Last year, officials from the Missouri State Highway Patrol received training from Immigration and Customs Enforcement that gave them the authority to conduct immigration investigations and detain undocumented migrants. Where do local cops get off executing immigration law? Well, in 1996 Congress passed a law with a provision called 287(g) that opened the door for county and state officials to take a class, sign an agreement and essentially become a local arm of ICE.
That program has created a storm of controversy in recent months.
In March, the Government Accountability Office released a study that criticized ICE for not adequately monitoring the program's participants, allowing for potential misuse of immigration authority by local cops and sheriffs. That came on the heels of a number of other studies, including one from the University of North Carolina, and lawsuits, like one filed by the ACLU in Arizona, that allege the program imperils civil rights and encourages racial profiling.
Enter the U.S. House Judiciary Committee.
Last week, it convened a hearing on the contentious 287(g) program. When the list of witnesses came out, it was no surprise that Kris Kobach, a strong proponent of local governments getting into immigration enforcement, was on his way to Washington, D.C. But the Southern Poverty Law Center wrote a scathing letter to the committee chair, trying to bar the University of Missouri-Kansas City law professor from testifying.
The letter from the SPLC, an Alabama-based non-profit that
monitors hate groups, went like this:
Dear Chairman Conyers:
It has come to our attention that Kris Kobach has
been invited to participate as a panel witness for the Joint Hearing on the
Local Enforcement of Immigration Laws... We respectfully request that the
committee reconsider the invitation.
While Mr. Kobach is listed as a law professor at the
University of Missouri, Kansas City, School of Law, we believe members also
should be aware that he is the senior counsel for the Immigration Reform Law
Institute (IRLI), the legal arm of the Federation for American Immigration Reform
(FAIR). To date, FAIR and IRLI have paid Mr. Kobach $125,000 to serve as IRLI
legal counsel.
FAIR is listed as a hate group by the Southern
Poverty Law Center... Among the reasons are its acceptance of $1.2 million from
the Pioneer Fund, a group founded to promote
the genes of white colonials that funds studies of race, intelligence and
genetics. FAIR has hired as key officials men who also joined white supremacist
groups. It has board members who write regularly for hate publications. It
promotes racist conspiracy theories about Latino immigrants. It has produced
television programming featuring white nationalists. And John Tanton, the man who founded the
group in 1979, has a long personal history of associating with white
nationalists... In 2004, FAIR donated $10,000 to Kris Kobach's congressional
campaign in Kansas...
For all of these reasons, the Center for New
Community and the Southern Poverty Law Center are deeply disappointed that the
committee is seeking the testimony of Mr. Kobach, and urge that the invitation
be rescinded.
Sincerely,
Mark Potok
Southern Poverty Law Center
All the issues raised have been aired before, but I was
interested to hear Kobach's response to being called out in front of Congress. In
an e-mail, the law professor told me that the letter was "a defamatory smear"
that simply re-splattered the mud flung during his 2004 run against Congressman
Dennis Moore and wrongly implied he was being paid by FAIR to provide
testimony. He added that he's testified before Congress eight times, without
any such accusations from the SPLC.
"It was an obvious attempt to discredit what I was saying on
this specific occasion, because I was the only expert witness that the
Republican minority was allowed to present (versus three expert witnesses for
the Democrats), and I had produced hard facts and statistics supporting the
Section 287(g) program," Kobach said in the e-mail. "The opponents of Section 287(g)
did not have any alternative statistics or empirical data to offer, so they
chose to attack me personally and engage in slander instead."
Despite some initial controversy and tongue lashing from
Democratic representatives -- that our sister paper in Phoenix wrote about here -- Kobach
was given the go-ahead to testify. He emphasized that the 287(g) agreements
allow local officials to address terrorism concerns, deal with violent gangs
made up of illegal immigrants and restore balance to areas with high levels of
undocumented workers. He said the program is so useful that 67 jurisdictions
have completed the certification.
"Currently there are an estimated 12 million illegal aliens
in the United States, but 5,600 special agents in ICE," he testified. "Most
major cities have more police officers than that. New York City alone has approximately
37,000 police officers. The 951 state, county and local officers that assist
ICE through Section 287(g) -- even if only part-time in that capacity -- provide a
massive amount of assistance to ICE."
In the year after the state of Florida executed its agreement in 2002,
the trained officers made 165 immigration arrests, he noted. Kobach also held up Maricopa
County -- a hotbed of immigration controversy thanks to its notorious sheriff,
Joe Arpaio -- as an example of the
program's success.
"Thousands of illegal aliens have self-deported out of
Arizona," he testified. "That progress would not have been as great without
Maricopa County's Section 287(g) program. It clearly demonstrated that when
federal, state and county units of government cooperate, illegal immigration
can be dramatically reduced."
He also hit the House members where it hurts most: the
unemployment rate.
"This Congress has done much in an attempt to create jobs
one or two years in the future," he testified. "Removing unauthorized alien
employees from the United States creates jobs for U.S. citizens the very next
day."
To do the hearing justice, read the full report from Phoenix
New Times' Feathered Bastard.
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Reading this article really makes you think, I am very interested to read more of your blog.
its just too bad the native americans didnt have a immigration policy. maybe you racist would not be here!
Someone needs to do something about getting these illegal aliens out of the US. I am tired of paying my hard earned money to support them. I recently found that a illegal was using my SS# and had been for a lon time. Now I have the burden to get this straightened out. From my understanding there is many, many illegals using REAL AMERICANs SS#. Everyone needs to do a check and see if someone else is employed with thier SS#. SOMETHING NEEDS TO BE DONE THIS IS WAY TO OUT OF HAND!!!!!!!
A short search on the internet will expose
the SPLC for the Useful Fools they are,
claiming to find hate speech under
every bed while backing Anti American
and ethnocentric advocates.Follow the
money and where they get it!
Mark Potok and the fundraising mob known as the SPLC have no credibility whatsoever. The SPLC uses fear tactics and outright lies to garner contributions as well as to discredit people and groups the radical lefty kooks disagree with. See the YouTube clip below to see what a liar and a scumbag Potok is. Note that the first part of the clip from the Lou Dobbs Tonight show is concerning the NAU. The second part has to do with sleazeball Potok and the SPLC.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
COME TO AMERICA! Taxpayers WILL Support you?
Whatever the issues are, such as health care, education or even a overloaded prison system. Nothing has more effect on the culture, language, and momentum of our economy than ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION Politicians see the American taxpayer as the "Beast of Burden" None are more malevolent than Sen. Harry Reid, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Dianne Feinstein and a multitude of other officials, who only have big business dividends at heart.
How many more illegal aliens with their families are taxpayers expected to support? The media, along with the government have chanted monotonously for years, that only 13 million have settled here. But the Heritage Foundation have analyzed it's more like 40 million? Then who are we inclined to believe? I think the latter of the two and with that, what costs are estimated taxpayers fork out annually. The Heritage Foundation has issued many reports on costs for settling illegal and legal immigrants and the news it's not good? The critics will argue that illegal aliens pay taxes, state and federal--but millions more are happily accommodated by criminal employers who pay directly into the hand. Then what about the billions that leave this country every year by Western Union wire transfer, that never ends up in the nations coffers. Remember we have an encumbrance of illegal aliens stealing jobs in "Sanctuary Cities" But then we have Sanctuary states like California. Then guess what state nearly collapsed with bankruptcy imminent? They had to raise the highest taxes in the nation, to cover the $47. billion dollars, so they could support all the illegal alien welfare payouts. Seeing nobody is telling the Public the straight facts, we should use Census tracking to locate and deport all illegal foreign nationals? E-Verify should be made--PERMANENT--Not just for new employees, but those already hired.
America according to statistics from reputable websites takes in 1.5 million new--LEGAL IMMIGRANTS--a year. That's more immigration than any other country in the world.
Here is just a few who have compromised the E-Verify, but others who are have influenced the "Rule of Law." is Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.). who should have never voted in to office. He runs with the subversive groups like La Raza, Mecha and a contagious following of anti-sovereignty lunatics. It should be noted that the FBI states, that America has the highest concentration of illegal alien felons incarcerated. Georgia is now pondering to make drivers licenses only available to people, who comprehend English. One only has to study the growing incident rate of DUI's on the website AMERICAN PATROL, to realize the scope of the death caused by foreign nationals on the highways and the violence in our streets. Illegal gang members have become the epitome of hideous murders in Sanctuary cities and states and a breeding ground for other felons. Home invasion robberies, car jacking and just plain kidnapping and assaults, rapes and child pederasts, was never on such a grand scale since the intentional ignorance of our lawmakers--to cease and desist--arresting and detaining illegal immigrants. Such is a violation of the law in Sanctuary cities. With pro-illegal alien Mayors such as Antonio Villegriossa, Gavin Newson in California only in the well lit areas will ordinary Americans venture on to the streets, Ever since1950's England opened immigration to colonists under crown rule, people stay in their homes at night, because of the inception of muggings and much more pronounced criminal activity. If President Obama is motivated to unleash another AMNESTY. That condemns American taxpayers to paying for the chain migration of every family member who is sponsored. That means the IRS will have to--EVEN MORE MONEY FROM TAXPAYERS--because the senile, handicapped and the large family of brothers, sisters, grandmothers, grandfathers will not be exempt. It will not matter if they never paid into Social Security, because they can still collect SSI, (Supplemental Security Income) and in addition get taxpayer low income housing and other public assistance.
Reid-Akaka-Inouye-Begich-Bennet-Udall-Bingaman-Udall-Boxer-Feinstein-Brown-Burris-Durbin-Byrd-Rockefeller-Cantwell-Murray-Cardin-Mikulski-
Carper-Kaufman-Casey-Conrad-Dorgan-Dodd-Lieberman-Feingold-Kohl-Gillibrand-Schumer-Harkin-Johnson-Kerry-Landrieu-Shaheen-Leahy-Sanders-
Levin-Stabenow-Lincoln-Pryor-Menendez-Lautenberg-Merkley-Wyden-Nelson-Reed-Whitehouse-Reid-Warner and Lady Pelosi. Xavier Becerra, Luis Gutierrez, Jon Kyl, Jeff Flake could also used their influence. We need E.Verify as a permanent tool in immigration enforcement.
Then we have E-verify that was stripped from the Stimulus/Omnibus spending bills. Then we have some pro-illegal immigrant states charging taxpayers to underwrite the in-state, higher education of illegal alien students. Course by now--we know the left wingers, open border brain-dead zealots, are pushing President Obama, to enact another Amnesty, to enact the Dream Act and rescind E-Verify, Real ID Act---and then to purgatory for US workers. They even curtailed the employer letter that notified them that their worker didn't match the Social Security Number given. It is no wonder these liberal Socialists have lambasted any chance of a Federal ID card? Because the numbers would be staggering who who would be identified as an illegal foregn national. If they can overrule the US Constitution, they can sure ignore the en masse, discharging millions more impoverished people for the taxpayers wallets--AND NOT THE PREDATORY BUSINESSES THAT HIRE THEM Remember who--THE PEOPLES--Arch-Enemies are? US Chamber of Commerce, ACLU and K Street lobbyists and radical ethnocentralist groups who think we should have wide open borders.
The bottom line is that the survival of America depends on the "Rule of Law" that was specified by the framers of our nation. Not from the corruption of our overseers, who think--WE--are fodder for their corporate sponsorship. In this year of Democratic leadership, I see radical change coming. Some good like the monolithic problem of Universal health care, for all the legal population, which will make life easier for every Joe in the streets. The critics can say what they will, but before my step-daughter passed away from Cancer the insurance companies were unrelenting, non-compassionate diarrhea. Whose only objective was to extort as much money from my family, to relieve the so called hardship of their stockholders. copiously rich they are still trying to get their "pound of Flesh" from my ex-spouse. In Fausts--Devine Comedy--the tortures in purgatory is to good for them. Including in this miasma of a stench should be equal appearances of the majority of our politicians in Washington. Of course their are many honest, hard working exceptions to the rule. But the many have sold their soul, for thirty pieces of Silver to the highest bidder, which in most cases is big business, who care nothing but the most profit accessed from the US taxpayer. We must all keep phoning Washington at: 202-224-3121; The President: 202-456-1414: The truth about the plague of illegal immigration, can be found at NUMBERSUSA. JUDICIAL WATCH, CAPSWEB.
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