A criminal complaint was filed against a Brazilian man and a Kazakhstan woman after federal agents arrested 10 illegal immigrants in an investigation into an alleged smuggling operation involving fake documents to obtain New Mexico driver’s licenses.

…

FBI spokesman Darrin Jones said investigators learned several illegal immigrants living in New Mexico were charging thousands of dollars to help other illegal immigrants travel to the state to get licenses.

Hmmm…why would illegal aliens from all over the country travel out to New Mexico for this particular service?

New Mexico, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Oregon, Utah and Washington do not require drivers to prove legal status to obtain a license.

In 2003, Gov. Bill Richardson signed a measure into law that allowed foreign nationals , including those living illegally in the country , to obtain a driver’s license. His office has said one of the deciding factors in signing the bill was public safety.

Applicants for a New Mexico driver’s license who don’t have a Social Security number can present identification such as a tax identification number, a foreign passport or a Matricula Consular issued by the Mexican government.

It’s possible that these illegal applicants were just overstaying their tourist visas. There’s a quote from the director of New Mexico’s Motor Vehicle Department pointing out that “These are foreigners who got into the country using some sort of identification, and clearly were not on some kind of a watch list unless they used fake documents to get into the country.” He’s also spinning this as a case of sharp-eyed clerks catching the fraudulent documents before it happened. That’s not going to fly, because of the inconvenient fact that it’s worked before:

ICE agents believe Kulekhov and Galiullina transported at least 30 other immigrants, mostly from Brazil, from New Jersey to New Mexico to obtain New Mexico driver’s licenses, and allegedly charged each person $3,000.

But the FBI says that at least some of them were from unspecified countries “associated with special national security concerns”. Whatever that means. Probably not Brazil, right?

Meanwhile, bear in mind that both Democrats have burned their bottoms by publicly vacillating on this licenses-for-illegals scam.

McCain, too. And if you look at item number ten on this list, you’ll see McCain’s still flirting with disaster in this department today.

As a reminder, here’s why these illegal-ID rings matter.

_______________________

{Post by See-Dubya}

More than 30 illegal immigrants who work as security guards face weapons charges, Dallas police said. Police teamed up with state and federal agents for the joint operation, which aimed to identify armed and unarmed security officers who were in the country illegally. The people arrested face weapons charges, because it is illegal for non-citizens to carry or own guns.

The investigation targeted 26 Dallas-based businesses, most of which were nightclubs.

Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins said the state will “vigorously prosecute” the people arrested during the operation.

“Hopefully, this operation will help us send a message that we will not tolerate the falsification of documents for undocumented aliens under the guise of providing security,” he said in a statement.

Yeah. And maybe the Bush Treasury Department will start cracking down on illegal alien matricula consular cards that undermine security.

Guffaw.

***

Flashback: Suspected illegal alien was working as police officer.

A man is facing felony charges for impersonating a police officer and attempting to pull over a young woman.

His target was Fox 12 This Morning anchor Shayne Wells.

Wells was heading into work around 2 a.m. when she happened to notice that a car she’d passed kept following her too closely.

“That’s when he actually turned off his headlights and suddenly, up in the front of his car, red, white and blue lights started flashing at me,” said Wells.

Her first thought was that she was getting pulled over.

But knew she hadn’t been speeding.

“Something about it just didn’t feel right. I had seen the car when I passed it and it was a dark colored sporty vehicle with tinted windows and that’s not typically what you see with a police car,” said Wells.

So she called 911.

Dispatchers told her there were no officers in unmarked cars in the area making a traffic stop.

“I informed her someone was trying to pull me over. He attempted to pull me over three times, and followed me for about five miles real close,” said Wells.

The operator asked her to stay with the suspect, even if he tried to leave.

Wells did and ended up tailing him up the Eagle exit to a gas station, where Idaho State Police officers closed in.

What would Felipe Calderon say?

Officers say 17-year-old Israel Dominguez showed them a fake Mexican I.D. stating he was 21. He speaks no English and appears to be in the country illegally.

It’s unclear why he would have fake police lights at the time of the arrest. He even left behind the receipt.

“He said it was an accident and didn’t really mean to do what he was doing although he purchased the lights and hard wired them into his vehicle,” said Zimmerman.

Zimmerman can’t say exactly what Dominguez may have done if he had gotten her to pulled over.

Wells is just glad her mom always taught her to be alert and watch her surroundings.

“Well that’s what I was doing, so her words, they worked,” said Wells.

Dominguez was charged with felony impersonating an officer and not having a valid drivers license.

I have had the pleasure of speaking and debating alongside former Colorado Gov. Dick Lamm. In Colorado five years ago, we took on an open-borders contingent that was pushing for the illegal alien ID card known as the matricula consular (which I’ve blogged about extensively here.) He’s a true maverick–a Democrat who has long presaged the self-destructive impact of open borders. In 2004, Dick Lamm gave a now-famous speech at one of the Federation for American Immigration Reform’s conferences. The incisive speech, “I have a plan to destroy America,” went viral. I still have at least one or two readers e-mailing it to me every week. I’m reprinting it today.

It’s more timely than ever as the differences between the two major political parties on these fundamental issues blurs and as open-borders activists on both sides of the aisle work to marginalize critics and redefine all dissent as “hate.” You will not, after reading and digesting Lamm’s speech, feel like “calming down.”

***
I have a plan to destroy America
by Richard D. Lamm

I have a secret plan to destroy America. If you believe, as many do, that America is too smug, too white bread, too self-satisfied, too rich, let’s destroy America. It is not that hard to do. History shows that nations are more fragile than their citizens think. No nation in history has survived the ravages of time. Arnold Toynbee observed that all great civilizations rise and they all fall, and that “an autopsy of history would show that all great nations commit suicide.” Here is my plan:

1. We must first make America a bilingual-bicultural country. History shows, in my opinion, that no nation can survive the tension, conflict and antagonism of two competing languages and cultures. It is a blessing for an individual to be bilingual; it is a curse for a society to be bilingual. One scholar, Seymour Martin Lipset, put it this way: “The histories of bilingual and bicultural societies that do not assimilate are histories of turmoil, tension and tragedy. Canada, Belgium, Malaysia, Lebanon all face crises of national existence in which minorities press for autonomy, if not independence. Pakistan and Cyprus have divided. Nigeria suppressed an ethnic rebellion. France faces difficulties with its Basques, Bretons and Corsicans.”

2. I would then invent “multiculturalism” and encourage immigrants to maintain their own culture. I would make it an article of belief that all cultures are equal: that there are no cultural differences that are important. I would declare it an article of faith that the black and Hispanic dropout rate is only due to prejudice and discrimination by the majority. Every other explanation is out-of-bounds.

3. We can make the United States a “Hispanic Quebec” without much effort. The key is to celebrate diversity rather than unity. As Benjamin Schwarz said in the Atlantic Monthly recently, “The apparent success of our own multiethnic and multicultural experiment might have been achieved, not by tolerance, but by hegemony. Without the dominance that once dictated ethnocentrically, and what it meant to be an American, we are left with only tolerance and pluralism to hold us together.” I would encourage all immigrants to keep their own language and culture. I would replace the melting pot metaphor with a salad bowl metaphor. It is important to insure that we have various cultural sub-groups living in America reinforcing their differences, rather than Americans emphasizing their similarities.

4. Having done all this, I would make our fastest-growing demographic group the least educated. I would add a second underclass, unassimilated, undereducated and antagonistic to our population. I would have this second underclass have a 50 percent dropout rate from school.

5. I would then get the big foundations and big business to give these efforts lots of money. I would invest in ethnic identity, and I would establish the cult of victimology. I would get all minorities to think their lack of success was all the fault of the majority. I would start a grievance industry blaming all minority failure on the majority population.

6. I would establish dual citizenship and promote divided loyalties. I would “celebrate diversity.” “Diversity” is a wonderfully seductive word. It stresses differences rather than commonalities. Diverse people worldwide are mostly engaged in hating each other–that is, when they are not killing each other. A “diverse,” peaceful or stable society is against most historical precedent. People undervalue the unity it takes to keep a nation together, and we can take advantage of this myopia.

Look at the ancient Greeks. Dorf’s “World History” tells us: “The Greeks believed that they belonged to the same race; they possessed a common language and literature; and they worshiped the same gods. All Greece took part in the Olympic Games in honor of Zeus, and all Greeks venerated the shrine of Apollo at Delphi. A common enemy, Persia, threatened their liberty. Yet, all of these bonds together were not strong enough to overcome two factors … (local patriotism and geographical conditions that nurtured political divisions …)” If we can put the emphasis on the “pluribus,” instead of the “unum,” we can balkanize America as surely as Kosovo.

7. Then I would place all these subjects off-limits–make it taboo to talk about. I would find a word similar to “heretic” in the 16th century that stopped discussion and paralyzed thinking. Words like “racist”, “xenophobe” halt argument and conversation. Having made America a bilingual-bicultural country, having established multiculturalism, having the large foundations fund the doctrine of “victimology,” I would next make it impossible to enforce our immigration laws. I would develop a mantra –”because immigration has been good for America, it must always be good.” I would make every individual immigrant sympatric and ignore the cumulative impact.

8. Lastly, I would censor Victor Davis Hanson’s book “Mexifornia” –this book is dangerous; it exposes my plan to destroy America. So please, please–if you feel that America deserves to be destroyed–please, please–don’t buy this book! This guy is on to my plan.

“The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum.” –Noam Chomsky, American linguist and U.S. media and foreign policy critic.

The American dream is founded on the belief that people who work hard and play by the rules will be able to earn a good living, raise a family in comfort and retire with dignity.

But that dream is harder to achieve for millions of Americans because they spend too much of their hard-earned money on fees to cash their paychecks or pay off high-priced loans meant to carry them over until they get paid at work.

Here is one initiative that can unite progressives and conservatives as well as business leaders and community activists: helping the “unbanked” enter the financial mainstream by opening checking and savings accounts, and working collaboratively with financial institutions and community groups to develop and market products that work for this untapped market. This will put money in the pockets of individuals and grow the economy. And it won’t cost taxpayers a dime.

“Unbanked?”

If it reminds you of another open-borders euphemism– “undocumented”– there’s a reason.

Chris Kelly exposes how the push to aid the “unbanked” is a scheme to help banks profit from money that was earned illegally: “Instead of fighting against such government corruption, Bill Clinton and Arnold Schwarzenegger are promoting it. Pardon me if I have difficulty thinking of both of them as little more than crooks.”

***
Flashback: Bank of Illegals in America backlash

Flashback: Bank of Illegal Aliens in America

Flashback: The Illegal Alien Gold Card

Flashback: Banking on illegal immigration

Flashback: Banking on American stupidity

Flashback: Businessweek “Embracing Illegals – Companies are getting hooked on the buying power of 11 million undocumented immigrants”

First up: Video of Mayor Rudy Giuliani boasting that NYC is “quite tolerant of undocumented immigration and this shouldn’t surprise you because I’ve been mayor of this city a long time and outspoken on this issue even nationally, and I happen to agree with that. I think NYC should not deal with undocumented immigrants in a harsh way. I think we’re much better off being ‘sensible’ and ‘practical’ about it…”

He made his remarks on September 7, 2001–eight years after “undocumented immigrants,” who enjoyed “sensible” sanctuary policies, helped carry out the first World Trade Center bombing and four days before several hijacker jihadists, whose immigration documents had expired and who also benefited from “practical” immigration non-enforcement, participated in the worst terrorist attack on American soil. “Better off” with sanctuary? I think not:

Next: Audio of Mike Huckabee on the Laura Ingraham show trying to dodge a direct question about whether he supports the use of the security-underming matricula consular card for illegal aliens. It’s a simple yes or no question. Huckabee does a typical shuck-and-jive.

Call him Shuckabee:

Partial transcript:

LG: You didn’t come out against [the Mexican] consulate issuing consular ID cards though, did you?

MH: I actually signed a bill in 2005 that prohibited people from getting a driver’s license who were illegal–

LG: –that’s not answering the question, governor. I understand that. But that’s not answering the question. Because I’m staying on this consulate issue. On the issue of the Mexican consulate, did you or did you not oppose the Mexican consulates issuing ID cards that are then used by illegal aliens to open bank accounts and get a number of other social services beyond health care and beyond education in the United States.

MG: Well, what I want to do is fix this entire problem by having sealed borders.

Not much of a “fix” if he’s inviting foreign consulates to rent out space for $1 a year to hand out bogus illegal alien ID cards so more immigration laws can be broken.

Here’s more analysis by Laura and me of Huckabee’s not-so-straight talk:

Caveat emptor, people. Caveat emptor.

***

Tim Sumner of 9/11 Families for a Safe and Secure America has a special card for Mike Shuckabee.

The Washington Post still doesn’t get it.

More audio: Ed Morrissey of Captain’s Quarters interviewed Huckabee last night. You can listen here. At about the 21-minute mark, Huckabee comments on the Gilchrist endorsement and again plugs his nine-point immigration plan as proof of his border security bona fides. You’ll hear him characterize the plan as realistic and compassionate because it doesn’t just “grind our heels in the faces” of illegal aliens. Even as he’s trying to persuade border security advocates that he’s one of them, it’s too hard for him to camouflage his open-borders contempt for strict immigration enforcement.

***

You know I’m happy to bash San Francisco when the moonbatty town deserves it, which is often, but you’ll pardon me for not getting overly worked up over the Bay Area sanctuary city’s decision to provide ID cards to illegal alien residents. The plan was approved today:

San Francisco will give resident identification cards to illegal immigrants under a plan approved on Tuesday amid a fierce nationwide debate on granting privileges to undocumented aliens.

In a 10-1 vote, the city’s board of supervisors — the equivalent of a city council — approved giving identification cards to all residents, including illegal immigrants. The move makes San Francisco the largest U.S. city to back such a plan.

Residents will be able to obtain the resident cards by presenting photo identification and proof they live in the city, such as a utility bill. It was unclear if the new cards, which will be accepted at libraries and health clinics, will carry photos.

Such a move had been expected from San Francisco, which is famously liberal. Earlier this year, Mayor Gavin Newsom said he would not allow city officials and employees to assist immigration raids by federal authorities seeking up people who had committed crimes or disregarded deportation orders.

San Francisco, which declared itself a “sanctuary city” in 1989, also this year launched a program to provide medical care to uninsured residents regardless of their immigration status.

Gavin Newsom is an open-borders dweeb. Bu who’s ultimately to blame for the spread of illegal alien IDs?

Congress and the White House have allowed these sanctuary cities to operate with impunity. And it is the Bush Treasury Department that set the precedent for illegal alien ID cards by approving the use of the matricula consular card over the objections of veteran law enforcement officers.

Before Republicans jump all over San Fran for approving security-undermining, phony baloney IDs to illegals, they might want to take it up with the White House first.

Topics covered: illegal and legal immigration, the Diversity Visa Lottery (he’d kill it), Visa Express and Saudi visas, the matricula consular card (he said he doesn’t know about it), the war, and defeating Hillary Clinton. My biggest regret in the interview is that I didn’t immediately respond to Newt’s dissing of the Swift Boat Vets. If he thinks he can win conservative hearts and minds by trashing their honor and their accomplishments during the last presidential campaign, he isn’t as smart as so many think he is.

Baltimore Sun:

“At face value the program seems to be problematic,” said Russ Knocke, a department spokesman. “It seems to be lending itself to possibilities of perpetrating identity theft or creating more risk for money laundering.”

The bank’s program, while controversial, illustrates how the business world increasingly sees the country’s estimated 12 million illegal immigrants neither as lawbreakers nor essential workers but simply as customers.

Wells Fargo & Co. and Citibank have launched similar initiatives to gain new customers within the burgeoning Hispanic community.

Wells Fargo began a pilot program last year in Southern California to offer home mortgages to immigrants who have lived in this country for two years. The customers are allowed to identify themselves using individual taxpayer numbers issued by the Internal Revenue Service instead of Social Security numbers. That’s the same system Bank of America customers can use to obtain credit cards under the new program.

“We are also looking at the possibility of offering unsecured credit cards to customers who may not have Social Security numbers,” said a Wells Fargo spokeswoman, Mary Trigg.

Bank of America, now based in North Carolina but once headquartered in San Francisco, still has its largest retail operations in California and is the biggest bank for Hispanics in the country, said Richard Bove, who follows the industry for Punk, Ziegel & Co.

While the emphasis might pay off, “the political backlash is going to be substantial,” he said.

That seemed to bear out Tuesday, after the program was reported in the Wall Street Journal.

“It helps to further embed illegal immigrants into American society,” said Steven Camarota, director of research for the Center for Immigration Studies. “It makes amnesty a fait accompli.”

Tancredo said he sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff asking them to look into the program.

“I hope the administration will shut down this reckless and illegal program before Bank of America extends a line of credit to a potential terrorist,” said Tancredo, a leader of the anti-illegal immigration forces in Congress.

A Justice Department official declined to comment.

Several military readers e-mail that the Bank of Illegals in America has a contract with the DoD. Reader D. writes:

Earlier today, after reading the news about Bank of America, I began my latest mission as an Air Force colonel. This one isn’t in Afghanistan or Iraq. Rather, it is an attempt to convince the Department of Defense to cease using Bank of America as our official travel card provider.

We in the military are required to hold a credit card issued by BOA for all official travel. Anytime I go to Baghdad or Baltimore, Anbar or Annapolis, I have to use it for lodging (the Anbar Al Jihad Hilton is first rate, ambiance magnificent), food and rental cars, etc. Because DoD has a contract with BOA, we don’t have a choice of what card to use, if we expect to get reimbursed for our expenses – well, ammo, body armour and other minor conveinences are provided free, but you get the idea…

Anyway, that BOA is providing cards to individuals that are in this country illegally clearly violates laws, as you point out, but more so, what potentially fiscal risk is BOA taking by issuing them cards? I wonder how sound the finances are of those who are entering our country illegally. Why would a “temporary worker” feel at all inclined to pay back money run up on a credit card? What potential impact does that have on the soundness of BOA fiscally? Should a bank who is the single issuer of travel cards for all of DoD along with several other executive branch departments, also be providing illegal aliens credit cards?

Reader Kyle writes:

After waiting on the phone for 30 minutes to speak with a Bank Of America’s customer service rep, I informed him that due to their recent decision to offer credit cards to illegals I wanted to cancel my account or file a complaint. After he tried to talk me out of doing that claiming they are documented…but conceding that they’re not “legal” US citizens I finally got the address to file a complaint. If you can please share the address with your readers so they’ll know who to contact:

Thanks!

Bank of America
Office of the Chairman/President
DE5-019-02-03
Wilmington, DE 19884

My prediction: The Bush administration will continue to do what it has done while the nation’s major banks pander to illegal alien customers–nothing. It’s the Bush Treasury Department, after all, that set the tone with its approval of the matricula consular phony baloney ID card used exclusively by illegal aliens–despite the warnings of law enforcement and homeland security officials.

***
Previous:

Bank of Illegal Aliens in America

Flashback: The Illegal Alien Gold Card

Flashback: Banking on illegal immigration

Flashback: Banking on American stupidity

Flashback: Businessweek “Embracing Illegals – Companies are getting hooked on the buying power of 11 million undocumented immigrants”

As U.S. leaders craft policies to curb illegal immigration from Mexico, the U.S. Federal Reserve is devising programs to extend banking services to undocumented immigrants. A new remittance program aims to bring Mexican migrants who send money home into the mainstream U.S. financial system, regardless of their immigration status.

Dubbed “Directo a Mexico,” the remittance program enables U.S. commercial banks to make money transfers for Mexican workers through the Federal Reserve’s own automated clearinghouse, which is linked to Banco de Mexico, the Mexican central bank.

To use the service, a Mexican need only possess a matricula consular, an I.D. issued by the Mexican consulate in most major U.S. cities to those with proof of Mexican birth or citizenship, or a picture I.D. card issued by the U.S. or another foreign government. The idea is to make it cheaper and safer for Mexican workers to send funds to their relatives.

“We offer an extremely competitive exchange rate,” says Elizabeth McQuerry, an Atlanta-based assistant vice president for the Federal Reserve Bank’s retail payments office. “We cost a third of other providers.”

The majority of immigrants currently make transfers, which average $350 each, through companies like Western Union or a hodgepodge of wire-transfer firms, couriers and others that operate out of storefronts in Hispanic enclaves. Family members then collect the wired cash at a shop in their town or village.

The Federal Reserve Bank and Banco de Mexico launched a cross-country road show over the summer to promote the new funds-transfer program to commercial banks. Banks that offer the service hope to attract new customers. Indeed, one of the Federal Reserve Bank’s goals is to use the program as a springboard for drawing hundreds of thousands of immigrants into the formal U.S. banking system since commercial banks require that those wanting the service first open a savings account.

“People who didn’t have bank accounts establish a relationship with us,” says James Maloney, chairman of Mitchell Bank in Milwaukee, one of the first banks to offer the Federal Reserve Bank’s remittance plan. “It’s great for our business.”

Acknowledging that many Mexicans sending money home are illegal immigrants, the Federal Reserve’s brochure poses the following frequently asked question: “If I return to Mexico or am deported, will I lose the money in my bank account?” The answer: “No. The money still belongs to you and can be easily accessed at an ATM in Mexico using your debit card.”

A fence ain’t gonna fix this.

Ha ha ha.

As I have noted many times, the Bush Treasury Department ignored the pleas and warnings of veteran law enforcement officers and approved the use of the phony baloney “matricula consular card”–at the behest of open-borders banks who make gobs of money off illegal alien remittances.

So this news from the Washington Times today is no surprise:

The Department of Homeland Security allowed a man to enter its headquarters last week using a fake Matricula Consular card as identification, despite federal rules that say the Mexican-issued card is not valid ID at government buildings.

Bruce DeCell, a retired New York City police officer, used his phony card — which lists his place of birth as “Tijuana, B.C.” and his address as “123 Fraud Blvd.” on an incorrectly spelled “Staton Island, N.Y.” — to enter the building Wednesday for a meeting with DHS officials.

Mr. DeCell said he has had the card for four years and has used it again and again to board airliners and enter government buildings, without being turned down once. But he said he was surprised that DHS, the agency in charge of determining secure IDs, accepted it.

“Obviously, it’s not working,” Mr. DeCell said.

The Mexican government has issued millions of Matricula Consular cards in the past few years, mostly to give illegal aliens a form of identification that banks and other institutions will accept.

The FBI, in testimony to Congress, has said that the cards are not secure. The General Services Administration ruled in 2003 that the Matricula Consular is not valid ID for entering a federal building.

In addition to being a forgery obtained for him from a street vendor in California, Mr. DeCell’s card was modeled on an older version, which the Mexican government publicly acknowledges is not a secure document. The Mexican government says the old-style cards “are no longer valid.”

Some members of Congress tried to crack down on use of the card, particularly as valid ID for opening a bank account, but the Bush administration opposed that effort.

Jarrod Agen, a spokesman for DHS, said the department shouldn’t have allowed the ID to be used for entry to its headquarters. “DHS is following up on these allegations and will take necessary actions to ensure there is not another occurrence of this type,” he said.

I repeat: Ha ha ha.

***

Juan Mann exposes another big lie.

The Department of Homeland Security is working overtime to quell citizen outrage over the Border Patrol/Mexico/Minutemen story. The contradictory spin doctors are not doing a very good job. I’ll have more in a moment.

But now is a crucial time to step back and look at this disturbing episode in a larger, informed context– that is, as part of the longstanding battle between DHS management and rank-and-file employees over strict, tough, and unapologetic immigration enforcement. Supervisors in Washington and in major Border Patrol sectors are cowed by ethnic activists, business lobbyists, and meddling Mexican consulates. Field agents are demoralized by top-down efforts–from the White House on down–to undermine their law enforcement duties.

Most news consumers–and politicians and Washington wags–have extremely short-term memories. But people on the ground fighting this battle every day, and those covering it, don’t.

I remind you of the jaw-dropping directive issued in August 2003 by then-San Diego Border Patrol Chief William Veal directing local Border Patrol agents to ignore suspected illegal aliens on city streets and at worksites in San Diego. The order was made in response to–you guessed it–complaints by the Mexican Consulate over Border Patrol arrests of illegal aliens seeking to obtain Mexican identification cards. Deputy Consul General Javier Diaz met with Veal to protest the arrests, while Mexican Consul General Rodulfo Figueroa issued a statement saying he was “astonished by the arrests because of their proximity to his office.” The Bush Treasury Department, ignoring the warnings of seasoned immigration enforcement officers and FBI agents concerned about matricula consular card fraud, approved the use of these illegal alien documents for opening bank accounts–at the behest of, you guessed it, Mexican consular officials and business lobbyists.

Click for full-size images:

In admonishing his agents to look the other way at lawbreakers Veal wrote: “We have a continuing obligation to prevent any public perception that the Border Patrol may be conducting ‘neighborhood sweeps.’”

A continuing obligation to whom?

After a public outcry over the memo, DHS backed down and rescinded the order. But it did not change the cowardly p.c. culture among higher-ups at the department.

I remind you that just a year later, Border Patrol rank-and-file blew the whistle on Beltway bosses retreating from interior enforcement again. After extensive intelligence-gathering, local agents had conducted effective illegal alien sweeps in July 2004–which sent Mexican officials and the open-borders lobby into full-scale hysteria. Washington bowed to the pressure and ordered the agents to stop enforcing immigration laws. Grilled by KFI’s talk show hosts John and Ken, then-DHS undersecretary Asa Hutchinson–who had badmouthed his own employees and condemned the sweeps–blubbered that DHS would enforce immigration laws “in a reasonable manner and will consider the sensitivities associated with interior enforcement of our immigration laws.”

Sensitivities to whom?

I remind you that the following year, in May 2005, a dozen Border Patrol agents told the Washington Times that they had been instructed to “stand down” from arresting illegal aliens near where Minutemen protestors had patrolled in April. The agents understood that an increase in arrests would prove the effectiveness of extra manpower on the border and would credit the Minutemen’s approach. Several sources, including the President of the National Border Patrol Council, confirmed the newspaper report.

I remind you that a year ago this month, the same DHS that says it now supports what the Minutemen are doing barred the group’s founder from a press conference with Michael Chertoff in Arizona and badmouthed the citizen efforts.

And I remind you of Heather Mac Donald’s exhaustive investigation of the Mexican government’s growing power and influence in working to sabotage immigration enforcement efforts.

I could go on. But having been reminded of the past, recent, and continuing behavior of DHS brass–in opposition to their own rank-and-file employees and in opposition to rigorous law enforcement–you will now hopefully have a deeper appreciation for why the denials and contradictions of DHS officials in Washington about the Border Patrol/Mexico information-sharing story from the Daily Bulletin ring rather hollow.

And square perfectly with the longstanding reality of a Border Patrol under siege and undermined by its own leaders in Washington.

I had a perfectly nice chat last night with DHS spokeswoman Kristi Clemens, who insisted that the Border Patrol does not share information about the Minutemen with the Mexican government–and then confirmed, twice and plainly, that the agency does identify when and where civilian volunteers are involved with illegal alien apprehensions if border-crossers call their neighborhood Mexican consular officials to complain about intimidation or harassment while sneaking into the country. (For the record, her boss told NRO’s Andrew McCarthy the exact opposite! As usual, the spinners in CYA mode can’t get their story straight.)

Clemens stressed several times that DHS believes there is no conceivable reason why the Border Patrol would collaborate with Mexico against the interests of American citizens.

Clearly, they have short memories.

***

The Washington sellout continues.

New Glenn and Helen podcast interview with GOP chair Ken Mehlman–pressed hard on immigration–is up. Tune in!

***

More Mexican meddling:

Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas lashed out Tuesday against the Mexican government because its consul general in Phoenix contacted a Los Angeles-based attorney to question Thomas’ policy of charging undocumented immigrants with conspiracy to commit human smuggling.

“You have a foreign government coming in and trying to organize the defense efforts of criminal defendants in an attempt to attack the coyote law, and in fact, attack the right of any state in the nation, effectively, to pass anything meaningful to stop illegal immigration,” he said. “That is an extraordinary act. And I’m not aware of a parallel to this in our history.”

Thomas was so angry that he faxed a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, asking for her “assistance and that of the U.S. State Department in protesting this extraordinary attempt by a foreign government to deprive Arizona of its ability to defend itself against the tide of illegal immigration fomented by that same government.”

Maricopa County attorney’s press statement here (PDF.)

Liveblogging…

Most ridiculous line so far: Introducing his temporary “guest worker” plan by saying we need to “bring workers out of the shadows and reject amnesty.”

More tough talk: Those who enter our country illegally violate the law. To keep the promise of america, we will enforce the laws of our country. Our responsibility is clear: we are going to protect the border.

We want to make it clear that when people violate our immigration laws, they are going to be sent home and stay at home.

***
Yeah, then explain this.

And this.

See also: No such thing as “temporary” amnesty.

***

04:48pm. Bush pays lip service to ending “catch and release,” which I’ve been reporting on the last three years. He mentions expedited removal–for non-Mexicans only.

See also: The Deportation Abyss and Deport Aliens.

04:57pm. Surprise, surprise! Bush pays lip service to employer sanctions and interior enforcement. Finally mentions problem of MS-13 illegal alien gang violence. Pays lip service to document fraud, without mentioning his administration’s own reticence over matricula consular cards for illegal aliens from Mexico and other countries.

05:01pm. Here we go. Temporary worker platitudes. They do the jobs “Americans will not do.” Tepid, tepid applause.

***

Previous today: Back to the border

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More immigration blogging: The Guard the Borders Blogburst at Euphoric Reality.

President Bush yesterday said he opposes a civilian project to monitor illegal aliens crossing the border, characterizing them as “vigilantes.”
He said he would pressure Congress to further loosen immigration law.

More than 1,000 people — including 30 pilots and their private planes — have volunteered for the Minuteman Project, beginning next month along the Arizona-Mexico border. Civilians will monitor the movement of illegal aliens for the month of April and report them to the Border Patrol.

Mr. Bush said after yesterday’s continental summit, with Mexican President Vicente Fox and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin at Baylor University, that he finds such actions unacceptable.

“I’m against vigilantes in the United States of America,” Mr. Bush said at a joint press conference. “I’m for enforcing the law in a rational way.”

Yeah? How? By breaking his pledge to beef up border security personnel and refusing to fully fund increases in the Border Patrol, detention space, and interior enforcement?

By agreeing to a “totalization” arrangement with Mexico that may siphon off Social Security funds to illegal aliens at a cost to overburdened U.S. taxpayers of an estimated $345 billion over the next 20 years?

By forgetting his pledge to a slain deputy’s wife to hunt down a fugitive illegal alien killer harbored by Mexico and allowing countless other fugitive criminals to escape extradition?

By embracing the use of bogus “matricula consular cards” by illegal aliens to open bank accounts and board planes?

By espousing an amnesty plan that will reward millions of immigration law-breakers and their employers, unleash unprecedented benefits and document fraud, and raise illegal immigration to yet greater levels?

If this is “rational,” count me in with the crazy “vigilantes.”

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More negative reviews for President Bush’s comments from…

La Shawn Barber: “Shame on you, Mr. Bush. Mexico’s president Vicente Fox probably stood there smiling, pleased that his American pal is trained so well.”

Polipundit: “This from a president who has allowed illegal immigration to increase after the September 11, 2001, attacks.”

Jeff Naylor: “I agree with you, President Bush. We should rationally enforce the law and that credentialed law enforcement officers ought to do so. Yet, you refuse to do it. If the borders were being policed as they should, hundreds or thousands of private citizens wouldn’t feel the need to ‘help’ you do it.”

Most Mexican illegal immigrants want to remain in the United States indefinitely, but a majority would be willing to return to Mexico within five years under a temporary guest worker program being considered by the Bush administration, according to a survey released yesterday.

The survey by the Pew Hispanic Center showed that nearly three-quarters of undocumented workers would accept a temporary worker status that required them to return to Mexico. That included 68 percent who said they wanted to live in the United States “as long as I can” or for “the rest of my life.”

The survey of nearly 5,000 Mexican nationals was called the first of its kind by Roberto Suro, the center’s director. It was conducted at Mexican consulates in Los Angeles; New York; Chicago; Atlanta; Dallas; Fresno, Calif.; and Raleigh, N.C., over six months as immigrants applied for a Mexican identity document….

Several observations:

- As several people quoted in the article point out, the survey findings call into question whether, under Bush’s amnesty plan, so-called guest workers would really go back home after their period of “temporary” employment ends.

-The “Mexican security document” referred to above is the Matricula Consular card. You may recall that last fall congressman David Drier stated that Matricula Consular cards “are not available to illegal immigrants.” As I pointed out at the time, this is hooey. The Pew Hispanic Center knows this. Presumably, that’s why they surveyed Matricular Consular card applicants–because anyone who applies for the card is almost certain to be here illegally.

- The article cites Census data on the number of Mexican illegal aliens living in the U.S. Unfortunately, Census data seriously undercount the number of illegal aliens (see here).