Mexican Trucks: What is the Bush Administration Hiding?

To: LABOR EDITORS

Contact: Leslie Miller of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, +1-202-624-8734, lmiller@teamster.org

WASHINGTON, Sept. 6 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The following statement was issued today by Teamster General President Jim Hoffa:

It’s becoming more and more obvious that the Bush administration just won’t come clean with the American people about when the first Mexican truck will roll across the border.

We know the fix is in. The Bush administration gave the go-ahead for this so-called “pilot program” before receiving the inspector general’s report, which is required by law.

How could they give the go-ahead unless the results of the report — which is supposed to be independent — were dictated by Transportation Secretary Mary Peters?

I can only conclude the Bush administration is trying to sneak this reckless and unlawful program into existence.

No announcement has been made about its start date, which members of Congress say is expected soon.

The American people only found out about it after the Teamsters forced the Bush administration to admit — in a court of law — that it wanted to open the borders on Labor Day weekend.

When reporters tried to get a straight answer from the Department of Transportation, they couldn’t. Then we learned in a footnote to a legal document that the program might start on Thursday.

Now all we hear from the Department of Transportation is silence.

What is the Bush administration hiding?

It is time for the Bush administration to come out from the shadows and explain to Congress and to the American people why they are willing to blindly heed Mexico’s demands. Why will they do Mexico’s bidding despite Mexico’s failure to hold up its end of the bargain and raise safety standards to our level?

What is it about safety and national security that George Bush doesn’t understand?

Congress and the American public must demand accountability from the Bush administration. It is time to end the secrecy. It is time to come clean with the American people.”

Note: Legal documents filed in the case can be found at http://www.teamster.org.

SOURCE International Brotherhood of Teamsters

-0- Bonus information here.

Fast Facts according to Mexican president Felipe Calderon…

“Mexico does not end at its borders.” & “Where there is a Mexican, there is Mexico.”

Mexican president Felipe Calderon, to a standing ovation, during his first state-of-the nation address, September, 2007 Here.

For those who are wondering: YES, Matamoros is that paradise to our south – Mexico.

Brownsville Herald
Morning Migration
“Crossing from Matamoros to Brownsville in the morning can take up to an hour, so Cervantes — who asked that her name be changed to protect her identity — spent the time in line to get ahead on her school work.

Once in Brownsville, she’d drop off her younger sister at middle school, leaving just enough time to get to Lopez for her first class at 8:45 a.m. “

…To attend a Brownsville public school, students must provide district officials with a birth certificate, immunization records, a Social Security number, transcripts from previous schools and a document showing proof of residence, such as a utility or mortgage statement. — However, access to a public education, regardless of legal status, is protected…

Read it here.

Dear DA:

I received your email soliciting funds. I think it is a shame that a family of four will go to a movie and between the admission price, popcorn, and drinks, will not think twice about spending $35.00. Yet, will hesitate to contribute $35.00 to a cause they believe in.

I believe if you asked your supporters to give up three movies a year and send $105.00 to help the Dustin Inman Society continue it’s work to NOT ONLY secure our borders, but to protect Americans from having to compete with illegal aliens for jobs which pay less, because the illegal labor has driven the wages down. They would see the comparison and send the money you need.

You might also suggest that if it would be tough to “sell” their children on three movies, they give up one movie this year and send the $35.00 they would have spent to a cause that will make their community better. I am sure they will agree, it’s a small price to pay, because when they think of it, they are not just stopping illegal aliens, they are helping to protect their jobs and their children’s schools.

D.A., like many other people, as a financial planner, I don’t have the time to get as involved as you are, but I can support your efforts in another way by giving up three movies and sending you the $105.00 I would have spent.

Keep up your good work. There is nothing unreasonable about asking people to obey our laws and not “cut in line.” After all, they would not think of cutting in line at the movies. What gives them the right to cut in front of the line, of all the poor people who have waited for years, in their home countries around the world, to come to America?

Sincerely,

C .Q.
Woodstock ,GA

A note from D.A. – THANK YOU Conrad!

Illegal immigration hurts America’s poor
Dallas Morning News

Froma Harrop: Illegal immigration hurts America’s poor

They compete more for jobs and get paid less for them

January 6, 2007

There’s a popular game in America that goes, I’ll cut your wages, but you don’t cut mine. And the outsourcing of your factory job to China is a good thing because it makes my paycheck go further at Wal-Mart. We hear this theme a lot in the debate over illegal immigration.

Consider the recent raids on Swift meat-processing plants. Federal agents arrested 1,187 illegal immigrants at facilities in six states. Mere hours later, economists warned that depriving the industry of illegal labor could raise hamburger prices.

Illegal immigration is usually presented as a win-win situation: Undocumented foreigners earn far more than they could back home. Consumers get a bargain.

Nowhere to be seen are America’s working poor, who get stomped on 13 different ways. They have to compete with illegal immigrants for jobs and housing. Low-skilled natives and legal immigrants also end up subsidizing the undocumented because they tend to live in the same communities, which must provide hospitals, police, schools and garbage pickup.

Who doesn’t suffer from illegal immigration? For starters, the people who write about it. I speak of the journalism profession, which has the habit of covering the issue with sympathetic stories about illegal immigrants who work hard and go to church.

But were a busload of illegals from Australia to turn up and offer reportage at 10 percent below the going rate, the writers would call the authorities so fast your head would spin. And the publisher’s argument that thanks to the cheap Australians, he’s able to trim a few cents off the newsstand price would make no impression.

As it turns out, the meat-processing companies that employ so many illegal immigrants have been enjoying a nearly 50 percent discount on what was the going rate. In 1980, the average meat-processing job paid $19 an hour. The companies then moved their plants to rural areas, far from the Midwest cities and their unions. The average wage now? About $9 an hour.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce likes to wail about the “labor shortage.” It says there aren’t enough chambermaids, dishwashers, etc. to work for its members at lousy wages. Odd, but when there’s a shortage of labor – or anything else – doesn’t the price of it go up? The price of unskilled labor in the United States hasn’t gone up. It’s gone down. Because of immigration, American-born high school dropouts experienced a 5 percent loss in wages during the ’80s and ’90s, according to a study by Harvard economist George Borjas

. …MORE here

I cannot make stuff like this up:

Jailed TB patient in Gwinnett could be released this week

By CRAIG SCHNEIDER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The Mexican day laborer jailed in Gwinnett County for refusing tuberculosis treatment could be released by the end of this week, health officials said Tuesday.

But even though Francisco Santos would no longer be contagious, the 17-year-old would still not be cured — and he would not be a completely free man.

Santos will be handed over to the custody of his mother, and both have signed a legally binding consent order saying he will comply with nine months of treatment and not leave the area.

In addition, when Santos leaves the Gwinnett County jail, federal immigration officials say they will hand him a notice to appear in court for deportation.

“He is being processed for removal,” said Richard Rocha, spokesman for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The consent order, approved Tuesday by Gwinnett Superior Court Judge Michael Clark, marks the latest turn in a case that has mixed two charged issues for metro Atlanta — illegal immigration and the treatment of people with tuberculosis.

Gwinnett health officials jailed Santos Aug. 24 after he refused treatment for an active, contagious case of tuberculosis and threatened to flee to his native Mexico. Santos, who lives in Duluth, quickly started treatment. The events brought to mind the recent case of Andrew Speaker, the Atlanta lawyer who traveled abroad with tuberculosis and was held in isolation when he returned.

Santos’ signing of the consent order prompted health officials to cancel a court hearing planned for today on his confinement.

Santos’ mother, who declined to comment Tuesday, has also been slated for deportation as an illegal immigrant, Rocha said. Enriqueta Palacios and her son are expected to appear before an immigration judge in Atlanta within a few weeks. Those proceedings can take a few months, and, pending appeals and other actions, the final deportation could come soon after that or take several more months.

In total, he may not be deported for another two years, which would provide him time to receive the treatment locally.

Gwinnett health officials say they have stressed to Santos and his mother that leaving the area and neglecting his treatment could injure him, his family and the public. He would become a fugitive and he could become contagious again.

“They’ve given every indication that they understand … and they’ve given no clues that they intend to do anything but accept the treatment and we hope and pray that’s what they adhere to,” said county health spokesman Vernon Goins.

But the prospect of releasing Santos to his mother has raised some concerns that he will flee.

“Releasing somebody into the American population who is illegal and has tuberculosis is an absolutely mindless endeavor,” said D.A. King, a metro Atlanta advocate for measures against illegal immigrants. “I think he should be incarcerated and separated from the American public … before he is returned to his home country.”

Remedios Gomez, the Consul General of Mexico in Atlanta, said she is watching Santos’ case. Should he return to Mexico, she said, her office could help with travel and making sure that the Mexican government provides him with the proper care and medicine.

Gwinnett health officials say they have finished testing about a dozen of Santos’ family members for tuberculosis. Four tested positive, but were not active and contagious, and they have started treatment. The others were negative and the health department said it does not anticipate any more testing.

Read the entire AJC report here

From the American Conservarive magazine:

August 27, 2007 Issue
Copyright © 2007 The American Conservative

Let’s Not Go Dutch

Amnesty’s track record in Europe should discourage American imitators.

by Paul Belien

America is not the only nation debating amnesty for illegal aliens. The issue is a hot topic across the Atlantic as well. On June 8, the Dutch Parliament approved a proposal submitted by Nebahat Albayrak, a Turkish-born member of the Dutch government, to give permanent resident cards to everyone who has been living in the Netherlands since 2001. Albayrak, the junior minister of Justice, who holds dual Dutch-Turkish citizenship, thinks that some 30,000 will benefit from her amnesty, though no one actually knows how many illegal immigrants are in the country.

If previous amnesties in other Western European countries are any indication, the Dutch may be in for a surprise. Two years ago, when Spain announced a collective amnesty for illegal immigrants, the government in Madrid expected that the measure would apply to 300,000 people at most; 800,000 showed up.

Belgium had a similar experience in January 2000, when it granted papers to everyone who had been living in the country illegally for the previous six years. Brussels thought there were 20,000 illegal aliens, but 50,000 applied for amnesty, providing documents, such as doctor’s prescriptions, to prove that they had been living in Belgium in 1994. In 1998, when the Italian government announced an amnesty for what was expected to be “fewer than 38,000” illegal immigrants, it had to hand out residence permits to a staggering 220,000.

Amnesties for illegal immigrants take place at regular intervals in Europe. Each time a government grants one, they invariably say that this will be the last and that from now on all illegal newcomers will be expelled. Of course that never happens.

Since 1974, Western Europe has given permanent resident cards to over 5 million illegal immigrants. France has granted three major amnesties in the past 25 years. Spain has offered six in the past 15 years. Italy voted amnesties in 1988, 1990, 1996, 1998, and 2002. Last year, it agreed on another one that allowed over 500,000 people to stay—a figure the government now wants to expand to 1 million. All these countries belong to the European Union, where there is free movement of persons. An amnesty in one country allows the formerly illegal immigrant to move to other EU member states as well.

The largest collective amnesties have been given in Spain, Italy, and Greece. These EU member states, directly bordering Africa and Asia along the Mediterranean, hope that once an illegal alien has obtained his residence permit he will leave for more affluent welfare states like Germany, Britain, or Scandinavia. The immigrants can legally emigrate to a Shangri-La elsewhere in Europe. And, indeed, most of them do.

In the Netherlands, however, the situation is different. The tulip kingdom by the North Sea is as close to paradise as a welfare seeker can get. Those who obtain permission to stay in Holland do not move on, as they have already tapped one of the richest welfare bonanzas on the continent. Hence the puzzling question: why have the Dutch, who had relatively strict immigration policies until the present government took over last February, suddenly decided to open the floodgates? One of the reasons is the role played by someone granted an American green card last year.

Please read the rest here…and know that there is another amnesty bill in the U.S. House – The STRIVE ACT. The open borders lobby will never quit.

Once upon a time….
DHS Fact Sheet: Improving Border Security and Immigration Within Existing Law
Release Date: August 10, 2007

Today, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez Announced a Series of Reforms the Administration Will Pursue to Address Border Security and Immigration Challenges. The following reforms represent steps the Administration can take within the boundaries of existing law to secure our borders more effectively, improve interior and worksite enforcement, streamline existing guest worker programs, improve the current immigration system, and help new immigrants assimilate into American culture.

Read more here to see how we all live happily ever after. Try to forget that it has been six years since the horror of 9/11.

Do NOT read anything on this Website…

It will make you think.

Ahh… identity theft while looking for a better life. Amnesty-again anyone?

Associated Press
25 victims of geography arrested in raids face ID theft charges

Raleigh — Nearly all of the illegal [aliens… criminals] arrested in raids last week in North Carolina were charged with identity theft in schemes to stay in the country under the names of American citizens, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said Tuesday. — The 25 [invaders] either worked or were former employees…

the rest here.