FURLOUGHED FED EMPLOYEE SUPPORTS SHUTDOWN & BORDER WALL (HOW MANY MORE?)

FURLOUGHED FEDERAL EMPLOYEE BOLDLY SUPPORTS SHUTDOWN & BORDER WALL:

HOW MANY MORE DO?

WHY IS CONGRESS ALLOWING SHUTDOWN TO DRAG ON?

IS THIS SHUTDOWN REALLY ABOUT THE WALL?

OR IS IT SECRETLY ABOUT “DRAINING THE SWAMP” & CONTROLLING WASTE, FRAUD AND ABUSE OF GOVT MONEY?

IS THIS SHUTDOWN SECRETLY BEING USED BY CONGRESS TO LEGALLY GET RID OF LONG TERM FEDERAL GOVT EMPLOYEES OVER THE AGE OF 60??

OR IS IT ABOUT NATIONAL SECURITY?

INQUIRING MINDS OF AMERICAN VOTERS WANT TO KNOW THE TRUTH.


Post Sources: Fox News, WJLA, YouTube


**** Furloughed federal employee says she supports Trump's push for a border wall


Several times during the partial government shutdown, President Donald Trump has claimed that federal workers are on his side.

Now, we’re hearing from one of those workers.

“I’m very strongly behind it, yes,” Amanda Schimone said. “I just believe in what we are doing. I believe in the President’s policies and Secretary Nielsen’s policies, and supporting the border patrol agents.”

Schimone spent 26 years in the U.S. Air Force before retiring in 2012. Now, she works at the Department of Homeland Security’s federal law enforcement training center in Cheltenham, Maryland.

“We train all the federal agents, through all the different agencies. Not just DHS, but FBI, the state department, that kind of thing,” she said.

Despite the fact that’s she been furloughed since the shutdown began, Schimone says she supports the border wall on behalf of her colleagues who patrol the border every single day.

“If you had a tool that would help you do your job better and to be able to have border security – they’re my coworkers – I don’t know them personally, but if they say that’s what they need to do their job, than I support them 100 percent,” she said.

Schimone’s husband also works for the federal government, but is not impacted by the partial government shutdown. She says they’re relying on his income plus a pension she gets from the U.S. Air Force to pay their bills while her DHS paychecks are on hold.

“We’ve put away money, we have a financial planner, we’ve been really cognizant of doing that,” she said. “My credit card bills, they’re just getting the minimum payment right now.”

Still, she knows there are a lot of federal employees who are struggling financially due as the shutdown drags on.

“I do have for empathy for them. I do understand that some people live paycheck to paycheck,” she said.

She also understands that a lot of people may not like her perspective on the government shutdown. And she says that’s okay.

“I don’t judge people,” she said. “They have a right to their opinion, and I have a right to mine.”

At the very least, she hopes people will listen to what she has to say.

“Do I like being furloughed? No. But I understand and I support them,” she said. “I realize America is where people really want to be, but I think there’s a right way to come into our country, and not illegally. And so that’s one of the reasons why I do support the border wall.”

She hopes the president and Congress can soon agree on funding for the wall, and get the government back open.

“Maybe negotiate the amount that President Trump wants or some type of other immigration policies, but it sure would be nice if they would try to work together,” she said. “No negotiations makes me feel like they don’t care about the Department of Homeland Security.”

TEXAS IMMIGRANTS DEATHS DUE TO SANCTUARY CITIES (JAMES BRADLEY TARGETED)

TEXAS IMMIGRANTS DEATHS DUE TO SANCTUARY CITIES:

TRUCKER JAMES MATTHEW BRADLEY JR (BLACK MAN) SAID HE DIDN'T KNOW MEXICAN IMMIGRANTS WERE IN THE TRUCK.

SANCTUARY CITIES ARE INDEED TO BLAME FOR THIS TRAGEDY.

I BELIEVE MR BRADLEY WAS TARGETED & TRICKED BECAUSE HE NEEDED MONEY TO PAY BILLS.

SOME IMMIGRANTS DON'T WANT TO PAY TAXES OR REGISTER AS LEGAL CITIZENS SO THEY ARRIVE ILLEGALLY.

THIS IS WHY STATES SHOULD COOPERATE WITH FEDS AND ICE AS IT RELATES TO LEGALIZING IMMIGRANTS.


Sources: The Blaze, CNN, Fox News


****** 10 Illegal Aliens Are Dead Because of Sanctuary Cities, Says Texas Lt. Governor


Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick put the blame for the deaths of 10 illegal aliens packed in the back of an 18-wheeler on sanctuary cities.

“[Sunday’s] tragedy is why I made passing Senate Bill 4 to ban sanctuary cities — which is now law — a top priority,” the Republican Lt. Governor posted on Facebook. “Sanctuary cities entice people to believe they can come to America and Texas and live outside the law. Sanctuary cities also enable human smugglers and cartels.”

Initially, eight people lost their lives from exposure to the heat and lack of water after human smugglers left 39 people locked in the back of a refrigerated trailer with a failed air conditioner. The death toll rose to nine later on Sunday and then to 10 early Monday.

“[T]hese people paid a terrible price and demonstrate why we need a secure border and legal immigration reform so we can control who enters our country,” Patrick wrote. “We continue to pray for the families and friends of the victims.”

Officials identified the driver of the truck as 60-year-old James Mathew Bradley, Breitbart Texas reported. He is a resident of Clearwater, Florida, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas. He is due in court Monday to face charges that will likely include murder and human smuggling.

Walmart employees became aware of the people being trapped in the trailer after one of the aliens approached them and asked for water. Police arrived at the scene shortly after midnight Sunday morning. At least 29 fire rescue units responded and two AirLIFE helicopters assisted in transporting the most critically ill patients.

Surveillance cameras showed a number of automobiles coming to pick up individuals in the trailer. Authorities suspect a human smuggling operation was underway.

Medical teams transported nearly two dozen people to local hospitals, including two 15-year-old males. All of the deceased illegal aliens are reported to be adult males.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION NUMBERS GREATLY REDUCED THANKS TO TRUMP'S BORDER CONTROL POLICIES (WHERE'S THE MSM?)

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION NUMBERS GREATLY REDUCED THANKS TO TRUMP'S BORDER CONTROL POLICIES (WHERE'S THE MSM?)

ANOTHER TRUMP CAMPAIGN PROMISE FULFILLED.

WHY WON'T MSM REPORT ON THIS POSITIVE NEWS?


Sources: The Blaze, Fox News, Youtube


****** New illegal immigration numbers reveal Trump’s incredible impact on the border


One of President Donald Trump’s central (and most controversial) campaign promises was to shut down the flow of immigrants illegally crossing into the United States, especially from Mexico.

Newly released figures show Trump appears to be making good on his promise.

An analysis by the Daily Caller News Foundation found that from February through May in 2016, 188,000 people were caught attempting to illegally enter the United States from Mexico.

During the same period in 2017, only 76,000 were captured or deemed inadmissible, a decline of 59 percent.

In May alone, the number caught in 2017 was less than half (19,967) that recorded in 2016 (55,442), a truly remarkable turnaround considering Trump’s much-talked-about border wall has still yet to be financed by Congress.

“They’ve done more than any administration in the history of the world,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton told the Daily Caller.

“So, I’m pretty happy that they’ve done so much in such a short period of time so it would really be difficult for me to criticize them on that issue because there’s no comparison with any other administration as far as how quickly and effectively they’ve approached the problem on many different fronts,” Paxton also said.

In May, Ronald Vitiello, the chief of the U.S. Border Patrol, told a Senate Judiciary subcommittee the decline is due to Trump’s January executive orders mandating a shift in policy and resources on the border.

“As a result of the executive orders issued by the president, and the implementing policies issued by the secretary, as well as earlier policy changes and the significant investments we have made in border-enforcement personnel, technology, and infrastructure, we are seeing a historic shift in illegal crossings along the southwest border,” Vitiello said, according to the Washington Examiner.

MS-13 GANG VIOLENCE INCREASED UNDER OBAMA LIKE ISIL (BORDER PATROL)

MS-13 GANG VIOLENCE INCREASED UNDER OBAMA LIKE ISIL:

MS-13 GANG MEMBERS CONSIST MAINLY OF LATINO ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS.

UNDER OBAMA MEDIA ONLY FOCUSED ON BLACK GANG VIOLENCE.

US TROOPS SHOULD PATROL TEXAS-MEXICO BORDERS.

TIME FOR GOP & DEMS TO UNITE AGAINST ALL GANG VIOLENCE.


Sources: Fox News, CBS, Business Insider, YouTube


***** How MS-13, One of America’s Most Dangerous Gangs, is Funded


President Donald Trump is ready to crack down on the infamous, money-making MS-13 gang, after a violent quadruple homicide in Long Island, N.Y. last week left four teenagers dead and badly beaten. Trump is promising to remove the gang from U.S. streets “fast.”


MS-13, a group that was started by Central American immigrants in Los Angeles in the 1980s, is known for its ruthless and violent tactics. Most of the founding members were from El Salvador and fled to the U.S. during the country’s civil war that lasted 12 years, from 1980-92. Since then the gang’s membership has ballooned to at least 10,000 members in the United States and more than 30,000 worldwide, according to the FBI and Treasury Department.

“[MS-13] is one of the most dangerous and rapidly expanding criminal gangs in the world today,” Philip Holloway, a legal analyst and former police officer, told FOX Business. “MS-13’s mottos is ‘Mata, roba, viola, controla’ (Kill, steal, rape, control),” he noted.

The gang has managed to expand its business tentacles into a variety of illegal activities, despite sanctions levied against the group by the U.S Treasury Department under the Obama administration. “They are involved in multiple crimes including murder, racketeering, drug trafficking, sex trafficking and human trafficking including prostitution,” Holloway said.

MS-13 also uses violence as a means for extortion, which constitutes much of its income, University of Houston sociology professor Luis Salinas told FOX Business.

“A lot of the violence is part of the extortion … and prostitution. Once they get here they get these individuals and extort money from their families. They’re also into extortion for protection of this neighborhood or that neighborhood,” Salinas said.

In 2015 the U.S. Treasury Department froze the assets of three members of the gang who were funneling funds back to higher-ups in El Salvador from prison. These actions were an attempt “disrupt” MS-13’s financial network by cutting off profits from illegal activities in the United States, the Treasury Department said. In 2012 the Obama administration designated MS-13 a transnational crime organization and implemented sanctions against six members in 2013.

While the U.S. government attempts to target MS-13’s earnings, targeting its culture is proving more difficult. The fierce loyalty among members is unique, Ron Hosko, former assistant director of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division, told FOX Business.

“They're very cohesive and often directed by imprisoned bosses in El Salvador to recruit and expand in American communities. That tends to mean there's an aggressive internal enforcement mechanism which equates to internal discipline involving physical violence and murder for disrespect or betrayal,” he said.

Membership in street gangs showed no signs of decreasing, according to the FBI’s 2015 National Gang Report, and MS-13 was identified as one of the top gangs involved in cross-border crimes. Recently, law enforcement has taken a tougher stance on making arrests; a move spurred by Attorney General Jeff Session’s focus on illegal immigrant crime, Hosko said.

“MS is a clear example [of illegal immigrant crime]. Affiliates would cross the border and make their way to American enclaves where they found friends and relatives living here already,” he said. “Citizenship is a combination of American born (many to illegals) and illegal immigrants.”

Salinas said about 60-70 percent of current U.S. members in MS-13 are immigrants, the majority of which could be illegal.

On Tuesday during an interview on Fox News, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he believes the gang “could qualify” as a terrorist group. In El Salvador, MS-13 has already been designated as a terrorist organization.

Hosko said President Trump’s administration is changing the narrative quickly for both gang members and law enforcement in the United States.

“[The FBI] believed that claiming of ‘credible fear’ of persecution, gang retaliation, other bad acts in their homeland to immigration authorities likely resulted in widespread release of bad actors into the U.S. as their claims were being evaluated. With Obama, that was acceptable risk. I think that's changing fast.”

.

TRUMP'S IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT NEEDS CONGRESS ' SUPPORT SAYS DHS KELLY

"TRUMP'S ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT NEEDS CONGRESSIONAL SUPPORT" SAYS DHS CHIEF JOHN KELLY:

I CONCUR.


Sources: AJC, CNN, YouTube


***** Homeland Security chief says Congress should “shut up and support” Trump efforts to slow illegal immigration


After almost three months of stepped up enforcement under President Donald Trump, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said Tuesday that new efforts to stem the flow of illegal immigration into the United States are quickly paying off, as he said lawmakers in Congress who don’t like the enforcement changes by the Trump Administration should change the laws, or “shut up.”

If lawmakers do not the laws that we enforce, that we are charged to enforce, that we are sworn to enforce, then they should have the courage and the skill to change those laws,” Kelly said in a speech at George Washington University.

“Otherwise,” Kelly said of lawmakers, “they should shut up and support the men and women on the front lines.”

In his speech, Kelly cited figures that show a steep drop in the number of people trying to ilegally cross the southern border of the United States.

“March apprehensions were 30 percent lower than February, and 64 percent lower than this time last year,” Kelly said in a speech at George Washington University in D.C.

“These numbers are lower because we’ve shown we are serious about border security, and enforcing our immigration laws,” the DHS chief.

Kelly noted a large drop in the number of families trying to make the crossing into the United States.

“While more than 16,000 family units were apprehended at the border in December, only 1100 were apprehended in March,” Kelly told his audience.

“This is a phenomenal drop in movement,” Kelly said.

SANCTUARY CITIES WORSE THAN OBAMACARE (RACISM & CRIME)

***** SANCTUARY CITIES WORSE THAN OBAMACARE:

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS SHOULD BECOME LEGAL CITIZENS VIA APPLICATION PROCESS

SANCTUARY CITIES PRACTICE RACISM BASED ON WHERE IMMIGRANTS ARE FROM.

WHY ARE DEMOCRATS FIGHTING AGAINST LEGALIZING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS?


Sanctuary cities practice racism and division based on where immigrants are from.

Since legalizing illegal immigrants makes it legal for them to remain on American soil without fear of being deported, why are Democrats fighting against the US Constitution and the Trump admin on this hotbed political issue?

Is it because most illegal immigrants vote DEMOCRAT in general elections??


Sources: Breitbart, Fox News, Washington Post, YouTube


****** Robert Barnes: Can Trump Legally Stop Sanctuary Cities?
Yes. Remember Brown v. Board of Education


Over 100 jurisdictions, from Manhattanto Malibu, refuse to assist federal law enforcement in their immigration law enforcement duties, especially as to criminal aliens arrested for crimes here in the United States but released before federal law enforcement can detain and deport.

These governments labeled themselves “sanctuary” cities, but a better label would be secessionist cities.

Two means of redress and remedy exist: first, the current path, of defunding sanctuary cities, a path much more legally perilous, but well-founded in the same doctrine that integrated American society; and second, an alternative, complimentary path of funding law-abiding cities with aid to enforce immigration law, an indubitably and indisputably legal remedy.

The legal argument the “sanctuary” cities rely upon bears merit, but they misuse and abuse the doctrine behind it. The “anti-commandeering” doctrine found one of its most articulate voices in Justice Scalia.

The doctrine best distilled is this: “even where Congress has the authority under the Constitution to pass laws requiring or prohibiting certain acts, it lacks the power directly to compel the States to require or prohibit those acts.” The feds cannot shift enforcement to local government. That same doctrine makes the current path of defunding sanctuary cities a legally rocky road, especially in the current judiciary environment.

The Supreme Court made clear in two prior precedents the federal government cannot coerce states into acting as conscripted agents of federal law enforcement. When properly used, this anti-conscription doctrine is mostly a good thing, foreclosing the federalization of local life and municipal governments. When abused, it invites secessionist thinking. That is where a seminal precedent from the Second Circuit gives direction to support Sessions and Trump against the secessionist cities.

The seminal case supporting Sessions and Trump arises from the Second Circuit in enforcing comparable provisions of federal law passed by Clinton and Gingrich. Federal law then prohibited state and local governmental entities or officials from directly restricting the voluntary exchange of immigration information between local and federal officials. The statute Sessions cited and Trump relied upon for his executive order confers the same power: it only prohibits state and local governments from precluding voluntary participation in immigration enforcement, an area uniquely vested in the federal branches of power.

As the statute states:

"Notwithstanding any other provision of Federal, State, or local law, a Federal, State, or local government entity or official may not prohibit, or in any way restrict, any government entity or official from sending to, or receiving from, the Immigration and Naturalization Service information regarding the citizenship or immigration status, lawful or unlawful, of any individual.”

Where did the Second Circuit look for precluding lawless, secessionist minded municipal government going rogue against appropriate federal law and respect of federal elections?

Brown v. Board of Education, the most famous and celebrated case in Supreme Court history.

As the Second Circuit properly summarized: the sanctuary city argument “asks us to turn the Tenth Amendment’s shield against the federal government’s using state and local government to enact and administer federal programs into a sword allowing states and localities to engage in passive resistance that frustrate federal programs,” including those programs of unique federal provenance and priority, such as immigration.

Such actions could cause federal programs to “fail or fall short of their goals,” force the federal government to “restore to legal processes in every routine or trivial matter,” and invite “a refusal by local government to cooperate until a court order to do so.”

As the Second Circuit further noted:

"A system of dual sovereignties cannot work without informed, extensive and cooperative interaction of a voluntary nature between sovereign systems for the mutual benefit of each system. The operation of dual sovereigns thus involves mutual dependencies” that can hardly survive as separate, antagonistic sovereigns.

“Without the Constitution, each sovereign could, to a free, hold the other hostage by selectively withholding voluntary cooperations as to a particular program.” That is why the Supremacy Clause “bars states from taking actions that frustrate federal laws” in those areas of law the Constitution empowers the federal branches of government, like immigration.

As the Second Circuit concluded almost two decades ago in undisturbed law:

"states do not retain under the Tenth Amendment an untrammeled right to forbid all voluntary cooperation by state or local officials with particular federal programs.”

This opens the door to a complimentary, alternative option: formally funding cities, counties, and states that assist with enforcement of immigration laws against criminal and potentially dangerous aliens, a power all courts recognize Congress and the President enjoy.

This parallel strategy employs the carrot rather than the stick, but avoids the traps of the deep state allies and their secessionist city friends in the federal courts, much as federal funding of integrated schools acted as a deterrent to less-funded segregated classrooms.

Let liberty ring?

Let the laws be enforced to safeguard those whose liberty the law protects in the first place: the citizens of the United States.

Enrique Peña Nieto Calls Arizona's Immigration Law "Discriminatory", Seeks New Debate On Drug War

Mexican President-Elect Tells Fareed Zakaria: Solution To AZ Law Is Fixing Mexican Economy

Mexican President-Elect Enrique Peña Nieto spoke to CNN’s Fareed Zakaria this week for an interview airing tomorrow, and in a preview released today, Peña Nieto reacts to our Supreme Court upholding parts of Arizona’s controversial SB-1070 law.

While calling the law “discriminatory,” he acknowledged that the solution was making immigration “a decision and not a necessity for Mexicans.”

Zakaria asked Peña Nieto to respond to the Arizona law and explain how, as president of Mexico, his administration would address the immigration problem, particularly the criminal side of it.

He called the law “discriminatory” and argued that said laws “do not recognize the contribution and the value of millions of immigrants” to the American economy.

He added, however, that as President of Mexico, “I understand that Mexico must facilitate conditions for greater economic development through structural reforms, treasury reform, labor reform… in order to generate jobs and great opportunities in our culture.”

The bottom line for him was to make “immigration a decision and not a necessity for Mexicans.”





Mexico's Peña Nieto calls for 'new debate' on the drug war

Mexico's Enrique Peña Nieto called for a "new debate" on the drug war and said the United States must play an important role in that discussion.

The presumptive president-elect spoke this week to Fareed Zakaria in an interviewing airing on this week's "Fareed Zakaria GPS."

"Yes, I do believe we should open up a new debate regarding how to wage war on drug trafficking. Personally, I'm not in favor of legalizing drugs. I'm not persuaded by that as an argument.

However, let's open up a new debate, a review, in which the U.S. plays a fundamental role in conducting this review," said Peña Nieto.

More than 47,500 people have died in drug-related violence since Felipe Calderon, Mexico's current president, made combating cartels a top priority when he took office in 2006.

Peña Nieto has pledged to focus more on reducing violence and less on catching cartel leaders and blocking drugs from reaching the United States.

"What we seek now in our new strategy is to adjust what's been done up until now. It's not a radical change.

It's to broaden the coverage and above all, the emphasis I aspire to of reducing the violence in our country," he told Zakaria.

"I'm persuaded that if we achieve the specialization in the work carried out by the various branches of the federal police and the inspector general's office, waging war on impunity will allow us to combat crime," he said.

The presumptive president-elect also weighed in on Arizona's immigration law, which allows police to check a person's immigration status while enforcing other laws if "reasonable suspicion" exists that the person is in the United States illegally.

The controversial provision was recently upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

It struck down other parts of the law.

"Clearly, it seems to me that these are discriminatory laws that don't recognize the contribution and the value of millions of immigrants, particularly from my country, who make enormous contributions to the United States' economic development.

It's clear to me that Mexico must facilitate conditions for greater economic development through structural reforms, energy reforms, treasury reform, labor reform, in order to generate jobs and greater opportunities in my country, so that immigration is a decision and not a necessity for Mexicans," he said.

An official tally of returns Friday confirmed Peña Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, as the winner of Mexico's presidential election.

But until the country's electoral tribunal ratifies the results - and challenges are virtually assured - he remains the presumptive president-elect.

Peña Nieto's closest rival, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, has vowed to challenge the results, accusing the PRI of vote-buying, and said that he would take his complaints through the legal system.

The federal electoral tribunal, known as TRIFE, will begin to accept complaints Monday of voting irregularities.

The tribunal will have until September 6 to complete its investigation and ratify - or reverse - the official election results.

The new president will be sworn in December 1.





Police in Arizona arrest 20, dismantle drug trafficking cell of Sinaloa Cartel

Authorities in Tempe, Arizona, dismantled a drug trafficking cell associated with Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel, arresting 20 people and seizing three tons of marijuana, 30 pounds of methamphetamine and $2.4 million in cash, police said.

A six-month investigation by Tempe police and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency also concluded with the seizure of an airplane, 10 vehicles and 14 firearms, police said Friday.

The cartel delivered illegal drugs in Tempe and branched out to customers in New York, Alabama, California and other states, police said.

"This operation demonstrated a collaborative effort by state and federal law enforcement agencies," Tempe Chief of Police Tom Ryff said in a statement.

The drug trafficking "stretched across the Mexico border and into Arizona and beyond," said Doug Coleman, special agent in charge of the DEA's Phoenix office.

The Sinaloa Cartel is one of Mexico's most powerful drug-trafficking groups, and cartel leader Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera is widely known as Mexico's most-wanted fugitive.

Forbes magazine has placed him on its list of the world's most powerful people, reporting his net worth at $1 billion as of March.


View Larger Map


Sources: CNN, Mediaite, Google Maps

Border Patrol Racism: Canada vs Mexico

Does 'secure the border' mean 'keep America white'?

In case you plan to see Wednesday's GOP debate, allow me to offer up some crib notes so you don't get lost.

First, when you hear the candidates talk about "job creators," that's just another way of saying "rich people" or "the guy bankrolling my super Pac."

When someone says "family values," that's to remind the audience that they don't like gay people; "religious freedom" means "Christianity"; and it's not really a GOP debate until a candidate attacks the "liberal media" for asking questions they're too afraid to answer.

Now there will be plenty of other buzz words and euphemisms that will be tossed around during the debate, but since it is being held in Arizona, chances are the most popular phrase will be "secure the border."

We must secure the border.

The candidates will argue that it's a matter of national security.

That it isn't just the friendly illegal immigrants looking for work we must worry about, but terrorists, drug lords and other criminals who seek to make their way through our porous border.

They will say if they were president they would build walls, add troops, even commission a Death Star to keep this country safe.

Newt Gingrich has promised to build a double fence along the entire southern border, adding, ""The United States must control its border.

It is a national security imperative,"
Ron Paul said "If elected president, I would move to quickly end foreign nation building efforts and use many of the resources we waste playing world's policemen to control our southern border."

They all will receive applause, and it will all sound great ... until you realize that "secure the border" is slang for "keep the Mexicans out."

Oh boy, here comes the black guy playing the race card again.

Yep, that's me -- pointing out that the Canadian border is largely ignored in this dialogue despite being more than twice the size of the Mexican border and less than 1% secure, according to a 2011 report by the Government Accountability Office.

Even if we were to disregard the 1,538 miles between Alaska and Canada, the 3,987 mile border connecting the lower 48 to our neighbors up north is still much larger than the 1,933-mile stretch that connects us to Mexico.

And yet the attention we give the northern border is miniscule at best when compared to the resources we allocate to the south. There are definitely reasons for serious concern about safety along the Mexican border, but according to our own intelligence, Mexico should hardly be our only concern.

You would think presidential hopefuls genuinely concerned about our safety would remember that just four years ago, Michael Chertoff, President Bush's Homeland Security secretary, said he was more afraid of terrorists coming into the country from Canada than Mexico and that his department arrested more people connected to al Qaeda and Hezbollah trying to come in from up north than down south.

This is not to perpetuate the myth that the September 11 terrorists came through Canada or defame our northern neighbors. But rather to point out the glaring disconnect between some of the crowd-pleasing rhetoric the GOP candidates like to deliver about "securing the border" and the more nuanced reality.

For example, did you know reports show that from 2007 to 2009, the amount of marijuana seized at the Canadian border jumped 22% and that Homeland Security has seen a sharp increase in the trafficking of more dangerous drugs such as heroin, cocaine and ecstasy?

Yes, there are drug tunnels along the southern border, but the Drug Enforcement Administration also found a 360-foot drug tunnel from a hut in Canada to a house in the state of Washington as well.

We know an estimated 350,000 people trying to come in through Mexico in 2011 were stopped. We also know that number is down from the 447,731 arrests made in 2010 and that is significantly less than the 1,643,679 people stopped in 2000.

What we don't know is how many people are illegally trying to get in from Canada, because less than 1% of the world's largest border is secure.

Conversely, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the Mexican border is as secure as it has ever been, adding, "It is clear from every measure we currently have that this approach is working." Still, judging from the tone of the immigration talk so far in this campaign, no one debating in Arizona on Wednesday really seems to care about either point.
Why?
Last year a group of senators had to petition the Obama administration for military assistance to catch the drug traffickers who were using low-flying planes to move their products from Canada into the United States. Ten years after 9/11 and we still had undetected aircraft crossing the border because it wasn't the border we're scared of.
You know, this whole immigration discussion would be a lot more productive if the people leading it would be more honest and stop pretending as if it's only about national security. It's a part, but the larger truth is that nonwhite people will be the majority in this country by 2040 and this browning of America scares the hell out of a lot of people, particularly some white people.

The thinking goes that if the country can deport the Mexicans who are illegally here and stop new ones from coming in, maybe that trend will slow down or even reverse.

That sentiment is at the core of the racial profiling laws started in Arizona and is at the core of the entire illegal immigration conversation. It's a clumsy attempt to talk about race without mentioning race so as not to appear racist .

But the dialogue is transparent because if it was really about "securing the border," the facts suggest Canada would be a big part of the conversation and not just an afterthought.





The Canadian Border vs the Mexican Border. WHITE Illegals vs Brown Illegals.

100% of GOP Politicians campaign on keeping the Border Safe from Mexican Illegals.
Well What about Canadian Illegals?

So its okay for WHITE People to enter America Illegally but NOT okay for People of Color to enter America Illegally?

I’m just asking.


View Larger Map


Sources: CNN, Youtube, Google Maps

Antonio Ezequiel Cardenas Guillen's Death Angers Cartel; Sparks Retaliation

Gunfire Exchanged Near U.S.-Mexico Border After Cartel Leader Is Killed

Gunman and security forces exchanged fire near the U.S.-Mexico border Saturday, one day after a top leader of the Gulf drug cartel was killed, the Mexican state news agency reported.

Authorities in Reynosa, which is across the border from McAllen, Texas, were telling people to avoid road travel, Notimex reported. It also warned of shootouts between gunman and security forces there.

The trouble came one day after Antonio Ezequiel Cardenas Guillen, known as "Tony Tormenta" or "Tony the Storm," was killed in Matamoros, a city to the east of Reynosa.

Cardenas, 48, was a top leader of one of Mexico's major drug-trafficking operations, and the U.S. State Department had been offering a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture.

Saturday, U.S. President Barack Obama called his counterpart in Mexico to express his support for Felipe Calderon's efforts to "end the impunity of organized criminal groups," the White House said in a statement. Obama also reportedly offered his condolences on the death of the Mexican officials who died during the operation.

Naval troops were met with grenades and assault-weapon fire when they approached Cardenas' hideout in the center of the city around 3:30 p.m. Friday (5:30 p.m. ET), the Mexican navy said.

Four other suspected members of the cartel were also killed in the operation, which ended about 5:30 p.m. (7:30 p.m. ET) the navy said. Three naval officers were killed and four others were injured, authorities said.

"Today was another significant step in the destruction of criminal organizations that have done so much to damage the people of this country," said Alejandro Poire, security spokesman for the Mexican government, soon after Friday's clash.

The Gulf cartel is one of Mexico's major drug-trafficking organizations. It is based in Matamoros, which is across the border from Brownsville, Texas. It is also strong in Reynosa.

Both cities are located in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, which has become a bloody battleground between the Zetas and the Gulf Cartel. The Zetas used to be the armed branch of the Gulf Cartel but split off into a separate drug-trafficking organization earlier this year.

Cardenas allegedly began his drug trafficking career during the late 1980s, rose through the ranks of the Gulf cartel and was eventually given control over the Matamoros-Brownsville corridor, the U.S. State Department said. In that role, he has been responsible for shipments of marijuana and cocaine across the border, according to the State Department.

He has been indicted several times by U.S. federal authorities for alleged drug trafficking crimes, including directing drug shipments by boats, planes and cars from Colombia and Venezuela to Guatemala, Mexico and Texas, according to a statement from the U.S. Justice Department last year.

Friday's operation came after more than six months of intelligence gathering, the Mexican navy said. The four others suspected cartel members killed Friday were "part of the circle of protection closest to 'Tony Tormenta,'" the navy said.

The University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College canceled classes through Saturday and said it would rework several weekend events "because of gunfire taking place across the Rio Grande."

Most of the students and faculty members have gone home, said Letty Fernandez, a university spokeswoman. The campus is about half a mile from the U.S.-Mexico border.

More than 28,000 people have died in drug-related violence since Calderon intensified the government's fight against cartels and organized crime after taking office in 2006, according to government figures.

Authorities have scored a string of important wins against drug cartels recently.

In September, officials arrested Sergio Villarreal, known to Mexican officials as "El Grande," an alleged top leader of the Beltran Leyva cartel. His capture came soon after the August arrest of American-born "La Barbie," or Edgar Valdez, thought to be one of Mexico's most ruthless drug traffickers.




Mexico Drug Lord Death May Aid Zeta Cartel's Rise


Rival gunmen blocked roads near the U.S. border and strung up threatening banners on Saturday after marines killed one of Mexico's top kingpins, and Washington reaffirmed its support for the country's drug war.

Gunmen used buses and trucks to block roads in Reynosa, a Gulf cartel stronghold across the border from McAllen, Texas, and west of Matamoros, where marines on Friday shot dead gang leader Ezequiel "Tony Tormenta" Cardenas, or "Tony the Storm."

In an apparent riposte from rivals, gunmen from the Zetas gang hung messages between trees and over bridges in Reynosa and in cities across northeastern Tamaulipas state, mocking Cardenas' death. "Once again, the Gulf traitors' destiny is evident ... there's no place for them, not even in hell," read one banner that was signed, "Sincerely, the Zetas Unit."

The signs, quickly taken down by authorities, reinforced fears that the death of alleged Cardenas will further empower the Zetas, a gang of hit men formed more than a decade ago by renegade Mexican soldiers. It has become one of Mexico's most brutal and feared drug gangs.

Former allies of the Gulf cartel, the Zetas went independent earlier this year, unleashing a turf battle along the northeastern border with the United States that has at times reached the level of all-out war.

Support From U.S.

President Barack Obama called Mexican leader Felipe Calderon on Saturday "to reaffirm United States support for Mexico's efforts to end the impunity of organized criminal groups," the White House said in a statement. Obama also expressed his condolences for the Mexican troops and the reporter killed in the shootouts, according to a White House statement.

More than 31,000 people have been killed across Mexico since December 2006, when Calderon took office and launched his cartel crackdown. The government is under increasing pressure to contain the burgeoning death toll.

Soldiers and federal police across the region quickly broke up the roadblocks in Reynosa and took down the banners. But many residents were still wary of revenge attacks.

Veracruz Public Safety Secretary Sergio Lopez said authorities were not yet sure who put up the poorly written and obscure messages, and could not confirm that they were a reaction to the death of Cardenas Guillen.

Francisco Alor, the attorney general of the Caribbean state of Quintana Roo, said several banners appeared in the resort city of Cancun and he expressed concern that violence in the region could spike.

"We have to prevent any surge (in violence) that the others could generate as they move to control territory amid the power vacuum," Alor told The Associated Press, referring to the Zetas.

Fighting broke out between gunmen and soldiers in Reynosa, and two assailants died on Saturday, newspaper El Norte said.

Some people ventured out on the streets of Matamoros on Saturday, walking past buildings with fresh bullet holes from Friday's gunfights. But the U.S. consulate was closed and its weekend visa services were postponed until further notice.

The Matamoros newspaper El Expreso said on its website that reporter Carlos Guajardo was killed covering one of the shootouts. Local news media reported Guajardo was leaving the area of the clash when his car was hit by gunfire more than 20 times.

Tamaulipas has witnessed some of Mexico's most shocking drug war violence this year, including the murder of a popular gubernatorial candidate — Mexico's highest-level political murder in 16 years — the massacre of 72 migrant workers, bombs hidden in cars and slain youths strung from bridges.

"It's a huge relief to know that Tony Tormenta has been eliminated, his gangsters were everywhere. But we're still worried because they'll find another boss, and who knows what the Zetas will do," said a supermarket worker in Reynosa who gave his name as Oscar.

Another Mayor Slain

Underscoring the widespread nature of the violence, the mayor of a town in the northwestern state of Durango was beaten to death by masked gunmen on Friday, state prosecutors said.

San Bernardo Mayor Jaime Lozoya, who had just taken office and was driving along a highway with aides and his daughter when he was attacked, was one of at least 18 mayors killed in Mexico since 2008. His predecessor fled the town last year after receiving threats from drug gangs.

Gulf kingpin Cardenas' was the fourth top drug baron to be killed or captured in Mexico since December of last year in a string of coups for Calderon's army-led drug war. But beheadings, shootouts and the deaths of innocent bystanders have overshadowed those successes as the war rages.

Cardenas, 48, was the brother of former Gulf cartel leader Osiel Cardenas, who was extradited to Texas in 2007. Known as "Tony Tormenta" or Tony Storm, he had a $5 million bounty on his head in the United States and ran the gang with Jorge Eduardo Costilla, known as "El Coss," who is still at large.

The Gulf cartel, which also has cells across the United States, is pitted against the Zetas across northeastern Mexico. That violence has spread to Mexico's richest city Monterrey, killing an unprecedented 720 people in and around the industrial hub near the Texan border, worrying Washington and investors with factories exporting to the United States.

Zetas Ascending

Drug war experts warned that the Zetas will strengthen as the Gulf cartel weakens.

"Yes, it's another major blow to the one of the most significant Mexican drug cartels," Gary Hale, who retired this year as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and founded the Grupo Savant consulting firm, said of Cardenas Guillen's death.

"But it also bodes an ominous future for the war-weary civilians living in the northeastern part of Mexico," he said in an analysis sent to AP. "The ensuing chaos brought on by the loss of Gulf Cartel leadership will give operational, political and psychological strength to the Zetas."

Even before their split from the Gulf cartel, the Zetas started growing into a powerful gang in their own right. Their reach extends into Central America, where authorities have dismantled Zetas training camps, and their illegal activity ranges from drug trafficking to migrant smuggling, kidnapping and extortion.

Hale warned that the Zetas, in their push to assert dominance over northeastern Mexico, are likely to increase "their traditional organized crime activities such as extortion of businesses of all sorts, kidnappings for ransom, an increase in taxation ... for drugs crossing into the U.S. from Mexico."


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David Michael Hartley's Death: Cartel Murder Or Conspiracy?

New Blood Evidence Found In Lake Pirate Attack


Zapata County's sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez has told CBS News he has blood evidence from the lifevest of Tiffany Hartley, the wife of David Hartley, that supports her account of a pirate attack on a lake that straddles the Texas-Mexico border.

CBS News correspondent Don Teague reported on "The Early Show" this evidence is in addition to witness testimony that supports Tiffany Hartley's story that her husband was shot in the head by pirates on Mexico side of Falcon Lake.

David Hartley is presumed dead, and officials on both the U.S. and Mexican sides of the lake are searching for his body.

Gonzalez told Teague he believes the Hartleys were attacked by enforcers of the Zeta drug cartel. The Hartleys, Gonzalez says, were innocent victims of a bloody drug war.

Escorted by heavily armed federal agents, CBS News took a boat ride to the border with Gonzales Thursday.

Gonzalez said, "There are problems along the border. Whether you admit it or not there are problems and it's spillover violence."

The sheriff's objectives were to show that the American side of Falcon Lake is safe, and to deliver a message to the drug cartel that controls the water, and land beyond the border.

Gonzalez said, "What I've told them is, 'I need a body. Give me a body, guys, and everything will go away. Give a body guys and the news media will go away.'"

Gonzales fears the same cartel enforcers who killed David have permanently hidden his body.

He said, "The body has been disposed of. They have it somewhere they've gotten rid of the body so there's no evidence."

But that's not something Tiffany Hartley is ready to accept, and says she's only now beginning to grieve.

Tiffany Hartley said, "At certain times there's points where you do feel like this is it. I'm never gonna see him again. He's gone. And then at other points he's gonna be walking through that door."

Doubt has been cast on Tiffany Hartley's story by Mexico officials, but she told CNN recently she would take a lie detector test if people continue to doubt her account of the attack.

Teague added on "The Early Show" that search for David Hartley's body in cartel-controlled waters is so dangerous for Mexican authorities, they had to briefly suspend searching for a time on Wednesday. He added, the good news, there has been no report of any actual violence against searchers and the search was back on Thursday and expected to begin again Friday.

On "The Early Show" Congressman Ted Poe, (R-Texas), who has been involved extensively in this case as well as ongoing border issues, said he has requested from the State Department that Americans search the Mexican side.

He said, "The Mexican government said yes, then backed off and said, 'No, we don't want the Americans over here.' We need to use the American resources that we have, because that area of the lake is controlled by the Zetas, there is an island on that lake where the Zetas really operate, the drug cartels. If we mean business about trying to recover David Hartley's body we need American involvement and the Mexican government needs to be relentless to find it. They are intimidated now, they really won't go near the area where the Zetas operate."

"Early Show" co-anchor Harry Smith said, "We need to stop and pause a second because even the Mexican authorities themselves are clearly not in control. It's the drug cartel that is in control because…the Mexican authorities backed away when they were threatened."

Poe agreed, saying, "That area of Falcon Lake on the Mexican side, all the way to the American edge of the water is controlled by the Zeta cartels. They bring those drugs into the United States, usually at night by high-speed boats, and they operate -- that is their operation -- and the Mexican government hasn't been able to stop them, won't stop them, refuses to or cannot, whatever the situation is, and they control that area. The government, neither government, controls that area, the drug cartels. And we're being held really hostage by the drug cartels on that area of the lake."

Smith added that while there has been some doubt cast on Tiffany Hartley's story, this is not the only reported incident of violence on this lake.

Poe replied, "American fishermen, fishing both on the American side of the lake and on the Mexican side of the lake -- you can get a permit to do that -- have been robbed by pirates on the lake, some of them have been taken to the Mexican side, stripped of all of their clothing and their valuables and their boat and left stranded there. This is the fifth time since May there's been some type of violence -- but the first homicide."

Poe said he'd like to see the United States to have more involvement in the search.

"The United States needs to use our resources, the Coast Guard. That needs to be operating on the lake at all times, not just this time," he said. "We have been very lax, in my opinion, as a nation, of protecting the entire southern border of the United States, including Falcon Lake.

We don't protect it. We wait for something to happen, and then we just sit back, as a nation, and wait for someone else to react.

We need to cooperate, need better cooperation with the Mexican government, but need to have really the military presence on the southern border, and that includes putting the National Guard throughout the border, including the Air National Guard, if we are serious about protecting Americans and American property, and keeping the drug cartels out of the United States."





Mexico Authorities Intensifies Search For Missing American



Mexican authorities have bolstered their search for a missing U.S. citizen and the government rejects assertions that security forces aren't doing enough to find him, the foreign ministry said Friday.

David Michael Hartley has been missing since a reported pirate attack September 30 on a lake bisected by the U.S.-Mexico border.

Hartley's wife, Tiffany, told authorities her husband was shot and killed by pirates on Falcon Lake during a sightseeing trip. His body has yet to be found, leading to questions about the accuracy of her statements.

The ministry said the federal attorney general's office opened an investigation based on testimony Tiffany Hartley gave to Mexican authorities at the consulate in McAllen, Texas. The government also has been in close touch with several U.S. authorities.

"The search and rescue for Mr. Hartley started the day of the incident, and intensified this week with additional officers from the Army, the Federal Police, and from state and municipal forces, which cover the area where the incident reportedly took place," the ministry said.

On Thursday, Tiffany Hartley said she might take a lie detector test if people continue to doubt the veracity of her account.

If "that's what the authorities think I need to do, then that might be an option," she said when asked on CNN's "AC 360" about taking a lie detector test.

Hartley was on several CNN shows Thursday recounting what happened last week on Falcon Lake. She also talked about her feelings about people doubting her account of the alleged attack.

Hartley said on HLN's "Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell" that "I know what I know."

"It's hard being judged and thought of that I might have done something to him," she said.

But she added, "As long as I know the truth, God knows the truth. And other than that, it almost doesn't really matter to me, because I know what happened that day."

Mexican authorities said earlier this week that they could not verify the shooting, and Hartley was asked point-blank on NBC's "Today" show Wednesday whether she had anything to do with her husband's disappearance.

Pam Hartley, David Hartley's mother, said Tuesday that any suggestion that her daughter-in-law's account was inaccurate is "insane."

Investigators have found some evidence that backs up Hartley's account, including blood on her life vest, Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez Jr. said Thursday. And the incident was similar to other attacks reported by boaters on Falcon Lake, about 70 miles west of the Hartley's home in McAllen.

Gonzalez has said the gunmen are typically teenagers hired by a drug cartel in the neighboring Mexican state of Tamaulipas. Mexican authorities have said the lake is controlled on their side by "organized criminals," and the sheriff called on the Zeta cartel to turn over Hartley's remains if they have them.

"We just want a body," he said.

Tiffany Hartley said she believes the attackers took her 30-year-old husband's body after he was shot in the head and fell off the personal watercraft he was riding. She said she suspects her husband's remains are more likely to have been dragged onto land than to have been left in the lake.

"We do believe if they would just go ahead and give us David's body back, it would be done. It would be concluded. We could go on with our lives," she said.

Authorities from both nations are conducting separate searches and are coordinating and holding regular meetings, State Department spokeswoman Virginia Staab said. But because the alleged crime happened on the Mexican side of the border, the United States cannot prosecute or make arrests in the case, the sheriff said.

Tiffany Hartley, 29, told HLN that the couple set out across the lake on personal watercraft for a sightseeing trip to Guerrero Viejo, a half-submerged ghost town on the Mexican side of the lake. Though there had been warnings about previous robberies on the lake, she said they had heard of no problems for several months, "So we figured everything had kind of calmed down."

Instead, she said, they were pursued by men in three boats as they left the site's historic church.

At first, "they just waved at us like we were friendly, a very friendly wave," she said. But then, as the couple passed, she said they began chasing them and firing shots.

David Hartley was shot in the head and fell off his personal watercraft, and he was unresponsive when she turned back to try to retrieve him, his wife said. While she was trying to haul him onto her craft, their attackers pulled up alongside, she said.

"They didn't say anything to me, so I don't know what they were trying to do ... but they left," she said. "They just left me there. Thankfully they didn't shoot at me. They had a gun pointed at me."

Unable to pull her husband's body out of the water, Hartley headed back across the lake to U.S. waters. She said the gunmen fired "a few more" times on her way back.

"Once I started to get going, I just went as fast as I could and didn't look back until I couldn't see them anymore," she said.

Rolando Flores, lead investigator for the Tamaulipas state police, described the area as "a conflict zone."

The state has made headlines recently as a hotbed for drug cartel violence, and there have been at least four cases of gunmen in Mexican waters robbing or threatening boaters on Falcon Lake since April, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.

David Hartley worked for an oil company in Reynosa, Mexico, and the couple had lived on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande before moving back to the United States earlier this year, family friends said.

His aunt, Alice Harrod, told HLN's "Prime News" the family had concerns about their safety in the area, "and we were all thrilled to hear that they were moving back to Colorado," where they grew up.

"We're all very devastated. It's hard to even believe something like this could happen. We're hanging in there, but it's very, very difficult for the whole family," Harrod said.

According to Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, 60 Mexican personnel, three boats and a helicopter have taken part in the search.

Investigators resumed their work Thursday despite threats to their lives, and Cuellar suggested that the Mexican navy might need to be called in to help.

Despite the dangers on the Mexican side of the lake, Texas officials on Thursday said that the U.S. side of the body of water remains safe.

"It is just as safe now as any other time. However, there is a threat," said Rep. Ruben Hinojosa, D-Texas.


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Darth Vader Spoof Of John McCain's "Complete The Danged Fence" Video

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"Complete The Danged Fence" John McCain's New Ads

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Americans Are Divided Over Arizona's New Immigration Law (Polls)

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U.S. Split Over Ariz. Immigration Law


Michael Clausen owns the Quality Inn in Nogales, Ariz.

For now.

Clausen says the hotel, which caters to people streaming across the Mexican border just seven blocks away, is in danger of closing, thanks to the state’s new illegal immigration law and the official and unofficial boycotts it has inspired.

The Sunday night after Gov. Jan Brewer signed the law on April 23, “we had three rooms occupied out of 97 in the hotel,” Clausen said. At the border, there was virtually no line to get into the country, he said. Usually, the wait is 1½ to two hours.

“It just fell through the floor,” he said. “People stopped crossing the border.”

The nearby Tubac Golf Resort & Spa, built 50 years ago by Bing Crosby, saw more than $300,000 of business vanish in just a week as customers canceled reservations.

“They feel badly they have to pull out,” said Linda Cormier, the resort’s general manager. “But they are feeling strongly about the boycott.”

The Arizona law has sharply divided political figures across the country.

On Wednesday, Los Angeles became the largest city yet to boycott Arizona in a move that will likely affect some $8 million in contracts to the state.

Elected leaders in dozens of other cities — from San Francisco to St. Paul, Minn., and Boston to Boulder, Colo. — have called for boycotts of the state.

At the same time, polls show significant support for laws like it, and lawmakers have introduced similar measures, or have announced plans to do so, in at least 12 other states.

Boycotts could have real effects

The backlash began as soon as Brewer signed the measure, which requires law enforcement officers to check someone’s immigration status if they have reason to suspect that he or she is in the country illegally. It is scheduled to take effect in July.

The city councils of Tucson and Flagstaff voted to challenge the law in court, and the mayor of Phoenix, the state’s largest city, joined protests against it.

Earlier this month, Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., called for a national boycott of his own state. Such boycotts are not just symbolic: They typically trigger reviews of contracts with Arizona businesses and ban municipal employees from traveling to the state on official business.

Industry and activist groups also weighed in, promising to cancel lucrative conventions and other public events. Alpha Phi Alpha, the nation’s largest black fraternity, switched its national convention in July from Phoenix to Las Vegas, at an estimated cost of $300,000 in penalties, while the American Immigration Lawyers Association voted to move its fall conference to another state.

Other groups announcing boycotts included the Service Employees International Union, representing 2.2. million workers; the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, representing 1.3 million workers; and the National Council of La Raza, the nation’s largest Latino activist organization.

The baseball players union pointedly noted that half of Major League Baseball’s teams conduct spring training in Arizona and called for the law to be repealed (Commissioner Bud Selig is also under pressure to yank the 2011 All-Star Game out of Phoenix).

And the Republican National Committee came under intense pressure not to choose Phoenix for its 2012 national convention before party leaders selected Tampa, Fla., on Wednesday.

Mexico turns the tables

In what could be the ultimate insult, the Mexican government issued a travel warning to Mexicans “visiting, living or studying in the state of Arizona,” mimicking numerous such advisories the U.S. State Department has issued about traveling to Mexico.

The Mexican government — saying the law “violates inalienable human rights protected by international legal provisions and the U.S. Constitution” — sent officials to meet with U.S. groups challenging the law to coordinate “protection and consular assistance” and to provide legal representation for Mexicans in the state, the Foreign Affairs Ministry confirmed.

It said Mexico would defend the rights of any Mexican nationals in Arizona, “regardless of their immigration status.”

Juan Carlos Escamilla, mayor of San Luis, Ariz., near the Mexican border, said such reactions had paralyzed business and government projects in the state.

San Luis had been set to take part in a business exposition next month in conjunction with the Arizona Mexico Commission, which fosters cooperation between Arizona and its neighbor to the south. But after Brewer signed the immigration law, Mexican officials dropped out, and the events were canceled.

“We feel that relationship we built so many years with our counterparts and our sister cities in Mexico, we’ve lost that, and it’s hurt,” Escamilla said.

Large majorities back law like Arizona’s
Protests against Arizona’s law have been held in various U.S. cities, some of them drawing thousands of people. But the law has also drawn considerable support across the country.

Nearly two-thirds of Americans — 64 percent — approved of the law in an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Wednesday. The measure commanded a strong majority even though roughly the same percentage of respondents said they expected it to lead to discrimination against legal Latino immigrants.

Two other recent surveys, one by CBS News and The Wall Street Journal and the other by the Pew Research Center for the People and Press, mirrored those findings.

Idaho state Sen. Mike Jorgenson, a Republican, said people intuitively understood that illegal immigration diverted taxes and jobs that would otherwise go to U.S. citizens and legal immigrants. That’s why he said he would introduce a measure in his state to crack down on the hiring of illegal immigrants by private businesses.

“Illegal immigration is costing Idaho about $200 million a year in the form of education, crime, actually imprisonment,” Jorgenson argued, citing research by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which seeks to reduce immigration levels. “... What’s it costing our indigent care through counties?”

In Utah, Republican state Reps. Steve Sandstrom and Carl Wimmer said they would introduce a measure similar to the Arizona law, which drew support from 65 percent of state residents in a survey released last week by NBC station KSL-TV and the Deseret News of Salt Lake City.

“The states need to take steps, because illegal immigration has a legitimate impact on individual citizens and the economy,” Wimmer said. “Utah needs to be at the forefront of this discussion.”

Similar measures are in the works in Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas and Michigan, where Republican state Rep. Kim Meltzer said, “We have borders in place for a reason.”

Many hurdles before law takes effect

Back in Arizona, the immigration restrictions are scheduled to take effect in July, but first they must overcome numerous legal challenges. One of them could come from the federal government.

“We are considering all of our options. One of the things we are thinking about is the possibility of filing a lawsuit,” Attorney General Eric Holder said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Beyond the widely cited civil rights concerns, Holder said the law could also be challenged on the grounds of “federal pre-emption,” saying it wasn’t clear that states had the authority to enforce immigration laws.

Janet Napolitano, who as secretary of homeland security oversees U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also said she had “deep concerns with the law from the law enforcement perspective.”

“We think it will siphon and detract from resources that we need to focus on those in the country illegally who are committing the most serious crimes,” Napolitano said.

For Napolitano, the issue is an awkward one. To become President Barack Obama’s homeland security secretary, she resigned as governor of Arizona.

During her tenure, she had vetoed several similar immigration measures.

Her successor was Jan Brewer.


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