Tancredo: Obama is 'a cult leader.'

The immigration debate continues to heat up as the nation's leaders get personal and answer tough questions about whether illegal immigrants should be given a chance to remain in the country legally.

Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, said illegal immigration makes a significant contribution to the U.S. economy. He told a Senate subcommittee last week that an overhaul of immigration laws is "badly needed" to create legal avenues for skilled and unskilled illegal immigrants to enter the country. Here is what he had to say:

There is little doubt that unauthorized, that is, illegal immigration has made a significant contribution to the growth of our economy. Between 2000 and 2007, for example, it accounted for more than a sixth of the increase in our total civilian labor force.

Some evidence suggests that unskilled illegal immigrants, almost all from Latin America, marginally suppress wage levels of native-born Americans without a high school diploma, and impose significant costs on some state and local governments.
However the estimated wage suppression and fiscal costs are relatively small and economists generally view the overall economic benefits of this workforce as significantly outweighing the costs.

Former U.S. Representative Tom Tancredo, a Republican from Colorado, called President Barack Obama a “cult leader” when talking about his immigration plan. Speaking on the conservative news radio program “Dateline: Washington,” Tancredo said Obama is trying to dress up a plan that amounts to "amnesty" for illegal immigrants. Here is an excerpt.

He is — you have to admit — he is a cult leader. And the cult will go with him wherever he wants to go. You just don't know about the size of the cult; how big it is — if it's shrinking or growing.

Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, says she supports a federal bill that would give illegal immigrants a path to legal residency if they complete two years of college or military service. Responding to a question about the so-called Dream Act, Napolitano had this to say at last week’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.

As a governor of a border state, this is one of those areas where everyone wants the immigration law enforced. We must enforce it. It's part of our national sovereignty, among other things.

On the other hand, we have to have the ability to deal with some of the human issues that arise here. And the one that you have identified is one of the most acute. I supported the Dream Act when I was governor. I support it now. One of the most moving things I've been privileged to do as secretary is to administer the Oath of Citizenship to men and women in our military who have been serving in Iraq, who were not citizens, who have elected to become citizens -- in a way, kind of mirrors what you're talking about in the Dream Act. But it seems to me that the Dream Act is -- is a good piece of legislation and a good idea.

Remember 'catch and release'?

Enforcement advocates say new federal immigration guidelines may signal a return to a widely criticized program that allowed captured illegal immigrants to be released to await a court date. Many never showed up.

The Obama administration issued a new enforcement policy last week focusing on employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants.

The Federation for American Immigration Reform, which advocates stronger enforcement, says the new U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement guidelines do not “offer anything new in the way of substance with respect to enforcement against employers.”

Instead, FAIR says it raises questions whether illegal immigrants caught at worksites will be released. FAIR keys in on one line in the DHS memo:

ICE will continue to arrest and process for removal any illegal workers who are found in the course of these worksite enforcement actions in a manner consistent with immigration law and DHS priorities.

FAIR contends that “processing for removal” could mean releasing illegal immigrants and giving them a notice to appear in court on a certain day to begin removal proceedings.

"Such a practice would be tantamount to reinstating the catch and release policy - a Border Patrol policy that was widely criticized as ineffective and counterproductive," FAIR states.

The catch and release program was ended in 2006. The practice allowed some illegal immigrants to remain free while awaiting their court hearing. Many never showed up in court.

"Amnesty" by any means necessary?

Some immigration enforcement advocates predict President Barack Obama will attempt to use a little-known program to give illegal immigrants a path to legal residency, if Congress can't get the votes to pass a comprehensive bill.

Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, says the president could try to use Temporary Protected Status as a way to give illegal immigrants permanent status disguised as a temporary fix.

Temporary Protected Status is a federal program for foreign nationals currently in the United States whose homelands are considered unsafe to return to because of war or natural disasters.
This status is considered a temporary program that lasts around a year to 18 months. But critics say it's renewed year after year. There are currently six countries under the program: Burundi, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Somalia and Sudan.

“Mark my words," Krikorian wrote in a blog post on the center's webpage. "As it becomes increasingly clear that no amnesty will be forthcoming from Congress this year, expect a rising chorus of demands from both the Left and the rope-selling Right that the president circumvent Congress and use his popularity to "fix" the immigration problem this way.”

Photo by Eli Turner

Busted, fake ID. Felony?

Enforcement advocates are crying foul while immigrant-rights groups are praising a Supreme Court decision to overturn the felony prosecution of an illegal immigrant arrested for using a fake ID.

The high court overturned charges of “aggravated identity theft” against an illegal immigrant in Illinois because he didn’t know he was using another person’s Social Security Number.

Here's a link to the ruling.

Enforcement advocates, such as Americans for Legal Immigration Pac, say the judges have taken away a “tool for prosecuting and deporting workers who are in this country illegally” while advocates want similar prosecutions overturned.

The American Immigration Lawyers Association wants the cases of more than 300 illegal immigrants arrested last year in a raid at an Iowa meat processor reopened. Many were charged with aggravated identity theft, a law adopted in 2004 that carries a mandatory two-year prison term.

About a dozen undocumented immigrants working as supervisors at a Greenville, S.C., poultry plant run by N.C.-based House of Raeford Farms were also arrested on similar charges.

The law was used by the Bush administration to round up hundreds of illegal workers at several worksites that employ illegal immigrants.

Photo: Chuck Kennedy/KRT

Local call for immigration reform

Immigrant rights groups from around Charlotte are joining forces to fight for immigration reform.

Dozens of advocates waved flags and held signs at a gathering Friday in Marshall Park calling for legislation that would give illegal immigrants a chance to live and work legally.

Ruben Campillo, a member and advocacy coordinator for the Latin American Coalition said they want to hold President Obama to his promise to address immigration reform.

“We all recognize our current immigration system is broken,” he said. “… Let's do the right thing and fight for a fair treatment and practical solution that benefits us all.”

Opponents say giving illegal immigrants a path to citizenship is a form of amnesty.

Ron Woodard, director of NC Listen, which advocates for stronger immigration enforcement, says the country's immigration policies exist because America cannot possibly accept all the immigrants who want to come to the country.

“People who come to America illegally are not only breaking the law, but are also jumping in the front of the line of others waiting their turn to come here legally,” he said.

To read the full article, click here.
to read it in Spanish, click here.

Video of the rally.

Latino profiling? Not according to stats.

In 2008, 72 official complaints were made against Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers. None of the complaints were by Latinos reporting they felt they were profiled or mistreated because of their ethnicity, police report.

One of the biggest complaints in the Latino community is that some officers target Latino immigrants knowing they could be deported if they’re taken to jail and found to be in the country illegally.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police chief Rodney Monroe didn’t have the statistics available last month when we reported on crimes going unsolved in Charlotte because immigrants don’t feel safe reporting them.

Chief Monroe said last month that he wanted to improve ties with the Latino community. He is familiar with charges of racial profiling, but he said people who feel they've been mistreated need to report that to him.

Chief Monroe said he understands people may not want to bring more attention to themselves by filing a complaint, but he said if the mistreatment is happening as often as some people claim more people should be coming forward.

“I'm not going to put blinders over my head and automatically deny that issue,” he said. Nor does he want “to condemn the men and women of this organization” without more facts.

Obama: " We can't continue with a broken immigration system"

In a press conference yesterday from the White House about his first 100 days in office, President Barack Obama reiterated his intention to make immigration reform a priority in his first year in office.

Responding to question about his immigration reform strategy, Obama had this to say:

We can't continue with a broken immigration system. It's not good for anybody. It's not good for American workers. It's dangerous for Mexican would- be workers who are trying to cross a dangerous border. It is putting a strain on border communities, who oftentimes have a deal with a host of undocumented workers. And it keeps those undocumented workers in the shadows, which means they can be exploited at the same time as they're depressing U.S. wages.

In the meantime, what we're trying to do is take some core -- some key administrative steps to move the process along, to lay the groundwork for legislation, because the American people need some confidence that if we actually put a package together, we can execute.

So [Homeland Security Secretary] Janet Napolitano, who has great knowledge of this, because of having been a border governor, she's already in the process of reviewing and figuring out, how can we strengthen our border security, in a much more significant way than we're doing?

If the American people don't feel like you can secure the borders, then it's hard to strike a deal that would get people out of the shadows and on the pathway to citizenship, who are already here, because the attitude of the average American is going to be, well, you're just going to have hundreds of thousands more coming in each year.

On the other side of the debate:

The Obama administration also reiterated its plan to pursue employers who knowingly hire and exploit illegal workers. Guidelines sent to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents yesterday call for imposing fines and pressing criminal charges against employers who break the law, according to the Associated Press. The priority is to go after employers, but the policy says agents will continue to arrest illegal workers as long as local US attorneys commit to prosecuting cases against their employers.

Napolitano has said the agency will focus on ``renewing a priority on employers who are making money off of these illegal immigrants and giving them jobs that should be going to American workers.''

In 2008, ICE brought criminal charges against 135 employers and 968 workers.