Tea Party dabbles in immigration politics

By Marcelo Ballvé, New America Media

The Tea Party movement has energized activism against President Obama's vision for immigration reform.

The link between Tea Partiers and immigration politics developed last summer, when the impact of illegal immigration on the health care system became a prominent side issue in town hall debates.

The Senate of the Republic approved sending a message to President Felipe Calderon so that he may ask the Government of the United States to reconsider the anti-immigrant measures intended to be taken in the neighboring country’s budget for 2011. All political parties of the Senate reproached the policy change of direction of the American President, Barack Obama, who has decided to go back on the promise he made to all the Hispanic groups that supported him, and now he insists on closing the border. The government of Barack Obama seeks to increase the funds to reinforce border security with 4.6 billion dollars to support 20 thousand agents of the Border Patrol, as well as to finish the first portion of the “virtual fence.”

The parliamentary majority at Xicotencatl (the street where the Senate Chamber is located,) also supported asking the government of Felipe Calderon to manifest an “estrangement” because of the anti-immigrant measures that would eventually be carried out, considering them contrary to human rights. The PRI (pol. party) Senator Rosario Green Macias, president of the Foreign Relations Commission (read: committee chairwoman), criticized President Obama severely for going back on the promise he made to the Hispanic groups, who supported him at all times, and for insisting on closing up the border. Besides announcing that he will build the missing portion of the “virtual fence” by means of which everyone who crosses, undocumented or illegally, will be detected and can be immediately jailed and later expelled, (and also) reinforcing the number of agents, for customs as well as for the border. She expressed her worry, “because from now on we Mexicans will not know what to believe when we speak with the President of all the Americans, because he is a President who fails to keep his word.”

The PAN Party member Adriana Gonzalez Carrillo introduced an “urgent and obvious resolution” Accord Point that earned the backing of all the groups represented in the Senate. She brought up that, three decades ago, the border states had a bit more than 16 percent of the population of each country. Now, the ones in the United States represent 22 percent and those of Mexico 17 percent. She stated, “The proportion of the Hispanic presence in the United States border states has increased significantly, and today, it’s 25 percent of the total population of Arizona, almost a third of that in California and Texas, and 42 percent in New Mexico.” From the rostrum, the senator stated that Mexican immigrants make the United States a better country, they work ceaselessly, pay taxes, create jobs, control inflation, contribute to the elders’ retirement and are, in short, the spinal column of many industries. 

http://www.oem.com.mx/elsoldemexico/notas/n1505459.htm

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They will proudly boast of how they have galvanised ordinary Americans against runaway government spending, but a dark underbelly of xenophobia has been exposed at the first national gathering of the Tea Party movement...

The anti-Government, anti-Establishment movement, which has splintered in the past week with many boycotting this gathering, has billed itself as a revolution born of the widespread disgust at Washington and the way that the nation’s politicians are bankrupting America’s future.

Yet the speech that opened the Nashville event yesterday, an address greeted with whoops and cheers from the mainly white audience, reflects a movement that also appears to have a less attractive side to it.

Tom Tancredo, a former Republican congressman who ran for president in 2008 on an anti-illegal immigration platform, said of the voters who elected Mr Obama: “They could not even spell the word ‘vote’ or say it in English and they put a committed socialist ideologue in the White House — Barack Hussein Obama!”

Decrying America’s multiculturalism, Mr Tancredo said that Republicans and Democrats had voted for a black man because they felt they had to. To a standing ovation, he shouted: “We really do have a culture to pass on to our children: it’s based on Judaeo-Christian values.”

“This is our country,” he declared. “Let’s take it back!” He added, to applause: “Cultures are not the same. Some are better. Ours is best!” The crowd, some wearing recently purchased T-shirts saying “Keep the change — I’ll keep my FREEDOM my GUNS and my MONEY”, loved it...

One featured speaker, a “Patriot Pastor” named Rick Scarborough, told The Times that he was not against legal immigrants “but God has ordained that you are not a nation if you don’t have borders”...

(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...

McALLEN, Texas — A Border Patrol spokesman says agents patrolling the Rio Grande in south Texas fired rounds into Mexico after their boat was "bombarded" by objects from the Mexican side.

Jose Trevino said agents feared for their safety Monday morning when the objects hit the boat in the river that divides the U.S. and Mexico. The incident happened about 8 a.m. near the border city of McAllen, about 250 miles south of San Antonio.

Trevino said no injuries were reported, and he had no information on the type of objects that hit the boat.

Trevino also said he didn't know how many agents were on the boat or how many rounds they fired into Mexico.

The incident is under investigation.

Illegal immigration is spreading across America like the plague in medieval Europe, conjuring up images of damned cities and bringing pain and suffering to millions of unsuspecting Americans. The chains of suffering have been born for way too long by maintaining the status quo and not voicing our opinions to the world. It is time to stand up for our beliefs and take back our country from the hands of those unwanted huddled masses.

More: http://www.dailycampus.com/2.7438/illegal-immigrants-harming-america-1.1057267#

Tom Tancredo, former Republican Rep. from Colorado best known for his tough stance against illegal immigration delivered the keynote address to Tea Party members at their national convention in Nashville Tennessee on Thursday.

Tancredo's speech elicited strong reaction from Obama supporters, illegal immigration proponents, and members of the African American community when he said,

" . . .because we don't have a civic literacy test to vote, people who couldn't even spell vote, or say it in English, put a committed socialist ideologue in the White House named Barack Hussein Obama."

more: 

http://www.nowpublic.com/world/tancredo-defends-american-values-culture-tea-party-convention#

 

Make it harder for companies to hire illegal immigrant workers, and those illegal immigrants won't be able to find work. If they can't find work, they'll leave.

That's partly the thinking behind a bill proposed by Rep. Gary Miller, R-Diamond Bar, that would require employers to verify their employees are citizens or otherwise eligible to work in the U.S.

Federal judge questions immigration prosecutions

Full story: KSWO

A federal judge in Austin questions U.S. prosecutors for seeking criminal convictions against some illegal immigrants, noting in an order concern over the cost.

At least 15 suspected illegal immigrants escaped injury Saturday when their driver failed to pull over for a sheriff’s deputy and struck a tree on the Sunrise Highway in the Laguna Mountains, authorities said.

The deputy tried to stop the van for a traffic violation about 1 p.m., sheriff’s Lt. Hope Andrews said. She said about 30 seconds later the deputy reported the van had struck a tree and people were jumping out and running.

The crash occurred near the entrance to the Laguna Campground, northeast of Pine Valley, the CHP reported.

Authorities estimated that five people ran from the van, including the driver, who escaped. Another 10 people were still inside when the deputy asked for help from the California Highway Patrol officers and Border Patrol agents.

The Border Patrol took the passengers into custody, the CHP Web site said.