tagged w/ Illegal Immigration
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On the most recent episode of "Vanguard," correspondent Mariana van Zeller meets two of the 12 million immigrants living in the United States illegally.
What did you think of "This (Illegal) American Life"? Do you think that young people whose parents brought them to the U.S. illegally should be able to become citizens? What about adults who cross the border in order to find temporary work and send money home to their families?
If you have any questions for Mariana or producers Jeff Plunkett or Darren Foster, leave them in comments and we'll do our best to get them answered.
If you're watching "Vanguard" and tweeting, please use #WatchingVanguard -- we'll be gathering the best reactions for a post-premiere blog.On the most recent episode of "Vanguard," correspondent Mariana van Zeller... more
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an age-old problem with an age-old shrug of shoulders.
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I understand why he is telling his secret but the political climate now towards illegals I'm hoping it works out for him. Brave Man
(AP)
WASHINGTON — A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who covered the Virginia Tech massacre for the Washington Post went public Wednesday with a secret he says he has been keeping for nearly two decades: He is an illegal immigrant.
Jose Antonio Vargas, whose mother sent him from the Philippines to live with his grandparents in California when he was 12, says that now he wants to push Congress to pass a bill called the DREAM Act that would allow people like him to become citizens.
"I'm done running. I'm exhausted," Vargas wrote in a New York Times Magazine essay posted online Wednesday. "I don't want that life anymore."
Vargas' New York Times magazine essay
Vargas referred a request for comment from The Associated Press to his public relations team, which did not immediately make him available Wednesday. He also spoke to ABC News in interviews that will air Thursday and Friday.
He says he didn't know about his citizenship status until four years after he arrived in the U.S., when he applied for a driver's permit and handed a clerk his green card.
"This is fake," a Department of Motor Vehicles clerk said, according to Vargas' account. "Don't come back here again."
Vargas confronted his grandfather, who acknowledged he purchased the green card and other fake documents.
"I remember the very first instinct was, OK, that's it, get rid of the accent," Vargas told ABC. "Because I just thought to myself, you know, I couldn't give anybody any reason to ever doubt that I'm an American."
He convinced himself that if he worked hard enough and achieved enough, he would be rewarded with citizenship, Vargas wrote in the magazine piece.
His grandfather imagined the fake documents would help Vargas get low-wage jobs. College seemed out of reach, until Vargas told Mountain View High School Principal Pat Hyland and school district Superintendent Rich Fisher about his problem. They became mentors and surrogate parents, eventually finding a scholarship fund for high-achieving students that allowed him to attend San Francisco State University.
Vargas was hired for internships at The San Francisco Chronicle and the Philadelphia Daily News. He was denied an internship at The Seattle Times because he didn't have all the documents they required. But he kept applying and got an offer from The Washington Post.
The newspaper required a driver's license, so Vargas said his network of mentors helped him get one from Oregon, which has less stringent requirements than some other states.
Once hired full-time at the Post, he used the fake license to cover Washington events, including a state dinner at the White House, Vargas recalled.
He wrote that he was nearly paralyzed with anxiety that his secret would be found out at the Post. He tried to avoid reporting on immigration policy, but at times, it was impossible. At one point, he wrote about then-Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's position on driver's licenses for illegal immigrants.
Vargas eventually told his mentor, Peter Perl, now the newspaper's training director. Perl told him that once he had accomplished more, they would tell then-Editor Leonard Downie Jr. and Post Chairman Don Graham together. They kept the secret until Vargas left the paper.
On Wednesday, Washington Post spokeswoman Kris Coratti condemned their actions.
"What Jose did was wrong. What Peter did was wrong," Coratti said, declining to comment further on personnel matters. "We are also reviewing our internal procedures, and we believe this was an isolated incident of deception."
An e-mail seeking comment was sent to Perl.
Vargas shared a Pulitzer Prize for the Post's coverage of the Virginia Tech shootings. A 2006 series he wrote on the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Washington inspired a documentary film. Last year, he wrote a profile of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg for The New Yorker.
Most recently, he was a senior contributing editor at Huffington Post. He said he left after less than a year and was worried professionally about a looming deadline: the expiration of his 8-year-old Oregon driver's license.
Just before he turned 30 this year, Vargas said he obtained a Washington state driver's license, which would have given him a five-year reprieve — and meant five more years of lying. He said he couldn't deal with that.
"In my heart, I'm an American," Vargas told ABC. "I am one of many, many people, and we are not who you think we are. We don't just mow your lawns and babysit your kids and serve you tacos. ... We do a really good job doing that, but we do other things, and we are a part of this society."
On Wednesday, Vargas launched a campaign called Define American to use stories of immigrants like himself to urge Congress and the Obama administration to pursue immigration reform. His high school principal and superintendent have signed on as board members.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/06/22/national/main20073449.shtmlI understand why he is telling his secret but the political climate now towards... more
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When provisions of Georgia's House Bill 87 will take effect:
July 1
Local and state police will be empowered to arrest illegal immigrants and take them to state and federal jails.
People who use fake identification to get a job in Georgia could face up to 15 years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines.
People who -- while committing another crime -- knowingly transport or harbor illegal immigrants or encourage them to come to Georgia could face penalties. First-time offenders would face imprisonment for up to 12 months and up to $1,000 in fines.
A seven-member Immigration Enforcement Review Board would be established to investigate complaints about local and state government officials not enforcing state immigration-related laws.
Government officials who violate state laws requiring cities, counties and state government agencies to use E-Verify could face fines of up to $10,000 and removal from office.
The state Agriculture Department will be directed to study the possibility of creating Georgia's own guest-worker program. Some Georgia employers have complained the federal government's guest-worker program is too burdensome and expensive.
Jan. 1
State and local government agencies must start requiring people applying for public benefits -- such as food stamps, housing assistance and business licenses -- to provide at least one “secure and verifiable” document, which could be a state or federally issued form of identification. Consular matriculation cards will not be accepted. The state attorney general’s office is required to post a list of acceptable documents on its website by Aug. 1.
Phased in:
Georgia businesses will be required to use the federal E-Verify program to determine whether their new hires are eligible to work legally in the United States. Businesses with 500 or more employees must start complying with this provision on Jan. 1. Businesses with 100 or more employees but fewer than 500 must start complying with this provision on July 1, 2012. This requirement applies to businesses with between 11 and 99 employees starting July 1, 2013. Businesses with 10 or fewer employees are exempt.When provisions of Georgia's House Bill 87 will take effect:
July 1
Local... more
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GILA BEND, Ariz. – Two Border Patrol agents rushing to help capture some suspected illegal immigrants were killed Thursday when their SUV entered a marked railroad crossing and was struck by a freight train.
The crash happened in a rural farming area near Interstate 8 and the town of Gila Bend, about 85 miles southwest of Phoenix.
The agents — Eduardo Rojas Jr. and Hector Clark — were trying to position themselves on a road north of some other agents who were trying to capture a group of suspected illegal immigrants, said agent Kenneth Quillin, spokesman for the Border Patrol's Yuma sector.
The suspects were on foot, and none of them have been arrested, Quillin said. "We do see groups (of illegal immigrants) on a regular basis traveling through this area."http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110512/ap_on_re_us/us_train_border_patrol In a related story...(CNN) -- A Mexican man was arraigned in a federal court Friday for the murder last December of a U.S. Border Patrol agent in Arizona, as well as 13 other charges.
U.S. District Court Magistrate Jacqueline Marshall unsealed the indictment against Manuel Osorio-Arellanes at Arellanes' arraignment in Tuscon, Arizona. Besides second-degree murder, charges against Arellanes include three counts of assault of a federal officer and four counts of using a firearm to commit a violent crime, three counts of re-entry of a deported alien and two counts of illegally possessing a firearm. Mexican man arraigned for murder in U.S. border patrol agent's death http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/05/06/arizona.border.agent.killed/GILA BEND, Ariz. – Two Border Patrol agents rushing to help capture some... more
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The new senator's pushing to ban abortion while also restricting birthright citizenship. Ben Adler on the contradictory pulls on the Constitution and the resurgence of Republicans' social issues.
Sometimes new members of Congress take some time to get settled in before proposing legislation.
Not Rand Paul, the new Republican senator from Kentucky. Paul inherited many traits from his father, Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX): Like his dad, Rand is a doctor who entered politics to advance a fiercely held commitment to the family's quirky ideology. (The enthusiastic young volunteers for Ron Paul's 2008 presidential campaign called it "Goldwater conservatism" in reference to Barry Goldwater, the patron saint of the small-government set, not Paul's desire to return to the gold standard. And this week it became apparent that—like his father, who has introduced many quixotic bills such as the Federal Reserve Board Abolition Act—Rand Paul intends to regularly introduce legislation with no realistic chance of passing.
While Paul might be expected to take after his father in this regard, the causes he has taken up have been surprising. Whereas Ron Paul has focused his career on fiscal conservatism and foreign-policy isolationism, Rand Paul is promoting socially conservative positions.
On Monday, Paul announced that he is joining Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) in cosponsoring the Life at Conception Act. The law would declare that a person's life begins at conception. Paul and Wicker reason that if fetuses become legal persons protected under the Constitution's 14th Amendment, which guarantees equal protection under the laws, then it will override the constitutional right to an abortion that the Supreme Court found in Roe v. Wade.
Of course, if fetuses had all the rights of a person, it might lead to interpretations that—ironically, given that Paul campaigned on a strong commitment to privacy and liberty,—would vastly expand government power. For example, if a pregnant woman smokes or drinks alcohol, or simply eats unhealthily, could she face prosecution for reckless endangerment of a child? In any case, Paul confidently predicted that "passage of the Life at Conception Act would reverse Roe v. Wade without the need for a constitutional amendment."
But he is not averse to amending the Constitution when necessary. On Thursday, Paul and Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) introduced a resolution that would amend the Constitution to prevent children born to illegal immigrants from gaining automatic citizenship. Under the current interpretation of the 14th Amendment, which Paul and Vitter oppose, citizenship is given automatically to anyone born on U.S. soil. So Paul wants to expand the 14th Amendment to cover the fertilized embryos of American citizens while restricting it to exclude the babies of illegal immigrants. It's not clear where the fetus in an illegal immigrant's uterus would fit into this equation.
That Paul is focusing on social issues suggests the new crop of Republicans in D.C. may not be any less socially conservative, or any less interested in social issues, than their predecessors.
It's notable that Paul has decided to start his career with multiple pieces of legislation that take a staunchly conservative stance on a contentious social issue. During the 2010 campaign, there was much chatter about how the Tea Party movement was focused on economic and financial issues rather than emphasizing cultural battles like gun control, gay rights, abortion and immigration that played a prominent role in previous Republican campaigns. While some Republican candidates, such as Christine O'Donnell in Delaware, had a long history of promoting social conservatism, Paul was regarded as the epitome of the new GOP. Paul opposes the Patriot Act and the federal war on drugs, which was an electoral liability for him. That Paul is focusing on social issues suggests the new crop of Republicans in D.C. may not be any less socially conservative, or any less interested in social issues, than their predecessors.
Or maybe it's just a sign that the traditionalist wing of the GOP is resurgent and will be getting more attention in the months ahead. Some major conservative institutions like the Family Research Council and the Heritage Foundation are boycotting the upcoming Conservative Political Action Conference to protest the inclusion of GOProud, a gay organization. Several potential 2012 Republican candidates, including Ron Paul, are expected to speak at CPAC. It will be interesting to see how much time they devote to social issues.The new senator's pushing to ban abortion while also restricting birthright... more
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With news coming from the major media outlets that Ron Paul of Texas has the best chance of defeating President Barack Obama in 2012, it is not surprising that his back is now a canvas for painting a multitude of targets.
One of the groups taking aim at Congressman Paul is the immigration policy lobby, NumbersUSA. NumbersUSA is an organization devoted to legislatively reducing the allowed level of annual immigration to pre-1965 levels, without country of origin quotas that were created by the Immigration Act of 1924.
The NumbersUSA article describes Dr. Paul’s record on immigration as “mixed,” obviously intending that designation as an indictment of the Texas congressman.
In the group’s 2012 Presidential Hopefuls Immigration Stances Report Card, Ron Paul was awarded a failing grade: an F. He was previously given a more respectable (though below average) C- and likely would have seen his marks improve were it not for Representative Paul’s “latest comments on immigration” and that they display “not just some ad hoc thoughts tossed off carelessly at some speaking event. These are engraved in a brand new book.”
The book wherein Dr. Paul lays out the details of his “mixed” immigration philosophy is entitled Liberty Defined: 50 Essential Issues that Affect Our Freedom.” In the chapter on immigration, Paul begins by describing the “ideal libertarian world,” wherein “borders would be blurred and open.”
In his inimitable fashion, Dr. Paul then goes on to provide a nuanced realpolitik analysis of the issue that apparently went unread by the NumbersUSA crew.
For example, in the explanation of his position on immigration, legal and illegal, Dr. Paul admits that the creation of a perfect libertarian world is impossible in a country such as the United States where the government has created a welfare state that is forced by government-initiated cycles of recession and recovery to abide by rules and regulations that otherwise would be unnecessary and unqualifiedly unconstitutional.
The nation’s resentment of illegal immigrants and their presence in our country stems from two reasons according to Paul: First, there is the “government-mandated free services” that citizens decry when they are afforded to illegals; second, there is the “government-created unemployment crisis” that leads out-of-work Americans to rightly regard employed illegals as a threat to the economic well-being of citizens and those who came to this country through the proper channels.
Full Article: http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/immigration/7393-anti-illegal-immigration-group-awards-an-qfq-to-ron-paulWith news coming from the major media outlets that Ron Paul of Texas has the best... more
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Arizona seeks online donations to complete border fence...The goal is to use online donations and prison labor to build a beefed-up border fence, according to the New York Daily News. Donors may be given certificates declaring they helped build the wall.
Supporters will have the ability to donate their money as soon as lawmakers launch the online fundraising campaign, according to an Associated Press story. Last month, Gov. Jan Brewer signed legislation that gives the state the green light to launch a website to raise money for the fence work, according to news reports.
Arizona state Sen. Steve Smith, R-Maricopa, sponsored the bill.
"We're going to build this site as fast as we can, and promote it, and market the heck out of it," Smith told the Associated Press.
About 650 miles of fencing already exists along the U.S.-Mexico border. A good portion of that fencing is in Arizona – a gateway for people seeking to cross illegally and drug traffickers, according to the New York Daily News.
The fence fundraiser is just the latest effort by Arizona officials who are seeking to combat illegal immigration.
Democrats and critics have called the effort symbolic legislation that doesn't really address border security, according to a National Public Radio story.
http://www.ocregister.com/news/fence-299679-arizona-border.htmlArizona seeks online donations to complete border fence...The goal is to use online... more
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A new bill signed by Arizona Republican Governor Jan Brewer authorizes the construction of a security fence along the state's portion of the U.S.-Mexico border, by itself or in an agreement with other states.
The bill was one of 28 Brewer signed on Thursday. The Arizona legislature, which wrapped up its legislative session this week, sent numerous bills to the governor's desk to be approved. In all, Brewer approved more than 350 bills while vetoing nearly 30 as of Saturday.
SB-1406, "Allows the governor to build a border fence along the Arizona-Mexico border located on private, state or federal property if permitted," the Arizona Republic reported.
It's unclear how much the bill will cost. The Associated Press reported, "The bill does not specify a cost or make an appropriation but says the state would use donations, inmate labor and private contractors."
Brewer's spokesperson, Matt Benson, declined to comment Friday on whether she planned to invoke it.
On Monday, Brewer sent a letter to President Obama asking him to extend the National Guard's deployment--which ends in June--along the state's border. "I am concerned that when the current mission ends in June, the gains we have made will be immediately lost" Brewer wrote.
Arizona already has a 646-foot fence that covers about 30 percent of the approximately 2,000 mile border between the two countries. http://www.neontommy.com/news/2011/04/gov-brewer-signs-bill-authorizing-construction-border-fence-arizonaA new bill signed by Arizona Republican Governor Jan Brewer authorizes the... more
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A beekeeper and amateur naturalist of prodigious energy, John Tanton had spent two decades planting trees, cleaning creeks and suing developers, but population growth put ever more pressure on the land. Though fertility rates had fallen, he saw a new threat emerging: soaring rates of immigration.
Time and again, Dr. Tanton urged liberal colleagues in groups like Planned Parenthood and the Sierra Club to seek immigration restraints, only to meet blank looks and awkward silences.
“I finally concluded that if anything was going to happen, I would have to do it myself,” he said.
Improbably, he did. From the resort town of Petoskey, Mich., Dr. Tanton helped start all three major national groups fighting to reduce immigration, legal and illegal, and molded one of the most powerful grass-roots forces in politics. The immigration-control movement surged to new influence in last fall’s elections and now holds near veto power over efforts to legalize any of the 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States.
Rarely has one person done so much to structure a major cause, or done it so far from the public eye. Dr. Tanton has raised millions of dollars, groomed protégés and bequeathed institutions, all while running an ophthalmology practice nearly 800 miles from Capitol Hill.
“He is the most influential unknown man in America,” said Linda Chavez, a former aide to President Ronald Reagan
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/us/17immig.html?_r=1A beekeeper and amateur naturalist of prodigious energy, John Tanton had spent two... more
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ALBUQUERQUE, NM (KRQE) - Three small children said he raped them, but that man may never face charges for any of it. News 13 has learned the illegal immigrant may be incompetent to stand trial. Juan Gonzalez’s lawyer said his client should get a get out of jail free card, so he can go live in Mexico.
Gonzalez was 13 when he told investigators he raped a little boy and a little girl. Then last year the 20-year-old admitted to raping another child inside a popular Albuquerque gym. A terrified 6-year-old girl attacked inside the playroom at the Midtown Sports and Wellness.
“He held hand over his mouth so she couldn't scream,” Albuquerque Police Deputy Chief Beth Paiz said in May when Gonzalez was arrested. ”He could hear the child say stop, stop, stop.”
Gonzalez's criminal case for rape is at a standstill.
“The issue of competency was raised so that basically stops the case,” District Attorney Kari Brandenburg said.
Gonzalez is being sent to Las Vegas, to the state's mental hospital for criminals.
“If he can't be treated to competency he can't stand trial, that would be unconstitutional,” said Brandenburg.
Gonzalez's attorney wouldn't speak on camera but said he's pushing for Gonzalez to be deported with the promise he won't come back. His attorney said his family wants to take him back to Mexico.
The D.A.'s office says releasing Gonzalez could put more children at risk.
“That's not a solution, shipping him back to Mexico, losing track of him and then having him cross the border at some unknown time,” said Brandenburg.
Gonzalez never stood trial for the previous rape cases as a juvenile because he was deemed incompetent and released to his parents. The D.A.'s office said if Gonzalez isn't competent, it will push for the court to criminally commit him. That would mean he'd stay in the mental facility in Las Vegas for the same amount of time he would have served if he were convicted of the rape charge. That could be up to 18 years.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqGbMQeT-RMALBUQUERQUE, NM (KRQE) - Three small children said he raped them, but that man may... more
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Kansas State Rep. Virgil Peck (R) suggested Monday that the best way to deal with the illegal immigration problem may be the same way the state might deal with the problem of "feral hogs" -- by shooting them from a helicopter.
The state's House Appropriations Committee was debating financing for controlling the feral swine problem, the Lawrence Journal World reports, when one legislator suggested the problem could be handled by shooting them from helicopters. Peck offered: "It looks like to me if shooting these immigrating feral hogs works maybe we have found a [solution] to our illegal immigration problem."
Scott Rothschild of the Journal World reports Peck as saying, when asked about the comment, that he was just joking:
Asked about his comment, Peck was unapologetic. "I was just speaking like a southeast Kansas person," he said.
He said most of his constituents are extremely upset with illegal immigration and the state and federal government response.
He said he didn't expect any further controversy over his comment. "I think it's over," he said.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/03/kansas-goper-lets-shoot-illegal-immigrants-like-pigs.php?ref=fpiKansas State Rep. Virgil Peck (R) suggested Monday that the best way to deal with the... more
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So they make this bill, it's tough, it will give you a $10,000 fine and 2 years in prison if you willingly hire and illegal. Well unless your rich and hire an illegal gardener, maid or other houseworker.So they make this bill, it's tough, it will give you a $10,000 fine and 2 years... more
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Avior
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Wow... not sure what to think about this. It is pretty interesting to see the other side of illegal immigration. These people have actually created a "theme park" around the popular Mexican pastime of crossing the border. Only 30 min long, I'm interested to hear your thoughts... (also on Netflix if you have it).
The most shocking thing to me is how casual they are about it, talking about crossing half dozen or more times. Also the fact that Las Vegas and Salt Lake City seem to be popular destinations.
They come here, make money, and send it home to where they will eventually retire in a nice comfortable house with nice cars and everything... shit, maybe I'll retire to Mexico. Better get to brushing up on my Spanish!Wow... not sure what to think about this. It is pretty interesting to see the other... more
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While several states in the U.S. are considering bills to crack down on illegal immigrants and kick them out, a pair of bipartisan lawmakers in Utah are proposing a different plan -- one that they say could generate millions in revenue for the state.
The Utah Pilot Accountability Permit Program bill, backed by Democratic State Sen. Luz Robles and Republican State Rep. Jeremy Peterson, would allow illegal immigrants to work in the state, so long as they had a state-issued work permit. It would require them to undergo criminal background checks, take English classes and pay taxes. The workers would be forced to leave the state if they lost their jobs, and the state would report illegal immigrants who commit major crimes to federal immigration authorities.
The tax revenues from those workers would generate more than $11 million for Utah within six months and $20 million the following year, according to a fiscal note Robles presented yesterday, the Salt Lake Tribune reports. The fiscal note also estimates the state could generate an additional $18 million from charging immigrants for their work permit cards.
The legislation faces an uphill fight and would without doubt draw legal scrutiny, since regulating immigration falls within the purview of the federal government. Robles has said her bill would require a federal waiver to be enacted. However, she's confident it could survive constitutional challenges since Utah has had no problem issuing driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, USA Today reports.http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20032906-503544.htmlWhile several states in the U.S. are considering bills to crack down on illegal... more
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Gay conservative group GOProud's participation in the CPAC conference has caused controversy among conservatives. Will the participation of the Youth for Western Civilization cause the same stir?
The nationwide student group is among the exhibitors at this year's CPAC conference. The following is their mission statement, according to their website.
"We have the self-evident right and duty to work for the survival of our own culture and civilization. There is no reason to believe that the advances of modernity and the political freedoms we enjoy will endure with the extinction of the civilization that allowed them to exist. Western Civilization is our civilization and in spite of the continual assault and hatred it endures from the radical left, we wish to revive the West, rather than see our civilization be sent to the graveyard of history."
Watch a video interview with the founder here.Gay conservative group GOProud's participation in the CPAC conference has caused... more
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"The governor's filing hammers on the issue of the state's unreimbursed costs for jailed illegal immigrants..,"
Well, she has finally made her money-move on the government. Connect the money=prison beds dots.
This woman is skating on thin ice, and someone needs to dig into her obvious CONFLICT OF INTEREST with the prison ponzi scheme she's cooked up with her cronies.
This has nothing to do with POROUS BORDERS. It has everything to do with FLEECING the Govt. of MY hard earned TAX DOLLARS. She is using a situation to enrich herself and the goons she has aligned herself with.
But we should believe her right? After all there are all those beheaded bodies all over Arizona."The governor's filing hammers on the issue of the state's... more
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A state senator in Alabama said Monday his call for Republicans to "empty the clip" on the issue of illegal immigration was taken out of context.
At a Republican breakfast in Cullman County, Alabama, last weekend, State Sen. Scott Beason reportedly urged his fellow Republicans to "empty the clip and do what has to be done" to enact stricter immigration laws, the Cullman Times reported.
Beason has since been flooded with angry calls denouncing the remark, which came in the wake of the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson last month. That tragedy saw 19 people shot and six killed, including a nine-year-old girl, sparking a debate about the use of violent metaphors in American politics.
Beason on Monday told the media the comment was taken out of context, and he did not mean to suggest violence against illegal immigrants.
"No way was I urging anyone to do harm to Hispanics or illegal immigrants," Beason told the Birmigham News. "I would never do that."
The first-term senator and veteran of Alabama's House of Representatives explained he had told a joke about the difference in how Democrats, Republicans and southerners reacted to being held up by a mugger.
"I began telling the story about a family visiting a big city when some guy with a knife or gun jumps out from behind some bushes and comes at them," Beason said. "The story talks about how a Democrat handles the situation, I think I said the Democrat tells the guy he'll put together a charity basketball league or something to raise money to help him. The second family, that father [the Republican] has a gun but takes only one shot. The third family, and that father [the southerner] also has a gun, but he empties the clip. He solves the problem."
In his speech, Beason faulted the state's Democrats for what he said was a lack of interest in addressing illegal immigration, and suggested that the issue came down to electoral politics.
“Democrats do not want to solve the illegal immigration problem because they know, this is a fact, that when more illegal immigrants move into an area, when their children grow up and get the chance to vote, they vote for Democrats,” he said.
Many commenters at the Cullman Times reacted with hostility to Beason's remarks.
"Republicans control the Alabama Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, governor's office, Cullman County Commission and have controlled these for several years, so who really is to blame," wrote user "alan bolling."
"The guy should apologize to Congresswoman Giffords, Christina Taylor Green and everyone else who had a clip emptied toward them in Arizona," user "disapppointed GOP" wrote. "Can't blow this off as playing to the GOP crowd."A state senator in Alabama said Monday his call for Republicans to "empty the... more
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