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IMMIGRATION

Free of Charge For Bill de Blasio and other progressives, newcomers to the U.S. have no obligations. Seth Barron

https://www.city-journal.org/government-benefits-immigrants

Earlier this year, the Trump administration announced that it would expand the list of government benefits it considers when defining a person as a “public charge.” Under the new terms, an immigrant receiving, say, food stamps, emergency cash assistance, or living in public housing may see those benefits count against him when he seeks to upgrade or extend his visa status or apply for citizenship.

It was long believed that immigrants to the United States should not impose social burdens and should thus secure local sponsors who could guarantee their expenses until they got settled. The Immigration Act of 1891, for example, excluded from entry “insane persons, paupers or persons likely to become a public charge, persons suffering from a loathsome or a dangerous contagious disease,” and other undesirable categories, including felons and polygamists. 

Progressive localities have responded furiously to Trump’s directive. New York City and State have joined a lawsuit to prevent the expansion of public-charge criteria, alleging that it reflects animus against nonwhite immigrants. “The ultimate city of immigrants will never stop fighting President Trump’s xenophobic policies,” declared New York City mayor Bill de Blasio. New York attorney general Letitia James called the rule change “a clear violation of our laws and our values” that would make “more children go hungry,” though aid to children was excluded from consideration in the new rule.

Cali Governor Newsom Continues to Thwart Immigration Law Enforcement Putting the welfare of criminal immigrants before the welfare of California citizens.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2019/10/cali-governor-newsom-continues-thwart-immigration-frontpagemagcom/

California Governor Gavin Newsom, who presides over the nation’s leading sanctuary state, decided last week that pardoning three immigrant felons to help shield them from being deported was more important than keeping the citizens of his state secure. One of the recipients of Newsom’s misplaced compassion was 42-year old Arnou Aghamalian from Iran. Aghamalian, a refugee in this country since the age of 15, was convicted at the age of 22 of helping to set fire to a car. The damage he did was most likely not as easily made to disappear as was his criminal record, thanks to Newsom. Then there was Thear Seam from Cambodia, a refugee admitted to the U.S at the age of 4 who managed in his late teens to be convicted of two felonies – second-degree robbery and acting as an accessory after the fact by helping someone evade police arrest. Finally, Newsom pardoned Victor Ayala from El Salvador. Ayala was only 2 years old when he was admitted legally to the U.S. He showed his gratitude by being convicted at the age of 21 for felony robbery after having been previously convicted for misdemeanor theft and hit-and-run. Newsom’s office claimed that the pardons were issued in part to “prevent unjust collateral consequences of conviction.” That’s doubletalk for saying the immigrants’ pardons were issued to remove one ground for their possible deportations – serious criminal records.

“They are now trusted employees, husbands, fathers to young children and sons to aging parents,’’ the governor’s office said in justification for the pardon grants. “Their deportation would be an unjust collateral consequence that would harm their families and communities.” In other words, just make their criminal records disappear and all will be fine for these poor souls, who years ago had “made bad decisions and broke the law” but “served their sentences and turned their lives around.”

Maneuvering To Force The U.S. To Accept Immigrants Who Will Become Public Charges Francis Menton

https://us7.campaign-archive.com/?e=a9fdc67db9&u=9d011a88d8fe324cae8c084c5&

“Vile.” “Repugnant to the American dream.” “Cruel.” “Callous and despicable.” “An abhorrent act of moral terrorism.” These are just a few of the comments that have been uttered in the past few weeks with respect to a policy change recently announced by the federal government. (These comments come, respectively, from Attorney General Xavier Bacerra of California, U.S. District Judge George Daniels, Congresswoman Grace Meng (D-NY), Congresswoman Judy Chu (D-CA), and Families USA.)

I know what you are thinking: What completely sensible thing has the Trump administration done now?

The quoted comments all relate to a so-called “final rule” issued by the Department of Homeland Security in the Federal Register on August 14, scheduled to take effect on October 15, on the subject of “Inadmissibility [for immigration] Based on Public Charge Grounds.”

So what is this new rule, and what about it has caused the progressive left to go completely berserk?

Here’s my take: Since Immigration Act of 1882, the U.S. immigration statutes have in clear terms explicitly instructed that entry be denied to any person deemed “unable to take care of himself or herself without becoming a public charge.” Despite the rather explicit language of Congress, the Clinton administration, in “guidance” issued in 1999, found a way to effectively read this provision out of the statute and admit large numbers of immigrants without regard to whether they were likely to become, or even were already, public charges. The Trump administration has now specified a basis on which the statute can and will be enforced as written and intended. Cue the outrage!

Let’s go through this in some more detail. The Immigration Act of 1882 was the very first general immigration statute in the U.S., so the “public charge” basis for exclusion of an applicant for a visa has existed for as long as we have had immigration laws. The relevant language has changed somewhat over the years, as extensive amendments and updates to immigration laws have been enacted; however, as far as I can determine, none of the changes have been material. Here is the current version of the “public charge” provision, as codified at 8 U.S.C. Section 1182(a)(4):

Why Mexico Is Cooperating with Us on Immigration By Mark Krikorian

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/10/immigration-enforcement-mexico-cooperating-with-us/

‘No one will come to trample our country, our land!’

One of the reasons border apprehensions have dropped from their alarming peak in May is that Mexico has been pretty aggressive in stopping third-country nationals from traversing its territory on their way north to make bogus asylum claims so they can be released into the U.S.

But why has Mexico been willing to work with us like this? It’s especially curious because in the past, Mexico was not at all eager to help us limit illegal immigration, a pattern we might have expected to intensify with last year’s election as president of left-wing populist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (commonly known as AMLO, pronounced as a word rather than initials).

No doubt President Trump’s tariff threats had some effect. Three-quarters of Mexico’s exports go to the U.S., and despite increased integration of our economies over the past couple of decades, they still need us a lot more than we need them. Also, Trump’s mercurial temperament clearly has the Mexicans worried that he could do something rash (similar to Iran’s fears about Reagan if the hostages weren’t released before he was inaugurated).

But it’s unlikely that these things would be enough to move a sometimes touchy nationalist like AMLO. Rather, I think a big part of the explanation is that the current flow of illegals is mainly made up of foreigners, not Mexicans. Earlier waves of mass infiltration across our southern border consisted mainly of Mexicans, and while Mexico quickly took back its people who had been nabbed by the Border Patrol, it did little if anything to reduce the flow. They did establish a police-like unit of the country’s immigration agency called Grupo Beta, which worked on Mexico’s northern border (opposite our southern border), but its remit was to help potential illegals with water and first aid and protect them from criminals.

The Senate Voted to End Emergency on the Border But Hezbollah, ISIS, gangs and drug cartels didn’t get the memo. Michael Cutler

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2019/10/senate-voted-end-emergency-border-michael-cutler/

On September 25, 2019 the Wall Street Journal’s MarketWatch posted a disturbing report, “Senate votes to end border emergency under which Trump redirected military funds to wall construction” that began with the following paragraph:

The Senate again approved a resolution to end President Trump’s national emergency at the southern border, with Republicans joining Democrats in a bid to prevent the president from redirecting military funds toward a border wall, though Trump was expected to veto it again.

The report went on to note that the Republicans control the Senate and ended with this sentence:

The vote was an unusual display of Republican rebellion against the president’s quest for his signature policy initiative, which led to the longest government shutdown in U.S. history that ended earlier this year.

The Democrats refused to accept that there was a crisis on the southern border in the first place, and now the Republican-controlled Senate has voted, yet again, to “end the crisis”!

What has not been determined, or reported upon, is how our politicians from either political party have come to the insane conclusion that the emergency on the treacherous southern border has ended.

Certainly the “all clear” has not sounded.

While President Trump has been successful in reducing the number of illegal aliens who are being apprehended by the Border Patrol along the southern border–though a number of tactics including getting Mexico to deploy their forces along the border and with other diplomatic initiatives–tens of thousands of illegal aliens continue to be apprehended by the U.S. Border Patrol each month and narcotics continue to be seized along that troubled border.

In NYC the Term ‘Illegal Alien’ Can Cost You $250,000 The Left escalates its war on the First Amendment. Michael Cutler

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2019/10/nyc-term-illegal-alien-can-cost-you-25000000-michael-cutler/

The September 26, 2019 edition of the Washington Times included an article, NYC bans calling someone an ‘illegal alien’ or threatening to contact ICE that began with the following excerpt:

New York City has made it against the law to call someone an “illegal alien” or threaten them by calling immigration officials on them.

City Hall’s Commission on Human Rights released the new measures this week that could pose up to a $250,000 fine.

The restrictions say the term “alien” — typically used to refer to a noncitizen — is a loaded phrase meant to categorize migrants as “other” and dehumanize them.

Before we consider the attack on the First Amendment that protects our freedoms of expression to guarantee freedom of thought by the increasingly radicalized Democrats of New York City, we must consider how we have come to this point where our political “leaders” and the mainstream media have, in essence, become the “Ministry of Truth” that is found in Orwell’s novel, “1984.”   In that novel of a terrifying dystopia future, the Ministry of Truth formulated propaganda and administered the expansion of Newspeak, and was backed up by the Thought Police.

The misuse language to confound understanding, at least where immigration is concerned, can be traced back decades to the administration of Jimmy Carter, who began process of expunging the term “illegal alien” and even the term alien from the official lexicon that pertains to immigration.

The Carter administration coercively mandated that all INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) employees substitute the term “Undocumented Immigrant) for the term “Illegal Alien.”  Under his outrageous edict, recalcitrant  INS employees who continued use the legally accurate term illegal aliens would face extreme disciplinary punishment for using that proscribed term.

Indeed, the term “Alien” is a legal term that is defined in section, 8 USC §1101 of the Immigration And Nationality Act (INA) as simply being, “Any person, not a citizen or national of the United States.”

There is certainly no insult in that term or its definition- only clarity.  However, con artists seek to obfuscate the truth in order to swindle their intended victims.

Real-Life Immigrant ‘Joker’ Kills 4 in New York Bloody times in the social justice jungle. Daniel Greenfield

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2019/10/real-life-immigrant-joker-kills-4-new-york-daniel-greenfield/

While New Yorkers packed movie theaters to watch Joker, a homeless immigrant stalked the streets of the city bludgeoning four homeless men to death with a three-foot long metal pipe while they slept.

Rodriguez “Randy” Santos had come to the United States from the Dominican Republic four years ago.

In those four years, he racked up 14 arrests for everything from biting a man on the chest to groping a woman. He punched his mother and broke his grandfather’s nose. In just the last year he was arrested four times. And still the authorities remained comfortable with letting Santos walk the streets.

At least, until he was caught with a metal pipe covered in the blood and matted hair of four dead men.

And some marijuana.

This should have come as no surprise because he had busted back in May attacking a man with a metal weapon in his old homeless shelter. Instead of locking him up, he was given yet another chance.

And he took it.

Democrat Cities Are Sanctuary Nightmares Brian Lonergan

amgreatness.com/2019/10/02/democrat-cities-are-sanctuary-nightmares/

In the age of 24-hour news cycles where virtually everything has been politicized, a strange phenomenon has developed. Propaganda—described more accurately as “lies”—believed by many and challenged by few, is carrying the day. Only after a preponderance of evidence to the contrary accumulates over time does the public begin to question whether, let alone realize they have been sold a bill of goods.

Examples of this are ubiquitous, and nowhere seen more clearly than on the immigration issue.

Anti-borders politicians loudly proclaimed that there was no crisis at our southern border, until the undeniable facts caused them to reverse course and admit the obvious. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) once suggested that even members of the notoriously violent Central American gang MS-13 have “the spark of divinity” in them and hence deserve a chance here. We haven’t heard that talking point in a while, as details of the gang’s penchant for rape, drug trafficking, and murder have become known.

The latest talking point to wither and die in the light of truth is that sanctuary policies make communities safer, and that they protect immigrant communities. This can no longer be stated with any credibility. Sanctuary laws are poison for communities, and immigrants disproportionately are suffering as a result of them.

The Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) recently compiled a list of America’s Worst Sanctuary Communities, and the details that emerged should act as a disturbing wakeup call to all Americans. Illegal aliens given “sanctuary” and protected from deportation have been charged with heinous acts.

Virginia Police Officer Suspended After Turning Over Suspected Illegal Alien to ICE Debra Heine

https://amgreatness.com/2019/10/01/virginia-police-officer-suspended-after-turning-over-suspected-illegal-alien-to-ice/

A Virginia police officer was suspended after he turned over a suspected illegal alien to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) following a traffic accident last month.

In Fairfax County, Va., that’s a no-no—even if the suspected illegal immigrant got into the accident while driving without a license. The officer—who has been on the job for several years—will now have to undergo remedial training so he doesn’t make this mistake again.

“This is an unfortunate issue where the officer was confused,” Fairfax County Police Chief Edwin Roessler Jr. said. “We have trained on this issue a lot. This is the first time we’ve had a lapse in judgment, and the officer is being punished.”

The incident occurred in Alexandria on Sept. 21, according to Fox News.

The officer discovered one of the drivers didn’t have a Virginia driver’s license and ran a check with the state Department of Motor Vehicles, police said. The check revealed the driver had a violation for failing to appear for a deportation hearing.

The officer verified the warrant and alerted ICE, who quickly sent an agent to the scene of the accident.

After citing the driver for not having a driver’s license, the officer turned him over to the ICE agent.

Fairfax County PD enacted a policy in 2007 that prohibits officers from taking individuals into custody based on civil violations of immigration law.

Roessler apologized for the officer’s “lapse in judgement,” according to Fox, and ordered an internal investigation to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

“Our county is one of the most diverse counties in the nation and no one should have the perception that FCPD is acting as a civil immigration agent for ICE,” he said. The law abiding residents of Fairfax Country were not asked for comment.

ICE Targets Illegals in Sanctuary City Raids Making headway in the fight against bastions of lawlessness. Matthew Vadum

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2019/10/ice-targets-illegals-sanctuary-city-raids-matthew-vadum/

In a weeklong sweep U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement took close to 1,300 illegal aliens into custody, many of whom were arrested in so-called sanctuary cities that harbor illegals and shield them from federal immigration enforcement efforts.

Sanctuary jurisdictions defy U.S. law by, among other things, refusing to honor detainer requests in which ICE asks local jailers to notify the agency before an inmate wanted on immigration charges is released. A detainer request also asks the jailer to hold the individual for up to 48 hours after when the individual would otherwise be released so ICE can take him or her into custody for processing and possible deportation.

“To be clear, the concept of sanctuary cities is perhaps the most ridiculous and outrageous idea I’ve ever encountered in my almost 40 years of law enforcement,” Sheriff Wayne Ivey of Brevard County, Florida, told reporters at the White House Sept. 26.

“To think that there are those in power who took the same oath of office that we did to uphold the Constitution, who would be willing to oppose the rule of law, is completely insane and unacceptable.”

The sanctuary movement gave illegal aliens permission to rob, rape, and murder Americans by, among other things, stigmatizing immigration enforcement. Some left-wingers call sanctuary jurisdictions “civil liberties safe zones” to blur the distinction between citizens and non-citizens by implying illegal aliens somehow possess a civil right to be present in the U.S.