archives

January - June, 2003

Jun 12, 2003 FILE urges Bush Administration to reject illegal alien IDs

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FILE urges Bush Administration to reject illegal alien IDs
Issue 156: June 12, 2003

+== TIME-OUT PROJECT ==+

Friends of Immigration Law Enforcement (FILE) has written a letter to the Bush Administration asking the White House to reject new Treasury Department regulations that would allow banking corporations to open bank accounts for illegal aliens in the United States. The letter points out that three out of four Americans believe illegal aliens should not be able to open bank accounts in the United States, and questions how it can be practicable to maintain a federal government in which one agency (DHS) is charged with deporting illegal aliens, while another agency (Treasury) is allowing them to open banks accounts.

The letter also notes the irony of Treasury allowing U.S. banks to accept the Mexican matricula consular card to open a bank account -- a card so unreliable that banks in Mexico won't even accept it.

Widespread acceptance in the United States of the Mexican illegal alien ID card amounts to a massive blanket amnesty for illegal aliens -- something Americans oppose by a 2 to 1 margin.

Given that amnesties encourage illegal immigration (as a 1999 INS study showed), and given that there are nearly 5 billion people in the world who live in countries poorer than even Mexico, the Administration simply must, for once, listen to the will of the American people on immigration policy and reject the Mexican illegal alien ID card.

The White House must disregard the narrow interests of those, like many large, multi-national banking corporations, who profit off illegal immigration. The Administration must also rebuff Mexico's aggressive efforts to gain a stealth amnesty for Mexican illegals in the United States through lobbying for widespread acceptance of its ID card in the United States.
____________________________
Letter to President Bush

New Poll Finds That a Majority of Americans Oppose Illegal Alien Amnesty

+== QUOTE OF THE WEEK ==+

"That which thy fathers have bequeathed to thee, earn it anew if thou wouldst possess it."

Goethe: Faust

+== EMAIL OF THE WEEK ==+

Of course, humanitarian immigration is another matter but to blindly accept everyone who would love to live here is like forcing Bill Gates or Warren Buffett to accept as a family member everyone who wants them as 'family' -- who wouldn't! But our economy, health systems, etc., have finite limits, which are greatly overwhelmed by illegals.

Gerald & Ginny Edgar
Garner, IA

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Colorado bans Mexican ID cards
Issue 155: May 27, 2003
http://projectusa.org

+== TIME-OUT PROJECT ==+

In a major victory for immigration reductionists, Governor Bill Owens of Colorado signed into law Friday a bill that bans acceptance by state agencies and Colorado municipalities of foreign-issued identification and consular ID cards. The bill, known as the "Secure and Verifiable Identity Document Act," prevents acceptance in Colorado of the matricula consular, the Mexican illegal alien ID card.

Thus, Colorado becomes the first state in the union to block the stated efforts of the Mexican government to use the matricula consular as a way to make an end run around Congress and achieve a "bottom up" amnesty for the millions of Mexican illegal aliens in the United States.

The bill goes into effect immediately. Now Denver, for example, which began accepting the cards after being lobbied by the city's Mexican consulate (in violation of the Vienna Convention), will have to find another way to hand out public services to Mexican nationals illegally residing in the United States.

A year ago, the matricula card looked unstoppable. With seemingly no opposition, cities, banks, and police departments across the country were rushing to recognize the card. A massive de facto amnesty looked inevitable, despite the fact that a 2001 Gallup Poll showed only 6 percent of Americans actually support a blanket amnesty for illegal aliens. However, the enactment of this law, which at one point in the legislative process was declared dead, marks a significant reverse for the Mexican government and its collaborators in the United States.

Along with Governor Owens, those who fought hard for the law deserve a public thank you -- especially the two original co-sponsors of the bill, Senator John Andrews and Representative Don Lee. Also fighting hard for the bill were Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo, former Colorado governor Dick Lamm, and Fred Elbel of the Colorado Alliance for Immigration Reform.

Deserving special credit, and the support of the 85 percent of Americans who believe illegal immigration is a "serious problem," are the two national groups that drafted the original bill: Friends of Immigration Law Enforcement (FILE), and NumbersUSA.

The new law is a serious setback for ethnic-identity special interest groups like the Ford Foundation-funded Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF), which recently issued an 18-page legal attack on FILE and FILE's legal arguments against acceptance by U.S. institutions of the matricula consular .

Immigration realists, long used to feeling that commonsense immigration policies were a lost cause, should savor this important victory.
____________________________
Owens signs law on foreign ID cards (Associated Press)

Americans Clearly Oppose Amnesty for Illegal Mexican Immigrants (Gallup Poll)

+== TAKE POSITIVE ACTION ==+

Thursday, on Capitol Hill, Congressman Tom Tancredo and the House Immigration Reform Caucus (IRC) held a press conference to denounce new Treasury Department rules, set to go into effect on May 30, that would allow banks to accept the matricula card from illegal aliens in order to open a bank account.

The rules were issued after an intense inter-agency debate that essentially pitted the national security concerns of the Department of Homeland Security, which opposes federal recognition of illegal alien ID cards, against the pro-corporate interests at Treasury, which wants to allow financial corporations to continue profiting off illegal immigrants. (Interestingly, one driving force at Treasury on behalf of bank accounts for illegal aliens, U.S. Treasurer Rosario Marin, announced her resignation on Friday.)

At the IRC press conference, Craig Nelsen, director of FILE, announced his group would be filing a complaint with Jeffrey Rush, the Inspector General at Treasury, over the way in which the new rules were issued. (FILE has sent legal notices to hundreds of banks around the country in the last year explaining the serious legal and liability risks banks face that accept the illegal alien ID card. The ensuing alarm likely sparked the recent inter-agency battle.)

FILE's complaint with the Inspector General will invoke Executive Order 12866, which states that no agency may issue regulations that would "create a serious inconsistency or otherwise interfere with an action taken or planned by another agency" without careful justification and meaningful public participation.

Treasury's new regulations are in direct conflict with the mandates of the Department of Homeland Security, the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and other law enforcement agencies. Obviously, if one agency is charged with deporting illegal aliens, another agency cannot, without significant conflict, issue rules allowing them to open bank accounts. Therefore, by executive order, the rules must come under much closer scrutiny, with much greater public participation in their drafting, than they were given.

But the only public participation in the rule-drafting process just completed was by the American Bankers Association and the Mexican government.

Truly meaningful public participation in the rule-drafting process would take into account a recent Roper poll that showed 75 percent of Americans oppose allowing illegal aliens to open bank accounts in the United States.

Please call the White House comment line and say, "I am very disappointed that the Bush Administration is allowing the Treasury Department to issue rules that support illegal immigration. George Bush said he was against illegal immigration when he was running for office. Was he telling the truth?"

White House comment line (9-5 EDT, M-F)
202-456-1111

+== QUOTE OF THE WEEK ==+

"We're not looking to (circumvent) the law. We should follow the law. But we should protect the rights of our people."

Jorge Madrazo, consul of Mexico for Washington and Alaska referring to the 23 million people in the United States of Mexican descent (in a Seattle Post-Intelligencer story on the consulate issuing Mexican ID cards to Mexican nationals illegally residing in the United States).

+== EMAIL OF THE WEEK ==+

Mexico appears to be doing little to stem the flow of drugs and terrorists across the borders. It seems that it is perfectly okay to send everything negative to us here in the U.S., and then expect us to embrace their poor. It's high time that they make a true effort to help U.S. in ways that they can and stop expecting the U.S. to do all the good deeds.

Jacki Cook
Red Boiling Springs, TN

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75% of Americans oppose bank accounts for illegals
Issue 154: May 15, 2003
http://projectusa.org

+== TIME-OUT PROJECT ==+

A new Roper poll shows that 3 out of 4 Americans oppose allowing financial corporations to open bank accounts in the United States for foreign nationals illegally in the country. Nevertheless, Bush Administration officials, like U.S. Treasurer Rosario Marin, are coordinating efforts between the Mexican government and the U.S. banking industry to step up the practice.

Ms. Marin, who "entered" the United States from Mexico when she was a teenager, recently returned from a trip to Mexico City where she met with Mexican officials to negotiate policies favorable to Mexicans. As reported in the San Francisco Chronicle, Marin was attempting to "drum up support for a Partnership for Prosperity program meant to tear down logistical and financial barriers that make it difficult for Mexicans working in the United States to send money home."

Critics say this is just another example of the Bush Administration's support for illegal immigration, but note that the Treasury Department, under Ms. Marin, has been particularly aggressive in encouraging illegal aliens to remain in the United States.

Recently, for example, the Treasury granted $1.3 million to an ethnically focused financial institution in North Carolina to help it open more branches. According to the Wall Street Journal, the business openly caters to illegal aliens and provides them banking services.

Treasury officials have begun trying to sell the effort to help illegal aliens send money out of the country as "pro-security," arguing that the law enforcement community can better track illegal alien money if it's in a bank.

However, the effort is not backed by Homeland Security; it is backed by banks, which have a clear profit motive, and by the Mexican government, which seeks an incremental amnesty for illegal aliens in the United States.

The Bush Administration should rebuff the big corporations and Mexico. The American government has a duty to enforce American laws, rather than encourage foreign nationals to break them.
____________________________
Americans Favor Tough Approach to Illegal Immigration (Roper Poll)

Mexico seeks higher profile for issue of immigrants

North Carolina credit union banks on immigrants (Wall Street Journal)

U.S. treasurer says free flow of remittances can stimulate economies in Mexico's poor areas

+== TAKE POSITIVE ACTION ==+

The first border death of the approaching summer season has now been reported, and, if this year is like previous ones, we can expect hundreds more of these tragedies before autumn.

Those who provide the magnets in the United States that lure illegal aliens across our dangerous borders carry some responsibility for the deaths. The Bush Administration, for example, rather than implement a firm and humane interior enforcement policy, which would largely end the border deaths, continues to put ethnic politics and corporate profiteering above the law and the will of the American people.

While the White House might get some political mileage out of allowing Rosario Marin, who, the White House often notes, is the "highest serving Latina" in the administration, to serve as U.S. Treasurer, selfish political advantages cannot take precedence over the public good. With three-quarters of all Americans opposing bank accounts for illegal aliens, the White House must rein in the Treasury Department no matter how ethnically dedicated Ms. Marin is to "her people," and no matter how much money banking corporations are making off illegal alien bank accounts.

Please call the White House comment line and say, "I am very disappointed by the Bush Administration's continued support for illegal immigration. Please tell George Bush I want the Treasury Department to stop pushing for bank accounts for illegal aliens."

White House comment line (9-5 EST, M-F)
202-456-1111
(This is important. If you can, please call several times this week.)

+== QUOTE OF THE WEEK ==+

"Form follows profit" is the aesthetic principle of our times.

Richard Rogers

+== EMAIL OF THE WEEK ==+

I wanted to let you know that I have taken your suggestion to call the White House comment line twice this week. Both operators told me that they are familiar with the issue (and agreed with our stance!) and seemed encouraged about my call.

Thank you,

Matt

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Can Karl Rove play poker?
Issue 153: May 11, 2003

+== TIME-OUT PROJECT ==+

In every hand of poker, a player faces a multitude of possible strategies for winning. Strategies range from relatively simple and straightforward calculations of odds to complex and highly creative play. While nearly any outcome is possible, and many extremely complex strategies can be justified in theory, successful poker players over the long run are those who tend to rely on simple strategies. The poker players who lose their shirts are the ones who, carried away by their own sophistication, tend toward the complex.

This principle of "simpler is usually better," known to philosophers and scientists as Occam's Razor, can apply to political strategy as well as poker. Judging by his political calculations on immigration, Bush senior political advisor, Karl Rove, is probably a lousy poker player.

The pro-illegal immigration position Rove has staked out for the White House is, allegedly, part of a complicated scheme to lure Latino voters into the Republican Party. Enough has been written elsewhere discrediting this insulting strategy, and convincingly predicting its failure, that there is no need to comment here (see Sailer/VDARE link below). However, if Rove's support for various measures such as amnesty for illegal aliens is, indeed, about appealing to Latinos, we can assume that Rove embraces the complicated at the expense of the simple and obvious.

Democrats should take note. Like the overly clever poker player who gambles away the family ranch, the Rove strategy on immigration could send George W. back to his family ranch in Crawford. Bush and Rove are ignoring a political royal flush staring them straight in the face.

A recent poll shows that Americans overwhelmingly believe illegal immigration is a "serious problem" (85%), want current levels of legal immigration reduced (76%), want state and local police to help federal authorities enforce immigration law (88%), and want document verification for opening a bank account (75%).

Inexplicably, the Rove White House continues to spurn the enormous political bonanza it could win by embracing a strong, fair, and popular immigration policy, and is actively working behind the scenes on behalf of pro-illegal immigration policies.

A spokesperson at Rove's office at the White House, Abel Guerra, told Friends of Immigration Law Enforcement (FILE) on May 8 that the office is working with various federal agencies -- and the government of Mexico (!) -- on acceptance at the federal level of the matricula consular, the ID card for Mexican illegal aliens. Mr. Guerra would not say explicitly whether Rove's office is actually promoting wider acceptance in the United States of the Mexican ID, but other sources say that it is.

One has to wonder what Rove believes the Administration has to gain politically by working with a foreign government in support of a policy that is strongly opposed by 4 out of 5 Americans.

It may be that Rove is still playing the "Hispandering" game -- in spite of being slapped down by Congress, Representative Tom Tancredo, and Senator Robert Byrd the last time he tried it. But this new under-the-radar approach might be an even more complex strategy than his earlier public support for amnesties.

Since Rove, with U.S. Treasurer Rosario Marin, is working in support of illegal immigration in conjunction with the Mexican government, the thinking at the White House might be that the Mexican government and a sympathetic Spanish-language press in the United States will gratefully advertise the pro-illegal alien White House initiatives to the Latino community.

The political calculation might be that the White House will thereby gain Hispanic support while avoiding the backlash from mainstream Americans and the Republican base, which will remain ignorant of the back room dealing.

(On the other hand, of course, Rove's double-dealing might be just plain, old-fashioned political payback to big corporate campaign donors and financial corporations, who don't want any interruption to their profiteering off illegal immigration.)

In any case, political candidates -- from either party -- stand to win the whole pot by simply adopting a popular and straightforward pro-borders immigration platform.
____________________________
Americans Favor Tough Approach to Illegal Immigration (Roper Poll)

Karl Rove: Time for a Career Change? (Steve Sailer/VDARE)

Mexico seeks higher profile for issue of immigrants (San Diego Union-Tribune)

"W" can lose (Dick Morris/NY Post)

+== TAKE POSITIVE ACTION ==+

The Administration will soon release regulations codifying federal rules on IDs issued by foreign governments to their citizens illegally residing in the United States. Unfortunately, unless there is strong public objection, it appears the Treasury Department is going to allow banks to decide for themselves which foreign-issued ID cards they will accept.

This is unacceptable. It is crucial that the new federal regulations completely shut down illegal alien ID cards. If they don't, the floodgates will likely open nationwide. Local public entities, already under intense lobbying pressure by Mexican consulates (in violation of the Vienna Convention), will find it very difficult to resist accepting the cards at the local level if the federal government accepts them, and all resistance to the matricula stealth amnesty might collapse.

If the Mexican illegal alien ID card becomes accepted across the nation, millions of illegal aliens will suddenly be "regularized" -- that is, able to access a host of federal, state, local, and private services. Undoubtedly, a host of other countries with large illegal alien populations in the country (Guatemala, China, Pakistan, Egypt, etc.) would immediately follow suit, and a massive new surge of illegal immigration from around the world would erupt.

The United States would be well on its way to becoming a huge, overpopulated, and overdeveloped conglomerate of teeming communities of strangers -- vast neighborhoods of aliens entirely outside the law and citizens of the nations of a hostile and resentful world.

The risk is great. Karl Rove, the White House, and profit-driven corporations have no right, against the express desires of our democratic majority, to force our country to take this needless risk for their own selfish advantages. Please take just a minute, call the White House comment line, and say something like:

"Please tell Karl Rove to back off his support for the illegal alien ID card known as the matricula consular. I disagree strongly with his support of the Treasury Department allowing U.S. banks to open checking accounts for illegal aliens using this unverifiable card.

"Actually, according to a recent Roper poll, 75% of Americans believe as I do that Congress should pass laws requiring people to go through a verification check of their U.S. citizenship or lawful presence when opening a bank account. I am very disappointed that George Bush and his aides ignore the will of the American people and continue to support illegal immigration."

White House comment line (9-5 EST, M-F)
202-456-1111
(This is important. If you can, please call several times this week.)

+== QUOTE OF THE WEEK ==+

Clearly, the ideal solution would be to ship Karl Rove to Baghdad -- to serve as the First Viceroy of Mesopotamia.

--Steve Sailer

+== EMAIL OF THE WEEK ==+

[In response to our last ezine, "New poll: 85% of Americans say illegal immigration a 'serious' problem"]

Since when is 85 percent "the will of the American people?" The 85 percent do not own the United States of America, and they are not "the American people," just a bunch of bigots. Obviously, the American people are clearly divided on this issue, 85 percent wrong and the rest undecided or correct.

Anonymous
Jbj4712@aol.com

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New poll: 85% of Americans say illegal immigration a "serious" problem
Issue 152: Apr 26, 2003

+== TIME-OUT PROJECT ==+

According to a Roper Poll released Tuesday by the United to Secure America Coalition, 85% of Americans consider illegal immigration to be a serious problem -- a majority believing it to be "very serious." Two thirds of us say the United States should actually set the goal of completely halting illegal immigration and should reduce the number of foreign nationals illegally residing in the United States to "near zero."

Furthermore, among that majority, a stunning four out of five respondents were willing to take very strong measures against illegal aliens, including "mandatory detention and forfeiture of property, followed by deportation."

Nevertheless, in clear contravention of the will of the American people, high officials in the Bush Administration continue to push aggressively to make it easier -- rather than harder -- for illegal aliens to remain in the United States. These officials are working behind the scenes in support of the matricula consular card -- the Mexican ID widely used by illegal aliens to access public services in the United States and to open bank accounts.

One such official is Bush political guru, Karl Rove, a staunch foe of the immigration reductionist movement. While sending mixed messages to Members of Congress about his position on U.S. acceptance of the Mexican ID card, Rove's underlings at the Domestic Policy Council (DPC) have been orchestrating a push to have the card accepted at the federal agency level. While the DPC did not return a call asking for verification, a source familiar with the struggle now going on in an inter-agency commission studying the issue says Karl Rove and the White House are behind strong pressure to endorse the illegal alien ID card.

In particular, the White House is working with factions within the State and Treasury Departments to override national security concerns from the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security as well as objections from those in the State Department who, rightly, understand that acceptance of the card will undermine many of State's functions.

One big motive for the pro-Mexican ID forces is corporate profit. Certain officials at both State and Treasury have publicly endorsed the idea of Mexican nationals having access to America's banking system, a huge financial boon to financial corporations.

Career Foreign Service Officer Alan P. Larson, Under Secretary for Economics, Business, and Agricultural Affairs, and the senior economic advisor to Secretary of State Collin Powell, has praised U.S. Treasurer Rosario Marin's attempts to help banks tap into the remittance money illegal aliens send to Mexico. "Rosario Marin," Larson said in testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in April 2002, "will work to highlight awareness of competitive products by promoting financial literacy and expanded use of the banking system by American Hispanics. Last year Mexicans and Mexican-Americans in the U.S. sent nearly $9 billion home to family and friends in Mexico, often at a high cost."

Treasurer Marin, who was born in Mexico, has also publicly advocated giving U.S. banking corporations access to the remittance market of "un-banked Latinos." In prepared statements at the Capitol Hill Club earlier this month, Marin said "I look to my fellow Latinos -- hard-working, responsible. Some send, on average, $200 to $300 dollars on a regular basis home to their relatives in Mexico and Latin America."

However, national security and the right of the American people to determine the fate of their own country must not be sacrificed -- either to the naked "ethnicism" of Rosario Marin, or to the profiteering of corporations, or to the political calculations of Karl Rove.

ProjectUSA hopes our elected leaders understand the significance of the important new Roper Poll and recognize the enormous political potential of standing up to the financial and ethnic interests working within the Administration for the illegal alien ID cards.
____________________________
Americans Favor Tough Approach to Illegal Immigration

Complete poll: "Americans Talk about Illegal Immigration"

Prepared Remarks of the Honorable Rosario Marin (Treasury Dept)

U.S.-Mexico Bilateral Economic Relations (State Dept)

Groups encourage banks to serve Hispanics (Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta)

+== TAKE POSITIVE ACTION ==+

As we have often written, ProjectUSA objects to the use of the term "Latinos" when talking about "illegal aliens." Obviously, not all Latinos are illegal aliens, nor are all illegal aliens Latinos. We regard this practice as racist and offensive, not to mention inaccurate. However, both of the officials cited above, Larson and Marin, employed this obfuscating tactic.

So, we called their offices for clarification.

When asked whether Ms. Marin's support for banking services for "un-banked Latinos" meant that she supports allowing banks to open accounts for illegal aliens, a spokesperson at Treasury said "no comment."

A spokesperson for the State Department said there is no official policy yet.

Maybe you will have better luck. Please contact the two offices below and ask them whether they support access to banks for illegal aliens. You might mention that the majority of the American people want illegal aliens deported -- not given public services and bank accounts. If the office actually gives you an answer, we'd definitely like to hear about it here at ProjectUSA.

It is very important that these offices receive a lot of negative, but polite, feedback on their push for illegal alien ID cards.

Department of State
(202) 647-7575

Treasury Department
(202) 622-2960
regcomments@fincen.treas.gov

+== QUOTE OF THE WEEK ==+

"No matter how cynical you become, it's never enough to keep up."

Lily Tomlin

+== EMAIL OF THE WEEK ==+

Tancredo is right and it is Republicans like him that we will support. Bush will not get my vote a second time.

Shirely A. Jorgenson
Royal Oaks, CA

+== SPECIAL ==+

The battle over the matricula at the federal level was triggered by the efforts of Friends of Immigration Law Enforcement (FILE) (see: http://fileus.com/dept/id/matricula/index.html). The battle now raging is an enormous improvement over the situation one year ago, when the Mexican government was seemingly unopposed in its push to enable its citizens illegally in the United States to access U.S. institutions.

ProjectUSA and FILE work closely together on many projects; you can help FILE by helping us. Please do what you can at:

http://projectusa.org/contribute.html

 

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Treasury Dept. putting corporate profit ahead of public good on matricula debate
Issue 151: Apr 21, 2003

+== TIME-OUT PROJECT ==+

One of the primary problems with massive legal immigration and unabated illegal immigration is the threat posed to the receiving nation's sense of community. Many Americans look with alarm at the effort among proponents of mass immigration to "racialize" the issue -- particularly as it concerns illegal immigration. Without an immigration time-out, this "ethnic-identity" politics threatens to divide the American public and cause dangerous conflict in the long term.

One way to tell whether a public figure or advocacy group is motivated by an ethnic-identity agenda is to check whether in their writings or public pronouncements they refer to illegal aliens as "Latinos." This is a direct attempt to racialize the debate over illegal immigration, since, of course, not all Latinos are illegal aliens, and not all illegal aliens are Latinos.

The Arizona Republic columnist, O. Ricardo Pimental, is one such agitator -- he routinely refers to illegal aliens as Latinos. Another is the Ford Foundation-funded Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Foundation (MALDEF, whose founder, Mario Obledo, once said, "California is going to be a Mexican state, we are going to control all the political institutions. If people don't like it, they should leave.").

Both Pimental and MALDEF are aggressively supporting Mexico in its campaign to push banks and local governments into accepting the matricula consular -- the ID card Mexico issues to illegal aliens in the United States. MALDEF and Pimental's support of any given policy should have the same effect that the KKK's would -- it should discredit it. Yet, in spite of support from disreputable organizations (and a foreign government that has shown itself to be no friend of the United States), and in spite of the clear threat to national security, acceptance of the matricula card is growing.

Now, Guatemala has joined Mexico in issuing its own card, Peru is set to issue its in a few months, and China is exploring cards for its own illegals. Unfortunately, it is not in the nature of our public debate to ask the hard question, "But what of the long term consequences?"

But what of them?

Are we to allow America to become a country in which vast communities of foreign nationals reside amongst us without our consent and against our laws, yet are still able to access our public services and financial institutions on the strength of foreign-issued ID cards? What does it mean to have large numbers of our neighbors separated from us by nationality, citizenship, and law, and then, by policy, to reinforce that separation by recognizing a form of identification to which our own authorities have no access?

Americans should be outraged by the growing acceptance of the matricula consular card -- vocally demanding an immediate stop to its acceptance by our institutions.
____________________________
Disputed ID card in limbo -- Sheriff won't accept 'matricula' just yet

The stealth amnesty and the radical agenda of MALDEF (Matt Hayes)

At the Ford Foundation, ethnicity is always job 1 (Craig L. Hymowitz)

+== TAKE POSITIVE ACTION ==+

MALDEF has recently attacked Friends of Immigration Law Enforcement (FILE) and Congressman Tom Tancredo over their opposition to acceptance of the Mexican ID card. (FILE has been leading the effort to derail the card, and Congressman Tancredo has introduced federal legislation that would outlaw its acceptance at the federal level.)

In an 18-page document submitted to federal regulators, MALDEF attempted to refute the legal notices FILE has sent to banks and local governments. (FILE's notices describe the constitutional, statutory, and possible liability problems banks and local governments face if they decide to accept as valid ID a card issued by a foreign government to its citizens illegally residing in the United States.)

MALDEF submitted its attack to the Inter-Agency Commission, a working group studying the issue, which includes officials from the State Department, Treasury, Justice, and the FBI. The commission is set to issue federal guidelines on the card within the next few weeks.

Sources say there is a battle raging over acceptance of the card within the commission. Apparently, Treasury, which regulates the country's banking system (and is therefore susceptible to the profit-motivated demands of banks in the country, like Wells Fargo, that already accept the card), is leading the pro-MALDEF forces.

It is essential that the federal government does not approve foreign-issued illegal alien ID cards; the Inter-Agency Commission must come down on the side of national security and the rule of law. It must not permit another example of corporations putting profit above the public good. FILE is preparing a response refuting MALDEF's arguments, but, in the meantime, the Treasury Department should hear from Americans outraged at its willingness to put the money-making of a few banking corporations ahead of the good of the country.

Treasury Department Press Office
(202) 622-2960
regcomments@fincen.treas.gov

+== QUOTES OF THE WEEK ==+

"I would hate to be the person who accepted the 'matricula' as valid ID then find out later the person was a terrorist or wanted criminal. We feel that the 'matricula' is a worthless form of identification that is being used by criminals to hide their true identities."

John D. Marlborough
Patrol agent in charge of the Riverside (CA) Border Patrol Office

+== EMAIL OF THE WEEK ==+

Even though I had a stack of ID & a copy of my marriage certificate, I had very difficult time last summer trying to open an account at Washington Mutual because I have two names (mine & my husband's). Isn't it discriminatory for banks to take Mexican IDs, but not mine?

Stephanie Hamm-Wieczkiewicz
Goodyear AZ

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Terror trial shows secure ID essential
Issue 150: Apr 10, 2003

+== TIME-OUT PROJECT ==+

With the airwaves filled with war news, it is easy to overlook the important terror trial that began March 27 in Detroit. Four North African men, arrested on Sept. 17, 2001, have been charged as a "sleeper operational combat cell" planning to commit terrorist acts in the United States. They are also charged with document fraud.

The trial has highlighted the importance of fake identification papers to a terrorist's ability to move through American society easily and undetected.

Unfortunately, an increasing number of state and local governments are making it much harder for authorities to ensure ID be secure and verifiable. These governments are accepting, for the disbursement of services, identification issued by foreign governments to their citizens illegally residing in the United States.

Mexico with its "matricula consular" was the first country to successfully push local governments into accepting its non-verifiable ID card. Guatemala, after waiting to see whether the United States would balk at Mexico's aggressive efforts, is now reassured enough that it has begun issuing its own illegal alien ID card. Peru is promising to follow suit in a few months, and other countries, like China, are considering issuing their own cards.

There is no reason to believe that, eventually, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria won't be handing out similar cards to their illegal aliens as well.

No person legally in the United States has need of a foreign issued ID card; all legal residents and visitors have ready access to U.S.-issued ID. There is no legitimate purpose, other than subverting immigration laws, for non-U.S.-issued ID in the United States.

But the growing foreign ID card phenomenon is more than just unnecessary. It is dangerous and irresponsible.

The terrorism threat is not over. There are now dozens of foreigners and naturalized citizens in the U.S. under arrest, under investigation, on trial, or in prison for terrorist activities. Fraudulent, unsecured identification has been a crucial part of their terrorist activities.

Until the United States can implement a system to secure and standardize identification within the country, terrorism will be impossible to stop. Local municipalities that recognize the matricula consular are making that task that much more difficult and are endangering the lives of American citizens.
____________________________
Suspect had scores of IDs (Detroit News)

Central, South American nations may offer ID cards (AP)

Workers say man asked for fake ID (Detroit free Press)

House bill H.R.502

+== TAKE POSITIVE ACTION ==+

A bill that would stop state and local governments from turning over responsibility for secure and verifiable ID to foreign governments was introduced this year in Virginia, Arizona, Colorado, and Iowa. There is also a Federal version of it in Congress (H.R. 502).

The bill, based on language drafted by Friends of Immigration Law Enforcement (FILE) and NumbersUSA, two leading Washington-based non-profits, was tabled in committee in Virginia, was killed in committee in Arizona after passing the House, has yet to come up in Iowa, and has passed both Houses in Colorado.

(You might take a minute and contact the senator in Arizona who was responsible for killing the bill there, Republican Senator Linda Binder. Ask her whether she will vote as well for Chinese-issued, Pakistani-issued, and Saudi-issued illegal alien ID cards to be used in Arizona for access to public services. 602 542-4138 lbinder@azleg.state.az.us)

The United States has certain duties to its citizens -- like ensuring national security, protecting against terrorism, and defending against international and domestic fraud -- that require the responsibility for identification of persons in the United States to remain with U.S. authorities. These responsibilities must not be ceded to any foreign government.

Call or write your representative (it's easy and takes only a minute) and politely ask that he or she co-sponsor H.R. 502 (there are already 27 co-sponsors), which would require identification that may be used in obtaining Federal public benefits to meet restrictions ensuring that it is secure and verifiable.

Contact your representative:

+== QUOTE OF THE WEEK ==+

"Trust in Allah, but tie your camel"

--Arabian Proverb

+== EMAIL OF THE WEEK ==+

I laughed out loud when I read the email of the week [from Sept 5, 2002: "Your positions are asinine and nothing but knee jerk reactionary, garden-variety liberalism. Were we to use your logic, a pound of tomatoes would cost three dollars. No thank you."]

It amazes me how downright stupid some people are. I look forward to receiving your ezines, and wish you could send them more frequently!

Susan Howard Rollo
Chalfont, PA

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Patriotism equals white supremacy?
Issue 149: Apr 8, 2003
To unsubscribe, hit reply, type "remove" in subject line

+== TIME-OUT PROJECT ==+

On Mar 26, Nicholas De Genova, a professor of Latino Studies at Columbia University, declared at an anti-war rally that "patriotism equals white supremacy," and that he hoped for "a million Mogadishus."

Columbia University, after a public outcry, has distanced itself from the professor, saying it is shocked at De Genova's remarks. But the view that "patriotism equals white supremacy" is not exactly fringe in the Latino Studies departments on America's campuses. The view is, in fact, quite common.

In this case, even those at the rally were stunned into silence by the exceptionally graphic ugliness of the professor's comments, but his view is not that surprising given the politics of resentment and racial malice that pass for elevated thinking in large segments of the various ethnic studies departments of American academe.

What does this have to do with immigration? While that remarkable creation of Western Civilization, the University, continues to play host to blatant sedition (there is no other word for it) and venomous racial agitation, the current wave of mass immigration cannot be viewed by thoughtful Americans as other than an outright menace to the public good. While so many of our future leaders are nurtured on racial grievance and inculcated with a moral code founded on ethnicity and skin color, the current wave of mass immigration cannot honestly be viewed as a strength.
____________________________
Columbia Prof's Remarks Spark Furor

Ambush in Mogadishu

Racist and intellectually poverty-stricken gobbledy-goop from Prof. De Genova

+== TAKE POSITIVE ACTION ==+

A. Bartlett Giamatti, the president of Yale University from 1978-86, once said, "a liberal education is at the heart of a civil society, and at the heart of a liberal education is the act of teaching." It is a statement the current president of Columbia University, Lee Bollinger, would do well to ponder.

The role of the University is central to the maintenance of a free, creative, and enlightened society, and it is the responsibility of the University community to take that role seriously. There is no room in any genuine university for the kind of crackpot malice and illiberal nonsense De Genova spouts.

The university is important, and so are its teachers. Columbia should recognize its duty, and give the inappropriate and embarrassing De Genova the boot.

President of Columbia, Lee Bollinger
(212) 854-9970
bollinger@columbia.edu

Professor and Chair, Nicholas Dirks
(212) 854-7785
nbd7@columbia.edu

Professor Nicholas De Genova
(212) 854-0199
npd18@columbia.edu

+== QUOTE OF THE WEEK ==+

Treachery is more often the effect of weakness than of a formed design.

--La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680),

+== EMAIL OF THE WEEK ==+

I just finished reading the email responses that the "Condenan campana antiinmigrante" article received (http://projectusa.org/hate.html). Although I'm not terribly surprised that many of the responses were negative, I was unprepared for the viciously hostile and racist tone of many of the respondents. I certainly hope that these people do not represent the majority opinion in the Latino community, or we do have a hell of a problem on our hands.

How ironic it is that Craig Nelsen gets bashed as a racist by people who use words like "gringo" and "cracker," who express hatred for people of European ancestry, and who profess the "reconquista" agenda. How ironic that the term "la Raza" sounds like a Nazi slogan rendered into Spanish. I've never seen anything on your website that says America if for whites only, or even for native born Americans only. The message from the schoolteacher in Mexico was touching, at least.

You guys are doing a great job. Don't stop trying to get Americans to wake up.

Matthew Mackenzie
Arcadia, California

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Illegal aliens, loyalty, and the U.S. military
Issue 148: Apr 06, 2003

+== TIME-OUT PROJECT ==+

In Mexico, where anti-American sentiment is raging, Mexicans are nevertheless contacting the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City offering to join the American military in return for citizenship. But, since soldiering is not yet a "job Americans won't do," Mexican hopefuls are being turned away. For now, they are being told, only non-citizens who are legal residents in the United States may exchange a stint in the military for citizenship.

ProjectUSA's March 24 ezine on this topic generated an unusually high response from our readers, and several reporters contacted us looking for information on whether these non-citizens were, in fact, illegal aliens. The answer is, technically, no.

Technically, an illegal alien may not serve in the U.S. military. But then again, technically, an illegal alien may not work in the United States, either.

After the issue was raised in the Washington Times column, "Inside the Beltway" on March 26, ProjectUSA director, Craig Nelsen, was asked to discuss the issue on the Rob Douglas program on WBAL, a Baltimore talk radio station. Several military recruiters called the show to give details about the military's policy on inducting non-citizens into the military. Each recruiter said, truthfully, that the United States does not officially include illegal aliens among such inductees (though, interestingly, each found the growing number of non-citizens in the military worrisome).

But, as Nelsen noted on WBAL, if one clicks on the Spanish-language link (!) on the U.S. Army's recruitment page (linked below), a personal information form comes up asking prospective recruits to describe themselves under the following three choices: ciudadano (citizen), residente legal (legal resident), or extranjero (alien).

One has to wonder what need there is for that third category if indeed it is true that the U.S. Army only recruits from the first two categories: citizens and legal residents. Suspicions are increased even more by anecdotal evidence that suggests there is a "flexible" relationship between the INS (now BICE) and the military.

If in any way we are enticing foreign nationals to cross our border illegally with the hope of one day securing citizenship through serving in the Army, then such a policy is partly responsible for the hundreds of gruesome deaths along our borders every year, and it must be stopped.

Furthermore, if America's military needs cannot be met adequately from among our own citizens, perhaps we need to wonder whether our nation is over-extending itself.
____________________________
U.S. Army's Spanish-language recruitment page
https://www.goarmy.com/spanish/spanform.htm

Why Is Mexico Meddling In Our Military? (Allan Wall in VDARE)

Migrant GIs get citizenship after dying in combat

'Dual loyalties' my, uh, foot (O. Ricardo Pimentel)

Hundreds of anti-war protesters hurl paint bombs, cow dung at U.S. buildings in Mexico City

Mexico Rife with U.S. Citizenship Rumors (Associated Press)

Non-citizen patriots (huh? -ed.) deserve better

+== TAKE POSITIVE ACTION ==+

DeTocqueville wrote that the "characteristics of the American journalist consist in an open and coarse appeal to the passions of his readers." In mainstream reporting on immigration, we see this characteristic take the form of stories that begin, "Maria sobbed as she recounted her difficulties as a hard-working, but undocumented taxpayer." (For a good example of this kind of coarse journalism, see: "Fighting for your nation, just 2 all-American boys,"

).

Since our March 24 ezine, at least a dozen mainstream news stories and opinion pieces have emerged on the issue of non-citizens serving in the U.S. military. All have been tug-at-the-heartstrings stories of the patriotism and sacrifices of the non-citizens who were among the first "U.S." casualties in Iraq.

With the exception of an article by Mexico resident Allan Wall in the rapidly growing webzine, VDARE.com, no story that we have seen has addressed the long-term consequences of the "world's policeman" policing an enormously resentful world with a military force increasingly comprised of the citizens of that world. None has wondered at what percentage of the armed forces is the presence of non-citizens too much. Most negligently (and with typical democratic fixation on the present), none has drawn on the lessons of the past to shed light on the future (cf. Rome).

For some, of course, the whole issue boils down to a narrow racial agenda and ethnic parochialism. Arizona Republic columnist, O. Ricardo Pimentel, in whose writings the terms "illegal alien," "non-citizen," and "Latino" are synonyms, took issue with our raising the "knotty question of dual loyalty" in our last ezine.

In a piece entitled, "Dual loyalties my, uh, foot," Pimental gripes, "This is getting really old. To have our loyalty questioned is often part and parcel of the Latino experience in the United States."

C'mon, Mr. Pimental, no one is questioning the loyalties of Latinos per se. What are questionable, however, are the loyalties of dual citizens. Obviously.

A free and democratic people have a right -- a duty, in fact -- to wonder about the implications of the phenomenon of dual citizenship now sweeping the globe. Americans in particular have this right and this duty given that millions, probably hundreds of millions, from around the world intend to make our country their home.

Our Oath of Citizenship makes it explicit: "I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen."

Is it really out-of-bounds, Mr. Pimental, is it really "odious," to express alarm that this oath, in our multi-ethnic, multi-racial, rapidly growing country -- a country increasingly populated by dual citizens, has come to mean nothing?

Those who would deny the right of a democratic people to ask this important question of itself, who would subordinate the interests and well-being of the country to the narrow ethnocentrism of a few, do a disservice to their fellow Americans. They thereby call into question their own loyalties, and, probably without realizing it, prove our point.

O. Ricardo Pimentel
ricardo.pimentel@arizonarepublic.com
(602) 444-8210

+== QUOTE OF THE WEEK ==+

"The corruption of the age is produced by the individual contribution of each one of us; some contribute treachery…"

--Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592)

+== EMAILS OF THE WEEK ==+

The people of the United States need to remember the Mexicans in Mexico cheering at the broadcasts of aircraft exploding into the World Trade Center.

Dave Stoddard
Five miles north of the border near
Sierra Vista, AZ

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Non-citizen soldiers in U.S. military
Issue 147: Mar 24, 2003

+== TIME-OUT PROJECT ==+

Since Sept. 11, more than 30,000 non-citizens have served in the U.S. military. While that is only 2% of the 1.5 million active duty personnel in the military, the number of non-citizens serving in U.S. armed forces is growing. The Bush Administration has ensured that that number will continue to grow by changing the law recently to reward non-citizens in the military with U.S. citizenship at the completion of their tours of duty.

Such a trend raises the knotty question of dual loyalty -- the kind of question a multi-ethnic, multi-racial, radically egalitarian society is not comfortable asking.

Nevertheless, Islam is the fastest growing religion in the United States, and a titanic clash between Western and Islamic civilizations is at least possible. With the entire Muslim world seemingly ignited by anti-American sentiment, we need to ask the uncomfortable questions. The American public seems already to have answered its own question: an Oct. 2001 poll found that 70% of Americans approve "of ending immigration and visitor visas for any and all people trying to enter the United States from any country which sponsors terrorism (New Atlantic Initiative/Chicago Sun Times).

Our egalitarian principles, however, will not likely allow such an explicitly discriminatory immigration policy. Rather, a more politically feasible policy would be to suspend all immigration for a time until we have a handle on the many problems and dangers associated with out-of-control mass immigration.

Representative Sam Graves of Missouri has announced he will introduce legislation this session that would provide a temporary breather from mass immigration "until reckless programs are eliminated." This sensible bill, based on language drafted by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, would allow the United States to address the real world dangers presented by a rapidly growing, potentially hostile subgroup. It would give the assimilation process a chance to work its magic, while allowing our interior security forces to get up to speed. And because the bill would apply to everyone equally, it would not be unacceptably discriminatory like the anti-Muslim immigration policy for which one Congressman has already called.
____________________________
Citizenship now easier for foreign-born soldiers

Ridge Claims Cultural, Historical Reasons Prevent Using Our Military Put U.S. Troops on U.S. Borders (Joseph A. D'Agostino)

Does dual citizenship erode American national identity?

Graves to Introduce Landmark Immigration Reform

Men with Two Countries (National Review Online)

+== TAKE POSITIVE ACTION ==+

Alexis de Tocqueville said that one of the flaws of democracy is that it only learns from experience. In other words, a democratic people are not likely to possess the singleness of purpose and vision necessary to prepare adequately for the future -- to take reasonable precautions -- until something very bad happens.

Experts accurately predicted the atrocity of 9/11, for example, long before it happened. Yet, Americans were mostly indifferent to the warnings. Our leaders continued to hand out driver's licenses to illegal aliens (and are still doing so, in fact, in a dozen or so states), waived visa requirements for certain visitors, and allowed massive immigration from the Middle East. It is only after the attacks that the United States is moving (quickly, for a huge democracy) to implement the kinds of precautions we should have taken years ago.

Unfortunately, we will likely continue to ignore other looming disasters until they actually occur, in spite of common sense warnings. One such easily foreseen disaster waiting to happen is the growing phenomenon of dual or foreign citizens serving in the U.S. military. There are several disturbing elements to this trend -- particularly as it pertains to Mexico.

First, Mexico has a long history of overt hostility to and resentment of the United States. Second, Mexico is now aggressively promoting dual citizenship to Mexicans who naturalize in the United States and, significantly, to Americans born in the U.S., but of Mexican descent. Third, the Mexican government is increasingly asserting its sovereignty over all Mexicans and those of Mexican descent in the United States. Fourth, the Mexican government, through its matricula consular program, is compiling a database of millions of its citizens illegally residing in the United States to which U.S. authorities do not have access.

One would have to be an especially benighted globalist to fail to appreciate the potential danger of the situation. Imagine at some point circumstances are such that the United States deploys troops on the borders. Imagine an army composed of significant numbers of Mexican citizens placed on the border with Mexico and asked to prevent foreigners from crossing illegally.

Please contact Representative Graves and thank him for supporting a time-out from immigration.

202.225.7041
sam.graves@mail.house.gov

+== QUOTE OF THE WEEK ==+

Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are.

--Bertoldt Brecht

+== EMAILS OF THE WEEK ==+

I might point out that I have discussed immigration with individual Mexicans who have agreed with me or at least been sympathetic. But among the Mexican media/political elite, it is almost taken for granted that U.S. immigration policy is racist, xenophobic, anti-Mexican, etc. That goes for any political party, they all have the same emigration platform, there is no difference.

Allan Wall
Durango, Mexico

Mexico appears to be doing little to stem the flow of drugs and terrorists across the borders. It seems that it is perfectly okay to send everything negative to us here in the U.S., then they expect us to embrace their poor. It's high time that they make a true effort to help US in ways that they can and stop expecting the U.S. to do all the good deeds.

Jacki Cook
Red Boiling Springs, TN

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Illegal alien "sanctuary" policies challenged
Issue 146: Mar 6, 2003

+== TIME-OUT PROJECT ==+

In 1989, then New York City Mayor Ed Koch issued Executive Order 124, which forbade city employees from inquiring about a person's immigration status, or reporting such status to federal immigration authorities. Even though this so-called "sanctuary policy" directly violates Federal statutes, and has been ruled illegal by the courts, the policy remains in effect -- de facto -- in New York City.

In New York, illegal aliens access public health care, use city shelters, receive public assistance, and are even processed in the justice system without concern for their illegal status.

Aside from brazen disregard for Federal law, such sanctuary policies have enormous negative consequences for U.S. citizens. One particularly horrific example involved the brutal, two-and-a-half hour rape of a mother of two in Queens on Dec 19, 2002. Police have charged five persons in the attacks, four of whom are Mexican illegal aliens. Of the four, three had been previously arrested by the NYPD, but subsequently released back into the general population rather than turned over to Federal authorities.

In other words, the victim in Queens can thank New York's sanctuary policy in part for her ordeal. Thankfully, the City is now feeling some heat for its irresponsible indifference to immigration law.

Friends of Immigration Law Enforcement (FILE) sent notices in January to city officials describing FILE's legal concerns with New York's sanctuary policy.

In addition to receiving the legal notices, the City is also the recipient of unwanted Congressional attention. On Feb 27, the Immigration, Border Security, and Claims Subcommittee in the U.S. House of Representatives held a hearing on New York's sanctuary policy at which two members of FILE testified. (In an exchange between the director of FILE, who also attended the hearing, and a few of the attorneys for the City of New York, it became clear that FILE's notices have had an impact within city government.)

The pressure seems to be having some effect. In last Thursday's Congressional hearing, John Feinblatt, the Criminal Justice Coordinator for New York City, testified that New York is currently revising Executive Order 124.

Immigration moderates have always viewed sanctuary policies as one of the most blatant examples of reckless disregard for immigration law. In a world in which there are nearly 5 billion persons living in countries poorer than Mexico, immigration law simply must be enforced; no local government in our country has the right to run its own immigration policy.

Friends of Immigration law Enforcement has also sent notices -- like those sent to New York -- to Houston, and is planning to extend its campaign to other local governments that ignore immigration laws by policy. The effort by FILE to halt the sabotage of our nation's laws by irresponsible local officials deserves watching.
____________________________
End Sanctuary for Illegal Immigrants (Michelle Malkin)

Are Politicians Partly to Blame for a Terrible Crime in NYC? (Fox News)

Houston police stick to hands-off immigrant policy

The Lesson of Lee Malvo's Fingerprint (VDARE)

FILE's sanctuary effort

+== TAKE POSITIVE ACTION ==+

In his testimony defending New York City's policy on illegal immigrants, John Feinblatt blamed the INS and unresponsive federal agencies for forcing the City to ignore immigration laws. He has a point. The performance by the Federal government on immigration enforcement over the past decades has been dreadful.

Please contact Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge and demand vigorous enforcement of immigration laws. Tell him you want the Department of Homeland Security to work with local law enforcement to enforce immigration laws.

202-282-8000 (ask to leave comment for Secretary Ridge)

But New York City isn't blameless, either. New York also offers services like homeless shelters and public assistance to illegal aliens. Please contact Mayor Mike Bloomberg -- who has declared publicly that the United States should amnesty all illegal aliens -- and let him know that you object to the city's practice of aiding and abetting illegal immigration. Tell the Mayor that, regardless of his personal opinions, helping a foreign national to remain illegally in the United States is a violation of federal law, and that he took a sworn oath to uphold ALL the laws of the United States -- not just those with which he agrees.

Mayor Bloomberg
(212) 788-9600 (ask to leave a comment for the Mayor)
FAX (212) 788-2460

l

+== QUOTE OF THE WEEK ==+

"Dishonesty in government is the business of every citizen.... It is not enough to do your own job. There's no particular virtue in that. Democracy isn't a gift. It's a responsibility."

--Dalton Trumbo

"I regret what happened, but I don't feel in any way that I am responsible for it."

-- Mohammed El-Atriss, who sold fake IDs to two 9/11 hijackers, and who holds dual American and Egyptian citizenship

+== EMAIL OF THE WEEK ==+

You guys think it is frustrating to watch this as civilians! There are about 7000 of us who are supposed to be doing this job every day, but we find ourselves encumbered by everything from policy to paperwork. Nothing about our leadership tells us they really want us to do our jobs and do it well. We are even to the point of reporting 'got-aways' at the end of shifts. When I first came in there was no such thing as a got-away. You either caught them or didn't go home. And, on top of that, it seems like the less aliens you catch, the less trouble you get in. The hard-chargers are the ones who always catch the flak and get ridden until they either quit catching anything or leave the Patrol.

Border Patrol Agent
Laredo, Texas

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Mexican girl's death reveals larger tragedy
Issue 145: Feb 24, 2003

+== TIME-OUT PROJECT ==+

The hearts of millions of Americans go out to the family of Jesica Santillan, the 17-year-old Mexican girl who died Saturday after a bungled heart-lung transplant at Duke University Hospital in North Carolina. In spite of the girl's -- and her family's -- status as illegal aliens, most Americans understand the simple sadness of the human loss involved, and can sympathize with Jesica's parents' willingness to break U.S. immigration law in a desperate attempt to get life-saving treatment for their daughter.

However, tragic as this young woman's particular story is, her death sheds light on a larger, more generalized tragedy.

In 2002, according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, 5,542 persons in the United States died waiting for an organ transplant. Each of their deaths, to their loved ones, is as sad as Jesica Santillan's death is to her family (which has already announced plans to sue the hospital).

Duke University Hospital, where Jesica died, claims on its website to be "consistently one of the largest recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)." Indeed, through the NIH, and through other Federal programs like Medicaid, American taxpayers largely subsidize the hospital's roughly one billion dollar yearly budget.

Some of those American taxpayers and their children died last year waiting for transplants that never came, and this year, at least one more American taxpayer will die waiting for the transplant that Duke University Hospital chose to give to a citizen of a foreign nation.

Extrapolating from the data at the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, there are 1.7 million persons in the world in need of an organ transplant. Clearly, the U.S. health care system cannot accommodate them all.

The greater tragedy in the Jesica Santillan story is a system that rewards illegal aliens for entering the United States to access our health care system, thus condemning some of the American taxpayers who pay for that system to premature deaths. Few could deny the sheer unfairness of such a situation.

To the undiscerning or uninformed, treating sick foreigners is "compassionate," but there is yet another side to this tragedy: Every year, hundreds of foreign nationals die attempting to cross our dangerous southern border illegally. Almost all of them are tempted to try the dangerous crossing by the perceived rewards, or "magnets," for illegal aliens on this side of the border. These magnets include employment, free education, birthright citizenship for babies, promises of eventual amnesties, and, of course, superior and free health care.

How many of those who die in our southern deserts every year are lured to their gruesome deaths by irresponsible U.S. immigration policies and the "compassion" lobby?
____________________________
Teenage Girl in Botched Organ Transplant Dies (Washington Post)

Immigration and the Growth of the Population without Health Insurance
(Center for Immigration Studies)

Rolling up the medical welcome mat (Michelle Malkin)

+== TAKE POSITIVE ACTION ==+

Anyone who has spent any time in China has heard stories of middle class Chinese in need of organ transplants getting a tourist visa to the United States, landing at the airport, taking a cab directly to a hospital's emergency room, and demanding treatment.

Most American taxpayers agree this is simply not fair.

If you have a family member who died waiting to receive an organ transplant, you might be entitled to damages.

Please visit Friends of Immigration Law Enforcement's legal help page at

+== QUOTE OF THE WEEK ==+

The lesson of life is practically to generalize; to believe what the years and the centuries say against the hours; to resist the usurpation of particulars; to penetrate to their catholic sense.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

+== EMAIL OF THE WEEK ==+

I wanted to bring to your organization's attention an article in the NY Post, on the Mexican girl who underwent a transplant in the US. The article has a paragraph that states: "...[the] family paid a smuggler to bring them to the United States so the teen could receive medical care." Something is very wrong here, and the issue that this brings up is overshadowed by the utter tragedy of a young life cut short by an egregious "technical error" and by the lawsuits that will be brought against the hospital. If not for the tragic outcome, the public would never have heard of this case, which illustrates a sad fact in medical practice today. Taxpaying American citizens are on long waiting lists, and are dying for lack of suitable organ donors, yet our medical establishment seems to be able to provide one to foreign nationals quite readily, at our expense. We must be absolutely sure that our own citizens are not short changed in getting the medical care they deserve, and it is especially important that we ensure that we exhaust the list of suitable American recipients of our limited supply of donated organs before we seek out recipients from other countries.

Andrew Oliff, MD
New York City

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Mexican ID inflames immigration debate
Issue 144: Feb 21, 2003

+== TIME-OUT PROJECT ==+

Controversy over the use of Mexican ID cards as valid U.S. identification has become a "lightning rod" in the nation's mounting, and sometimes bitter, immigration debate, says The Chicago Tribune in a Feb 19 story.

The current controversy was sparked by the Washington-based watchdog group, Friends of Immigration Law Enforcement (FILE), which began sending thousands of notices last year alerting public entities and banks to the legal consequences faced by U.S. institutions that accept the cards as legitimate ID. FILE and other immigration reform groups, including the Federation for American Immigration Reform, argue that acceptance of the cards by U.S. institutions encourages illegal immigration, violates Federal law, undermines national security, and exposes those which accept the card to civil and criminal liability.

After receiving the notices, a number of municipalities rejected the card, or put plans to accept the card on hold, and several financial institutions have requested pictures of the IDs from FILE to help bank tellers recognize the card in order to reject it.

Meanwhile, a bill based on legislative language drafted by FILE and the Washington-based immigration reductionist group, NumbersUSA, has passed in the Arizona and Colorado Houses of Representatives. The bills, which would restrict acceptable IDs to those that are both verifiable and U.S.-issued, are now headed to the Senate in both states. Observers maintain that these bills, if signed into law, will mark a turning point in the effort to implement a more modern and moderate immigration policy.

In Colorado, in spite of the bill being attacked as "racist," former Governor Dick Lamm testified in support of it and current Governor Bill Owens looks set to sign it.

In Arizona, the bill's chief sponsor, Representative Randy Graf, was also fiercely attacked as racist by media and ethnic-identity groups, but the Representative stood firm and sent the bill to the Senate last week. Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano opposes the bill (602-542-4331).

However, it is a sign of just how much the political climate has changed since the "diversity-is-our-strength" hysteria of the 1990s that the attacks and cries of racism seem only to have increased support for the bills. This is a truly significant development, and those who desire a more realistic immigration policy will now be less vulnerable to the vicious name-calling of the past, thus removing a very daunting obstacle to common sense immigration reform.
____________________________
ID card becomes lightning rod in migration debate (Chicago Tribune)

Immigrant-control groups assail popular ID cards (Sacramento Bee)

Bill to stop use of foreign ID passes voice vote (Denver Post)

IDs for Illegals: The 'Matricula Consular Advances Mexico's Immigration Agenda
(Center for Immigration Studies)

l

Texts of bills and legislative links

+== TAKE POSITIVE ACTION ==+

In more good news for supporters of immigration law enforcement, it appears a Federal interagency working group on the Mexican ID controversy will issue regulations in the near future that closely reflect FILE's concerns.

Also on the federal level, Congressman Tom Tancredo has introduced similar legislation (H.R. 502) that would bar all federal agencies from accepting the card as valid ID.

Please go to the NumbersUSA website and send a free fax to your Congressional Representative asking him or her to support H.R. 502:

We have an excellent chance of seeing this very moderate and sensible bill passed. Let your representatives hear you support it.

+== QUOTE OF THE WEEK ==+

"This is a racist bill."

Colorado Representative Alice Borodkin
alice.borodkin.house@state.co.us
(303) 866-2910

+== EMAIL OF THE WEEK ==+

As a Hispanic myself, I totally agree with what you are trying to accomplish. Unfortunately, people who try to decrease the amount of immigrants, especially illegals, are labeled as racists, regardless if they are a minority or not. I know I will enjoy your ezine.

Swaneth Portalatin
Lafayette, IN

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Bill would sink Mexican ID card
Issue 143: Feb 2, 2003

+== TIME-OUT PROJECT ==+

Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo has stepped forward to become a champion for the 60% of Americans who see present U.S. immigration levels as a "critical threat to America's vital interests." Last week, the Congressman, whose pro-borders positions have drawn severe public attacks from ethnic-identity special interests, and political strategists in the Bush Administration, continued his efforts opposing illegal immigration by introducing in Congress H.R. 502. The bill, introduced with 12 original co-sponsors, would "require identification that may be used in obtaining Federal public benefits to meet restrictions ensuring that it is secure and verifiable."

In other words, it would torpedo the Mexican ID card known as the matricula consular.

At a Capitol Hill press conference, called to announce the introduction of H.B. 502, Friends of Immigration Law Enforcement (FILE) -- which authored the bill with the government relations office of NumbersUSA -- pointed out that the rush by U.S. institutions to adopt the Mexican ID card appears to have been halted. (Since late last year, FILE has sent out thousands of notices to institutions in the United States of the legal concerns associated with the ID's acceptance.)

In a very good sign, editorial pages around the country are also coming out against the Mexican ID (see links below).

In a world in which nearly 5 billion people live in countries poorer than Mexico, the United States simply must get serious and end illegal immigration. The very first step in halting illegal immigration is halting any form of amnesty. H.R. 502 would pull the plug on the Mexican government's campaign to pull off a stealth amnesty through widespread acceptance of its matricula card, and so is an important and deserving bill. Congressman Tancredo should be commended for this tough and far-sighted stand against the stealth amnesty represented by wide acceptance of any type of foreign ID card.
____________________________
Text of Bill HR 502 (Secure and verifiable ID)

HOMELAND SECURITY: A card crisis (Florida Times-Union)

Debate intensifies over the matricula ID card from Mexico (San Diego Union-Tribune)

Just say no for a while to immigration (New York Daily News)

The McCard canard: A welcome crackdown (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)

House bill would outlaw accepting foreign IDs (San Francisco Chronicle)

Backlash to Mexican IDs grows (Boulder Daily Camera)

Mexican ID card isn't being accepted everywhere (San Antonio Express-News)

Card-Carrying Immigrants (Washington Post)

+== TAKE POSITIVE ACTION ==+

Six months ago, the Mexican ID card was on a tear. American institutions were signing up right and left to accept it. Mexican government officials were openly boasting (especially for domestic political consumption) of their successful end run around U.S. immigration law. And, remarkably, for such a significant phenomenon, there was virtually no public debate on the important question of whether U.S. institutions could accept foreign-issued identification cards from illegal aliens.

But, at the start of the year, ProjectUSA began a series, in this ezine, in which we repeatedly stressed the significance and illegality of the spread of the matricula cards. In each issue, we provided a way for you, our readers, to help fight the illegal alien ID card. And you responded. Thanks to your efforts, the Mexican ID card controversy is now at the center of the immigration debate -- where it belongs. And, as we predicted, the outrageous details of the matricula card campaign have sparked a public backlash against acceptance of the card.

This week, you can help support efforts in Congress to block the Mexican government's attempts to use the matricula to subvert the will of the American people on immigration. Fax your representative for free; ask him or her to stand behind any legislation that will require U.S. institutions to accept only secure and verifiable identification. It only takes a few minutes, and the NumbersUSA website will pull up your representatives based on your zip code. You'll also have the opportunity to send faxes about other immigration/population issues:

NumbersUSA fax system
http://www.numbersusa.com/faxcenter

+== QUOTE OF THE WEEK ==+

In effect, to follow, not to force the public inclination; to give a direction, a form, a technical dress, and a specific sanction, to the general sense of the community, is the true end of legislature.

Edmund Burke

+== EMAIL OF THE WEEK ==+

Where can I get a TANCREDO-FOR-PRESIDENT bumper sticker?

Chris Doyle
Cathedral City, CA

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Michigan town rejects Mexican ID; another blow to "stealth amnesty"
Issue 142: Jan 23, 2003

+== TIME-OUT PROJECT ==+

Wednesday night, the city council in Holland, Michigan dealt the Mexican illegal alien ID card known as the "matricula consular" another in a recent string of setbacks. Disappointing the large and angry crowd of Mexican nationals in attendance, the council voted at its meeting to "table indefinitely" a narrow resolution that would have authorized limited recognition of the card. Also in attendance at the vote, which was covered by TV news teams from nearby Grand Rapids (a city also considering the card), was the Consul General of the Mexican Consulate in Detroit, who had made the four-hour trip to Holland for the second time in a week to plead in person for the card's acceptance.

Unfortunately for the Consul General, however, the fortunes of the Mexican ID card have been meager of late. The rejection in Holland came on the same day as an announcement, reported in the Washington Times, that the GSA was barring federal agencies from accepting the Mexican ID card until further review.

Only last month, when acceptance of the card in Holland was first proposed, it was widely seen as a "slam dunk." But, in a good example of effective legal activism, Friends of Immigration Law Enforcement (FILE) sent notice to the city outlining the legal concerns municipalities face when they accept the card. This notice initiated last night's victory. And in a good example of effective grassroots activism, the Washington-based reductionist group NumbersUSA, used its ingenious fax system to notify local Michigan officials of widespread public opposition to the card.

The battle against the Mexican illegal alien ID is being waged effectively in other areas, too.

State legislation drafted by NumbersUSA and FILE, which would effectively bar acceptance of the Mexican ID card, has already been introduced in two states, thanks to the efforts of the two groups. And other states are set to follow.

And the influential Center for Immigration Studies will host an important conference in Washington on January 28 (see below for details), where it will release the first in-depth examination of the Mexican ID card and the central role it plays in Mexico's attempt to shape U.S. immigration policy.

Other groups, like American Patrol in California, the Federation for American Immigration Reform in Washington, the Midwest Coalition to Reform Immigration in Chicago, and the Colorado Alliance for Immigration Reform, have helped, too, issuing press releases or speaking out in the media against acceptance of the card.
____________________________
GSA bars Mexican ID cards (Washington Times)

Text of the Secure ID bill in the states (FILE/NumbersUSA)

Reject the matricula card (Opinion piece by FILE in Wednesday's Holland Sentinel)

Council puts Mexican ID on hold (Holland Sentinel)

+== TAKE POSITIVE ACTION ==+

This newsletter has also played an important role in placing the battle against the Mexican ID card at the top of the immigration reductionist agenda. And you can help make this newsletter even more effective. Please help the cause of common sense immigration by helping build our subscription base. Send us your email lists of appropriate friends, classmates, students, teachers, and others who would like to receive our ezine. We will add them to our database, and they, too, can take part in this worthy effort.

+== QUOTE OF THE WEEK ==+

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena.

John F Kennedy

+== EMAIL OF THE WEEK ==+

The more I think about it, the more I see [the Holland vote] as a big symbolic victory. At the end of the day, the actual services being offered were next to nothing. But we all understand the Mexicans' hopes for a growing groundswell of acceptance for furthering their "stealth amnesty" at higher levels. Finally, people are saying, "Wait a minute, let's know what the effects of this symbolism are."

Tom Volkema
Holland, MI

+== SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT==+

The Center for Immigration Studies will host a panel discussion for media on the Mexican ID card from 1:30-3 p.m. on Tuesday, January 28, in the Murrow Room of the National Press Club (14th and F streets, 13th floor) in Washington, DC.

Panelists include:

* Marti Dinerstein, author of the new report, is President of Immigration Matters and a Fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies. She is also author of prior Center papers, "Giving Cover to Illegal Aliens: IRS Tax ID Numbers Subvert Immigration Law" and "America's Identity Crisis: Document Fraud is Pervasive and Pernicious"

* George Grayson, professor of Government at the College of William and Mary and adjunct fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies; author of 15 books and monographs on Mexico, including "Mexico: Changing of the Guard"

* Craig Nelsen, director of Friends of Immigration Law Enforcement (FILE), a national association of attorneys, legislators, law enforcement professionals, immigration experts, and others with an interest in immigration enforcement. FILE has been active in opposing the spread of the Mexican ID card.

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Conflict over illegal alien bank accounts grows
Issue 141: Jan 20, 2003

+== TIME-OUT PROJECT ==+

A fight is shaping up in Colorado's banking industry over acceptance of the illegal alien identification card known as the "matricula consular," Denver's Rocky Mountain News reported on Saturday. The conflict was ignited when Friends of Immigration Law Enforcement (FILE) sent notices to the 50 largest banks in Colorado detailing the possible legal and liability consequences for those banks that take the card.

FILE argues that banks that accept the card are likely breaking the law, and exposing themselves to possible civil liability. In addition, says the volunteer watchdog group of attorneys, law enforcement officers, immigration experts, legislators, and academics, banks that profit by opening bank accounts for illegal aliens may be vulnerable to racketeering actions from competitor banks that do not.

However, according to the Rocky Mountain News, Colorado Banking Commissioner Richard Fulkerson is preparing a letter to let the banks know that national and state regulators consider the card an acceptable form of identification.

Such a letter, if it is actually written and sent, will not ultimately stand up to an administrative challenge, or to close public scrutiny. First, as a Lakewood, Colorado CPA notes in an email to FILE, "It's incredible that with the Enron/WorldCom corporate responsibility/fraud issues so fresh in our minds, banking corporations would allow themselves to be complicit in such obviously fraudulent activities as wiring funds interstate and internationally without the possibility of confirming the legal source of the funds." The CPA goes on to note that it does appear accountants auditing these institutions would be cautious in certifying their financial statements with this an open issue.

Second, and more importantly, Americans are tired of corporations putting profit above the general good. Ultimately, U.S. banking corporations will rediscover the forgotten virtue of civic duty and responsible behavior when they realize that the sentiments expressed in another email to FILE are powerful and widespread:

"Dear FILE: I saw a great story in the Rocky Mountain News this morning. I am surprised they even ran it. Good for you in challenging those matriculas consulares. You are absolutely right on -- aiding and abetting is right there in 8 USC [federal law].

"The only reason a person needs a matricula card is if they are an illegal alien. I had a nice argument at my Wells Fargo Bank about the issue. As a retired I.N.S. Special Agent, the last 15 years as head of enforcement in the [withheld] office, I still agonize over the illegal alien situation. There must have been two-dozen of us in the late 90s who predicted 9/11 because we no longer actively enforce our immigration laws in the interior United States. I would love to help your organization in any way I can."
____________________________
Alien IDs challenged; Banking panel argues accepting cards not illegal

ARGUMENTS: Foreign issued identification cards and U.S. financial institutions

Lawmakers take aim at immigration (Arizona Republic)
(FILE/NumbersUSA secure ID bill in AZ legislature)

+== TAKE POSITIVE ACTION ==+

In the Rocky Mountain News piece, Kevin Mukri, a spokesman for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, defended acceptance of the matricula card, saying, "Banks can choose who to do business with."

You can contact the OCC and tell it that, contrary to what Kevin Mukri thinks, banks may not choose "who to do business with." U.S. banks cannot, for example, do business with Al Qaeda, nor are they allowed to do business with the Cali drug cartel.

The confused Mr. Mukri continues, "(Banks) have the responsibility of knowing who they're doing business with." When you stop smiling, ask the OCC to please tell Mr. Mukri that that is precisely the point: one of the main reasons banks must stop accepting the matricula card is because, for all we know, Osama Bin Laden might already be carrying a half dozen of them.

Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
Regs.Comments@occ.treas.gov

+== QUOTE OF THE WEEK ==+

The rich man ... is always sold to the institution which makes him rich. Absolutely speaking, the more money, the less virtue.

Henry David Thoreau

+== EMAIL OF THE WEEK ==+

I am happy to see that your organization is taking on the U.S. banks that are encouraging and profiting from illegal immigration. It is interesting to note their defense that "it is not my job" to enforce immigration laws. Unfortunately, it seems that even police departments and state governments have used such defenses. I don't know if organizing public pressure from citizens on such banks, and at the same time encouraging those banks that have not pursued such action to date, is part of your plans. But such efforts might be effective, at this point. The Mexican government has certainly lobbied hard on such subversion of our laws and our right to control our borders.

Sara M. Lennon
Chicago, IL

+== SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT==+

The Center for Immigration Studies will host a panel discussion for media on the matricula consular from 1:30-3 p.m. on Tuesday, January 28, in the Murrow Room of the National Press Club (14th and F streets, 13th floor).

Panelists include:

Marti Dinerstein, President of Immigration Matters, a public policy analysis firm in New York, and fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies. She is the author of America's Identity Crisis: Document Fraud is Pervasive and Pernicious, CIS Backgrounder, April 2002.

George Grayson, professor of Government at the College of William & Mary, and author of Mexico: Changing of the Guard, published by the Foreign Policy Association in New York.

Craig Nelsen, director, Friends of Immigration Law Enforcement.

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End of illegal alien IDs in Arizona?
Issue 140: Jan 15, 2003

+== TIME-OUT PROJECT ==+

Friends of Immigration Law Enforcement (FILE) announced today that a bill it co-authored was introduced in the Arizona legislature. If passed, the bill would end acceptance in that state of the illegal alien ID card known as the "matricula consular." State Representative Randy Graf introduced the bill January 14 under the title, "Secure and Verifiable Identification," with 12 cosponsors, including the House and Senate majority whips and the House majority leader. The bill (HB 2316) prohibits a public entity from accepting an identification document to provide services unless the document is secure and verifiable.

Representative Graf reports strong support for the bill inside the state house. FILE maintains that the bill will enjoy wide support outside the legislature, too, since the provisions in the bill will strike a large majority of Americans as simple common sense (see link to HB 2316 text below).

FILE is working with the Washington, DC based reductionist group, NumbersUSA, to see the bill introduced in other states as well. Their efforts have the bill scheduled for introduction in three more states within the next week or two, and there is a strong possibility that more than 10 other states will follow suit this legislative season.

Identification lies at the heart of many of the problems associated with mass immigration. A movement among the states to place security and verifiability requirements on the kinds of documents used to access local public services would have far reaching consequences. Besides increasing national security, say observers, such restrictions will reduce access to public services for illegal aliens -- the "magnets" that lure hundreds of foreign nationals to their deaths along our borders every year.

Americans want U.S. immigration law humanely, but firmly, enforced, and there will be strong public support for widespread adoption of FILE's secure and verifiable ID legislation.
____________________________
Text of Arizona bill and cosponsors

Mexico's consular general in Detroit attempts to counter FILE's Michigan efforts
(claims campaign to introduce illegal alien ID worked out with American officials)

Friends of Immigration Law Enforcement
http://fileus.com/

+== TAKE POSITIVE ACTION ==+

Not surprisingly, the Mexican government is already mobilizing against FILE's efforts to torpedo acceptance of the illegal alien ID card. Supporters of secure ID will probably even be called "racists" and "bigots."

You can help initiate a similar effort in your state:

+== QUOTE OF THE WEEK ==+

O Lady Fortune, Stand you auspicious!

--William Shakespeare

+== EMAIL OF THE WEEK ==+

Congratulations on your win for free speech ("ProjectUSA wins free speech settlement in NY lawsuit,"

). Thanks for all your hard work and for standing up for what 99% of our political and media leaders don't have the guts to even address--the "I" word.

C. Quinn
Los Angeles, CA

+== SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT==+

Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska has proposed significant cuts in funding for INS and port security. His cuts would severely compromise national security by preventing implementation of an automated entry-exit system and cutting back on security along the borders and at ports of entry.

Go to NumbersUSA, click on "fax congress free," REGISTER (it's not that big a deal), and send a free fax to Senator Stevens demanding he not slash funding for national security.

http://www.numbersusa.com/index

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Battle heats up over illegal alien ID card
Issue 139: Jan 13, 2003

+== TIME-OUT PROJECT ==+

Acceptance by U.S. authorities of the matricula consular, the identification document issued by the government of Mexico to Mexican nationals residing illegally in the United States, has been made a top foreign policy objective by the Vicente Fox administration. But, recently, the campaign has been meeting unexpected resistance around the country.

The battle centers on whether U.S. institutions should (or may) accept the cards as proof of identification. The Mexican government, which issues the matricula in the United States through consulates, church basements, and vans, argues the card is "secure identity" and a way for illegal immigrants to access public services and "dignity." Pro-borders activists in the United States argue that acceptance of the card encourages illegal immigration, is a violation of the Constitution and statutory law, and opens the way to similar moves by the governments of Guatemala, China, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and others.

Both sides characterize widespread acceptance of the card as a "stealth amnesty" for illegal aliens, and the battle over the Mexican ID is quickly taking center stage in the raging debate between supporters of current record-breaking levels of mass immigration and those working for a more moderate immigration policy.

Friends of Immigration Law Enforcement (FILE) has sent thousands of notices to public officials and financial institutions around the country detailing the various legal objections to acceptance of the matricula card. One municipality that received a FILE notice was Holland, MI, where a commission recently recommended that the city officially recognize the cards.

FILE's notice to Holland seems to have sparked an intense debate within city government, and the Holland City Council has decided to meet this Wednesday evening, Jan. 15, for a "study session" before it votes on acceptance of the card at a later date. Even though the council is not inviting public comment at the meeting, Antonio Meza Estrada, the consul of Mexico in Detroit, is expected to travel across the state to attend the meeting.

If the meeting follows the pattern of similar meetings around the country, the Mexican consul general will arrive accompanied by a large contingent of illegal aliens in an attempt to intimidate the council members into submitting to the Mexican government's demands. These tactics are raising concern in some quarters over the political implications of allowing an aggressively interventionist foreign government to establish a huge database (to which U.S. authorities have no access) of its citizens residing illegally within the United States.
____________________________
Simple card, complex debate (Holland Sentinel)

Sample of FILE notice sent to Holland, MI

Pelosi and sham Mexican ID cards in government buildings (American Patrol)

+== TAKE POSITIVE ACTION ==+

According to an article in Sunday's Holland Sentinel (linked above), Holland Mayor Al McGeehan supports official acceptance of the illegal alien ID card.

Mayor Al McGeehan
mayor@ci.holland.mi.us

Follow up: It is important that activists who take the time to answer the "calls to action" recommended in this newsletter know that their efforts make a difference. In the last issue of this ezine, we asked activists to call new House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and express their views on her reported backing of the acceptance of the illegal alien matricula card to access a federal building in San Francisco. The response to our, and other groups', calls and the efforts of the incomparable Congressman Tom Tancredo, resulted in an torrent of public outrage (see "Email of the Week").

Hopefully, Nancy Pelosi has begun to understand just how out-of-touch she is with the American people on illegal immigration. In case you didn't get around to it last week:

Nancy Pelosi
sf.nancy@mail.house.gov
(202) 225-4965

+== QUOTE OF THE WEEK ==+

"If the consulate is turning a blind eye to illegal immigration, we should turn a deaf ear to their request and end this discussion now."

Thomas Volkema
Holland, MI
(Letter to the editor, Holland Sentinel)

+== EMAIL OF THE WEEK ==+

Hammer Pelosi. They are going nuts. I have been calling both the offices in Washington D.C. and CA and they can't handle it. They say they are being swamped with calls.

Ed M. (via American Patrol)
Parsimony NJ

+== SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT==+

The Washington, DC immigration reduction organization, NumbersUSA, also helped generate the storm of citizen activism around the Pelosi illegal alien ID controversy. If you are an American concerned about the long-term consequences of mass immigration, and would like to see a more modern and moderate U.S. immigration policy, ProjectUSA recommends you sign up for the group's innovative and effective "fax congress free" service.

http://www.numbersusa.com/index

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FILE finding success on "matricula card"
Issue 138: Jan 6, 2003

+== TIME-OUT PROJECT ==+

Thanks in part to its extensive education campaign, says Friends of Immigration Law Enforcement (FILE), fewer U.S. institutions appear willing to take on the risk of accepting as valid identification the "matricula consular," an ID card issued by the Mexican government to its citizens residing illegally in the United States. According to the legal watchdog group, the pace at which the card is being accepted by new institutions seems to have slowed; increasingly, communities are either reconsidering acceptance, or declining to authorize the card in the first place.

The trend to accept the cards, which the Mexican government openly touts as a stealth amnesty for millions of Mexican illegal aliens in the United States, looked unstoppable just a few months ago. Numerous towns, cities, counties, and police departments around the country were rushing to recognize officially the matricula as valid ID. Thirteen states had decided to recognize the card in one capacity or another. And many major banking firms, led by Wells Fargo, had begun to recognize it as sufficient identification to open a bank account.

FILE argues that, since only illegal aliens have need of it, acceptance of the card by American institutions violates federal law [8 U.S.C. §1324(a)(1)(A)(iv)] and Constitutional precepts. Furthermore, says the group, it exposes the institution that accepts the card to civil damage lawsuits (for full legal arguments, see link below).

Nevertheless, an aggressive Mexico City-backed lobbying campaign within the United States to push for acceptance of the card was meeting with considerable success. Roberto Rodriguez Hernandez, general director of the ID project for Mexico's Foreign Ministry, makes no secret of the Mexican government's motives or tactics. "It's necessary to push the need for an [amnesty] at all levels," he told the Washington Times. "A little lobbying, pushing from mayors up to governors, then going through congressional representatives and senators is worth the effort."

The effort is being coordinated through Mexico's 43 consulates in the United States. Dave Gorak of the Midwest Coalition to Reduce Immigration reports that a spokesperson at the Mexican Consulate in Chicago told him the consulate is hoping to "institute more aggressive programs in the near future to work more closely with grassroots groups that are concerned with such topics as legalization of undocumented immigrants."

The Mexican effort includes a campaign to place op-eds in major American newspapers propagandizing the Mexican government's position, as California-based writer Joe Guzzardi demonstrates in a piece for the increasingly influential online opinion journal, VDARE.com (for a list of the many newspapers obliging Mexico City, see link below).

But FILE points to a series of recent victories on the matricula card that could spell trouble for the Mexicans' strategy:

· A town in Florida that looked set to accept the card several months ago rejected it after receiving legal notice from the Federation for American Immigration Reform.
· A bank in Nebraska, after receiving similar legal notice from FILE, contacted the group and asked for a picture of the card so that it could alert its tellers not to accept it.
· State legislators in two states are working with FILE to introduce state legislation that would forbid acceptance of the card by any local government or agency.
· New York City and New York State, citing security concerns, have both recently declined to recognize the card.
· And inside sources at the State Department tell of growing "unease" within the department over accep