366 people were kidnapped in Phoenix, Arizona in 2008

Second in the world behind Mexico City.

More ransom kidnappings happen in Phoenix than in any other town in the United States, according to local and federal law-enforcement authorities. Most victims and suspects are connected to the drug-smuggling world, usually tracing back to the western Mexican state of Sinaloa, Phoenix police report.

Arizona has become the new drug gateway into the United States. Roughly half of all marijuana seized at the U.S.-Mexico border was found along Arizona's 370-mile-long stretch.

One result is a kidnapping epidemic. Nearly every other crime here is down. But police received 366 kidnap-for-ransom reports last year, 359 in 2007. Police estimate twice that number go unreported. [emphasis mine]

I'm so glad we have former Arizona governor Janet Napolitano as our new Homeland Security Secretary. Aren't you?

Note to FBI, pay no attention to Mayor Phil Gordon

Dear FBI,

I have read recently that the mayor of Phoenix, Arizona, Phil Gordon, wants you to look into whether or not Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has violated civil rights laws by having the gall to arrest illegal aliens and treat them like the criminals they are.

Please pay no attention whatsoever to this buffoon, Mr. Gordon. His views do not represent those of normal, law-abiding American citizens. His letter to you is merely an attempt to pander to left-wing special interest groups.

In fact, if you do choose to investigate something, please investigate whether or not Mayor Gordon has pursued policies that would cause the city of Phoenix to be considered a Sanctuary City. As you may know, these cities are ones that harbor illegal aliens by virtue of the fact that their local law enforcement agencies are told to not pursue the question of citizenship when apprehending criminal suspects. This, far more than Sheriff Arpaio's wonderful track record, deserves your focused attention.

Very sincerely,

Mr. Light Bulb

Operation Streamline is working!

30% reduction in crime. What's not to like about this?

The first 45 days of Operation Streamline — a collaborative effort of local, state and federal agencies in Texas — has resulted in decreased illegal border crossings and crime since its implementation Oct. 31 compared with last year's numbers, said Laredo Border Patrol Sector chief patrol agent Carlos X. Carrillo.

"As more and more illegal aliens are prosecuted and incarcerated under Streamline-Laredo, the word is spreading quickly that illegal entry has its consequences," Mr. Carrillo said. "Those found guilty of violating this statute face penalties that can include fines and up to six months in prison."

During the first 45-day period of Operation Streamline in the Laredo sector only 2,833 illegal entries were reported, compared with last fiscal year, when 4,424 illegal entries were reported during a similar period.

And one of the leaders responsible for Operation Streamline is my Congressman, John Culberson. From his web site:

My proudest accomplishment this week was obtaining $80 million in additional funds to significantly strengthen America’s borders. Of this amount, $15 million will be used to expand and support the zero tolerance program I helped implement on October 30 in the Laredo Sector. Under "Operation Streamline," anyone who crosses our border illegally is arrested, prosecuted, and jailed. In the Del Rio sector, Operation Streamline reduced the crime rate by 76 percent, and this year will see the lowest number of illegal border crossings in Del Rio since the Border Patrol started keeping records in 1972! I expect to see zero tolerance implemented in the Tuscon Sector in January and my next target is the Brownsville Sector.

But why is John having to worry about law enforcement?

Since the bureaucrats in the Washington headquarters of the Department of Homeland Security have failed to secure our borders, I have learned to bypass headquarters in order to get results along the border. The Texas border county sheriffs will receive $5 million to work alongside Border Patrol agents. Last year, I was also able to provide $5 million to Texas border sheriffs, and they are using the money to put more deputies on the streets, buy equipment, and reduce illegal crossings. In addition to the funds they are receiving from the State of Texas, this is money well spent in the battle to defend our borders.

Keep bypassing headquarters, John! It seems to be the only way to get things done.

Finally, Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila has been arrested for smuggling drugs

It's about time.

Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, the drug smuggler who testified for the prosecution during the trials for Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, has been arrested on charges of bringing more than 750 pounds of marijuana into the United States.

Aldrete-Davila was arrested today at the El Paso border crossing on charges involving what has become know as the "second load," in which he smuggled a second 750-pound load of marijuana into the U.S. after he was given immunity by the prosecutor, U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, for the first load

More than two years after transporting over 750 pounds of marijuana across our southern border, this cretin is finally behind bars. That is, after receiving medical care paid for by United States taxpayers for a bullet wound in his buttocks. And after receiving a Department of Homeland Security border pass card from District Attorney Johnny "Satan" Sutton. And after testifying against Border Patrol Agents Ramos and Compean, who now sit in federal prison in conditions worse that terrorists receive.

BORDER - a Chris Burgard film

If you live in Houston, Sugarland, or Katy, you really need to go see the film BORDER. It will be in Katy on Wednesday, November 14, and in Sugarland and northwest Houston on Thursday, November 15.

I have seen it. The film will open your eyes as to what really happens on our southern border with Mexico. You will see and hear from eyewitnesses about the Minutemen, Coyotes, and FBI agents investigating the film makers. You'll see infrared footage of a mule train (human mules, that is) carrying millions of dollars worth of illegal drugs into our country. And you'll wonder how many OTMs have worked their way into our country.

Chris Burgard was told that he would never get this film made. He proved Hollywood wrong. Of course, there's no way Hollywood will help him out now. But you can. Even if you don't live in Houston, you can buy the DVD.

God Bless Governor Matt Blunt of Missouri

I don't know if he's a Defeat-ocrat or a Republican, but Gov. Matt Blunt is doing the right thing on immigration, so I like him.

Minor traffic violations do not usually warrant a press release from a governor. But when state police stopped a van on a Missouri road for "following too closely" and found it was carrying 10 presumed illegal immigrants, Gov. Matt Blunt was quick to tout the incident as part of a new state program to hunt down undocumented aliens.

"We will make every effort, implement every tool, and take every step to ensure the laws against illegal immigration are enforced," declared Blunt, announcing the arrests as he pursued tough new measures to push undocumented immigrants out of the state.

Way to go, Matt!

But wait, there's more! In Oklahoma!

Oklahoma's new law is widely seen as the toughest in the nation, making it a felony to transport or harbor people without legal status, requires local law enforcement and businesses to enforce federal immigration restrictions, and reduces public benefits for illegal immigrants.

"Illegal aliens will not come to Oklahoma or anywhere else if there are no jobs waiting for them. They will not stay here if there is no government subsidy," said the law's sponsor, Oklahoma Rep. Randy Terrill, a Republican who believes the measure will make illegal immigrants "self deport."

Way to go, Randy! Self deportation! I love it!

Now, Matt and Randy, I have one small request for you. Would you please talk to Governor Rick "39%" Perry? He desperately needs to hear about this.

Remember the 76 border crossings by the MDR-TB-infected Mexican national?

And remember how the Department of Homeland Security said that he used an alias? Well, he didn't.

The Washington Times last week reported that Amado Isidro Armendariz Amaya made the border crossings from August 2006 to June 2007. Homeland Security (DHS) officials had said the Mexican businessman was traveling under an alias.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) was warned by Mexican health officials and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on April 16 that the frequent traveler was infected with multi-drug resistant (MDR) tuberculosis.

But according to internal DHS e-mails obtained by The Times, Mr. Armendariz did not use a fake name but rather used variations of his own name. For example, he customarily went by his middle name "Isidro," rather than his formal birth name, "Amado."

The e-mails show nine variations of his name in a system that is capable of searching two dozen law-enforcement databases.

In this week's hearing, the Senate committee learned that Customs and Border Protection officials had the name of "Isidro Armendariz Amaya" and the correct birth date in April.

I think I'm understanding better what the term Homeland Security means. It means cover up and/or protect government employees at all costs.

Oh, it also means "protect the travel industry".

Using only three of the four names would create tens of thousands of "false-positive" hits creating a logjam at the border crossings, Mr. Rosenzweig said.

"You know, we've had many, many complaints that the lines on the southern border are already too long. As the type of information we get is less and less accurate, and we widen the field to make an examination based upon the name check, we get more and more people who will be overwhelming our secondary inspection capabilities, extending the line beyond belief and inconveniencing lots and lots of people who aren't matches for any of those," Mr. Rosenzweig said.

There you have it, ladies and gentlemen. The Department of Homeland Security — making sure you're not inconvenienced. Unless you happen to get infected with MDR-TB. That would be inconvenient.

Kay Bailey Hutchison, RINO Extraordinaire

Earning the designation RINO with distinction, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison voted FOR amnesty this past Wednesday. Fortunately, the cloture vote failed.

The DREAM Act failed in the Senate on Wednesday, dashing the latest and best chance Congress had to pass immigration legislation.

The bill would have paved a path to citizenship for children of illegal immigrants if they attended college or entered the military.

...

The bill would have granted conditional legal status to illegal immigrants younger than 30 who completed two years of higher education or served in the military. To be considered for legal status, they would have needed to have lived in the U.S. for five years and have entered before age 16.

After completing the educational or military requirement, they could have applied for citizenship. The legislation would have affected more than 1 million young people, according to the Migration Policy Institute.

Senator Hutchison, what in the world were you thinking? You represent Texans, remember? We Texas are sick of illegal aliens cheating their way into our country. And we don't need you helping them out. How about you and your fellow RINOs voting to build the border fence quicker? That would be refreshing.

It's a good thing that you're not running for re-election. As for your gubernatorial aspirations, part of me hopes you'll pursue that so I can vote against you. Then again, part of me hopes you'll just go away.

76 border crossings by a Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis infected Mexican national led the big parade...

With a hundred and ten red-faced Homeland Security officials close behind.

A Mexican national infected with a highly contagious form of tuberculosis crossed the U.S. border 76 times and took multiple domestic flights in the past year, according to Customs and Border Protection interviews and documents obtained by The Washington Times.

The Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency was warned by health officials on April 16 that the frequent traveler was infected, but it took Homeland Security officials more than six weeks to issue a May 31 alert to warn its own border inspectors, according to Homeland Security sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. Homeland Security took a further week to tell its own Transportation Security Agency.
[emphasis mine]

For the record, here's a description of Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis. And, from this article, we find out that it can cost anywhere from $200,000 to $1.2 million to treat an MDR-TB-infected individual.

But wait, there's more:

Attempts to identify the subject failed "because information provided to Mexican health officials is not accurate" when an alias is used, Mr. Maier said in an e-mail. "Efforts to obtain solid data ... were achieved on May 31."

Translation: the MDR-TB-infected Mexican national lied about his identity. And that threw those DHS guys for a loop! (More detail here.)

But wait, there's still more:

Other documents reveal that the Mexican government had known for more than five years of the condition of Mr. Armendariz, a businessman from Juarez, a city in the Mexican state of Chihuahua across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas. The officials who spoke on that condition of anonymity said, "Information sharing is still at an all-time low, if not nonexistent, in issues such as these."
[emphasis mine]

And just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, here's the stinger:

Homeland Security employees were told in June that they would be fired if the situation with Mr. Armendariz went public. At the same time, DHS officials were preparing to testify before Congress regarding the Speaker case, which had been front-page news across the nation.
[emphasis mine]

Got the full picture now? Let's break it down:

• An MDR-TB-infected Mexican national
  
• crosses into our nation
  
• 76 times,
  
• sometimes using an alias,
  
• putting untold thousands of Americans at risk for contracting MDR-TB themselves.
  
• The cost of treating an MDR-TB-infected individual can range from $200,000 to $1.2 million
  
• and last up to 18 months.
  
• The government of Mexico knew of this health risk
  
• for five years
  
• and didn't tell us.
  
• Our own government knew of this health risk
  
• since June (possibly before)
  
• and ordered DHS employees not to tell anyone about it
  
• probably because they were embarrassed at the ridiculously pathetic job they did in preventing Andrew Speaker from re-entering the country.

I think that about sums it up. Oh, one last thing; Michael Chertoff, please submit your resignation immediately.

Why won't the amnesty monster just die already?!?

It's a really bad horror flick, but unfortunately it's not a film...it's reality.

Determined amnesty advocates who lost the fight for “comprehensive” immigration reform three months ago are now attempting to grant illegal aliens “amnesty on the installment plan.” Illegal aliens who entered the U.S. before age 16 and who have lived here illegally for five consecutive years will be the first to qualify under a bill the Senate is expected to vote on this week. Senator Dick Durbin (D., Ill.) will offer his Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act as an amendment to the defense-authorization bill. Later in the month, senators will attempt to extend amnesty to agricultural workers.

I thought that we, the people, made our thoughts known on this subject a few months ago. We were pretty clear, weren't we? Yep, I thought so.

Some questions. Has anything changed since then? Have the illegal aliens already in our country decided to go back to their country of origin and re-enter the United States legally? Have the taxpayer costs for illegal alien medical treatment suddenly decreased? Has the need for bilingual education evaporated overnight? Have drunk-driving illegal aliens vanished from our roads? No, I didn't think so.

Unfortunately, since neither of them can be depended upon to do the right thing as conservatives but instead must be hand-held on every issue of importance like the irresponsible political toddlers that they are, I cannot tell you how the senators from the state of Texas, Hutchison and Cornyn, will vote on this bill. But I know how they should vote, and I have told them so. Have you told them how you expect them to vote? If not, and you live in Texas, click here and here.

Both Texas senators blew it last night

Both senators from the state of Texas, Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn, blew it last night with their votes to allow Mexican long-haul trucks to operate on our roads. Fortunately, the majority of senators got it right.

The U.S. Senate voted on Tuesday to block funding for a Bush administration test program to let Mexican long-haul trucks operate in the United States under 1994's North American Free Trade Agreement.

One day after a fiery truck accident killed dozens in Mexico, the Senate approved an amendment to a transportation spending bill that would cut off funding for the test, which the administration authorized last week to run for one year.

Worse yet, twenty-one other Republican senators joined them. When will they learn?

The two words they dare not write

Read this article. Can you guess the two words that the drive-by media just can't seem to write?

The 28-year-old Peruvian national charged in the executions of three college students in a Newark schoolyard is to appear in court this morning for a hearing on unrelated assault and child-rape charges.

Jose Lachira Carranza was named in a 31-count indictment in July that accused him of sexually assaulting a little girl over a four-year period, beginning when the child was 5. He was charged in 2006 with assaulting four men with a chair and a broken bottle in a brawl at a West Orange restaurant.

Poor Jose. Or—as the amnesty-or-bust crowd would call him—poor, hard-working Jose. Committing the murders that Americans just can't seem to commit. Sexually assaulting the five-year-olds that Americans just can't seem to assault. Visiting our country from his native Peru only to find himself behind bars. Where is La Raza? Where is LULAC? Why won't they help this hard-working man return to providing for his family?

Is it perhaps because of those two nasty little words?

Compean and Ramos are HEROES

I'm late to this subject, I know. But I can no longer be silent. First, please read this.

Today, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the Compean/Ramos case. One of my senators, John Cornyn, sits on the Judiciary committee. The final witness at the hearing was the excreable Johnny Sutton, District Attorney for the San Antonio district.

Senator Cornyn should have been ready to skewer the excreable Sutton. Edd Hendee, co-host of the best morning talk show in Texas on "radio-active" AM 700 KSEV, went up to Washington, D.C. yesterday in order to help Senator Cornyn and his staff get prepared for today's hearing. Furthermore, others have written extensively about the excreable Sutton's lies, including this extensive list of 15 questions written by Jerome Corsi.

He should have been ready. But he wasn't; all he had was softballs. Instead, it was the liberal Diane Feinstein who led the charge against the excreable Sutton. Furthermore, she has committed to ask President Bush to commute the ridiculous sentences given the two border patrol agents.

Are there no more men of principle in the Republican party?

VICTORY!!! The amnesty monster is DEAD!

Today is a day of victory for national sovereignty.

Today is a day of victory for legal immigration.

And today is a day of victory for the rule of law.

The awful monster called the Amnesty Bill is dead.

The Senate drove a stake Thursday through President Bush's plan to legalize millions of unlawful immigrants, likely postponing major action on immigration until after the 2008 elections.

The monster didn't even get a majority of votes (motion to invoke cloture). It died 46-53. I'm grateful to say that both of my senators (Cornyn and Hutchison) voted to kill the monster. But Teddy Kennedy couldn't leave the issue alone. He issued this threat.

"Year after year, we've had the broken borders," said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. "Year after year, we've seen the exploitation of workers."

After the vote, he said: "It is now clear that we are not going to complete our work on immigration reform. That is enormously disappointing for Congress and for the country." Kennedy, a chief proponent of the bill, said, "we will be back. This issue is not going away." [emphasis mine]

As always, Mary Jo Kopechne remains unavailable for comment.

Oh no he didn't!

Oh yes he did.

You know, I've heard all the rhetoric -- you've heard it, too -- about how this is amnesty. Amnesty means that you've got to pay a price for having been here illegally, and this bill does that. [emphasis mine]

And here's the video.

The disgusting, venomous, and putrid monster that is the Amnesty Bill lives still

Like the villan that keeps coming back to life in the third reel of a bad horror flick, it just won't die.

The Senate voted Tuesday to jump-start a stalled immigration measure to legalize millions of unlawful immigrants. President Bush said the bill offered a "historic opportunity for Congress to act," and appeared optimistic about its passage by week's end.

The pivotal test-vote was 64-35 to revive the divisive legislation. It still faces formidable obstacles in the Senate, including bitter opposition by GOP conservatives and attempts by some waverers in both parties to revise its key elements.

Here's the roll call. How did your senator vote?

RNC losing donations over amnesty bill

Against the President's wishes, people who usually contribute to the Republican National Committee seems to not want to.

"Every donor in 50 states we reached has been angry, especially in the last month and a half, and for 99 percent of them immigration is the No. 1 issue," a fired phone-bank employee told the Washington Times.

I guess the RNC got the "un-patriotic" list to call.


Fantastic picture and hat tip to World Net Daily.

It is time to let him go

The effortlessly brilliant Peggy Noonan has hit the nail on the head.

For almost three years, arguably longer, conservative Bush supporters have felt like sufferers of battered wife syndrome. You don't like endless gushing spending, the kind that assumes a high and unstoppable affluence will always exist, and the tax receipts will always flow in? Too bad! You don't like expanding governmental authority and power? Too bad. You think the war was wrong or is wrong? Too bad.

But on immigration it has changed from "Too bad" to "You're bad."

The president has taken to suggesting that opponents of his immigration bill are unpatriotic--they "don't want to do what's right for America." His ally Sen. Lindsey Graham has said, "We're gonna tell the bigots to shut up." On Fox last weekend he vowed to "push back." Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff suggested opponents would prefer illegal immigrants be killed; Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said those who oppose the bill want "mass deportation." Former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson said those who oppose the bill are "anti-immigrant" and suggested they suffer from "rage" and "national chauvinism."

I love our president. He was absolutely the right man (I believe, God's appointed man) for the right time for our nation. No one can argue that Algore would have performed nearly to the degree that W did after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

But, for some inexplicable reason, on the issue of amnesty for illegal immigrants, honest people can no longer disagree. On this issue it's his way or you must be a fear monger.

President Bush sounded like he hoped to sever ties with the remaining 30 percent who like him when he went after critics in his party this week over opposition to his latest immigration plan.

"If you want to scare the American people, what you say is the bill's an amnesty bill," Bush said during a stop in Glynco, Ga. "That's empty political rhetoric, trying to frighten our citizens."

It was his harshest public backhand yet to the conservative bloggers, commentators, politicians and CNN anchor Lou Dobbs, all gassing about how the bill amounts to amnesty.

It is time to let him go. He never was a true conservative. Let him hoist his lack of conservativeness on his own petard.

May Day II: what happened?

I was so looking forward to the second "new" May Day, the day where those who have violated our nation's sovereignty brandish their violation for all to see. But for some reason, this year the celebration isn't as large as last year's.

Demonstrators marched in cities across the United States on Tuesday to demand rights for illegal immigrants, but the demonstrations were much smaller than last year's massive rallies, which were hailed as the start of a new American civil rights movement.

...

In Los Angeles, where an estimated 500,000 protesters poured into the streets last year for boisterous pro-immigrant rallies, about 10,000 people converged on City Hall for a noon protest.

What's the deal? Aren't these people proud of their illegal status?

And, just to be sure, they are indeed illegal. Here is the applicable law: United States Code, Title 8, Chapter 12, Subchapter II, Part VII, Section 1325.

Sec. 1325. - Improper entry by alien
(a) Improper time or place; avoidance of examination or inspection; misrepresentation and concealment of facts
Any alien who (1) enters or attempts to enter the United States at any time or place other than as designated by immigration officers, or (2) eludes examination or inspection by immigration officers, or (3) attempts to enter or obtains entry to the United State by a willfully false or misleading representation or the willful concealment of a material fact, shall, for the first commission of any such offense, be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than 6 months, or both, and, for subsequent commission of any such offense, be fined under title 18, or imprisoned not more than 2 years, or both.

Seems pretty clear to me.

Cost of Illegal Aliens: $2.2 Trillion

So says World Net Daily in a review of a new Heritage Foundation report, "The Fiscal Cost of Low-Skill Households to the U.S. Taxpayer". From the WND article:

Someone has finally fixed an approximate taxpayer cost of between 12 million and 15 million illegal aliens residing in the U.S.

A new study by the Heritage Foundation's Robert Rector found a household headed by an individual without a high school education, including about two-thirds of illegal aliens, costs U.S. taxpayers more than $32,000 in federal, state and local benefits. That same family contributes an average of $9,000 a year in taxes, resulting in a net tax burden of $22,449 each year.

Over the course of the household's lifetime that tax burden translates to $1.1 million.

If the lower figure of 12 million illegal aliens is used for estimation purposes, the total tax burden translates to $2.2 trillion.

Let's see, how much is our national debt? And what would be a great way to get rid of some of it?