lframerica.com Blog

February 20, 2008

Hate Crime Legislation Revived After Student Shooting

Filed under: Bills, News-Television, Uncategorized — Administrator @ 1:17 am

LA Daily News

EL MONTE – The shooting death of a 15-year-old gay student last week in Oxnard has prompted Assemblyman Mike Eng to revive anti-hate-crime legislation.

Lawrence King was an eighth-grader at E.O. Green Junior High School and was teased because he dressed like a woman. He was shot and killed last Tuesday, and prosecutors charged a classmate, 14-year-old Brandon McInerney, with premeditated murder.

On Monday, the El Monte Democrat unveiled a plan that would require tolerance classes as part of the public-school curriculum. The bill would provide training for teachers, administrators and parents so they could identify “symptoms of hate.”

“When there’s a death, it makes you realize this could have been prevented,” Eng said. “Our legislation will develop a new curriculum that teaches tolerance, offers training to teachers, and will have programs that reach out to parents.”

Critics of similar legislation say that these bills provide nothing more than “flowery language.”

There is legislation that currently protects the equal rights of students. Senate Bill 777, introduced by Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Los Angeles, amended the education code and prohibits gender bias against gay, lesbian or bisexual students.

Supporters of Eng’s proposal said administrators have a responsibility to protect children such as King.

“We think that it is mandatory to teach kids about intolerance,” said Adele Andrade-Stadler, president of the Alhambra Unified School District.

Eng introduced a resolution in 2007 designed to strengthen the ability of federal, state and local government to investigate and prosecute hate crimes.

He also proposed bills that would have offered tolerance training in diversity, race, ethnic background and sexual preference. The governor vetoed those bills, Eng said.

“I was shocked when I heard about Larry King,” Eng said. “I thought if our legislation would have been enacted, perhaps there would have been a different result.”

February 19, 2008

Cheap Tomatoes!

Filed under: Big Business, Bills, Costs, Government, Illegal Alien, News-Newspaper, Uncategorized — Administrator @ 2:50 am

DiggersRealm

The story below is brought to you from an English teacher and was written around the time of the amnesty push. Let us revisit how “cheap” tomatoes (or lettuce or grapes or substitute your favorite fruit or vegetable) are due to illegal aliens.

CHEAP TOMATOES

This should make everyone think, be you Democrat, Republican or
Independent or whatever.

From a California school teacher – - -

“As you listen to the news about the student protests over illegal immigration, there are some things that you should be aware of: I am in charge of the English-as-a-second-language department at a large southern California high school which is designated a Title 1 school, meaning that its student’s average lower socioeconomic and income levels.

Most of the schools you are hearing about, South Gate High, Bell Gardens, Huntington Park, etc., where these students are protesting, are also Title 1 schools. Title 1 schools are on the free breakfast and free lunch program. When I say free breakfast, I’m not talking a glass of milk and roll — but a full breakfast and cereal bar with fruits and juices that would make a Marriott proud. The waste of this food is monumental, with trays and trays of it being dumped in the trash uneaten. (OUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK)

I estimate that well over 50% of these students are obese or at least moderately overweight. About 75% or more DO have cell phones. The school also provides day care centers for the unwed teenage pregnant girls (some as young as 13) so they can attend class without the inconvenience of having to arrange for babysitters or having family watch their kids. (OUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK)

I was ordered to spend $700,000 on my department or risk losing funding for the upcoming year even though there was little need for anything; my budget was already substantial. I ended up buying new computers for the computer learning center, half of which, one month later, have been carved with graffiti by the appreciative students who obviously feel humbled and grateful to have a free education in America. (OUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK)

I have had to intervene several times for young and substitute teachers whose classes consist of many illegal immigrant students here in the country less then 3 months who raised so much hell with the female teachers, calling them “Putas” (whores) and throwing things, that the teachers were in tears.

Free medical, free education, free food, day care etc., etc, etc. Is it any wonder they feel entitled to not only be in this country but to demand rights, privileges and entitlements?

To those who want to point out how much these illegal immigrants contribute to our society because they LIKE their gardener and housekeeper and they like to pay less for tomatoes: spend some time in the real world of illegal immigration and see the TRUE costs.

Higher insurance, medical facilities closing, higher medical costs, more crime, lower standards of education in our schools, overcrowding, new diseases etc., etc, etc. For me, I’ll pay more for tomatoes.

Americans! We need to wake up. The guest worker program will be a disaster because we won’t have the guts to enforce it. Does anyone in their right mind really think they will voluntarily leave and return?

It does, however, have everything to do with culture: A third-world culture that does not value education, that accepts children getting pregnant and dropping out of school by 15 and that refuses to assimilate, and an American culture that has become so weak and worried about “political correctness” that we don’t have the will to do anything about it.

If this makes your blood boil, as it did mine, forward this to everyone you know.

CHEAP LABOR! Isn’t that what the whole immigration issue is about?

Business doesn’t want to pay a decent wage.

Consumers don’t want expensive produce.

Government will tell you Americans don’t want the jobs.

But the bottom line is cheap labor. The phrase “cheap labor” is a myth, a farce, and a lie. There is no such thing as “cheap labor.”

Take, for example, an illegal alien with a wife and five children. He takes a job for $5.00 or 6. 00/hour. At that wage, with six dependents, he pays no income tax, yet at the end of the year, if he files an Income Tax Return, he gets an “earned income credit” of up to $3,200 free.

He qualifies for Section 8 housing and subsidized rent.

He qualifies for food stamps.

He qualifies for free (no deductible, no co-pay) health care.

His children get free breakfasts and lunches at school.

He requires bilingual teachers and books.

He qualifies for relief from high energy bills.

If they are or become, aged, blind or disabled, they qualify for SSI. Once qualified for SSI they can qualify for Medicare. All of this is at (our) taxpayer’s expense.

He doesn’t worry about car insurance, life insurance, or homeowners insurance.

Taxpayers provide Spanish language signs, bulletins and printed material.

He and his family receive the equivalent of $20.00 to $30.00/hour in benefits.

Working Americans are lucky to have $5.00 or $6.00/hour left after paying their bills and his.

The American taxpayers also pay for increased crime, graffiti and trash clean-up.

Cheap labor! YEAH RIGHT! Wake up people!

THESE ARE THE QUESTIONS WE SHOULD BE ADDRESSING TO THE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES FOR EITHER PARTY. AND WHEN THEY LIE TO US AND DON’T DO AS THEY SAY, WE SHOULD REPLACE THEM AT ONCE!

February 18, 2008

Senator Vows To Target N.J. Businesses Hiring Illegal Aliens

Filed under: Bills, Illegal Alien, News-Newspaper, News-Television, Politics, Uncategorized — Administrator @ 11:20 pm

newsday.com/news/local/wire/newjersey/ny-bc-nj–immigration-sanct0218feb18,0,359993.story

Newsday.com

Senator Vows to Target N.J. Businesses Hiring Illegal Immigrants.

By TOM HESTER Jr.

Associated Press Writer

10:56 AM EST, February 18, 2008

TRENTON, N.J.

A New Jersey Senate leader said he will push legislation to punish businesses who knowingly hiring illegal immigrants.

Senate Majority Leader Stephen Sweeney said his decision comes after a federal judge upheld an Arizona law that prohibits businesses from knowingly hiring illegal immigrants and yanks the business licenses of those that do.

“Companies that knowingly hire illegals are destroying job opportunities for the working men and women of New Jersey,” said Sweeney, D-Gloucester. “The practice has to be stopped.”

The Immigration and Naturalization Service in 2003 estimated that New Jersey had 221,000 illegal immigrants, though the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which favors tighter border security and immigration laws, estimates the state has 490,000.

New Jersey has about 8.7 million residents and 4.1 million workers.

Under Sweeney’s measure, which he said he will introduce next week, first-time offenders would have their business licenses suspended for 10 days.

Second offenses would bring permanent revocations, Sweeney said.

In approved, the law would take effect at the end of the year and require employers to verify the legal status of their work forces.

“New Jersey should welcome legal immigrants with open arms, but we need to put up a stop sign for illegals who undermine family, educational and health care support systems,” Sweeney said.

The proposal worries businesses, said Jim Leonard, a vice president with the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce.

“We feel immigration is an issue best handled on the federal level,” Leonard said. “Creating a patchwork of laws on this issue throughout the nation makes it even more difficult to run a business.”

John Rogers, a vice president with the New Jersey Business & Industry Association, said employers are prohibited from asking certain information about an employee’s background while hiring and are legally required to take Social Security cards that appear valid.

“I fear that another New Jersey-only bill will unfairly ask the employer community to shoulder increased liability and be responsible for what is a national problem,” Rogers said.

On Feb. 8, a federal judge in Arizona dismissed a lawsuit filed by business groups against Arizona’s law, which was approved last year by the Republican-led Legislature and Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano.

Arizona business groups argued the law unconstitutionally infringed on federal immigration powers, but the judge ruled there was no conflict because states regulate business licensing.

The Arizona law took effect Jan. 1. An Oklahoma law with similar provisions takes effect for private employers in July.

Earlier rulings on similar measures have been mixed.

In July, a federal judge struck down a Hazleton, Pa., ordinance that would deny business permits for companies that employ illegal immigrants, but another judge upheld a similar measure in Valley Park, Mo., earlier this month.

Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Virginia Senate Show Resistance To Anti-Illegal Immigration Bills

Filed under: Bills, News-Newspaper, News-Television, Uncategorized — Administrator @ 10:00 pm

2/8/2008 – VIRGINIA – In what is sadly becoming the norm of refusal to apply U.S. Federal Laws to illegal alien issues.  Virginia Senators began ripping apart a anti-illegal immigrant legislation which had already passed the House on Monday.  They did, in the end, vote in favor of a measure aimed at only at cracking down on undocumented aliens who do commit crimes.

In a 35-5 vote, Republican Del. David Albo’s bill requiring officers to check immigration status of inmates born outside the United States did pass.

Both Senate and House did pass measures that would deny bail for any in the country illegally, as well as for businesses to lose their licenses if the business owners were convicted of hiring illegal aliens.  The House even took a step further, approving proposals to ban illegal immigrants from attending public colleges and universities and to prohibit discrimination lawsuits against employers who fire a worker for failure to speak English.

Other Anti-Illegal immigration proposals were deeply watered down or killed outright.  These proposals would have required people who wish to change their names or to apply for marriage licenses to provide proof of citizenship.
There are small steps, and still to much resistance being displayed by those elected to put America and the American people first, but at least they are beginning to step in the right direction.

February 17, 2008

Boston City Council Welcomes Illegal Aliens

Filed under: Bills, Illegal Alien, News-Television, Politics, Uncategorized — Administrator @ 12:45 am

Boston Herald

What’s the difference between an illegal alien stealing an American job, and Martin Luther King Jr. fighting for American rights?

Don’t know? Congratulations, you too could be on the Boston City Council!

Led by Councilor at Large Sam Yoon, the council passed a resolution last week endorsing something called the “Welcoming Massachusetts Pledge.” No, it’s not an effect to promote tourism – unless the word “tourism” has replaced “undocumented worker” as the amnesty crowd’s euphemism of choice.

The pledge is instead a document declaring that every illegal immigrant has an “unalienable right” to come and live in Massachusetts. As a result, enforcing immigration laws “violates civil and human rights of immigrants.”

All immigrants? No, just the “undocumented tourists.”

Did our city councilors really believe that illegal immigration is a “civil rights” issue? If they have any vague familiarity with the English language, surely they know that “civil” issues are those that relate to “citizenship.” Citizens have civil rights. Foreign terrorists in Guantanamo Bay and off-the-books Brazilian painters in Jamaica Plain do not.

Well, actually, Brazilian, Mexican and Irish illegal immigrants do have civil rights. To claim them, they need only return to (respectively) Brazil, Mexico and Ireland.

What made the Jim Crow era so offensive was watching American citizens being turned away from American ballot boxes. Citizens from Maine to Malibu didn’t march for black people; they marched for American people.

Bull Conner took from Dr. King his rights as an American. Illegal Immigrants (ALIENS) steal across our border to take the privileges of America, and jobs, from Americans.

How utterly ignorant and offensive to compare the two.

Read More

Five-Year Visas For Illegal Aliens? Hispanic Congress Members Think So.

Filed under: Bills, Illegal Alien, Politics, Uncategorized — Administrator @ 12:05 am

LexisNexis News

House Democrats are crafting scaled down immigration reform legislation despite the political minefields that surround the issue, with Hispanic Members seeking five-year visas for illegal immigrants (ALIENS) who pay fines and pass criminal background checks.

Immigration reform had been left for dead after last years Senate train wreck, but pressures for at least stopgap immigration legislation have bubbled up within the Democratic Caucus.

It’s unclear if the behind-the-scenes discussions will actually result in a bill coming to the floor, but Democrats say drafts of legislation already have been written and are being vetted behind the scenes.

“There is the formation of a consensus,” said Rep. Joe Baca (D-Calif.), chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, who said he’s seen a draft bill. “We’re looking at some kind of a compromise. It’s still comprehensive in nature but not to the extent we would like.”

Baca said the prospects for a compromise package were discussed in high-level meetings Wednesday that included Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel (Ill.) and Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), who chairs the Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security and International Law.  Baca said the emerging legislation did not have the broader reforms included in last year’s failed Senate immigration overhaul or in earlier measures backed by Hispanics, such as the DREAM act.

But Baca said the key piece for Hispanics is a five-year visa for illegal immigrants who can prove they have a job. The visa is well short of past bills that would grant permanent legal status, which critics decried as “amnesty.”

“There is no path towards citizenship,” Baca said. “There are still fines and criminal background checks and you will have to pay back taxes. This is what the taxpayers want.”

Baca said Democrats still are trying to work out exactly how the new visas would work or be enforced.

Baca said there also would be an expansion of visas for technical, temporary and agricultural workers- measures strongly backed by businesses and many Republicans.

But whether House leaders will actually put immigration on the floor with such a controversial provision as visas for illegal immigrants in an election year remains an open question.

February 15, 2008

Utah House Votes To Repeal In-State Tuition For Illegal Immigrants

Filed under: Bills, Illegal Alien, News-Television, Politics, Uncategorized — Administrator @ 1:08 pm

February 13, 2008: The Salt Lake Tribune: jsanchez
It took five years, but a bill that would deny undocumented students the privilege to pay in-state college tuition passed the House on Tuesday.

Lawmakers approved the measure in a 40-35 vote after a brief debate. HB241 is one of several immigration-related bills that have recently passed in the House and are waiting to be heard in the Senate.

Rep. Glenn Donnelson, R-North Ogden, said there is no point in undocumented students going to college if they can’t legally get jobs and might be forced to forge documents.

This is Donnelson’s fifth conservative attempt to kill the 2002 law, but Tuesday was the first time it passed the House. HB241 would repeal the law that allows undocumented students who graduate from a Utah high school to pay in-state college tuition at state universities and colleges. Those students who register for school before Sept, 30, 2010, would be exempt.

Donnelson said he has been looking into what undocumented students would have to do to be here legally on a student visa, but the process is expensive, “long and laborious.” That’s why Donnelson said the bill’s 2010 deadline is an effort to give Congress a chance to help fix the immigration problems, and perhaps give undocumented students a chance to go to college legally.

“There’s a window here – I’m trying to work with it,” he said in an interview later.

Rep. Stetve Urguhart, R-St George, said the state needs to stop subsidizing tuition for “illegal aliens.” “What we’re doing is illegal,” he said during the debate.

Rep. Phil Riesen, D-Holladay, said denying undocumented students the chance to pursue a higher education and better their lives will be enforcing a split in Utah among class and race. He also said lawmakers should not be targeting kids who followed their parents and did not know they were brought here illegally.

“They’re easy targets because they have no legal ground to stand on,” he said.

Debate was killed after some 30 minutes, Rep. Brad Dee, R-Washington Terrace, said there was little need for discussion because the same bill has come up for years.

In the 2006-2007 school year, about 280 undocumented students at Utah’s nine public colleges and universities paid in-state tuition – one-third of them attending Salt Lake Community College.

A full-time community college student pays about $1,300 in tuition and fees per semester; out-of-state students pay almost $4,000- an increase of 208 percent.

Valery Pozo, a 20-year-old University of Utah junior, attended the House debate and said she’s disappointed in Utah lawmakers because they don’t understand that HB241 doesn’t affect only undocumented students.

She said many Latino students are affected because they are friends with those who are undocumented and see the challenges they face.

“It sends a message that their heritage is not appreciated and they’re not welcome at the university,” Pozo said.

July 4, 2007

Anchor Babies Not Getting Tuition In Connecticut

Filed under: Bills, Communities, Illegal Alien, News-Television, Politics, Uncategorized — Administrator @ 10:32 am

Immigrant bill’s defeat saddens Eastern Connecticut allies
By GREG SMITH
Norwich Bulletin

The defeat of a comprehensive federal immigration bill last week was met with widespread disappointment and frustration by those in Eastern Connecticut tied to the immigrant community.

The bill would have provided measures for tougher border security and workplace enforcement, along with a plan to legalize an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants and to create a temporary worker program.

Ford Desir thought lawmakers were off to a good start.

The Haitian man spent 22 years in the United States and became a citizen before recently returning to work for the Haitian government. Desir said he wanted to see expanded guest worker programs and longtime illegal immigrants become citizens.

“They should have given them some papers,” said Desir, 33, back in Norwich Tuesday to visit family. “It’s not fair, somebody living in this country for a long time.”

Rita Provatas, a New London attorney who specializes in immigration, said she realized with the large number of amendments being added to the bill, it was doomed for failure.

“My first reaction is frustration because we’ve been down that road,” Provatas said.

Provatas said she would like to see focus turn to the DREAM Act, which would allow children of illegal immigrants to, at the very least, attend state colleges and universities at the resident rate.

“They’ll add value to society and the community as a whole,” she said.

Andrea Amato of Eastford said the immigrants she teaches English “know how important the bill is to their families who have been here for a long time and who pay taxes.”

She said she doesn’t expect any changes until the Bush administration is replaced. The bill, she said, tried to accommodate too many amendments from legislators pushing their own interests.

Bill Stover, director of migratory and supplementary programs for Connecticut’s Migratory Children’s Program, said he was just as disheartened by Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s veto of a bill allowing in-state college tuition rates for undocumented immigrant high school graduates.

“You want to see these kids go on to be productive,” he said. “It’s just very disappointing.”

Because she sees the need from local businesses, Provatas said the nation’s immigrant worker program needs to be reformed.

“We do have employers here in southeastern Connecticut who want to do it legally, but can’t get the numbers,” Provatas said.

Desir said he’d try to track the issue the next time the federal government tries to make changes.

“Not for me,” he said, “but to see what’s going on.”

In 1776, Nations Leaders Weren’t Wimps -ARTICLE

Filed under: Bills, Illegal Alien, News-Television, Politics, Uncategorized — Administrator @ 9:20 am

In 1776, nation’s leaders weren’t wimps

Jul. 4, 2007 12:00 AM
It’s official. Arizona has declared war on the forces that fuel illegal immigration. No longer are our leaders content to blame the sum total of our ills on the poor guy who sneaks across the border to get a job.

Now, Republicans and Democrats alike are pointing squarely at the people who lure them: the employers.

Wouldn’t you love to be a fly on the wall inside Arizona’s construction and restaurant industries this week? I have a good idea what people in those industries are saying.

It’s probably a lot like what the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry is saying. For years, chamber lobbyists have fought any attempt to hold employers accountable, all the while contending that most businesses try to follow the law.

The headline on their press release Monday? “Employer-sanctions bill strikes a crippling blow to Arizona business.” I’m not sure how a bill that penalizes employers who “knowingly” hire an illegal immigrant deals a crippling blow to business when most businesses are already trying to follow the law. Draw your own conclusions.

The point remains that Gov. Janet Napolitano, a Democrat, and the GOP-controlled Legislature have now gone where the feds fear to tread.

It strikes me that the Fourth of July is a good day to ponder that fact. This is a country founded by great and courageous men, based on bedrock principles of fairness and equality.

What we seem to have today are wimps and wannabes who spend most of their time with a wet finger in the air and who are more interested in career than country.

Two hundred and thirty-one years ago, our leaders brought us the Declaration of Independence. Last week, our leaders in Congress brought us a declaration of incompetence. They can’t figure out what to do about illegal immigration so they’re punting until 2009.

Meanwhile, the Homeland Security chief says, “We don’t really have the ability to enforce the law with respect to illegal work in this country in a way that’s truly effective.”

And so it falls to the states to take the lead, in hopes that the feds will grow a spine and fix the problem. Because the solutions won’t make anyone completely happy.

No. 1: Get control of the border ASAP. Fix it so people we’ve deported stay deported.

No. 2: Once we have control, legalize those who were here before Jan. 1, 2006, and can prove it with something other than a phony affidavit. They would need a clean criminal record, pay a fine and learn English. We, in turn, would acknowledge that it’s amnesty but recognize we had a hand in their arrival. At least, our employers did.

No. 3: Create a tamperproof ID card and put employers on notice that if they’re caught with ineligible workers, they’re in big trouble. A fine equal to whatever per capita cost we can attach to illegal immigration sounds about right.

No. 4: Establish a guest-worker plan that’s fair to the American worker, who will do most jobs, I suspect, if they pay a decent wage.

And No. 5: Pass the DREAM Act now. This is America, and in America we don’t punish people for crimes they didn’t commit. So give a break to those who came as kids and have stayed out of trouble. Give them a shot at a decent education and who knows? They might actually contribute to this country, which is all they’re asking.

Many people today are cheering the death of the Senate’s immigration-reform bill. I’m one of them. It was unwieldy and unenforceable.

But the answer isn’t to punt because it’s too hard. Where would we be today had a group of real leaders punted in 1776?

Rep. Dennis Kucinich Introduces Vice President Impeachment -ARTICLE

Filed under: Bills, Politics, Uncategorized — Administrator @ 4:02 am

Tuesday, July 03, 2007
Representative Dennis Kucinich has introduced H. Res. 333

Rep. Dennis Kucinich has introduced legislation to impeach Vice President thingy Cheney.

It is up to you if you want to see Vice President Cheney impeached, please contact your Representative in the US House and ask them to support HR333.

You may also ask them to introduce legislation to impeach the President. Representative John Conyers, House Judiciary Committee Chairman, has similarly indicated his intention to intensely scrutinize Bush Administration policies and the actions of the President and Vice President.

Read the Full Bills Text at the following location:

http://kucinich.house.gov/SpotlightIssues/documents.htm

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