Category: Other Immigration

Texas governor criticizes “unaccompanied minor” program of US government

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update May 9th:  More on unaccompanied illegal kids here at the Houston Chronicle.

Before you read this post, please go back to this post I wrote in March which gives one horror story of an unaccompanied minor in Galveston, TX  who had originally been ‘under the care’ of Catholic Charities (which receives payment from the feds for his and thousands of other illegal alien kids care) and has become an alleged “unaccompanied” adult sexual predator.

Here is Texas Governor Perry (via Fox News) on how this program is encouraging a boom in kids crossing the border without parents.   He also charges that Obama is actually pushing this.  Although I gotta say Perry himself allowed for another magnet for illegal kids—subsidized college education for illegal alien kids (but that is another story for another time).

Texas Gov. Rick Perry is accusing the Obama administration of “perpetuating” a recent “surge” in illegal immigrant children who are crossing into the U.S. from Mexico and Central America without their parents and often falling straight into government care.

In a letter obtained by Fox News, Perry wrote to President Obama on Friday citing stats that show more than 5,200 “unaccompanied minors” were taken into U.S. custody in the first six months of the fiscal year — a more than 90 percent increase compared with the same period a year ago.

Perry, a former Republican presidential candidate, claimed that a failure to immediately send them back is “perpetuating the problem” by encouraging other children and teenagers to make the trek. He said the journey is dangerous for the children, and their flow into the United States is a burden on his state and others. The governor urged the administration to eliminate the “temptation” to make “this tragic and illegal migration.”

The Refugee program looking for expansion into new and lucrative territory?

A recent Associated Press article on the surge reported that 1,390 unaccompanied children crossed over the border and into U.S. custody in March alone. Some have even been housed at Lackland Air Force Base on a temporary basis while they are being processed.

The children, after being initially detained by the Department of Homeland Security, are typically handed over to the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement — a division of the Department of Health and Human Services.   [where a couple of the federal “church” contractors get paid to take care of them until they “emancipate” them into the US population at age 18—ed]

I noticed the other day as I read through the testimony from the Refugee meeting in Arlington, VA last week, here, that there were many mentions of the “need” to boost this program.   Another chicken-or-egg question?   Are the kids coming anyway or are they being enticed into coming by this federal program (and the hope of amnesty through the Dream Act someday)?

Now Somalis get Temporary Protected Status extension

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Basically what this means is that around 1000 plus Somalis (that they know of!) who got into the US illegally are now eligible to sign up to stay and work.

I’ve written about TPS extensively, just search for “Temporary Protected Status” to learn what a fraud this “legal” program is—there are a couple hundred thousand Central Americans (among others!) staying here permanently under this “temporary” designation, now Somalis continue to get a free pass too.

From Minnesota Public Radio:

St. Paul, Minn. — Somali nationals with no other legal means to stay in the US can now apply for temporary protected status.

The status allows Somalis currently in the US to stay here.

The government first designated Somalis as eligible for the status in 2001. The protection from deportation expires about every 18 months.  [And it is always extended!—ed]

U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano decided to reauthorize the status, citing the poor living conditions, armed conflicts, and lasting effects from severe drought.

John Keller, executive director of the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota says few Somalis in the state have temporary status, but Napolitano’s decision will allow more to apply for the designation.

“The government basically has decided that things continue to be so bad in Somalia that even people who’ve recently arrived or who are transitioning between statuses should get this protection,” Keller said.

The Department of Homeland Security says about 250 Somalis nationwide are eligible to re-register for temporary protected status while fewer than 1,000 people will be eligible for the first time.

The truth is they have no clue how many are here with “no legal means to stay.”

Minnesota US Senator Klobuchar cheers the decision to allow our “friends” to stay, here.

I guess those Somali deportation stories are a bunch of hogwash!

Mitt (Etch A Sketch*) Romney headed to the Left on immigration

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

[Cross-posted from Potomac Tea Party Report]

I can emphatically say I am not surprised.

Much to my profound shock, back in January Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, a leading legal beagle on immigration and a hero to many on the immigration control side, endorsed Romney.  See my post here.  Even NumbersUSA President, Roy Beck, was sounding all warm and fuzzy for Romney. I was shocked!

In the meantime, Rick Santorum’s NumbersUSA scorecard was shown to have been better than Romney’s.  Here Santorum is an A-.  I see they have pushed the guy who previously had a C, Romney, up to a B- recently.  In light of this news, it’s time for a new score for Romney, don’t you think!

Back in January, did Kobach and Beck get snookered by the Romney gang—did they not know that the likes of Karl Rove, Grover Norquist and Ed Gillespie—the Open Borders troika—were in the wings to run things for Romney?  (Remember Norquist said all they needed was a weak President—Romney the robot— here and here, to sign things!).

Here is The Hill telling us what it means for the Romney team to have put Ed Gillespie on the payroll as a strategist (emphasis mine):

Mitt Romney’s hiring of Republican strategist Ed Gillespie is being seen as a sign the campaign will heavily court Hispanic voters — perhaps at the expense of immigration hard-liners in the party.

Gillespie, a former head of the Republican National Committee, has long advocated an aggressive outreach to the Hispanic community. He helped found the Republican State Leadership Committee, a group that recruits and trains GOP candidates for office and has emphasized finding female and minority candidates. He also heads up Resurgent Republic, an organization focused on messaging to independents, including Hispanic swing voters.

There is nothing wrong with outreach to minority voters, UNLESS they are making promises for government goodies to come!

The RNC is highly aware of this, and on Monday announced it would have state-level Hispanic outreach directors placed in Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Florida, Virginia and North Carolina.

Republican DREAM ACT on the way?  (Marco Rubio involved too)

Establishment members of the party praised Gillespie’s hiring.

“He’s going to be great as a key figure in the Romney campaign,” RNC Chairman Reince Priebus told The Hill on Monday. “Ed brings a pretty big background in understanding and being an effective communicator in the Hispanic community and that can only be a positive.”

Some signs of a shift in Romney’s tone have already emerged since his status as the presumptive nominee has become stronger.

The former Massachusetts governor warned during a private fundraiser this past weekend that his standing in polls with Hispanics “spells doom for us,” and that to alleviate the problem the GOP needed to offer its own policies to woo Hispanics. His suggestions included a “Republican DREAM Act,” referring to a GOP version of the Democratic plan that would give some illegal immigrants who came here as children a path to citizenship.

While he was not advocating for a specific policy, the comments were a sharp break from Romney’s rhetoric during the primary, when he said he would veto the DREAM Act and attacked Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) for backing a state law that gave illegal immigrants in-state college tuition, calling it a “magnet” for more illegal immigration.

Kobach kicked to the curb?

Gillespie’s hiring is being viewed as a counter to hard-line advisers in the Romney camp, including Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R), who wrote Arizona’s controversial immigration law.

Republican strategists predicted that Gillespie’s gravitas would make him influential within the Romney campaign, outweighing the more-conservative voices on the issue.

Is it Tea Party time yet?

*Romney the Etch A Sketch candidate, here.

Update April 21:  Alas, the Kobach endorsement of Romney and the on-again/off-again alliance may be all about money, that is assuming we can believe Think Progress (hat tip Richard Falknor at Blue Ridge Forum):

Indeed, it will be very hard for Romney, whose PAC was one of the largest donors to Kobach’s campaign for Kansas Secretary of State, to distance himself from his immigration adviser or the law in Arizona.

 

A quarter of a million “temporary refugees” seek permanent resident status now

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I’ve mention the Temporary Protected Status program on many occasions on these pages.  Readers need to know that a quarter of a million Central American illegal aliens living in the US are now making a push to be granted permanent resident status.   Here is a post I wrote two days ago at Potomac Tea Party Report explaining the political agitation for amnesty campaign launched yesterday in DC.

Also, you should visit Mark Krikorian (Center for Immigration Studies) writing on the topic here at National Review Online.

Uncle Omar gets to drive anyway (as well as stay in the US)

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Uncle Omar of course is President Barack Obama’s illegal alien uncle (and brother to Aunt Zeituni) “discovered” living in Massachusetts for decades.  We told you about his bust for drunk driving last August and here is more on whether he was ever lost at all!

Just a week or so ago we heard he lost his Massachusetts drivers license (not really!), but not a word about whether he will be granted asylum (Aunt Zeituni had good lawyers and did get asylum, here).

From the Boston Herald today:

Just a week after he copped a plea in a drunken-driving rap, President Obama’s illegal-alien uncle has landed a hardship driver’s license from the Registry of Motor Vehicles, making it perfectly legal for him to drive in Massachusetts — even though the feds say he doesn’t belong here.

Onyango Obama, 67, who lost his regular license for 45 days last week, scored his limited license yesterday from the Registry’s Wilmington branch, after convincing a hearing officer that life without wheels would have posed an undue hardship on his livelihood as a liquor-store manager. Obama bolstered his case with a letter from his employer, Conti Liquors, as well as proof that he’d enrolled in an alcohol-treatment program.

[…..]

Of the state’s decision to award Obama a license even though the federal government considers him an illegal alien, Lavoie would only say, “Registry business is based on Registry records.”

[…..]

The license award drew fire from one advocate of tough enforcement on illegals, Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson.

“Our democracy is predicated on law,” Hodgson said. “When we start to interpret these laws differently and manipulate them the way we want them to work for certain people, we start to send a mixed message to people that the law doesn’t really matter. Its subject to interpretation. You don’t have to follow the law. They find ways to justify it. We need the laws to be very clear. We need ‘no’ to mean ‘no’ again.”

Hodgson, along with sheriffs in Plymouth and Worcester counties, stood up for Secure Communities, a program that feeds local police fingerprint checks into federal databases to check the citizenship status of accused criminals. Gov. Deval Patrick has refused to enroll the state in the program.

What no public transportation in Boston?

We sure don’t want any illegal aliens experiencing an “undue hardship” now do we?

Watch for it—Onyango’s lawyers will probably  base an asylum claim on the very real possibility that if he is sent back to Kenya now he will be a marked man by the many enemies his nephew has created.