Confirmed: TSA allowed illegal aliens on airliners

In July, Breitbart issued an exclusive report that alleged that the Transportation Security Administration was allowing illegal immigrants to travel on airline flights without proper identification. According to the story, Border Patrol officers claimed to have witnessed TSA agents permitting illegal aliens to board domestic airline flights with only a Notice to Appear, a federal citation for illegally crossing the border. To determine whether these allegations were true, Examiner contacted the National Border Patrol Council, a union for Border Patrol officers, and the TSA.

For those unfamiliar with a Notice to Appear, also called Form I-862, Nolo.com explains that it is a charging document that signals the initiation of removal proceedings and means that the recipient must appear in immigration court. The document lists the recipient’s name, aliases, address, alien registration number and date of birth, but does not include a photograph and is easy to duplicate. A sample Form I-862 is available on the Justice Department’s website.

Read the full story on Aviation Examiner

Common sense immigration reform

Makaristos/wikimedia

By now it should be clear to everyone that the current immigration system is broken and beyond repair. Illegal immigrants flock across the border with seeming impunity. Businesses depend on the labor of these immigrants, even as many US citizens leave the work force or are forced to work part-time jobs. Even legal immigrants like the Tsarnaev brothers can travel between the United States and terrorist training camps abroad without the knowledge of federal authorities. Perhaps worst of all, at President Obama’s implicit invitation, many unaccompanied immigrant children have made a dangerous journey the southern border to throw themselves on the mercy of the American welfare state. A solution to these problems requires a common sense approach and a bipartisan compromise

 

Democrats and Republicans disagree on the solutions to these and many other problems faced by Americans. What’s more, the current balance of power in Washington in which Republicans control the House of Representatives and Democrats control the Senate and White House guarantees that neither party can force its own solution on the other. Many conservatives hold out hope for a Republican Senate majority after this year’s elections, but, even with the most optimistic projections, the GOP will not hold a majority large enough to override President Obama’s almost certain veto of a partisan immigration bill. The only viable solution to the immigration problem requires compromise.

Read the rest of this article on Atlanta Conservative Examiner

GOP’s future may be tied to immigration reform

CHZZ/Wikimedia

The immigration reform bill is headed to the House of Representatives and an uncertain future.  The Senate passed the bill overwhelmingly on Thursday with a 68-32 vote.  Fourteen Republican senators joined the entire Democratic caucus to pass the bill.

 

The immigration reform bill is likely to face strong Republican opposition in the House, but many conservatives argue that passage of the bill will be a boon to Republicans.  As previously reported by Examiner, Republicans lost an embarrassing percentage of the Hispanic and Asian vote in 2008 and 2012.  The GOP won only 31 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2008 and did even worse in 2012 with 27 percent.  Likewise, the percentage of Asians voting for the GOP declined from 35 percent in 2008 to 26 percent in 2012.

 

It wasn’t always this way.

Read the rest on  National Elections Examiner

 

 

Marco Rubio proposes new immigration reform plan

Marco Rubio (US Senate)

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fl.) is proposing an immigration reform package in this week’s Weekend Interview in the Wall St. Journal. Rubio, whose name was floated as a potential vice presidential nominee for Mitt Romney, wants to take the immigration issue away from the Democrats. According to Examiner’sanalysis of exit polls of the 2012 presidential election, immigration was one of the most damaging issues for the Republicans.

The first prong of Rubio’s plan is to modernize America’s immigration system. He would issue more immigration visas to immigrants with technical skills needed by U.S. companies.Rubio notes that only 6.5 percent of immigrants come to the U.S. based on their labor and skills, but that American colleges don’t produce enough science, technology, engineering and math graduates to fill open positions. In fact, many foreign students who come to the U.S. to study cannot get visas to stay in the country and work.

Read the rest on Examiner.com:

http://www.examiner.com/article/marco-rubio-proposes-immigration-reform-plan?cid=db_articles

Resolution for Republicans: Find sensible immigration policy

Obama has little credibility on immigration, but Republicans have less (Ceasar Bojorquez/Wikimedia)

As we prepare to ring in 2013 and another four years of Barack Obama, Republicans should make a resolution to find an immigration policy that won’t turn off minority voters. Exit polls from the 2012 elections show that immigration was the single worst issue for Republicans. By a more than two-to-one margin, voters believed that illegal immigrants should be offered legal status rather than being deported. This issue undoubtedly influenced Hispanic voters and Asian voters to flock to Barack Obama by 71 and 73 percent respectively.

Obama’s record on immigration is less than stellar, but he proved less frightening than many Republicans. After ignoring the immigration issue for three years, the president issued constitutionally questionable orders to limit deportations. Although this order may have exceeded his authority as president, it proved more popular than Mitt Romney’s promise to veto the DREAM Act. Republican rhetoric on immigration has often been harsh, sometimes bordering on racist, and attempts by states to regulate illegal aliens were easily demonized by the Democrats.

Read the rest of this article on Examiner.com:

http://www.examiner.com/article/resolution-for-republicans-find-sensible-immigration-policy?cid=db_articles

White House treatment of Arizona is election issue

In the wake of this week’s Supreme Court decision striking down parts of the controversial Arizona immigration law, the White House announced President Obama’s decision to unilaterally cancel agreements between the federal government and seven Arizona law enforcement agencies. These “287 (g)” agreements had allowed state officials to request that federal officials pick up illegal immigrants held in state and local jails. Previously, the federal government had also allowed state officials to ask federal agencies to check the immigration status of people who were arrested or stopped for traffic violations.

The Supreme Court’s ruling upheld this cooperation between state and federal agencies, but, according to the Daily Caller, administration officials say that Arizona will not be allowed to transfer illegal aliens to federal custody unless they are felons or are known to have recently crossed the border. The practical effect of the White House announcement is to invalidate Arizona’s ability to check immigration status.

 

Read the rest of this article on Examiner.com:

http://www.examiner.com/article/obama-s-non-enforcement-of-immigration-law-is-election-issue

Republicans are wrong on immigration

When the discussion about securing the border started five years ago, it was tied to national security concerns.  In the midst of a global war against Islamic terrorists, it seemed unwise to many to leave our long borders with Mexico and Canada unmanned and undefended for much of their length.

Some of the concerns were prompted by Ahmed Ressam, the attempted Millennium bomber from 1999, who attempted to enter the U.S. from Canada where he had refugee status.  Ressam, an Algerian, was arrested by alert border guards in Washington state.

There have long been similar worries about terrorist groups seeking to enter the U.S. through Mexico.  A 2003 report by the Library of Congress Federal Research Division noted that a Mexican national security advisor and U.N. ambassador had stated “Spanish and Islamic terrorist groups are using Mexico as a refuge.”

 

Read the rest of this article on Examiner.com:

http://www.examiner.com/conservative-in-atlanta/republicans-are-wrong-on-immigration

Fourth of July genetics

What makes America different?  We are blessed with a large country, rich in natural resources, but many other countries with similar physical blessings lag behind the United States in many areas.

Throughout our short history, the United States has been a light to the world.  Our freedom, rule of law, and philosophy of equality have inspired countless other revolutions around the world.  Our statesmen penned documents that enshrined individual rights and the freedom to make your own destiny.  Our scientists and inventors sparked the Industrial Revolution.  Our businessmen turned these ideas into products and companies that raised the standard of living of the world.  Our fighting men have selflessly given their lives to protect innocents around the globe.

Why is it that one young upstart of a nation could so change the world?  Author Michael Medved points to several studies that suggest that Americans benefit genetically from the inherited traits of the immigrants who left everything to come here.  Medved points to work by Peter C. Whybrow of UCLA and John D. Gartner of Johns Hopkins University Medical School that shows that it took special people to make the journey to the New World.

For all the thousands of people that came to America to find a new life, more stayed at home.  Even during times when difficulties such as famines and persecution inspired mass migrations, most people chose to take their chances at home.  By some estimates, only two percent of the population of the Old Country would have left home to take their chances abroad (http://townhall.com/columnists/MichaelMedved/2008/05/14/respecting_-_and_recognizing_-_american_dna/page/full).

The same traits that made these future Americans leave their ancestral homes would have enabled them to succeed on the frontier and in business.  A penchant for risk taking, a willingness to work hard, optimism about the future, self confidence and willingness to take responsibility for their own success or failure were key factors in spurring immigrants to cross the oceans and were equally instrumental in helping them to build farms and businesses on the frontier.  Whybrow states that Americans possess a unique “dopamine receptor system – the pathway in the brain that figures centrally in boldness and novelty seeking” (http://townhall.com/columnists/MichaelMedved/2008/05/14/respecting_-_and_recognizing_-_american_dna/page/full).

With the establishment in the United States of free market capitalism and representative democracy, we gained political and economic systems that complemented the genetic makeup of the newly American immigrants.  A newly arrived “go-getter” could step off the boat and in very short order own a business that provided wealth and respect beyond his Old World dreams.  In contrast to the monarchical and authoritarian governments of most of the rest of the world, a second generation immigrant could hope to lead the government of his new homeland.

It is important to note that the American genetic code transcends racial and ethnic divisions.  Even though in the past American society was divided along racial and ethnic lines, from America’s earliest days people of all ethnic groups were able to become successes and contribute to our country’s greatness.  Free blacks, Chinese laborers, native Indians, and others are all part of the story of the American Spirit and members of all groups have possessed the traits of American DNA.  Over our short history, numerous groups from Irish to Catholics to Eastern Europeans have been subject to ethnic prejudices, but members of those groups have all overcome through risk-taking, hard work, and assimilation.

Further, many of today’s immigrants have the same gumption to leave home to make a better life for themselves and their families.  Whether they flee a harsh dictatorship on a flimsy raft, cross a desert  to escape economic distress, or come from the other side of the world on a ship or airplane for any of a million reasons, many possess the same traits of the immigrants of old.

Over time, this American Spirit has mostly stayed strong.  The Westward Expansion led Americans to settle their entire portion of the continent.  Americans are the only people in the world to set foot on the moon.  American companies supply the world with consumer products and American farms feed the world.  In 2009, even after the financial crash, half of the top ten companies on the Forbes 2000 list were American (http://www.forbes.com/lists/2009/18/global-09_The-Global-2000_Rank.html).

Even in the dark days of the Great Depression, when government grew on what was then an unprecedented scale, most Americans were not content to sit back and collect charity.  Thousands moved west from the Oklahoma “Dust Bowl” to seek a new life in California.  Others, who did collect from the government, were at least willing to exchange labor in groups such as the Civilian Conservation Corps for their government money.

Many worried that the American Spirit was dying in the days after Hurricane Katrina when many residents of the Gulf Coast seemed unwilling to work to better themselves and instead sat back to wait for government aid.  However this year’s oil spill, affecting much of the same region, has brought a resurgence of American ingenuity and spirit as residents of coastal towns take the initiative to protect their homes, environment, and livelihood without waiting for help or approval from the federal government or BP.

Over the years, reliance on government programs has taken its toll on the American Spirit.  Many forces have worked to slow and dampen the individualistic traits that built America.  Today, far too many Americans, rather than working for something, are being paid by the government to do nothing.  In many cases, the government even seems to prefer that its citizens do nothing.  As one pundit put it, today’s federal government is “all check and no balance” (http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/06/06/all_cog_no_machine_all_check_no_balance_105863.html).  We are trading our adaptive and creative society for the illusion of risk-free prosperity.  We are resting on our laurels.

If America is to survive, not only as a nation, but as a state of mind, we will need to reclaim the American Spirit for future generations.  We can teach our children the value of calculated risk taking and hard work.  We can instill in them a desire to learn so that they make valuable contributions to our society, rather than attempting to get rich quick through movies, music or sports.  We can teach them the truth about America:  that it is a light unto the world and that much of what is good about the world is due to America’s influence.  Finally, we can teach them that what makes Americans is not our ancestry, but our American Spirit!

Happy Independence Day!

Thanks for reading, commenting, and following!

Sources:

http://townhall.com/columnists/MichaelMedved/2008/05/14/respecting_-_and_recognizing_-_american_dna/page/full

http://www.peterwhybrow.com/index.html

http://www.hypomanicedge.com/

http://www.forbes.com/lists/2009/18/global-09_The-Global-2000_Rank.html

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/06/06/all_cog_no_machine_all_check_no_balance_105863.html

July 2, 2010

Villa Rica GA