Europe getting ready to control immigration if Euro collapses

They get it!  Immigration must be controlled in floundering economies, but will it be too little too late for Europe?

Here is an article from The Telegraph in which a Member of the British Parliament says they are getting ready to halt one of the most important parts of the EU government where people from member states can freely cross borders to work.   They fear most that the collapse of Greece will send thousands upon thousands to the few countries still holding their economic heads above water, especially Britain.

In an interview in The Daily Telegraph, Theresa May says “work is ongoing” to restrict European immigration in the event of a financial collapse.

People from throughout the EU, with the exception of new member countries such as Romania and Bulgaria, are able to work anywhere in the single market.

However, there are growing concerns that if Greece was forced to leave the euro, it would effectively go bankrupt and millions could lose their jobs and consider looking for work abroad.

The crisis could spread quickly to other vulnerable countries such as Spain, Ireland and Portugal, although Britain is regarded as a safe haven because it is outside the single currency.

[....]

The introduction of immigration controls within the EU would undermine a key part of the single market. However, it is allowed in “exceptional” circumstances under European law.

Controls are most likely to include restrictions on people seeking to work in Britain, who could be made to apply for visas.

[....]

David Cameron has already said that Britain has made contingency plans to deal with the break-up of the single currency.

Too late?

But, according to this article (be sure to open the link to see the photo) also from The Telegraph (last month), it may be too late for Britain to control any immigration.  Who is to blame?

Many of us can identify with these concerns. And being sensible, like Joe Public, we do not blame immigrants for failing to integrate: the blame lies at the feet of our rulers for failing to set clear boundaries by requiring them to learn English, respect British culture and obey the house rules. Instead, the British have been exhorted to change the rules to accommodate the newcomers. It may come as no surprise to read that the Office for National Statistics has discovered that one in eight people in the UK is now foreign born.

Auntie Zeituni’s got a book too!

And, it’s about being abused in America, or so says Howie Carr writing at the Boston Herald.

Readers will recall that in 2008 then candidate Obama’s long-lost dear Auntie from ‘Dreams from my Father’ fame was found living illegally (she had been ordered deported) in public housing in Boston.  A subsequent trial (where she had a hot shot lawyer) resulted in a grant of asylum in the US.  Now she has a tell-all book.   I really hope she addresses her previously reported anger at her nephew for leaving her out of White House family doings (I bet that is the elegant First Lady’s doing).

Here is Carr:

Auntie Zeituni has written a book. It’s called “Tears of Abuse,” on account of how tough she’s had it.

Have I read it? Of course not. Have you read her nephew’s best-seller — Dreams from My Ghostwriter, I mean Father? No one has — it’s sold millions of copies, but until two weeks ago, not a single reader got far enough into it to learn that Obama was a dog-eater with “composite” girlfriends.

Anyway, I have the press release on “Tears of Abuse,” which describes Auntie Zeituni’s journey to the United States “where she faces the unthinkable; failing health and quarantined in a hospital while on vacation in a foreign country.”

Vacation? Surely she meant to say “welfare.”

“As her story unfolds she becomes a resident of (a) homeless shelter and a subject of deportation.”

How dare they! Just because she’s an illegal alien, they want to deport her.

Carr is so funny, I didn’t know where to stop.  But, it’s unethical to post the whole piece, so please visit Carr’s column, here.   I might be tempted to read Auntie Z’s book to see if she has her version of events in sync with “Dreams from my father.”

Since we are on the subject of “Dreams…,” here is the answer to something I wondered about a few weeks ago when there was all the hoop-la about Obama eating dogs in Indonesia.  Muslims hate dogs—they are on the list of the ten most vile things on earth, right up there with dead bodies, feces and pigs.  So, I had been thinking that Muslims probably don’t eat them.  Here is a story from a couple of weeks ago by John Hinderaker at Powerline about Obama and dog-eating (hat tip:  Judy).  He ends his piece with this:

ONE MORE THING: Muslims don’t eat dogs. Barack Obama lived with a Muslim stepfather in a Muslim area of Indonesia. Dogs were not eaten there; presumably not in Obama’s Muslim household. So Obama’s claim in his autobiography that he ate dog in Indonesia may well be false–an error introduced by Bill Ayers or whoever actually wrote Obama’s autobiography. But it is way too late now for Obama to disavow the autobiography that he allegedly wrote.

Texas governor criticizes “unaccompanied minor” program of US government

Update May 9th:  More on unaccompanied illegal kids here at the Houston Chronicle.

Before you read this post, please go back to this post I wrote in March which gives one horror story of an unaccompanied minor in Galveston, TX  who had originally been ‘under the care’ of Catholic Charities (which receives payment from the feds for his and thousands of other illegal alien kids care) and has become an alleged “unaccompanied” adult sexual predator.

Here is Texas Governor Perry (via Fox News) on how this program is encouraging a boom in kids crossing the border without parents.   He also charges that Obama is actually pushing this.  Although I gotta say Perry himself allowed for another magnet for illegal kids—subsidized college education for illegal alien kids (but that is another story for another time).

Texas Gov. Rick Perry is accusing the Obama administration of “perpetuating” a recent “surge” in illegal immigrant children who are crossing into the U.S. from Mexico and Central America without their parents and often falling straight into government care.

In a letter obtained by Fox News, Perry wrote to President Obama on Friday citing stats that show more than 5,200 “unaccompanied minors” were taken into U.S. custody in the first six months of the fiscal year — a more than 90 percent increase compared with the same period a year ago.

Perry, a former Republican presidential candidate, claimed that a failure to immediately send them back is “perpetuating the problem” by encouraging other children and teenagers to make the trek. He said the journey is dangerous for the children, and their flow into the United States is a burden on his state and others. The governor urged the administration to eliminate the “temptation” to make “this tragic and illegal migration.”

The Refugee program looking for expansion into new and lucrative territory?

A recent Associated Press article on the surge reported that 1,390 unaccompanied children crossed over the border and into U.S. custody in March alone. Some have even been housed at Lackland Air Force Base on a temporary basis while they are being processed.

The children, after being initially detained by the Department of Homeland Security, are typically handed over to the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement — a division of the Department of Health and Human Services.   [where a couple of the federal "church" contractors get paid to take care of them until they "emancipate" them into the US population at age 18---ed]

I noticed the other day as I read through the testimony from the Refugee meeting in Arlington, VA last week, here, that there were many mentions of the “need” to boost this program.   Another chicken-or-egg question?   Are the kids coming anyway or are they being enticed into coming by this federal program (and the hope of amnesty through the Dream Act someday)?

Now Somalis get Temporary Protected Status extension

Basically what this means is that around 1000 plus Somalis (that they know of!) who got into the US illegally are now eligible to sign up to stay and work.

I’ve written about TPS extensively, just search for “Temporary Protected Status” to learn what a fraud this “legal” program is—there are a couple hundred thousand Central Americans (among others!) staying here permanently under this “temporary” designation, now Somalis continue to get a free pass too.

From Minnesota Public Radio:

St. Paul, Minn. — Somali nationals with no other legal means to stay in the US can now apply for temporary protected status.

The status allows Somalis currently in the US to stay here.

The government first designated Somalis as eligible for the status in 2001. The protection from deportation expires about every 18 months.  [And it is always extended!---ed]

U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano decided to reauthorize the status, citing the poor living conditions, armed conflicts, and lasting effects from severe drought.

John Keller, executive director of the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota says few Somalis in the state have temporary status, but Napolitano’s decision will allow more to apply for the designation.

“The government basically has decided that things continue to be so bad in Somalia that even people who’ve recently arrived or who are transitioning between statuses should get this protection,” Keller said.

The Department of Homeland Security says about 250 Somalis nationwide are eligible to re-register for temporary protected status while fewer than 1,000 people will be eligible for the first time.

The truth is they have no clue how many are here with “no legal means to stay.”

Minnesota US Senator Klobuchar cheers the decision to allow our “friends” to stay, here.

I guess those Somali deportation stories are a bunch of hogwash!

Mitt (Etch A Sketch*) Romney headed to the Left on immigration

[Cross-posted from Potomac Tea Party Report]

I can emphatically say I am not surprised.

Much to my profound shock, back in January Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, a leading legal beagle on immigration and a hero to many on the immigration control side, endorsed Romney.  See my post here.  Even NumbersUSA President, Roy Beck, was sounding all warm and fuzzy for Romney. I was shocked!

In the meantime, Rick Santorum’s NumbersUSA scorecard was shown to have been better than Romney’s.  Here Santorum is an A-.  I see they have pushed the guy who previously had a C, Romney, up to a B- recently.  In light of this news, it’s time for a new score for Romney, don’t you think!

Back in January, did Kobach and Beck get snookered by the Romney gang—did they not know that the likes of Karl Rove, Grover Norquist and Ed Gillespie—the Open Borders troika—were in the wings to run things for Romney?  (Remember Norquist said all they needed was a weak President—Romney the robot— here and here, to sign things!).

Here is The Hill telling us what it means for the Romney team to have put Ed Gillespie on the payroll as a strategist (emphasis mine):

Mitt Romney’s hiring of Republican strategist Ed Gillespie is being seen as a sign the campaign will heavily court Hispanic voters — perhaps at the expense of immigration hard-liners in the party.

Gillespie, a former head of the Republican National Committee, has long advocated an aggressive outreach to the Hispanic community. He helped found the Republican State Leadership Committee, a group that recruits and trains GOP candidates for office and has emphasized finding female and minority candidates. He also heads up Resurgent Republic, an organization focused on messaging to independents, including Hispanic swing voters.

There is nothing wrong with outreach to minority voters, UNLESS they are making promises for government goodies to come!

The RNC is highly aware of this, and on Monday announced it would have state-level Hispanic outreach directors placed in Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Florida, Virginia and North Carolina.

Republican DREAM ACT on the way?  (Marco Rubio involved too)

Establishment members of the party praised Gillespie’s hiring.

“He’s going to be great as a key figure in the Romney campaign,” RNC Chairman Reince Priebus told The Hill on Monday. “Ed brings a pretty big background in understanding and being an effective communicator in the Hispanic community and that can only be a positive.”

Some signs of a shift in Romney’s tone have already emerged since his status as the presumptive nominee has become stronger.

The former Massachusetts governor warned during a private fundraiser this past weekend that his standing in polls with Hispanics “spells doom for us,” and that to alleviate the problem the GOP needed to offer its own policies to woo Hispanics. His suggestions included a “Republican DREAM Act,” referring to a GOP version of the Democratic plan that would give some illegal immigrants who came here as children a path to citizenship.

While he was not advocating for a specific policy, the comments were a sharp break from Romney’s rhetoric during the primary, when he said he would veto the DREAM Act and attacked Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) for backing a state law that gave illegal immigrants in-state college tuition, calling it a “magnet” for more illegal immigration.

Kobach kicked to the curb?

Gillespie’s hiring is being viewed as a counter to hard-line advisers in the Romney camp, including Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R), who wrote Arizona’s controversial immigration law.

Republican strategists predicted that Gillespie’s gravitas would make him influential within the Romney campaign, outweighing the more-conservative voices on the issue.

Is it Tea Party time yet?

*Romney the Etch A Sketch candidate, here.

Update April 21:  Alas, the Kobach endorsement of Romney and the on-again/off-again alliance may be all about money, that is assuming we can believe Think Progress (hat tip Richard Falknor at Blue Ridge Forum):

Indeed, it will be very hard for Romney, whose PAC was one of the largest donors to Kobach’s campaign for Kansas Secretary of State, to distance himself from his immigration adviser or the law in Arizona.

 

A quarter of a million “temporary refugees” seek permanent resident status now

I’ve mention the Temporary Protected Status program on many occasions on these pages.  Readers need to know that a quarter of a million Central American illegal aliens living in the US are now making a push to be granted permanent resident status.   Here is a post I wrote two days ago at Potomac Tea Party Report explaining the political agitation for amnesty campaign launched yesterday in DC.

Also, you should visit Mark Krikorian (Center for Immigration Studies) writing on the topic here at National Review Online.

Uncle Omar gets to drive anyway (as well as stay in the US)

Uncle Omar of course is President Barack Obama’s illegal alien uncle (and brother to Aunt Zeituni) “discovered” living in Massachusetts for decades.  We told you about his bust for drunk driving last August and here is more on whether he was ever lost at all!

Just a week or so ago we heard he lost his Massachusetts drivers license (not really!), but not a word about whether he will be granted asylum (Aunt Zeituni had good lawyers and did get asylum, here).

From the Boston Herald today:

Just a week after he copped a plea in a drunken-driving rap, President Obama’s illegal-alien uncle has landed a hardship driver’s license from the Registry of Motor Vehicles, making it perfectly legal for him to drive in Massachusetts — even though the feds say he doesn’t belong here.

Onyango Obama, 67, who lost his regular license for 45 days last week, scored his limited license yesterday from the Registry’s Wilmington branch, after convincing a hearing officer that life without wheels would have posed an undue hardship on his livelihood as a liquor-store manager. Obama bolstered his case with a letter from his employer, Conti Liquors, as well as proof that he’d enrolled in an alcohol-treatment program.

[.....]

Of the state’s decision to award Obama a license even though the federal government considers him an illegal alien, Lavoie would only say, “Registry business is based on Registry records.”

[.....]

The license award drew fire from one advocate of tough enforcement on illegals, Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson.

“Our democracy is predicated on law,” Hodgson said. “When we start to interpret these laws differently and manipulate them the way we want them to work for certain people, we start to send a mixed message to people that the law doesn’t really matter. Its subject to interpretation. You don’t have to follow the law. They find ways to justify it. We need the laws to be very clear. We need ‘no’ to mean ‘no’ again.”

Hodgson, along with sheriffs in Plymouth and Worcester counties, stood up for Secure Communities, a program that feeds local police fingerprint checks into federal databases to check the citizenship status of accused criminals. Gov. Deval Patrick has refused to enroll the state in the program.

What no public transportation in Boston?

We sure don’t want any illegal aliens experiencing an “undue hardship” now do we?

Watch for it—Onyango’s lawyers will probably  base an asylum claim on the very real possibility that if he is sent back to Kenya now he will be a marked man by the many enemies his nephew has created.

Pew: Foreign-born workers getting jobs, not so much for Americans

The Federation for American Immigration Reform reports the following in its end of the week wrap-up:

The Pew Hispanic Center has released a new report that found that “Foreign-born workers are…experiencing a faster rate of growth in employment than native-born workers.” This continues a trend that began at the start of the economic “recovery” in June 2009, and it highlights the fact that our immigration system is operating to the detriment of American workers.

Given the influence of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other special interest groups that push for an increased immigration level, it should surprise no one that even in the midst of the worst unemployment America has seen in the past 30 years, our government continues to admit millions of foreign workers every year, with some politicians campaigning for even higher levels of admissions – Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Scott Brown (R-Mass.) being the latest.

Be sure to have a look at the Pew Report which tries to soften the blow by linking the employment rate to increased population levels of mostly Hispanics and Asians.  They say that the white and black American populations are not rising as rapidly so it stands to reason that Hispanics and Asians are getting the jobs (say what?).

Galveston and the curious case of “George” the ‘unaccompanied alien’

Most Americans don’t know that the US Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), is responsible for the care of thousands of kids a year who somehow got into the US from a foreign country without a parent or guardian— it is called the “Unaccompanied Alien Children Program.”

Not surprisingly the largest number of such “kids” come from Mexico and Central America.    Skeptical readers might wonder if they weren’t dropped off/separated from family on purpose as the largest percentage of the children are in their mid-teens.

One such “unaccompanied minor” now turned 18 is the subject of this editorial in the Galveston Daily News where editor Heber Taylor amuses readers (sort of) with his introduction to the story (emphasis mine):

The federal government owes island residents a better explanation of the strange case of “George,” an 18-year-old Honduran immigrant who came to Galveston under a program operated by the Office of Refugee Resettlement.

George had an exciting time in January.

He was accused of having sex with a 15-year-old girl who, along with her family, was in a homeless shelter operated by the Children’s Center Inc., a social services agency that has deep roots in Galveston. The organization has been on the island, supported by some of its prominent families, since the 19th century.

George also was involved in the arrest of Terry Bernard, 38, whose girlfriend was convinced George was having sex with her 12-year-old daughter. Bernard told police he used the 12-year-old girl’s cellphone to send a text message to George, inviting him to the park for sex.

About six shots were fired, and Bernard, who apparently was trying to discourage the alleged relationship with the girl, remains jailed on several felony charges and is facing a parole board warrant.

While shots were fired in the park, George was unscathed in that case.

However, George was shot during an unrelated robbery, capping off a busy month.

George’s medical care for the gunshot wound was provided because he had a Medicaid card, something many people would dearly love to have.

George cannot work legally in this country, and it is not clear how he was able to acquire a cellphone and property that was valuable enough to make him a target of an armed robber.

So how did a character like George get to Galveston?

Read on.  The answer isn’t clear, but editor Taylor wants Texas readers to write to elected officials in Washington for an explanation!

Taylor raises a point I’ve wondered about too.  After the little darlings are cared for with the help of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services and the US Conference of Catholic Bishops which both get federal grants for their “charitable” work—kids are fed, clothed, housed, educated and health care needs met—what happens to them when they turn 18?

They are EMANCIPATED of course!  I kid you not, that is the word used in the 2008 ORR Annual Report to Congress (see pages 61-65 for a description of the program) for what happens after the illegal youngsters learn “independent living skills.”  So, is that what George was learning at Catholic Charities?

Houston-Galveston Catholic Charities Sex Abuse scandal

Gee, I wonder did “George” learn a few things at this Catholic Charities that was rocked by a sex abuse scandal involving ‘unaccompanied minors’—see the shocking report here last September!

According to the Houston Chronicle story I wrote about, ORR “takes care of” over 6000 such kids a year and half of those are in Texas.  (Here is a chart with the top five states with “apprehensions” of minors).   I guess when they turn 18 they are just “emancipated” into your towns with there new skills.  And, LOL!, they will expect a Texas taxpayer-subsidized college education to boot!

New food stamp bust in Dearbornistan; Rep. Issa holds Congressional hearing

Just as Rep. Daryl Issa’s hearing on food stamp fraud was taking place this week, we see yet more scammers busted in Michigan.   Here is the story from the Detroit News:

Detroit— Three Metro Detroit men have been charged with felony counts for a $262,000 food stamp fraud scheme at west side store.

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette listed the charges Friday against 37-year-old Dani Mohamed-Kami Itani of Canton Township, Hassan Raychoini, 54, of Dearborn Heights and 22-year-old Raed Youseff of Dearborn for the alleged fraud at Schaefer Dollar Mania in Detroit.

According to the complaint by Schuette, store manager Itani and his employees Raychoini and Youseff, accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars of food stamps for purchases that did not qualify for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) from January 2011 through September 2011. The items included clothing, electronics and watches, according to the criminal complaint.  [other reports also mentioned cash--ed]

The men face charges of racketeering, conspiracy and food stamp fraud. They were arrested by Michigan State Police Wednesday and arraigned in 36th District Court in Detroit on Thursday. A preliminary examination has been scheduled for March 20 in 36th District Court.

Using Baron Bodissey’s (Gates of Vienna) scale for measuring “International cultural enrichment” this story has a 33 and 1/3% ‘Mohammed Coefficient’!  I’ve joked (sort of)  many times about how many of the food stamp fraudsters nabbed come from a certain part of the world.

Hearing in the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee

What Issa was getting at this week was the news (uncovered by Scripps Howard) that, although many stores have been busted, the Dept. of Agriculture has allowed an undetermined number of them to continue to participate in the program.

Here is the Heritage Foundation’s Bluey Reports on the hearing:

Food-stamp fraud and the government’s failed attempts to stop it were the focus of a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing yesterday.

Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) called the hearing in response to a Scripps Howard News Service investigative report exposing widespread abuse. The investigation revealed that retailers who lost authorization to accept food stamps were still conducting business despite their restrictions.

“[D]ozens of individuals who had been banned as food-stamp vendors nonetheless remained in the business in New York; Los Angeles; Phoenix; San Diego; Tulsa, Okla.; West Palm Beach, Fla.; Baltimore* and other communities across the country,” according to the report. Scripps Howard discovered this by comparing U.S. Department of Agriculture disqualification records against documents from health-inspection reports to business filings and corporate certificates.

At yesterday’s hearing, Kevin Concannon, undersecretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service, defended the government’s efforts to combat fraud. He also cast blame on the messenger.

“As with other leads and observations we receive from the public, we took this information very seriously. We began an immediate investigation into all of the stores that were brought to our attention and we have added further layers of security to our retailer oversight process. However, our research indicates that many of the cases identified by Scripps Howard do not involve improper activity,” he said.

[....]

Issa, meanwhile, vowed to keep a watchful eye on USDA, demanding additional documents and information.

“With record numbers of Americans using food stamps, with an annual price tag of $75.3 billion, anything short of rigorous anti-fraud measures will be very costly to taxpayers,” Issa said.

[....]

“The crime is as widespread as it is simple: Stores accept food stamps, but instead of requiring that customers walk away with wholesome groceries, they provide the customers a small amount of cash — typically 50 cents on the food stamp dollar. While taxpayers lose out — the money isn’t going toward wholesome food — food stamp recipients are receiving no-strings attached cash while stores are taking a hefty profit for serving as a moneychanger,” according to the Scripps Howard report.

* Baltimore too!  For my Maryland friends here (via San Diego News):

A Scripps Howard News Service investigation has found records indicating that dozens of individuals who had been banned as food-stamp vendors nonetheless remained in the business in New York; Los Angeles; Phoenix; San Diego; Tulsa, Okla.; West Palm Beach, Fla.; Baltimore and other communities across the country.

Case in point: The Foods Mart convenience store in Baltimore’s gritty Remington neighborhood. In December, Scripps identified one of the store’s owners, using Maryland corporation records and city business filings, as Nasir Pervaiz — who was permanently barred in January 2011 by the USDA.

Upon learning of Scripps’ discovery, the USDA opened an investigation and notified the storeowners that they would face a hearing, agency officials said. As of mid-February, the store was no longer taking food stamps, a visit there showed.

Here, also, is a story about Mohammed Khan and his convenience store being raided in Hagerstown, MD in 2007.  I’ve been waiting for nearly five years for the feds (for someone) to pay attention to this problem!

If you are suspicious about a store here is where you can go to report:

The USDA has a hotline — 1-800-424-9121 — and a new website for the public to report alleged fraud: www.fns.usda.gov/fightingsnapfraud.htm