Support for Arizona

Fox News had an article that said that over 42,000 people have donated over $3.6 million dollars to help defend SB 1070.  One contributor, Timothy Mellon donated $1.5 million! This just shows that even though there have been tons of negative press surrounding SB 1070 and that non-supporters largely out- weigh the supporters, this just shows how much the supporters support the bill.  The donations started arriving after President Obama filed a  lawsuit against Arizona because "The state had 'crossed a constitutional line' and was interfering with federal authority over immigration."

It's nice to know that not EVERYONE in the U.S. hates Arizona, just the President- who you would think would be our strongest supporter, especially with such a crucial issue like immigration. 

News Article

Shoot to Kill

I found this article on wonkroom.thinkprogress.org about and interview between Georgia State Representative John Yates and Atlanta's Fox5 and his views on illegal immigration:

Georgia state Rep. John Yates (R) was asked for his recommendations on what to do about illegal immigration. Yates replied that troops on the border should be given “shoot to kill” orders and that flyers should be dropped in Mexico warning of the new immigration policy. “They ought to be armed and if warned leaflets dropped all over Mexico says that we will shoot to kill if anybody crosses and be serious about this and if they do that then there won’t be anybody killed [sic],” reasoned Yates.

In an interview with Atlanta’s Fox5, Yates stood by his comments:
Some have questioned Yates’ comments. When asked if he could see why people would be upset with his comments Yates, “No, I don’t think they’d be upset with what I’d say.”
“If they come over here, on these raids killing ranchers and everything, you got to stop them some way,” said Yates.
Yates likened illegal immigrants to enemies of the country.
“Stopping Hitler was worth the price,” Yates said. “It’s our border, they’re invading us.”


When I read this article I started laughing at how extreme not only people but high profile political people are taking illegal immigration. Not only does Yates take it to a whole new level saying that it is ok to "shoot to kill" an illegal immigrant trying to cross the border, but he also brings Hilter into it but doesn't really do a good job connecting illegal immigration and Hilter together. When the interviewer asked Yates about how illegal immigration  relates to Hilter, all he says is "It's our border and they're invading us." Huh, I don't really recall learning about Hitler and his invasion of our border. Very interesting...
Looking at it from a positive side, I guess you can't really call Yates cold hearted for his comment since he does suggest that we drop fliers all over northern Mexico warning them of the new "shoot to kill" policy. At least they had a fair warning? Also, what better way to make environmentalist become upset than not only killing trees for these fliers but also littering all of northern Mexico! Brillian idea.

Interview

Video of the Interview

Secure Communities

In Texas, a federal program that scans local jails for illegal immigrants is bieng expanded to the whole state. This program, known as Secure Communities was designed to intercept and remove illegal immigrants who have committed serious crimes such as homicide rape and kidnapping. Critics say that Secure Communities, just like the Arizona Immigration bill will single out immigrants with no serious criminal record and as a result clog up court system.

I think that this is a great idea to solve our illegal immigration problem because it seems like problem most people have with illegal immigram is security. This way we let people that actually work and are good citizens stay here because they aren't harming the community, and send the criminals back and then their government deal with it and stop wasting our tax dollars on them! As for the critics, all I can say is that obviously if they have a criminal record, it's pretty serious; so they should be deported anyways.

News article

Arizona Illegal Immigration "Facts" And Opinions

I found this video called Arizona Illegal Immigration Facts and Opinions thinking that it would give me actual facts and opinions. During the video, I kept waiting for the facts to appear, but it only seemed to be opinions that showed up. This video seems to only show the negative aspects of illegal immigration and it made the immigrants look like criminals that are mad at the U.S. for "taking their land"; and pregnant women come into the U.S. to have anchor babies and that they are so desperate that they migrate into this country while in labor. Like most of the citizens in this country that are for anti-immigration laws, they only pick the criminals and or the "gangsters" that put a negative taste in our mouth about immigration. I wouldn't be surprised if this wasan add campaign to support SB 1070 because "we need to protect this country and keep the criminals out".

A 101 Year Woman Finally Becomes a U.S. Citizen

On October 12th, 1909, Garcia Maturey, who was just a baby crossed the border with her single mother into Brownsville, Texas. Maturey and her mother lived a quiet life in Texas. In 1940, Congress passed the World War II Alien Registration Act, which  required noncitizens already in the country to register with the government. Just before the start of World War II, Maturey received a "Certificate of Lawful Entry" card from the U.S. government issued to her on April 4, 1941. She never imagined that little document would make it possible for her to become a U.S. citizen. She figured it came with an expiration date. She never really knew the status of her citizenship in the U.S. but would frequently cross the border to visit her family back in Mexico. In 2008, the U.S. started requiring everyone to show Passports for crossing the border. Worried of being deprted Maturey had her niece, Yolanda Ovalle, take her to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Brownsville, and that's where they met Sheila Lucio, a 29-year veteran of the government agency. When Lucio tried finding Eulalia Maturey's name in the computer system, she couldn't find it. "If you came to us before we entered the computer age, we didn't have your records," said Lucio. So Maturey pulled out that 69-year-old "Lawful Entry" card. Her niece says she took care of that little piece of paper for decades. With that document, government officials were able to find her Legal Permanent Resident documents in the archives in Washington. "We would never have been able to establish her registration status without that document," said Maria Elena Garcia-Upson, a public affairs officer with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. "It would have been hard to prove."  Maturey explains "I want to spend the rest of my days in this life living legally in the United States," Maturey told CNN this week. "I was raised here, and I want to die here."


This just shows that not everyone that immigrates into this country is out to do this country harm. Obviously this is an example of someone that lived a peaceful life and just wanted to get her citizenship just to finally say, after 101 years that she a citizen of the country she had lived in her whole life.  The "Certificate of Lawful Entry" reminds me of the DREAM Act that was unfortunately unable to pass last month. If we had done this type of actually before, and nothing traumatic resulted from it, why can't we just pass the DREAM Act?


http://edition.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/10/11/101woman.citizen.document/

How Many Illegals Can You Fit In A Van?

This video from CNN is crazy!! At least 28 people jump out of the van, after it crashed into another car and flips over!!! The things that people do to try to stay in this country is crazy. What's even more outrageous is that everyone in the van has a "every man for their own" mentality and no one tries to help anyone out. Not matter what, it seems like once they're out they make a run for it before the police come! I guess I would do the same in this situation.. How cramped do you think it was in that van? I guess camped enough to save 28 lives!

Is Arizona a Trend Setter?

Omaha World Harald wrote an article on Tuesday that Governor Heineman expects every state in the union to consider Arizona- type proposals for next year. The article states "Six other states considered Arizona-like laws this spring, including Minnesota, although none passed them, according to the national conference." The good thing about other states trying  to create immigration bills now, is that they get to see what works and what doesn't work, by looking at the messes Arizona has seem to have gotten into because of SB 1070. Nebraska's State Senator Charlie Janssen, who is trying to create a Nebraska version of the Arizona-style law claims “This isn’t certainly something I want to throw out to just make a political statement. It’s something that needs to be passed,” he said. “We’ve waited long enough.”

Huh. Interesting how so many people hated Arizona and boycotted us for SB 1070, yet states are now considering creating bills and laws that follow SB 1070.

http://www.omaha.com/article/20101005/NEWS01/710059914/810

U.N. Comes to Save the Day!!!

The U.N. is having sympathy for the immigrants and taking a shot at SB 1070. They made a statement saying, "deeply concerned about international migrants. Migrants in an irregular situation are more likely to face discrimination, exclusion, exploitation and abuse and more likely to be targeted... by racists... and victimized by unscrupulous employers."

I feel like this is ridiulous for a foreign organization to get involved in something like this. Don't they have something else better to worry about than SB1070? Especially since this bill doesn't exactly directly affect them.  There is enough people standing up for the immigrants already, that the U.N. doesn't need to act like a super hero and stick of for them too. Maybe they should go be a super hero for another country like... Africa? Maybe they could stand up for the child labor or the blood diamonds. There are a million things the U.N. has to worry about... and I feel SB 1070 shouldn't be one of them.

For more info: http://www.kpho.com/politics/25234797/detail.html