STOP THE INVASION

Republican uses animals, mariachi band to critique border security

By SARA INÉS CALDERÓN
The Brownsville Herald

October 11, 2006 — Reports of an elephant crossing the river or people trying to smuggle an elephant across were rampant Tuesday while an elaborate political stunt was taking shape near the mouth of the Rio Grande.

It was a while later that the stunt, which was a photo shoot, was abruptly met by federal agents.


“The elephant never made landfall into Mexico, but I tell you something, he could have made 15 laps back and forth, but no one showed up,” said Raj Peter Bhakta, a former star on the NBC show “The Apprentice,” who also is a Republican candidate for the 13th District U.S. House of Representatives seat in Eastern Pennsylvania.

Three elephants, two African and an Asian, were taken out to a ranch near Boca Chica beach to perform, the 31-year-old Bhakta said.

He was in Brownsville to raise funds with friends and decided to get a first-hand look at border security while he was here, he said.

In Brownsville, he witnessed half a dozen men swim under one of the international bridges “with complete immunity” which in turn prompted him to take the immigration issue to the next level.

Bhakta decided to see if he could get an elephant accompanied by a six-piece mariachi band across the river.

According to his Web site, he is in favor of “sensible immigration reform” and supports a border fence, local law enforcement assistance with immigration laws and the use of the National Guard troops to help the U.S. Border Patrol.

“To my surprise, the band played on, the elephants splashed away, and nobody showed up,” Bhakta said of the stunt. “I’m astounded.”

The elephants came from Shrine Circuses, said James Plunkett, who produces the circus. They arrived in Brownsville on Monday and were scheduled to be on their way to Maybank on Tuesday afternoon. The elephants and the crew were at the Rio Grande for less than an hour, Plunkett said.

Plunkett said he and his crew were hired for a “photo shoot” and entered the Boca Chica beach area without any notice from the Border Patrol. However, when it became clear that the elephants were in a quarantined area, the Border Patrol alerted the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the elephants had to be detained.

The animals needed to be sprayed for ticks.

Rumors made their way around town and back to Plunkett and his crew, he said.

“We were hearing all kinds of crazy stuff ourselves,” Plunkett said.

Someone reported to the Border Patrol that people were smuggling elephants, he said.

Bhakta was getting on a plane Tuesday afternoon shortly after the USDA released the elephants and they began their journey back to Maybank.

He said he was “staggered” by what happened on Tuesday and was planning on sharing the story with his potential constituents.

“If I can get an elephant led by a mariachi band into this country, I think Osama bin Laden could get across with all the weapons of mass destruction he could get into this country,” Bhakta said.

The mariachi band was not immediately available for comment.

http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/ts_more.php?id=73201_0
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Once upon a time in America, there was an American company, "Joe's Twiddles." Joe's Twiddles had a long history in America that began when a man named Joe figured out a way to make a better twiddle. Americans loved Joe's twiddles and bought them by the bezeezle. Joe hired American workers to make the twiddles. He hired Americans to service the twiddles. He hired Americans to handle the customer service phones, accounting, and every other aspect of his business. He also bought supplies to build the twiddles from other Americans and American companies. You see, America was important to Joe, and Joe was important to America.

A typical mid-20th-century American success story, Joe became very wealthy selling and servicing twiddles. He gave a lot of money to charity and to his church. He was looked up to by those in his community. Joe's employees were loyal, his customers were loyal and he swore to never forget that his success never could have been if it were not for the dream-making wonders that were possible only in America. He made sure that his family and everyone who worked for him understood the importance of this fact also.

Joe's success made him feel deeply patriotic, very proud and extremely loyal to America and it citizens. He thanked God for having been born into a unique culture like no other before it in God's creation. He often gave thanks to God publicly and in company meetings; this made people admire him even more. Everyone who knew Joe was certain that he was incapable of doing anything to harm his countrymen and women; Americans like Joe just didn't do such things, even when it meant that doing business sometimes cost him a little more.

Sometimes Joe was practically forced to be very innovative in order to to compete with cheaper foreign twiddle makers, but each challenge of this sort only seemed to make Joe's company, and his twiddles, better. All of this being so, it soon came to pass that Joe's company was known across the land for its slogan and mission statement, "We build the Greatest American Twiddles."

Eventually Joe passed away and his kids took over. Having been educated in public schools in the latter part of the 20th century, Joe's kids had been somewhat indoctrinated away from the drive, morals and ethics their father had tried very hard to instill in them. You see, this group called "the ACLU" had made sure that schools were made into "values neutral" places, lest they offend someone who might possess or wish to explore moral codes considered deviant by the majority.

Nobody seemed very surprised that Joe's kids soon tired of running the business; they lacked what it took to twiddle for a living. So, with the help of a bunch of lawyers and accountants, they took the company public. They did keep some shares out of family loyalty, but they mostly cashed out and left the business.

Soon, a newly renamed Joe's Twiddle and Twiddle Service Corporation (JTTSC) was being run by a corporate board of directors. For the first time, the company was one step removed from Joe's deep, abiding sense of commitment and thanks to America for being a wonderful and unique cultural and business incubator.

Over time, there was less and less talk in the halls of the company about the wonders of a nation that set the stage for many concepts like Joe's to flourish. And there certainly was no talk about God because the company lawyers said He might be deemed offensive by someone, an employee, a customer, a pet...whatever.

Eventually people at JTTSC forgot the way that Joe had always thanked God for making an America that allowed his sweat and effort to so positively affect his family, his loyal employees and his loyal American twiddle customers. The disconnect from the ideals that Joe loved and built his business upon was soon in full-swing.

Ten years and several changes to the board of directors later, some hotshot young accountant at JTTSC figured out that the company could save 5% of its overhead if it moved its twiddle manufacturing operations to Japreaindichin, a region of the earth ruled by despots, tyrants and profiteers. It boasted a low standard of living for everyone but a small and absurdly wealthy elite. Work was done in sweatshops; there was zero government regulation of work conditions. The employee prevailing wages wouldn't buy fish-food for a guppy in America. Of course it would be less costly to manufacture twiddles there, and JTTSC's board of directors didn't feel the obligations Joe had felt during his life really mattered any more. They'd never even heard of such things.

Not at all.

So, the board of directors looked only at the numbers on the accountants' reports and legal briefs in front of them, considered the investors (or was it their own investments in JTTSC?) and promptly moved manufacturing operations to Japreaindichin. They didn't bother to look to see if any deeper ramifications might affect America as a result of their action.

They didn't bother to change the company slogan either. But they did lay off 1000 career twiddle-makers.

American consumers were at first a bit shocked by this turn of events, but the board had planned for this upset. Using their market clout, they drove the worldwide price of twiddles down, temporarily...just long enough for the people who were upset to cool down.

Not many Americans noticed a few months later when some government agency reported in a press release that the 1000 unemployed twiddle makers were for the most part unemployable; the press must've missed the announcement. Or might it have had something to do with the increased money for advertising that JTTSC was sending them?

Americans also didn't know, because they weren't told, that their tax bills reflected the cost of retraining and social services for poor twiddlers. They weren't given the information that showed the ties between the increased cost of their health insurance to the uncompensated care bills incurred by the former twiddlers and twiddler-dependent families.

Some Americans might have noticed that the unemployment figures reported by the government went up, but government soon took care of that by removing the former twiddlers from the unemployment figures in the next reporting period. You see, many of the twiddlers had given up on finding new jobs because twiddling was all they knew how to or wanted to do. So the government didn't consider them to be unemployed since they weren't looking for work. Poof! The twiddlers weren't "officially" unemployed any more!

The irony that American consumers ended up paying more on the side of taxes and premiums than they saved in the cost of twiddles was lost on most everyone. The fact that people that didn't even use twiddles were, in effect, subsidizing twiddle manufacture, sales and service didn't get published anywhere.

Few paid much attention when the price of twiddles soon went back up to a level higher than it had been before either. It was too bad the media tired of reporting about it and didn't have a single reporter who knew diddly-squat about twiddle economics to figure out what really had happened. However, the stockholders were very pleased by this turn of events when they got their dividend checks and saw the stock prices rise; we can only wonder if they would have cared to learn that the price of their profit was born by all Americans via cost shifting and taxation.

A few years went by and that weasly little accountant (remember him?) who figured out that it would be just swell to move manufacturing offshore was promoted to CFO of JTTSC. At about the same time, the Internet came along and compressed the world. The new CFO, still out to make a name for himself and stroke his own ego, figured out that it was now possible to move most of accounting (not his job, of course), and all of the other white-collar service jobs to Japreaindichin also. It would save another 7% of overhead. The Board of Directors loved the idea. So, they voted to move the service jobs overseas too.

The cycle of layoffs repeated itself and the hidden costs passed on to consumers still remained misunderstood by the idiots in the media. They didn't seem to care much anyway, they were more than happy to report about the rise in suicides, the increased substance abuse and the other ills that had cropped up in the communities around the now empty JTTSC home office and factory. They reported mostly on what sells newspapers and garners viewers: pain, suffering and blood. It never occurred to them that the social deconstruction they covered was all linked to the former twiddle-makers and those who previously had made a living selling stuff to the extended twiddle-maker family.

In the next few years, twiddles became much more complex due to technological advances, so the demand for Twiddle Certified Professionals (TCP's) went up dramatically. The call went out to Americans to pay thousands of dollars for Twiddle certification courses, but the reward was a higher income that could easily offset the cost of such classes.

What these suckers...er...Americans didn't know was that at the very same time that they were toiling to master the intricacies of twiddle technology, the twiddle lobby was begging Congress to allow for the import of TCP's from Japreaindichin. For about a year, the newly certified American twiddle technicians did very well...while they were unwittingly training their lower-paid Japreaindichinese replacements! Who knew that immigrants on work visas could afford to live much cheaper than Americans straddled with mortgages, healthcare costs and the other trappings of American culture and society? Who knew that they didn't mind living with 14 people in a two-bedroom apartment?

Such is the sad story of the Great American Twiddle, which isn't really American at all any more. From a truly American perspective, the biggest thing we probably should wonder about is good ole Joe, you remember Joe? That patriotic, charitable American success of a man?

How do you think he would feel about his company today?

The End

Most Americans are familiar with the illustrious history of America and the Revolutionary War against England that gave birth to our nation. Fewer Americans realize America was born not just as a revolt against British Kings and British Parliament, but equally as a revolt against British corporations.

The Hudson's Bay Company, The British East India Company, and The Massachusetts Bay Company were all early corporations that existed during colonial times in America. Our founding fathers despised and feared those chartered companies, for they recognized the way British Kings and their cronies used them to control and deplete the resources of their labors in the colonies.

Remember, it was the British East India Company which imposed duties on the tea they were delivering to the colonies, and because they had a monopoly on the tea market, the colonists were forced to pay the duties or go without. The colonists revolted. Colonial merchants agreed to not sell the East India teas. Many East India Company ships were turned back, unable to deliver their cargoes of teas. And surely you must recall that the result was the Boston Tea Party, when colonists dumped 342 chests of tea into the harbor.

"I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country."
- Thomas Jefferson

The Declaration of Independence in 1776 freed Americans not only of the British monarchy, but also the British corporations. For more than 100 years Americans remained suspicious and mistrusting of corporate powers. They were very careful about the way they granted corporate charters and the powers granted in them.

Early American corporate charters were of a completely different type than contemporary corporate charters. They were created literally by the people, as a convenience to the people, mere financial tools. Corporations were invisible, intangible, and artificial. They were chartered by the states, not the federal government, where they could be monitored locally, kept under close watch by the people. They were automatically dissolved if they violated their charter. Limits were placed on how big and how powerful companies could become.

The 200 corporations that were in operation by 1800 were kept on a short rein. They were not tolerated to participate in the political process, they could not buy stock in other corporations, and if they acted improperly, the consequences were severe. In 1832 President Andrew Jackson vetoed a motion to extend the charter of the corrupt and tyrannical Second Bank of the United States, and he was applauded for doing so. That same year Pennsylvania revoked the charters of ten banks for acting contrary to public interest. Even the industry trusts that formed to protect corporations from external competitors eventually faced the anti-trust legislation that was put into place in the mid 1800's.

In the early history of America the corporation played an important role, but their role was in service to the people. The people, not the corporations, were in control.

"Unless you become more watchful in your states and check this spirit of monopoly and thirst for exclusive privileges, you will in the end find that the most important powers of government have been given or bartered away, and the control of your dearest interests have been passed into the hands of these corporations."
- Andrew Jackson

The shift began in the last portion of the nineteenth century. It was the start of a period of great struggle between corporations and society. The turning point was the Civil War. Corporations made huge profits from procurement contracts and took advantage of the disorder and corruption of the times to buy legislatures, judges, and even presidents. Corporations became the masters and keepers of business. Before his death, President Lincoln warned, "I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country...corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war."


"The money powers prey upon the nation in times of peace and conspire against it in times of adversity. It is more despotic than a monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, and more selfish than bureaucracy. It denounces as public enemies, all who question it's methods or throw light upon it's crimes. I have two great enemies, the Southern Army in front of me and the Bankers in the rear. Of the two, the one at my rear is my greatest foe.. corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money powers of the country will endeavor to prolong it's reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in the hands of a few, and the Republic is destroyed."
- Abraham Lincoln


President Lincoln's warning went unheeded. Corporations continued to grow in power and influence. They had laws governing their creation amended. States could no longer revoke their charters. Corporate profits could no longer be limited. Corporate activity could only be restrained by the courts, and time after time judges granted them small victories, conceding them rights and privileges they did not have before and were never intended to have.

Then, in 1886, an event occurred that would change the course of American history. In Santa Clara County vs. Southern Pacific Railroad, a dispute over a rail road route, the US Supreme Court ruled that a corporation was a "natural person" under the Constitution and was entitled to all the rights and protections under the Bill of Rights. Suddenly, the corporation was made equal to the people, enjoying all the rights and sovereignty of individuals, including the right to free speech.

That court ruling gave to corporations the same powers and rights as private citizens. But, with their vast financial resources corporations thereafter actually have had more power than the individual citizens our Constitution and Bill of Rights was intended to protect against such tyrannical and empirical entities such as corporations. In a single stroke the whole intent of the American Constitution - that all citizens have one vote and equal voice in public debates - had been undermined. A single blunder by a corrupted judge changed the whole idea of democratic government.

Post Santa Clara America became a very different place. By 1919 corporations employed more than 80 percent of the workforce and produced most American wealth. Corporate trusts had become too powerful to challenge legally. Courts consistently favored their interests. Employees found themselves without recourse, if for instance they were injured on the job. If you worked for a corporation you voluntarily assumed the risks was the courts opinion. Railroad and mining companies were enabled to annex vast tracks of land at minimal expense.

Gradually, many of the ideas of the American Revolution were quashed. Both during and after the Civil War America was increasingly ruled by a coalition of government and corporations. The shift amounted to a coup d'tat, not a sudden military take over, but a gradual subversion and take over of the institutions of power. The United States has been governed as a corporate state ever since, with the exception of a brief period during the New Deal ear of Franklin Roosevelt.

"The rich will strive to establish their dominion and enslave the rest. They always did...they always will. They will have the same effect here as elsewhere, if we do not, by the power of government, keep them in their proper spheres."
- Governor Morris, head of the committee that wrote the final draft of the U.S. Constitution


In the post World War II era, corporations continued to flourish and gain in power. They changed, merged, consolidated, restructured, and metastasized into ever larger and more complex units of resource extraction, production, distribution and marketing, to the point where many of them became more economically powerful than many countries. In 1997 fifty one of the world's largest economies belonged to corporations, not countries. The top five hundred corporations controlled forty two percent of the world's wealth. Today, corporations freely buy each other's stocks and shares. They lobby legislators and bank roll elections. They manage our air waves, set our industrial, economic and cultural agendas, and keep growing just as big and powerful as they darned well please.

Every day scenes play out across America and around the world that even 20 years ago would have seemed surreal, impossible, and undemocratic, without a whisper of discontent from the public affected by the negative consequences. Our founding fathers must be rolling in the graves at what has become of the Republic they sacrificed to create for us, their posterity.

At Morain Valley Community College in Palos Hills, Illinois, a student named Jennifer Beatty stages a protest against corporate sponsorship in her school by locking herself to the metal mesh curtains of the multimillion-dollar "McDonald's Student Center" that serves as the physical and nutritional focal point of her college. She is arrested and expelled.

At Greenbrier High School in Evans, Georgia, a student named Mike Cameron wears a Pepsi T-shirt on the day -- dubbed "Coke Day" -- when corporate flacks from Coca-Cola jet in from Atlanta to visit the school their company has sponsored and subsidized. Mike Cameron is suspended for his insolence.

In suburban shopping malls across North America, moms and dads push shopping carts down the aisle of Toys "R" Us. Trailing them and imitating their gestures, their kids push pint-size carts of their own. The carts say, "Toys 'R' Us Shopper in Training."

In St. Louis, Missouri, chemical giant Monsanto sics its legal team on anyone even considering spreading dirty lies -- or dirty truths -- about the company. A Fox TV affiliate that has prepared a major investigative story on the use and misuse of synthetic bovine growth hormone (a Monsanto product) pulls the piece after Monsanto attorneys threaten the network with "dire consequences" if the story airs. Later, a planned book on the dangers of genetic agricultural technologies is temporarily shelved after the publisher, fearing a lawsuit from Monsanto, gets cold feet.

"Fascism should rightly be called corporatism as it is a merge of state and corporate power."
- Benito Mussolini "The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself. That in its essence is fascism: ownership of government by an individual, by a group or any controlling private power."
- Franklin D. Roosevelt



In boardrooms in all the major global capitals, CEOs of the world's biggest corporations imagine a world where they are protected by what is effectively their own global charter of rights and freedoms -- the Multinational Agreement on Investment (MAI). They are supported in this vision by the World Trade Organization (WTO), the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the European Round Table of Industrialists (ERT), the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and other organizations representing twenty-nine of the world's richest economies. The MAI would effectively create a single global economy allowing corporations the unrestricted right to buy, sell and move their businesses, resources and other assets wherever and whenever they want. It's a corporate bill of rights designed to override all "nonconforming" local, state and national laws and regulations and allow them to sue cities, states and national governments for alleged noncompliance. Sold to the world's citizens as inevitable and necessary in an age of free trade, these MAI negotiations met with considerable grassroots opposition and were temporarily suspended in April 1998. Nevertheless, no one believes this initiative will remain suspended for long.


"The Trilateral Commission is intended to be the vehicle for multinational consolidation of the commercial and banking interests by seizing control of the political government of the United States. The Trilateral Commission represents a skillful, coordinated effort to seize control and consolidate the four centers of power - political, monetary, intellectual, and ecclesiastical. All this is to be done in the interest of creating a more peaceful, more productive world community. What the Trilateralists truly intend is the creation of a worldwide economic power superior to the political governments of the nation-states involved. They believe the abundant materialism they propose to create will overwhelm existing differences. As managers and creators of the system they will rule the future."
- Senator Barry Goldwater, Republican candidate for President, 1964

We, the people, have lost control. Corporations, these legal fictions that we ourselves created two centuries ago, now have more rights, freedoms and powers than we do. And we accept this as the normal state of affairs. We go to corporations on our knees. Please do the right thing, we plead. Please don't cut down any more ancient forests. Please don't pollute any more lakes and rivers (but please don't move your factories and jobs offshore either). Please don't use pornographic images to sell fashion to my kids. Please don't play governments off against each other to get a better deal. We've spent so much time bowed down in deference, we've forgotten how to stand up straight.

The unofficial history of America, which continues to be written, is not a story of rugged individualism and heroic personal sacrifice in the pursuit of a dream. It is a story of democracy derailed, of a revolutionary spirit suppressed, and of a once-proud people reduced to servitude.

It's time, America, for another Boston Tea Party.

"This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it."
- Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural

http://www.ushistory.org/betsy/flagetiq.html#violations



September 11, 2006, President Bush and first lady Laura Bush stand on a carpet of the American flag at Ground Zero in Manhattan, the site of the September 11, 2001 attack. Section 8b of the Flag Code reads, " The flag should never touch anything beneath it, such as the ground..." Click picture for enlargement. Photo credit: Reuters/Jason Reed


April 2006, protesters hold a US flag union down to protest pending federal legislation, in Costa Mesa, California. Section 8a. "The flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property." Click picture for enlargement. Photo credit: AFP/Getty Images/David McNew


Super Bowl 2004, Janet Jackson's "costume malfunction" made international news; that same half-time show featured the wearing of an American flag by performer Kid Rock. He later removed the flag poncho and hurled it over his head. Section 8d. reads, "The flag should never be used as wearing apparel." Click picture for enlargement. Photo credit: Reuters

In July 2003 President Bush autographed a small flag. This picture was circulated across the Internet noting its violation of the Flag Code: "The flag should never have placed upon it, nor on any part of it, nor attached to it any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure, design, picture, or drawing of any nature." Click picture for enlargement. Photo credit: AP Photo/Charles Dharapak

This is a very long article, but well worth the investment of time to read.

As I read this article, I remembered that Dallas is leading the nation in crime again, for the 7th year in a row, isn't it? I also had cause to think about some of the sights I see when driving around most of Dallas over recent years. There are very few areas of town that I would deem safe if my car happened to break down. In the context of this article, it is significant to note that the DFW area is slated to become a major transportation hub as depicted by the push for the TransTexas corridor, and already provides an inland port at Alliance. We are also currently in the midst of a natural resource crisis, otherwise known as a drought. We hear from our law enforcement agencies that they do not have the resources to enforce our laws, thus illegal aliens congregating on street corners have nothing to fear. Yet, our government leaders from their glass towers insist that we are an international city, engaged in important global commerce. And they certainly have no problem finding the resources to provide law enforcement to protect those commercial interests. It seems Dallas, the DFW area, contains all the elements required to become a feral city, if we have not already become one?

Imagine a great metropolis covering hundreds of square miles. Once a vital component in a national economy, this sprawling urban environment is now a vast collection of blighted buildings, an immense petri dish of both ancient and new diseases, a territory where the rule of law has long been replaced by near anarchy in which the only security available is that which is attained through brute power. Such cities have been routinely imagined in apocalyptic movies and in certain science-fiction genres, where they are often portrayed as gigantic versions of T. S. Eliot’s Rat’s Alley. Yet this city would still be globally connected. It would possess at least a modicum of commercial linkages, and some of its inhabitants would have access to the world’s most modern communication and computing technologies. It would, in effect, be a feral city.



http://www.nwc.navy.mil/press/Review/2003/Autumn/art6-a
03.htm

On Being American

Being American carries with it certain connotations of integrity, self-sufficiency, courage, confidence, and immeasurable responsibility. It is compassion and tenderness. It is impartial justice and righteous rage in pursuit of correcting wrongs. Being American is an unquenchable thirst for achievement. To possess the national consciousness of an American is to possess an indomitable spirit. Being American is a state of mind, a form of heart, a place in the soul. It is the look of the Eagle in your eye.

Whether it is fighting wars, providing charitable relief, or pioneering new frontiers, more is expected of Americans than any other nationality. The world expects more of everything from Americans, and Americans demand it of themselves. No matter how insurmountable the task, Americans unflaggingly rise to the challenge. To Americans, failure is never an option, whether it is annihilating the bad guys or cradling the infant in safety. Americans are always leaders, and never followers.

Being American means knowing the cost of freedom, and knowing our history of having paid that price through the oceans of blood, sweat and tears of our ancestors and now our sons and daughters, both on our own soil and on distant shores. Being American means knowing the value of our freedoms and being constantly vigilant in jealously guarding those freedoms. Being American means offering our wisdom of hard won freedoms to peoples of other nations, if they are courageous enough and willing to pay the price of achieving those freedoms for their own.

Being American is all those things, and more. It cannot be learned or taught. It cannot be bought or sold. It cannot be achieved in individuals by transplant onto United States soil. But it can take root in foreign soil if the populations of those foreign lands have but the most vague notion of what being American means. Being American is an idea that knows no boundaries and is not constrained by geographical location. The idea of being American is a beacon of hope intended to light the world, not a magnet to draw the world to our shores.

ONE nation, under GOD, INDIVISIBLE, with liberty AND justice for ALL.

“It has often given me pleasure to observe that independent America was not composed of detached and distant territories, but that one connected, fertile, wide spreading country was the portion of our western sons of liberty. Providence has in a particular manner blessed it with a variety of soils and productions, and watered it with innumerable streams, for the delight and accommodation of its inhabitants. A succession of navigable waters forms a kind of chain round its borders, as if to bind it together; while the most noble rivers in the world, running at convenient distances, present them with highways for the easy communication of friendly aids, and the mutual transportation and exchange of their various commodities.”

“With equal pleasure I have as often taken notice that Providence has been pleased to give this one connected country to one united people--a people descended from the same ancestors, speaking the same language, professing the same religion, attached to the same principles of government, very similar in their manners and customs, and who, by their joint counsels, arms, and efforts, fighting side by side throughout a long and bloody war, have nobly established general liberty and independence.”

“This country and this people seem to have been made for each other, and it appears as if it was the design of Providence, that an inheritance so proper and convenient for a band of brethren, united to each other by the strongest ties, should never be split into a number of unsocial, jealous, and alien sovereignties.” – John Jay

Thus, to me, is the American kernel, the ideal, from our founding fathers forward. We have been entrusted with a legacy to safeguard unsullied and to hold dear through all eternity.

And yet, I look about me at the peoples of my nation today, and I am deeply troubled. I see the flags of foreign nations waving above my standard, Old Glory, on my American soil. I see all manner of squabbling nationalities and ethnicities vying for ascendancy over others. I see people looking for handouts, refusing to rely on themselves for their daily bread, shelter and clothing. I see community leaders propounding the presumed virtues of profound and incompatible "diversity", differences. I see “special interests”, divided, set aside for preferential treatment. I see deep chasms of division within my nation. I see our political leaders establishing secretive protocols and agreements with foreign nations upon which the American people they so govern have not been consulted, and which agreements and protocols spell the dissolution of our united American nation. I see a nation divided against itself. I see a nation being split asunder by profiteers and contemporary carpetbaggers.

The assault on our united nation is not unexpected; indeed, it was discussed at length by our founding fathers. The assault in and of itself is not the most troubling thing. For if the American people lived up to the ideals established for them by our history, the assault against our united nation would be short lived and unsuccessful. Through apathy we are squandering our legacy and our birth right.


"We can all hang together, or surely we will all hang separately."

A collection of quotes from political and community leaders in America.
"I am not an American. There is nothing about me that is American. I don't want to be an American, and I have just as much right to be here as any of you." Thus spoke one individual identified as a "Latino activist" during a session of the "National Conversation on American Pluralism and Identity," a $4 million project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

"Oh, I know there's some voices who want to wall us off from Mexico"...."...it's so important for us to tear down barriers and walls that might separate Mexico from the U.S." --George W. Bush before Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Albuquerque, NM, 8/15/01

"In recent years a new International System has been developing, oriented toward the establishment of norms and principles of universal jurisdiction, above national sovereignty, in the areas of what is called the New Agenda...we have to confront ..... what I dare to call the Anglo-Saxon prejudice against the establishment of supra-national organizations." --Vicente Fox, to Club XXI, Hotel Eurobuilding, Madrid, Spain 5/16/02

While reports of their growing numbers are nothing new, word that Hispanics may have become the nation's largest minority has excited some of their North Texas leaders.
"This will be a call to arms," said Dallas lawyer Adelfa Callejo, a longtime advocate and member of the League of United Latin American Citizens. Hector Flores, national president of LULAC, said the latest census report will mean little if it's not backed up by action. January 22, 2003

"I have proudly affirmed that the Mexican nation extends beyond the territory enclosed by its borders and that Mexican migrants are an important - a very important - part of this." This statement wasn't made in secrecy behind closed doors. It wasn't said outside the jurisdiction of the United States of America. None other than Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo spoke it in Chicago on July 23, 1997.

"We have an aging white America. They are not making babies. They are dying. The explosion is in our population.... I love it. They are shitting in their pants with fear. I love it.", "We have got to eliminate the gringo, and what I mean by that is if the worst comes to the worst, we have got to kill him."-- Professor Jose Angel Gutierrez, University of Texas.

"We are practicing La Reconquista in California." --Jose Pescador Osuna, Mexican Consul General

Mommy told me -- ". . . we have to fight for our race, we have to find the leaders who represent us." --George P. Bush (son of Florida Governor Jeb Bush and his Mexican-born wife Columba, and nephew of the President speaking to a gathering of Hispanics)

"There's a growing feeling 'Why should we pay for all these senior citizens' if the majority of them are white and all they were willing to pay for was prisons?"--Rodolfo Acuna (professor of Chicano studies at Cal State Northridge)

"Remember 187 (proposition to deny taxpayer funds for services to non-citizens) was the last gasp of white America in California."
--Art Torres, Chairman of the California Democratic Party

"The American Southwest seems to be slowly returning to the jurisdiction of Mexico without firing a single shot." --Excelsior- The national newspaper of Mexico.

"We are politicizing every single one of these new citizens that are becoming citizens of this country. I gotta tell you that a lot of people are saying, 'I'm going to go out there and vote because I want to pay them back.'"--Gloria Molina, Los Angeles County Supervisor

"California is going to be a Hispanic state, and anyone who doesn't like it should leave. They should go back to Europe." --Mario Obledo, co-founder and President of MALDEF, 1968 to 1973; President of the League of United Latin American Citizens 1983-85, California State Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare 1975-82, awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Bill Clinton
Obledo announced that he would burn the CCIR's "illegal immigration" billboard on 6/27/98, it was subsequently taken down.

"We need to avoid a white backlash by using codes understood by Latinos...non-Latinos aren't watching, they aren't raising questions"--Fernando Guerra, professor, Loyola Marymount

"Republica del Norte," the Republic of the North, which would include the present U.S. states of California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, plus southern Colorado, along with several current Mexican states, is "an inevitability." The new "Hispanic homeland" should be brought into being "by any means necessary." --Charles Truxillo, professor, University of New Mexico

". . . you are like the generals who command armies! We're in a state of war!"--Armando Navarro, professor, University of California.

"They're afraid we're going to take over the governmental institutions and other institutions. They're right. We will take them over. .. We are here to stay." --Richard Alatorre, Los Angeles City Council

El Plan Espiritual de Aztlán
MEChA (Chicano Student Movement): "Chicano and Chicana students of Aztlan must take upon themselves the responsibilities to promote Chicanismo with the community, politicizing our Raza with an emphasis on indigenous consciousness to continue the struggle for the self-determination of the Chicano people for the purpose of liberating Aztlan." -- preamble to MEChA's national constitution.

"Go back to Boston! Go back to Plymouth Rock, Pilgrims! Get out! We are the future. You are old and tired. Go on. We have beaten you. Leave like beaten rats. You old white people. It is your duty to die. ... Through love of having children, we are going to take over." --Augustin Cebada, Brown Berets

La Voz de Aztlan, run by Hector Carreon of Whittier, California is openly hostile and anti-Semitic. They claim to be the provisional government of Aztlan: http://www.aztlan.net/

David Lopez, sociologist, California State University, Northridge: "In 1848, Mexico lost the war, but in 2050, Mexico will have reclaimed what was rightfully theirs."

Xavier Hermosillo, a Los Angeles radio talk show host
In 1993, proclaimed on the CBS 48 Hours show that Mexican-Americans were taking political control of the "former Mexican colony, California ... house by house, block by block".

In a well-written Mankind Quarterly article, The Deconstruction of America, by Joseph Fallon, public officials Antonio Villaraigosa, majority leader of the California State Assembly and Art Torres, Chairman of the California Democratic Party, speakers at the "Latino Leadership Summit Response to Prop 187" are mentioned for their apparent agreement with many declarations uttered at the meeting. Neither Villaraigosa nor Torres repudiated these comments: "English should be a foreign language"; "We are hostages in our own land, prisoners of war"; "We live under occupying alien force."; "We live in the annexed territories of AZTLAN"; and "We're in a state of war ...a vicious threat to our existence". And neither man condemned the repeated calls for the establishment of an independent country of Aztlan or the references to this country as "AmeriKKKa" and the "United Snakes of America".

Felipe Gonzáles, director of UNM's Southwest Hispanic Research Institute, said there's a "certain homeland undercurrent" among New Mexico Hispanics who believe land was stolen and promises broken. But, he said, a new nation would need much more widespread support.

"Educated elites are going to have to pick up on this idea and run with it and use it as a point of confrontation if it is to succeed," Gonzáles said.

Truxillo contends states have the right to secede under the Articles of Confederation of 1777, in which states retained "sovereignty, freedom and independence." He contends the Articles were not superseded in that regard by the U.S. Constitution and that although the Civil War settled the question militarily, it was never resolved by courts.

Palomas Mayor Julieta Avina has mastered the language of victimology: "To me, the lawsuit is racist, and I think this issue could lead to international problems along this part of the border." As for New Mexico residents who object to subsidizing Mexican children, Avina tells them to find some other place to live: "If they don't like Mexico they ought to move to Canada."

In 1986, Nicaraguan defector Alberto Suhr related to U.S. reporters what he and other Sandinista cadres had been told by Tomas Borge, the Sandinista interior minister. Borge, a ruthless henchman trained by Castro's DGI, instructed his comrades: "We have Nicaragua, soon we will have El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica and Mexico. One day, tomorrow or 15 years from now, we're going to take 5 to 10 million Mexicans and they're going to
have one thing in mind - cross the border, go into Dallas, go into Houston, go into New Mexico, go into San Diego, and each one has embedded in his mind the idea of killing 10 Americans."

When Borge made that boast, he already had a sizeable fifth column of propagandists, foot soldiers, and narco-terrorists operating within the United States. Since then, several million more illegal aliens have entered the U.S., the Communist EZLN "Zapatista" forces in Mexico's Chiapas state have declared war on Mexico's corrupt and bankrupt ruling PRI regime, the Mexican economy has imploded, the drug cartels have taken control over much
of Mexico, and the militant "Aztlan" movement has experienced a remarkable resurgence in U.S. Hispanic communities.

Mexico's Glass House

The Mexican constitution includes the following restrictions:


Pursuant to Article 33, "Foreigners may not in any way participate in the political affairs of the country." This ban applies, among other things, to participation in demonstrations and the expression of opinions in public about domestic politics like those much in evidence in Los Angeles, New York and elsewhere in recent days.

Equal employment rights are denied to immigrants, even legal ones. Article 32: "Mexicans shall have priority over foreigners under equality of circumstances for all classes of concessions and for all employment, positions, or commissions of the Government in which the status of citizenship is not indispensable."

Jobs for which Mexican citizenship is considered "indispensable" include, pursuant to Article 32, bans on foreigners, immigrants, and even naturalized citizens of Mexico serving as military officers, Mexican-flagged ship and airline crew, and chiefs of seaports and airports.

Article 55 denies immigrants the right to become federal lawmakers. A Mexican congressman or senator must be "a Mexican citizen by birth." Article 91 further stipulates that immigrants may never aspire to become cabinet officers as they are required to be Mexican by birth. Article 95 says the same about Supreme Court justices.
In accordance with Article 130, immigrants - even legal ones - may not become members of the clergy, either.


Foreigners, to say nothing of illegal immigrants, are denied fundamental property rights. For example, Article 27 states, "Only Mexicans by birth or naturalization and Mexican companies have the right to acquire ownership of lands, waters, and their appurtenances, or to obtain concessions for the exploitation of mines or of waters."

Article 11 guarantees federal protection against "undesirable aliens resident in the country." What is more, private individuals are authorized to make citizen's arrests. Article 16 states, "In cases of flagrante delicto, any person may arrest the offender and his accomplices, turning them over without delay to the nearest authorities." In other words, Mexico grants its citizens the right to arrest illegal aliens and hand them over to police for prosecution. Imagine the Minutemen exercising such a right!

The Mexican constitution states that foreigners - not just illegal immigrants - may be expelled for any reason and without due process. According to Article 33, "the Federal Executive shall have the exclusive power to compel any foreigner whose remaining he may deem inexpedient to abandon the national territory immediately and without the necessity of previous legal action."

Do you remember the illegal immigrant from Mexico who was driving a bus that
burst into flames and killed 23 nursing home patients who were evacuating
Hurricane Rita last year in Houston?


His name is Juan Robles Gutierrez and he is a Mexican national, one of the
millions who have sneaked across our border and taken a job so that he can
send his income back to Monterey, where his wife and daughter live. In his
case, he waded across the Rio Grande and began working for Global Limo, the
company that owned the bus that burst into flames on September 23, 2005,
burning 23 passengers alive.


Robles was arrested after the Dallas County Sheriff said that the evidence
collected indicated that the bus driver's actions contributed to the 23
deaths.


Fast forward to today. I'd like to give you a pop quiz about Mr. Robles. If
you answer correctly, you will get an A.


Since Robles was arrested, where is he today? Is he:


A) Sitting in jail;

B) Deported to Mexico;

C) Living freely as a resident of the United States and still driving a
bus.


After 23 horrific deaths, there surely couldn't be any way that "C" would be
the correct answer, right? Well, welcome to 2006 America, where in the world
of illegal immigration, right means wrong, up means down, and illegal means
hero.


It turns out that the evidence collected by the Dallas County Sheriff's
Department must not have been enough to hold Juan Robles Gutierrez
responsible for the nursing home patients deaths. In fact, it is believed
that a mechanical failure of the brakes led to the fire which ignited the
bus.


But that wouldn't exonerate Robles from his illegal actions that brought him
to the United States and placed him behind the wheel of that bus, would it?


You bet your sweet green card it would. And did.


After he was cleared of the charges, he was ordered to stay in the Houston
area in order to testify in the trial of the bus company owner. He didn't
really like that too much. He preferred to live in Laredo, Texas, where he
could be closer to his wife and daughter who live in Monterey, Mexico. So he
went to an immigration official and was allowed to move to Laredo.

Then, our brilliant "system" granted him a work visa. After all, his wife
and daughter have bills to pay in Monterey!


After Robles got his wish to live in the American city he wanted, he began
itching to drive a bus again. No problemo, amigo. A Texas-based bus company
hired him and he now cheerfully makes the 8 hour drive between Laredo and
Dallas on a daily basis behind the wheel of yet another bus.


Perhaps his passengers these days should be advised to carry a fire
extinguisher with them.


What's perhaps the most shocking aspect of this story is how little the news
media has paid attention to it. This guy goes from being the illegal
immigrant from Mexico who was arrested for the deaths of 23 elderly patients
on his bus to just another working-class stiff, holding down a steady paying
job, a job that many Americans would undoubtedly love to have.


There are so many outrages in this story, I don't even know where to begin.
Maybe we can start with his "request" to move to Laredo to be closer to his
family in Mexico. If I were the immigration judge, I'd have the perfect
solution. You want to be close to your family, Mr. Robles? Heck, how about
your home in Monterey, Mexico? Close enough?


But while the American news media might not be paying attention to this
story, I'll bet the illegals are observing. After all, if a Mexican illegal
can still keep residency in America and even have the same job he was doing
when his bus burned up 23 people, how serious could the United States really
be about stopping illegal immigration?


I hope you passed the quiz and received an "A." When it comes to combating
illegal immigration, the United States continues to get a well-deserved "F."

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MikeGallagher/2006/0
9/29/still_driving_the_bus

When Jason Smith contacted the Internal Revenue Service to find out why
his $600 tax refund hadn't arrived, he received a nasty surprise: The
government was waiting for him to pony up $12,000 in back taxes.

As it turned out, the Danielsville, Ga., man was not to blame. Another
"Jason Smith" racked up the unpaid taxes. An illegal immigrant named
Nohe Gomez Hernandez had used Smith's Social Security number to get a
job at a chicken plant in Bethlehem, Ga., and worked there under that
false name for at least three years, long enough to be promoted from
line worker to supervisor.

Awful enough, right? But wait 'til you hear what Hernandez's lawyer is
arguing:

Defense attorney Jana Whaley of Royston, Ga., contends that Hernandez'
actions aren't covered by the state law, which was created to keep
people from stealing others' personal information and using it to
pillage bank accounts or run up credit card bills.

Hernandez used Smith's name and Social Security number solely to get a
job for his family and never tried to interfere with Smith's credit or
accounts, Whaley said.

Yes. You read that right. His attorney had the gall to state that
because Hernandez used the stolen social security number of Jason Smith
to work, not run up credit card bills, he hasn't committed identity
theft.

However...

After the IRS told Smith that he owed the government thousands in back
taxes, he requested his work history from the federal agency. It said
that Smith, who works in a commissary at the Navy School in Athens,
Ga., was also working at Harrison Poultry, about 20 miles away in
Bethlehem, Ga.

The IRS said Smith owed back taxes because the two full-time jobs under
his name forced him into a higher tax bracket, said District Attorney
Robert Lavender.

So this poor guy's taxes were screwed up because Hernandez stole his
social security number. That was no accident. Smith is going through
this whole ordeal because Hernandez stole his social security number
and, therefore, his identity.

Hernandez "was known by his employer as Jason Smith and even had the
nerve to meet with law enforcement in a smock that had the name 'Jason'
sewn on. No doubt, the appellant intended to assume the identity of the
victim," Assistant District Attorney James Webb wrote in a court brief.

Sept. 24, 2006, 11:31PM
Perry defies donors over immigration
By CLAY ROBISON
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle
AUSTIN - Developing a better immigration policy is the federal
government's responsibility, but the governors — and would-be
governors — of border states, such as Texas, can help or hinder
the process.
In this election year, the operative word for Gov. Rick Perry and
most of his opponents is hinder, and the rhetoric will get worse
between now and Nov. 7.
With statements and a TV commercial fanning the hopes of
illegal-immigration bashers who would seal the border with a wall
20 feet high, Perry has even defied some of his own top political
donors.
Those donors — some of Texas' most prominent Republican business
people — want a new guest-worker program or a path to citizenship
for foreign workers because they think the state's economy and, in
some cases, their own labor-intensive industries depend upon
immigrant help.
But by giving big bucks to Perry, they, ironically, have helped
the governor foster a political climate of xenophobia that is
killing their cause. In an effort orchestrated or encouraged by
the Manhattan Institute, a New York-based free market think tank,
36 Texas business leaders recently co-signed an op-ed article
praising immigrant workers and urging reform of immigration laws.
"We know that Americans must face up to the reality of the foreign
workers we need to keep the economy strong and bring them under
the rule of law, for their sake and ours," the article stated.
"Baby boomers are retiring. Fertility rates are declining," it
added. "Yet every year, the economy creates hundreds of thousands
of new jobs that require few if any skills, and in the next
decade, we will be millions of workers short."
Crossing the political spectrum, signers included prominent
Democrat Henry Cisneros, the former San Antonio mayor and Housing
and Urban Development secretary.
They also included such major Perry contributors as East Texas
poultry magnate Lonnie "Bo" Pilgrim; Houston homebuilder Bob
Perry; and businessmen James Leininger and B.J. "Red" McCombs of
San Antonio, W.L. "Woody" Hunt of El Paso, and Harold Simmons,
Vance Miller and Louis Beecherl of Dallas.
The article also was signed by J.L. Huffines of Dallas, the father
of James Huffines, the governor's campaign chairman.
Collectively, the above eight contributors have given Perry more
than $1 million since 2003, the beginning of his current term. And
they already have received handsome returns on their investments.
For starters, there have been significant changes in tort law
under the current governor, giving businesses more protections
against consumer lawsuits. And Bob Perry (no relation to the
governor) won creation of the Texas Residential Construction
Commission, which provides even more safeguards to him and his
fellow homebuilders.
But, for now, they'd better give up on immigration reform.
Only a few days after their article appeared Aug. 28 in the Dallas
Morning News, Perry started running, with their financial help,
his first TV commercial of the fall campaign. In it, he bragged
about beefing up border security to protect Texans from terrorists
and other "illegal activity," leaving viewers free to imagine that
wall going up, right before their eyes.
There wasn't a word about job-seeking immigrants, the
nonterrorists who make up the overwhelming majority of
border-crossers.
When asked, Perry will say he supports a reasonable guest-worker
program, but he says that's Washington's job and border security
comes first.
The border security ad was replaced by an education ad last week,
but it or something similar likely will be aired again.
Democratic gubernatorial nominee Chris Bell supports border
security and immigration reform but largely avoids discussing
either. Independent candidate Kinky Friedman has said he would use
"the National Guard, the Texas Rangers, the entire Polish army,
whatever it takes" to seal the border.
Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, Perry's other independent
challenger, may outline her border security plan within the next
week or so. Don't be surprised if she proposes a border wall 50
feet high, with razor wire on top.
You can write to Clay Robison, 1005 Congress, Suite 1060, Austin,
TX 78701, or e-mail him at clay.robison@chron.com
.

By Andrea Falkenhagen, Tribune
September 24, 2006

Adam Garcia attempted to fly a Mexican flag at his high school last
March. Instead, he was arrested, jailed for a night, placed under house
arrest for a month and expelled from Apache Junction High School in a
highprofile incident that came amid protests and marches as the national
debate over immigration swept the nation.

Now, six months later, Garcia sits at home, not attending classes
anywhere. Meanwhile, he says, the white student who grabbed the Mexican
flag and burned it was allowed to stay in school.

“They’re racist,” Garcia said. “That other kid, he got out free with
nothing on him.”

Apache Junction Unified School District officials, citing a federal
privacy law, refused to say whether the other student was expelled.

But district spokeswoman Carol Shepherd indicated that previous
discipline problems can contribute to a decision to expel a student.
Garcia, now 17, acknowledges he previously received an on-campus
suspension. And his court files show one prior arrest for disorderly
conduct, which he said was the result of a fight between him and his father.

“The actions taken on all students were appropriate in the disciplinary
process,” Shepherd said.

Garcia’s mother, Emily Hernandez, disagrees.

“Adam was doing nothing wrong at all,” said Hernandez, an Apache
Junction nurse. “He just was raising the flag, there’s no crime in that.
I feel proud of my son.”

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=74902

Sept. 24, 2006, 1:14PM

More illegal immigrants are pouring into the state to give birth

By JAMES PINKERTON
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

RIO GRANDE CITY — First it was a trickle, now it's a flood.

Rising numbers of undocumented immigrants from Mexico and Central America are streaming into Texas to give birth, straining hospitals and costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, health officials say.

Doctors and health officials say they are overwhelmed by both the new arrivals and those immigrant mothers who already are in the state. Even Houston's feeling the pinch. An estimated 70 percent to 80 percent of the 10,587 births at Ben Taub General Hospital and Lyndon B. Johnson General Hospital last year were to undocumented immigrants, administrators say.

Also feeling the strain is Starr County, an already poor South Texas county that has the region's only taxpayer-supported hospital district.

Immigrants "want a U.S.-born baby" and know that emergency room staffers don't collect any money up front, said Dr. Mario Rodriguez, an obstetrician in Starr County.

"The word is out: Come to Starr County and get delivered for free. Why pay $1,000 in Mexico when you can get it for free?" Rodriguez said.

''When we are separated only by the distance of the river, it's easy to do," Starr County hospital administrator Thalia Muñoz said. "It's gotten worse, and it's because the economy in Mexico is not good and because we provide all these benefits."

Unfortunately, doctors say, Starr County isn't alone.

''Our little snapshot is duplicated in all the municipalities between here and California," said Tony Falcon, a Rio Grande City physician who was appointed to the U.S.-Mexico Border Health Commission in April. ''What you see here is what is happening in Brownsville, McAllen, El Paso and San Diego."

He operates a private family clinic and delivers babies at the Starr County hospital. About a third of his deliveries are what he calls "walk-ins" — mothers in labor showing up at the ER.

''Obviously, it has a huge impact on patient health and the kind of health care that's provided," Falcon said. "You don't get the kind of prenatal care you should get."


'Anchor babies'
Immigration-control advocates regard the U.S.-born infants as "anchor babies" because they give their undocumented parents and relatives a way to petition for citizenship. They estimate that 360,000 of these babies are born in the U.S. every year and warn that the numbers are rising.

Once parents have an "anchor baby," they become more difficult to deport, said Jack Martin, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a lobby organization in Washington, D.C.

''It's a fairly big factor in complicating the removal of illegal aliens," Martin said. "Illegal aliens know that and, to some extent, we think they're being influenced into having children as soon as they get into the U.S. to complicate their removal."

Some lawmakers want to begin denying citizenship to babies born to illegal immigrants.

Birthright citizenship, as it is known, has been in force since the approval of the Constitution's 14th Amendment in 1868. But several bills under consideration in Congress would abolish the longstanding federal policy. Sponsors include U.S. Reps. Ron Paul, R-Lake Jackson, and Nathan Deal, R-Ga.

In a largely symbolic move, the Michigan House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly on Sept. 8 to end birthright citizenship.

Undocumented immigrants say they are being attacked unfairly and think that all children born in the U.S. should have equal rights.

Socorro Gonzalez, an undocumented immigrant who in August gave birth to her fourth child on U.S. soil, said she and her husband aren't trying to take advantage of immigration laws or abuse the health care system.

''We're not here to have a child. We are here to work," she said as she cradled her infant son, Orlando Soto.

Gonzalez, 42, said she moved to South Texas four years ago to join her husband, a cabinet maker. Two of their older children were born at a private midwife's clinic, she said, and two were delivered at taxpayer expense at hospitals in McAllen.

Gonzalez said the benefits of undocumented immigrants' labor in the U.S. more than compensate for the costs of their medical bills.

''I don't see why they should deny a medical service if we're here struggling for this country," she said. ''Because of the help of Mexican workers, whether they want us or not, this country is progressing."

Still, someone has to pay the bills, and not everyone is happy about that.


Uncollected medical bills
Starr County Memorial Hospital had $3.6 million in uncollected medical bills in 2005, up from $1.5 million in 2002. The total when fiscal 2006 ends on Sept. 30 is expected to hit $3.9 million, chief financial officer Rafael Olivarez said. Unpaid bills for the past five years will reach nearly $13 million, he said.

To make up for the shortfall, Starr County's hospital district is proposing a 25 percent tax hike.

Already, the U.S. government is pitching in, setting aside $1 billion in Medicaid funds to pay for emergency care received by undocumented migrants over the next four years.

But Olivarez said getting the reimbursements isn't easy. Federal officials ''told us at a meeting they would pay us about 20 cents on the dollar," he said. "But it's better than nothing."

No one knows for sure how many undocumented immigrants there are or what they cost the health care system. Most hospitals don't ask whether patients have papers.


Total cost unknown

''It puts them in the position of being border police," said Amanda Engler, a spokeswoman for the Texas Hospital Association in Austin.

Harris County Hospital District officials say their policy is not to question patients directly about their citizenship.

''We do not explicitly ask if our patients are illegal, but we do ask them for proof of Harris County residency," district spokeswoman Shannon Rasp said. "Often citizenship status becomes clearer when billing issues come up."

Eighty-three percent of the undocumented immigrants receiving in-patient care at the district's hospitals and clinics last year were from Mexico, officials said. Six percent were from El Salvador or Guatemala. And the remaining 11 percent were from such countries as Britain, Canada, Haiti, India, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria and Vietnam.

''Using anecdotal information provided us by our staff, statistics from other public hospital systems and our patient demographics, we believe that approximately 70 to 80 percent of our obstetrics patients are undocumented," Rasp said.

In all, 57,072 patients visited the district's hospitals, clinics and health centers last year, and nearly a fifth were undocumented, Rasp said. The cost of their treatment was $97.3 million, up from $55 million in 2002.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4209908.html

Signatories to the Illegal Alien Boycott Petition
Total Petition Signatures To Date: 12,282


http://www.millerboycott.com/Petition/index.asp

http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_92562.asp<
br> Man Who Used Local Man's Social Security Number To Hire Illegal Alien Is Charged
posted September 11, 2006

A Dallas, Tex., man who authorities say used the Social Security number of a Chattanooga man when he needed to hire an illegal alien is facing federal charges.

Richard Moody, who is charged with fraud, was in Federal Court in Chattanooga on Monday.

Steven Edward Slagle told the FBI he was contacted by the IRS on Feb. 25 and told he owed $3,133 in back taxes for employment during 2004. He said he contacted the Social Security Administration and learned that wages were earned using his Social Security number at W9Y Construction in Florida.

He said he has only worked at Array Marketing and Steak N Shake and never at W9Y.

Mr. Slagle said he called W9Y and a short time later his grandmother called and said he needed to call Moody at W9Y. He said Moody told him "he did not know any other way to tell him, but to admit that he (Moody) made a mistake."

Moody said he needed to hire an illegal worker from Mexico and needed a Social Security number so he used his.

Mr. Slagle said he had once met Moody when he applied for a job at the petroleum transfer facility near Bonny Oaks. He said he gave his Social Security number on the application, then later decided not to take the job.

He said Moody told him he "wanted to make it right" and would send him $8,000 to cover the money owed the IRS and his expected refund.

Mr. Slagle contacted the IRS and began taping conversations with Moody. When the money was mailed to him, he turned it over to the FBI without opening it.

Moody's address was given as 4200 Singleton Blvd., Dallas, with the RMS firm.