The Free Thinker

"Birthright Citizenship Looms as the Next Immigration Battle" (New York Times):

NOGALES, Ariz. — Of the 50 or so women bused to this border town on a recent morning to be deported back to Mexico, Inez Vasquez stood out. Eight months pregnant, she had tried to waddle north, even carrying scissors with her in case she gave birth in the desert and had to cut the umbilical cord.

“All I want is a better life,” she said after the Border Patrol discovered her hiding in the bushes on the Arizona side of the border with her husband, her young son and her very pronounced abdomen.

The next big immigration battle looming on the horizon centers on illegal immigrants’ offspring, who are granted automatic citizenship if born on American soil. Arguing for an end to the policy, long rooted in the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, immigration hard-liners describe a wave of migrants like Ms. Vasquez stepping across the border in the advanced stages of pregnancy to drop what are dismissively called “anchor babies.”

The reality at this stretch of the border is more complex, with hospitals reporting some immigrants arriving to give birth in America but many of them with valid visas who have crossed the border legally to take advantage of better medical care. Some are even attracted by an electronic billboard on the Mexican side that advertises the services of an American doctor and says bluntly: “Do you want to have your baby in the U.S.?”

As for women like Ms. Vasquez, who was preparing for a desert delivery, they are rare...

Despite being called “anchor babies,” the children of illegal immigrants born in the United States cannot actually prevent their parents from being deported. It is not until they reach the age of 21 that the children are able to file paperwork to sponsor their parents for citizenship. The parents remain vulnerable until that point.

Maria Ledezma knows as much. Just off a bus that deported her from Phoenix to the Mexico border town of Nogales, she was sobbing as she explained the series of events that led her to be separated from her three daughters, ages 4, 7 and 9, all American citizens. “I never imagined being here,” said Ms. Ledezma, 25, who was brought to Phoenix from Mexico as a toddler. “I’ll bet right now that my girls are asking, ‘Where’s mom?’ ”

Blended families like hers are a reality across the United States. A studyreleased in August by the Pew Hispanic Center found that about 340,000 children were born to illegal immigrants in the United States in 2008 and became instant citizens...

In April, Representative Duncan Hunter, Republican of California, one of those pushing for Congressional action on the citizenship issue, stirred controversy when he suggested that children born in the United States to illegal immigrants should be deported with their parents until the birthright citizenship policy is changed. “And we’re not being mean,” he told a Tea Party rally in Southern California. “We’re just saying it takes more than walking across the border to become an American citizen. It’s what’s in our souls.”

On the gates of Auschwitz there were posted the words Arbeit macht frei, or "work makes free." What gives this phrase its special horror is that it expresses, in fact, a true and profound moral principle. It is through labor, through service to others, that we come to be needed, respected by others, and thereby achieve a degree of self-sufficiency, independence, autonomy. To use this a slogan at Auschwitz was a diabolical mockery of this truth. It was the usual tribute of hypocrisy that vice pays to virtue; but it was also, as is often the case with hypocrisy, instrumental in oppression, since the false hopes it inspired helped to keep the prisoners-- who might have fought if they had been certain they had nothing left to lose-- docile. Yet from a God's-eye perspective there was a great aptness to the slogan, for the slogan condemned Auschwitz with a terrible eloquence; for there more than almost anywhere else the existential link between work and freedom was violate by human evil.

In Duncan Hunter's words there is the same diabolical irony. What he says is a profound truth. In the deepest sense, America is not just a matter of being born within particular borders: it is about values, beliefs, ideals, loyalties, "what's in our souls." But of course, the policy Hunter is advocating is the quintessential apostasy against this truth, for he wants to resort to any violence and injustice necessary to make sure that being American depends entirely on the accident of a person's being born to American parents. It is because he and his audience are uncomfortably conscious of the wicked meanness of this policy that Duncan Hunter has to talk idealistic hogwash to assuage their guilty consciences. Thus the noble truth that America is "in our souls" is abused as an instrument of injustice. And yet nothing could condemn Hunter and other fascist pseudo-Americans more eloquently than the words he himself uses. No one personifies "what's in the souls" of true Americans-- the love of freedom, the strength, the hard work, the entrepreneurial spirit, the values of faith and family-- than illegal immigrants who come here and raise themselves and their families by honest labor. Meanwhile, these American Milosevices preaching ethnic cleansing and apartheid-- the Fourteenth Amendment and birthright citizenship is the only really fundamental moral difference between the United States and apartheid South Africa-- are Americans on paper, but not in their souls. And America is in danger of losing its ideals as long as real, decent Americans treats them as if they were.

Feds make it clear: Santa Clara County can't opt out of controversial immigration program

Santa Clara County supervisors may have voted this fall to opt out of a controversial program that shares booking fingerprints from local jails with federal immigration officials, but the feds this week sent a message of their own: No dice.

Confusion has roiled for months about the Secure Communities program, which the government says has led to the deportation of nearly 47,000 illegal immigrants nationwide since it was introduced just a year ago.

Although the program is meant to focus on undocumented residents who've been convicted of murder, rape and other serious crimes, opponents say it's snared people jailed for low-level offenses such as traffic violations. They also say it's led to racial profiling and has made immigrants afraid to report other crimes, such as domestic violence.

Earlier this year, San Francisco County's sheriff sought permission from Attorney General Jerry Brown to opt out of the program, but Brown -- who at the time was running for governor -- refused, saying the program ensures public safety.

After similar protests in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, as well as in other states, federal officials appeared to soften. A September memo from the U.S. Immigration Control and Enforcement said local jurisdictions could request not to participate.

Federal Homeland Security Chief Janet Napolitano confirmed as much in a letter to U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, who chairs the House Subcommittee on Immigration.

However, in October -- two weeks after Santa Clara County supervisors instructed staff to prepare such a request -- ICE reversed course. It declared that while federal officials would meet with local governments to discuss the issue, in the end, the agreement is with the states, which collect jail booking data and share it with Washington, D.C.

End the violence.

Another Nasty, Job-Killing Big Government Program by the Obama Administration

Deportation facts, figures, and faces: Comparing the Bush and Obama administrations

The political left paints itself as the "kinder, gentler" party when it comes to protecting the rights of immigrants, be they legal or illegal. This sentiment is frequently also repeated by the political right. In contrast, the left paints the political right as being the pro-deportation, pro-border enforcement and anti-immigrant party. Conservative circles frequently and enthusiastically agree with the first two identifiers. ICE deportation numbers paint a different picture. This opens the door to speculation.

For example, TRAC Reports explains that within the first nine months of 2010, the Obama administration approved the deportation of 279,035 individuals. In contrast, the Bush administration deported 10 percent less during the same time frame in 2008. Going all the way back to the first nine months of 2005, the Obama deportation figures show an increase of 97 percent.

In addition to the foregoing, the Obama administration has gotten a bad rep over being soft on crimes committed by illegal aliens. Once again, ICE figures tell a different story. Whereas the detention of criminal aliens had been on a gradual decline since 2005, it experienced a sharp upswing in 2010.

On the other side of the spectrum, detention of non-criminal aliens -- those who overstayed a visa, for example -- has gone down. During the first nine months of 2010, some 51 percent of deported aliens fell into the non-criminal category, while 49 percent were considered criminal. Of these, 17 percent represented serious criminals, who may have committed murder, sexual assaults, robberies, hit-and-runs or weapons violations.

The figures fail to showcase the faces behind the facts.

For example, Utah's ABC Channel 4 outlined the case of an immigrant family who filed for asylum but -- due to improper legal advice -- ended up facing deportation over missing a deadline. This family would fall into the category of the 51 percent of non-criminal deportees. The request for asylum is not discussed, which poses the question what type of welcome the family faced upon arrival in their native Argentina.

Just as worrisome is the case of a Washington Heights immigrant who -- after being a legal permanent resident -- faces deportation over a 1980s weapons charge.

These examples showcase that the political left is not nearly as compassionate toward immigrants -- legal or illegal -- as it would have us believe. In addition, the sudden and unexpected detention of asylum seekers -- or those whose convictions are decades in the past -- does not bespeak a sympathetic handling of immigration policy.

Immigration and Election 2010

Great post here from Brothers Judd:

DID LINCOLN CAMPAIGNING ON RETURNING DRED SCOTT TO HIS MASTER:

Whitman says her former housekeeper should be deported (Seema Mehta and Maeve Reston, 10/29/10, Los Angeles Times)

Republican gubernatorial nominee Meg Whitman has reignited a controversy that roiled her campaign for weeks, saying the undocumented housekeeper she employed for nine years should be deported.

The comment, her toughest yet on the matter, came in an interview with Fox News' Greta Van Susteren, who asked Whitman on Wednesday whether the former housekeeper, Nicandra Diaz Santillan, should be deported.
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"Well, the answer is: It breaks my heart, but she should be deported, because she forged documents and she lied about her immigration status," Whitman said.

Latinos turn out to vote in record numbers (Martin Wisckol, 11/04/10, OC Register)

California Latinos turned out to vote in record numbers Tuesday, driven largely by the governor’s race where they favored Jerry Brown over Meg Whitman by more than 2 to 1, according to this analysis of exit polls by Cathleen Decker of the Los Angeles Times.

Latinos accounted for 22 percent of the total ballots cast in the state and while they largely turned out to vote for Brown, they then voted for other Democrats as well.

Meg Whitman-- a mountain of money couldn't make up for a missing conscience.  This is another good one:

THE GOP WILL WIN THE WEST WHEN IT STOPS HATING ON BROWNS:

Did Polls Underestimate Democrats’ Latino Vote? (NATE SILVER, 11/03/10, NY Times)

There is another theory, however, which was proposed to me last night by Matt Barreto of the polling firm Latino Decisions.

 

“There is one overarching reason why the polls were wrong in Nevada,” Mr. Barreto wrote in an e-mail to FiveThirtyEight. “The Latino vote.”

His firm, which conducts interviews in both English and Spanish, had found that Latino voters — somewhat against the conventional wisdom — were relatively engaged by this election and for the most part were going to vote Democratic. Mr. Barreto also found that Latino voters who prefer to speak Spanish — about 40 percent of Latino voters in California meet this description, he told me — are particularly likely to vote Democratic. Pollsters who don’t conducted bilingual interviewing at all, or who make it cumbersome for the respondent to take the poll in Spanish, may be missing these voters.

Mr. Barreto had noted to me earlier this year that he felt polls might be overestimating support for Republican candidates in California. Indeed, the polls in that state called the right winners — Democrats Jerry Brown and Barbara Boxer — but underestimated their eventual margin of victories.

Colorado, the other state where most polls picked the wrong winner, is also a state with a fairly heavy Latino population.

As a back-of-the-envelope test of Mr. Barreto’s theory, I compiled results from the eight states with the largest share of Latinos in their population: these are Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Nevada, New Mexico, New York and Texas. There were 15 gubernatorial and Senate races last night between these states.

I don't mean to say that Republicans should embrace just immigration policies for electoral gain, of course.  They should do it because it's the right thing to do.  But it might also help them win elections-- though perhaps only if that's not their motive.

I Disagree

Form Yahoo News:

[Arizona governor Jan] Brewer said the Obama administration's lawsuit was misguided because the state law seeks only to address a growing problem in Arizona.

"We are not the enemy — we are part of the United States," she said.

I would have loved to join in the Republican revolution today, but alas, the candidate in my district, Keith Fimian, has this on his website:

I am 100 percent opposed to illegal immigration. We need to secure our borders for security and economic reasons.  We need to build a wall, both physical and virtual. People who want to come here must follow the rules. I oppose amnesty for those who have broken the law and entered our country illegally. When someone is arrested for the committing a crime, the police should check their immigration status and turn them over to Federal authorities. We must be tough on those who break our laws.

As I am 100 percent in favor of illegal immigration, and that's the issue I care about most, I voted for Fimian's opponent, the incumbent Gerry Connolly, who probably also opposes illegal immigration but doesn't say so on his website. Silent is better than wrong.

The Road to Serfdom

Court signals backing for Arizona law (SF Gate):

A federal appeals court appeared willing Monday to reinstate, but weaken, a central provision of an Arizona law allowing police to stop and question suspected illegal immigrants.

A three-judge panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals indicated that it would authorize police to demand papers from those they reasonably suspected of being in the country illegally, but would not allow authorities to arrest or prosecute them under state law.

Based on judges' comments in Monday's hearing, the appeals court appeared likely to lift the ban on police authority to demand immigration papers and detain immigrants who faced deportation, while upholding Bolton's rulings against state criminal penalties.

The lack of an internal passport regime used to be one of the most fundamental differences the United States from regimes like Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia (or contemporary Russia). We used to understand-- hopefully, we will again understand someday-- that people qua people have rights, and that a person cannot justly be asked to show papers to prove his or her right merely to walk the streets.

Immigrant vets face deportation despite service (Las Vegas Sun):

When Rohan Coombs joined the U.S. Marine Corps, he never thought one day he would be locked up in an immigration detention center and facing deportation from the country he had vowed to defend.

Coombs, 43, born in Jamaica, immigrated to the United States legally as a child with his family. He signed up to serve his adopted nation for six years _ first in Japan and the Philippines, then in the Persian Gulf during the first war with Iraq.

Up to 8,000 non-citizens enlist in the U.S. Armed Forces every year and serve alongside American troops. As of May 2010, there were 16,966 non-citizens on active duty.

If they die while serving, they are given citizenship and a military funeral. If they live and get in trouble with the law, as Coombs did, they can get caught in the net of a 1996 immigration law that greatly expanded the list of crimes for which non-citizens can be deported.

"As far as I was concerned, I was a citizen," said Coombs, whose soft-spoken, introspective nature contrast with his physical presence. Coombs stands 6 foot 5 and weighs more than 260 pounds _ a gentle giant, according to his fiancee, Robyn Sword.

Now advocates of non-citizen servicemen and women are trying to change that. Attorneys are taking cases like Coombs' to court, arguing that an immigrant who serves in the Armed Forces should be considered a U.S. national and protected from deportation.

Migration controls are the great stain on our national honor, like slavery and segregation in times past.

Businessman rapist threatened victim with deportation if she talked (Guardian):

A nursing home owner who used his position of power to repeatedly rape a foreign student is facing jail after being found guilty of the crimes.

James Safo, 62, subjected the woman to a string of violent rapes for two years after she refused his sexual advances, and threatened to get her deported if she told anyone.

His victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said she had been living in fear of Safo and his threats to her immigration status and was deeply shamed and embarrassed by what had happened.

Justice is one.  In a society where the right to migrate is not respect, all other rights and freedoms must also wither.

Battered wife faces deportation (San Francisco Chronicle):

A Mountain View woman who fled a violent husband and entered the United States illegally in 1995 faces imminent deportation to El Salvador, where her husband has been looking for her, her lawyer said Monday.

End the violence.