The 800 pound elephant is garnering more notice, it would appear.
Posted on 12/27/2004 2:37:59 PM PST by IllumiNaughtyByNature
Forgive me if I missed the media coverage of the international dustup between Democratic state Sen. Gloria Romero of Los Angeles and the Mexican government the other day. The media downplay stories they perceive as "blaming the victim," particularly on the hands-off topic of illegal immigration. Romero has gone against the tide before. Now she's rattling cages over the 28,672 foreigners in California prisons who cost taxpayers a staggering sum to feed and house, one-half of whom are illegal aliens from Mexico.
snip...
It's not just silly pols who keep mum. The widely respected Chief Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill rarely explains these costs. It's too difficult, too politically hot.
So while these largely non-taxpaying residents heavily use taxpayer-financed services and infrastructure, from our jammed roads to our overwhelmed courts, hardly anyone says anything.
Chuckles John Stoos, aide to Republican state Sen. Tom McClintock, the fiscal watchdog from Thousand Oaks, "Oh yes, it will definitely go away if we don't study it. Works for me!"
This avoidance behavior got a workout at Romero's prison system hearing in Los Angeles on Dec. 16. Diplomats from the consulates of Canada, Germany and Sweden testified about fixing a flawed country-to-country prisoner transfer program the Schwarzenegger administration hopes can someday send up to 6,400 eligible prisoners home -- mostly to Mexico. The behavior of the Canadians, Swedes and Germans stood in stark contrast to that of the Mexicans. In a bizarre bit of public theater that reminded me of my year in Czechoslovakia in 1991, where I observed bumbling ex-Communist officials firsthand, the Mexican government boycotted Romero's hearing, offering one of the lamest official fibs I've ever heard.
First, Mexican officials failed to respond to Romero's invitation to testify -- pretty odd in itself. So that morning, Romero's aide telephoned the Mexican consulate, down the road in L.A., to find out when they would arrive. According to Sen. Romero, noting it for the official record, Mexico claimed that "because of budgetary concerns, they could not fly the appropriate consulate (official)" from Mexico. Said Romero: "I am very disappointed at their failure to participate ... to first of all give me even the courtesy of a phone call that they were not showing up."
And, the peeved senator added, "We stressed that a local consulate official was sufficient."
I'll admit, I audibly guffawed over the bit about how Mexico, the nation, can't afford an airline ticket. Mexican diplomats live well, and the Mexican consulate in L.A. is impressive. Let's just say they can afford the trip. Not that Romero needed a diplomat from Mexico City anyway.
But the Mexicans do nothing but double talk on illegal immigration. On the prisoner issue, Mexico strictly limits the number of prisoners it takes back -- yet comically insists it has no limits. Pathetic. According to the California Board of Prison Terms, "all other nations accept all of their prisoners for transfer." Except Mexico.
In 2003, Mexico took back only 109 prisoners from the U.S., even though in California alone, 17,500 prisoners are Mexican nationals -- including more than 14,000 illegal aliens. And get this: Mexico won't take back those who've been here longer than five years. Just because.
Our biased media hate placing even a smidgen of blame on Mexico for illegal immigration. But in fact, most solutions won't be found in Sacramento or Washington. The lasting fixes must come from Mexico's legislature, courts and President Vicente Fox -- or more likely, his successor.
People come here illegally because Mexico's elected leaders and rich ruling families cling to quasi-socialism, circa 1930. Moreover, the rule of law is so weak that lenders are afraid to risk money on Mexican entrepreneurs -- a terrible obstacle to building a middle class. Mexico will remain Third World while China surges forward, as long as mafia types and corrupt judges run Mexico's legal system.
Yet Fox, an indecisive and disastrous president, does little. Why do I never, ever, read about this in California media? Oh, that's right: It's blaming the victim.
As long as Mexico's ruling class ducks the responsibilities of the modern world -- even shirking such simple if unpleasant tasks as attending a hearing into how to fix prison transfer policies -- Mexico will remain its own tragic victim.
But apparently nobody told Romero that silence is the rule among elected Sacramento politicians regarding the costs of illegal immigration. That day in L.A., she publicly criticized the Mexican government, presented data on the staggering $500 million to $800 million a year paid by California taxpayers to house foreign prisoners, and basically opened a can of worms. Somebody, please give this woman an award.
--- Jill Stewart is a print, radio and television commentator on California politics. She can be reached via her Web site, www.jillstewart.net.
PING
DEPORT ILLEGAL ALIENS NOW!!
The 800 pound elephant is garnering more notice, it would appear.
For a Democrat, Jill Stewart has the guts to tell readers stuff that's not supposed to be mentioned in polite company. Illegal immigration is bankrupting California and the Democrats have built their political power up in no small part on the anti-immigrant Prop. 187 backlash from Latinos. And they're not about to stop with the Hispandering. The Republicans have been pummeled so much with the "Pummel Pedro" Card by the Democrats that they are gun-shy about making the subject a legitimate issue. Leave it up to Stewart to air the dirty linen. I'd say its about time!
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Other Than Mexicans
Tucson Weekly ^ | 09/02/2004 | Leo Banks
Al-Qaeda is coming! ... Al-Qaeda is coming! It sounds like a Carl Reiner movie. It could be a real scream.
Remember The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!? The 1966 comedy was about a Russian sub that grounded off the coast of New England, and all the goofy characters who showed up to have a look.
You could film the modern version along the Arizona-Mexico border today, because some observers believe al-Qaeda really is coming.
It brings a chill to think these quasi-human Islamo-Facists could be in our midst in Southern Arizona, even for a short time, as they make their way to assigned stations around the country.
You head down to the Arizona-Mexico line to learn what's happening, and what you see and hear is funnier than anything Carl Reiner could dream up.
First, a cautionary note: For those not inclined to find any of this humorous, you're absolutely right. It isn't. But you'll laugh anyway, because the situation along our southern border is too serious and too preposterous to do anything else.
It's been a summer of media whispers that keep getting louder.
· In early August, the Washington Times reported that al-Qaeda is allying with Mexican organized crime groups to infiltrate the United States via Mexico.
· In late July, ABC News reported that the Border Patrol had arrested a woman named Farida Goolam Mohamed Ahmed. The arrest was made at McAllen-Miller airport in South Texas, where Ahmed was attempting to board a flight to New York. She acknowledged that smugglers brought her across the Rio Grande from Mexico; the FBI declared Ahmed a "person of interest."
· Congressman Solomon Ortiz, ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness, was quoted in the Brownsville Herald as saying that Mexicans with possible terrorist ties have been detained after entering the country from Mexico, but are being released for lack of jail space. "It's very, very scary," said Ortiz. Snip-----
Gloria Romero mentioned this?? I'm stunned to hear it from a Latino Rat. Someone should indeed give the woman a reward.
Mexico depends on illegal immigration as a pressure relief valve for their own failed economy, culture, and political system. If the estimated fifteen million illegal Mexico aliens in the USA were sent back to Mexico then Mexico would implode.
Also, there's the mind-numbingly corrupt Mexican government that is most likely getting paid off by certain firms and etc. in the US for their continued supply of cheap labor.
Mexico would best be served by having its government overthrown and then putting all the Federales, the PRI officials, and every piss-pot little drug lord who calls himself 'jefe' up against a wall and shot.
But the truth is that Mexico will never be free until Mexicans value truth, ethics, values, and honor. The current state of Mexico is controlled anarchy. It needs to end.
Thank ya, thank ya verah much....
Actually, several of us have come to that conclusion over the last month or so, I don't get much credit.
One of two things is happening...either more illegal immigration articles are being written, or more of them are getting posted on FR.
I truly believe it is the former, especially after what happened with the Intelligence Reform Bill. Lou Dobbs is no dummy, and his hit pieces on the illegal immigration problem are popular because a large segment of American viewers - without regard to their politics - is fed up with the problem. If they only knew the full extent of the problem...
What folks like myself and JackelopeBreeder see on a daily basis here in Cochise County is just one aspect of the big picture.
Bump. Lets hope something gets noticed.
Tell that to Jorge W. and his good buddy Vicente. <sarcasm
It is...slowly but surely.
When the Congress resumes next year, illegal immigration will be an issue and it will be discussed.
We should all be preparing letters to our representatives. Not that it will influence their positions, but it will let them know we're watching.
You are right in that more articles are being written and i think it might be related to the above mentioned. IMO
That 800 pound elephant is stomping the crap out of us, but only the little people who still care about this country are feeling it.
I wonder when the La Raza/Mecha/OBL symps will show up on this thread to call everyone a racist.
Oh, there they are ...
Washington's cop-out attitude is: Well, the well is poisoned already, so just forget about it...pander to it...screw the taxpayers (what is new?)...laws only apply TO U.S. CITIZENS, NOT ILLEGAL MEXICANS...
I am not sure if you were being sarcastic, ambivalent or ignorant. Sarcasm is not lost on me if noted, ambivalence is pompous and ignorance can be overcome by education.
Happy FReeping, bayourod
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