Code Words For Amnesty

In light of Sen. Reid's announcement this week to push for Amnesty, Sue Myrick has released the following video: http://www.youtube.com/Suemyrick4congress

Sue Myrick on Fox and Friends This Morning

Sue will be on Fox and Friends (national) this morning at 6:45 am to discuss immigration and terrorism and specifically her efforts to force Sec. Napolitano to investigate possible Hezbollah activity along the southern border.

Obamamnesty

Earlier today, President Obama gave a speech at American University where he basically threw up his hands and gave up on border security. Calling it "unworkable", he outlined his plan to grant amnesty to the illegal aliens currently living here.

I thought I would give a few thoughts on his speech.
First, I am sick and tired of advocates for illegal immigration blurring the terms "immigrant" and "illegal immigrant". There is only one reason to do this, to put opponents of the policy on the defensive by making it appear we are against "legal immigration." I am for legal immigration, but am dead set against illegal immigration. I believe most Americans share this belief. I think most Legal immigrants do as well. President Obama's interchanging of the words is intellectually dishonest and he should be ashamed for doing it.

Second, the President referred to the eleven million illegals who are in our country. When did the number become only eleven million? We were using numbers well over 20 million back during the Bush administration. I know the economy is bad and some of them might have gone back across the border, but I'm going to call BS on this one and suggest that the number might be a lot higher than the 11 million the President is citing.

Third, did I hear correctly when the President said that the "Southern border is more secure now than it's been in the last 20 years?" Unbelievable. Drug cartels running rampant along the Southern Border. Shootouts in the streets of Arizona with illegal alien cartel members and the President feeds us that line? Seriously? Was his TelePrompter broken? Does he actually believe that? Or is he just trying to get us to believe it?

Fourth, he mocked Arizona's attempt to deal with this issue and said that their needs to be a national standard with regards to enforcing illegal immigration. I actually agree with him here. But here is the problem. The current national standard is a joke. I will remind you of the following facts. Under the Obama administration, with regards to enforcing illegal immigration: Administrative arrests are down 80 percent, criminal arrests are down 68 percent, number of criminal indictments are down 74 percent and convictions are down 75 percent. Talk is cheap, but action counts. The President's actions show that he is either not interested in protecting the sovereign border of the United States of America, or not capable. In either case, his failure to act is tantamount to a dereliction of duty in his role as Commander in Chief.

Fifth, he said that the enforcement efforts of a fence and border patrol are not workable. Really? How would he know? Has tried to enforce the border yet? To date, his administration has only built 344 miles of fence along the 2,000 mile border. The Secure Fence Act required 800 miles of fencing. How can he mock the fence for not working, when the damn fence is not built yet?

The President is supposed to protect the sovereignty of the United States. President Obama is giving ours away.

Illegals Want Amnesty, Americans Want Jobs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5lyBXjdEFk

New Developments on the US Border

Following are pictures I took this week along the San Diego section of the US-Mexican Border. Two developments of which you need to be aware. First, there is now a steady trend of illegal aliens from countries of interest coming up through Venezuela, where they perfect their Spanish (sometimes for up to two years), often change their middle eastern names to Latino-sounding names, procure false Venezuelan documentation and then present themselves at the US border seeking entry as Venezuelans.

Second, there is an up tick in the numbers of illegals coming across the Southern border with Hezbollah and Hamas tattoos on their person. The implication of this trend is obvious. It rather obviously implies relationships between the drug cartels (whom you must have permission from to cross the Mexican border from the Mexican side if you are a smuggler) and those terrorist organizations. Gang members bearing the tattoos of both their gang and middle eastern terrorist organizations, living in the United States should not make you feel especially safe.

Let me just say that the Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) does so much, with so little. Congress as a whole does not support them at the levels they should. Every member of Congress should be required to tour the US border and see the crap these men and women have to put up with and how little resources they have to do their jobs. They are literally on the front lines of securing the nation. The illegal transhipment of bad guys through Venezuela is unacceptable. Perhaps our President should spend less time shaking hands with Chavez and more time shaking hands with our border agents.

NC To Train Illegals To Compete Against US Citizens

You probably saw by now that yesterday the NC Community College Board voted to allow illegal immigrants to attend our community colleges.

The board voted 20 to 1 in favor of this new policy.

I oppose this move and thought that our Governor did too, as she openly campaigned against the community college doing exactly this action. Oh well, say one thing, do another, what's new?

The board tried to nuance their decision by putting certain criteria in place.

First, the illegal immigrant can go to community college if they first graduated from a NC high school. Second, they can only register after all legal residents register to ensure they are not taking the seat of a legal resident, and third they have to pay out of state tuition.

I don't know about you, but these three safeguards, do nothing to persuade me that this is a good decision.

First, by stipulating that our community colleges are only open to illegals who first graduate from a NC high school, the state is incentivizing illegals to enroll in our high schools. This is especially true since our neighbor in SC expressly outlaws illegals enrolling in their college system.

Second, the community college system was set up to provide the education and training necessary for our American workforce to be prepared to compete in the global economy. If we are letting in illegal aliens, who are here "illegally" hence the name "illegal alien", then isn't the state actually training illegals to compete against our own American citizens for jobs that are precious in today's world? You bet they are!

Finally, what part of illegal does the board not get? There was a time in our country when people did what was right, for no other reason than because it was right. Immigration is a federal issue, and yes our federal government has failed miserably at it. I understand that, but on behalf of those of us who have not given up the fight, shame on you NC for throwing in the towel.

And just so we are clear, there are 21 members on the community college board, 10 are appointed by the Governor(D). The LT Governor (D) sits on the board, as does the State Treasurer (D). One student from the NC Student Government Association serves and the rest are appointed by the state house (D) and state senate (D).

What a difference a Republican Governor would have made.

PS -- Thanks Lt. Governor Walter Dalton for being the one board member to vote against this policy.

PSS-- Thanks Sue Myrick for introducing a bill in Congress that would strip all federal funds of any community college system that willfully admits illegal aliens.

Fighting Illegal Immigration

This week, Sue Myrick signed onto the Secure America Through Verification and Enforcement Act of 2009 (SAVE). Sue supported it last session of Congress too, but the bill died in committee awaiting action.

The bill's lead sponsor is Heath Shuler, which goes to show that fighting illegal immigration does not have to be a partisan battle. We are proud to support Heath in this effort.

Here are some of the highlights of the bill:

- Increases border patrol agents by 6,000.

- Creates a pilot program to increase aerial surveillance, satellite, and equipment sharing between the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense.

- Expands the E-verify program and makes it mandatory for all employers.

- Requires notification of individuals whose SSN numbers may have been stolen and are being fraudulently used.

- Expedites the processing and removal of illegal aliens by expanding detention capacity and increasing the number of Immigration Judges.

Will keep you posted on this bill as it moves through the House.

287g Statistics for Charlotte-Mecklenburg

Due to my recent blogging about the 287g program in Charlotte being in jeopardy, I thought it would be beneficial to give you the statistics for the program and let you decide if we would be better off with or without the program in place.

Since 2006 inception of the 287g program:

Total number of inmates charged and brought into the local jail that were non US born: 11,162

Inmates processed for deportation: 6,914

Of those processed for deportation, number that had previously been deported: 544

Of those processed for deportation, number that had outstanding warrants for removal: 491

Note: Of the 6,914 processed for removal, 1654 were arrested for DWI

287g Program in Charlotte In Jeopardy

If you read the Observer today, specifically the article by Franco Ordonez ( http://www.charlotteobserver.com/local/story/845945.html#Comments_Container) you got a watered down version of the upcoming changes to the 287 g program currently utilized at the Mecklenburg County jail.

Franco did not present the severity of the changes coming down the pike and the article left the impression that the changes were no real big deal.

Wrong.

Sue Myrick was interviewed for the article and we offered some of our objections, but none of them made it into print.

So allow me to present two objections here.

As a reminder, the 287g program is offered by the Department of Homeland Security and utilized by the Mecklenburg and Gaston County Sheriff's offices. When an inmate is checked into the respective jail, they are run through the DHS databases and positively identified as being in the country legally or not.

If the inmate is an illegal alien, after he has served the time for the local offense he committed, he is then turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for deportation.

If our jail did not have 287g, then that person would be released back into the general public. This was the case for many years.

Now thanks to the 287g program, Mecklenburg County has caught and started deportation proceedings on over 7,000 illegal aliens since the programs inception in 2006.

This past week, the Mecklenburg 287g program and all other similar programs nationwide were presented with a revised Memorandum of Agreement by the Obama Administration.

The MOA says that local 287g programs like Mecklenburg and Gaston are no longer to turn over to ICE "minor offenders" who happen to be illegal. Specifically, the MOA says that no illegal alien without a prior criminal conviction will be deported. The key words here are "prior criminal conviction."

So what does this mean?

It means if you are an illegal alien and you are convicted of a first offense DUI, you will serve local time for the crime, but upon completion of your sentence you will be released back into our country. You will NOT be deported.

Under the current 287g plan, this illegal alien would be deported.

Under the new plan, the illegal alien will be set free!

We have had several of our constituents killed by illegal aliens drinking and driving over the past few years. The most notable was Scott Gardner from Gaston County.

Why would we give an illegal alien more than once chance to kill us on the road? Once is enough.

Today's Observer article did not deal with this issue. Why?

Second, under the new 287g plan, only a conviction of a Tier I crime will lead to deportation. Tier II and Tier III crimes will not.

Our courts are overloaded. Prosecutors will plea people down to get some form of conviction to free up the court's space for harsher crimes. Well guess what? Those pleas are now going to result in the catch and release of illegal aliens. The illegal community will quickly learn the rule and exploit it. They will cop a plea to avoid deportation. And we in the community will be stuck with law breakers who were smart enough to exploit our own laws.

Again, a point not made in today's Observer story. Shocker.

The changes in the 287g program and the Observer article this morning are aimed at gutting the 287g program but doing so in a way that looks like we are still tough on illegal immigration.

America needs to wake up.

The Truth About 287g