Migratory wave harms US but benefits Mexico, according to expert

The mass immigration of workers from Latin America to the US (disregarding legal status) in the past 40 years harmed the US economy while benefitting Mexico and other Latin American countries, according to Philip Cafaro, a professor at the state university of Colorado. He maintains that due to “uncontrolled immigration” the US has been “inundated” with workers who have little preparation and as a consequence, since 1980 until now, there has been a 45% drop in salaries in occupations with a high percentage of foreigners, as in construction or meat processing. ”In the present economic climate, when so many Americans suffer lack of work . . . the government should implement levels of immigration that favor the poorest Americans, not those that harm us,” Cafaro stated. He also pointed out that now the US has 12 to 15 million undocumented workers and one of the consequences is that, while in the last four decades, the number of workers with university degrees increased 4%, the number of workers who didn’t complete high school rose 21%, causing a decrease in salaries.

Journalists from various media, locations and nationalities gathered in front of the Mexican federal offices of the Department of Justice (PGR) in Mexico City to protest the indifference and silence of that agency over the assassinations and disappearances of news journalists that have been reported in past years. Conditions of insecurity have worsened for reporters, they claim, and the situation is aggravated by the impunity that exists, permitting attacks against them, especially in border areas.

Due to the rising numbers of sexual assaults in the state of Sinaloa, one of the state representatives presented an initiative proposing the castration of convicted offenders. He noted that previous increases in punishment in the penal code had not had any effect in reducing incidents of the crime. In the public comment section following this story, one wag said, “It would be good. The truth is the church lacks sopranos.”

Federal agents succeeded in freeing 29 migrants held by a group presumably linked to the Gulf cartel in Reynosa, Tamaulipas. Intelligence and investigative work led to the discovery of a building used as a “security house” and the feds carried out the operation to free the 29 men, 24 of whom were Mexican. Of the other five, two were from Guatemala and one each from El Salvador, Honduras and Ghana. Four of their presumed kidnappers were arrested. The group targeted people trying to cross illegally into the US, promising them assistance, but then kidnapping them for large ransom amounts demanded from their families.

Four men were gunned down in a mechanic shop in Tijuana by an armed group who shot two inside the shop and took the other two out back to finish the job. The investigation continues.

A US Border Patrol Borstar [Border Patrol Search Trauma and Rescue] team was successful in locating and rescuing seven lost border crossers in rugged mountains west of Mexicali. The aspiring migrants became lost in the area of La Rumorosa Thursday of last week in their attempt to enter the US. The seven were identified only as males 18 to 30 years of age. They had been part of a group of 16 that divided into two groups when caught off guard by rain and low temperatures and became disoriented after they were abandoned by their guides, according to Rafael Hernandez, a member of a Mexican rescue team that also participated in the search. The other nine had been rescued days earlier by the same Borstar team from the El Centro, California, sector and had already been returned to Mexico. Of the seven rescued later, two needed medical attention due to longer exposure to the harsh conditions

Mexican “Marines” (Naval infantry) arrested 11 presumed hit-men of the Beltran Leyva drug cartel during an armed encounter in Tepoztlan, Morelos, in which three of the criminal combatants died. A Navy spokesman reported that troops seized 280,700 dollars cash, 16 rifles and 4 pistols as well as some 1700 rounds of various ammunition and 74 ammo clips.

Mexican Army troops discovered yet another unfinished tunnel in Mexicali, Baja California. The tunnel had only reached 10 meters in length at a depth of three meters. Seven people were arrested in the operation. The location of the tunnel’s entrance was given as a warehouse on Callejon Madero between Bravo and Mexico. [This would place it some 500 ft. from the border at Dool Ave., Calexico.]

Mexican federal police arrested a subject identified as Tomas Ochoa Celis, the presumed leader of a cell of Los Zetas that controls the cocaine traffic from Guatemala along the “Emerald Coast” of Veracruz and Tamaulipas. Each shipment coordinated by Ochoa was approximately one ton transported from Comitan, Chiapas, to Diaz Ordaz, Tamaulipas in cargo trucks with false bottoms. Ochoa has a criminal record, having served nine years in prison in Texas for a marihuana conviction.

Anti-drug agents in Panama seized 450 kilos of cocaine in the same Caribbean area where yesterday [Thursday] they seized 2,460 kilos of drugs in two boats at Punta Escribano. So far this year, Panamanian authorities have seized 56 tons of drugs, three tons more than in 2008.

AMNESTY is set to be introduced in the House of Reps today.

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/12/14/2150785.aspx

“House proponents of comprehensive immigration reform are set to unveil an ambitious bill Tuesday that calls for a pathway to legalization for illegal immigrants, family reunification policies and another push for the controversial AgJOBS program, which would grant temporary immigration status to undocumented farm workers,” Roll Call reports. “Some backers of the bill, sponsored by Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), readily admit the measure is their ideal version of reform and is not likely to be what ultimately would pass into law. In contrast to their efforts in 2007, when they unsuccessfully pushed a bipartisan package, advocates are kicking off debate this time with a solidly Democratic plan… Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) is taking the lead on the issue in the Senate, but his plan is expected to be far less liberal and to include some GOP support. Even though the Senate is likely to move first on the issue, after Schumer unveils his bill early next year, House lawmakers are ready to get the ball rolling now.”

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A note from Mike Cutler:

He explains why AMNESTY will not work and will create more problems than we can deal with!

“There is no way that our beleaguered adjudicators at USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) the agency that would administer this insane program would be able to reliably know anything about the millions of illegal aliens who would undoubtedly seek to acquire lawful immigrant status and ultimately, United States citizenship through Comprehensive Immigration Reform.

They have no official documentation to substantiate their true names or even their true nationalities. Therefore there would be no reliable way of determining if these illegal aliens whose simple presence in our country represents a violation of our nation’s laws and borders, are fugitives from justice in other countries. There would be no reliable way of knowing if these illegal aliens are affiliated with criminal or terrorist organizations.

There would also not be any reliable way of knowing when these illegal aliens entered the United States. They will have, no doubt, used one or more, stolen or fictitious identities, making it all but impossible to know when, where or how they actually entered the United States without conduction a field investigation. Yet with the huge numbers of illegal aliens involved and the small number of agents available to deal with the onslaught of applications, all that would be done is a “background check.”

As I have noted on so many previous occasions a background check does not entail having investigators knocking on doors and interviewing those who might know these illegal aliens. A background check would simply require that the applicant’s fingerprints and name he (she) provides on the application be run through a computerized database. If the fingerprints come up “clean,” that is to say does not match any known criminal and if the name provided by the applicant is fictitious, then the system would automatically deem the alien to be okay for a temporary identity document that would immediately enable that alien to apply for and receive a Social Security card, a driver’s license and other such documents.”

“Now here is the really insane part of the proposal for Comprehensive Immigration Reform. This is not speculation but actually occurred in the wake of the Amnesty of 1986.

When aliens who had previously been illegally present in the United States were granted lawful status, they were no longer exploitable. In many cases these previously illegal aliens approached their employers and told them that they would certainly want to continue working for them but that they now wanted to be paid prevailing wages. They wanted the appropriate deductions taken from their salaries. They wanted to be compensated appropriately for working overtime and on weekends.

In short, these previously vulnerable aliens were no longer vulnerable and demanded fair and equitable treatment by their employers. In many of these instances, guess what happened? The employers fired these now legal aliens and hired the next wave of illegal aliens!

Now stop and ask yourself the very obvious question: “What would happen if 10 million or 20 million legalized aliens demanded proper wages and working conditions?”

If you guessed they would be fired, you would be right! The unscrupulous employers would not go without cheap exploitable labor, however, they would simply seek to hire the next wave of illegal aliens who would easily run our porous borders hoping that they would ultimately take advantage of the next amnesty!

How much would unemployment and welfare cost our government to care for the newly unemployed legalized aliens?

How much would this further drive wages down as too many workers would be forced to chase far too few jobs?

Incidentally, how many of the displaced workers would be members of the various minority groups in the United States?

Comprehensive Immigration Reform is nothing more than an attempt to grab political power by politicians who do not give a damn about anything or anyone but themselves and their quest for power!”

mcutler007@aol.com

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