Tag: Immigration
Republicans Introduced Reagan’s Amnesty Act for 3 Million ‘Illegals’ Six Months Before 1986 Midterm Elections
When their hissy fits subside over Pres. Obama’s announcement last week that he is instructing immigration police to exempt about 800,000 children of undocumented workers from deportation, it would be instructive to remind GOPT spittle-spewers that their patron saint, Ronald Reagan, signed a law in 1986 that provided amnesty to 3 million “illegals”:
[In] 1986, Ronald Reagan signed a sweeping immigration reform bill into law. It was sold as a crackdown: There would be tighter security at the Mexican border, and employers would face strict penalties for hiring undocumented workers.
But the bill also made any immigrant who’d entered the country before 1982 eligible for amnesty … The law granted amnesty to nearly 3 million illegal immigrants, yet was largely considered unsuccessful because the strict sanctions on employers were stripped out of the bill for passage.
¡Probrecito Mitt! Spanish-Language Commercials Rip Romney on Immigration
Priorities USA and immigrant labor union SEIU are airing a second round of Spanish-language commercials using Mitt Romney’s own words on immigration to motivate Hispanic voters in Colorado, Nevada and Florida.
Romney: “A lot of people come across the border with no skills, no education, looking for a free deal.”
Videos available here.
Eating Their Own: Coulter Hates Jeb
I think, on closer examination, Jeb Bush would be the worst of all candidates to run. For one thing, we don’t need another Bush. That would be embarrassing to the Republican Party. He’s more pro amnesty for illegals than his brother was, more than Rick Perry was.
— Republican color commentator Ann Coulter, announcing she hates Jeb Bush and apparently wasn’t too fond of his big brother either. Could have fooled us.
Illegal Immigrants Paid $11.2 Billion in Taxes in 2010
$11.2 Billion
Amount paid in state and local taxes in 2010 by undocumented residents and their families. That included $1.2 billion in personal income taxes, $1.6 billion in property taxes and $8.4 billion in sales taxes.
McCain Sees ‘Problems with the Hispanics’
I think that if not this election cycle, the demographics are that Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, even Texas will all be in play.
— Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), quoted by NBC News, adding, “We have to fix our problems with the Hispanics.”
Finding Our Way Back
It’s hard not to think of this picture, which on Facebook is associated with the #OccupyWallStreet movement, when you hear the Republican candidates (except, she grudgingly admits, Rick Perry) debate immigration policy.
America hasn’t wanted your huddled masses yearning to breathe free for a long time, and we SURE don’t want your poor.
But we used to — and maybe someday we will again.
Illegal Immigration from Mexico Declines to Net Zero
From the right-leaning San Diego Union-Tribune:
The overall undocumented population in this country last year was 11.2 million, down from its peak of about 12 million in 2007, the Hispanic Pew Center said. Mexicans accounted for 58 percent of that group, or about 6.5 million from a high of 7 million in 2007.
The annual inbound migration from Mexico is about one-fifth or one-sixth of what it was about a decade ago, when it was about 500,000 each year, said Jeff Passel, a senior demographer at the Pew center. Demographers said outbound migration to Mexico has remained stable at about 150,000 annually.
Passel pointed to three factors that are likely to have caused the decline:
The Right’s Target List
This list was started on Twitter, by Peter Daou:
As I’ve said, the right’s target list speaks volumes: unions, scientists, academics, public broadcasters, health providers, women.
We can think of a few more.
- Gay people, especially those in long-term, loving relationships who want to marry and/or adopt children
- Veterans, once they’ve been injured, maimed, or traumatized in defense of our country
- Children, when they are out of the womb and require food, health care, or education
- People who adhere strictly to religious faiths, unless it’s Christianity
- Anyone who wasn’t born an American citizen but yearns to become one
- Doctors who want to protect children from accidental shootings
- Mass transit, renewable energy, and anything else that does not involve paving more land for more cars and SUVs
We’ll stop now but please keep this list going. What else do Republicans, tea partiers, and the right want to get rid of?
Death Penalty for Right-Wing Activist in Child Murder
In a unanimous decision, a jury in Tucson handed down the death sentence yesterday for right-wing anti-immigrant vigilante Shawna Forde — founder of Minuteman American Defense, an offshoot of the national Minuteman movement — who was found guilty last week in the double murder of Brisenia Flores, age nine, and her father, Raul, 29. (See photo, right.) The father and daughter were killed — and Gina Gonzales, their wife and mother, respectively, was seriously wounded — in the early hours of May 30, 2009, when Forde and an alleged accomplice, Jason Bush, posing as uniformed authorities, entered their trailer home in remote Arivaca, Ariz., searching for drugs.
Brisenia, who had gone to bed on the sofa that night to be with her new puppy, slept through the commotion at first and may have missed Jason Bush telling her father, “Don’t take this personal, but this bullet has your name on it,” before shooting him six times.
Awakened by the gunfire, the little girl watched in horror as Bush allegedly shot her mother in the shoulder and leg. Gonzales fell to the floor and feigned death.
“Why did you shoot my mom?” Brisenia asked Bush. He didn’t answer. Instead, he slowly reloaded and then placed the barrel of the gun against her cheek.
“Please don’t shoot me,” Brisenia begged him. Unmoved, Bush shot her in the face two times. With the killing out of the way, Forde and Bush got to business. They tore the home apart, searching for drugs, money and jewelery.
After the killers left, Gina managed to call 911, but as she was speaking with the operator, Shawna Forde returned, found Gina alive and called for Bush.
By the time the gunman entered the house, Gonzales had retrieved her husband’s gun. She opened fire. Forde was unscathed but Bush later showed up at an emergency room seeking treatment for a bullet wound. Later, when they were arrested, Shawna Forde had Gina Gonzales’ wedding ring and other jewelry in her possession.
Prosecutors believe Forde and Bush had been hired by Albert Robert Gaxiola, a local drug dealer, to raid Raul Flores, a rival dealer, steal his wares and kill him and his family. They believe Forde intended to use proceeds from the hit to fund her right-wing anti-immigrant activities.
For what it’s worth, both Raul Flores and his daughter were U.S.-born American citizens.
Bush and Gaxiola face trial later this year.
