If the hearings being held across the country by House Republican leaders have a point, it has yet to be revealed. As a New York Times editorial noted, “this novel approach to governing — seeking public input on bills after they have passed — reflects a cynical gamble that linking immigration and terror will upend the Senate bill and give House Republicans a short-term electoral boost.”
Kris Kobach, a professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law and former candidate for Congress in Kansas, tried to make that link when he testified at a hearing Wednesday near San Diego. He argued that securing the southern border is crucial to U.S. security, citing 2005 figures that 3,722 foreigners from U.S.-identified terror states were detained by federal authorities, the San Jose Mercury News reported.
“The threat is real, the threat is out there,” Kobach said. “The only thing we know that stops people from coming in is a physical barrier.”
But while Congress is debating, illegal immigrants continue to flow in, and those millions already here continue to live in legal limbo.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Registered?
Commenting on WE Blog now requires you to be a Kansas.com member. Use the links above to register, if you haven't already, or to log in.Contact us
Follow us
Daily Archives
-
Recent Comments
- Pleefer on Open thread 11/23
- Monkeyhawk on Let immigrants run
- Pleefer on Open thread 11/23
- Pleefer on Open thread 11/23
- writerdog on Let immigrants run
- Regular on Open thread 11/23
- JimJohnson on Let immigrants run
- Heckler on Open thread 11/23
- JimJohnson on Let immigrants run
- okobserver on Let immigrants run
12 Comments
I see a movie title, IRON CURTAIN RELOADED.
Actually, if we penalized illegal employers sufficiently, they would say, “Sorry, we can’t hire you,” and illegal immigration would disintegrate: Coyote to wannabe border crosser” “Pay me $2000 and I can get you an unpaid vacation in America.”
The elections in Mexico is getting interesting. Looks like the leftist candidate is trying to goreize the election results.
Neither major party wants the immigration status-quo to change, so it will not. It’s a pity that voters seem to think that they have any intentions otherwise.
The band plays on … no change in sight.
Yes, and Brownback our own “Open Border” guy is NOT being held accountable by our local media. He voted for the Senate version and on Monday will be speaking to the National Council of Laraza. A big Hispanic Supremist group in California. They also support MeCha, a group that spouts for the RECONQUEST of the American SouthWest.
Note he is not talking it up HERE. He is on George Soros side for an open border and also wants to do away with the entire concept of NATIONS. Our only hpe is in the House side and Tiahrt is on the issues good side. I suggest you contact your local state rep to voice your feelings. Many states are taking it on and demanding all workers be vetted through the Feds Social Security Verification program and stopping drivers license being issued to non valid SS #. Pennsylvania is looking at not only fining employers but also apartments and home owners 1000.00 if they do not use the system to check SS# of RENTERS. Gov. Bill Owen of Colo. forced the Colo. legislature into special session to pass some new hard laws on getting employeers in jail and massive fines that will result in the outright seizure of business if they dont straighten up. They are going to pull ALL state benefits they can that the Feds dont mandate.
Ive been in contact with some of my reps and its looking like they may tackle some of the things that a State can around these issues.
Banks also need to be looked into for making loans to illegals for homes and then when they are rounded up , guess who is on the hook for the loans….us. Some of the banks even have special divisions set up to market to ILLEGALS. They take the Matricula Consular card which EVERY illegal has as proof of who they are.
The recent IFCO company arrests had over 1000 people that had the SAME SS#. How nice.
When you hear a politician uttering the outrageous statment “we cant send these people all back across the border” Ask them how it is that Mexico accomplished such a task.
heh
“Yes, and Brownback our own “Open Border” guy is NOT being held accountable by our local media. He voted for the Senate version and on Monday will be speaking to the National Council of Laraza. A big Hispanic Supremist group in California. They also support MeCha, a group that spouts for the RECONQUEST of the American SouthWest.”Posted by: mrbill | July 07, 2006 at 02:15 PM.That is because from what I read in the Wichita Eagle, the Wichita Eagle is behind his position on this 100%. They don’t care about us.
If we don’t get our borders and ports under tigher control, we are all collectively aiding and abetting the enemy , after a fashion.
If we do not take care of the illegal situation soon we might just as well hand over the keys and turn out the lights. These people do not want to be Americans; they only want to have a job so they can send it back to Mexico. Some will go back at a later date and be considered rich in their country because of the money they made in America.
When they protest they protest with the Mexican flag. They do not protest with the American flag. Now I do have to some of them started carrying the Mexican flag when people started asking about the whereabouts of the American flag.
When immigrants came over from Germany etc. years ago they came here to be an American. Those from Mexico really do not want to be Americans they only want to be Mexican. If we allow them to continue this country will be the next Mexico.
Close the boarder and send those that are here illegal back!
Anybody see Blazin Saddles? Yeah, Brownback’s just as useless as Mel Brooks’ governor.
“I never thought I would say this, but here goes: I’m proud of Sam Brownback. I don’t agree with the conservative Kansas senator on many issues, but he deserves credit for his brave and compassionate stand on immigration”Randy Scholfield is an Eagle editorial writerhttp://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/news/columnists/randy_scholfield/14557022.htmWE NEED TO REPLACE BOTH, A SENATOR AND A NEWSPAPER
We have the means to seal the border and to remove the criminal invaders. We are, sadly, lacking the will thanks to traitor scum like shrub, fat teddy, hillary, yellow back and the rest.
I never thought much of “Ike” as a president or a military man but he got it right in regards to immigration and all we need to do is follow his lead!
How Eisenhower solved illegal border crossings from MexicoBy John Dillin
WASHINGTON – George W. Bush isn’t the first Republican president to face a full-blown immigration crisis on the US-Mexican border.Fifty-three years ago, when newly elected Dwight Eisenhower moved into the White House, America’s southern frontier was as porous as a spaghetti sieve. As many as 3 million illegal migrants had walked and waded northward over a period of several years for jobs in California, Arizona, Texas, and points beyond.
In the MonitorThursday, 07/06/06
Arab leaders may hold key to Gaza calm
Obrador rejects recount
Quest for leverage on North Korea
A year after bombings, London still on alert
Editorial: China under North Korea’s missile toe
More stories…
Get all the Monitor’s headlines by e-mail.Subscribe for free.E-mail this storyWrite a letter to the EditorPrinter-friendly versionPermission to reprint/republishPresident Eisenhower cut off this illegal traffic. He did it quickly and decisively with only 1,075 United States Border Patrol agents – less than one-tenth of today’s force. The operation is still highly praised among veterans of the Border Patrol.
Although there is little to no record of this operation in Ike’s official papers, one piece of historic evidence indicates how he felt. In 1951, Ike wrote a letter to Sen. William Fulbright (D) of Arkansas. The senator had just proposed that a special commission be created by Congress to examine unethical conduct by government officials who accepted gifts and favors in exchange for special treatment of private individuals.
General Eisenhower, who was gearing up for his run for the presidency, said “Amen” to Senator Fulbright’s proposal. He then quoted a report in The New York Times, highlighting one paragraph that said: “The rise in illegal border-crossing by Mexican ‘wetbacks’ to a current rate of more than 1,000,000 cases a year has been accompanied by a curious relaxation in ethical standards extending all the way from the farmer-exploiters of this contraband labor to the highest levels of the Federal Government.”
Years later, the late Herbert Brownell Jr., Eisenhower’s first attorney general, said in an interview with this writer that the president had a sense of urgency about illegal immigration when he took office.
America “was faced with a breakdown in law enforcement on a very large scale,” Mr. Brownell said. “When I say large scale, I mean hundreds of thousands were coming in from Mexico [every year] without restraint.”
Although an on-and-off guest-worker program for Mexicans was operating at the time, farmers and ranchers in the Southwest had become dependent on an additional low-cost, docile, illegal labor force of up to 3 million, mostly Mexican, laborers.
According to the Handbook of Texas Online, published by the University of Texas at Austin and the Texas State Historical Association, this illegal workforce had a severe impact on the wages of ordinary working Americans. The Handbook Online reports that a study by the President’s Commission on Migratory Labor in Texas in 1950 found that cotton growers in the Rio Grande Valley, where most illegal aliens in Texas worked, paid wages that were “approximately half” the farm wages paid elsewhere in the state.
Profits from illegal labor led to the kind of corruption that apparently worried Eisenhower. Joseph White, a retired 21-year veteran of the Border Patrol, says that in the early 1950s, some senior US officials overseeing immigration enforcement “had friends among the ranchers,” and agents “did not dare” arrest their illegal workers.
Walt Edwards, who joined the Border Patrol in 1951, tells a similar story. He says: “When we caught illegal aliens on farms and ranches, the farmer or rancher would often call and complain [to officials in El Paso]. And depending on how politically connected they were, there would be political intervention. That is how we got into this mess we are in now.”
Bill Chambers, who worked for a combined 33 years for the Border Patrol and the then-called US Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), says politically powerful people are still fueling the flow of illegals.
During the 1950s, however, this “Good Old Boy” system changed under Eisenhower – if only for about 10 years.
In 1954, Ike appointed retired Gen. Joseph “Jumpin’ Joe” Swing, a former West Point classmate and veteran of the 101st Airborne, as the new INS commissioner.
Influential politicians, including Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson (D) of Texas and Sen. Pat McCarran (D) of Nevada, favored open borders, and were dead set against strong border enforcement, Brownell said. But General Swing’s close connections to the president shielded him – and the Border Patrol – from meddling by powerful political and corporate interests.
One of Swing’s first decisive acts was to transfer certain entrenched immigration officials out of the border area to other regions of the country where their political connections with people such as Senator Johnson would have no effect.
Then on June 17, 1954, what was called “Operation Wetback” began. Because political resistance was lower in California and Arizona, the roundup of aliens began there. Some 750 agents swept northward through agricultural areas with a goal of 1,000 apprehensions a day. By the end of July, over 50,000 aliens were caught in the two states. Another 488,000, fearing arrest, had fled the country.
By mid-July, the crackdown extended northward into Utah, Nevada, and Idaho, and eastward to Texas.
By September, 80,000 had been taken into custody in Texas, and an estimated 500,000 to 700,000 illegals had left the Lone Star State voluntarily.
Unlike today, Mexicans caught in the roundup were not simply released at the border, where they could easily reenter the US. To discourage their return, Swing arranged for buses and trains to take many aliens deep within Mexico before being set free.
Tens of thousands more were put aboard two hired ships, the Emancipation and the Mercurio. The ships ferried the aliens from Port Isabel, Texas, to Vera Cruz, Mexico, more than 500 miles south.
The sea voyage was “a rough trip, and they did not like it,” says Don Coppock, who worked his way up from Border Patrolman in 1941 to eventually head the Border Patrol from 1960 to 1973.
Mr. Coppock says he “cannot understand why [President] Bush let [today's] problem get away from him as it has. I guess it was his compassionate conservatism, and trying to please [Mexican President] Vincente Fox.”
There are now said to be 12 million to 20 million illegal aliens in the US. Of the Mexicans who live here, an estimated 85 percent are here illegally.http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0706/p09s01-coop.html
viva La Raza Blanco!!!