A Class on Compassion

IS IGNORING ILLEGALS COMPASSIONATE?

By: Bob Lounsberry (Part I of II)

When you counsel someone to be compassionate, you make an assumption.
It is an assumption of moral superiority. You presume that they are, in fact, not already compassionate. You presume that their position is inherently one that lacks caring and human concern but that your position, on the other hand, is somehow morally superior and enlightened. And that's a pretty arrogant thing to do.

Because in presuming that others disagree with you because of some lack of intellect, understanding or humanity on their part, you run the very large risk of doing exactly what you accuse them of doing. You end up condemning people whose motives you fail to understand.
I'm talking about illegal immigration.

Specifically, I'm talking about the assertion that those who oppose illegal immigration somehow lack compassion, that they fail to see the human element of the issue, that they lose sight of the fact that illegal aliens are children of God, that if they only knew an illegal alien and his family their view on the issue would change.

I think that viewpoint represents both arrogance and ignorance. Specifically, it represents a failure to understand the people who oppose illegal immigration.
So let me explain.

People who oppose illegal immigration don't hate illegal aliens, they love America. And they understand America and its reliance on constitutional order and the rule of law. They know that liberty is rooted in and protected by law. They know that it is the moral duty of all Americans to uphold the law. In fact, they join with Abraham Lincoln in declaring obedience to law our “national religion.”

People who oppose illegal immigration have no objection to immigration, but they can never accept “illegal” as a way of doing things in this country. The Lord said that his house is a “house of order,” and so must the affairs of this nation be. Unchallenged illegality – of any nature – is a threat to our Constitution and – consequently – to our country.

When the laws do not matter, then the Congress that passed them does not matter and the executive who supposedly enforces them does not matter and the courts that interpret them do not matter and our entire Republic does not matter. When the laws do not matter; our Constitution twists in the wind, dangling by a thread.

It is the duty of Americans to defend the Constitution.
It is the duty of Americans to defend the law.
It is the duty of Americans to demand the enforcement of law.

It is traitorous of Americans to countenance, encourage, facilitate, induce or ignore the breaking of law.

People who oppose illegal immigration are not being bad Christians, they are being good Americans.

The law may change, we have a system for that, and the people through their representatives may choose new laws. But until that time, there is no excuse for ignoring, disobeying or skirting current law. Abraham Lincoln, again, in discussing the cursed Dred Scott decision said that though it was a noxious piece of case law, which he would never quit working to overturn, he was duty bound to obey it until it was changed.

That is the duty of any American.

MS-13 Mara Salvatrucha Most Violent Gang in the U. S.

Latin American Gangs Are Taking Over Our Streets
By Dave Gibson (Part II of II)

The U.S. Justice Department now believes that many gangs never before associated with traditional Mexican gangs are now distributing drugs on behalf of Mexican drug cartels. These gangs include the Bloods, Crips, and even many Asian and white supremacist gangs.

The National Drug Intelligence Center recently reported that Mexican gangs now have drug distribution operations in North Carolina as well as Georgia to support drug sales along the East Coast.

In addition to the sale of illegal drugs, prostitution, assault, rape, and robbery, Latin American gangs are now apparently acting as paid assassins, with the target being U.S. law enforcement.

In 2007, the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin reported that they had obtained a confidential Department of Homeland Security memo. The function of the document was to issue an Officer Safety alert to U.S. Border Patrol agents that human smugglers were bringing MS-13 gang members into the country for the sole purpose of murdering the agents.

The alert reads: “Unidentified Mexican alien smugglers are angry about the increased security along the U.S./Mexican border and have agreed that the best way to deal with U.S. Border Patrol agents is to hire a group of contract killers.”

A Border Patrol agent speaking on the condition of anonymity said: “It’s not just people coming over here to pick lettuce. These gang members, criminals, are endangering American lives.” He went on: “Our vests won’t stop a rifle bullet, and many of us feel like sitting ducks.”

A few facts concerning the impact of illegal immigration on crime in this country:

-In 1995, a California Department of Justice study concluded that the 18th Street Gang works directly with the Mexican Mafia, and commits a robbery or an assault every day in Los Angeles alone.

-Two-thirds of fugitive felony warrants issued in Los Angeles are for illegal aliens.

-95 percent of warrants issued for murder in L.A. are for illegal aliens.

-83 percent of warrants issued for murder in Phoenix, AZ are for illegal aliens.

-86 percent of warrants issued for murder in Albuquerque, NM are for illegal aliens.

-53 percent of burglaries in Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, California, and Texas are committed by illegal aliens.

-According to police, there are at least 53,000 Latino gang members in Los Angeles (that is the equivalent of three Airborne Divisions).

-Mexican drug cartels produce 80 percent of the methamphetamine sold on U.S. streets.

-In 2007 alone, U.S. Customs agents confiscated over 2,000 lbs of methamphetamine at the six official border crossing stations in California.

Latin American gangs are just another reason to vigorously defend our all too porous border. If our government does not soon become serious about border enforcement, we can expect our nation's streets to run red with blood.

MS-13 Mara Salvatrucha Most Violent Gang in The U. S.

Latin American Gangs Are Taking Over Our Streets
By Dave Gibson (Part I of II)
At one time, violent crimes attributed to Mexican and Central American gangs were largely confined to the American Southwest. However, just as illegal aliens have spread across this country, so too has a veritable crime wave. Large cities and small towns across the country are now experiencing the early stages of the most violent gang epidemic we have ever seen.

One of the most violent gangs is known as MS-13 The gang perpetuating the death and destruction is known as MS-13. Mara Salvatrucha or MS-13 is based in El Salvador.

According to the FBI's National Gang Task Force Director Robert Clifford, MS-13 is following the same paths as do Mexican illegal workers. Clifford said: "The migrant moves and the gang follows. If you follow the construction trade, that is where a lot of these immigrants go."

A March 2005 nation-wide sting operation which targeted members of the notoriously violent MS-13, nabbed 103 gang members. All 103 were in this country illegally. The arrests were made in Baltimore, New York, Newark, Dallas, Los Angeles, as well as the District of Columbia. The arrests made clear the fact that illegal immigration is no longer simply a regional crisis.

In 2005, two MS-13 members were convicted in an Alexandria, Va. United States District Court for killing a 17-year-old pregnant girl. A rope was placed around the neck of Brenda Paz, she was then stabbed repeatedly. Her body was then left along the muddy banks of Virginia’s Shenandoah River. The murder was retribution for the girl’s cooperation with a federal investigation into the gang’s activities.

The FBI now estimates that there are between 8,000 to 10,000 MS-13 gang members inside the United States. The Salvadoran gang is infamous for machete and grenade attacks. They have also been known to behead their enemies.

On January 3, 2008, police in Fort Worth, TX arrested several members of the Latino gang known as Varrio Central for forcing young girls into prostitution. Some of the girls being victimized were as young as 12 years old.

Diego Rodriguez, 19, and Martin Reyes, 17, with aggravated kidnapping, trafficking of a person, and engaging in organized criminal activity. The names of three minors arrested were not released

Varrio Central members would typically befriend the girls, get them high, and then take them to their regular customers. They would also drive them through apartment complexes, approaching men with the offer of sex with a teenaged or pre-teen girl for a fee of $50.

According to Fort Worth Police, if a girl refused to comply, gang members would beat and sexually assault her and threaten her family with violence.

Fort Worth Police Lt. Ken Dean told the Associated Press: “The age of the victims and suspects is the surprising part of it. To have such young individuals in a somewhat organized business, a forced prostitution ring, is somewhat alarming and such a horrendous crime against the 12 to 16 year old girls.”

As I stated earlier, Latin American gang activity is no longer isolated to large cities. A look at one relatively small city reveals the severity of the problem.

According to 2007 U.S. Census Bureau statistics, the city of Porterville located in central California has a population of 51,467. While reporting a rather modest population, Porterville police report the existence of no less than 23 active gangs in the city.

The known gangs in Porterville, CA are as follows:

-Brown Pride Surenos            -Barrio Sur Trece                                -Court Stret Locos

-Mexican Gang Bangers         -North Side Varrio Boys

-Tierras-Terra Bella                -Tiny Maltido Surenos                         -Varrio Central Poros

-Wicked Ass Surenos             -Young Mexican Gang Bangers          -Barrio “H” street

-Big Time Locos                     -North Side Varrio Youngsters            -Sultra 14

-Varrio Campo Linnel              -West Side Poros                               -Catela Norte

-East Side Poros                    -East Side Varrio                                 -Sureno Life Style

-Richgrove Varrio Trece

(Stay Tuned For Part II)

Once Again Washington County Takes The Lead!

Another E-Verfy Local Ordinance

By Ronald W. Mortensen, October 23, 2011

On October 18, 2011, the Washington County (Utah) Commission passed an ordinance that requires "businesses that receive a business license from the county to use E-Verify…."

The ordinance was crafted based on a recent Supreme Court decision, Chamber of Commerce v. Whiting, 131 S. Ct. 1968 (2011). In that case, the Court declared that states may require businesses to use E-Verify and that the states can use their licensing authority to enforce employment verification requirements.

According to the Findings section of the Washington County ordinance, illegal aliens are working in the Washington County in violation of federal law, taxes paid by American citizens are used to provide benefits to illegal aliens thereby depriving citizens of Washington County who pay the taxes of the intended benefits of their tax dollars, and that steps to ensure that businesses hire only authorized workers are an important part of resolving the negative effects of illegal immigration.

The ordinance, therefore, requires each place of business covered by the ordinance to verify the employment eligibility of all new hires by using the federal government's E-Verify system. If a place of business fails to comply, it shall be ordered to comply and its business license shall be suspended for up to 10 days for the first instance, 10-20 days for the second instance, and 30 days to permanent suspension for a third instance.

Each time a person applies for a county business license, the person shall certify that the business is operating in compliance with the ordinance. The Clerk/Auditor's office may request that a place of business show compliance and the certification of compliance must be made on a form provided by the Clerk/Auditor's office.

If there is reasonable suspicion that the place of business is not complying with the ordinance, the Clerk/Auditor shall conduct an investigation and when sufficient evidence of non-compliance is found, the evidence shall be turned over to the county attorney's office for action.

In addition, citizens may submit complaints which will be the basis for Clerk/Auditor beginning an investigation. It is a Class C Misdemeanor to file a frivolous complaint and complaints cannot be based solely on an employee or employer's race, religion, gender, ethnicity, and/or national origin.

The County Commission shall appoint a member of the community to act as a hearing officer for complaints. The hearing officer determines whether the county attorney has met its burden of proof. If a business license is suspended, the written decision of the hearing officer shall clearly state the dates the suspension begins and ends.

Appeals of the hearing officer's decisions may be heard by the Washington County Commission. The County Commission will only overturn the hearing officer's decision if it finds that the hearing officer abused his/her discretion or made a clear error in reaching a conclusion.

The ordinance takes effect 60 days from the date it was enacted and is a direct benefit of the legal challenge brought by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and civil rights groups to state E-Verify requirements. That challenge resulted in the Court determining that state and local governments can require employers to use E-Verify and that they can use their licensing authority to ensure that employers comply with the law without the fear of being sued.

The Washington County ordinance may provide the impetus for other Utah counties to enact similar ordinances, especially since there are ongoing efforts in a number of other counties to enact E-Verify ordinances through the citizen initiative process.

As California Goes, So Goes America

California, Here We Come!

By Patrick J. Buchanan Part II of II  California, Here We Come!

Under George W. Bush and Obama, the U.S. government has undertaken huge new responsibilities: No Child Left Behind, Medicare prescription drug benefits, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the takeovers of banks and auto companies, bailouts without end and national health insurance.

California, too, spent lavishly in the fat years and issued bonds when state revenues did not cover the costs, bringing its once-sterling credit rating down to the nation’s lowest. So, too, U.S. Treasury bonds, T-bills and the American dollar are now increasingly suspect.
Demographically, California is where America will be in 2040.

White folks, who are leaving California as they did in the millions in the 1990s, are below half the population. Hispanics, their numbers surging due to legal and illegal immigration, are well over a third of the population. The African-American share of California’s population is also falling, as the Asian share is rising, again from immigration.

Los Angeles, which is what most large American cities will look like, is the most diverse city on earth. Has diversity been a strength?  In the prisons and jails, and among the scores of thousands in street gangs and the underclass, a black-brown civil war is underway.
In October 2006, the Financial Times reported the findings of the famed author of “Bowling Alone” on what diversity has wrought:

“A bleak picture of the corrosive effects of ethnic diversity has been revealed in research by Harvard University’s Robert Putnam, one of the world’s most influential political scientists. His research shows that the more diverse a community is, the less likely its inhabitants are to trust anyone — from their next-door neighbor to the mayor.”

“In the presence of diversity, we hunker down,” said Putnam. “We act like turtles. The effect of diversity is worse than had been imagined. And it’s not just that we don’t trust people who are not like us. In diverse communities, we don’t trust people who do look like us.”  “Professor Putnam,” said the Financial Times, “found trust was lowest in Los Angeles, ‘the most diverse human habitation in human history.’”

Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan carried California nine times. But the state is now a fiefdom of liberalism. John McCain’s share of the vote was smaller than Barry Goldwater’s. California today believes in Big Government, open borders, diversity, multiculturalism and the politics of compassion. But what liberalism has wrought in California, its native-born are fleeing.
Still, where California is at, America is headed.

Californians who are running away from the communities and towns in which they were raised have Arizona, Idaho, Colorado, Utah and Nevada to head to. But when all of America arrives at where California is at today, where do the Americans run to?

As California Goes, So Goes America

California, Here We Come

By Patrick J. Buchanan Part I of II 
PALM SPRINGS, Calif. — In just a few weeks time, California hits the wall.  And Americans should take a good, long look at the fiscal and social wreck of the Golden Land, because California is at a place to which all of America is heading.

In May, when five fund-raising proposals were put on the ballot, Gov. Schwarzenegger pleaded with the overtaxed Californians not to make their state “the poster child for dysfunction.”
As The Economist writes, “On May 18th, they did exactly that.”

Arnold went to the White House for U.S. loan guarantees for new state bonds. But with the president’s approval rating wilting because of a belief he is spending too much, the Obama-ites slammed the door.

In Sacramento, a Republican blocking force is resisting any new tax revenue. And with the state under a constitutional mandate to balance its budget, yet facing a $24 billion deficit this July, a chainsaw is about to be taken to state government.

Some 38,000 of 168,000 state prisoners may be released. As Barack Obama is pushing universal health insurance, California will cut Medi-Cal for the poor. Education will be slashed, resulting in a shortened school year, thousands of laid-off teachers, school closings and an end to summer programs in a system that has plummeted from the nation’s best to one of its worst, as measured by dropout rates and academic achievement.  The 10 campuses of the University of California face cuts that may result in 50,000 fewer students and 5,000 fewer teachers.

What makes her fiscal crisis relevant to us all is not only that California is our most populous state, with one in eight Americans living there, but California has a gross domestic product larger than Canada’s.

Moreover, the demography of California today is the demography of America tomorrow, just as the social and fiscal policies of California in the last decade mirror those of the U.S. government today.

One-third of all U.S. wage-earners today have been amnestied from paying U.S. income taxes, as the top 1 percent haul fully 40 percent of that huge load. So, too, in California, the well-to-do and the wealthy are hammered, which is why many have quietly closed their businesses, packed and gone back over the mountains whence their fathers came.

3 Part Study on Illegal Immigration

Illegal immigration, Liberal Elites, and Obama

By David Paulin - Part III of III

Ah yes, "breaking up families:" It's a familiar complaint among open-borders liberals. Yet oddly, they never seem to decry anti-family polices in places like Castro's Cuba. It's a regime that's broken up countless families -- either by tossing family members in jail for political reasons, or by even killing them on occasion.

The Times belittles Irving's lower crime statistics, suggesting immigration checks and deportations are mostly rounding up illegals guilty of minor offenses such as identify theft. A closer look at those statistics reveals much about the Times biases and values. As the Times itself notes:

As of early March, of the 4,074 people whose arrest led to their being handed over to immigration officials, 129 had been charged with violent crimes or illegal possession of weapons, and 714 with other types of serious felonies. In addition, 579 had been charged with driving while intoxicated. The other 2,625 had been arrested for lesser offenses; the largest categories were public intoxication and not having a driver's license or insurance.

All in all, the immigration checks are producing some terrific results. Yet the Times portrays Mayor Gears as being a conflicted man for having imposed such a morally problematic policy as immigration checks. "I'm the hero of every redneck in America," the Times quotes him as saying, while noting he speaks only "scant Spanish." It's interesting that the Times used that "redneck" quote in what must have been a lengthy and wide-ranging interview, one filled with lots of good quotes.

You have to wonder how liberal elites at the Times would feel if such problems suddenly visited their neighborhoods -- drunken illegal aliens stumbling about in the street. Driving without a license and insurance. Or contemplating their next violent crime?

Interestingly, the Times notes that many of Irving's "Hispanics" don't vote. Well, so much for their civic engagement values, a hallmark of Americans whose self-reliant European ancestors immigrated to America, learned English and reinvented themselves as Americans. Today, these folks are not hyphenated Americans, as are the Hispanic-Americans to which the Times refers; they're just Americans.

Along similar lines, it's interesting that the Times does not interview one group of Texans in Irving -- Americans of Mexican ancestry whose roots go back for generations in Texas; people who are members of the solid middle-class and who do not reflexively think of themselves as hyphenated Americans. There are plenty of people like that in Texas.

Social Class -- not race

Why do liberal elites at the New York Times find it so much easier to identify with illegal immigrants than with middle-class Americans? Two things obsess them: race and ethnicity; so that's how they define the immigration debate. Accordingly, ordinary Americans upset over illegal Hispanic immigrants must be "racist" and "xenophobic." Indeed, that's how former Mexico president Vincente Fox, during a visit to this country, described Americans opposing illegal immigration from Mexico. Fox got away with that remark until he went head-to-head with Fox's Bill O'Reilly on the national airwaves.

What in fact upsets residents in Irving and other communities are issues revolving around social class, bad behavior, and quality-of-life considerations. Like most Americans, they expect the law to be obeyed. Illegal immigration from Mexico and Central America would be a non-issue if it consisted of an orderly flow of immigrants with middle-class backgrounds; people settling in the country legally and learning to speak English. Asian immigrants have this sort of background, and there is no backlash against them -- and no wonder. Their children do well in school. They Anglicize their names and learn English.

President Obama, for his part, seems determined to give 11 million illegal immigrants, mostly poor and uneducated Hispanics, a path to citizenship. No doubt, he believes this will again demonstrate America's "moral authority" to an audience whose opinions matter to him: anti-Americans elites in Mexico, Europe, and the Third World. And no matter if his immigration plan changes the nation's culture for the worse for ordinary Americans; or at least for ordinary Americans who don't holler and applaud at Sunday church services when their minister yells, "God damn America!"

On his recent visit to Mexico, President Obama spent much time hobnobbing with that country's elites. He also should talk with ordinary middle-class people in Latin America, outside of Mexico, to get their opinion on illegal immigration. Most have no sympathy for gate-crashing Mexicans and other illegal Hispanic immigrants.

The President will have no trouble finding these folks who are solidly middle-class. They form long lines starting early in the morning outside the gates of U.S. Embassies across Latin America. They're eyes are pensive as they clutch carefully prepared applications for visas and work permits. They wait patently in the hot sun. Most will be disappointed by the decision of the Embassy official behind the glass window. But those whom I've met vow to try their luck again some other day.

To them, America is about more than economic opportunities and social programs. They admire America's culture: believe it's a place with a rule of law that applies to everybody, whether you're Kenneth Lay or Martha Stewart. And they believe it's a place in which ordinary people obey little social courtesies, like going to the back of a line at a bank, rather than bribing a security guard to let them go to the front; that's how it's done in parts of Latin America I've visited.

In America, you stop your car at a red light, even when no cops are around; that's the sort of civic culture that foreigners admire who are from dysfunctional countries without a civic culture. Accordingly, gate-crashing Mexicans who are deported get little sympathy from them.

The impact of uncontrolled immigration, especially from Mexico, promoted the late Harvard political scientist Samuel P. Huntington to pose a troubling question:

"Will the United States remain a country with a single national language and a core Anglo-Protestant culture? By ignoring this question, Americans acquiesce to their eventual transformation into two peoples with two cultures (Anglo and Hispanic) and two languages (English and Spanish)."