Congressman Questions Border Security Commitment

WASHINGTON (Talon News) -- Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-CO) issued a statement on Thursday blasting soon to be former Homeland Security Sec. Tom Ridge after reports that funding for 2,000 additional border patrol agents mandated by the recently passed intelligence reform bill would likely not be included in the DHS budget proposal.

"I'm disappointed but not surprised as Mr. Ridge has never taken border security too seriously," said Tancredo, head of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus. "It's equivalent to denying a crime ridden city more officers for protection, it simply makes no sense."

Tancredo also expressed concern that three years after the creation of the department, government security agencies are still not communicating with each other. As evidence of this continuing problem, Tancredo cited the decision by DHS not to seek additional border agents -- despite the fact that the U.S. State Department issued a new warning on Wednesday amid the deteriorating security situation along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The State Department warning, dated January 26, warns U.S. citizens about an increase in "violent criminal activity, including murder and kidnapping, in Mexico's northern border region." The warning also alerts Americans to the current security situation along the Mexican side of the U.S.-Mexico border "in the wake of increased violence among drug traffickers," and goes on to say that U.S. citizens "should be aware of the risk posed by the deteriorating security situation."

"Violent criminal activity along the U.S.-Mexico border has increased as a product of a war between criminal organizations struggling for control of the lucrative narcotics trade along the border," the State Department says in its warning. "The leaders of several major criminal organizations have been arrested, creating a power vacuum. This has resulted in a wave of violence aimed primarily at members of those trafficking organizations and criminal justice officials. However, foreign visitors, including Americans, have been among the victims of homicides and kidnappings in the border region in recent months."

"I hope Sec. Ridge's successor will reverse course on this budget request and ask for this funding in light of both the State Department warning, and the Congressional mandate we gave him last year," said Tancredo. "And I certainly hope Sec. Ridge doesn't let the door hit him on the way out."

"[DHS] needs someone at the helm who will make enhanced border security a priority, not an afterthought," Tancredo added.

Requests for comment by Talon News to the Department of Homeland Security were not returned as of press time.

Aired 1/28/05 LOU DOBBS CNN

DOBBS: Later here, Senator Dianne Feinstein will join me. She's proposed new legislation intended to hold the federal government responsible for the immigration crisis in this country -- at least part of it. Senator Feinstein will be our guest.

Some states in this country are allowing illegal aliens now to use a government identification number to obtain driver's licenses, voter identification cards and even home loans. These identification cards were created for use only by the Internal Revenue Service. Now some states are using those cards as a way to grant illegal aliens the benefits of U.S. citizenship.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Here in Milwaukee, Mitchell Bank is one of several Wisconsin banks where illegal aliens can get mortgages.

All it takes is an individual taxpayer identification number, an ITIN, given out by the Internal Revenue Service. That number is meant to collect income taxes from people without Social Security numbers.

But Wisconsin's Housing Authority is going a step further, letting illegal aliens use the number to get a mortgage. They say they're just serving a growing market.

ROMANS: Critics say the program rewards law breakers.

GLENN GROTHMAN, WISCONSIN STATE SENATE: It just makes a mockery of our laws, and it is an insult not only to American citizens, but it's an insult to the employees of our immigration service, and it's an insult to anybody who appears foolishly to try to wait patiently in line to come into this country legally.

ROMANS: The program is recognized by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago who says most banks understand that illegal aliens are in a "peculiar position." Still, the IRS position is clear. The ITIN is to be used for tax purposes only. The IRS has issued at least seven million ITIN numbers since 1996. It was so nervous about abuse of the numbers, it's warned governors and state motor vehicle departments that ITINs were not designed to serve as personal identification and should not be used for driver's licenses.

Still, across this country, illegal aliens are using these cards, and at least five states are accepting them.

DOBBS: I'm all but speechless. The moronic posturing by people on this immigration crisis is just -- it's stunning. The mentality. I mean, how do you explain people sitting there in the Housing Authority basically postulating as if they were holding forth for a national policy and just ignoring a set of rules and laws and regulations that have been on the books for years.

ROMANS: Well, Lou, the press officer for WHEDA, the Wisconsin Housing Authority, told me he's as illegal as illegal aliens because when he was 7, he stole with his brother a candy bar. He broke a law. He's illegal. That's equivalent to this. He thinks that it's a reality, that there are 10 million illegal aliens in this country. It's a market that needs to be served.

DOBBS: And that's the kind of mentality that we're dealing with. Hard-working people in this country, many of them immigrants -- legal immigrants -- having to deal with this, and a government that is just seeing fit at the state and federal level to ignore the law and the wellbeing of the country.

That brings us to the subject of our poll tonight. The question is: Do you believe state governments should allow illegal aliens to use a government identification number to obtain rights intended for U.S. citizens? Yes or no. Cast your vote at loudobbs.com. We wouldn't blame you if you added a few comments in point of fact with that vote.
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http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0501/28/ldt.01.html
Aired 1/28/05
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Do you believe state governments should allow illegal aliens to use a federal identification number to obtain rights intended for U.S. citizens?

Yes 7% 320 votes

No 93% 4485 votes

Total: 4805 votes
http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/lou.dobbs.tonight/

Also on Dobbs was this about criminal illegals. Aired 1/28/05

snip--

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0501/28/ldt.01.html
An estimated 100,000 illegal aliens in this country have been convicted of crimes committed in this country, other than their illegal status, of course, yet most of them remain at large. Special Immigration and Customs Enforcement teams are now trying to hunt down those illegal aliens one by one.

Dan Lothian reports from Brockton, Massachusetts.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On the trail of convicted illegal immigrants, federal agents with the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement unit, or ICE, are getting ready to move in on a Dominican national in Fall River, Massachusetts. They say he served time for his crime, but is in this country illegally and is avoiding deportation. MONICO: He's been arrested on several charges, including up to assault and battery, domestic violence. He does have a history of violence.

LOTHIAN (voice-over): An hour later, a Cape Verdean man in the U.S. illegally, agents say, is cornered in the City of Brockton as he walks down the sidewalk. His crime?

MONICO: The initial charge was rape of a child and, again, for whatever reason, it was plea bargained down, but it was a conviction.

LOTHIAN: Just two of more than 100 illegal fugitives in this pile the Boston office is hunting. Nationally, it's estimated 80,000 to 100,000 convicted illegal immigrants are out there.

MARTIN: These people have disregarded their orders to leave the country. They've had an opportunity to be heard in court, and the case was decided against them. So we're pursuing those folks that are just not complying with those orders.

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