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In the waning days of the this session, Congress passed the Continuing Resolution (H.R. 2638).  This was necessary to keep the government running because due to their incompetence they haven’t done a damn thing in months, including passing any 2009 fiscal bills.  And extension of E-Verify until March 6th, 2009 was included in that Continuing Resolution.   So E-Verify and therefore attempts to counter illegal immigration will survive for a few more months at least.

The bigger problem is that the next battle for E-Verify could very likely take place in a Congress of unknown political makeup and under a President who will almost certainly be less than willing to extend the program.  Regardless of who wins this Presidential Election, we will have a President very hostile to border enforcement.

Actually an Obama presidency would be better for border enforcement than a McCain presidency.  With McCain as president, Republicans in Congress will feel it necessary to go along with McCain’s very well established pro-amnesty tendencies.  And just like last times Democrats will go along with it because amnesty works in their favor.  With an Obama presidency, Republicans will fight for E-Verify and against any attempts at amnesty for no other reason than it’s what Obama wants.  Either way it’s a shitty environment to fight for the survival of one of the best tools we have against illegal immigration.

Our best bet for E-Verify is for the Senate to pass HR 6633, which has already passed the House.  To do that they have to deal with the hold that Senator Menendez.  Which means Harry Reid either tells Menendez to get bent and ignores the hold, or else he needs to grow a backbone and tell Menendez he’s a damn moron and to remove his hold.

No matter how the hand is dealt, while we have E-Verify for a few months more, the horizon is looking rather dim.

I think I’ll be the only blogger on the planet today that isn’t bitching about the economy when I bitching about Congress. No my bitching is about my pet issue….illegal immigration.

We’ve known for a long time that E-Verify was going to expire in November if Congress didn’t reauthorize it. Instead of making progress on this, Congress has done the exact opposite. There is a bill (HR 6633) floating around that would re-authorize E-Verify and all the Senate has to do is vote on it.

Congress is scheduled to adjourn after this week, and this is the last change to re-authorize E-Verify before it expires. And since Congress is busy dealing with bailout after bailout, it is unlikely they will get around to authorizing E-Verify. As a result, we will lose one of the best tools we have to fight illegal immigration due entirely to Congressional incompetence.

The leader of that incompetence is Senator Menendez who has placed a block on that HR 6633, which would reauthorize E-Verify. In fact, Senator Menendez is uping the ante on his block. He’s release his block if we allow 550,000 more foreign workers in the US, in addition to the 1.1 million already scheduled to arrive.

Our economy is experiencing quite a bit of trouble right now. Instead of at least ensuring a level playing field for Americans in the job market, Congress is going to allow illegal immigrants to have the upper hand competing for jobs. With a five-year high in unemployment rates, are more foreign workers really the answer we need!?

And it doesn’t help that both of our Presidential candidates are trying to out-amnesty each other. Both declaring that their version of amnesty will be bigger and more repulsive than the others. This despite clear public support for enforcing the border rather than passing amnesty.

I’d love to tell you that we have a chance to save E-Verify, but I’d just be blowing smoke up your ass. And with it being Election Season, you’re getting enough of that as it is. So I’ll just tell you that it is important that the Senate realize the public view on all this.

You can let Senator Menendez what you think by calling him at the following numbers:

DC Office - (202) 224-4744
Newark Office - (973) 645-3030
Online Form

Minnesotans you can also call your Senators at:

Senator Coleman (202) 224-5641
Senator Klobuchar (202) 224-3244

And then you can call Senate leadership at:

Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid (D-NV) (202) 224-2158
Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell (R-KY) (202) 224-3135

Otherwise the Senate Switchboard can be reached at (202) 224-3121.

[Crossposted at True North]

Apparently the DHS, in one of their efforts to track potential terrorists, have started to track the border crossing habits of US citizens.

The federal government has been using its system of border checkpoints to greatly expand a database on travelers entering the country by collecting information on all U.S. citizens crossing by land, compiling data that will be stored for 15 years and may be used in criminal and intelligence investigations.

Officials say the Border Crossing Information system, disclosed last month by the Department of Homeland Security in a Federal Register notice, is part of a broader effort to guard against terrorist threats. It also reflects the growing number of government systems containing personal information on Americans that can be shared for a broad range of law enforcement and intelligence purposes, some of which are exempt from some Privacy Act protections.

While international air passenger data has long been captured this way, Customs and Border Protection agents only this year began to log the arrivals of all U.S. citizens across land borders, through which about three-quarters of border entries occur.

Ok now one can certainly make a very credible argument that this is not something the US government should be doing. And its an argument that I would largely agree with. However, let’s put even that aside for another day.

This type of activity seems a bit wasted to me, or at the very least very premature. This program is logging the passage of people passing through border crossings. I don’t think its an exaggeration to say that anyone that is doing something the DHS is interested in, isn’t going to go through a border crossing. And experiences by Border Control agents certainly seems to bear that out, especially drug trafficking.

With a border as porous and unsecured as ours is, it would be a relatively simple matter for any potential terrorists or criminal enterprise to simply go around the border crossings and cross where nobody is watching. So while it’s nice that the DHS is trying to give us a warm fuzzy feeling perhaps it would be a much more productive use of resources if they would work on establishing bottlenecks (i.e. border crossings) first.

Apparently Mexico is having a bit of a problem….or at least they call it that.

Nearly all illegal guns seized in Mexico come from the United States, the head of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said Monday.

ATF acting director Michael Sullivan said investigators have traced 90 to 95 percent of the weapons found in Mexico to the U.S. Generally, only law-enforcement officers or military personnel can legally possess guns in Mexico.

I see a perfect solution here. I propose a trade. You take back all your illegal immigrants, and we’ll take back our illegal guns. In fact, I’ll make a personal sacrifice and offer to store them all.

Now I realize that the US is overwhelmingly getting the good end of the deal, so we’ll “let” Mexico have Rosie O’Donnell too.

UPDATE : Yes I realize this is a myth that’s been debunked before.  That wasn’t really the point.  The point was it’s pretty damn silly to complain about a few illegal guns in Mexico when 10% of Mexico’s population is in the US illegally.

And even if were a legit problem, it’s pretty easily solved.  Some sort of border control would probably do the trick.  Perhaps some policies on controlling the flow of what crosses the border.  In fact if both Mexico and the US did it, it would be especially effective.  Maybe even a barrier type device…something that make it physically difficult to cross, especially with heavy items like firearms or drugs.  I don’t know what form it would take, but some sort of barrier, kinda like a wall but maybe bigger.

It would have the added bonus of clearing marking the border so that Mexican military units can’t keep “accidentally” invading the US and pointing, presumably non-illegal, guns at our border agents.

We’ll start with some easy questions for you. What is it called when one country’s military invades another? What is it called when one country’s military invades another over 200 times. What is it called when one country’s military invades another and shoots at and/or holds prisoner citizens or even law enforcement officials of that country??

Those of you that answered “an act of war” are clearly a bunch of racist bastards.

Because when it’s Mexico doing it, well, then it’s just a mistake. It’s just a mistake 200+ times. It’s just a mistake when shots are fired at US citizens. It’s just a mistake when US border patrol agents are held prisoner by Mexican military on US soil.

How many times is the US going to let this happen before we finally tire of it. How many have to die before something it done about it? How many times is Mexico going to use the excuse that it was an accident or it wasn’t really their problem?

Fortunately the US State Department is right on top of things as usual.

State Department spokeswoman Nicole Thompson said Tuesday that the department had no information on the incident, and referred further questions to the Border Patrol. “It is not an incident that we are aware of,” she said.

Wow. Well I feel better. Nothing to see here folks, move along. Everything is well in hand. Until it happens again next time.

I wrote previously about how E-Verify, despite being one of the most useful tools in enforcing our immigration laws, was being blocked by Democrats in Congress. In fact, it was at risk of being terminated due to lack of funding. The E-Verify program expires in November, and legislation to reauthorize it has to pass both the House and Senate before the fall (August) recess.

While one big hurdle remains, progress was made last week. In response to increasing public pressure, shortly before retiring for a month recess, the US House passed H.R. 6633, led by Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ.). This bill while not perfect, includes a number of provisions, which should hopefully at least maintain the status quo on immigration. Unfortunately, from this Congress, not making things worse is about as good as we can expect.

Essentially this bill reauthorizes E-Verify for five years. This takes us to the next presidential race, and provides the chance for presidential politics to interfere. While if it had stayed at 10 years reauthorization, as it originally was, it would have removed that cost and taken us beyond the next presidency.

It also includes a number of provisions that prevents backhanded attempts to exploit loopholes to prevent the funding E-Verify. The bill allows the Commissioner of the Social Security Administration to use money to fund E-Verify if the Homeland Security Department doesn’t provide them on time. But it also requires the Homeland Security department to make advance payments to the Social Security Administration for the operation of E-Very.

Several legislators have been trying to put in provisions that prevented the Social Security Administration from spending funds on the program, while also not requiring the Homeland Security Department to pay for it. This would have essentially allowed the Homeland Security Department to kill the program despite it being reauthorized by Congress. And with our current President and either of our two possible new Presidents, that is a very very likely outcome.

However, one very big hurdle remains….namely the US Senate.

Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) has placed a hold legislation to reauthorize E-Verify. As I noted before

On Thursday, Senate staffers reported to FAIR that Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) is blocking the reauthorization of E-Verify in the Senate because he considers it to be a pro-business program that gives businesses a safe harbor. Since its inception in 1996, E-Verify has proven to be an effective and useful tool in protecting legal workers and the individuals who hire them.

The Senate needs to vote on this piece of legislation soon, because the current authorization for the program expires in November. Between the time it takes for the Senate to do anything, reconcile their bill with the House and then give it to the President to sign, this needs to be accomplished very quickly.

You can let Senator Menendez what you think by calling him at the following numbers:

DC Office - (202) 224-4744
Newark Office - (973) 645-3030
Online Form

Minnesotans you can also call your Senators at:

Senator Coleman (202) 224-5641
Senator Klobuchar (202) 224-3244

And then you can call Senate leadership at:

Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid (D-NV) (202) 224-2158
Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell (R-KY) (202) 224-3135

Otherwise the Senate Switchboard can be reached at (202) 224-3121.

Imagine that….if you get rid of the criminals, your crime rate goes down. All this new learning just amazes me, who would have thought that would work? Apparently Prince William County…

One of the wealthiest counties in America reports crime skyrocketing by 22 percent in the first quarter of 2008, while its neighbor saw crime plummet by 19.3 percent in the same time period – coinciding with a get-tough policy on illegal immigration.

So you have two adjoining counties. One cracks down on immigration and as a result their crime rate plummets. Meanwhile the other county does nothing and their crime rate skyrockets. While it’s only one quarter, it certainly is a hell of a coincidence.

But we’re repeatedly told that illegal immigrants are just nice hardworking people who just want jobs. Only they are already criminals by virtue of their being here. Plus should it really be a surprise that those that don’t give a damn what our immigration laws say, also don’t give a damn what the rest of the laws say either??

It’s not hard to find statistics that indicate that as the population of illegal aliens goes up, so does the crime rate. So it would hardly be surprising if the opposite is true as well. But it certainly makes one wonder just whose rights these supposed immigration rights activists are concerned about.

As many cities, counties and states start passing strict immigration laws, in order to compensate for the federal governments incompetence, it will be interesting to see the effect on crime rates. Although I won’t be surprised if longer term studies tend to reveal the same results as Prince William County is experiencing.

I wrote last week about the E-Verify program and how important it has become in verifying that workers in the US are here legally. In fact, recent studies have shown that the combination of enforcement activites, and employers verifying their workers legality, have caused illegal immigrants to start leaving the country on their own. We were all told that reducing the the population of illegal immigrants was an impossible task, especially with the only two available options being either full amnesty, or rounding up all 12 million.

But now when even the meager tools we’ve been granted appear to be working. Politicians in Congress not only refuse to act to continue their use, but Democrats are now actively blocking their funding.

On Thursday, Senate staffers reported to FAIR that Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) is blocking the reauthorization of E-Verify in the Senate because he considers it to be a pro-business program that gives businesses a safe harbor. Since its inception in 1996, E-Verify has proven to be an effective and useful tool in protecting legal workers and the individuals who hire them.

All E-Verify does is verify that an employer is not breaking the law by employing an individual. But apparently the rule of law just isn’t fair for some Democrats.

You can let Senator Menendez what you think by calling him at the following numbers:

DC Office - (202) 224-4744
Newark Office - (973) 645-3030
Online Form

[Crossposted at True North]

It’s been said that the opposite of Progress is Congress, and never has that been more true that on the immigration issue. They could have easily passed legislation that secured our borders, expelled the criminals within our borders and reformed our completely broken immigration system. Instead they sat on their ass and kissed the hands of racist nationalist groups like La Raza whose stated goals include the fragmentation of the United States.

Instead states and cities have had to step in to fill the void and pass laws of their own to deal with the problem. And despite the inaction of Congress, ICE has managed to make the most of their situation. In 2005, they reported a 52% increase in arrests over 2004. In 2006, they reported a 340% increase in arrests over 2005. In 2007, they reported a 13% increase in arrests over 2006. And in 2008, ICE is on track to report a 20% increase over 2007, having already almost matched 2007’s total.

While that is impressive, due to very soft laws and a pitiful array of legal tools, many of those arrested illegals go right back out the door with little more than a piece of paper asking them to show up in court later on to be deported. Few do, hence the phrase “Catch & Release”, which DHS claims they have ended every few months, despite evidence to the contrary.

More importantly, in addition to the number of arrests of illegal workers skyrocketing, the number of employers being arrested for hiring illegals is also increasing. Convincing employers that hiring illegals isn’t worth the risk would greatly advance the cause of dealing with illegal immigration.

We have a long way to go but it has increasingly convinced employers to use the E-Verify system to verify the legality of their workers. At the end of fiscal 2007, there were 24,463 employers registered with the E-Verify system, there are now over 75,000, with 1,000 more being added every week. Those employers have queried the status of over 4 million new hires so far this year.

Now the progress that has been made, despite the ineptitude and inaction of Congress, is being threatened by that very same ineptitude and inaction by Congress. The E-Verify program expires in November, and legislation to reauthorize it has to pass both the House and Senate before the fall (August) recess. While there is pending legislation to do so (HR 5596), it has been tied up with attempts, led by Representative Sam Johnson (R-TX), to gut any funding of if, essentially killing the program. By killing this program, Congress eliminates one of the few tools used in our already meager to deal with illegal immigration.

By not only impeding, but outright working against any semblance of progress on fighting illegal immigration, Congress really has become the opposite of Progress.

[Crossposted at True North]

The Anointed One is apparently preparing us all for his magnificently hopeful (but changed) immigration plan, because he wants us all to learn Spanish….because we shouldn’t make immigrants feel out of place….or something. I dunno….

If you understand his line of thinking, you’re probably insane because his hope/change crap has warped your fragile mind. Capt Ed fortunately does a good rundown of deciphering this BS.

Immigrants come from around the world to live in America. Perhaps Obama doesn’t realize this, but they don’t all speak Spanish. If our children have to learn foreign languages so that immigrants feel at home here, then we’d better plan on keeping them in school for about 30 years.

Also, Obama’s argument here makes no sense. He’s complaining that Americans don’t speak the native language when we visit Europe, but that we don’t speak the immigrant language when people move to the United States. With that argument, shouldn’t we expect Europeans to speak English when we travel there?

For a messiah of hope and change blessed with infinitely good judgement, Obama doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Last I checked we spoke English here…..okay, I’ll defer to our friends across the pond and admit we speak American….which is a loosely based on English.

Now this is awfully handy because it works out great with my personal Grand Unifying Theory on International Travel. Now it’s a complex theory and all but it can be summed up as

If you don’t know the language of the country, don’t go there…and certainly don’t fucking live there!

For me it breaks down two ways, common sense and respect.

Respect because I don’t want to be the damned arrogant pain in the ass tourist who is expecting others to cater to my whims and preferences. They are just going about their day when they come across me who chose to intrude my consciousness upon their country without having the common decency of knowing the language. And Common Sense because well duh. If I’m in trouble I want to know if that building down the street is the local police station or an leather fetish shop (I understand the look the same in some areas of the world). And speaking of the police I would prefer to know if that police officer is telling me “Heh you’re a friendly chap, please pull out a picture of your family to show me” or “You so much as blink I’m gonna blow your damn head off asshole!“. I think you’ll agree with this rationale in mind, my Grand Unifying Theory of International Travel works out just swell for everyone.

Now I’ll admit it is a restricting theory. Because since I haven’t spoken German since my grandparents passed away years ago, my theory pretty much restricts me to the UK, Australia, Canada and just over half
of the continental US. But that’s my problem isn’t it?

Tell you what Obama, if I want to go to Spain, I’ll learn Spanish then. But since I don’t need to learn spanish to order a taco at Taco Bell, I’ll do just fine with English thank you. Which isn’t to say learning a new language isn’t a good thing….far from it. But to arbitrarily chose Spanish on the off-hand chance that I run into a tourist from Madrid seems a bit daft.