Some worried about White House crackdown on illegal workers

By Michelle Gallardo
August 10, 2007 - The White House and the Department of Homeland Security are imposing new laws to crackdown on illegal immigration. Questions about a worker's social security status have not been resolved within 90 days. If not, employers will he held liable if they don't fire those workers. fines for employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants will be raised. and there are now fewer documents employers can accept to verify a worker's status.

What we heard from people Friday was mostly a concern that this crackdown could adversely affect many businesses, large and small. While those who support the measures say these things have been proposed in the past and never enforced.

"Because the magnet that brings most economic migrants into this country is work. We have worksite enforcement directed al illegal employment we strike at that magnet," said Michael Chertoff, Homeland Security secretary.

Cracking down on businesses that employ undocumented workers is the main provision in the new immigration related initiatives. Many observers say it is appeasing congressional republicans who've blocked passage of an immigration reform bill until current laws are enforced.

Dr. Sean Gavin co-owns several chiropractic clinics across the Chicago area. He says when he asks for a prospective employee's social security card there is no way for him to tell it is fake. "We're a small business. I have like a hundred employees. What happens if I have to let go of 50 of them or even 10? People who are valuable, people who are key people?" said Gavin. imigration activist Emma Lozano says the provisions contradict the Bush administration's desire to pass comprehensive immigration reform.

"You cannot do enforcement only. You have to do that in conjunction with legislation so people will come out of the shadows and give their information. And maybe then you would find a terrorist, but all they're doing now is separating families," said Emma Lozano, Pueblo Sin Fronteras.

Those who support a crackdown on illegal immigration aren't happy either. "As far as we're concerned it's all talk. I think of past practices. Nothing has been enforced until now," said Rosanna Pulido, Illinois Minuteman Project.

Other measures announced Friday include speeding up the building of fences along the US-Mexico border, and trying to match up records of non-citizens entering and leaving the country.

Chinese immigrant and new citizen Beilin Ye talked about what she calls the anti-immigrant sentiment just minutes after taking the oath.

"I think a lot of people forget that immigrants are what made this country. Part of the packet they gave us had a little booklet that introduced all the famous immigrants and there is Alexander Hamilton, one of our founding fathers who wasn't born here," Ye said.

Secretary Michael Chertoff also said Friday that these measures are not meant to take the place of a comprehensive immigration reform bill but a way to enforce existing laws that are already on the books.

ABC7 News Team
Michelle Gallardo, Weekend General Assignment Reporter, ABC 7 News
RELATED: Michelle's BIO

Improving Border Security and Immigration Within Existing Law

August 10, 2007

Today, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez Announced a Series of Reforms the Administration Will Pursue to Address Border Security and Immigration Challenges. The following reforms represent steps the Administration can take within the boundaries of existing law to secure our borders more effectively, improve interior and worksite enforcement, streamline existing guest worker programs, improve the current immigration system, and help new immigrants assimilate into American culture.

Border Security
1. The Administration Will Continue to Strengthen Security at the Border with Additional Personnel and Infrastructure. We are committed to implementing the following border security measures by December 31, 2008:

18,300 Border Patrol agents
370 miles of fencing
300 miles of vehicle barriers
105 camera and radar towers
Three additional UAVs
We will also work to ensure that 1,700 more Border Patrol Agents and an additional UAV are added in 2009.

2. The Administration will Maintain the Policy of "Catch and Return" for Illegal Aliens Apprehended at the Border. For years, limited detention space forced the release of many illegal border crossers from nations other than Mexico with nothing more than a Notice to Appear for a hearing before an immigration judge. Many aliens ignored these notices and instead blended into U.S. society. The Administration has ended this practice and instituted a policy of "catch and return," ensuring that all removable aliens caught trying to cross the border illegally are held until they can be removed.

The Administration Will Further Increase Funding for Detention Beds So There are Places to Detain 31,500 Illegal Aliens Until They Can Be Returned.
The Administration Will Also Press Recalcitrant Countries to Work with the United States to Repatriate Citizens Who Are in the United States Illegally.
3. The Departments of State and Homeland Security Will Strengthen Legal Efforts to Keep International Gang Members out of the United States. Gangs are at the root of many U.S. crime problems today, and many of the most dangerous gangs draw significant membership from abroad. The Federal government already denies visas to known members of certain gangs from China, the former Soviet Union, and El Salvador. Today, the President is directing the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to expand this list of dangerous organized gangs from other nations and to ensure that members of those gangs are barred from entry into the United States.

4. The Administration Will Expand Exit Requirements So Persons Who Overstay Limited-Duration Visits To The United States Can Be Identified.

By The End Of 2008, The US-VISIT Exit Requirement Will Be Underway At All U.S. Airports And Seaports. The Department of Homeland Security will continue to explore effective and cost-efficient means of establishing biometric exit requirements at land border crossings.
The Administration Will Establish A New Land-Border Exit System For Guest Workers, Starting On A Pilot Basis. This will help ensure that temporary workers in the country now follow the mandate to leave when their work authorization expires.
5. The Administration Will Require All Travelers To Our Ports Of Entry To Use Passports Or Other Similar Secure Documents. Since January 2007, air travelers have been required to carry a passport for entry into the United States. Because of passport processing backlogs, a temporary accommodation has been made for U.S. citizens traveling in the Western Hemisphere, which will be phased out. Starting January 31, 2008, DHS will phase in a requirement for passports or other secure documents for sea and land ports of entry.

6. Beginning This Fall, The Secretary Of Homeland Security Will Deliver Regular "State Of The Border" Reports. These reports will keep the American people informed of the Federal Government's progress in securing the border and hold the Administration accountable for continuing improvement.

Interior Enforcement
7. The Administration Is Training Hundreds Of State And Local Law Enforcement Officers To Address Illegal Immigration In Their Communities. The Administration is maintaining the 287(g) program and expanding other measures that help State and local law officials. These measures include a broad array of enforcement tools, such as formal task forces, greater use of the ICE Law Enforcement Support Center, delegated border search and seizure authority under Title 19, and enhanced partnerships to address location-specific threats, such as gangs.

8. By This Fall, U.S. Immigration And Customs Enforcement Teams Devoted To Removing Fugitive Aliens Will Have Been Quintupled In Less Than Three Years. There were 15 seven-member Fugitive Operations Teams in 2005. As of this week there are 68; there will be 75 by the end of September.

9. The Justice Department Will Initiate Regulatory Action To Close The "Voluntary Departure" Loophole Manipulated By Many Illegal Immigrants. Illegal immigrants who settle their cases by agreeing to voluntarily depart sometimes then gain extra time inside the United States by filing a procedural motion to reopen the case. New regulations will clarify that filing such a motion will terminate the voluntary departure status and make the alien subject to the order of removal. They will also set a presumptive $3,000 civil penalty for failing to comply with a voluntary departure agreement.

Worksite Enforcement
10. Today, The Department Of Homeland Security Issued A "No-Match" Regulation That Will Help Employers Ensure Their Workers Are Legal And Help The Government Identify And Crack Down On Employers Who Knowingly Hire Illegal Workers. In cases in which an employer has a significant number of employees with inaccurate personal identity information, the Social Security Administration will send the employer a "No-Match" letter. The regulation clarifies that employers may be held liable if they ignore the "No Match" problems by failing to take specified steps within 90 days of receiving the letter.

11. In The Coming Months, The Administration Will Publish A Regulation That Will Reduce The Number Of Documents That Employers Must Accept To Confirm The Identity And Work Eligibility Of Their Employees. Presently, no fewer than 29 categories of documents can be used to establish identity and work eligibility. Employers have little capacity to verify the authenticity of these documents, and the sheer quantity of accepted documents is an invitation to fraud. This regulation will reduce unlawful employment by weeding out insecure documents now used often for identity fraud.

12. As A Civil Counterpart To The Administration's Strategy Of Using Criminal Investigations To Deter Illegal Employment, The Department Of Homeland Security Will Raise The Civil Fines Imposed On Employers Who Knowingly Hire Illegal Immigrants By Approximately 25 Percent. Efforts to secure the border will fail unless the "magnet" that attracts illegals is turned off. Unfortunately, the fines for relying on illegal workers are so modest that some companies treat them as little more than a cost of doing business. DHS will use existing authority to update civil fines for inflation in order to boost fines by about 25 percent, as much as is allowed under current law.

13. The Administration Will Continue To Expand Criminal Investigations Against Employers Who Knowingly Hire Large Numbers Of Illegal Aliens. Arrests by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for criminal violations have increased from 24 in FY 1999 to a record 716 in FY 2006. There have been 742 criminal arrests since the beginning of FY 2007 (through July 31), and there is anecdotal evidence that companies are taking notice and adjusting their business practices to follow the law.

14. The Administration Will Commence a Rulemaking Process To Require All Federal Contractors And Vendors To Use E-Verify, The Federal Electronic Employment Verification System, To Ensure That Their Employees Are Authorized To Work In The United States. The Federal government ought to lead by example. As there are more than 200,000 companies doing Federal business, this will significantly expand use of E-Verify, and make it more difficult for illegal immigrants to obtain jobs through fraud.

15. The Administration Will Help States Make Greater Use Of E-Verify. Some States already mandate the use of E-Verify by some or all of their hiring agencies, and other States are considering similar requirements. The Administration will assist such efforts through outreach and offers of technical assistance.

16. The Administration Will Bolster E-Verify By Expanding The Data Sources It Can Check. This will make it easier to catch individuals who commit identity theft. New sources of data will include cross-checks of visa and passport information.

17. The Administration Will Seek Voluntary State Partners Willing To Share Their Department Of Motor Vehicles Photos And Records With E-Verify. Agreements to allow E Verify access to the repository of photographs in state DMV databases will help prevent illegal immigrants from using fraudulent driver’s licenses to obtain employment. Such agreements will also lay the groundwork for further expansion of the electronic employment eligibility verification system.

Streamlining Existing Guest-Worker Programs
18. The Department Of Labor (DOL) Will Reform The H-2A Agricultural Seasonal Worker Program. No sector of the American economy requires a legal flow of foreign workers more than agriculture, which has begun to experience severe labor shortages as our Southern border has tightened. The President has therefore directed DOL to review the regulations implementing the H-2A program and to institute changes that will provide farmers with an orderly and timely flow of legal workers, while protecting the rights of laborers.

19. The Department Of Labor Will Issue Regulations Streamlining The H-2B Program For Non-Agricultural Seasonal Workers. Because businesses in seasonal industries such as landscaping and hospitality frequently have a difficult time locating temporary workers, the H-2B program has proven quite popular. Some employers report significant processing delays, however. DOL's proposed rule will speed processing by moving from a government-certified system to an employer-attestation system akin to the PERM system that has reduced backlogs in other areas.

20. The Department Of Homeland Security Will Extend The Visa Term For Professional Workers From Canada And Mexico To Attract More Of These Talented Workers To The United States. The United States must compete for foreign professional workers, and those who elect to lend their talents to the U.S. economy should be welcomed with open arms, not given a bureaucratic runaround. Yet the roughly 65,000 workers who enter the United States each year on the TN visa must go to the trouble of renewing their visa every year. This regulation will extend the TN visa duration to three years – the same term as other popular professional visas.

21. The Department Of Homeland Security And The Department Of Labor Will Study And Report On Potential Administrative Reforms To Visa Programs For Highly Skilled Workers.

Improving Existing Immigration
22. The Administration Will Reform And Expedite Background Checks For Immigration. Current mechanisms for conducting immigration background checks are backed up, slowing processing times and endangering national security. The Administration is investing substantial new funds to address the backlog, and the FBI and USCIS are working together on a variety of projects designed to streamline existing processes so as to reduce waiting times without sacrificing security.

23. The President Is Directing The Department Of Homeland Security And The Social Security Administration To Study The Technical And Recordkeeping Reforms Necessary To Guarantee That Illegal Aliens Do Not Earn Credit In Our Social Security System For Illegal Work. Currently, aliens who make Social Security payments while working here legally can continue to accrue credits even if they overstay their visa. Improved data-sharing can lay the foundation for eventual Congressional action to eliminate this practice (which proved an obstacle to comprehensive reform). The relevant agencies are ordered to report to the President with a detailed plan for eliminating the problem.

Assimilation
24. The Office Of Citizenship Will Announce A Revised Naturalization Test In September 2007. The new test will emphasize fundamental concepts of American democracy, basic U.S. history, and the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. It will inculcate the basic values we share as Americans, and encourage civic knowledge and patriotism among prospective citizens.

The New Standardized Test Will Ensure Fairness By Eliminating Current Wide Variations In The Quality Of Testing Between Regional Offices.
25. The Office Of Citizenship Will Provide Additional Training For Volunteers And Adult Educators Who Lead Immigrants Through The Naturalization Process. In October 2007, the Office of Citizenship will introduce a web-based training program that covers U.S. government, civics education, and the naturalization process. To complement these online materials, USCIS will convene eight regional training conferences, beginning in October 2007, to improve the ability of citizenship instructors and volunteers to teach American history, civics, and the naturalization process to immigrant students. An on-line training module will also be available by the end of the year.

26. The Department Of Education Will Launch A Free, Web-Based Portal To Help Immigrants Learn English, And Expand This Model Over Time. Knowledge of English is the most important component of assimilation. An investment in tools to help new Americans learn English will be repaid many times over in the contributions these immigrants make to our political discourse, economy, and society.

YANKEE INGENUITY

An outstanding Idea

I have a friend who is president of his homeowner's association in a Washington, D.C. suburb. They were having a terrible problem with litter near some of his association's homes. The reason according to my friend is that six very large, luxurious new houses are being built right next to their community.

The trash was coming from the Mexican laborers working at the construction sites and included bags from McDonald's, Burger King and 7-11, plus coffee cups, napkins, cigarette butts, coke cans, empty bottles, etc.

He went to see the site supervisor and even the general contractor, politely urging them to get their workers not to litter the neighborhood, to no avail. He called the city, county, and police and got no help there either.

So here's what his community did. They organized about twenty folks, named themselves the "Inner Neighborhood Services" group, and arranged to go out at lunch time and "police" the trash themselves. It is what they did while picking up the trash that is so hilarious. They bought navy blue baseball caps and had the initials "INS" embroidered in gold on the caps. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand what they hoped people might, mistakenly, think the letters really stand for.

After the Inner Neighborhood Services group's first lunchtime pickup detail, with all of them wearing their caps and some carrying cameras; 46 out of the total of 68 construction workers did not show up for work the next morning-- and haven't come back yet. It has been ten days now.

The General Contractor is madder than hell, but can't say anything publicly because he could be busted for hiring illegal aliens. The homeowner's association can't be accused of impersonating federal personnel, because they have the official name of the group recorded in their homeowner association minutes along with a notation about the vote to approve formation of the new subcommittee--and besides, they informed the real INS in advance of their plans and the INS said basically, "Have at it"!


Proviede by a friend of HSM

U.S. Set for a Crackdown on Illegal Hiring

Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett has been searching high and low for a forum where someone would actually agree with him on his lawless position on Illegal Worker Pickup Centers (aka Day Laborer Centers). Well he found one today at the radical "Center for American Progress" in DC. On a panel with the Deputy Mayor of New Haven, CT (Home of ID cards for illegals) and the ACLU Director for PA (fighting the good citizens of Hazelton, PA) Ike was in good company. Love the panel description - " made up of elected officials and litigators at the center of this controversial issue will discuss their insights on the ordinances, the impact they have on communities of color, and the implications the ordinances present for the national immigration debate."

I hope Ike had a chance to catch today's New York Times article. He may be losing some key supporters and possibly members of his inner circle in the near future.

Help Save Mayland


August 8, 2007, New York Times
By JULIA PRESTON

In a new effort to crack down on illegal immigrants, federal authorities are expected to announce tough rules this week that would require employers to fire workers who use false Social Security numbers. Officials said the rules would be backed up by stepped-up raids on workplaces across the country that employ illegal immigrants.

After first proposing the rules last year, Department of Homeland Security officials said they held off finishing them to await the outcome of the debate in Congress over a sweeping immigration bill. That measure, which was supported by President Bush, died in the Senate in June. Now administration officials are signaling that they intend to clamp down on employers of illegal immigrants even without a new immigration law to offer legal status to millions of illegal immigrants already in the workforce.

The approach is expected to play well with conservatives who have long demanded that the administration do more to enforce existing immigration laws, but it could also lead to renewed pressure from businesses on Congress to provide legal status for an estimated six million unauthorized immigrant workers. “We are tough and we are going to be even tougher,” Russ Knocke, the spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, said yesterday. “There are not going to be any more excuses for employers, and there will be serious consequences for those that choose to blatantly disregard the law.”

Experts said the new rules represented a major tightening of the immigration enforcement system, in which employers for decades have paid little attention to notices, known as no-match letters, from the Social Security Administration advising that workers’ names and numbers did not match the agency’s records.
Illegal workers often provide employers with false Social Security numbers to qualify for a job.

Employers, especially in agriculture and low-wage industries, said they were deeply worried about the new rules, which could force them to lay off thousands of immigrant workers. More than 70 percent of farmworkers in the fields of the United States are illegal immigrants, according to estimates by growers’ associations.

“Across the employer community people are scared, confused, holding their breath,” said Craig Regelbrugge, co-chairman of the Agriculture Coalition for Immigration Reform, a trade organization. “Given what we know about the demographics of our labor force, since we are approaching peak season, people are particularly on edge.”

The expected regulations would give employers a fixed period, perhaps up to 90 days, to resolve any discrepancies between identity information provided by their workers and the records of the Social Security Administration. If workers’ documents cannot be verified, employers would be required to fire them or risk up to $10,000 in fines for knowingly hiring illegal immigrants.

Immigrant rights groups and labor unions, including the A.F.L.-C.I.O., predicted the rules would unleash discrimination against Hispanic workers. They said they were preparing legal challenges to try to stop them from taking effect. Some Republican lawmakers welcomed the administration’s stance. “If they shut off the jobs magnet in the workplace in a way that shows they are serious about restoring the rule of law, then I’m encouraged,” said Representative Steve King of Iowa.

The new rules codify an uneasy partnership between the Department of Homeland Security, which enforces the immigration laws, and the Social Security Administration, which collects identity information from W-2 tax forms of about 250 million workers each year, so it can credit the earnings in its system.
Mark Hinkle, a spokesman for Social Security, said the agency expected to send out about 140,000 no-match letters to employers this year, covering more than eight million workers. After the rules are announced, the agency is anticipating a surge in requests from employers seeking to clarify workers’ information, Mr. Hinkle said.

Social Security issues letters only to employers who have more than 10 workers whose numbers do not match, when those workers represent at least one-half of 1 percent of the company’s workforce, Mr. Hinkle said. The agency cannot verify which mismatches came from immigrants who presented false Social Security numbers when they applied for jobs, he said. Mismatches also occur because of clerical errors, or when workers marry and forget to inform Social Security that they changed their names. Several federal studies in recent years have found significant error rates in the Social Security database.

“We don’t know and we don’t speculate” about the reasons for mismatches, Mr. Hinkle said. The new rules will clarify steps employers can take to avoid being accused of knowingly hiring illegal immigrants, officials said. According to the draft, employers would be given 14 days after receiving a no-match letter to check for clerical errors and consult with the employee to correct mistakes. If the discrepancies are eliminated and new, valid work papers are filed within the fixed period, employers would enjoy a “safe harbor” from penalties.

The rules proposed last year brought a storm of criticism from both employers and workers groups. In a formal comment, the A.F.L.-C.I.O. said the rules would “harm all workers regardless of immigration status.” “The enforcement is only on the immigration side,” Ana Avendaño, associate general counsel for the A.F.L.-C.I.O, said yesterday. “They don’t do any labor inspection. So they are just giving employers another tool to repress workers’ rights.” Even large companies that do not hire many low-skilled immigrants would be affected by the rules, lawyers said.“It’s going to be a big change for almost every company,” said Cynthia J. Lange, an immigration lawyer in California.

Muzaffar A. Chishti, a director of the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan research group, said, “If this is strictly enforced there could be massive layoffs of workers.” But Mr. Chishti said that illegal immigrant workers might not leave the labor force but would apply for jobs at other businesses using the same invalid documents. He predicted the market for forged documents would grow. “A lot of employers are saying, ‘We just can’t handle this,’ ” said Laura Reiff, co-chairwoman of the Essential Worker Immigration Coalition, which represents employers in low-skilled industries. She said the rules might lead to new pressure from business on Congress to reconsider measures granting legal status to illegal immigrants.

The Dark Side of Congressman Chris Van Hollen

Sunday, August 05, 2007

U.S. Congressman Chris Van Hollen (D-8th District -Maryland) has moved one step closer to giving $200,000 in federal money to the lawless group CASA de Maryland for "gang prevention" activities. The House of Representatives has passed the funding bill for this travesty. It will be up to the U.S. Senate to stop Van Hollen.

This is the same CASA de Maryland that distributes literature advising illegal aliens how to evade U.S. immigration law, conducts workshops for illegal aliens on how to obtain Maryland drivers licenses, resists efforts by Maryland police to enforce federal warrants against illegal aliens, and refuses to check the legal status of individuals using their taxpayer funded labor centers!

ACTION - Contact Van Hollen and tell him we appreciate his support of gang prevention funding for Montgomery and Prince Georges County Governments. Tell him we are pleased he recognizes that we have a Hispanic gang problem (MS-13 and others) in Maryland.

But blast him in his poor judgement to give federal tax dollars to the lawless and hate-filled group CASA de Maryland. CASA's programs are a magnet for illegal aliens and gangs in Maryland. CASA IS THE PROBLEM, NOT THE SOLUTION.

Tell Van Hollen that you support the efforts of Help Save Maryland!!
Rep Chris Van Hollen
U.S. House of Representatives
1419 Longworth Bldg.Washington, DC 20515
Phone: 202-225-5341
Fax: 202-225-0375
Fax: 301-424-5992
Fax: 301-891-6985

http://vanhollen.house.gov/HoR/MD08/Home

Posted by MoCo at 11:26 PM 0 comments

Open-borders smear tactics

Washington Times Editorial

Aug 5, 2007

Even in the heart of "progressive" Montgomery County, a growing number of Marylanders are taking a stand against day-laborer centers for illegal aliens in their communities, and that doesn't sit well with advocates who tend to regard any criticism of such facilities as "nativist" bigotry. The current epicenter of the battle is a half-acre parcel of county-owned land in Derwood, near the Shady Grove Metro station, a location announced in January by Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett. The Derwood facility, which began operations in April, is one of three operated in the county by Casa of Maryland, whose executive director, Gustavo Torres, is a well-connected political operative who served as a member of Gov. Martin O'Malley's transition team.

On the issue of illegal immigration, Mr. Leggett is in a difficult position — caught between his sworn duty to enforce the law (and that includes laws he doesn't personally like) and his responsibilities as member of a Democratic Party political machine that considers groups like CASA, the state's number one advocacy organization for illegals, to be an integral part of its political coalition.

That's why Mr. Leggett and Montgomery County Police Chief Tom Manger have spent months wrestling with the "problem" of whether to enforce immigration warrants — something that could only become an issue in a very liberal jurisdiction like Montgomery. (Fortunately, they decided to continue to make the arrests). But on most matters related to illegal aliens, political correctness reigns supreme. For example, Mr. Leggett has said publicly that his county will not go the way of Prince William and Loudoun counties in neighboring Virginia, which in recent months adopted resolutions that restrict public services to illegals.

Some Montgomery residents, however, are determined to send Mr. Leggett a message of their own: that CASA should no longer receive taxpayer subsidies courtesy of the county or the state of Maryland. So, on July 22, about 30 people, including members of an organization called Help Save Maryland, the Maryland Minutemen Civil Defense Corps and American Border Patrol protested outside the Derwood center, where they were rudely greeted by a roughly 30-member contingent of open-borders activists. The latter group included members of the Salvadoran FMLN political party (the FMLN is descended from a Communist revolutionary movement backed by Cuban strongman Fidel Castro that fought a U.S.-backed elected government in El Salvador back in the 1980s) who countered that illegals should be as free to pursue happiness as persons here lawfully. We totally disagree with this premise — but it certainly doesn't constitute hate speech.

The same cannot be said for some of the other "arguments" made by illegal-alien advocates that morning. Some jeered within earshot of reporters slogans like "Minutemen, KKK, racist bigots. go away." That sort of talk is based upon a lie: that organizations opposing illegal immigration are somehow a cabal of racists like the Ku Klux Klan. Unfortunately, there is a propaganda campaign afoot to smear anyone who is skeptical of open borders (and subsidizing with tax money organizations like CASA of Maryland which encourage violation of the law). The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a once-great organization that spent decades combatting the KKK and educating Americans about the danger posed by such violent racist groups, is spearheading this campaign.

Today the SPLC (www.splcenter.org) appears to have as its mission trashing anyone who doesn't believe in open borders and mass amnesty. On its Web site, the group has an ongoing feature it calls "Nativist News" — click into it and it's apparent that the aim of the site is to depict the Montgomery demonstrators who oppose CASA and conservatives like journalist John O'Sullivan and organizations like the Family Research Council (in other words, mainstream conservatives) as persons catering to bigotry because they don't believe in open borders. This kind of guilt-by-association is contemptible, and we urge all decent people — whatever their views on illegal immigration — to make clear that there is no place for such smear tactics in Maryland.

Illegal Aliens Declare War on the United States

By Douglas MacKinnon
Wednesday, August 1, 2007

While the current administration, as well as Democrats and Republicans in Congress, focus on the war on terror and the war in Iraq, a greater real-time threat to our way of life and the rule of law in the United States, is manifesting itself just down the road a bit from the White House and the Capitol building . In Prince William Country, Virginia, illegal aliens have just basically declared war on the county, law and order, and the very livelihood of innocent Americans. They have done so, and no one in Washington really seems to care.

In the upside down world that is now our nation, these illegal aliens are outraged that the county is now trying to stem their overwhelming influx and the crushing burden their mass migration imposes on already strained county services. As hard as it may be to believe, these illegal aliens and their supporters, have become so enraged that the county is trying to uphold the law, that they have decided to attack the county on a number of levels.

Just last week, thousands of illegal and legal Hispanics living in the county met to plan their response to the rule of law. Voting with raised fists, they decided to punish the county trough a boycott of non-immigrant businesses, a labor strike, and a lawsuit. Town by town, city by city, county by county, these illegal aliens and the far left lawyers that are eagerly facilitating their lawsuits, plan to chip away at the sovereignty of the United States. And as they do, many of our elected officials and leading “news” organizations, are cheerleading them on from the sidelines.

Before the supporters of this illegal invasion demonize me, let me say again, that I am married to a Hispanic-American, I speak Spanish, and am not threatened one bit, by the culture. In fact, I think legal Hispanic immigrants add much to the fabric of our nation.

Illegal immigration however, represents a growing threat to our nation in a number of areas. Not the least of which, being crime. As an example, the police and people of Houston, Texas, are now dealing with organized gangs of illegal aliens from Mexico who are carrying out “express kidnappings” of the local citizens.

An “Express Kidnapping” being when someone is snatched off the street, driven to an ATM to drain their account, forced to have a family member bring down any money or valuables in the home as ransom, and then many times, still shot in the head and left by the side of the road. My wife’s family has fallen victim to a number of these kidnappings.

“Express Kidnappings” have been perfected in Mexico City, Caracas, Venezuela, and a number of large South American cities, and are now being exported to our nation. If you have not heard of them, don’t worry, they will soon be coming to your town.

In closing, the message from these illegal aliens and their supporters could not be more clear. “If you dare try to uphold the laws of your nation, state, county, or town, we will sue you, bankrupt your legal business, go on strike against you, and broaden our borders deeper into your nation. And we will do all of this with the assistance of your federal politicians, your mainstream media, and your lawyers. We will wait you out and we will win.”

Win they may because no one is coming to the rescue. The federal government has abandoned us on this issue. Those politicians are selling their souls for votes that will never come.

Your only hope -- our only hope -- is that state and local officials will make a principled stand against this lawless invasion. If not, the United States of America may soon become but a faint memory.

Douglas MacKinnon was press secretary for former Senator Bob Dole and is the author of America's Last Days .

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