Bucking the Obama administration, Supreme Court justices seemed to find little trouble Wednesday with major parts of Arizona's tough immigration law that require police to check the legal status of people they stop for other reasons.

But the fate of other provisions that make Arizona state crimes out of immigration violations was unclear in the court's final argument of the term.

The latest clash between states and the administration turns on the extent of individual states' roles in dealing with the nation's 11 million illegal immigrants. Immigration policy is essentially under the federal government's control, but a half-dozen Republican-dominated states have passed their own restrictions out of frustration with what they call Washington's inaction to combat an illegal flood.

Parts of laws adopted by Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, South Carolina and Utah also are on hold pending the high court's decision.

Civil rights groups say the Arizona law and those in some other states encourage racial profiling and ethnic stereotyping, and debate over such laws could have an impact on this fall's elections. More than 200 protesters gathered outside the court, most of them opposed to the Arizona law.

However, in an unusual comment, Chief Justice John Roberts made clear at the outset of the administration's argument Wednesday that the court was looking only at state-versus-federal power, not the civil rights concerns that already are the subject of other lawsuits. "So this is not a case about ethnic profiling," Roberts said.

That matter dealt with, both liberal and conservative justices reacted skeptically to the administration's argument that the state exceeded its authority when it made the records check, and another provision allowing suspected illegal immigrants to be arrested without warrants, part of the Arizona law aimed at driving illegal immigrants elsewhere.

"You can see it's not selling very well," Justice Sonia Sotomayor told Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr.

Verrilli tried to convince the justices that they should view the law in its entirety, and as inconsistent with federal immigration policy. He said the records check would allow the state to "engage effectively in mass incarceration" of immigrants lacking documentation.

He said the law embodying Arizona's approach of maximum enforcement conflicts with a more nuanced federal immigration policy that seeks to balance national security, law enforcement, foreign policy, human rights and the rights of law-abiding citizens and immigrants.

But Roberts was among those on the court who took issue with Verrilli's characterization of the check of immigration status, saying the state merely wants to notify federal authorities it has someone in custody who may be in the U.S. illegally. "It seems to me that the federal government just doesn't want to know who's here illegally and who's not," Roberts said.

Verrilli did not mention Wednesday that the administration has deported nearly 400,000 people a year, far more than previous administrations, although the information was included in written submissions to the court.

The other provisions that have been put on hold by lower federal courts make it a state crime for immigrants not to have registration papers and for illegal immigrants to seek work or hold jobs. Arizona's Republican Gov. Jan Brewer, who signed the law two years ago, was at the court Wednesday.

Arguing for Arizona, Paul Clement said the state law mirrored federal immigration law and that the state it took action because, with its 370-mile border with Mexico, Arizona "bears a disproportionate share of the costs of illegal immigration."

But Roberts expressed unease with the state's focus on illegal workers. "The State of Arizona, in this case, is imposing some significantly greater sanctions," he said.

Alone among the justices, Antonin Scalia appeared ready to uphold the entire law, which he described as an effort by Arizona to police its borders.

When Verrilli said that Arizona's immigration law could raise foreign policy concerns, especially with Mexico, Scalia said, "So we have to enforce our laws in a manner that will please Mexico. Is that what you're saying?"

Outside the courthouse, more than 200 protesters gathered. The law's opponents made up a clear majority of the crowd, chanting and carrying signs such as "Do I Look Illegal To You?" Some shouted "shame" at Brewer when she emerged from the building after the argument.

Brewer told reporters she was "very, very encouraged" by the justices' questions.

Republicans have far outpaced Democrats in pushing tough anti-immigration laws, posing potential political problems in some states for GOP candidates including Mitt Romney. The Republicans' aggressive stand has alienated many Hispanic voters, one of the electorate's fastest-growing segments.

President Barack Obama won two-thirds of the Hispanic vote in 2008, and hopes to do better this fall. In the GOP primary contests, Romney took the harshest anti-illegal immigration stance among the top contenders, but he has had little to say lately on the issue. Romney has not taken on stand on legislation proposed by Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., that would allow some undocumented immigrants a chance at visas to remain in the United States.

More than a decade ago, Republicans were making inroads among Hispanic voters. President George W. Bush, a former Texas governor, favored comprehensive immigration reform that could have established pathways to legal status for millions of illegal immigrants. But staunchly anti-illegal immigration forces gained influence in the GOP, and the reform plans were dropped.

Hispanic voters are especially important in a few battleground states that will help determine the Nov. 6 presidential election. They include Florida, New Mexico, Nevada and Colorado. Romney's problems with Hispanics also might tempt Obama's campaign to make a push in Arizona, usually a reliably Republican state.

A recent poll of Hispanic voters by the Pew Research Center found that 67 percent supported Obama, and 27 percent Romney.

A decision in the high-profile immigration case is expected in late June.

California, New York and nine other states with significant immigrant populations support the Obama administration.

Florida, Michigan and 14 other states, many of which also are challenging Obama's health care overhaul, argue that Arizona's law does not conflict with federal law.

Justice Elena Kagan, who was Obama's first solicitor general, is not taking part in the case, presumably because she worked on it while in the Justice Department.

The case is Arizona v. U.S., 11-182.

___

Jacques Billeaud in Phoenix and Charles Babington and Jesse J. Holland in Washington contributed to this report.

___

Online:

Details of immigration case: http://tinyurl.com/7ekg6ha

A clash over immigration law will go before the U.S. Supreme Court this week, pitting the state of Arizona against President Barack Obama in a case with election-year political ramifications for him and Republican rival Mitt Romney.

In its second-biggest case this term, the court - fresh from hearing the Obama healthcare overhaul case - will consider on Wednesday whether a tough Arizona immigration crackdown strayed too far into the federal government's powers.

A pro-Arizona decision would be a legal and political setback for Obama, who has criticized the state's law and vowed to push for immigration legislation if re-elected on November 6.

A decision against Arizona would deal a blow to Romney, who has said the government should drop its challenge to the law.

Americans generally support immigration laws like Arizona's and are ambivalent about the federal and state roles at the core of the case, a new Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll found.

About 70 percent of those surveyed favored state laws that let police check a person's immigration status and make it a crime for an illegal immigrant to work in the United States; about 30 percent opposed such measures.

On the question of who has responsibility for immigration laws, the core of the Supreme Court case, 59 percent said immigration was a national issue and laws relating to it should only be made by the federal government; 55 percent said individual states had the right to make such laws, too.

The oral arguments on this essential point set the stage for a rematch of the attorneys in last month's healthcare battle.

Paul Clement, a solicitor general during Republican George W. Bush's presidency, will represent Arizona.

Donald Verrilli, a former White House lawyer and solicitor general under Obama, will represent the federal government after what some deemed a lackluster performance in March.

Federal authorities say they won't deport six illegal immigrants arrested during a Phoenix protest over Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's (ar-PY'-ohs) immigration policies.
 
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said Wednesday that they determined that the protesters did not fall under "ICE's enforcement priorities."
 
Nearly 150 people were at Tuesday's rally, which blocked a street in front of a high school.

State legislation proposing to establish an armed, volunteer militia to patrol the Arizona-Mexico border for undocumented immigrants and drug traffickers will be debated by the full House.

 The impact of steep declines in the number of migrants illegally crossing the border withMexico in recent years has rippled across Arizona and other border states, with federal and local law enforcement seeing big drops in crime related to illegalimmigration.

Of all the issues Congress confronts, the most solvable and the one that would do the most to help our nation grow and prosper — with the possible exception of energy — is immigration reform.

Judd Gregg

As Congress tries to tackle problems in the nation’s immigration system, it might also want to focus on “the detention of noncitizens in the United States,” states the new Congressional Research Service (CRS) report, Immigration-Related Detention: Current Legislative Issues.

There’s something wrong with Jan Brewer. Brewer has a history of abusing her power and making accusations that don’t correlate with reality.

Yes, Brewer acted the racist during her encounter with the President, pandering to the other TeaFools with her finger wagging and her white supremacist insinuation that the black man “threatened her.”Witnesses from both parties do not agree with Brewer’s fantasy assessment of her Drama on the Tarmac, but you didn’t expect reality to be at play with Jan Brewer, did you? It’s reported that she seemed stunned and confused after her encounter with Barack. Coming face to face with a person of high intelligence can do that to the lesser endowed.

Others suggest Brewer was tipsy, apparently a rather consistent item of gossip in Arizona. Who can forget her blank out during her debate performance?

What was that? Any way you slice it, Brewer made a right fool of herself wagging her finger in the leader of the free world’s face and then attempting to spin her way out of it by playing the victim. TeaFems like Brewer and Palin have a particular penchant for playing the Damsel in Distress against paper tigers of their own paranoid imagination.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer came to greet President Barack Obama upon his arrival outside Phoenix Wednesday. What she got was a critique. Of her book.

The two leaders could be seen engaged in an intense conversation at the base of Air Force One's steps. Both could be seen smiling, but speaking at the same time.

Asked moments later what the conversation was about, Brewer, a Republican, said, "He was a little disturbed about my book."

Brewer recently published a book, "Scorpions for Breakfast," something of a memoir of her years growing up, and defends her signing of Arizona's controversial law cracking down on illegal immigrants, which Obama opposes.

Obama was objecting to Brewer's description of a meeting he and Brewer had at the White House, where she described Obama as lecturing her. In an interview in November Brewer described two tense meetings. The first took place before his commencement address at Arizona State University. "He did blow me off at ASU," she said in the television interview in November.

She also described meeting the president at the White House in 2010 to talk about immigration. "I felt a little bit like I was being lectured to, and I was a little kid in a classroom, if you will, and he was this wise professor and I was this little kid, and this little kid knows what the problem is and I felt minimized to say the least."

On the tarmac Wednesday, Brewer handed Obama an envelope with a handwritten invitation to return to Arizona to meet her for lunch and to join her for a visit to the border.

"I said to him, you know, I have always respected the office of the president and that the book is what the book is," she told reporters Wednesday. She said Obama complained that she described him as not treating her cordially.

"I said that I was sorry that he felt that way. Anyway, we're glad he's here, and we'll regroup."

A White House official said Brewer handed Obama a letter and said she was inviting him to meet with her. The official said Obama told her he would be glad to meet with her again. The official said Obama did note that after their last meeting, which the official described as a cordial discussion in the Oval Office, the governor inaccurately described the meeting in her book. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to describe a private conversation between the president and the governor.

Lawmakers say they are frustrated and almost in disbelief, following an internal watchdog's findings that a project to build an immigration processing system has squandered millions of dollars and could be on its way to siphoning off more funds.

By Aliya Sternstein

(CNN) -- Immigration is the only issue where a political candidate can totally do the bidding of the K Street lobbyists and still be hailed as compassionate and humane.

By David Frum

Federal courts in California have been more likely to allow immigrants to remain in the United States in recent years, despite a widespread perception that federal officials are cracking down and sending more people back to their native countries.

During the first two years of the Obama administration, the number of immigrants ordered deported by the courts has declined nearly 10 percentage points, to nearly half off all cases handled in the California-based immigration courts, according to a new report by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a nonpartisan group that tracks detailed government data.

For years, activists against illegal immigration pushed cities across California to adopt ordinances ordering businesses to verify that their employees were eligible to work in the U.S.

Several cities, including Temecula, Murrieta and Lake Elsinore, complied and required businesses to enroll in E-Verify, an online program that uses federal databases to check the immigration status of workers. Those that refused could face fines or revocation of their business licenses.

But those victories appear to have been wiped out this month with legislation signed into law that prohibits the state, cities and counties from mandating that private employers use E-Verify.

Luis Montes slipped across the Rio Grande and had started crawling through a field when a U.S. Border Patrol agent nabbed him. It was a Saturday and the 32-year-old illegal immigrant figured that by Sunday he would be deported back to Mexico, where he would promptly try again to cross into Texas.

Instead, Montes was put on a plane, flown halfway across the country and bused to the California-Mexico border. At 2 a.m. Tuesday, U.S. border authorities took off his handcuffs and escorted him to a gate leading to the desert city of Mexicali.

As has already been seeded here, Texas Governor Rick Perry stated that he believes America will be guided by "the Christian values that this country was based upon." 

Setting aside the dubious (OK outright FALSE) notion that this nation was founded on Christian "values," I believe we can solve this problem once and for all, right here on the vine by asking ourselves a few simple questions:

1. WWJVF (Who would Jesus vote for?) First Answer - no one, because the GOP would have stopped him at the border in the first place, even though he just wanted work building our homes. He is a carpenter, after all. Still, let's postulate that Jesus really DID manage to vote, despite the numerous GOP voter disenfranchisement techniques currently being enacted to keep lowlifes like him away from the polls. Who would he vote for then? Answer - ANYBODY other than the current crop of murdering, judgemental, uncharitable, un-Christian GOP contenders currently in play. My guess is Obama.

2. WWJJ&E? (Who Would Jesus Judge and Execute?) Answer - NO ONE, that seems to be a more "modern" "Christian" value. "Judge not lest ye be judged" used to  be the Christian value in play. Now it's more like "kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out."  This bolsters my contention that Jesus would sure as hell NOT vote GOP.

3. WWJDHC/I? (Who would Jesus Deny Health Care/Insurance?) Answer - well DUH! NO ONE. Again, that's a "modern" "Christian" value, one that Jesus would most certainly disapprove of. Read yer Bibles, hypocrites, for YOUR day of judgement surely approacheth.

You get the picture... a few more come to mind - WWJD? (Where Would Jesus Drill?); WLOLMWJC? (Which Little Old Lady's Medicaire Would Jesus Cut?); WMWJH? (Which Minorities Would Jesus Hate?)

Personally, I think the real "J" question Governor Perry, his Dominionist Minions, and the American Evangelical Taliban should be asking themselves is this one: WGVHSWJCFPH? (Which Groups of Vacuous, Hypocritical Sinners Would Jesus Consign to the Fiery Pits of Hell?)

The heat of the afternoon sun in Jerusalem could not match the fervor of Glenn Beck's "Restoring Courage" call to follow a "pillar of fire" in pursuit of the truth and wisdom.

After months of preparation, the controversial event unfolded smoothly with Beck telling the large crowd, "I have been asked: What can you teach Israel about Courage?   My answer is simple.  Nothing.  Then they ask: Why are you coming to Israel? Because, I say: In Israel, you see courage."

Beck described the world as "confused," and pointed to flash points in Europe as signs of societies losing touch with philosophical moorings:

"In Europe, the great nations of the past – Greece, Italy, Spain, Britain – are falling into chaos and violence.

We have raised up a generation who cannot tell the difference between what they owe society and what society owes them.

 Not surprisingly, it confirms everything I know about Barack Obama, the writer and thinker.

Obama was prompted to write by an earlier letter from a Mr. Jim Chen that criticized Harvard Law Review's affirmative action policies.  Specifically, Chen had argued that affirmative action stigmatized its presumed beneficiaries.

The response is classic Obama: patronizing, dishonest, syntactically muddled, and grammatically challenged.  In the very first sentence Obama leads with his signature failing, one on full display in his earlier published work: his inability to make subject and predicate agree.

"Since the merits of the Law Review's selection policy has been the subject of commentary for the last three issues," wrote Obama, "I'd like to take the time to clarify exactly how our selection process works."

If Obama were as smart as a fifth-grader, he would know, of course, that "merits ... have." 

Rick Perry was a big fan of federal stimulus money when he wasn’t running for president.

An illegal immigrant from Guatemala who directed a "drop house" where other immigrants were abused with cattle prods and other electrical devices was sentenced Monday to 20 years in federal prison, authorities said.

The latest offensive comes as the president prepares a three-day Midwest bus tour this week aimed at shoring up Obama's dissipating approval ratings. The latest Fox News poll shows just 44 percent of voters would reelect Obama while 42 percent approve of his job performance and 48 percent disapprove. The three-day rolling average last posted by Gallup on Friday put the president's approval-disapproval rating at 42-51 percent. 

Those numbers are particularly pertinent as Obama heads to the key swing states of Minnesota, Illinois and Iowa, where his approval, while still above 50 percent in the latter two, including his home state of Illinois, have dropped by 12, 14 and 17 percent, respectively since he entered office.

With unemployment at 9.1 percent or about 14 million unemployed, and 13.5 million people now relying on food stamps, Obama Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer said the president's road trip is not a rebuttal to the attention focused on Republicans as a result of the debate and straw poll. 

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/08/14/obama-team-sharpens-attacks-across-republican-field/#ixzz1V3CR5nJw

The Democrats had their spokespeople on the Sunday TV news programs to respond to the S&P downgrade of U.S. sovereign debt, and to provide the talking points we can now repeat from memory: we need a balanced approach to deficit reduction; that means revenues from taxing the ill begotten gains of millionaires and billionaires, oil companies, yacht and jet owners, and hedge fund managers.  And by the way, they noted, S&P was a major contributor to the subprime collapse, and they made a two-trillion-dollar error, so they have no credibility.  We now need to spend hundreds of billions more on jobs and to raise taxes.

The New York Times had its short list of suggested  tax increases in an editorial Sunday: income tax rates for everybody, capital gains rates, a new value-added tax, a new carbon tax, higher gasoline taxes, and eliminating all the tax loopholes for corporations and wealthy individuals.

Perhaps the administration thinks it can create anger at S&P, and it can get flash mobs, or its allied union goons.......... to come to New York State and threaten S&P executives in their homes.  These S&P rating analysts are like Tea Party leaders in the "minds" of the left -- they are terrorists, financial jihadists, threatening the reelection of the president, and the progressive dream to remake America into a European social welfare state, at exactly the time the European nations are coming to realize they have over-promised, and can no longer afford that vision.

In the first trading day following S&P’s announcement that the U.S. government credit rating would go from Triple-A down to AA+, U.S. stocks have sharply declined and investors are scrambling to rid themselves of risky assets. With Wall Street in disarray, one investor is smiling after having walked away from the crisis nearly a billion dollars richer. ETF Daily News reports that the investor bet on the downgrade, and is now heavily benefiting from it:

“Someone dropped a bomb on the bond market Thursday – a $1 billion Armageddon trade betting the United States will lose its AAA credit rating. In one moment, an invisible trader placed a single trade that moved the most liquid debt market in the world. The massive trade wasn’t placed in bonds themselves; it was placed in the futures market. The trade was for block trades of 5,370 10-year Treasury futures executed at 124-03 and 3,100 Treasury bond futures executed at 125-01.”

Jack Barnes of Money Morning suggests hedge fund manager John Paulson, Bill Gross’s PIMCO, or U.S. and Chinese central banks could be the betters, as they are some of only a few shops or central banks that could even take on such a level of market risk. Barnes notes that Paulson made about $6 billion on a similar trade not too long ago when he bet against subprime mortgages, the investments that helped bring down Lehman Brothers in 2008.

That seems plausible. But there is one more possibility. At least one outlet is suggesting that liberal financier and billionaire investor George Soros could be the one. Daily Mail reports:

“There are mounting rumours that investor George Soros, 80, famously known as ‘the man who broke the Bank of England’, could be involved.

He made more than $1billion on currency speculation when the British pound left the Exchange Rate Mechanism on Black Wednesday in 1992.

The latest bet was made on July 21 on trades of 5,370 ten-year Treasury futures and 3,100 Treasury bond futures, reported ETF Daily News.

Now the investor’s gamble seems to have paid off after Standard and Poor’s issued a credit rating downgrade from AAA to AA+ last Friday.

Whoever it is stands to earn a 1,000 per cent return on their money, with the expectation that interest rates will be going up after the downgrade.”

With great fanfare and elite media sympathy, Jose Antonio Vargas publicly declared himself an "undocumented immigrant" this week. "Undocumented" my you-know-what. In the felony-friendly pages of The New York Crimes -- er, Times -- the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist turned illegal-alien activist spilled the beans on all the illegal IDs he amassed over the years. He had documents coming out of his ears.
        
The Times featured full-color photos of Vargas' fake document trove -- including a fake passport with a fake name, a fake green card and a Social Security card his grandfather doctored for him at a Kinko's. He committed perjury repeatedly on federal I-9 employment eligibility forms. In 2002, while pursuing his journalism career goals, an immigration lawyer told him he needed to accept the consequences of his law-breaking and return to his native Philippines.
        
Following the rules would have meant a 10-year bar to reentry into America. Making false claims of citizenship is a felony offense. Document fraud is a felony offense.

When he first entered the national political arena, I thought Barack Obama was a sincere man, mistaken in his political beliefs, but an honest advocate of them.  Today, like millions of Americans, my evaluation of Barack Obama would be quite different.

Without attempting to go over every policy, speech, and embarrassment to explain what is wrong with the man, I might just sum it up the way that many parents do when teaching their sons and daughters about right and wrong.  "Obama," I would say, "is a bad man."

What people do matters.  But, who they are determines their behavior.  Who they are will express itself in what they do on a consistent, regular basis. 

As human beings we all make mistakes.  We sin.   But, people who are bad make a lifelong, regular habit out of it and have very little, if any, sense of remorse.  Actually, they rather enjoy it. 

For the past eight years, journalist Jose Antonio Vargas worried about a looming deadline: the expiration of an illegally obtained Oregon driver's license that had allowed him to get his first full-time job at a top U.S. newspaper.

The 30-year-old Pulitzer Prize-winner who covered the Virginia Tech massacre for The Washington Post was using the license with a false address to help cover up a secret: He was an illegal immigrant.

He could have opted for a reprieve. Vargas recently obtained a Washington state driver's license, offering him five more years to be able to document his residency in the U.S. — but that also would mean five more years of lying.

Instead, he decided to go public.

"I'm done running. I'm exhausted," Vargas wrote in a New York Times Magazine essay posted online Wednesday. "I don't want that life anymore."

Vargas, whose mother sent him from the Philippines to live with his grandparents in California when he was 12, said he now wants to push Congress to pass a bill called the DREAM Act and open a path to citizenship for people like him if they go to college or serve in the military.

Vargas referred a request for comment from The Associated Press to his public relations team, which did not immediately make him available Wednesday. He also spoke to ABC News in interviews that will air Thursday and Friday.

He says he didn't know about his citizenship status until four years after he arrived in the U.S., when he applied for a driver's permit and handed a clerk his green card.

"This is fake," a Department of Motor Vehicles clerk said, according to Vargas' account. "Don't come back here again."

Vargas confronted his grandfather, who acknowledged he purchased the green card and other fake documents.

"I remember the very first instinct was, `OK, that's it, get rid of the accent,'" Vargas told ABC. "Because I just thought to myself, you know, I couldn't give anybody any reason to ever doubt that I'm an American."

He convinced himself that if he worked hard enough and achieved enough, he would be rewarded with citizenship, Vargas wrote in the magazine piece.

When Vargas also told his grandfather he was gay, however, it made life even more difficult. He was kicked out of his house for a few weeks in high school — and his grandfather said Vargas needed to marry an American woman in order to get a green card.

His grandfather had imagined the fake documents would help Vargas get low-wage jobs. College seemed out of reach, until Vargas told Mountain View High School Principal Pat Hyland and school district Superintendent Rich Fisher about his problem. They became mentors and surrogate parents, eventually finding a scholarship fund for high-achieving students that allowed him to attend San Francisco State University.

Vargas found internships at The San Francisco Chronicle and the Philadelphia Daily News. He was denied an internship at The Seattle Times because he didn't have all the documents they required. But he kept applying and got an offer from The Washington Post.

The newspaper required a driver's license, so Vargas said his network of mentors helped him get one from Oregon, which has less stringent requirements than some other states.

Once hired full-time at the Post, he used the Oregon license to cover Washington events, including a state dinner at the White House, Vargas recalled.

He wrote that he felt nearly paralyzed with anxiety that his secret would be found out at the Post. He tried to avoid reporting on immigration policy, but at times, it was impossible. At one point, he wrote about then-Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's position on driver's licenses for illegal immigrants.

Vargas eventually told his mentor, Peter Perl, now the newspaper's training director. Perl told him that once he had accomplished more, they would tell then-Editor Leonard Downie Jr. and Post Chairman Don Graham together. They kept the secret until Vargas left the paper.

On Wednesday, Washington Post spokeswoman Kris Coratti condemned their actions.

"What Jose did was wrong. What Peter did was wrong," Coratti said, declining to comment further on personnel matters. "We are also reviewing our internal procedures, and we believe this was an isolated incident of deception."

An e-mail seeking comment was sent to Perl.

The Post originally planned to publish Vargas' story, but decided not to. Coratti would not say why.

In an article published Wednesday evening on the Post's website, the newspaper reported that Vargas approached his old newspaper in March about writing his story. It was to be published Sunday.

But Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli killed it several days before its scheduled publication. Brauchli declined to discuss the reasons with the Post reporter in the Wednesday article.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Cori W. Bassett would not comment specifically on Vargas' case Wednesday but said the agency prioritizes cases that pose the most significant threat to public safety.

William Perez, a professor at California's Claremont Graduate University who has written about the DREAM Act, said "coming out" as an illegal immigrant can provide some protection for a young person facing deportation by drumming up support and public outcry. It also raises awareness that many in the same situation can't simply apply for citizenship in the U.S. They would have to go back to their countries and start the process from scratch, which could take years, except for rare cases where employers sponsor immigrants or they find other connections.

"It is that much harder for folks who are gay or lesbian because that path to citizenship through marriage is simply not an option," Perez said.

An increasing number of college graduates have "come out" in recent years as members of illegal immigrant families. Twelve states now provide in-state tuition for students like Vargas, creating a new crop of savvy immigrant advocates.

"They're frustrated because they have the preparation, they have the skills and they have no options," Perez said. "So for them, this is one of the few remaining options to try to influence national policies."

Vargas shared a Pulitzer Prize for the Post's coverage of the Virginia Tech shootings. A 2006 series he wrote on the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Washington inspired a documentary film. Last year, he wrote a profile of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg for The New Yorker.

Most recently, Vargas was a senior contributing editor at Huffington Post.

On Wednesday, he launched a campaign called Define American to use stories of immigrants like him to urge Congress and the Obama administration to pursue immigration reform. His high school principal and superintendent have signed on as board members.

"You can call me whatever you want to call me, but I am an American," Vargas told ABC. "No one can take that away from me."

___

Online:

http://www.defineamerican.com/

Yes, you read the title correctly. We can cut the cost of government and expand upon entitlement programs at the same time. As we struggle to reduce our Federal Deficit and reduce State budgets many are casting about for ways to do so. In the process we are seeing very unpopular things being done and government services being reduced to very poor levels in some cases. In others we are seeing cuts to essential services or non-essential services that we would like to see continued. This does NOT need to happen. In this article I intend to show how that can be done and why it would be better for all involved.

1) People fall upon hard times and deserve Society's help to get back on their feet.

Things happen and often through no fault of their own people will find themselves in need of temporary assistance. A factory may close, a car accident, and any myriad of misfortunes can happen to place them there. We cannot and should not turn our backs upon them in their time of need. This is a major part of any civilized Society and the degree to which we help those in need is the benchmark we will judged by future generations.

2) Entitlement programs cost money.

No one denies this. The more help we give, the more it costs by way of taxes. So how do we reduce the impact of greater demand? I propose a program of exchange of labor for the assistance received. In other words, have people work to earn the money they get. Whenever possible, it should be exchanged at the same time as when the assistance is needed. In the case of a debilitating injury, it can be done at a later date when the injured party is able. We could also offer an option to repay the assistance in cash in the case of those who receive a lawsuit settlement or who return to their former occupation and opt out of the work-for-benefits program.

3) Government Needs Skilled and Un-Skilled workers.

From clerks to grass-cutting, government needs people to perform the various duties of government and this costs money. Right now, there are literally tens of thousands of government positions that are either unfilled or have been eliminated due to budget cuts. This affects communities in numerous ways from slow service, bad service, to garbage collecting along roadways. We could actually increase the number of people in service positions through implementing this plan thereby speeding up governments ability to respond in many areas to communities needs. All without increasing the cost of government. In actuallity, by identifying the positions that can be filled by these Temporary Workers, we could possibly eliminate the need for full-time government employees, thereby "downsizing" government without reducing or eliminating the services it provides.

4) People receiving assistance usually want to work.

Most people would prefer to earn what they get. When they find themselves in an unfortunate position, they would prefer a hand up instead of a handout. Just in case they are not so inclined, by setting the rate of "earning" their benefits at a slightly less percentage of what they would receive in the private sector, we would encourage them to be seeking full-time employment elsewhere. I propose that the rate of earning the benefits be at the same level of compensation they received at their last position minus say 10-20%.

5) Getting people out into the community will increase their chance of landing a job.

Networking is the number one way people find jobs. This is according to every survey or study ever done. People usually find a job by word of mouth much faster than through Want Ads or Employment services like CareerBuilder.com. By getting these people out of their homes and into the community they have a greater chance of finding out information about open positions through the people they meet while performing the government services.

6) By requiring people to work for benefits, we can eliminate most abuse of these programs.

Someone who is receiving benefits that they have to work for will have less time to work under the table for unreported income. This will eliminate a lot of fraudulent claims and save us money-billions of dollars-every year. Knowing that any assistance received must be re-paid will make everyone reconsider filing false claims. By reducing the number of false claims, this will free up investigators to actively pursue those that do occur. This will also help to reduce the false claims as people realize their chances of getting caught has significantly increased.

7) By eliminating full-time government employees we will reduce the associated costs of their job benefits.

Fewer people working in full-time positions in government means that pensions and health insurance cost to government are also eliminated further reducing budgets.

8) By putting these people in to temporary positions first, Government has the ability to pre-screen potential employees.

We've all seen an example at one point or another of someone in a role in government whose work ethics leave lots of room for improvement. This Work For Benfits Program would give those responsible for overseeing the operation of government services to identify those most qualified to fill a position on a full-time basis who are well suited to the task. The current system of 1-3 brief interviews of applicants or just taking the first person who applies would end. This would help to ensure that the best of the best is hired instead.

9) This would give people an opportunity to explore other potential career paths they might not have considered.

While most people have a set view of what they are good at, many times they are unaware of possible careers where their talents might be utilized. Take for instance a person good with their hands and at problem solving. Before, they might have worked as an auto mechanic, never realizing that their skills could be used for repairing elevators or escalators. If we take this to the next logical level, former occupations will serve only as a guide to what skills are possessed and not necessarily what job will be assigned. Should someone be assigned a task they do not like or cannot perform, there should be a system in place to address the problem.

Now I really don't expect any government official to step forward and embrace this idea because they will think that it would alienate the poor demographic element. I don't think so because most of the people who are struggling want to work and don't want to be "on the dole". The Welfare Queen is a myth. What we have are many struggling to make ends meet who would LOVE to have a good paying job, if only they had the chance. This would eliminate the stigma that some people feel is attached to handing over the food stamp card. It would encourage them as well as enable them to leave these programs faster. Not many people want to be told how they can spend the money they have worked for and current regulations would do just that with this plan. They still wouldn't be able to buy gas, TV's, cigarettes, or alcohol with the food stamps, but now they would have to earn that money. Like I said before, IF they are working for it, they want to be able to spend it on whatever they want. They are faced with a choice-get a job in the private sector earning more money and spend it any way they want, or accept the help with the purchasing limitations that go along with it.

Okay, here it is in rough draft form. What do you think we could do to improve upon the proposal?

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Liberal immigration activists are looking to Utah as a compassionate and logical model for shaping the nation's future policies toward illegal immigrants.

--Josh Loftin

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus' immigration task force, announced on Thursday a national campaign to hold President Obama accountable for promises he made on the campaign trail to reform the country's broken immigration system.

Featuring the stories of families devastated by deportations, "Change Takes Courage" will hold events across at least 20 states, Gutierrez announced at a press conference on Capitol Hill. The campaign will include meetings and press events with local leaders and immigration advocates designed to put pressure on the administration. The first will be held on Saturday afternoon at the Instituto Biblico de Rhode Island in Providence; another will take place in Honolulu, Hawaii, the president's birthplace, in May.

Spearheaded by the Fair Immigration Reform Movement, a coalition of more than 200 immigration advocacy groups, the campaign will contrast clips of the promises Obama made on the campaign trail with two years of Congressional inaction, and spotlight the flesh-and-blood experiences of families torn apart by deportation.

NICE & SIMPLE!

The person in this video is a professor (Ph.D.) at Yavapai College in Prescott , Arizona . He puts a different spin on what Obama is doing to help Arizona and he repeats the important parts and speaks slowly enough to allow you to follow what he's saying; Must be why he's rated highly by his students - 3.8 on a 4.0 scale.

This may be the best video produced on the
illegal alien problems that are being experienced.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/tsH8xvjTAlo

The office matched 117 voter registrations to names and dates of birth in the database of foreign national license holders. All 117 have Social Security numbers on their voter registrations that do not match their names, and at least 37 of those individuals have voted in New Mexico elections.

What will the voter fraud denialists say about this?

The New Mexico secretary of state's office is cross checking the state's voter rolls with a list of thousands of foreign nationals who have been issued driver's licenses.

The work is far from done, but Secretary of State Dianna Duran testified during a House committee Tuesday that the review has turned up evidence of foreign nationals obtaining a license, registering to vote and casting ballots.

In case you were wondering, that's not supposed to happen.

A spokesman for Gov. Susana Martinez, Scott Darnell, says the initial report from Duran's office should concern every New Mexican.

He says every illegally cast vote disenfranchises a New Mexican and this is another reason why the governor wants to stop issuing licenses to illegal immigrants.

Under a 2003 law, the state has issued more than 80,000 driver's licenses to foreign nationals, including illegal immigrants.

Go figure. Sheriff Joe Arpaio gets tough on illegals, and they flee those jobs that liberals claimed Americans were "unwilling" to do. And now, lo and behold, LEGAL Americans (one with a Master's degree in this clip, even) are waiting in line to get those left-behind jobs that pay around 8 bucks an hour.

The truth is that the only "unwilling" folks out there who think they're above a job washing dishes are the ones who buy into the entitled mentality that's become a cancer in this country.

You go ON, Sheriff Joe.

Workers have been leaving Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc in the nation's capital and Virginia since getting notice that U.S. immigration officials are auditing restaurants in the area.

Calucate your Obamacare costs based upon your Gross income, even if your healthy.

An undocumented immigrant who allegedly killed a nun while driving drunk in Prince William County had been released by immigration authorities after two other convictions because he had demonstrated that he was not a flight risk, according to a Department of Homeland Security report released Friday.

Carlos A. Martinelly-Montano, a Bolivian who entered the United States with his family as a child in 1996, had two prior convictions for driving under the influence of alcohol, as well as a string of other encounters with police, before the Aug. 1 accident last year.

The former human resources manager of a Mississippi company has been sentenced to six months house arrest for hiring hundreds of illegal immigrants who were caught in the nation's largest workplace immigration raid.

Jose Humberto Gonzalez was the only Howard Industries official charged in the 2008 raid at the company's electrical transformer plant in Laurel. Gonzalez pleaded guilty to conspiracy in December 2009. He was sentenced Thursday

Republican state lawmakers weren't kidding last year when they vowed to take on illegal immigration in Georgia.

In recent months, they have introduced no fewer than eight bills seeking to crack down on a long list of problems tied to illegal immigrants.

State and local police officers would be allowed — but not required — to help enforce federal immigration laws under a compromise plan working its way through the Texas Legislature.

*****
The bill's author, Republican Rep. Burt Solomons, said it would prohibit so-called "sanctuary cities" and law enforcement entities from adopting policies that keep police and criminal investigators from providing immigration enforcement assistance.

The Indiana senate passed a sweeping immigration bill that echoes Arizona's tougher measures on illegal immigrants and despite opposition from some of the largest employers and business groups in the state.

The measure, passed on Tuesday night by a vote of 31-18, would allow state and local police to ask a person stopped for infractions like traffic violations for proof of legal residency if the officer has a "reasonable suspicion" they may be in the country illegally.

Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc fired about 450 workers in Minnesota after an audit by U.S. immigration officials flagged questionable worker eligibility documents, the company said in a regulatory filing on Thursday

A few months ago, Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) said publicly that the claim that illegal aliens are working construction jobs in Nevada (17 percent of those jobs) is "absolutely without foundation."
However, on Tuesday, The Pew Hispanic Center released a report which shows that illegal aliens make up 10 percent of Nevada's workforce. That is up from 2009, when illegal aliens accounted for 9.4 percent of those working in the state.
It is no coincidence that Nevada also has the nation's highest rate of unemployment. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the state's unemployment rate is now 14.5 percent.
Of course, Nevada is not the only state in which U.S. workers are being replaced illegal aliens.
In 2007, the Fiscal Policy Institute released a study revealing that there were 374,000 illegal aliens employed in New York City, accounting for 10 percent of the city's total workforce.

Continue reading on Examiner.com: The state with the most illegal alien workers also has the highest unemployment - National Immigration reform | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/immigration-reform-in-national/the-state-with-the-most-illegal-alien-workers-also-has-the-highest-unemployment#ixzz1DK85cxdI

Pamela Anderson may be more famous for slow motion running down the "Baywatch" beaches in the 90's, but the now mother of two teen sons and animal rights activist has another issue she is passionate about: illegal immigration.
The Canada-native recently penned her thoughts on a vast range of politically-driven topics in Playboy magazine, and published the unedited version on her website. In the transcript, she expresses her views that those seeking refuge in America need to respect the country and do it by the books.
"I'm an immigrant myself. It was a tough road to come to America and work. The American Dream is seductive, but there is a legal way to do it and there would be more jobs here for people if it was honored," she wrote. "There is something about the process that has to be honored—and respected."

Thousands of immigrants from India have crossed into the United States illegally at the southern tip of Texas in the last year, part of a mysterious and rapidly growing human-smuggling pipeline that is backing up court dockets, filling detention centers and triggering investigations.

The immigrants, mostly young men from poor villages, say they are fleeing religious and political persecution. More than 1,600 Indians have been caught since the influx began here early last year, while an undetermined number, perhaps thousands, are believed to have sneaked through undetected, according to U.S. border authorities.

ABC and reporter John Quinones on Thursday stretched the bounds of journalism, hiring an actor to play a racist security guard as a way of testing how the people of Arizona would react to the state's "anti-immigration law."

Previewing the network's "What Would You Do?" segment for Friday's 20/20, Quinones explained the undercover concept: "So, I go undercover, pretending to be someone who is about to be arrested and deported, simply by the way I look."

The piece featured a cartoonish "security guard" harassing Mexican actors in Tucson, Arizona. Presumably, ABC chose a security guard because impersonating a police officer is illegal. The actor walked into a restaurant and spewed, "I'm just looking to make sure these guys are legal citizens. And if they're not legal citizens, they shouldn't be here. They should be deported. They look Mexican."

A few days before Thanksgiving, I went to a Mexican store in Provo. I noticed business was slow and asked the manager if he had an idea why. He replied, "I don't really know why but people stopped coming," and then added, "It almost feels like people are afraid to go out and buy things."

He said business dropped off three to four months ago. I asked him if he thought it had anything to do with the unauthorized release last summer of 1,200 names of purportedly illegal immigrants receiving government assistance.

"Yes! That must be the reason why," he said. "People used to come and cash their food stamps. This was great business for me. Now, many have lost their entitlements from the state and this has affected my business, too."

The man explained how some of the people who frequented his store would tell him how they beat the system.

It's not hard to tell Arturo Morales-LLan is proud to be an American: the evidence is plastered all over the walls of his Orem home. In a over-sized portrait hanging above the stairs, his four children, dressed in red, white and blue, stand in front of an American flag. His shelves are full of books about the Constitution. His desk is cluttered with Americana paraphernalia.

"I take my citizenship very seriously," said Morales-LLan in a rolling Spanish accent. That's why — despite his own Mexican ancestry — he has stepped up to publicly condemn illegal immigration and lend his support to Rep. Stephen Sandstrom in the quest to outfit Utah with an Arizona-style law. In collaboration with about 25 other immigrants, he recently started the lobbyist group Legal Immigrants for Immigration Law Enforcement.

In some ways, Morales-LLan is an illustration of a national trend. Hispanics are becoming increasingly divided over the issues surrounding illegal immigration, according to a recent report by the Pew Hispanic Center. In a 2007 survey, 50 percent of Hispanics said the growing number of undocumented immigrants had a positive effect on the community. In 2010, only 29 percent said the same thing.

"This issue is just as heated for Latinos as it is for the rest of the population," said Tony Yapias, director of Proyecto Latino de Utah.

Perhaps even more so.

As the debate on illegal immigration rages in Washington and state capitals, it's troubling to see both sides rely on emotional rhetoric to the detriment of facts. The impact of illegal immigration on public education is a case in point.

No one can deny that increasing numbers of children of illegal immigrants attend public schools in the United States and that U.S. taxpayers pay the costs. Those sympathetic to illegal immigration tend to remain silent about these costs, while illegal-immigration opponents often fall short on specifics. In the interest of more informed discourse, here are the numbers.

According to a study released last year by the Pew Hispanic Center, as of 2008, 11.9 million illegal immigrants lived in the United States, more than triple the 3.5 million who lived in the country in 1990.

Among the states, California has the largest number of illegal immigrants with 2.7 million, nearly double the 1.4 million in Texas. California's illegal-immigrant population has swelled by 1.2 million since 1990, while Texas has added a million. A large proportion of illegal-immigrant households are families.

During the President's 2011 State of the Union speech, Obama said: "I strongly believe that we should take on, once and for all, the issue of illegal immigration. I am prepared to work with Republicans and Democrats to protect our borders, enforce our laws and address the millions of undocumented workers who are now living in the shadows."
Of course, Obama is the president and as such can order the active duty military to our border with Mexico (with orders to actually stop illegal crossers) at any time. If there is an immediate threat to this nation, the president can order as many troops and equipment as is needed to confront that threat.
The invasion of this country by the violent Mexican drug cartels and the hellish life they have created for those Americans living in the American Southwest presents a clear and present danger, and is one that only the U.S. military can adequately answer.
Futhermore, federal law already dictates that we "protect our borders." However, we have simply not had a U.S. president who has chosen to actually carry out that order and enforce immigration laws in 50 years, since President Dwight D. Eisenhower did so.

When a Fredericksburg city councilman wanted to know where the city schools' new students were coming from--and whether they were illegal immigrants--school officials said they weren't allowed to ask if the students were here legally.
They could in the future, under a bill from Del. Todd Gilbert, R-Woodstock.

Gilbert's bill would require whomever enrolls students in schools to indicate the citizenship status of that child's parents.

The students would still be welcome at schools even if they're illegal immigrants--the law requires schools to educate all students.

But asking the question, Gilbert said, would help localities keep track of how many students are here illegally and how much it costs to educate them.

Riley Black, 8 months old, began to cry after dropping her bottle on the floorboard of the family's Nissan Altima.

Her mom Stephanie Mason was driving on Highway 41-A to visit family in Clarksville. Lorne Black, Riley's father, unbuckled his seat belt and turned around to find the bottle.

Suddenly, Mason screamed Lorne's name. A white truck veered off the road, overcorrected and came toward the car that held Black, Mason, their daughter and 2-year-old son Tristen.

"I saw the truck coming." Mason said. "I tried to go to an opening on the side of the road. I jerked the wheel. I slammed on my breaks. But I didn't make it. ... It was bad."

The truck caught fire. The driver was severely burned and Lifeflighted to Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Black almost died. He spent 26 days in the hospital with his eye sockets crushed, 28 fractures in his skull, a shattered jaw and a split knee cap.

The driver of the truck was later identified by Immigration Customs Enforcement agents as Geremias Morales-Martines, now 31. He did not have a social security number, driver's license, registration or insurance.

He had a job, though. Morales-Martines worked at a tobacco farm in Cheatham County. It is still unknown if he had the proper documents to work there.

The Chicago City Council on Thursday turned up the heat on President Obama on the volatile issue of immigration reform that Illinois' native son promised — but so far has failed — to deliver.

Aldermen unanimously approved a resolution urging Obama to use his executive powers to call an immediate halt to deportation of undocumented workers that separate them from families that include either a U.S. citizen or a child who would be covered by the so-called "DREAM Act."

The DREAM Act would have established a path to citizenship for children of illegal immigrants, but it fell two votes short of passage in the frenzied hours before Republicans took control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Now, aldermen want Obama to take matters into his own hands to stop a deportation policy they called "inhumane" and said is separating 1,100 families each day.

States have pushed their way to the forefront of immigration-related lawmaking in recent years, citing the absence of federal legislative reform, and the tenor of their efforts is expected to intensify this year.

The number of such bills in 2011 probably won't increase over past years', but immigration experts said the proposals will be more confrontational in nature. The measures include a campaign to remove automatic citizenship for babies born in the U.S. to illegal immigrants, efforts to replicate a controversial Arizona law and creation of state guest-worker programs.

The most divisive bills, if they become law, would likely provoke lawsuits or other action from Congress, the White House or the U.S. Supreme Court.

"They are reflecting Congress' inability to move" on the issue, said Ann Morse, program director for the National Conference of State Legislators.

This is only an opinion of one person, but I would ask you all to take just one minute to read my idea. Please feel free to offer a reply or any other suggestion that you might have.

I am calling on ALL Americans to simply re-register your party preference as “Independent or “No Party Preference” ! And give no answers when asked to participate in Polls !

This way you will force ALL Government officials to look at what the people want or say, and not be able to relay on people voting along a “party lines”.

Yeah I know it sounds crazy, but something has to be done to bring both parties back to the table for the good of Our Country.

This just might scare the Holy Crap out of them. Just think “No Polls” to show what a Party line vote was going to be like. And Politicians having to run and stand on their Own Beliefs and Merits ! And electing Officials on what they stand for !

And then holding them accountable for what they said in an election, if they do not vote the way they had promised that they would in the election,,Automatic Recall !

Let's take Lobbyist out of Our governmental process ! Let's take back Our Country !!!

Please offer “Your Vote” in the below Poll, and/or make a comment on what you feel.

Let's send a message of what you think, no matter whether you are Democrat or Republican, let's start making a statement together !

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced Friday that she has canceled the troubled virtual fence project along the southwest border, proposing a new plan which she claims will better address each region's border security needs.
The decision comes a year after the secretary ordered a review of the project, which was hampered by delays and technological glitches, and froze its funding. The original plan, known as SBInet, envisioned a system of cameras and sensors which would allow officers to monitor crossings and dispatch Border Patrol agents to catch anyone entering the United States illegally.
Napolitano said her department briefed members of Congress on Friday about the final decision to nix the program "as originally conceived." But she said DHS will pursue a "new path forward" for security along the 2,000-mile southern U.S. border. The secretary said that while the U.S. cannot provide a "single, integrated border security technology solution," the new plan will use different technologies in different areas.

"Phoenix and other parts of Arizona may becoming "less brown" every day, but according to the latest U.S. census data, Aztlán could become a reality. "The Southwest will become part of Mexico by the year 2060," says MEChA professor Luis Maldonado. However"

"California has pretty much been given back to Mexico. There are several Latinos in Nevada, Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico who believe in the Latino homeland of Aztlán. These people are producing children at a rate four times as much as those of other races and educating their children about the stolen lands. All these people will vote"

The Palin Report will keep people up on Palin news.

Today's release of 2010 Census data reveal that the U.S. population grew by more than 27 million during the last decade – representing a nearly ten percent increase in our population in just ten years. The single largest factor in this enormous, and unwelcome, increase was excessive legal and illegal immigration.

enate Majority Leader Harry Reid has pushed four different versions of the controversial immigration bill known as the DREAM Act without a hearing on any of them, drawing outrage from the top Republican on the committee that would have handled the package.
The Nevada senator, who narrowly escaped a defeat in the November election, has pursued an unusual approach to advancing the bill that gives young illegal immigrants who attend college or join the military a pathway to legal status.
Since September, his deputy Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., has introduced four slightly different versions all bearing the same name. Reid has moved them all to the calendar -- he appears to be teeing up for a test vote, which could happen sometime later this week, on the latest version introduced on Tuesday.
But Republicans balked at the maneuvering. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, railed against the bill and the process Democrats were using to push it.
"We now may have a fourth version of the DREAM Act," Sessions said Wednesday. "We haven't had a hearing on that in seven years."

Last week, the Department of Labor reported that unemployment in America rose to 9.8 percent. Joblessness has now topped 9.5 percent for 16 straight months, the longest stretch since the Great Depression. Yet in the 11th hour of the 111th Congress, Democrats are attempting to pass legislation that would grant amnesty to an estimated two million illegal immigrants.

The DREAM Act subsidizes education for illegal immigrants, grants them mass amnesty, encourages more illegal immigration and inevitably takes jobs from American workers. Simply put, the DREAM Act is a nightmare for the American people.

Claims that the bill only applies to 875,000 illegal immigrants are misleading. According to the Migration Policy Institute, an estimated two million illegal immigrants under the age of 35 would be eligible for amnesty under the DREAM Act. Once amnesty recipients become citizens and turn 21, they can sponsor their illegal immigrant parents for legalization. This kind of chain migration only encourages more illegal immigration, as parents will bring their children to the U.S. in hopes of receiving citizenship.

The bill also is a magnet for fraud.

Congress is expected to vote on the Dream Act on Wednesday, providing a path to citizenship to millions of illegal immigrant youth. It's a bad precedent that uses kids, costs taxpayers and invites new amnesties.

After years of failing to sell mass amnesty to voters, the open-borders lobby has turned to tugging at Americans' heartstrings, presenting treacly stories of illegal immigrants brought here as children who then bettered themselves here.

Somehow legalizing this group ahead of all the other people awaiting immigration visas legally is supposed to specially benefit all of us, even though the most obvious beneficiaries are the individuals themselves. But out of guilt, or because we "owe" them "justice," the case is being made for passing the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act.

The North Carolina News Network is reporting that;

The City of Durham has become the first municipality in North Carolina is approve a policy of accepting identification issued by the Mexican government as legal ID. The Durham City Council voted 5-2 in favor of police accepting what is known as the Matricula Consular as a valid form of identification.

On June 26, 2003, Steve McCraw, Assistant Director of The Office of Intelligence, FBI, testified before The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Claims on Consular ID Cards, the following; (the entire testimony can be read here)

...there are two major criminal threats posed by the [Consular ID] cards, and one potential terrorist threat.

Los Angeles police are defending their handling of a raid at a downtown hostess club -- an operation that resulted in dozens of arrests of illegal immigrant workers -- after an advocacy group charged that the vice operation violated Special Order 40, a policy governing how officers interact with immigrants.

Advocates from the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles said the LAPD officers violated that policy in arresting 81 women and seven men Friday at the 907 Club on Hill Street. The advocacy group said most of those arrested were "honest, hard-working immigrants" who might themselves have been victims of abuse.

A new study suggests there may be 100,000 fewer Hispanics in Arizona than there were before the debate over the state's tough new immigration law earlier this year.

Luis Guerra swore he had nothing to do with any murder, that whoever picked him out of a lineup was wrong. Still, he was held at the Rikers Island jail for more than a year before the charges were dropped.

*******
Merely being at Rikers put him on the radar of the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau, said Guerra, 21, who's trying to get a college degree while awaiting word on his future. City authorities made "a mistake, and now I'm paying for their mistake," he said. "I was living a normal life before."

Police at Kennesaw State University northwest of Atlanta stopped the political science major March 29 in a car on a campus parking lot. There was little dispute Thursday over facts as prosecutors and Colotl's defence both agreed she was in the driver's seat and didn't present a valid license at the time.

******
"I don't agree with it, but I have to follow the verdict," Colotl said.

The first bits of ratings data are beginning to trickle in from yesterday, and it is looking great for Fox News Channel.

Here is what the cable networks drew on average From 8-11 PM ET:

•FNC: 6.957 million total viewers, 2.43 million A25-54
•CNN: 2.423 million total viewers, 1.03 million A25-54
•MSNBC: 1.945 million total viewers, 669,000 A25-54

Democrat Attorney General Chris Koster -- a Democrat who used to be a Republican -- gave a hint in a news release this morning.

Koster is joining 12 other states in filing a friend of the court brief with the Supreme Court backing Arizona's controversial law over illegal immigration, a law opposed by many Democrats.

In his news release, Koster pointed out that the Arizona law in some ways is very similar to Missouri's law passed when Gov. Matt Blunt was in charge.

There's one thing you can't say about conservative columnist and author Malkin: she doesn't know her stuff.

Over the weekend I got my mitts on a copy of her documentary of the Obama presidency, courtesy of the local public library (why pay for a book when you can borrow one for free?).

Culture of Corruption drives relentlessly into depth exposing the corruption and lies that have been the hallmark of the Obama administration, along with its roots in Chicago politics. For those who'd be quick to dismiss Malkin's narrative as fabrications, the text is peppered with footnotes referencing an appendix naming her sources. Further, Malkin credits not only conservatives, but concerned independents and liberals as well who've found themselves alarmed by what can only be described as an intricate web of deceit, corruption, and the wealthy elite sapping funds from projects touted to assist the needy.

Chapter Two focuses on "First Crony" Michelle and her own pivotal role in the formation of the Obama regime. Michelle is no figurehead; she's a master manipulator with connections to match. The triumvirate of Barack, Michelle, and their fellow enabler Valerie Jarrett wormed their ways up through the political ranks via unsavory plots and deals until Barack eventually weasled his way into the ultimate seat of power. Make no mistake about it: "community organizer" is a euphemism for those who line their own pockets at the expense of those whom they claim to serve.

Halfway through that chapter I became so disgusted with tale after tale of corruption that I simply returned the book with the remainder unread, a testament to both Malkin's tenacity in factfinding and the overwhelming, continual abuse at various levels of government by the Obama oligarchs.

For those who can stomach the entire book, perhaps you will be willing to share your opinions here on this article.

They don't just hate our Republican, conservative, libertarian, strict constructionist, family values guts. They hate everybody's guts. And they hate everybody who has any. Democrats hate men, women, blacks, whites, Hispanics, gays, straights, the rich, the poor, and the middle class.
Democrats hate Democrats most of all. Witness the policies that Democrats have inflicted on their core constituencies, resulting in vile schools, lawless slums, economic stagnation, and social immobility. Democrats will do anything to make sure that Democratic voters stay helpless and hopeless enough to vote for Democrats.

Whence all this hate? Is it the usual story of love gone wrong? Do Democrats have a mad infatuation with the political system, an unhealthy obsession with an idealized body politic? Do they dream of capturing and ravishing representational democracy? Are they crazed stalkers of our constitutional republic?
No. It's worse than that. Democrats aren't just dateless dweebs clambering upon the Statue of Liberty carrying a wilted bouquet and trying to cop a feel. Theirs is a different kind of love story. Power, not politics, is what the Democrats love.

I'm sorry to be crass so early on a Monday, but this is total bullcrap.

The people in Portland, OR are going to vote on a proposal to give legal residents WHO ARE NOT US CITIZENS the right to vote in local elections. San Francisco and Chicago already support such policies. Ron Hayduk, a professor at the City University of New York and author of "Democracy for All: Restoring Immigrant Voting Rights in the United States" thinks that's just swell. He said (emphasis mine), "We look back in history and we say that was a bad thing that we didn't allow African-Americans to vote, or we didn't allow half the population, women, to vote, or we didn't allow younger people to vote. We've modified our election laws to become more inclusive to incorporate more members of society."

You know what? That's all well and good. Yay for inclusion. But in none of his examples were people WHO ARE NOT FREAKING CITIZENS OF THIS COUNTRY extended voting privileges.

The Pew Research Center survey released Thursday found many troubling signs for Democrats. Among them, Republicans now hold significant advantages among both men and women, as well as in the 77 most competitive House districts.

First, the toplines. Among likely voters, Republicans have a 10 point advantage on the generic ballot test -- 50 percent to 40 percent - up from a seven-point edge last month. If the Democratic base is coming home, the Republican base is intensifying further.

Among independent voters, Republicans also have a significant advantage. They are breaking for the GOP by a 19-point margin, 49 percent to 30 percent.

National Democrats have charged that a House candidate endorsed by a controversial anti-immigration group has "Nazi ties" — but six other congressional Democrats also have the group's endorsement, and at least one has enthusiastically embraced its support.

The group, Americans for Legal Immigration, or ALIPAC, supports candidates and incumbents who oppose creating a path to citizenship for the thousands of undocumented immigrants in the United States. The Anti-Defamation League has criticized ALIPAC for what it says is support from white supremacist and racist groups.

"Another [National Republican Congressional Committee] Young Gun candidate, another Nazi tie — it should come as no surprise," Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesman Andy Stone said in a statement Monday. He said the group was "on the racist fringe" and that it was "backed by anti-Semites and white supremacists."

The DCCC statement was aimed at Arizona congressional candidate Jesse Kelly, the Republican who is challenging Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in the state's 8th District. Kelly signed a pledge saying he would advocate for ALIPAC's agenda in Congress.

This morning we find a false propaganda attack in an article titled 'Race Of The Day Arizona 8 written by Sean J. Miller on Oct. 18, 2010. This attack was quickly followed by a backup assault by Kasie Hunt of Politico.

It appears that in one final desperate measure to hold on, the liberal Democratic establishment around Washington is trying a final race card hail Mary play!

The Hill and Politico should understand that Americans and groups that oppose illegal immigration are neither anti-immigrant or Nazis.

Both The Hill and Politico have ignored ALIPAC's over 160 standing Federal endorsements that include Democrats and Republicans alike along with incumbents and challengers to attack the campaign of Jesse Kelly in Arizona...

The ethics of journalism would dictate that Sean J. Miller and Kasie Hunt should have contacted Americans for Legal Immigration PAC or an officer of our group for an official response before printing accusations against us. This rule of fair play and journalistic integrity was disregarded by Mr. Miller and The Hill because we were never contacted.

If we had been contacted we would have pointed out that Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC) is named thus because we are supported by many legal immigrants who oppose illegal immigration and amnesty. It is fairly obvious, for anyone who takes a fair look at our record that we seek to give a voice to those legal immigrants who stand with the majority of Americans that want our borders secured.

Protesters sounded off at the Department of Motor Vehicles in Harrisonburg Wednesday afternoon to raise awareness about a controversial decision involving drivers licenses and legal residents

The question they are asking residents of Virginia is: Why should an immigrant not be allowed to get a drivers license using a document that shows legal presence in the country?

Virginia was hit with the issue after an illegal immigrant from Bolivia was driving impaired, crashed and killed a person, while injuring two others.

The driver did not have a license at the time, but was able to get one afterward using papers to prove his citizenship and avoid deportation.

Is Rupert Murdock, boss at Fox News, losing his sanity and spiritual focus all at once?

That seems a valid question when one considers Murdock's recent mockery of the English language when he spoke of "law-abiding" illegal aliens.

As reported at CNSNEWS, in part:

"CNSNews.com) - News Corporation CEO Rupert Murdoch said he supports amnesty for "law abiding" illegal immigrants because as legal residents they can help the nation's economy by adding to "our tax base." He also said he supports securing the border to prevent more illegal immigrants from entering the United States

"While supporting complete and proper closure of all our borders to future illegal immigrants, our partnership advocates reform that gives a path to citizenship for responsible, law-abiding immigrants who are in the U.S. today without proper authority," said Murdoch, who was born in Australia and is a naturalized U.S. citizen."

The Obama Administration has been under heavy fire for ignoring border security, and manipulating border and immigration enforcement to avoid deporting illegal immigrants, using any plausible excuse, even to the point of assigning a team of attorneys at DHS to contrive strategies to circumvent the immigration laws, as described in a leaked memo.

Within the last couple of days, the airwaves have been flooded with appearances by DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano and ICE Director John Morton, even on the dreaded FoxNews, where they enthusiastically bragged about the record numbers of illegals deported.

TRAC (Transaction Records Access Clearinghouse) at Syracuse University tracks and reports statistics regarding federal enforcement, staffing and spending. Strangely, just as all this DHS and ICE bragging began, data that has always been freely provided to TRAC under the Freedom of Information Act, regarding immigration enforcement activities, has now been refused to them.

On Monday, during a gubernatorial debate between current Maryland Democratic Gov. Martin O'Malley and former Republican Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., the subject of illegal immigration arose and Gov. O'Malley used a term that surprised even this jaded observer.

When referring to the millions of illegal aliens now residing in the United States, O'Malley called them "new Americans."

Apparently, for the open borders Democrat, anyone whose first act in this country is to violate the law and disrespect our sovereignty, deserves the same status as someone who faithfully observes our immigration laws by waiting years to come here legally, and longer still for the honor of taking the oath of citizenship.

A large group of Latinos who travel along city roads say they're being unfairly targeted by police.
They claim they're pulled over too often, and it's because of their ethnicity and the type of car they drive.

But police say the claim is false and those who allege racial profiling have been stopped for legitimate reasons and were issued citations for vehicle code violations.

"We don't target race, we target activity," said Police Chief Bob Miller. "We'd be glad to work with the community on any concerns, but the majority of the tickets were for no (driver) license."

More than 100 people, mostly Latino, crammed into City Hall Tuesday to protest what they call profiling by the city's traffic officers. They claimed the police are unfairly stopping Latinos who drive older model vehicles that are in disrepair.

Miller said one protester handed him a stack of traffic ticket copies and almost all were for driving without a license. Sgt. Mike Hadden, who supervises the department's Traffic Division, said a traffic officer was out patrolling Mt. Vernon Avenue when he discovered there is an issue in the area with unlicensed drivers.

Another must see... The race card is now officially tattered and torn from misuse.

This is a must see... It is quite refreshing to hear this from a leader in the black community.

Democrats have been making a big issue of the fact that Meg Whitman's former Latina housekeeper is in the country illegally. Democrats are apparently hoping Hispanics will ignore the fact that they have had a chance to change immigration law, but have refused to do so.

It must be great to live in a state that doesn't have any significant problems. Or, did former governor (1975-1983) Jerry "Moonbeam" Brown bring up Republican opponent Meg Whitman's hiring of an illegal immigrant because he has no idea how to deal with California's current problems. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Brown http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meg_Whitman http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/10/03/MNGG1FNGTV.D...

Whitman hired Nicandra "Nicky" Diaz Santillan as a housekeeper at a generous wage of $23 an hour after being shown documents indicating Diaz Santillan was in the country legally. Whitman fired Diaz Santillan after being told she was in the country illegally, but told Diaz Santillan she wouldn't be reported to authorities. Whitman had come to think of Diaz Santiallan as a member of the family and thus wasn't willing to report her to authorities..

Whitman did Diaz Santillan a favor by firing her before Whitman entered the public arena as a candidate for governor. People in the country illegally need to avoid public attention to avoid discovery. Employees of politicians are automatically in the spotlight.

While scolding the people of state of Arizona for their new immigration enforcement law, President Barack Obama and his Homeland Security Secretary repeatedly demonstrate their lack of enthusiasm for protecting the U.S. borders and cracking down on illegal (criminal) immigrants, say border security advocates.

Last week, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano released the FY 2010 immigration deportation numbers claiming that "it's been another record-breaking year of record criminal alien removals." Yet, Secretary Napolitano neglected to mention that while deportation of criminal aliens has risen, the total removals are roughly the same, and the number of non-criminal aliens removed has dropped substantially.

Meanwhile, a growing number of Americans say their political leaders are trying to scam citizens with phony reform legislation which will actually reward lawbreakers and increase the number of illegals who will flood our borders to partake of the giveaways. For instance, part of one Senate bill will allow illegals to pay instate (lower) college tuition, while citizens will have to pay higher tuition if they live out-of-state.

Gloria Allred was stupid enough to return to the Greta Van Susteren show, where she promptly looked like a complete idiot once again. She doesn't realize how absurd she looks defending a KNOWN LIAR.

But let's hope she returns again. And again and again. Gloria Allred smackdowns never get old.

Read more: http://chicksontheright.com/2010/10/10/gloria-smackdown-round-two/#ixzz120Oq2BAg

Advice to Republicans: Watch who you hire to clean your home, yard or office, even if you go through an agency. If the employee lies on his/her application, presents false documents and winds up being an illegal alien it will be your fault. Then they will sue you. Those are the new rules of the game. And, please thank Gloria Allred and democrats.

I keep reading lunatics that say Mexico is a National Security Threat to the USA, nothing could be farther from the truth.

Mexico buys a lot of surplus military equipment from the USA, most ships bought by Mexico would have been decommissioned by the US military had they not been bought by Mexico.

Citizens in Mexico do not own guns like citizens of the USA. They have no private militias. Mexico is as much a threat to the USA as a gnat is to an elephant.

Another comment I hear often is that parts of Arizona have been taken over by Drug Cartels from Mexico. This is a lie, not even in close proximity to reality. No drug cartels have control of any part of the USA nor will they ever. Do the drug traffickers shoot at police in the desert? Yes, obviously and all throughout history. This is not something new. And most of them are not even Mexican, they are US Citizens shipping drugs on this side of the border.

Since 9-1-1 all we hear about is how someone wants to kill us and take over the border from Mexico. It all has about as much truth as Jan Brewer finding headless bodies in Arizona.

Get a freaking grip America. Quit being afraid of your own shadow just because Republicans want to scare you into a vote.

I am wanting everyone to be aware that the amount of ex democrats is growing on a daily basis.

In fact if Media such as ABC,NBC,FOX,CBS and CNN were actually reporting news instead of hype, they would have to say that more and more Democrats are leaving the party....... to well... Party independently or with others of like thought and action.

The Democrats have so many people riled over healthcare and the fact that even winning the White House and both houses in the Democrat camp, their President....... could only get one thing rammed through to be signed into law.

That one thing, healthcare reform, is nothing like what the President advertised he wanted during the election campaign.

And Democrats as well as the people of the United States are more than upset.

Yes, the Democratic party is IMPLODING! They are now eating their own! And all the kings horses, and all the kings men won't be able to cure this problem in Obama's internet land.

I have established a new group here on NEWSVINE to help those who feel cheated by the Democrats. Those that did as I did and actually worked for the Democratic Party at one time....Voted Democrat and now are ignored.

It is called RECOVERING DEMOCRATS and you may join by clicking the link.

http://recoveringdemocrats.newsvine.com/

Some may need help with this as I know that withdrawl can be a very hard thing to do. So if you answer yes to any of the following questions, you are on your way to becoming a Recovering Democrat.

You know you are a Recovering Democrat if

1. You have a sudden desire to hear your President and Congress say... Secure all borders, enough is enough!
2. You do not believe "the system worked." during the attempted Chritmas bombing over Detroit.
3. You still believe the U.S. is in a Recession, because you, your neighbor or both are out of work, food and money.
4. You believe that the stimulus should have been spent on STIMULUS to create jobs.
5. You have a tendency to want to think for yourself and express thought out opinions.
6. You thought the last real Democratic President was JFK!
7. You start laughing at Rachel Maddow, and Ed Schultz, because they stopped making sense.
8. You want all the laws enforced and those in charge to lead the enforcement!
9. You are concerned with the security and well being of others and not just yourself.
10. You want to fully understand what, where and how things got so bad in America where a United States President and Congress would side with MEXICO and not a State in the United States when it comes to illegal entry.

Federal agents in San Diego County have arrested 39 people for immigration-related offenses, more than half of them felons convicted of crimes ranging from domestic violence to car theft and drug-related offenses, authorities said.

Obama uses his favorite metaphor to criticize the GOP's economic policies. Obama says the GOP left the economy in pieces, like a car in a ditch and now they want the keys back. He says as the Democrats are trying to "pull" the car out of the ditch, the GOP is just sitting back and "sipping on a Slurpee."

I was watching the primaries coverage last night, and heard the Secretary of State mention that they only expected about at 25% turnout. I just shook my head…25%? That’s of REGISTERED voters! Our country and its leadership are decided on less than one quarter of the population. I know, I know, it was the primaries and some people just don’t care about the primaries, but they will vote during the general election. But who they get to vote ON for the general election was based on MY vote, not theirs!

I know, I know, it’s not a presidential election year, so who cares? When elections decide who will be my local representative and state senator, the school superintendent, Attorney General, Governor, etc., everyone should care. These are really important jobs (they are elected for a reason!), they really impact me, and my state and everyone living in it. Everyone should care.

Now I know that’s REALLY altruistic, and naïve, but I’m okay with that. I remember being young…er (LOL) and thinking my little itty bitty opinion was like spitting in the wind, but somewhere along the way, I don’t remember when exactly, that changed for me. I realized that I took for granted the democracy of our country, and I was letting others take my voice, my opinion, away when I did not vote.

Voting is the foundation of our country’s democratic process. Like I always tell my friends, if you did not vote, you can’t complain (ok I normally use a really not nice word here, but hey, trying to keep it decent!). Regardless of your political affiliation, or lack thereof, the individuals we as a community and nation elect to these offices affect our daily lives. That is never more apparent than lately. Voting is the only way to make your voice heard, and to make it count.

One of the reasons this 25% turnout frustrates me so much is my state has mail-in balloting. I mean really, how hard is it? You sign up online, they mail it to you, you fill it out at your leisure, and mail it back. You don’t even need a stamp! More than half the states in this country have mail in ballots, and I just shake my head in amazement, not in good amazement either, at how more than 75% of people in this state couldn’t or wouldn’t vote. I will note one exception here. Those who make an educated, knowledgeable decision to not vote, that is still having your voice heard. It just happens to be saying “I don’t like ANY of you and I am choosing not to vote, so there”. I think that is perfectly reasonable, as long as not voting isn’t based on a sense of futility or laziness.

So PLEASE vote. If you are not registered, get registered. Contact your Secretary of State (most have websites), your local party office (and by party I don’t mean the birthday type, I mean the political type), or even try your states Motor Vehicle Division. Want to know if your state has mail-in balloting? Go to: http://www.votebymailproject.org/votebymailinyourstate.html

If your state has mail in balloting, and you find going to a polling station irritating and inconvenient, sign up! Same contacts mentioned above apply here as well.

This is not a forum for bashing a particular politician, political party or affiliation you do not like!

Jimmy Carter tried it, Reagan said no way, and Obama says "Yes, way.

A drop house used by a human-smuggling operation was raided by federal immigration agents, who found 37 undocumented immigrants crammed into a locked bedroom, living in squalid conditions.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents searched a home in the 1800 block of Martin Luther King Boulevard in Riverside on Tuesday afternoon, the immigration enforcement agency said in a news release.

Inside, they found the 37 immigrants, all stripped of their shoes to keep them from running away, living in a room with the windows boarded up and the door locked from the outside, the agency said. Some of the immigrants told agents they had not eaten in days.

As Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck defended the fatal shooting of a day laborer and officials called for calm, protesters and officers clashed Tuesday night in Westlake near the site of the incident.

About 300 demonstrators gathered at the LAPD's Rampart Station. Some in the crowd hurled eggs at police cars and others threw objects at the station windows, prompting officers in riot gear to push the throng along 6th Street.

Border agents arrested 20 illegal immigrants Tuesday morning who were attempting to enter the country by sea at Calafia State Beach in San Clemente.

When the small craft the immigrants were riding in land landed, the occupants attempted to flee. Agents with the U.S. Border Patrol arrested 17 men and three women, all from Mexico.

More than four out of every 10 illegal immigrants deported from San Bernardino County under the federal government's new Secure Communities program did not commit additional crimes before being kicked out, according to figures released by immigration officials.

That's well above the state average of 25 percent and the 21 percent rate in Los Angeles County

Public Policy Polling, a Democratic polling firm, has some sobering results for Democrats