Category: Other Immigration

“Victim visas” available for abused Muslim women

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Oh brother, what other visa programs do we have that we don’t know about (yet)?

There are a couple of messages in this story to ponder.

First, no doubt we feel sympathy for Muslim women abused by the men in their lives.   But, is it our duty to save each and every one whose husband, brother or father thinks ‘his’ woman has not behaved properly according to their ‘faith?’

And, take note that we are importing this behavioral mindset to the US every day through myriad legal immigration programs, including refugee resettlement, when we admit immigrants from Muslim countries?   Who will save the women when the US is paralyzed by pressure from multiculturalists urging us to respect diversity.  Believe it or not, we have occasionally heard ‘cultural relativism’ arguments that go like this—-who are we to say female genital mutilation is an evil practice?

Now, hat tip David, here is the story from Al Arabiya entitled, ‘Saudi women get U.S. ‘victim visas’ following family disputes‘:

Five Saudi women living in the United States replaced their student visas with “victim visas” following disputes with male members of their families.

The women, whose change of status renders them ineligible for financial support from Saudi Cultural Bureau in Washington DC, were accompanying their families to the United States and went to court after they got into fights with their husbands or brothers, the Saudi edition of al-Hayat newspaper quoted a source from the bureau as saying.

One of those women, the source explained, is a student currently living with her children in an orphanage because of a dispute with her husband.

After the American court with which she filed a complaint ruled in her favor, she was not able to go back to her husband and since there were no guarantees of her safety if she returns to Saudi Arabia, she preferred to stay in the United States. She is now financially supported by the American government.

Let me know, if any of you find out which agency administers “victim visas!”

Senator Rand Paul looking for “eventual path to citizenship” for illegal aliens

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update:  Some national Tea Party groups are coming out for AMNESTY, Freedom Works is one, I wrote about it here at my other blog.   Freedom Works and Americans for Prosperity do not speak for the majority of Tea Party-minded grassroots.

Before you dismiss this headline as a story about one more squishy and frightened Republican figuring that pandering to illegal Hispanics will get him somewhere in electoral politics, please read it here at Politico.

Paul’s proposal has implications for Refugee Resettlement, Temporary Protected Status, the Diversity Visa lottery and a whole host of other LEGAL immigration programs.

First readers need to know that there are all sorts of people calling themselves Tea Party (including that Islam apologist Grover Norquist).   There are also Ron Paul Libertarians who link up from time to time with Conservative Tea Partiers and have some issues in common.  Both strains believe in smaller government and thus lower taxes as a common theme. On some other issues the differences are significant.

Politico sets the stage:

He’ll push to loosen marijuana penalties, legalize undocumented immigrants and pursue a less aggressive American foreign policy.

In the wake of Barack Obama’s reelection win and ahead of a possible 2016 White House bid of his own, the Kentucky Republican plans to mix his hard-line tea party conservatism with more moderate policies that could woo younger voters and minorities largely absent from the GOP coalition. It’s the latest tactic of the freshman senator to inject the Libertarian-minded views shared by his retiring father into mainstream Republican thinking as the party grapples with its future.

In an interview with POLITICO, Paul said he’ll return to Congress this week pushing measures long avoided by his party. He wants to work with liberal Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy and Republicans to eliminate mandatory minimum sentences for pot possession. He wants to carve a compromise immigration plan with an “eventual path” to citizenship for illegal immigrants, a proposal he believes could be palatable to conservatives. And he believes his ideas — along with pushing for less U.S. military intervention in conflicts overseas — could help the GOP broaden its tent and appeal to crucial voting blocs that handed Democrats big wins in the West Coast, the Northeast and along the Great Lakes.

Paul says to “assimilate” the Hispanics here illegally already, but demand a trade-off.

The trade-off—-stop all LEGAL immigration until the illegals are assimilated!

Paul plans to inject himself into the middle of the GOP’s emotional immigration debate in the wake of Romney losing swing states with heavy Latino populations like Florida, Colorado and Nevada. Paul is working on a novel plan that he says would “assimilate” many of the 12 million illegal immigrants currently in the country. Those individuals, he said, could apply for legal status, but immigration would then be clamped down in the interim. He also says his plan would toughen security at the border.

“I want to show what conservatives would or can accept,” he said in describing his plan. “If we assimilate those who are here, however they got here — don’t make it an easy path for citizenship. There would be an eventual path, but we don’t make anybody tomorrow a citizen who came here illegally. But if they’re willing to work, willing to pay taxes, I think we need to normalize those who are here.”

Paul said the “trade-off” would be “not to accept any new legal immigrants while we’re assimilating the ones who are here.” Asked if he is concerned about the ripple effect that could cause around the world, Paul said the details over which countries would be affected are still in the works.  [Senator Paul, I’ll help you identify those countries!—ed]

Paul has also been a leader in attempts to cut foreign aid—a bread and butter issue if there ever was one for many of the so-called non-profits involved around the world.

(Can you hear it?  The wailing and gnashing of teeth from the refugee industry?)

Longtime readers might recall that Senator Paul had a hissy-fit of sorts when he found out Iraqi terrorists had been resettled in his home state of Kentucky here last year.

Obama must be getting ready to give temporary refugee status to Guatemalans

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

It’s called Temporary Protected Status and we’ve talked about it many times on these pages.  So what makes me think so?  I wrote a post about Guatemalans wanting TPS, here, at my other blog and just in the last two days dozens and dozens of readers are arriving there by googling the subject and finding that February post (be sure to read it to better understand TPS).

With TPS immigrants get to stay indefinitely, get work permits, get DRIVERS LICENSES*, and are not even deported for killing someone as we learned from this tragic case in California.

From the Pasadena Star News:

DREW Rosenberg became a victim of San Francisco’s sanctuary-city policies on Nov. 16, 2010. The second-year law student was riding his motorcycle in rush-hour traffic when a car driven by an unlicensed driver made a left turn and hit him. That evening, Don Rosenberg of Westlake Village, received the phone call every parent dreads. His precious son was dead.

Then another nightmare unfolded.

As Rosenberg investigated driver Roberto Galo’s background, he discovered that San Francisco’s sanctuary-city policies have served as an enabler for dangerous drivers.

The murderer had Temporary Protected Status!  Search as I might I could not find Galo’s nationality mentioned, but I am guessing he is Salvadoran (they’ve had TPS for over ten years!).

It turns out that as a legal immigrant with “temporary protected status,” Galo was eligible for a California driver’s license. He just never got one. After his car was impounded, he paid a $220 fine and walked away. That’s chump change. The fine for driving illegally in a car pool lane is $481.

More proof the city doesn’t take driving without a license seriously: A judge reduced the felony manslaughter charge to a misdemeanor. A jury found Galo guilty of manslaughter and driving without a license. His sentence: six months in prison, three years’ probation.

Rosenberg told me, “(By that time), my wife and I really didn’t care if he was sentenced to a day. Our focus became: Convict him of the two misdemeanors, and deport him. That’s a worse punishment than whether he spends a couple of months in jail.” In that Galo returned American hospitality with a readiness to flout American law, deportation seemed both just and in the interest of public safety.

Then came the next body blow. Rosenberg asked Rep. Henry Waxman’s office to make sure Galo would be deported. Waxman aides tell me that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told them that Galo was guilty of only one crime of moral turpitude – manslaughter.

The US government won’t deport him.

And, everyone! please stop saying legal immigration is o.k. but illegal is what you oppose!  That buffoon Sen. Lindsey Graham said that very thing, here, on Sunday while talking about the latest push for so-called ‘comprehensive immigration reform.’

Graham said the overhaul would have to be done in such a way that “we don’t have a third wave of illegal immigration 20 years from now. That’s what Americans want. They want more legal immigration and they want to fix illegal immigration once and for all.”

* With those DRIVERS LICENSES you can be sure they are registering to VOTE.  However, keep in mind! TPS has no path to citizenship (yet!).

Ho hum Haitians get to stay

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The Obama Administration has extended Temporary Protected Status for Haitians who were already (some illegally!) in the US prior to the earthquake in 2010 (or likely some who snuck in after the earthquake!).  This is nothing new for Democrat or Republican administrations.  No one ever goes home who was granted TPS status.  After years and years (decades!) in the US, the pitch is made—-how can we send them back now after they have bought homes, started businesses and sent kids to school?

From Immigration News:

The Associated Press reports the U.S. government is giving Haitians displaced by the 2010 earthquake more time to legally live and work while their Caribbean homeland rebuilds. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has extended Haiti’s Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for an additional 18 months. The immigration benefits had been set to expire in January but now Haitians with TPS status can register for an extension beginning January 23, 2013 through July 22, 2014.

But remember!  There is no path to citizenship and these Haitians, although they will have drivers’ licenses and the right to work, cannot VOTE!

They are all waiting for the big amnesty to come if Obama is reelected.

In Maryland, reminding immigrants they must be US citizens in order to vote

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update:  Another report of Somalis voting who can’t speak English, this time in Kansas.  If they can’t speak English how did they pass their citizenship test?   Update October 27th:  More on Somalis voting in Ohio.

Voting without citizenship is a crime!

Some readers may know that Maryland voters will decide on November 6th whether to overturn a law passed by the legislature in 2011 and signed by Governor Martin O’Malley to give illegal aliens instate tuition rates at Maryland colleges.  The ballot question will ask voters to vote for or against the O’Malley law.   It is the first law successfully petitioned to referendum in the state in 20 years.   So you can see the incentive to try to cheat by those who would reap the benefit is pretty great in a state not used to conservative taxpaying citizens having much of a voice.

An aside:  yesterday someone reported to me that busloads of Somalis were arriving at Ohio polling places for early voting.  Of course Somalis have been here for a long time and many have become US citizens, but I do hope no one is leading those who aren’t citizens astray because deportation is one of the possible outcomes identified by Help Save Maryland if non-citizens vote.

Readers here may not know that there is a national grassroots campaign first set up by True the Vote but expanding to all fifty states where citizens are working to clean up voter rolls and improve election integrity.  In Maryland the group is known as Election Integrity Maryland, and it isn’t just about Election 2012 but will be an on-going effort for years to come.

This is a cross-post from Potomac Tea Party Report.  I assume other groups, like Help Save Maryland, in other states are undertaking similar efforts to educate non-citizens about voting.

Help Save Maryland launches campaign to remind immigrants that they must be US citizens to vote

Below is the press release from yesterday.  I would like to add that with increased efforts on-going now in Maryland to clean up voter rolls it will become increasingly possible to identify non-citizen voters.  And, no matter who wins the Presidency in November, this issue of election integrity will be a leading issue in Maryland for years to come.

ROCKVILLE, MD– Help Save Maryland – a nonprofit, nonpartisan, grassroots citizens’ organization – launched an educational campaign to remind immigrants that if they are not U.S. citizens, then voting in a federal or state election can be a serious crime.

Help Save Maryland is distributing an informational flyer, “Voting Without Citizenship is a Crime” in 5 languages – English, Spanish, French, Korean and Chinese.

“Maryland is home to over 730,000 people born outside of the United States,” says Brad Botwin, Director of Help Save Maryland.  “Many of them are not yet naturalized citizens.  As a service to the community, we want to make sure that all non-citizen immigrants — legal and illegal — don’t make a terrible mistake on November 6th.”

While a few Maryland jurisdictions allow non-citizens to vote in their local elections, in general, non-citizens who vote in Maryland federal and state elections may be subject to fines, imprisonment and/or deportation.  Even registering to vote, or encouraging other non-citizens to register to vote, is a serious crime in Maryland, punishable by up to 5 years in prison.

The problem has been made worse by Maryland’s past history of giving drivers’ licenses to illegal aliens. And organizations, such as CASA de Maryland, which provide services to illegal aliens, have posted notices in Spanish outside their facilities about helping people register to vote.

“While gathering signatures last year against the so-called Maryland DREAM Act, I repeatedly encountered recent immigrants who believed their Maryland drivers license was proof they were registered voters,” says Paul Mendez, a MDPetition.com volunteer.  “In all the excitement of a presidential election, it’s easy to imagine that non-citizens might mistakenly attempt to vote and commit a crime without knowing it.”

“Voting Without Citizenship is a Crime” flyers are available for no charge on Help Save Maryland’s website (www.HelpSaveMaryland.org).

We encourage county Boards of Elections, religious groups, community service providers, libraries, schools, and organizations that serve Maryland’s immigrant population to distribute these flyers, which will also be handed out at polling locations on Election Day by Help Save Maryland volunteers.

Help Save Maryland is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.  Its mission is to provide facts regarding the cost of illegal aliens who live and/or work in Maryland.  Help Save Maryland fosters public awareness and education, and supports analysis and research.