Close Our Borders NOW!

Mexican Police Official Investigating Border Lake Shooting Found Dead

Published October 12, 2010

| Associated Press

AUSTIN, Texas -- U.S. and Mexican authorities say a Mexican state police commander investigating the reported shooting of an American tourist on a border lake plagued by pirates has been killed.

Ruben Rios, spokesman for the Tamaulipas state prosecutor's office, says Commander Rolando Flores, the head of state investigators in the border city of Ciudad Miguel Aleman, was killed.

Flores was investigating the disappearance of American David Hartley. Hartley's wife, Tiffany, says she and her husband were attacked by pirates on Falcon Lake on Sept. 30, while they were returning to the United States from Mexico on Jet Skis. Hartley was shot and presumably fell into the lake.

Rios says his killing was unrelated to the investigation, but U.S. authorities have said threats of violence from drug gangs who control much of the area has hampered the search for Hartley's body.

That's TWO States, Mr. President...

Florida AG McCollum, Lawmakers Unveil Immigration Bill Modeled After Arizona's

Published August 11, 2010
FoxNews.com

Florida's attorney general and a group of state lawmakers moved Wednesday to push the Sunshine State into the forefront of the national illegal immigration debate with a bill modeled after Arizona's controversial law -- only, they claim, with a better shot of withstanding a court challenge.

State Attorney General Bill McCollum, following the lead of Virginia's top prosecutor, also issued an opinion saying state law enforcement already have the right to ask about immigration status in the course of their duties.

"This legislation will provide new enforcement tools for protecting our citizens and will help our state fight the ongoing problems created by illegal immigration," McCollum, a Republican, said in a written statement. "Florida will not be a sanctuary state for illegal aliens."

McCollum helped write the legislation, though Florida lawmakers will be responsible for pushing it in the legislature.

The move comes after a U.S. District Court judge blocked key provisions of Arizona's law. The battle between Arizona and the U.S. government, as well as civil rights groups, could make its way to the Supreme Court -- but while that fight plays out, several states are putting similar legislation on the table.

Goliath Steps on David, Arizona Fights On!

Nice Town You Got There, Shame If Anything Happened to It [Mark Krikorian]

The other local immigration law that was set to go into effect tomorrow is in the town of Fremont, Nebraska. The ordinance was approved by voters last month and would have prohibited the hiring of, or renting to, illegal aliens.

But the town council there voted last night to suspend the measure because of the prohibitive costs of fighting the ACLU and MALDEF in court:

Fremont appears to be leaning away from a court fight for cost reasons – officials have estimated that implementing the ordinance, including legal fees, would average $1 million per year.

Legal experts say that sets a bad precedent.

Critics of the suits say they amount to intimidation. “The strategy is essentially, ‘You may want to take actions to deal with illegal immigration? It may be what the citizenry wants, but if you try, we’ll bleed you dry in the courts,’“ says Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).

Breaking: Judge Blocks Part Of AZ Immigration Law
—DrewM.

It's not overturned but an injunction against the most important parts of the bill until a full trial takes place.

A federal judge on Wednesday blocked the most controversial parts of Arizona's immigration law from taking effect, delivering a last-minute victory to opponents of the crackdown.
The overall law will still take effect Thursday, but without the provisions that angered opponents — including sections that required officers to check a person's immigration status while enforcing other laws.

The judge also put on hold parts of the law that required immigrants to carry their papers at all times, and made it illegal for undocumented workers to solicit employment in public places.

U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton ruled that those sections should be put on hold until the courts resolve the issues. Other provisions of the law, many of them procedural and slight revisions to existing Arizona immigraiton statute, will go into effect at 12:01 a.m.

..."There is a substantial likelihood that officers will wrongfully arrest legal resident aliens under the new (law)," Bolton ruled. "By enforcing this statute, Arizona would impose a 'distinct, unusual and extraordinary' burden on legal resident aliens that only the federal government has the authority to impose."

Legal Insurrection has the decision.

Let My People Go!

Because the Bitter American is a big LAX fan!

Iroquois passports OK'd for lacrosse team

The U.S. government has agreed to allow the Iroquois lacrosse team to travel abroad under passports issued by the Iroquois Confederacy, a team spokeswoman said Wednesday.
Tonya Gonnella Frichner, a member of the Onondaga Nation who works with the team, said the U.S. State Department dropped a demand that the team travel using higher-security U.S. passports.

The team still has not been issued British visas to attend the Lacrosse World Championship in Manchester, England, however.

The team needs to get on a Wednesday flight to make a Thursday evening game.
The Iroquois helped invent lacrosse and, in a rare example of international recognition of American Indian sovereignty, participate at every tournament as a separate nation.
The 23 players have passports issued by the Iroquois Confederacy, a group of six Indian nations overseeing land that stretches from upstate New York into Ontario, Canada.
The U.S. government says it will only let players back into the country if they have U.S. passports, a team official said. The British government, meanwhile, won't give the players visas if they cannot guarantee they'll be allowed to go home, the official said.

'That's our identity'
One Iroquois player, Brett Bucktooth, said he would rather miss the tournament than travel under a U.S. passport.
"That's the people we are, and that's our identity," he said.
Bucktooth, 27, also spoke of his deep cultural and personal connection with lacrosse — first played by Iroquois and Huron about 1,000 years ago.
"My father put a wooden lacrosse stick into my crib when I was a baby, and now that I have a son, I put a lacrosse stick into his crib," he said. "In our culture, we all start playing lacrosse young."
Bucktooth and other Iroquois see lacrosse as a gift to the tribes from their creator. Lacrosse was played by American Indians as a preparation for war and "to resolve conflicts, heal the sick, and develop strong, virile men," according to US Lacrosse, the American governing body of the sport.
Today, the Iroquois team is ranked No. 4 by the Federation of International Lacrosse and represents the Haudenosaunee – an Iroquois Confederacy of the Oneida, Seneca, Mohawk, Tuscarora, Cayuga and Onondaga nations. About 90,000 Haudenosaunee, or "the people of the longhouse," live today in New York, Wisconsin, and Oklahoma, as well as Quebec and Ontario, said Onondaga Chief Oren Lyons.

The team has been travelling on Iroquois passports for the past 20 years, and Iroquois passport holders have been using them to go abroad since 1977, said Denise Waterman, a member of the team's board of directors. Within the last year, colleagues used their Iroquois passports to travel to Japan and Sweden without any problems, she said.

In the past, U.S. immigration officials accepted the Iroquois passports when they obtained visas — including for trips to Britain in 1985 and 1994, and as recently as 2002 to Australia.

So,..It WAS Bush's Fault,....

George Will, on Arizona's decision to actually DEFEND our country's border:

Finally, if we just built the damn wall like Bush tried to do, we wouldn’t be in this stupid mess to begin with. And the people who screamed about that wall have no right to complain with Arizona’s new policy now. They BEGGED for the tough new Arizona law.

The shrill cry of the leftwing was that a border wall was identical to the Iron Curtain. The only thing wrong with that is that it is beyond ignorant; the Iron Curtain was created to keep citizens from escaping to freedom; a border wall would protect out citizens by keeping illegal immigrants who have no right to be here out.

Liberals also cite the Posse Comitatus Act as preventing the powers of the federal government from using the military for law enforcement. But that begs the question: just how is protecting our borders from foreign invasion “law enforcement”? This is a clear situation in which our national security is at issue. The soldiers on the border would not be arresting American citizens; they would be detaining foreign invaders.

The Chinese built the Great Wall of China to keep the Mongols out; and it worked. And I’m just guessing that a people who put a man on the moon can build a damn wall that does the job.

Bottom line, I think the Arizona law probably ultimately goes too far. But like I said, pro-illegal immigration forces DEMANDED a law that went too far by steadfastly refusing any form of reasonable policy.

There is no reason whatsoever that citizenship should not be checked along with identity and residence, under the same conditions and situations in which it is reasonable to ascertain identity and residence. And if you are here illegally, your ass should be on the next bus out of the country – after serving jail time for violating our borders and breaking our laws. And the wall that we build should make sure you don’t come back.

Hmmm,.....Liberals and Posse Comitatus? Seems to me, back in 1993 a certain liberal administartion didn't think twice about Posse Comitatus when the sic'ed the US Army on the Branch Davidians, huh?

Make the ACLU Go Away!

Maybe we should just ignore the ACLU?

ACLU Signs Add to Washington State's Immigration Storm

Wednesday, February 25, 2009
By Jana Winter

An immigration showdown is brewing on Washington's Olympic Peninsula, where simmering tensions and borderline hostility have fueled a turf war between the local community and the Border Patrol agents assigned to protect it.

Now the American Civil Liberties Union has jumped into the ring and upped the ante, rolling out a campaign that will install signs inside buses informing riders of their rights — to ignore Border Patrol agents.

The signs, entitled, "YOUR RIGHTS with border patrol agents on this bus," makes three points:

• If you're a U.S. citizen, you don't have to prove it.
• If you're not a U.S. citizen and are 18 or older, you must show your immigration papers to federal agents.
• Everyone has the right to remain silent.

The campaign, which could start as early as next week, is the latest in a series of expanding grassroots efforts aimed at curbing the expansion of Border Patrol forces and the powers of its agents.

Click here to see ACLU flyer.

Last summer the Border Patrol beefed up its presence in the region, and in October it began conducting random roadside stops at checkpoints located at and within the international border to combat, what it says, is a real threat to national security.

This move has put them at odds with human rights groups and even local law enforcement — some who have rejected federal immigration money to protest the Border Patrol's tactics.

The ACLU has joined forces with left-leaning groups around the state — lavender farmers, retirees, activists, grandparents, Socialists, Green Party members, politicians, Unitarians, Christians, vineyard owners, hippies and other assorted protesters — who say these measures have infringed on people's civil liberties.

Greenbacks,..NOT Wetbacks!

Dallas-Based Retailer to Accept Pesos
Thursday, July 12, 2007

DALLAS — Dallas-based chain Value Giant announced in a press release Thursday that their retail stores will begin accepting Mexican pesos as payment, according to MyFOXDFW.com.

The Value Giant store at Southwest Center Mall will be hosting a promotional event on Saturday to introduce the new policy.

Value Giant is a regional discount retailer offering groceries, clothes, electronics and general merchandise.

In January, another Dallas-based business, Pizza Patron, created controversy with its announcement that it would accept the Mexican currency.

Pizza Patron has reported increased profits since the decision was made.