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Monday, October 15, 2001

Dateline DATELINE, OCTOBER 14, 2001
JOHN HOCKENBERRY INTERVIEWS
CONGRESSMAN LAMAR SMITH

THE MAN WHO HAD IT RIGHT

 HOCKENBERRY:

In '93, somebody on an expired student visa, drives a truck load of explosives into the garage of the World Trade Center. Isn't that enough to get the law changed for good?

Dot Other recent features

L.A. TIMES FINALLY ADMITS MEXICO IS NOT A FRIENDLY NATION
 ALLIANCES - L.A. TIMES, SUNDAY, OCT. 14th
Mexico, Fair-Weather Friend
By GREGORY RODRIGUEZ
"Historically, Mexican nationalism has taken the form of anti-Americanism. Mexico's defeat at the hands of the U.S. in 1848--which resulted in the loss of half its territory--and other American and European aggressions have nurtured in Mexicans an anti-interventionist and pacifist politics. "

REMEMBER OUR WARNING?
"DOES LOS ANGELES NEED A MAYOR WHO REPORTS TO MEXICO CITY?"
SEE PDF AD
 No wonder the L.A. Times is fighting to keep our case out of court.

Our new video "Conquest of Aztlan" will be shown this coming Wednesday, October 17th
Calif. Republican Assembly - San Diego County - North Coast

Seattle P-I
UW will adopt plan for database on foreign students
The University of Washington will be the first school in the Northwest to provide information to help the government monitor foreign students, following concerns of terrorists using student visas to enter the country. -- Starting next October, the UW will electronically report information -- including names, addresses, academic status and disciplinary actions -- to a national database maintained by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Vote.com poll results on the immigration problem
Note: Poll still active. Go to Vote.com to vote.

Poll

Riverside Press-Enterprise
Inland workers fight English-only rules
When two Hispanic hospital workers joked in Spanish with a Hispanic veteran about his protruding teeth, they touched off debate about an unwritten English- only rule at the VA Medical Center in Loma Linda. -- That day, Oct. 3, 2000, a coworker objected to purchasing agents Dolores Charlton and Mary Ramirez Cloksin speaking Spanish. The bilingual pair was told by administrators that, out of courtesy, they should speak English except on breaks. -- "Take it to the back of the bus? I don't think so!" said Charlton of Highland, comparing black segregation to what she sees an denial of her rights as a Hispanic.		 Des Moines Register
Councilman resisted ethnic licensees
Des Moines City Councilman George Flagg has waged a quiet campaign the past three years against some sellers of alcohol - especially immigrants and others with ethnic-sounding names, a Des Moines Register investigation shows. -- Flagg acknowledged in an interview that he declined to approve licenses for ethnic-named alcohol retailers for several years because he could not be sure they were in the United States legally. -- "If you study carefully, you will find that any number of immigrants have been responsible for murders in our country and in our city," Flagg said.

Allentown Morning Call
Hispanics are keeping English classes full, teachers say
Linda McCrossan says she can't help but laugh whenever she hears someone say Hispanics in the Lehigh Valley don't want to learn English. -- If someone wants to see the real situation, the director of Allentown's Adult Literacy Center says, all they need do is visit one of the dozen English classes the center runs in the city.		 Associated Press
'Smart Card' Technology Gets Second Look
Smart cards, with their embedded computer chips, caught on more quickly among European and Asian credit card holders than Americans, who've seemed reluctant to stop swiping bank cards with low-tech magnetic stripes. -- But in a terror-shaken country where security is now a priority, computer chip cards are gaining favor for a new purpose......

Re: Terrorist cells targeted in California
Say it isn't true! "Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, head of the new California terrorist tracking network" is the line that had me laughing and crying. Good God! The sheriff for whom no border exists, who never saw a forged license, who thinks that a social security card is something you print off for yourself, is going to save the (formerly) American State of California from Terrorists!?

Wall St. Journal
Lawmakers push for better monitoring of foreign visitors
Congress and the administration are pushing to better monitor foreign visitors to the U.S., a tricky process that not long ago had faced stiff political opposition. -- In hearings last week, the Immigration and Naturalization Service said it was optimistic it could quickly put into place a system to track foreign students in the U.S. While such a system still faces technological challenges, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks weakened political resistance.		 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Cash in hand makes Latinos robbery targets
Hispanic day laborers in Forest Park are the latest metro Atlanta Latinos to become victims of armed robberies. -- The immigrant work force is apparently targeted because many cash their paychecks and keep their money on them or at home, police say. In addition to teaching them how to stay safe, officers are telling immigrants where they can deposit their earnings without Social Security numbers. -- Some Latinos simply don't trust banking institutions....

Associated Press
Call made for tighter immigrant controls
...Most of the 19 hijackers entered the United States legally with the kinds of visas routinely granted each year to millions of foreign tourists, students, workers and business travelers. -- Some didn't leave the country when their visas expired. Some may have used phony names. Their success in eluding detection spotlights the plight of immigration officials who are swamped by the flood of visitors and have no real hope of finding violators. 		Washington Times
Terrorist cells targeted in California
San Diego -- California is host to several terrorist cells, say state officials who are trying to ferret out "sleeper" agents from the Mexican border to the San Francisco Bay. -- That effort now centers on San Diego County, where three of the Sept. 11 airline hijackers lived after February 2000. -- Police anti-terrorism units here warned the FBI as early as 1995 of active cells operating in the area. San Diego County at that time had "within its borders, all the significant Middle East terrorist groups" .....

L.A. Times
EPA Blames Emissions From Mexico for Dusty Air in Imperial County
For years, residents of Imperial County have breathed some of the dirtiest air in the nation. In recent years, the incidence of respiratory disease in the county has been more than twice the statewide average, according to the state health department. -- County officials blame the problem on Mexico, prompting a lawsuit last year by an advocacy group, Earthjustice, on behalf of the Sierra Club to force a crackdown on pollution. Last week, in response to the lawsuit, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency echoed the county's argument and declined to require more rigorous pollution control.

H. Millard
Replace the bald eagle with the vulture?
John Wayne doesn't live in California anymore. He's been replaced. No more straight shooting and plain talking. Now, we have a Mexican way of doing things. See a problem? Look the other way. Have a form to fill out? Cheat a little. Taxes to pay? Don't. Just work under the table. Need a special favor from government? Give a bribe in the form of cash or votes. -- Laws mean little. You don't call the police, because they're now a social service agency, and most of the officers are in class to learn Spanish.		 NY Post
U.S. citizen wants to join jihad against America
Isanu Dyson, a fifth-generation American who converted to Islam three years ago, is prepared to join the jihad against the United States, and believes government workers are fair targets. -- The Maine resident, who carries a dagger and 3- foot sword, told The Post it would be "noble" to enlist with the Taliban and fight against American soldiers in Afghanistan. -- "I am a Muslim- American, not an American- Muslim - I have a greater obligation to them than to anybody," he said.

LTE
San Diego
Union-
Tribune
 James O. Goldsborough's column, "Time to take immigration seriously," is the most comprehensive lists of intelligent reforms of our nation's immigration policy. He clearly delineates the current state of our out-of-control immigration and recommends legislation that will correct the problem. If Congress will listen to his sage advice, we may be able to bring our immigration under control. Failure to act on this urgent program, will result in even more acts of terrorism in the future. With over 9 million illegal immigrants now living in our country, even the smallest percentage of potential terrorists, is far too dangerous. -- Byron S. [Note: Unpublished]

Stein Report / FAIR
S.C. Attorney General formally requests Section 133 training
South Carolina Attorney General Charlie Condon sent a request for Section 133 training to U.S. Attorney John Ashcroft today. Condon's request came a week after his announcement that he sought to assist the federal government in immigration enforcement. Section 133 is a part of the 1996 immigration reform law that lets the INS train and deputize local and state law enforcement officers to make immigration arrests...		 N.Y. Times (Free Registration)
Mexican Immigrants Face New Set of Fears
The whole nation has been anxious this past month, but for millions of Mexican immigrants around the country there have been added fears. -- Roundups of illegal immigrants in Colorado and tough enforcement of immigration laws at workplaces in Oregon have led to anguished, and apparently unfounded, concerns that the government is cracking down on Hispanic workers in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Sacramento Bee
Despite law, language still a barrier
On the books since 1973, the Dymally- Alatorre Bilingual Services Act says state and local government offices are required to have enough bilingual public contact personnel for the community they serve. However, two state reports have found that most state departments aren't doing a very good job. Language- access advocates say that without any teeth, the law will never be effective. -- "It is a basic right to be able to access services the government offers," said Sarah Mercer, a legislative analyst for MALDEF. -- Public safety and public health can be threatened when people can't communicate with their government.....		 Washington Post
Attacks Alter Politics, Shift Focus of Immigration Debate
The recent terrorist attacks have radically altered the immigration debate, replacing an agenda of amnesty with proposals to remilitarize U.S. borders, severely limit student visas and increase tracking of foreigners on American soil. -- The economic downturn and declining demand for foreign labor have altered the politics of immigration. And with the legislative calendar cleared for action on airline security, new police powers, economic stimulus and other responses to the Sept. 11 attacks, congressional consideration of many other issues has become unlikely.

Yesterday, Sunday, October 14th, you had an article that quotes Attorney General Ashcroft saying that in the past the government has been securing the length of our border with Mexico. What border with Mexico is he talking about? The border with Mexico I know about, is crossed illegally by thousands of Mexicans every month. I don't think Mr. Ashcroft has a clue on what is going on with illegal immigration. HP -- West Hills, CA

Tucson Citizen
Mexican arrested in huge pot bust
Federal authorities made the largest marijuana seizure in the Naco port of entry's history when 3,078 pounds of the drug were found in a trailer Thursday. -- U.S. Customs Service officials say the street value of the marijuana is more than $3 million. Roger Maier, a Customs spokesman, said an agent noticed some unusual portions of a 1990 Kenworth trailer when he inspected it Thursday. -- The agent eventually found a false wall in the front of the trailer containing 155 packages of marijuana weighing 19-20 pounds each, said Maier, an agency spokesman based in El Paso, Texas.		 Detroit Free Press
BORDER ALERT: Smuggling suspects arrested
Federal authorities working on heightened alert arrested two men suspected of smuggling four illegal immigrants from Windsor to Detroit by boat over the weekend. -- In an unrelated scare, two plastic bags containing bottles filled with a white powdery substance were found floating in the Detroit River near Ecorse. -- After witnessing a boat crossing the border, a Coast Guard crew stopped the vessel near Hart Plaza early Saturday morning and found two men who officials believe were smuggling four people from India into Detroit...

The News - Mexico
Thousands of Dominicans return from U.S. due to attacks
Thousands of Dominicans who reside in the United States and Puerto Rico have moved up their returns to the island, which previously they had scheduled for the Christmas vacation, because they fear more terrorist attacks, immigration authorities reported on Sunday.

James Goldsborough - S.D. Union-Tribune
Time to take immigration seriously
Amnesty for millions of undocumented immigrants is dead following the terrorist attack, or if not dead, barely breathing. President Bush's plan for a new guest workers program, importing thousands of farm workers from Mexico, is in no better shape. -- Perhaps Sept. 11 is enough to make our government serious about this nation's immigration problems, but I wouldn't bet on it. Few of the security measures being considered in the wake of the attack will make sense....		 Detroit News
Crackdown at border crossings threatens flow of goods
The comparatively thin curtain of security that separates Canada from the United States has encouraged the world's most successful bilateral trade. But it now presents the U.S. with one of its most serious vulnerabilities to terrorists. At stake are the free flow of $489 billion a year in autos, parts, energy and other trade, along with jobs and leisure activities that shape the lives of millions of people on each side of the 4,000- mile border.

Let border crossers fix own nation
I have read several times in the Citizen letters written by people who say that we should open our borders to anyone who wants to come in. The thing that bothers me most is that I have not seen many, if any, answers to those letters.

Letter To
The Tucson Citizen

Arizona Daily Star
Mexican job cuts strain border towns
A new border crisis is brewing as thousands of factory workers in Nogales, Sonora, and Agua Prieta, Sonora, are laid off, joining tens of thousands of other jobless people who came here from the interior seeking work. -- The slowing American economy is to blame. Tighter immigration controls, made tighter still in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on America, are keeping the problem bottled up on the Mexican side of the border. But not for long, say economists and community leaders. The impact of shuttered factories and rising poverty and crime is appearing on the Arizona side of the border...		 Washington Times
Border good will evaporates in water dispute
...Mexico and the United States agreed in a 1944 water treaty that the United States would send nearly 1 million acre-feet of water to Mexico from the Colorado River annually and Mexico would reciprocate by sending 350,000 acre-feet to the United States from the Rio Grande River. Every year the United States has delivered its required amount to Mexico. And every year since 1993, Mexico has failed to do so. Mexico now is behind by 1.4 million acre-feet. An acre-foot is enough water to cover an acre to a depth of one foot ...

WorldNetDaily.com / Human Events
Peacetime immigration laws not suitable for wartime
Even though the United States is now in a congressionally authorized war against foreign terrorists who attacked American soil, from American soil, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives is refusing to give the Justice Department unilateral power to detain foreigners, illegally in the United States, who are suspected of involvement in terrorism. -- Meanwhile, a spokesman for the INS confirmed a statement made to Human Events by Rep. Tom Tancredo that there are more than 250,000 illegal aliens in the U.S. who have already been ordered deported by an immigration judge, but who remain in the U.S. anyway.

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