These are some of the latest stories breaking regarding immigration reform, solutions to the problem, active immigration reforms and outrages from across the nation.
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A recent article in Barron's claims that the underground economy which includes millions of illegal aliens will soon top $1 trillion dollars or approximately 9% of the true economy -- of which most is not taxed. It also estimates that the widely touted government statistic of 8.4 million illegal aliens in country is probably closer to 18 to 20 million.
Barron's (subscriber only)
America has two economies, and one is flourishing at the expense of the other. First, there's the legitimate economy, in which craftsmen are licensed and employers and employees pay taxes. Then there's the fast-growing underground economy, where millions of nannies, construction workers and others are paid off-the-books, their incomes largely untaxed. The best guess as to the size of the output of this shadow economy is about $970 billion, or nearly 9% that of the real economy. It should soon pass $1 trillion.
What is largely fueling the underground economy, experts say, is the nation's swelling ranks of low-wage illegal immigrants. The government puts this population at 8.5 million, but that may represent a serious undercount. Robert Justich, a senior managing director at Bear Stearns Asset Management in New York, makes a persuasive case in a forthcoming paper, "The Underground Labor Force Is Rising to the Surface," that illegal immigrants actually number 18 million to 20 million. If true, the economic implications are profound and could help shape debates slated in Washington this year over both immigration policies and tax reform...
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The underground economy is undermining the effectiveness of the Internal Revenue Service, which is highly dependent on employees' withholding taxes. If the IRS could collect all the taxes it says that it is owed from the underground economy in a given year, then the current budget deficit would disappear overnight. And if the IRS could collect these taxes every year, then the nation would have surpluses as far as the eye can see.
Other Commentary:
| Michelle Malkin |
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The absconders program is an effort to track down illegals that haven't reported for court appearances or for deportation and are known to the government. Their whereabouts however are almost never known as they fade into the population.
Washington Post
[Raymond] Smith is part of an effort to track down 370,000 "absconders" -- illegal immigrants who have disobeyed orders to leave the country. As part of a get-tough approach after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the Homeland Security Department has deployed 18 fugitive squads to catch these immigrants, including a team in Maryland.
A morning with Smith's team shows how difficult it is to find absconders, part of a rising tide of illegal immigration. The fugitive squads capture 35 people a day across the country, on average. But each day, another 70 immigrants are ordered deported and fail to comply, officials say. So the absconder population grows ever larger.
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... most immigrants aren't jailed while their cases are heard. About one-third vanish before their cases are decided... Of the remainder, about 85 percent of those who get deportation notices don't show up for final processing, he said.
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"People feel they can get away with running . . . because the immigration law isn't enforced anywhere else," said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which seeks more limits on newcomers.
Other Commentary:
| In The Bullpen |
Hyscience |
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The mainstream media has recently caught on to the El Salvador Gang Mara Salvatrucha and its ties to al-Qaeda. The gang also goes by the name of MS-13.
Boston Herald
"MS-13 is the most dangerous gang in the area," Fiandaca said. "They are big. They are mobile. Now they have a terrorist connection."
The theory that Salvadoran criminals manage to smuggle people over the border was bolstered this month when two Boston men described as MS-13 leaders were spotted on the North Shore days before Christmas - a year after they were deported by Boston Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigators for gang-related crimes.
One of the two men, Elmer "Tiger" Tejada, 24, who had been deported after being convicted of a slew of crimes, including attempted murder charges for hurling a machete at Chelsea cops, was busted in Lynn on New Year's Day. Tejada is described as "an original MS-13 member" from East Boston, sources said.
Other Commentary:
| California Yankee |
MS-13 is also covered in my entries below:
Sep. 28, 2004
al-Qaeda Operative Enlisting Help Of Violent El Salvador Gang Leader
Although they are actively involved in alien, drug and weapons smuggling, Mara Salvatrucha members in America also have been tied to numerous killings, robberies, burglaries, carjackings, extortions, rapes and aggravated assaults — including at least seven killings in Virginia and a machete attack on a 16-year-old in Alexandria that severely mutilated his hands.
Dec. 13,2004
Illegal Alien With Al-Qaeda Ties And Mara Salvatrucha Gang Member Caught At Southern Border
Also Michelle Malkin has an MS-13 watch entry that has numerous stories on cop killing's and the FBI's denial that MS-13 is even an issue.
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You'd think with the Mexican government sanctioned comic book on how to get here illegally that the State Department would be outraged, but as we see in the Washington Times article below they aren't.
Washington Times
... we called on the State Department to register a complaint with Mexican Ambassador Carlos de Icaza.
Well, the State Department has responded. Apparently the answer is no. A spokesman said no action has taken place, and declined to tell us whether the department plans to take any measures outside routine meetings with the Mexicans.
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... does the department at least recognize that the "migrant" guide is a problem? To find out, we asked whether the department thinks the migrant guide is good or bad for the control of illegal immigration. The official didn't go so far as to tell us he thought it was good, which is reassuring. But he told us, in effect, that he doesn't think it's bad. "The Mexicans have made it clear publicly that this document was not intended to promote illegal immigration," he said. Apparently the department's policy is to believe them. Another spokesman offered this: "Both the United States and the Mexican government have a strong commitment to ensuring that migration into the United States is safe, orderly and legal."
Yeah, we see how that's working. There are Mexican's that just sit along the border fences waiting for it to get dark so that they can hop over. If the Mexican government was so into ensuring "safe, orderly and legal" passage to the US you'd see masses of police rounding up those people daily, but of course that'll never happen.
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An article discusses what should be the last meeting between DHS Secretary Tom Ridge and Mexican Interior Secretary Santiago Creel this Monday.
San Francisco Chronicle
Interior Secretary Santiago Creel said Thursday he will fly to a California border town to meet with U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and again push for a plan granting legal status to millions of undocumented Mexicans living and working in the United States.
Creel said the meeting would take place Monday in Calexico, across the border from the larger Mexican city of Mexicali, 1,350 miles northwest of this country's capital, and would likely be his last face-to-face encounter with Ridge before the outgoing Homeland Security Secretary leaves his post.
He said the meeting would "pave the road to a prosperous migration accord," and added that sweeping reform in that area would help guarantee security along America's southern border.
Lonewacko points out that the last sentence sounds like a threat. If we don't give them what they want are they saying that they aren't going to guarantee safety along our border?
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The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) is asking the Department Of Justice to override the part of Arizona Proposition 200 that requires proof of identification and citizenship to vote. They claim that that requirement harms the Latino community's ability to vote. As can be seen in the article below though Proposition 200 goes out of it's way in offering a numerous amount of ways to verify your identity and the only person who would not be able to provide one of the ways is obviously not a citizen of this country and should not be voting.
Arizona Daily Star
Proposition 200 requires county election officials to reject any voter registration that is not accompanied by "satisfactory evidence of United States citizenship."
That can include an Arizona driver's license issued after Oct. 1, 1996, the day the state began requiring proof of legal residency for licenses. Other acceptable documents include birth certificates, passports and tribal ID cards.
Also acceptable are naturalization documents, or at least the number of the naturalization certificate. But in the latter case, the person cannot vote until that number is verified with federal officials.
Anyone showing up to vote has to show either one photo ID or two other documents with the person's name and address.
Other Commentary:
Lonewacko has more on MALDEF and a little nugget that one of LA's Mayoral candidates is a member of MALDEF.
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On our Northern Border there is a fiasco brewing over a camera system that was installed all along the Washington border that doesn't work. The company that was to install the camera's nationwide was owned by a Texas congressman's daughter who received a $200 million no-bid contract for the job.
KIRO
Auditors say taxpayers paid millions of dollars for "phantom" cameras, missing parts and fraudulent repair bills.
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Computerized, see-all cameras scan the Washington-British Columbia border for intruders day and night. That is, when they're working.
A KIRO Team 7 Investigation discovered thousands of breakdowns in the first year of operation.
The U.S. Inspector General used our investigations as a base for an audit, which details millions of dollars in tax waste and potential criminal fraud.
Tipped by: LW
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For more stories see Illegal Aliens And Immigration Reform Report #3 and the Diggers Realm Immigration Category
That covers this edition of Illegal Aliens And Immigration Reform Report. Make sure you bookmark Diggers Realm as we cover illegal aliens and immigration reform on a regular basis and not just in these reports.
