Flag desecration abhorrent (when it’s a Mexican flag)

From the University of New Mexico as reported in the Albuquerque Journal, a report of flag desecration that really has the University President steamed. Of the incident, University President David Schmidly said:

“It’s inexcusable to desecrate a flag,” he said. “I’m not going to be very pleasant to deal with on this issue.”

Of course he wasn’t talking about an American flag, which you can burn and stomp on and utterly destroy and claim that you are expressing your “right of free speech.” No, Mr.Schmidly was talking about the desecration of a Mexican flag, which is a criminal act and must be punished.

Some people you should know (about).

What ever happened to the old days when a church was where you went to pray, not to make a pro-illegal immigration political statement?

Meet the New Sanctuary Movement (Their name says “New,” but I think it’s probably the same guys with gray hair and pony tails that ran the “Old” sanctuary movement.) Anyway, whoever they are, it’s clear that when they say “brothers and sisters,” they do not mean you.

Here’s their pledge:

The New Sanctuary Movement is a coalition of interfaith religious leaders and participating congregations, called by our faith to respond actively and publicly to the suffering of our immigrant brothers and sisters residing in the United States.

We acknowledge that the large-scale immigration of workers and their families to the United States is a complex historical, global and economic phenomenon that has many causes and does not lend itself to simplistic or purely reactive public policy solutions.

We stand together in our faith that everyone, regardless of national origin, has basic common rights, including but not limited to: 1) livelihood; 2) family unity; and 3) physical and emotional safety. We witness the violation of these rights under current immigration policy, particularly in the separation of children from their parents due to unjust deportations, and in the exploitation of immigrant workers. We are deeply grieved by the violence done to families through immigration raids. We cannot in good conscience ignore such suffering and injustice.

Therefore, We Covenant To:

• Take a public, moral stand for immigrants’ rights
• Reveal, through education and advocacy, the actual suffering of immigrant workers and families under current and proposed legislation
• Protect immigrants against hate, workplace discrimination, and unjust deportation

Coming to a town near you.

NEW SANCTUARY MOVEMENT COALITION REPRESENTATIVES

Arizona
Phoenix/Tucson
Rev. Trina Zelle, tzelle@iwj.org
Rev. Magdalena Schwartz, chilena03@msn.com

California:
Los Angeles
Fr. Richard Estrada, estradacmf@aol.com
Rev. Julie Wakelee-Lynch, juliewl@stlukeslb.org

San Diego
Rabbi Laurie Coskey, lcoskey@onlinecpi.org

San Francisco Bay Area
Rev. Phil Lawson, phillawson2@comcast.net
Betty Canton-Self, icir2010@yahoo.com

San Jose*
Rev. Carol Been, carolbeen@aol.com
Rev. Reginald Swilley, swilley@swilleygraphics.org

Ventura
Ms. Alice Linsmeier, clue@coastalalliance.com
Rev. Lupita Alonso, alonsore@hotmail.com

Colorado
Denver
Mr. Julien Ross, julienross@yahoo.com

Florida
Miami
Jean Souffrant
jeansouffrant@sfiwj.org

Illinois
Chicago
Mr. Jose Olivo, joliva@iwj.org
Rev. Slim Coleman*, wrevcoleman@aol.com
Ms. Martha Pierce, mpierce@sanctuary.org

Kansas / Missouri
Kansas City
Rev Rick Behrens, rudyflash@aol.com
Daniel Romero, dromero@iwj.org

New York
New York
Ms. Belinda Passafaro, Bpassafaro@aol.com
Mr. Angad Bhalla, Angad.bhalla@gmail.com

Oregon
Portland
Mr. Marco Mejia, portlandsanctuary@gmail.com
Ms. Beth Poteet, portlandsanctuary@gmail.com

Texas
Houston
Ms. Maria Jimenez, dignidad@hotmail.org

Washington
Seattle
Mr. Jorge Quiroga, jhquiroga@comcast.net

Washington DC
Rev. Jarvis Johnson*, jjohnson@walmartwatch.org

Milwaukee
Mr. Bill and Mrs. JoAnn Lange, wjlange@sbcglobal.net
Mr. German Diaz, gealdice@hotmail.com

ICE makes child care arrangements, Latino leader decries “Gestapo” tactics.

Another day, another Latino leader is condemning any effort to enforce immigration law as “Gestapo tactics.” Except that while he and the ACLU are speaking to the media, the “Gestapo” is actually making child care arrangements for the illegals while they are temporarily inconvenienced by their incarceration.

What makes this even worse is that Reno Nevada Mayor Bob Cashell criticized the raids and joined the protest!

This all has to do with the ICE raids made on the McDonalds restaurants in Reno. The raids may have netted up to 100 illegals. While the illegals are being processed, ICE is working with Washoe County social services to help provide care for their children. All at the taxpayer’s expense. How Gestapo-ish!

Meanwhile, here’s the reaction from a corporate McDonalds spokesperson as well as from one of the local franchisees:

Ms. Lisa Howard, the McDonalds corporate spokesperson, said:

“This is a local situation with a local operator.”

Luther Mack, a local McDonalds franchise operator who owns at least some of the restaurants where the arrests were made, had this to say in a statement:

“As an employer, I do not knowingly hire or employ undocumented or unauthorized workers.”

“Sob Stories of the Undocumented”

From Associated Press via the Houston Chronicle: A little piece of drivel by AP reporter Alicia A. Caldwell.

This one is all about how nasty and brutish the Otero County New Mexico Deputy Sheriffs are when they investigate and detain innocent, unoffending “undocumented” persons. The deputies are clearly causing trouble for these poor people. It is very sinister indeed.

To give you an idea as to the overall tone of what in this case passes for reporting, here is just the beginning of the article.

“It was 10:30 p.m. when a sheriff’s deputy started banging on Maria’s front door.

Startled, she came to the door and answered his demands to know who called 911. No one, said Maria, a 50-year-old illegal immigrant who asked that her last name not be published. But the deputy, whom she couldn’t name, insisted he had to come in and look through the house.

Maria told the deputy to stay outside. But he barged in with relatives who came over to see what the commotion was about, she said. He searched the house without a warrant and questioned Maria and her relatives, including children, for nearly three hours.”

A paragraph later, the article goes on: “Now I’m afraid to call 911,” Maria said, crying as she recalled her arrest.”

It almost qualifies as a “Sob Story of the Undocumented.”

The Sheriff’s Department, which has a total of 36 deputies to patrol 6,000 square miles of southern New Mexico, denies any bullying or wrongdoing.

But that doesn’t really matter to the reporter. She seems to prefer talking to whatever civil rights groups and unnamed immigration law “experts” she has on her rolodex. In this case, she found three, including the American Immigration Lawyers Association, and the Border Network for Human Rights (which is handing out “rights cards” to residents in Chaparral and reminding them that they don’t have to speak to police without a lawyer and deputies cannot come into their homes without permission or a warrant.)

Alicia clearly knows a lot of people who don’t like the police.

Nice to have everyone on the same team.

The Open Borders Crowd (with Clout)

There’s Nancy Pelosi, dismantling your sovereignty, piece by piece.

Regarding the Border Fence:

“I have been against the fence, I thought it’s a bad idea even when it was just a matter of discussion,” said Pelosi, D-Calif.

Regarding the DREAM Act:

“It just isn’t fair,” Pelosi said. “Those young people who came to America one way or another … their opportunities are curtailed because of the situation. And it’s not only harmful to them — it’s harmful to the country.”

The Open Borders Crowd

I’ve already talked about the impact of illegal immigration on the border towns, including significant layoffs at Bisbee Arizona’s tiny Copper Queen Hospital.

Someone who apparently could care less about that is the the Rev. Seth Polley, Pastor at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Bisbee, who thinks only of the plight of the undocumented.

Recently, Rev. Polley had this to say about illegal immigration and the border:

“What motivates me is helping people to understand the realities of what these migrants face, and to understand that the migrants who are crossing are not criminals who are looking to burden the social safety net of the country, but who want to have jobs and provides for their families,” he said. And that, he said, “involves convincing people to separate the job-seekers from the smaller number of drug traffickers and smugglers who use the border for criminal activity.”

Rev. Polley wants to convince you that the illegal human smuggling trade that shuttles “job seekers” across the border can be separated from the illegal narcotics smuggling trade that uses many of the same routes, tunnels, techniques and even people.

I don’t know about you, but I’m not feeling very convinced.

What a day.

First I was happy.

Commission on Immigration: HB 1673, sponsored by Delgate Bob Marshall (R) creates the Virginia Commission on Immigration as an advisory commission in the executive branch. The purpose of the Commission is to study, report, and make recommendations to address the costs and benefits of immigration on the Commonwealth, including the impact on education, health care, law enforcement, local demands for services and the economy, and the effect on the Commonwealth of federal immigration and funding policies.

Virginia officials are also considering a proposal to build a 1,000-bed detention center where illegal immigrants arrested for certain crimes could be held until federal officials deport them.

Then I was mad.

Dr. Esam S. Omeish, a Northern Virginia physician and president of the new Commission on Immigration, is head of the Virginia-based Muslim American Society. The Muslim American Society has significant ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, a group based in Egypt which seeks a global Islamic state.

Then I was happy.

Virginia Governor Tim Kaine issues a statement on the resignation of Dr. Esam Omeish from the Virginia Commission on Immigration.

Now I am skeptical.

Contained in Governor Kaine’s statement. “I intend to name another representative of the Muslim community to the Commission in the near future.”

The difference between a cow, a bush and an illegal alien.

This is a little disturbing, but I can’t say it’s a real surprise. The $28 million pilot program to erect a “virtual” border fence along a 28-mile stretch that straddles a smuggling corridor south of Tucson is experiencing delays and technical problems.

From the Washington Post:

“Ground radar and cameras that were to identify illegal border crossers so that armed patrols could be dispatched to capture them have had trouble distinguishing people and vehicles from cows and bushes. The sensors are also confused by moisture, the officials said.”

More from the article:

“Two U.S. border surveillance programs cost taxpayers $429 million between 1998 and 2005, DHS’s inspector general reported in December 2005. They yielded a system that could be triggered by insects, horses and weather, and so Border Patrol agents never investigated 60 percent of sensor alerts. Ninety percent of the rest were false alarms and only 1 percent led to arrests.”

Boeing, the contractor, is apparently just now figuring out that there is a difference between the laboratory and rough, hot, sandy terrain. We are being urged to be patient, because, you know, things like this just take time.

Watch out for the red duffel bags.

Investigators from the Government Accountability Office set out to discover how easy it would be for a smuggler to bring radioactive material or other contraband over the northern border. The investigators used red duffel bags to simulate the potentially dangerous smuggled materials.

With 972 border agents covering the 5,000 mile border between the United States and Canada, you can imagine how it went.

The report concluded:

“Our work shows that a determined cross-border violator would likely be able to bring radioactive materials or other contraband undetected into the United States by crossing the U.S.-Canada border at any of the locations we investigated.”

By the way, it is illegal to cross the Canadian border into the US at any place other than an offical port of entry. We must remember to tell this to the real smugglers, who will probably not be carrying red duffel bags.

Read the article.

Anger is simmering (and simmering) in the heartland.

According to a Reuters report, anger has been simmering among Hispanic leaders in Kansas City Missouri since August. Simmering and simmering. And simmering. The reason is a political appointment by Kansas City Mayor Mark Funkhouser.

It seems that Mayor Funkhouser had the audacity to appoint Ms. Frances Semler, a member of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps to a position in the City government. It is not a law enforcement postion. It is not a policy-making position. No, it is a position at the Department of Parks and Recreation.

What an outrage! What if Ms. Semler decides to put a “border fence” around one of the city parks? Where will the dogs and the people that walk behind the dogs with the little plastic bags go?

Jumping right into the fray is Janet Murguia, the perpetually-simmering chief executive of the The National Council of La Raza, which is billed as the largest U.S. Hispanic Advocacy group. According to her “The Minuteman is an extremist group … espousing hate and sometimes violence.”

On the other hand, Ms. Semler simply says “I feel very strongly about enforcing the law.” To his credit, Mayor Funkhouser has no plans to back down (yet). Meanwhile, Hispanic groups are busily trying to organize a boycott of everything that moves.

There’s more in the article, including rumors of a Mexico-to-Canada “superhighway” that will pass right through Kansas City and a city councilwoman who reassures us that “The border of Kansas and Missouri is not in jeopardy.”

You have to read it here.