It is all about cheap (slave labor) and political gain

Sultan Knish has a provocative post yesterday entitled, “Toward a sustainable immigration policy,” that echoes a couple of points we have been making at RRW.  Hello USCRI and Perdue chicken!    Although I might not agree with everything proposed here, this is the sort of thing we should be debating when we discuss Comprehensive Immigration Reform, but we won’t.   Hat tip:  Jerry Gordon

While the rising threat of terrorism, violence and honor killings produced by Muslim immigration tends to be in the news lately, the problems produced by immigration are not limited solely to Islam. The problem of Muslim immigration was created by a larger trend in First World immigration policies that favors bringing in cheap labor for short term commercial and political gain. Such immigration policies however are seriously damaging to the nations that utilize them and cannot be sustained. So what we must do is look for a sustainable immigration policy.

Business gets cheap labor and the taxpayer foots the bill!

Virtually every major social problem in the First World today can be traced to the desire for cheap labor. From gang rapes in California to Islamism in London, from suicide bombings in Israel to drug dealing in Sydney, from riots in Paris to honor killings in Sweden, the common element in these social problems is that they are caused by people who were brought in because they were once considered cheap labor. But cheap labor quickly turns out not to be so cheap after all.

The same big companies that complain about high taxes and socialism, seem to have no understanding whatsoever that when you import hundreds of thousands of immigrants, legal or illegal, they will have to pay the price for them sooner or later. Capitalism may rely on cheap labor, but cheap labor inevitably leads to socialism, because importing a population incapable of caring for itself, will require the government to step in sooner or later.

While we believe in free enterprise, that means responsible free enterprise. A factory that pours toxic waste into a river is not behaving responsibly and is not serving the public good. Similarly an industry that uses cheap immigration to cut costs while dumping ten times those same costs on the taxpayer, a cost that they themselves will ultimately have to make up down the road, is not behaving responsibly. The allegiance of American business must be to America, just as English businesses must be to England and so on and so forth. A loyal business does not act against the national interest, but seeks to work within a sustainable immigration policy for the larger national benefit, a benefit that will also accrue to it as well.

Please read Sultan Knish’s whole thesis, then here is the wrap up.

While immigration remains an important resource, it must be the product of a rational policy. And a rational immigration policy can only be a sustainable immigration policy. Real immigration reform is not immigration permissiveness, but sustainability that balances immigration against domestic growth, seeks to maximize the beneficial quality of immigration, rather than cheap labor quantity, and works to maintain the quality of life and the culture of its citizens, rather than disrupting it and displacing them. Sustainable immigration is the only answer to out of control immigration pollution.

One need only visit this post from August where those who one might think are in the business of helping refugees and immigrants are joined with big business to throw open our borders, and I want to know why.

Only ten more days to apply for the diversity visa lottery…

….and be one of those lucky 55,000 immigrants to win the big prize and come to America!   That’s right, new readers will be shocked to learn that Congress in its infinite wisdom has mandated we increase America’s diversity and take immigrants from countries that have sent less than 50,000 immigrants here in the last 5 years. 

I’ve written about this on several occasions, but was reminded that it must be application time when reader Cristina sent me this link to an immigration law firm that will help you get your ducks all lined up to participate in the lottery (for a fee I’m sure!).

Here is the press release, dated September 29th, from the State Department. 

The congressionally mandated Diversity Immigrant Visa Program is administered on an annual basis by the Department of State and conducted under the terms of Section 203(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). Section 131 of the Immigration Act of 1990 (Pub. L. 101-649) amended INA 203 and provides for a class of immigrants known as “diversity immigrants.” Section 203(c) of the INA provides a maximum of 55,000 Diversity Visas (DVs) each fiscal year to be made available to persons from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States.

The annual DV program makes visas available to persons meeting simple, but strict, eligibility requirements. A computer-generated, random lottery drawing chooses selectees for DVs. The visas are distributed among six geographic regions, with a greater number of visas going to regions with lower rates of immigration, and with no visas going to nationals of countries sending more than 50,000 immigrants to the United States over the period of the past five years. Within each region, no single country may receive more than seven percent of the available DVs in any one year.

For DV-2011, natives of the following countries are not eligible to apply because the countries sent a total of more than 50,000 immigrants to the United States in the previous five years:

BRAZIL, CANADA, CHINA (mainland-born), COLOMBIA, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, ECUADOR, EL SALVADOR, GUATEMALA, HAITI, INDIA, JAMAICA, MEXICO, PAKISTAN, PERU, PHILIPPINES, POLAND, SOUTH KOREA, UNITED KINGDOM (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, and VIETNAM. Persons born in Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR, and Taiwan are eligible.

No countries have been added or removed from the list of eligible countries. The list of eligible countries remains the same as for DV-2010.

Here is a breakdown of last year’s applicants, I don’t know who the ”winners” are.

“Winners” get to come stand in line overnight in places like Shelbyville, TN to compete (and scuffle) for scarce jobs with refugees and Americans at the Tyson’s chicken plant there as we learned from the Shelbyville Times Gazette in February and reaffirmed by the Wall Street Journal here in May.

In May I also reported that legislation had been introduced in Congress to halt this program, here, but with the Leftwing progressives running the place, the bill could hardly be more than symbolic.

The refugee resettlement program brought in about 75,000 refugees this past fiscal year, and in 2010, the goal is 80,000 (No!  We are not cutting back in this recession).  Only about 20% of refugees are finding jobs, and they will compete with 55,000 new immigrants in this program.   One difference is that refugees get all sorts of public assistance and the diversity visa immigrants are on their own.

LOL! Omar Jamal to represent Somalia at the UN

For another laugh:  Jihad Watch tells us today that Omar Bin-Laden (Osama’s boy) wants to work at the UN too, here.   How cool (and fitting!) is that —Omar Jamal and Omar Bin-Laden together at the UN!

The guy I have been calling the Somali Jesse Jackson, the same guy who was convicted of immigration fraud but never deported, the same guy who dashed off to NYC to defend the Somali pirate, the Somali mouthpiece from Minneapolis who has been on both sides of the Somali missing youth case has now been chosen to represent Somalia at the United Nations—that is priceless!   Guess it goes to show that anyone can succeed in America!

Here is the whole story from AP:

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – A well-known advocate for Somalis in Minnesota has taken a new job with the Permanent Mission of the Somali Republic to the United Nations.

Omar Jamal, 36, is in New York City this week, getting credentials and getting to work.

Somalia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Elmi Ahmed Duale, says Jamal was appointed about a week ago to the position of first secretary. Duale says Jamal will represent Somali interests on various U.N. committees.

Jamal says Somalia is under siege by al-Shabab and he’ll make an “urgent appeal to save the country from al-Qaida.”

As many as 20 young men have left the Minneapolis area to possibly fight with the terror group in Somalia.

Jamal, who has led the Somali Justice Advocacy Center since 2001, says he’ll ask board members to appoint a new executive director.

What board members?  There is no organization but Jamal. 

Readers:  There are many more links to Omar Jamal at RRW, just use our search function and enjoy!

More from Accuracy in Media about the tangled immigration role of the USCCB

I guess the evidence is mounting that the USCCB, probably the largest refugee resettlement federal contractor, has gone to bed with far leftwing operatives on the immigration issue.  AIM is reporting now that George Soros is funding Catholic progressives and groups near and dear to the Bishops.  You might want to see my earlier post on this subject where a reader swears up and down that the Bishops are politically conservative! 

My contention is that any non-profit or church group that takes taxpayer funding is by definition not conservative and is in fact participating in the expansion of the role of the federal government.

The latest from AIM begins:

The critical role of the Catholic Church in passing national health care reform legislation is coming under serious media scrutiny. But the story has taken a strange turn. It has now been revealed that George Soros, the billionaire hedge fund operator and well-known atheist, has been pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into “progressive” Catholic groups that are significant players in the national debates over health care and immigration.　

[...]

An AIM investigation also finds, however, that Soros money has gone into the Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC), an organization established by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops back in 1988. It has received at least $530,000 from the Open Society Institute. [See my post on CLINIC, here]

The two issues merge in the fact that the Catholic Bishops are demanding that national health care legislation cover illegal aliens.

Read on, this article contains all the usual players we have been writing about this last year, including SEIU.  See our Community destabilization category for more, here.

Then at the same time I came across AIM’s latest, I also found this article listing all the Far Left grantees of the Archdiocese of Chicago, here.  More later on this, I’ve written about some groups listed here too, but gotta go for now.

Won’t amnesty for illegal aliens hurt legal refugees?

That is a question that has been bothering me for some time.  We know for a fact (the IRC told us in ‘Refugee Horrors in Houston’) as few as 20% of the legal refugees entering the US are finding work in some areas of the country.  So, if 12 million, or whatever the number is these days, workers are legalized overnight won’t that just add to an already huge pressure on legal immigrants (and Americans!) finding work?   So why do the NON-PROFIT refugee resettlement agencies continue to lobby for amnesty?

An article about Homeland Security head honcho Janet Napolitano saying the Administration was ready to push Comprehensive Immigration Reform (Amnesty) on Friday got me thinking about this again.

The Obama administration expects Congress to begin moving to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws early next year, while improved border security and a drop in migration caused by the economic downturn make passage “far more attainable” than in 2007, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Friday.

“When Congress is ready to act, we will be ready to support them,” said Napolitano, President Obama’s “point-person” on immigration policy issues. “The first part of 2010, we will see legislation beginning to move,” she said.

Napolitano’s speech, delivered Friday morning at the liberal-leaning Center for American Progress, was aimed at Latino advocates who have bridled at her rhetorical emphasis on enforcement in her first 10 months in office, and expressed skepticism that Obama would fulfill a campaign pledge to push for a “comprehensive” package.

LOL!  To learn more about he “liberal-leaning Center for American Progress” go here.

Huh?  She says this is the time to work on this legislation because the job market is tight!  So, we legalize overnight 12 million people and add more to the unemployment numbers?  That’s a good plan?  Makes me think that she too is an admirer of the Cloward-Piven strategy.

“We will never have fully effective law enforcement or national security as long as so many millions remain in the shadows,” Napolitano said.

At the same time, Napolitano sought to reframe the debate from past years, saying lawmakers’ earlier demands that the government improve “enforcement first” have been met, and arguing that the time to work on immigration issues is when a sluggish economy is dampening illegal migration, not when rapid job growth is fueling it.

Refugee resettlement contractors lobbying for Amnesty, why?

Now how can the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, perhaps the largest refugee resettlement contractor in the United States, be lobbying for more employment competition for the thousands of refugees they are contracted to care for who are living unemployed and in squalor in some cases.  It makes no sense!

“The president and his administration need to make it clear that immigration reform is a priority and must be acted upon during this Congress,” said John Wester, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and bishop of the diocese of Salt Lake City. “Hopefully this is the beginning of a campaign by the administration to get legislation moving.”

I want to remind readers that the Obama Administration has taken the lead in pushing Amnesty, they are just making it look like they are leaving it to Congress (just as they did with health reform).  Please note that in August Ms. Napolitano called all of the open borders groups and big businesses together at the White House to give them marching orders.  Why are the USCCB, World Relief, and Church World Service to name a few, lobbying with big businesses that surely want to keep labor costs low by having a huge pool of workers available?  Are they helping immigrants, especially refugees, or helping big business and big labor?

So what about groups like the Bowling Green International Center?  In, without a doubt, the most read and inflamed debate we have had for awhile, here, I wonder how it is that this obviously ‘over-its-head’ refugee contractor could have justified organizing a demonstration and lobbying campaign in Bowling Green in 2006 to push for Amnesty.

… have a look at this Form 990 for 2006 where 87% of this group (whatever its name is) was funded by taxpayers.   Yet, here they are involved in lobbying for an Amnesty for illegal aliens bill before Congress that year!

I honestly do not get the logic in this.  The only thing that makes sense is that these supposedly non-profit, but largely funded by taxpayers (that includes the USCCB) groups, see this as a way of expanding their “businesses” supplying labor to big businesses (like the meatpackers!) and supposedly services to immigrants hidden from public scrutiny by a presumption of good intentions.

Immigrant food stamp scam guilty plea in NJ

Your tax dollars:

For new readers, this is one of my side interests—food stamp scams by immigrant store owners and employees.   This isn’t small potatos fraud but fraud that costs the US taxpayers millions each year. 

This is the first scam I’ve reported from NJ, and it may be the first for immigrants that appear to be from India.   Most of the scams I’ve reported previously have been those perpetrated by Muslim immigrants.

From the Philadelphia Inquirer:

The owner and two employees of a Westville convenience store pleaded guilty yesterday to defrauding the federal food stamp program, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced.

Mehal Mothon, 48, of Berlin, admitted illegally debiting more than $280,000 in cash at his Citgo Food Mart, 1010 Delsea Dr., using the electronic cards now employed to provide food assistance.

Mothon, who has owned the store since June 2006, is charged with conspiring to embezzle from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Mothon taught employees Lakhwinder Singh, 42, of Cherry Hill, and Palwinder Singh, 30, of Buena Vista Township, Atlantic County, how to work the scam. The two, who are cousins, also pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to embezzle, which carry a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. All three were arrested on April 1.

In the scheme, a customer would ask an employee to swipe his food stamp account card in return for cash. The employee would retain about half of the amount as a fee.

The crime is known as “trafficking” among USDA investigators. It is illegal to use the government-issued cards to collect cash. Investigators say they have uncovered similar illegal operations at two other South Jersey markets this year.

[.....]

Employees at two Camden markets also were arrested this year for defrauding the USDA of a total of nearly $800,000 in similar food-stamp card operations.

Use our search function for “food stamp scams” and you will see the many posts I’ve written on the subject previously.  In my most recent post on the topic, prior to this one, you will find some additional background on this growing problem.

Canada’s new “immigrant” from America

Update November 13th:  He has been released from custody, here.  Will have more later.

Vancouver seems to have more than its fair share of possible terrorists sneaking across the border.  First, we heard about the Sri Lankan ship that came ashore with “refugees” and now we hear about a mysterious ‘American’ who was stopped while coming across the border into Canada with nearly $1 million in GOLD.

VANCOUVER, B.C. — Paranoia and naivete led a Syrian man to lie about why he was crossing the border with nearly $1 million in gold and what’s been called “terrorist resources,” says the lawyer for the man who has been held as a potential security threat since early last month.

Khaled Nawaya, a flight instructor, was arrested by Canada Border Services agents when they found $800,000 in gold coins and other currency in his car and pockets on Oct. 6, as he crossed into Surrey, B.C., near Vancouver.

“He didn’t want to be taxed on it,” lawyer Phil Rankin said Tuesday.

The Saudi-born would-be immigrant to Canada holds Syrian citizenship, but had been in the US since he was 17.    Besides the illegal amount of cash and gold he was carrying he had a few other suspicious items in his possession.

…. his actions, along with other politically-charged items found in his vehicle, are now being used by government officials to build a case depicting him as a national security threat.

The 35-year-old faces the Immigration and Refugee Board on Thursday to learn whether authorities have grounds to keep him in custody

He’d been living in the U.S. since he was 17 and had gained approval for permanent residency in Canada.

[.....]　

Besides the gold, Canadian agents found a ring bearing the insignia of Hezbollah, which has been listed as a terrorist organization by the Canadian government since 2002.

They also seized 9/11 conspiracy theory-themed DVDs and a scarf adorned with the images of a former Israeli prime minister and a U.S. president depicted as monkeys.

His lawyer says the items are easily explainable.  Read the whole article for the explanations!   The lawyer concludes:

“I think they’re [he and his brother in America] probably sympathetic to what’s going on in the Middle East,” he said, but that’s no indication of “sinister” activity.

Oh, and did you notice, he is a flight instructor.  Me thinks this lawyer has an uphill battle.

Lou Dobbs leaves CNN

Update November 12th:  Immigration Daily is gloating and suggesting if Lou Dobbs is out, amnesty is in.  I wouldn’t be in such a hurry to make that prediction.  As CNN dies, Dobbs may find a more powerful gig elsewhere.

Outspoken immigration critic and likely the only independent thinker at CNN has announced he is finished there.  It is not clear what he will do next, but it is clear that CNN will continue to sink further in the ratings.   From the NY Times:

Lou Dobbs, the longtime CNN anchor whose anti-immigration views have made him a TV lightning rod, said Wednesday that he is leaving the cable news channel effective immediately.

“Some leaders in the media, politics and business have been urging me to go beyond my role here at CNN and engage in constructive problem-solving,” Mr. Dobbs said just after 7 p.m., suggesting that he would remain involved in the civic discourse, but perhaps not on television.

“I’m considering a number of options and directions,” Mr. Dobbs added.

Wednesday’s program will be his last on CNN, one of his employees said earlier in the evening.

We previously told you about attempts by the Southern Poverty Law Center to get him fired, here.  And, more recently we mentioned the shooting at his NJ home, here.

USCCB lobbied hard for Pelosi Health Care bill

Cliff Kincaid at Accuracy in Media lines up some of the reasons why the US Conference of Catholic Bishops helped push the Pelosi/Obama so-called health reform bill over the finish line late Saturday night and wonders where is the separation of church and state.

Kincaid explains and suggests some reasons why the USCCB might be in Pelosi’s pocket, including their immigration advocacy.  After you read this, I’ll add one more reason he has missed.   Hat tip:  Janet Levy

The AARP and American Medical Association supported H.R. 3692, the Affordable Health Care for America Act of 2009, but a careful analysis of the media coverage demonstrates that it was the U.S. Catholic Church that provided the winning margin. Yet, the liberal media are failing to raise the issue of the alleged separation of church and state.

Contrary to some media reports, the U.S. Catholics Bishops never opposed a national health care scheme. In fact, their main objection was to a provision for federal funding of abortion. Once that provision was eliminated, the Catholic Bishops embraced the bill.

On Saturday, after Catholic lobbyists had finalized a deal with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the most prominent Catholic in the U.S. Government, the Politico reported that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops had “delivered a critical endorsement” to Pelosi “by signing off on late-night agreement to grant a vote on an amendment barring insurance companies that participate in the exchange from covering abortions.” The anti-abortion amendment by Rep. Bart Stupak, a Catholic Democrat, passed. Hence, the Bishops are now officially in favor of a bureaucratic plan that could spell the end to freedom of choice in health care and financially bankrupt the U.S.

“A half dozen lobbyists for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops joined negotiators in Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office to come to terms,” reported the Christian Science Monitor.

[.....]

NBC’s Doug Adams reported that the Catholic Bishops were “lobbying hard.”

The shocking turn of events once again demonstrates the extreme left-wing drift of the Catholic Church, which is the nation’s largest religious denomination with 67 million members and run by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. But their role in passing Pelosicare is not the only evidence of such a turn. The Bishops poured more than $7.3 million of parishioners’ money into the corrupt left-wing organization ACORN over the last decade before publicity over the organization’s scandals forced suspension of the funding.

Please read Kincaid’s whole article.

Here is what Kincaid has missed—federal funding.   The USCCB is the largest federal contractor* for resettling refugees and running immigrant programs in the US.  That $7.3 million that went to ACORN is chump change and may not have even come from parishioners—it might have come from taxpayers.  

We recently learned that 100 Catholic Charities got a whopping $85,557,665 from the US Treasury to run their many immigrant and other welfare programs in 2009 alone!

Add to the $85 million dispersed around the US to Catholic Charities, note that the US State Department funded the DC office of the USCCB to the tune of $25 million (FY2009)!   I sure hope the USCCB is keeping their refugee money separate from their lobbying money.  Anyone doing any auditing?  What do you think, Pelosi had a little leverage here!

There is more.  We are funding with our tax dollars a multi-million dollar far left Catholic expansion of power throughout the government.   Take the case of Tennessee where Catholic Charities is now in charge of the millions of dollars that goes to Tennessee each year for refugee and immigrant federal programs.   The federal regulations mandate that a state agency manage the program for the many “church” and other non-profit groups operating to take care (LOL!) of immigrants within the state.  In Tennessee there is no state overseer, the fox essentially has the hen house.

So if one questions the issue of separation of church and state, think about the fact that Catholic Charities of Tennessee and the US State Department/Dept of Health and Human Services (the federal government!) make decisions for Tennessee regarding refugees and immigrants.  There is no decision-making role for the state or local government in deciding who is resettled in the state or how many.  The only role is that the state and local governments supply welfare assistance.  States should be guarding against this trend.

If amnesty is given to millions of  illegal aliens, as the USCCB is also lobbying for, you can be sure these Catholic offices roles will expand even further.  This is how the federal government with the help of its quasi-government agencies, like Catholic Charities, usurps the role of state governments.

We have already heard that Pelosi twisted many arms and offered loads of pork to legislators to secure their vote, certainly the USCCB had a lot of funding to lose if they didn’t go along with the program.  And, who knows what they were promised in the future.

* Here are the Top Ten federal contractors resettling refugees, running immigrant welfare programs AND lobbying!  They have 300 plus subcontractors.

Catholic leaders: Illegal entry does not define who you are

There is nothing earth-shattering here, but since we had previously discussed the National Association of Evangelicals on the issue of amnesty, I thought it only fitting to tell you about how leading Catholics are working toward Comprehensive Immigration Reform (called Amnesty for short).  

This is an account of a conference a few days ago at Georgetown University at which Cardinal McCarrick says the window is closed at the moment to push for Amnesty—no kidding!

From the National Catholic Reporter:

“A toxic political atmosphere” is preventing much-needed humane reform of the “broken immigration system” in the United States, Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick said Nov. 3 at a forum on immigration and human dignity at Georgetown University.

Calling for “comprehensive immigration reform,’ the retired Washington archbishop said, “We have to change what is broken, lest more people will suffer. We have to be courageous and persistent and change the system.”

McCarrick was lead speaker of a three-member panel at the forum, put on by Georgetown’s Woodstock Theological Center and co-sponsored by CLINIC (Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc.), the Migration Policy Institute and the Jesuit Conference, USA. More than 300 people attended.

In one way or another all the speakers urged new attention to immigration reform — which McCarrick bluntly said is now on a political back burner to the more currently dominant issues of the economic crisis, U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the health care reform debate.

The golden opportunity for immigration reform two years ago is gone, and those seeking comprehensive, humane reform need to watch closely for the next open window and seize it, he said.

“Our receptivity to immigrants defines who we are” as Americans, said Donald M Kerwin Jr., a Woodstock Center associate fellow and vice president for programs of the Migration Policy Institute. “What immigrants want today is what your parents and grandparents wanted” as immigrants in previous generations.

Kerwin, who for 15 years was director of CLINIC, a national program established by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to provide legal assistance to refugees, asylum seekers and other immigrants seeking visas and legal residency in the United States, sharply disputed the use of “illegal aliens” or “illegal immigrants” as terms defining or identifying those who enter the country without legal status.

“The rejection of ‘illegal alien’ is not a quibble. … It’s a line drawn in the sand” to say that these are human beings with rights and legitimate aspirations, whose illegal entry does not define who they are, he said.  [I think it says an awful lot about them!]

A little research into CLINIC

I don’t have time today to look too deeply into CLINIC (some interesting stuff on their website) because I am going away for a few days and have to get out of here, but I was curious who was funding this legal office.   Turns out you are—not entirely, though!  On average CLINIC gets about a half a million dollars a year from the US taxpayer to legally defend immigrants including refugees, and apparently to lobby.    The money passes through a Washington, DC office run by Kerwin for 15 years.

If you are interested check out their latest Form 990 here.   And, also go to that wonderful new source of information USA Spending.gov for information on their federal grants.

By the way, as regular readers know the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, one of the top ten federal refugee contractors,  is one of the largest recipients of federal grant dollars.  I wonder do they ever consider that if millions of illegal aliens are legalized overnight that they will compound even further the poor job prospects for legal refugees.

And, why are we giving millions and millions of tax dollars to rich churches and their political activities?