenced Monday to federal prison for helping clients commit immigration fraud. — Sai Hyun Lee, 63, pleaded guilty in November to filing false documents with the federal government, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia…

HERE

U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers — Roll Call

U.S. lags on sending illegal aliens away

The Obama administration is practically out of the business of deporting illegal [aliens] arrested at work sites in America. It has instituted a new version of “catch and release.” What the new policy should be called is “virtual amnesty.” — Last year in Bellingham, Wash., 28 illegal [aliens] were arrested during a raid at a manufacturing plant after they admitted getting their jobs by false documents…

HERE

9.25.2009
Hispanics, Health Insurance and Health Care Access
by Gretchen Livingston, Senior Researcher, Pew Hispanic Center

Six-in-ten Hispanic adults living in the United States who are not citizens or legal permanent residents lack health insurance. The share of uninsured among this group (60%) is much higher than the share of uninsured among Latino adults who are legal permanent residents or citizens (28%), or among the adult population of the United States (17%).

Hispanic adults who are neither citizens nor legal permanent residents tend to be younger and healthier than the adult U.S. population and are less likely than other groups to have a regular health care provider. Just 57% say there is a place they usually go when they are sick or need advice about their health, compared with 76% of Latino adults who are citizens or legal permanent residents and 83% of the adult U.S. population.

Four-in-ten (41%) non-citizen, non-legal permanent resident Hispanic adults state that their usual provider is a community clinic or health center. Some 15% of Latino adults who are neither citizens nor legal permanent residents report that they use private doctors, hospital outpatient facilities, or health maintenance organizations when they are sick or need advice about their health.

An additional 6% of Latino adults who are neither citizens nor legal permanent residents report that they usually go to an emergency room when they are sick or need advice about their health.

Some 37% of Latino adults who are neither citizens nor legal permanent residents have no usual health care provider. More than one-fourth (28%) of the people in this group indicate that financial limitations prevent them from having a usual provider-17% report that their lack of insurance is the primary reason, while 12% cite high medical costs in general. However, a majority-56%-say they do not have a usual provider because they simply do not need one.

Pew Hispanic Center analyses of Current Population Survey data indicate that approximately 98% of Hispanic immigrants who are neither citizens nor legal permanent residents are undocumented. So, while the survey classification used in this report does not line up exactly with the Latino undocumented population, the two groups are nearly identical.

Data from a number of sources are used for this study. The findings regarding Latinos are from a bilingual telephone survey of a nationally representative sample of 4,013 Hispanic adults conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation from July 16, 2007 through September 23, 2007. U.S. population statistics were obtained from the Current Population Survey, the American Community Survey, and the National Health Interview Survey.

HERE

Gwinnett Daily Post

EBERHART: Contrary to popular belief, Americans will do the jobs

As an African-American, I would find it quite refreshing to hear “leaders” in the minority community and editorial writers acknowledge the damage done by illegal immigration. The Americans most and first affected by the crime of illegal immigration are native-born Hispanics and African-Americans.

“I don’t believe there are any jobs that Americans won’t take, and that includes agricultural jobs,” says Carol Swain, professor of law at Vanderbilt University and author of “Debating Immigration.” “Illegal immigration hurts low-skilled, low-wage workers of all races, but blacks are harmed the most because they’re disproportionately low-skilled.” 

A new Zogby survey finds that minority voters’ views are somewhat different than advertised by the “amnesty now” editorial writers. The poll of Hispanic, Asian-American, and African-American likely voters finds that overall, each of these groups prefers enforcement and for illegal immigrants to return home. Moreover, significant majorities of all three groups think that the current level of immigration is too high. As Dr. Steven Camarota of the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies notes, “These views are in sharp contrast to the leaders of most ethnic advocacy organizations, who argue for increased immigration and legalization of illegal immigrants.

The Zogby poll also exploded many of the myths of monolithic Hispanic views on illegal immigration and enforcement.

Most members of minority groups do not feel that illegal immigration is caused by limits on legal immigration, as many ethnic advocacy groups argue; instead, members feel it’s due to a lack of enforcement.  

Just 20 percent of Hispanics said illegal immigration was caused by not letting in enough legal immigrants; 61 percent said inadequate enforcement.

When asked to choose between enforcement that would cause illegal immigrants in the country to go home or offering them a pathway to citizenship with conditions, most members of minority groups choose enforcement. Fifty-two percent of Hispanics support enforcement to encourage illegals to go home; 34 percent support conditional legalization. Fifty-seven percent of Asian-Americans support enforcement; 29 percent support conditional legalization. Fifty percent of African-Americans support enforcement; 30 percent support conditional legalization.

We are endlessly bombarded with the wornout and absurd concept that the majority of Americans who demand border security and equal protection under the law — even immigration law — are somehow “anti-immigration.”

We admit more legal immigrants than any nation on the planet. Most can see that we don’t need even more “guest workers.” An unreported but true and amazing fact: The U.S. legally imports about 125,000 foreign workers every month.

No one can envy the job of the open borders groups who are charged with convincing us that we need amnesty for 12 million to 20 million more workers or welfare recipients while Americans and real immigrants struggle.

Officially, national unemployment sits at 10 percent as a whole and the numbers are even worse for black men. That group suffers an unemployment rate of more than 17 percent. Each time the federal government conducts raids on employers that employ illegals, formerly shutout poor Americans fill the job slots. Consequently, wages then increase.

It’s just not true that undocumented workers are doing the jobs that we won’t do.

Honesty on immigration is at a premium these days. Americans should make a decision on who to believe: The writers and ethnic-based groups with an agenda or the voice of the people who demand a fair chance at jobs and the promised nation of law.

Inger Eberhart is a member of the Board of Advisors of the Dustin Inman Society, which advocates for enforcement of American immigration laws. The organization’s Web site is www.TheDustinInmanSociety.org.

HERE

THANK YOU TO FAIR

Characteristics of the Illegal Alien Population

One way to get a sense of what the illegal alien population is like is to look at the illegal aliens who were given amnesty in the late 1980s (under the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986). This group of almost three million illegal aliens, all of whom had been in the United States since before 1982, was made into legal aliens and has since been surveyed by the federal government. The government study found that out of the amnestied illegal alien population:[1]

94 percent had migrated for economic reasons.
55 percent lived in California.
70 percent were from Mexico.
13 percent were from Central America.
74 percent had never been apprehended.
15 percent spoke English.
80 percent used public health services.
49 percent had no health insurance.

Their median age was 32, with an average household of four, seven years education, an hourly wage of $5.45, an annual individual income of $8,982, and annual family income of $15,364.

Remember, at the time of this survey, many of the illegal aliens were well established, having lived in the United States for over ten years. Many less successful illegal aliens would have left the country. The above profile of amnestied illegal aliens represented the most successful people in the illegal alien population. A profile of the overall current illegal alien population could be expected show worse results.

On the basis of this and similar information, estimates can be made of the costs to our society from illegal immigrants (see FAIR’s state cost studies). Additional factors must be taken into account, such as the illegal aliens’ school-age children (who number roughly 1.5 million). More difficult to estimate is the effect of displacement of American workers (the roughly 730,000 low-skilled workers a year who lose their jobs because of competition from illegal alien workers). The total costs are enormous, even after counting to their benefit the taxes collected from the illegal aliens (giving the net cost).

HERE

Victor Davis Hanson — Investors Business Daily

Immigration: As divisive as health care?

Candidate Barack Obama promised immigration activists, “I think it’s time for a president who won’t walk away from something as important as comprehensive reform [read: amnesty] when it becomes politically unpopular.” — Now pressure groups are demanding Obama come through on his pledges…

HERE

NRO online The Corner

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Tea Party for Amnesty? [Mark Krikorian]

Dick Armey, the putative tribune of the Tea Partiers, has had sense enough up until now to keep his pro-amnesty, open-borders views to himself while helping rally grassroots opposition to the metastasizing state — though he and Grover have been working hard to keep immigration out of the Tea Party agenda (notice that the “Contract from America” doesn’t include anything on immigration or border security among the issues people are supposed to vote for). But Armey can’t help himself; Monday at the National Press Club, his “freewheeling talk” included the following:

In language that will likely be recalled in the upcoming debate over immigration, Armey minced no words in condemning Republicans over their stance.

“Who in the Republican Party was the genius who said now that we have identified the fastest-growing demographic in America, let’s go out and alienate them? This is a nation of immigrants. … There is room in America,” he said.

“When I was Republican leader, I saw to it that Tom Tancredo could not get on a stage because I saw how destructive he was,” Armey said of the anti-immigration former congressman. “Republicans have to get off this goofiness. Ronald Reagan said, ‘Tear down this wall.’ Tom Tancredo said ‘Build that wall.’ Who’s right? America is not a nation that builds walls. America is a nation that opens doors, and we should be that.”

Anyone want to take a vote and see how many Tea Party activists agree with him? No, I didn’t think so. This despite the fact that immigration is the health of the state, boosting the clientele for the welfare state and racial set-asides, among other things, meaning there’s no way to restrain the growth of government, let alone shrink it, without reducing future immigration.

To ask FreedomWorks, Armey’s organization, how it’s possible to reconcile its motto of “lower taxes, less government, more freedom” with a government-expanding, Democrat-electing policy of mass immigration, call them at 1.888.564.6273. HERE

NRO online – The Corner

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Meet the New Plan, Same as the Old Plan [Mark Krikorian]

I’m traveling and don’t have much time, but I noticed that Senators Schumer and Graham have a piece in the Post laying out their “draft framework” for an immigration bill. Hey, I thought to myself, maybe they’ve resolved some of the disputes among the various pro-amnesty factions that had been delaying the presentation of a bill. Eagerly anticipating some new development or formulation I made the time to read the op-ed all the way through.

Nothing.

No specifics whatsoever. I thought I was reading an op-ed from 2001 (or 2002 or 2003 or 2004 or . . .). It’s just the same grand bargain of amnesty and increased immigration in exchange for promises of future enforcement (their version includes a biometric national ID card), without any details about how legalization would work or how many indentured servants would be provided to cheap-labor employers each year. It’s not clear why the Post even agreed to publish the piece, other than it seemed salient in anticipation of Sunday’s illegal-alien-palooza on the Mall. Until labor agrees to support an indentured labor program for “temporary” workers, business isn’t going to back any bill and nothing’s going to move. Wake me when something happens.