Category: Other Immigration

Another Presidential campaign tip from the Immigration lawyers

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Well here you go, another “comment” from Immigration lawyers and how they see the 2008 Presidential campaign.  And, although yesterday they said that McCain would more likely take on immigration “reform” in his first year, they are still in the tank for Obama.

This is what they say Obama should do.  He should focus on the Hispanic vote in Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada—the states this group claims are the swing states.

In that case, here is what I say.  All of you voting Hispanics in Colorado consider that if Obama should win the Presidency you can bet, and take it to the bank, that the number of African immigrants will dramatically rise and they will be competing with you and blaming you, Hispanics, for their trouble in the workplace—just as they are today in Greeley, CO.

Immigration under Obama vs. under a McCain presidency

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Here is a rather bleak opinion piece for those of us who want to see borders closed, immigration severely curtailed and refugee resettlement reformed.    A leading publication for Immigration lawyers editorializes that if Obama should win, the Democrats in the White House and in Congress will be so busy changing everything  they won’t have time right away for immigration.

However, should McCain win, Congress and the White House will be at odds over (almost) everything, leaving only immigration reform (code for amnesty as in McCain/Kennedy) back on the front burner as the only thing the two branches of government would agree upon.

The entire editorial dated September 17 (could not find a perma-link so look for September 17th editorial) is below because it is so provocatively written I wanted you to see it all.

McCain Kennedy Reborn

If immigration is your number one political priority, what should you do this election?

We begin with the observation that Democrats will likely consolidate and expand their control of the Senate and the House. This is good news for the immigration cause. However, in spite of controlling Congress for the past two years Democrats have done virtually nothing on immigration benefits and have continued massive spending on immigration enforcement. So, even though most political analysts are agreed that Democrats are poised for significant gains in the House and the Senate, that alone does not portend any immigration benefits in the coming years.

With that background, let us examine the difference in prospects for immigration benefits on Jan 20, 2009 if we get President Obama or if we get President McCain.

If we get President Obama, Democrats are going to be euphoric on Jan 20, 2009, and rightly so – being back in the White House, at last, after 8 long and bitter years. Democrats have not been able to pursue their priorities for 8 years and we can expect them to act aggressively on their big priorities immediately after a President Obama takes office. There are at least four Democratic priorities ahead of immigration: the Iraq war, universal health care, budget/taxes and energy policy. These are all large, complex issues and Congress will take most of a President Obama’s first term to work on these. In such a scenario, we will not see any significant immigration benefits in the foreseeable future.

If we get President McCain, we will still have a powerful Democratic majority in Congress on Jan 20, 2009. This Congress will be at loggerheads with him on all the major Democratic priorities. Democrats will want to bring the troops home whereas Mr. McCain wants them in Iraq for 100 years; Democrats see a health care crisis whereas Mr. McCain sees none; Democrats will want increased taxes whereas Mr. McCain would like to cut them; Democrats want to conserve oil and work on alternative sources of power whereas Mr. McCain would like to drill for oil all over the map. Democrats and a President McCain will be 180 degrees apart on all major Democratic priorities. In this bitter fighting hardly anything will get done legislatively, and both Democrats and Mr. McCain will be looking for opportunities to show the country that they can work on something together.

While there are a few areas of agreement between Mr. McCain and Democrats, immigration is the largest issue on which Democrats and McCain agree. While the current Republican Party platform is the most anti-immigrant one in memory, there were news reports that Mr. McCain, who has a long track record of being pro-immigration, tried to make it more immigration-friendly and failed. This is the issue on which he is most likely to stab his party’s anti-immigrationist wing in the back both in his political interests and due to his own convictions (Mr. McCain had to fight his party’s anti-immigrationists tooth and nail during the Republican primaries). We expect to see almost all of the original McCain-Kennedy bill become law during the first six months of a McCain Presidency.

The Bush era has been the worst in memory for immigration advocates. However the combination of a powerful Democratic majority in Congress with Mr. McCain as President offers the best hope for speedily obtaining desperately needed immigration benefits.

Let’s hope Sarah will knock some sense into McCain’s head!

Meatpacker charged with violation of child labor laws

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update September 11th:  More today on this story.   Feds setting an example?

This is an update about Agriprocessors the Iowa meatpacking plant we have been writing about, the same outfit that has flooded Postville with Somali workers.  (Hat tip:  Blulitespecial)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The owner and managers of the nation’s largest kosher meatpacking plant were charged Tuesday with more than 9,000 misdemeanors alleging child labor law violations.

They’re accused of hiring minors and, in some cases, having children younger than 16 handle dangerous equipment such as circular saws, meat grinders and power shears.

The allegations are the first criminal charges against operators of the Agriprocessors plant in Postville, where nearly 400 illegal immigrants working at the facility were arrested in May in one of the largest single-site immigration raids in U.S. history.

For more on the trauma to Postville, go here.

Dramatic proposal in the UK to cut immigration

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

While I slept Blulitespecial was busy doing my work for me by finding all sorts of important stories to share with you.  Hat tip to him again!

Barack Obama went to Europe and said if he were elected President he would make America more like Europe.   O.K. Barack does that mean you would drastically cut immigration like one country after another is attempting to do in Europe?  We’ve told you about France and Italy and just a couple days ago we heard that Spain is following suit.   And, now the UK.  Wow!

The Telegraph is reporting today that a plan to balance the number of immigrants with the number leaving the country has been proposed.

A cross-party parliamentary group – the first to tackle such a politically divisive issue – says net immigration must be reduced to zero, with the numbers arriving balanced by those leaving.

The group hopes this will stabilise the swelling UK population and reduce pressure on public services at a time when immigrants are entering at the highest rate in recorded history.

“We strongly believe we must ease the pressures that immigration is placing on our public services, environment and, indeed, on the cohesion of our society,” it says in a report, Balanced Migration.

Just like the United States the UK is expecting a population explosion, fueled exclusively by immigration, over the next 30 years putting huge demands on jobs, housing, schools and the environment with the brunt of the pain inflicted on the country’s poor.

In April, the Lords’ economic affairs committee labelled official statistics on migration “seriously inadequate” and concluded immigrants are not needed to fill labour shortages or help fund the state pension for retiring Britons.

Immigrants were found to have an “important economic impact” on public services, with some schools struggling to cope with the number of children who do not speak English as a first language.

Lowly paid Britons are being priced out of work and millions face being unable to afford a house.

Government statistics show in the past decade 2.5 million people have arrived in the UK, while only three quarters of a million have left.

The UK’s population is set to soar from 60 million to close to 80 million by the middle of the century, making it the most populous nation in Europe.

Figures suggest Britain will need seven new cities the size of Birmingham to house the growing population by 2031.

Again, hint to John McCain, it’s time to change your mind on immigration.   We don’t actually know where our statistics are, but I will bet the US numbers would come close to this British poll on the subject of immigration.

A poll released to coincide with the proposal found eighty one per cent of Labour voters and 89 per cent of Conservative voters favoured substantial cuts in immigration.

Immigration is the elephant in the living room.    It is the issue directly related to the environment, jobs, crime, terrorism, poverty, cultural conflicts, and education.    We ignore that elephant every day at our peril.

The World Cup, South Africa and xenophobia (yes, xenophobia again!)

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Apparently the World Cup is scheduled to be held in South Africa in 2010 and everyone is freaking out about what impact the “xenophobic” unrest (violence!) of recent months will have on the games and the hoped-for economic boom tourists might bring.   This is an overly long article from a publication of the Namibian government in which, yes, once again, xenophobia is blamed for the violence.    Those South Africans hate foreigners for no reason at all (except that they are foreigners), or so the theory goes.   See my earlier post on xenophobia here.

Sandwiched in the middle of this, as I said, overlong dissection, is what I see as the crux of the matter.  There are too many people in Africa and too few resources.  As the population increases and hordes of people cross borders to find the basic necessities, jobs, food, shelter,  the indiginous population will react violently to preserve their own lives and livelihoods.   In South Africa it is the poor black population perpetuating the violence against other African black ‘outsiders’. 

This is not rocket science, nor does it call for a psychiatrist to root out xenophobia.

In 1997, it was found that 25% of South Africans wanted a total prohibition of migration or immigration and 22% wanted the South African government to return all foreigners presently living in South Africa to their own countries.

Forty-five percent of the sample called for strict limits to be placed on migrants and immigrants and 17% wanted migration policies tied to the availability of jobs. In the same survey, some 61% of respondents agreed that migrants put additional strains on the country’s resources.

The government of the “rainbow nation” did nothing.  So does the next survey surprise anyone?

In 2006, respondents continued to consider foreigners to be a threat to the social and economic wellbeing of South Africa. More than two-thirds said that foreigners use up resources such as water, electricity and healthcare destined for citizens. Two-thirds of respondents felt that foreigners from other African countries commit crimes and close to one half said that foreigners bring diseases such as HIV to South Africa.

Thus, like in the1997 survey, respondents in 2006 appear to continue to have a negative view of the impact of foreigners on the country, and in fact it would appear that their view on certain issues has hardened, with greater percentages saying foreigners take up resources meant for citizens.

It makes perfect sense that the citizens of South Africa are responding to a real problem of too many people and not enough resources.  When the government didn’t listen 10 years ago, is it any surprise that their view has hardened!     Take heed John ‘open-our-borders’ McCain.

Go back and read about Steve Camarota’s Washington Post opinion piece and our increasing population and dwindling resources here.