Shared plight fosters sociability
Barry Robinson's one-hour commute to his Baltimore job stretched to four hours and
he consoled himself with a stop at Corned Beef Row for "a big one" from Attman's. With the aftermath of this weekend's snowstorm lying heavy over the region, countless thousands of Marylanders were left inconvenienced, aggravated and just plain stuck.
Abell Foundation says turbine operation could generate jobs, too
Man indicted in December death of Eastern Shore girl, 11
The man linked to the death of an 11-year-old Salisbury girl has been indicted in her murder by a Wicomico County grand jury, and the county state's attorney said he will seek the death penalty, according to news reports.
With several major roadways and arteries to downtown condensed to one lane, traffic in the Baltimore area has been reduced to a snail-like pace, hampering commuters as they attempted to return to work Tuesday.
There will be no rest for the snow-weary in Maryland as a storm with the potential to drop 10 to 20 inches of new snow bears down on a region still reeling from the 24 inches and more that fell over the weekend.
As crews cleared roads, tracks, snow still blocked ways to work
As crews continued to clear roads, train tracks and runways of packed snow and ice from the weekend blizzard, another storm was expected to pummel the region today, causing headaches for those returning to work
Comments about Baltimore Reporter:
Perhaps the best part of blogging or the internet in general is the occasional discovery of something unexpected.Over on
Baltimore Reporter and Conservative Thoughts is a great and thought provoking article by Robert Farrow.I hope you will follow
this link and read this great post.
from conservativecontracts.com
I love your blog
Once again - as happens so often - I have been positioned here on the living room couch, immersed in your blog. You are
better than Fox News.
Kevin Dayhoff
Awards and Rankings:
Voted one of the best local blogs:
Baltimore Examiner: 2006
Voted Top 10 most influential blog in Maryland in 2007.
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Far Left’s ANSWER goons attack foes of illegal immigration
If the black-and-yellow pro-illegal alien amnesty signs in the photos above and video below look familiar, they should. The Workers’ World Party-staffed ANSWER Coalition first used them during the 2006 nationwide illegal alien marches.
Well, they’re baaaack. And over the weekend, as the Obama administration gets ready to launch Night of the Living Amnesty II, the ANSWER goons were out in full force in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. — using their signs to bludgeon anti-illegal immigration activists trying to film the ANSWER/amnesty rally.
Meet the “persuasion of power:”
also:
The Stimulus Jobs Inflation Map
A few weeks ago, I said we needed a new metric for all the bogus jobs claimed by the Obama White House. I called it the “Stimulus Jobs Inflation Index.”
The Examiner does even better — creating a handy, interactive Stimulus Jobs Inflation Map.
More than ten percent of the jobs the Obama administration has claimed were “created or saved” by the $787 billion stimulus package are doubtful or imaginary, according to reports compiled from eleven major newspapers and the Associated Press.
Based only on our analysis of stimulus media coverage in the last two weeks, The Examiner has created this interactive map to document exaggerated stimulus claims. The map, which will be updated as new revelations appear, currently reflects an exaggeration by the Obama administration of about 75,000 jobs, out of the 640,000 jobs supposedly “created or saved.”
The map reflects reports from The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, the Sacramento Bee, The New York Times, USA Today, the Las Vegas Sun, the Detroit Free Press, the New York Post, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, the Associated Press, the Chicago Tribune, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. It remains a work in progress because relatively few newspapers have scrutinized stimulus spending so far.
The Obama administration has claimed that the $787 billion economic stimulus package “saved or created” some 650,000 jobs. But almost as soon as the White House trotted out this figure, news organizations found huge exaggerations in the reported data. Many of the jobs reportedly created do not exist or cannot be accounted for.
While acknowledging that the recession makes the political battle more difficult, President Barack Obama plans to begin addressing America’s immigration system this year, including looking for a path for illegal immigrants to become legal, a senior administration official said Wednesday.
Obama will frame the new effort — likely to rouse passions on all sides of the highly divisive issue — as “policy reform that controls immigration and makes it an orderly system,” said the official, Cecilia Munoz, deputy assistant to the president and director of intergovernmental affairs in the White House.
Obama plans to speak publicly about the issue in May, administration officials said, and over the summer he will convene working groups, including lawmakers from both parties and a range of immigration organizations, to begin discussing possible legislation for as early as this fall.
Some White House officials said immigration would not take precedence over the health care and energy proposals that Obama has identified as priorities. But the timetable is consistent with pledges that Obama made to Latino groups in last year’s campaign.
He said then that comprehensive immigration legislation, including a plan to make legal status possible for an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants, would be a priority in his first year in office. Latino voters turned out strongly for Obama in the election. (more…)
John Yoo writes an editorial today in which he blasts Obama for the decisions he has been making regarding Gitmo and the interrogation of terrorists:
During his first week as commander in chief, President Barack Obama ordered the closure of Guantanamo Bay and terminated the CIA’s special authority to interrogate terrorists.
While these actions will certainly please his base — gone are the cries of an “imperial presidency” — they will also seriously handicap our intelligence agencies from preventing future terrorist attacks. In issuing these executive orders, Mr. Obama is returning America to the failed law enforcement approach to fighting terrorism that prevailed before Sept. 11, 2001. He’s also drying up the most valuable sources of intelligence on al Qaeda, which, according to CIA Director Michael Hayden, has come largely out of the tough interrogation of high-level operatives during the early years of the war.
The question Mr. Obama should have asked right after the inaugural parade was: What will happen after we capture the next Khalid Sheikh Mohammed or Abu Zubaydah? Instead, he took action without a meeting of his full national security staff, and without a legal review of all the policy options available to meet the threats facing our country.
What such a review would have made clear is that the civilian law-enforcement system cannot prevent terrorist attacks. What is needed are the tools to gain vital intelligence, which is why, under President George W. Bush, the CIA could hold and interrogate high-value al Qaeda leaders. On the advice of his intelligence advisers, the president could have authorized coercive interrogation methods like those used by Israel and Great Britain in their antiterrorism campaigns. (He could even authorize waterboarding, which he did three times in the years after 9/11.)
~~~
Eliminating the Bush system will mean that we will get no more information from captured al Qaeda terrorists. Every prisoner will have the right to a lawyer (which they will surely demand), the right to remain silent, and the right to a speedy trial.
The first thing any lawyer will do is tell his clients to shut up. The KSMs or Abu Zubaydahs of the future will respond to no verbal questioning or trickery — which is precisely why the Bush administration felt compelled to use more coercive measures in the first place. Our soldiers and agents in the field will have to run more risks as they must secure physical evidence at the point of capture and maintain a chain of custody that will stand up to the standards of a civilian court.
Relying on the civilian justice system not only robs us of the most effective intelligence tool to avert future attacks, it provides an opportunity for our enemies to obtain intelligence on us. If terrorists are now to be treated as ordinary criminals, their defense lawyers will insist that the government produce in open court all U.S. intelligence on their client along with the methods used by the CIA and NSA to get it.
John Yoo also goes into the the staying of all military commission trials, which Yoo believes is a prelude to closing down the commissions entirely and transferring the cases to the US court system. A disasterous decision. While Yoo believes the interrogation practices used during the Bush years are all but gone, Obama backers are not so sure. Here is the World Socialist website:
On the question of so-called “harsh interrogation techniques,” i.e., torture, Obama’s orders leave room for their continuation. White House Counsel Gregory Craig told reporters the administration was prepared to take into account demands from the CIA that such methods be allowed. Obama announced the creation of a task force that will consider new interrogation methods beyond those sanctioned by the Army Field Manual, which now accepts 19 forms of interrogation, as well as the practice of extraordinary rendition.
Which in reality means its the same policy as what was in effect during the Bush years. Oh, and on the Army Field manual:
Retired Admiral Dennis Blair, Obama’s nominee for director of national intelligence, told a Senate confirmation hearing that the Army Field Manual would itself be changed, potentially allowing new forms of harsh interrogation, but that such changes would be kept secret.
Looks like plenty of Obamamites are going to be a bit peeved pretty soon.
Also:
Democrat Vote Buying “Stimulus” Bill to Give Tax “Credits” to Illegal Aliens?
No requirement for a valid Social Security number. Why not save postage and just send them a certificate of citizenship and a voter registration card along with the check?
In yesterday’s report on the Hogzilla stimulus bill, we cited the Wall Street Journal editorial which draws attention to $83 billion for redistribution of wealth through tax refund checks to people who don’t pay income taxes. And you thought it wasn’t a vote buying bill?
Dick Morris describes the problem this way:
GOP, Push Free Enterprise TownHall.com
by Dick Morris and Eileen McGann
January 28, 2009
…In the name of economic stimulus, it not only has every item any liberal ever asked of Santa Claus on Christmas eve, it also contains the seeds of a permanent shift toward a European-style socialist democracy. Its dramatic exemption of more than half of Americans from paying federal income taxes (it is now about one-third who don’t pay them) and its generosity in awarding this voting majority a welfare check — called a refundable tax credit — moves the politics of taxation sharply to the left.
But worse still, a loophole in the current bill:
Hill Republican: Stimulus aids illegal immigrants The Associated Press
January 29, 2009
WASHINGTON: A top Republican congressional aide says the $800 billion-plus economic stimulus measure could steer government checks to illegal immigrants.
Republican officials are concerned that the Democratic-written legislation makes people who came to the United States illegally eligible for tax credits of $500 per worker and $1,000 per couple. (more…)
The State of Sonora is angry at Influx of Mexicans into Mexico.
Nine state legislators from the Mexican state of Sonora traveled to Tucson to complain about Arizona’s new employer crackdown on illegals from Mexico.
It seems that many Mexican illegals are now returning to their hometowns and the officials in the Sonora state government are ticked off about it.
A delegation of nine state legislators from Sonora was in Tucson on Tuesday to say Arizona’s new employer sanctions law will have a devastating effect on the Mexican state.
At a news conference, the legislators said Sonora - Arizona’s southern neighbor, made up of mostly small towns - cannot handle the demand for housing, jobs and schools it will face as illegal Mexican workers here return to their hometowns without jobs or money.
The law, which took effect Jan.1, punishes employers who knowingly hire individuals who don’t have valid legal documents to work in the United States.
Penalties include suspension of, or loss of, their business license.
The Mexican legislators are angry because their own citizens are returning to their hometowns, placing a burden on their state government.
‘How can they pass a law like this?’ asked Mexican Rep. Leticia Amparano-Gamez, who represents Nogales.
‘There is not one person living in Sonora who does not have a friend or relative working in Arizona,’ she said, speaking only in Spanish. (more…)
Saturday November 22, 2008
10:00 – 2:00 PM Oxon Hill Library
6200 Oxon Hill Road - Oxon Hill Maryland 20745
My name is Pree Glenn-Graves and I am the PG County Coordinator for Help Save Maryland.com, a member organization of the Capital Area Alliance Against Illegal Immigration. Help Save Maryland, with members in 17 counties and Baltimore City, is a grassroots, citizens’ organization educating the public about the social and financial costs resulting from illegal aliens in Maryland fighting to eliminate the use of tax-dollars on programs and services for illegal aliens in Maryland. See www.HelpSaveMaryland.com for more information.
On Saturday November 22, from 10:00AM to 2:00 PM we are hosting a meeting with Sheriff Chuck Jenkins from Frederick Maryland. Sheriff Jenkins will speak with us regarding 287g (ICE training for law enforcement officers) and why it is an essential program to assist law enforcement in removing criminal illegal aliens from our streets.
The Sheriff will be with us for the first two hours of the meeting only. The Sheriff will enlighten us as to the progress of the program in Frederick Maryland and answer our questions from members of HelpSaveMaryland.com and concerned citizens of the State of Maryland.
We have a serious crisis on our southern border and it is not simply illegal aliens sneaking in for a better life. It is heinous crimes committed against our country and our citizens. Unless this activity is interfered with this problem will move deeper into our country and we may end up with the semblance of a 3rd world country inside our own borders.
The police in the vicinity of El Paso, Texas have determined that the Mexican crime cartels have authorized their minions to enter the United States to commit murder to enforce their interests. El Paso is right across the border from Juarez, Mexico. Consider the fact that that the cartels committed at least 800 murders last year in this city. Note that these are only the cartel killings. In Mexico today, particularly along the US Mexican border, the cartels are battling each other and the Mexican government for control of geographical areas. This is not subjective control but actual control. The cartels have actually been recruiting police and soldiers in Mexico to fill their ranks advertising that they will pay much more. That is accurate. The cartels do pay more.
Considering that illegal aliens cross the border with impunity and with the assistance of the Mexican government it is likely that the cartels will be more successful in this type activity. Cartels obey no laws and have no problems doing whatever they need to do to accomplish a mission. It is also likely that if these cartels need “work” done in our interior they will enlist the services of gangs such as MS 13. MS 13 is already here in the U.S. and active courtesy of illegal immigration.
The other serious problem is that Mexican criminals have been engaging in kidnapping for profit. One might ask why we should be concerned with Mexicans being kidnapped in Mexico and the response is that these problems are not occurring on the US side of the border. Also a good number of US citizens have been kidnapped for ransom while visiting Mexico. US victims have reported torture and rape during their extended vacations.
The statistics on US citizens kidnapped in Tijuana , Mexico as of February 2008 are as follows:
2008: 2
2007: 26
2006: 11
2005: 10
In the San Diego area there is a growing tendency of these organized criminals to target US citizens of Mexican descent that reside along the border. Apparently, these types of victims are selected if they apparently have some money and the fact that they are Hispanic does not necessarily inflame the media (Go figure. The US liberal dominated media discriminating.)
The problem with the Mexican authorities when it comes to crimes and reporting crimes is that one is more likely to be shaken down by the local cops than kidnapped or robbed. I have a family member that was married to a Mexican and he was robbed at gunpoint in broad daylight by a uniformed Mexican police officer. The Mexican authorities are both unable and unwilling to assist in stopping these kidnappings. They are not consistently cooperative with US authorities. In fact at times the Mexican police may be involved in these activities. (more…)
Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley and his fellow Democrats in Annapolis have some explaining to do. Rising taxes and fees, declining services, financially strapped hospitals, crumbling infrastructure and overcrowded schools are just some of the highlights of the O’Malley administration.
Equally disturbing is the unrelenting financial, political and sanctuary support provided by Mr. O’Malley and the legislature to the illegal-alien support group CASA of Maryland.
Millions of tax dollars are annually pumped into the nonprofit CASA of Maryland. Combined with significantly larger illegal-alien social and economic costs - schooling, law enforcement, criminal justice, insurance, medical care and health care, day-labor centers, gang violence, declining neighborhoods and more. This raises serious concerns about the public-policy benefits of the O’Malley -CASA relationship.
The more Mr. O’Malley feeds CASA, the more illegal aliens find their way into Maryland looking for drivers’ licenses, free social and health services, tax-free employment, in-state college tuition, fraudulent voting opportunities and immunity from law enforcement.
Under the charade of “helping poor, hard-working, family-oriented immigrants,” CASA of Maryland Executive Director Gustavo Torres has played Mr. O’Malley, the legislature and elected officials in Baltimore City, Montgomery and Prince George’s counties for the lawless, shameless politicians they are. (more…)
Immigrant advocacy group CASA de Maryland announced Friday that it will accept a $1.5 million donation from Citgo Petroleum Corp., controlled by a Venezuelan government led by strongman Hugo Chavez.
“We are thrilled that we have corporate partners like Citgo that recognize that there is poverty in this country and human needs,” said Kim Propeack, director of political action at CASA.
Though private, CASA receives state and county funds for assisting low-income immigrants in Maryland. The group has come under fire for its policy of not checking immigration status when it helps clients find jobs.
“This is just incredible that they would even accept this gift from Venezuela,” said Brad Botwin, director of Help Save Maryland, an anti-illegal immigration group. “We call on Gov. O’Malley and also Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett to repudiate CASA.”
Originally, CASA intended to announce the donation at a news conference Monday with Citgo officials and the Venezuelan ambassador. The news conference has been indefinitely postponed due to scheduling conflicts, according to a CASA spokesman.
Maryland officials have refused to interact with Venezuela in the past. In October 2007, Montgomery County Council member Marc Elrich, D-at large, withdrew an invitation to the Venezuelan ambassador to visit Maryland and potentially fund local social programs, after Leggett frowned on the idea.
“Montgomery County can take care of its own problems. Thank you. No thank you,” Leggett stated at the time.
Leggett’s office does not object to CASA’s acceptance of the donation. “As a government, Montgomery County did not feel the need to receive anything from the government of Venezuela or make any efforts, but obviously private organizations can do what they want,” said Patrick Lacefield, Leggett’s spokesman.
CASA’s constituents have benefited from Citgo donations in the past. Since 2006, the Citgo-Venezuela Heating Oil Program has provided discounted oil to 12,000 low-income families in the D.C. metropolitan area.
Citgo began the national program in 2005 when it donated heating oil to the Citizens Energy Corp., whose chairman is former Massachusetts Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II. Media outlets and congressional representatives repudiated Kennedy, saying Chavez was using the program to highlight poverty in the U.S. while he ignored his own country’s struggles. (more…)
So we had a bunch of “immigrant activists” protesting in downtown Baltimore today about the raid yesterday that arrested 46 illegal immigrants yesterday here in Anne Arundel County. And some of their quotes are….interesting:
“Every person affected yesterday has a family,” said Jessica Alvarez, vice president of the National Capital Immigrant Coalition. “Today we are here to show that every person has a voice and has a community behind them. This is unjust, and our voices need to be heard.”
Yeah. That’s a bummer. Of course what is truly unjust is the fact that you have people in this country illegally. Let me say that again: they are here illegally. I do sympathize with the fact that these folks want a better life. I do sympathize with the fact that they came to America for an opportunity. But I do not sympathize with the fact that they willingly violated American law in order to come here. There are legal ways to enter this country. The folks arrested in the raid did not do that. And I am not sure which part of “illegal” these activists don’t understand.
John Leopold, of all people, had a very solid retort to these protests:
“Illegal means illegal. The laws should be respected and obeyed,” Leopold, a former state legislator, said in an interview. “This administration has had a fair and balanced approach to immigration. On the one hand we crack down hard on illegal immigrants, but at the same time we reach out to try to assist those who are trying to secure citizenship through proper legal channels.” (more…)
A wave of burglaries is spreading across the Washington area, and police say illegal immigrants, hit by police crackdowns and the drop in new construction, are likely playing a key role.
“The immigrant community is at a tipping point,” said Montgomery County police community liaison Officer Luis Hurtado. “The poor economy is pushing more immigrants to turn to crime.”
In the first five months of this year, burglaries climbed 10 to 20 percent in many jurisdictions.
The District of Columbia had the greatest increase, jumping 20 percent from 1,370 in the first five months of 2007 to 1,638 for the same period this year.
Montgomery County police said they’ve averaged 288 burglaries a month for the first five months of this year, up 23 per month, or nearly 10 percent, from last year.
Alexandria stood out as the only jurisdiction showing a significant decline — 33 percent — but police couldn’t explain the drop.
And many more burglaries in which illegal immigrants themselves are the victims have likely gone unreported; illegals often shy away from police, whom they fear may arrest them for violating immigration laws, community activists said.
Last week, about 100 residents from the massive Latino community in Takoma/Langley Park, which straddles the Prince George’s-Montgomery County line, met with police officials from both counties. They demanded action for what they described as a neighborhood under siege.
In recent weeks, a shopkeeper was shot to death and a police officer killed a man all within a one-block radius at the center of the community. But it’s the unreported crimes that have residents most concerned, and improved relations with police are needed to fight back, said Mario Quiroz, spokesman for immigrant advocacy group CASA de Maryland. (more…)
My grandparents were immigrants. All four of them made the journey, from different countries, by ship. They came because of their deep genuine desire to become Citizens of the United States of America. Their presence here was, for the most part, welcomed and needed, and they came with great pride and dignity to assume their new identity. They were poor and uneducated, but they had a deep respect and gratitude to the country that would become their home. They worked hard and never asked for a handout. They learned English and refused to let my parents speak anything but English in their home. They assimilated into the melting pot and each, in their own way, contributed to the building of America. Because my grandparents were so grateful and respectful of America and her ideas, I was brought up in this environment.It is a part of who I am and it is a part of my deep patriotism and protectiveness of our beautiful America.
I truly love my blessed country and because she means so much to me, it grieves me to see her treated like nothing more than a flop house for illegal aliens who care nothing about our country, our people, our laws, our traditions, and our culture. To see my treasured home treated so callously, so disrespectfully, breaks my heart. She deserves so much better. When I see garbage strewn across our border lands, I am filled with great sadness. To see her mistreated so, is more than I can bear. When I see our flag flown below the flag of another country or trampled in the mud, like garbage, I am ashamed before the fine Americans who have fought and died for this country. I am ashamed before my grandparents and the millions who came here to become citizens and endured great hardships, to achieve that goal. (more…)
The CBS program “60 Minutes” and The Washington Post jointly investigated our country’s detention centers for immigrants that face deportation. The media reported last week that “immigrants are suffering from neglect and some don’t survive detention in America.” This is another big lie in the mainstream media’s campaign to paint immigration enforcement as draconian and inhumane.
The intrepid reporters managed to find a handful of cases out of the hundreds of thousands where medical care can be judged as substandard. The government has admitted that mistakes were made in some cases. But a few anecdotes are not enough to indict the detention system that is run by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE).
How does the ICE-run detention system measure up against the health care provided in other federal correctional facilities? Federal data show that the detention facilities for immigrants have a better record with regard to deaths and medical care than other similar facilities.
The number of deaths per 100,000 is far lower than for other facilities and for the population as a whole. But these facts do not support the theme of immigrant abuse and neglect presented by CBS: Thus, they were downplayed. In most places this is called pushing a political agenda; at CBS, it is New Journalism.
ICE has earned criticism for its poor record in enforcing our nation’s laws against the employment of illegal aliens. ICE also fails to devote adequate resources to identifying and deporting criminal aliens found in our jails and prisons. But it is a distortion of facts and a slander to say that the federal government deliberately provides immigrants in detention a lower standard of health care. (more…)
Dave and Betty Carpenter called on the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration on Saturday to urge state lawmakers to comply with the Real ID Act, which would cut off illegal immigrants’ access to driver’s licenses. Dozens of protesters descended on Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration branches in Gaithersburg, Beltsville and Glen Burnie on Saturday morning, calling on the state to conform with a federal law that would cut off illegal immigrants’ access to valid driver’s licenses. Waving American flags and holding signs, members of the grassroots group Help Save Maryland sought to bring attention to Maryland as one of five states that does not to require proof of legal residence to obtain a license.
In a sharp turn this January, Gov. Martin O’Malley said he would direct the MVA to eventually comply with Real ID, and the federal government granted a two-year extension. The five remaining states — Hawaii, New Mexico, Utah and Maine — have until May 2010 to comply. But Brad Botwin, director of Help Save Maryland, said that the extended deadline will encourage more illegal immigrants to come to Maryland.
‘‘We’re giving them the keys to the kingdom,” he said Saturday, at a street corner next to the Gaithersburg MVA with more than a dozen others. ‘‘To wait until 2010 is a danger to our community.” For state Del. Ana Sol Gutierrez (D), the protest was part of the group’s ‘‘anti-immigrant agenda” that aims more at ‘‘fomenting hate” than achieving thoughtful change.
‘‘What part of illegal don’t they understand? We are absolutely following Maryland law. People are entitled to get driver’s licenses,” said the Dist. 17 delegate from Chevy Chase, who was at the Gaithersburg rally and called the governor last week to make sure state troopers would be at the three protest sites. (more…)
Immigrants are deterred by the ailing economy and tougher border controls.
by Daniel Gross: NEWSWEEK
Until recently, Salvador Luna, A 41-year-old toy vendor in Mexico City, had planned to join his two sisters in New York City, where they work illegally as maids. “But they’re telling me about people getting rounded up and deported, and how life in general is getting harder there,” he says. One of Luna’s co-workers was just deported back to Mexico, shortly after handing $1,000 to a coyote to cross the border. And there are no guarantees Luna could earn significantly more than the $20 he makes daily in Mexico. “I want a better life for my family,” says the father of two, “but I’m not sure I want to risk the trouble of getting to the United States just to get tossed back.”
Every year, millions of people around the globe make the essentially economic choice of whether to come to the United States—legally or illegally. But in the past 18 months the calculus behind that decision has changed. Many immigrants are leaving the United States—willingly and unwillingly—and countless others are deciding not to come. The reasons: tougher enforcement and border control, a slowing U.S. economy and impressive growth in developing countries, where many immigrants hail from.
Like Luna, potential immigrants have been deterred by more stringent border controls. Nationwide, deportations of illegal immigrants rose from 178,657 in fiscal 2005 to 282,548 in fiscal 2007—up 58 percent. At the same time, apprehensions are down sharply along the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border—in fiscal 2007, 859,000 illegal immigrants were stopped, compared with 1.07 million in 2006—an indication that fewer people are attempting to cross. Border Patrol spokesman Ramon Rivera chalks it up partly to an effort started in 2005 to prosecute immigrants for illegal entry—”word got around real quick”—and partly to Operation Jump Start, under which thousands of National Guard members were sent to the border region in support roles, freeing more of the expanded roster of 16,000 Border Patrol agents to get into the field.
The government has also been going after employers who hire undocumented workers. “We really wanted to target prosecutions of egregious employers as well as illegal aliens who are stealing the identities of Americans,” says Julie Myers, assistant secretary for Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the Department of Homeland Security. The combined number of arrests of employers and illegal workers at work sites—like this month’s high-profile raid on a kosher meat-processing plant in Iowa that netted 300 suspects—rose from 1,292 in 2005 to 4,940 in 2007.
The slowing economy means less work for immigrants, and for the people who make a living providing services to them. Julio Duarte, a Honduran who was among a group of 50 day laborers outside a Home Depot in Hempstead, N.Y., recently, has lived in America for three years, and he’s found it tough going lately. “For four months I haven’t been able to work. When you have no work, you have no anything,” he says. In the Southwest, commercial districts of cities that were once thronged with construction workers now resemble ghost towns. Alma Espinoza, 53, who cuts hair at the El y Ella Salon in central Phoenix, has seen her daily business drop from $500 to $100 since last year. “If this goes on,” Espinoza says, “the salon won’t stay open.”
Most immigrants seek work that enables them to support families back home. (more…)
Problems with day laborers and unlicensed contractors gathering at Veirs Mill and Randolph roads and at a nearby home improvement store have been addressed by a combined effort from law enforcement and the county consumer protection office.
The police enforcement began at the end of February after complaints from shoppers and businesses at the area’s retailers, specifically Dunkin’ Donuts on Veirs Mill Road and Rodman’s, a store on Randolph Road, said Lt. Nancy Hudson, deputy commander of the First District police station in Rockville.
Hudson said police conducted a two-week period of educational fliers and warnings followed by one week of enforcement, which included arrests for trespassing, false identification and outstanding warrants.
Hudson said 33 field interrogation reports, 23 trespass notices, one arrest for false documents, four parking tickets and four traffic citations were issued during the period. She also said Dunkin’ Donuts received more than 400 complaints from shoppers last year, and upwards of 100 day laborers could be seen outside the store.
‘‘We are sensitive that people need to find work, especially in challenging economic times,” Stephen Caldeira, a spokesman for Dunkin’ Brands, said in an e-mail. ‘‘However, when the livelihoods of others within a community are affected by those trying to find work, a new issue is created.”
Most of the enforcement was done by police, said Assistant State’s Attorney George Sims, with his office helping with fliers promoting day labor centers operated by Casa of Maryland, which has centers on University Boulevard in Wheaton and Silver Spring, as well as Crabbs Branch Way in Derwood. (more…)
PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY VOTE LAST NIGHT: What The Changes Actually Mean
The discussion about what the change in the enforcement plan for the Rule of Law Resolution actually means has generated a lot of conflicting commentary in the press and in the blogs. Given that confusion, it’s probably useful to walk through the differences in the enforcement policy as I understand them so readers can get a clearer picture of what this all means. This is how the new enforcement policy sorts out:
Situation Current Policy New Policy Change
Arrestable Violation
(sent to ADC) Suspect checked by officer if probable cause present, sent to ADC and subject to 287(g) screening Suspect checked by officer, sent to ADC and subject to 287(g) screening No effective change
Arrestable Violation
(not sent to ADC) Suspect checked by officer if probable cause present, held in police lockup, no 287(g) screening Suspect checked by officer, held in police lockup, no 287(g) screening More illegals checked
Non-Arrestable Violation Suspect checked by officer if probable cause present, given ticket Suspect checked by officer at his discretion, given ticket Likely more illegals checked
The first case here is one most people are pretty familiar with. Someone is suspected of committing a crime that they can be arrested for, and the end up being held at the Prince William County Adult Detention Center where they would be screened under the Section 287(g) Program, which is more thorough than the screening that a patrol officer would conduct. Under current policy, a police officer would check immigration status at the discretion of the officer and only if the suspect met the probable cause standard. The new policy removes the probable cause and discretion, and requires the police to conduct this check for all persons arrested. This could catch some additional illegal aliens because the discretion is removed here, and in some cases it is possible that a suspect could have evaded the probable cause standard under the current policy and not be screened at the ADC, but that number is probably minimal.
The second case is one that most folks don’t know about. Just because a suspect is arrested doesn’t mean they end up at the ADC. In some cases a suspect is arrested and hauled in front of a magistrate, and then released on bond. Under current policy a suspect would have their immigration checked at the discretion of the officer and only if the probable cause standard is met. Under the new policy, all arrestees are checked, period. This could make a pretty significant difference, and will increase the number of persons checked for immigration status. (more…)
Fledgling groups that sought to restrict government services for illegal immigrants found little success in the 2008 General Assembly, but they are uniting to give themselves a louder voice in the future.
On Thursday, 11 groups from Maryland, Virginia and Washington will hold a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington to announce the formation of the Capital Area Alliance Against Illegal Immigration. The alliance will include organizations such as Help Save Maryland and Save the Old Dominion that have pushed for legislation and advocacy against illegal immigration around the region.
The alliance is a sign of the growing network these groups are forming in the wake of several high profile battles over immigration issues around the metropolitan area.
‘‘Obviously the illegal immigration issue is not just one that affects one locality. It affects a number of localities around the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area,” said Greg Letiecq, executive director of Save the Old Dominion, an umbrella organization for anti-illegal immigration groups in Virginia with about 3,000 members.
Much of Save the Old Dominion’s focus has been on Prince William County, Va., where county supervisors last year passed a resolution to curb illegal immigrants’ access to public services and use local police to enforce immigration laws.
‘‘We understand that this could create some challenges for folks in Fairfax or Loudoun County or even Montgomery County, which is seen as a more welcoming place for illegal immigrants,” Letiecq said. (more…)
Of all the notable details in Montgomery County’s latest murder trial — a telltale sandwich left in a Chevy Chase refrigerator, a smoldering body 18 miles away, a delusional suspect who claimed that the slain man’s watch was about to explode — perhaps nothing stands out more than this: Detectives might not have cracked the case without the help of an immigrant day laborer they know only as Sam.
The case illustrates precisely the type of cooperation that might be diminished if police are asked to step up enforcement of immigration laws, some law enforcement officials said. The trial ended this month with the conviction of a Honduran immigrant in the slaying of a carpenter who had hired him.
“Without the cooperation of that day laborer, that murder goes unsolved,” Montgomery State’s Attorney John McCarthy said. “It’s that pure and simple.”
Many officials say that if police increase enforcement of immigration laws, it will boost public safety overall. But law enforcement leaders in Montgomery and parts of Northern Virginia aren’t so sure, fearing that it might intimidate witnesses and victims. The departments are attempting to assure immigrants that cooperating with police will not lead to deportation.
A recent public-service announcement on cable television in Montgomery featured Police Chief J. Thomas Manger and Jaime Moreno, a native of Bolivia who plays for Washington’s professional soccer team, D.C. United.
“Don’t be afraid to call police!” they say in unison.
In Prince William County, an ordinance that took effect last month requires police to check the residency status of crime suspects, even those detained for traffic offenses, if officers think they might be in the country illegally.
Anecdotally, the policy appears to be making police work more challenging, said 1st Sgt. Kim Chinn, a county police spokeswoman. Several days ago, she said, officers had trouble identifying a body found in the woods because the dead man’s family would not cooperate, Chinn said.
Police Chief Charlie T. Deane, who last year warned that such a policy could have “a potential chilling effect,” has been speaking to community groups and through Spanish-language media, telling them that victims and witnesses will be protected regardless of their status.
Corey A. Stewart, chairman of the Board of County Supervisors and a leading proponent of increasing police enforcement of immigration laws, acknowledged that some witnesses or victims might be hesitant to cooperate.
“It’s complicated and difficult,” he said, “but the benefits to public safety far outweigh the drawbacks. . . . Not all illegal immigrants come here just to work.” (more…)
As richly rewarding as it was to witness New York Governor Eliot Spitzer’s collapse, another larger rat is still scurrying around.
Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley is even more passionately enamored with illegal immigrants and more contemptuous of patriotic Americans.
What’s brought O’Malley’s love affair with illegal aliens into the spotlight is the sad and curious case of Walter Abbott—a small businessman driven out of business by competitors who hired cheap labor immigrants. Abbot is now under home detention pending prosecution for an email protest he sent to O’Malley.
During the two years in which the governor’s office ignored Abbott’s pleas for economic justice, the state—with O’Malley’s blessing—indirectly funded day labor centers through its financial support of CASA de Maryland, a radical left-wing, pro-illegal alien advocacy organization.
Among the other subversive activities, CASA de Maryland instructs illegal aliens on how to skirt immigration law and thereby remain in the country to take jobs away from Americans. And it operates at least six day labor centers throughout Maryland.
Here’s more background:
Walter Abbott is a 44-year-old married Baltimore man with two children who owned a once successful drywall business.
But as Maryland became more receptive to illegal immigrants (some residents call the state the “number one destination in America for aliens”), Abbott gradually lost jobs. Builders who preferred unlicensed subcontractors whose labor pool included illegal aliens over legitimate, taxpaying businesses like Walter’s slowly drained away his trade. Where Walter used to get $5-8 per sheet to hang drywall, the illegals did it for as little as $2. Abbott lost his business, his house and ended up little more than a handyman doing odd jobs to support his family.
CASA de Maryland is far from the docile organization its name suggests. “CASA” does not mean “home”, as you might assume, but rather “Central American Solidarity Association”.
Under the direction of the extremist Colombian Gustavo Torres, the organization specifically aids and abets illegal immigration. Among other things, CASA has published a pamphlet (see it here) for aliens telling them that, if they are questioned by immigration authorities, they should not cooperate. CASA recommends instead that aliens carry a card demanding a lawyer.
But because it also provides, largely as a cover, “gang intervention” and “HIV testing” services, the mainstream media routinely refers to CASA as a benign “humanitarian” group. [Immigration Debate Focuses on $2 million in Tax Money Going to Aid Group, By Jason Flanagan, Baltimore Sun, March 31, 2008]
Interestingly, humanitarianism was not one of the subjects covered in a panel discussion entitled “United States: A Possible Revolution?” convened last year in Venezuela and attended by Torres. Rather, the subject was how to “take power” from the American government and place it into anarchist’s hands. (Read the summary from the radical The Militant here.)
Torres has contempt for patriotic Americans. About the Maryland Minutemen who were (legally) photographing aliens being hired by local contractors, Torres said this: ‘‘We are going to picket their houses, and the schools of their kids, and go to their work.”
Judicial Watch, a non-partisan group that promotes accountability and integrity in government, has collected and is reviewing several boxes of documents relating to CASA’s pro-illegal immigration activities. Its president Tom Fitton told me: “CASA’s true agenda falls well outside of U.S. immigration law.”
Gov. Martin O’Malley, an illegal immigration advocate who condones the state’s policy of issuing driver’s licenses to aliens.
O’Malley insists that state funding for CASA is essential for Maryland’s well-being and calls it “a required duty.” [Funding for CASA Needed, Officials Say, by Jason Flanagan, Baltimore Sun, April 2, 2008]
I talked to Brad Botwin, director of Help Save Maryland. Botwin called Maryland’s funding of CASA an “outrageous” use of his tax dollars and an abuse of its 501(c)(3) status. Botwin further noted to me that Maryland recently passed the largest tax increase in its history, yet still did not have money for important Chesapeake Bay projects. Botwin added that CASA “is about to move into a brand new multimillion dollar headquarters.”
Events that have boiled over during the past few days. (more…)
The Ravens are banking that Jim Zorn will continue the development of Joe Flacco into an elite franchise quarterback.
Zorn, who was the head coach for the Washington Redskins the past two seasons, was hired by Baltimore to become its quarterbacks coach on Jan. 30.
Although Zorn struggled as a head coach, the Ravens were impressed by his experience: 11 seasons as an NFL quarterback, 11 seasons as a respected NFL quarterback coach and a familiarity with their offense.
"That's a great resume for us," Harbaugh said.
Zorn replaces Hue Jackson, who joined the Oakland Raiders as their offensive coordinator. Baltimore chose Zorn because he has a history of mentoring young quarterbacks like Flacco.
As the Detroit Lions' quarterbacks coach in 1998, he was...
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