Trump and Immigration (Illegal Immigrants in the US)

[kscarbel2]

Why is the United States Department of Agriculture supporting the existence of illegal immigrants in the United States by providing them with free food ?

Illegal immigrants should not even be within our boundaries. Upon discovery, they should be summarily deported within 48 hours.

You tax money, being spent in part to feed criminal illegal aliens, all without your consent.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/03/16/immigrants-are-now-canceling-their-food-stamps-for-fear-that-trump-will-deport-them/?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories_immigrant-food-stamps-110pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory

https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/supplemental-nutrition-assistance-program-snap

.

[41chevy]

Since many states will issue Driver licenses to illegals, what more proof is needed to apply? A side from proof of income?

[kscarbel2]

13 minutes ago, 41chevy said:

Since many states will issue Driver licenses to illegals, what more proof is needed to apply? A side from proof of income?

States issuing drivers licenses to illegal immigrants (illegal aliens). Just unbelievable. U.S. law doesn't allow them to exist here. 

Enter legally, or be shown the door and forever blocked from entering again as penalty for the criminal act.

[TeamsterGrrrl]

Criminal Act? Crossing the border without authorization is a misdemeanor under federal code, same as a parking ticket!

[Brocky]

10 hours ago, TeamsterGrrrl said:

Criminal Act? Crossing the border without authorization is a misdemeanor under federal code, same as a parking ticket!

This is where the WHOLE problem starts!! 

[kscarbel2]

Almost half of Canadians want illegal border crossers deported

Reuters  /  March 20, 2017

Nearly half of Canadians want to deport people who are illegally crossing into Canada from the United States, and a similar number disapprove of how Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is handling the influx, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Monday.

A significant minority, 4 out of 10 respondents, said the border crossers could make Canada "less safe."

The increasing flow of hundreds of asylum-seekers of African and Middle Eastern origin from the United States in recent months is becoming a contentious issue in Canada.

Although there has been broad bipartisan support for high levels of legal immigration for decades in Canada, Trudeau is under pressure over the flow of the illegal migrants.

He is questioned about it almost every time he appears in parliament, from opponents on the left, who want more asylum-seekers to be allowed in, and critics on the right, who say the migrants pose a potential security risk.

Canadian opposition parties seized on the poll results, with both those on the left and the right saying they underscored their positions.

Canadians appeared to be just as concerned about illegal immigration as Americans, according to the poll, which was conducted between March 8-9.

Some 48 percent supported "increasing the deportation of people living in Canada illegally." (For graphics on asylum process, immigration poll see tmsnrt.rs/2nyY8CJ)

When asked specifically about the recent border crossings, the same number - 48 percent - said Canada should "send these migrants back to the U.S." Another 36 percent said Canada should "accept these migrants".

In the United States, where President Donald Trump was elected partly on his promise to boost deportations, 50 percent of adults supported "increasing the deportation of illegal immigrants," according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in the same week.

"There are so many people in the world who want to come in and go through the right channels," said Greg Janzen, elected leader of a Manitoba border municipality that has seen many crossers. "That's what's pissing most people off. These guys are jumping the border," he said.

"Refugees are much more welcomed when we have gone and selected them ourselves as a country, as opposed to refugees who have chosen us," said Janet Dench, executive director of Canadian Council for Refugees.

Ottawa set an immigration target of 300,000 for 2017, or just under 1 percent of the population, the same level as 2016. It reduced the 2017 target [???] for resettled refugees to 25,000 from 44,800 in 2016, when it welcomed 25,000 Syrian refugees.

[kscarbel2]

Trump administration: These police agencies didn’t help feds with deportations

The Washington Post  /  March 20, 2017

Homeland Security officials on Monday unveiled the administration’s first list of law enforcement agencies that refused to detain jailed immigrants beyond their release dates so that the federal government could take them into custody and try to deport them.

The List - https://www.scribd.com/document/342469185/ICE-Declined-Detainer-Outcome-Report-Jan-28-to-Feb-3-2017#from_embed

Federal officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in a conference call with reporters, said local agencies, including some in Maryland and Virginia, failed to honor 206 detention requests from Jan. 28 to Feb. 3.

President Trump in January ordered Homeland Security to issue a weekly list of crimes committed by non-citizen [illegal] immigrants and to identify agencies that refused to hold those people in jail on civil immigration-violation charges until federal agents could pick them up.

“These numbers will continue to go up,” a Homeland Security official said. “There is a clear public safety issue here that will only be further illuminated as we go forward.”

Advocates for immigrants say it is unconstitutional for local police to detain someone for a civil deportation proceeding when the judge in their criminal case has ordered them released.

“This is part of an overall strategy to try to scare jurisdictions into becoming deportation agents,” said Cody Wofsy, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union’s Immigrants’ Rights Project. “And the truth is that jurisdictions have the legal right to refuse to become entangled with the federal immigration enforcement system.”

Trump has threatened to withhold federal funding from what are called sanctuary cities, where local law enforcement agencies do not cooperate with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau, but officials said they hoped such jurisdictions would start cooperating with federal agents instead. Officials identified 118 such agencies in the report Monday, though they cautioned it was preliminary.

The National Immigration Law Center (NILC) estimates that 600 jurisdictions limit their cooperation with ICE, in most cases because they do not want immigrants to fear the police or be deported for minor traffic offenses.

Homeland Security officials cautioned that the report offered only a snapshot of a week’s worth of detainers — requests from ICE to a law enforcement agency to hold an immigrant for up to 48 hours after they are released on bail so that immigration agents can take them into custody and seek to deport them.

The report did not identify the alleged criminals affected by the declined detainers, but officials said many had been arrested for serious crimes, including aggravated assault and homicide.

Most detainers were issued for citizens of Mexico, followed by Honduras.

Some local law enforcement agencies suggested Monday that the agency’s methodology is flawed. More than 60 percent of the declined detainers were from Travis County in Texas, which on Feb. 1 adopted a policy limiting its cooperation with ICE.

Major Wes Priddy, of the Travis County Sheriff’s Office, said the agency does detain criminals convicted of serious crimes for immigration officials.

But he said his department does not turn over people awaiting trial.

“We do honor ICE detainers. But we do it selectively and in a manner which we can abide by our policy,” Priddy said, adding that in the past, immigration officials have deported people before trial, depriving defendants of their day in court and, in some cases, denying closure to crime victims. “We want to make sure that justice is served on the local level as well.”

Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies for the Center for Immigration Studies, said the list is an attempt to pressure localities to change their policies and inform the public that sanctuary cities sometimes release serious criminals.

When he signed the Jan. 25 executive order intensifying deportation efforts, Trump said jurisdictions put U.S. citizens at risk by releasing criminals who should be deported and who, in some cases, commit additional crimes after being released from jail.

 

[kscarbel2]

BBC  /  March 22, 2017

Two Central American-born students are in custody after a 14-year-old girl was attacked last week at Rockville High School in Maryland.

Henry Sanchez, 18, and Jose Montano, 17, were charged in the alleged assault, which the victim said took place in a boy's toilet at the beginning of the school day last Thursday.

The boys are in the country illegally.

Maryland school officials played down the immigration angle.

"We would like to change the conversation," said Jack Smith, superintendent of the 159,000-student Montgomery County Public Schools system.

"Some have tried to make this into a question and issue of immigration [because it is]... but we serve every student who walks through our doors," he added.

(Why are Maryland taxpayers funding the education of illegal immigrants?)

On Tuesday night, demonstrators outside the school chanted "safety not sanctuary", a reference to sanctuary cities, where local authorities turn a blind eye to residents without legal US residency.

Montgomery County Police Capt James Humphries said the rape victim was a US citizen.

A spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confirmed that border agents had encountered Henry Sanchez near the US-Mexico border in Texas last August.

He was freed and ordered to appear before an immigration judge, but no court date was set.

Henry Sanchez spent 17 years of his life in his native Guatemala.

Jose Montano lived in El Salvador for 16 years.

Earlier his week, Maryland lawmakers in the Democratic-controlled legislature passed a bill designed to prevent police from stopping people to ask about their immigration status.

[BillyT]

Don't begin to know the answer to the immigrant situation! A south Florida cop pulled over two of the 911 terrorists. They had no ID of any kind! He let them go! I heard that when he heard what they did, he committed suicide! Sounds a little far fetched! Anyone know if that's true? Anyway if they had been detained.

What the members say is 100 percent true about it being easier to go into Canada then to get back into the U.S. I'm not anti American, but the Canadian customs inspectors all are " polite to a fault" and the American side not as much so! I will say that the first time I went In after 9 11, they unloaded my trailer and checked inside my cab ( with my permission) but everyone was overreacting ,with good reason after that tragedy! They charged the company 150.00 for labor!

[kscarbel2]

U.S. attorney general: sanctuary cities may lose Justice Department grants

Reuters  /  March 27, 2017

U.S. cities that do not cooperate with federal immigration authorities may lose millions of dollars in grant money from the Justice Department, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said on Monday.

So-called "sanctuary cities" help illegal immigrants avoid deportation by limiting cooperation with federal agencies, often by refusing to notify U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) when they plan to release an illegal immigrant from incarceration.

President Donald Trump, who made a crackdown on illegal immigration a key part of his campaign, ordered the government to cut off funding to sanctuary jurisdictions in a Jan. 25 executive order.

"Failure to deport aliens who are convicted of criminal offenses puts whole communities at risk, especially immigrant communities in the very sanctuary jurisdictions that seek to protect the perpetrators," Sessions said at a White House news briefing.

The Justice Department grants typically are used to help police improve crime fighting techniques, buy new equipment and assist victims of crime.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has not yet named which jurisdictions they consider to be sanctuary cities but they include New York City and Los Angeles County, which all have policies that place restrictions on cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities.

Sessions may find his ability to influence local decision-making through the Justice Department's purse to be limited, because only a fraction of the Justice Department’s grant dollars flow directly to the cities and counties that determine whether to cooperate with federal immigration agents.

In the 2016 fiscal year, federal records show the Justice Department gave $1 billion to state governments and $430 million to nonprofit groups but only $136 million directly to city and county governments.

Session said the Justice Department plans to award $4.1 billion in grant money in the current fiscal year.

Sessions' statement drew swift pushback from New York state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who said his office would continue helping local governments "have the tools they need to protect their [illegal] immigrant communities."

NO SANCTUARY STATES

So far no state has adopted policies that prevent cooperation with immigration authorities.

Last week, Maryland's Democratic-controlled House of Delegates approved legislation to bar police statewide from checking the immigration status of individuals they arrest or from keeping them locked up longer than otherwise warranted at the request of federal agents seeking to deport them.

The state's Republican governor, Larry Hogan, has said he would veto the bill.

"I strongly urge our nation's states and cities and counties to consider carefully the harm they are doing to their citizens by refusing to enforce our immigration laws and to rethink these policies," Sessions said.

He gave as an example Kate Steinle, who was shot to death in San Francisco two years ago by illegal immigrant Francisco Sanchez, who had already been deported five times and had seven felony convictions. Trump also cited the Steinle case during his campaign.

The city had released Sanchez from custody in another case even though immigration authorities had filed a request that he be kept in custody until they could pick him up for removal, Sessions said.

San Francisco may not be affected by the new Justice Department restrictions, as the city and county did not receive any funding from the department in the most recent fiscal year.

However, Sessions' order could impact other sanctuary jurisdictions. New Orleans, Philadelphia, Chicago and New York City, which were all singled out as “possibly” noncompliant by the Justice Department’s inspector general last year, collectively received $15 million in the past fiscal year for projects including crime prevention, and a missing children’s task force.

According to Trump’s executive order, Sessions would have to wait until the Homeland Security Department determines what constitutes a "sanctuary city" before he could decide whether to restrict funding. DHS last week published a list of 118 cities and counties that it deems uncooperative, although the agency has not finalized the list.

[kscarbel2]

Evidence of how convoluted and hopeless things have become.

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Seattle sues Trump administration over threat to 'sanctuary' cities

Reuters  /  March 29, 2017

The city of Seattle sued U.S. President Donald Trump's administration on Wednesday over its executive order seeking to withhold federal funds from "sanctuary cities," arguing it amounted to unconstitutional federal coercion.

Seattle Mayor Ed Murray says the Constitution forbade the federal government from pressuring cities, “yet that is exactly what the president’s order does. Once again, this new administration has decided to bully.”

“Things like grants helping us with child sex trafficking are not connected to immigration,” Murray said, adding: "It is time for cities to stand up and ask the courts to put an end to the anxiety in our cities and the chaos in our system."

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions threatened on Monday to strip Justice Department grants from cities and other local governments that choose to shield illegal immigrants from deportation efforts.

Trump, who made tougher immigration enforcement a cornerstone of his campaign, directed the government in his Jan. 25 executive order to cut off funding to sanctuary jurisdictions. That order has yet to be put into effect, but Sessions' announcement seemed to be the first step in doing so.

Trump administration officials say the immigration crackdown is focused on illegal immigrants convicted of serious crimes.

Responding to the Seattle lawsuit, a U.S. Justice Department representative said in a statement: "Failure to deport [illegal] aliens who are convicted of criminal offenses makes our nation less safe by putting dangerous criminals back on our streets."

Seattle’s action was the latest legal salvo over the Trump immigration order from local governments across the country, including the city of San Francisco and California’s Santa Clara County.

Police agencies in dozens of "sanctuary" cities, including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, have barred their officers from routinely checking on immigration status when making arrests or traffic stops. They have also refused to detain people longer than otherwise warranted at the request of federal agents seeking to deport them.

Supporters of the policy argue that enlisting police cooperation in rounding up immigrants for removal undermines communities' trust in local police, particularly among Latinos.

Murray said the goal of Seattle's lawsuit was to have the courts declare that federal authorities “cannot force our local police officials to be involved in federal immigration activities.”

[kscarbel2]

3 illegal immigrant MS-13 gang members charged in Virginia teenager’s death

ABC 13 WSET  /  March 31, 2017

Three MS-13 gang members (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS-13) have been arrested and charged in the death of 17-year-old Raymond Wood, Bedford County Sheriff Mike Brown announced Friday afternoon.

Sheriff Brown didn't say how Wood died but said it had a connection to "narcotics-related activity."

The motorist who found Wood's body on Roaring Run Rd. saw an older-model Honda Accord with one occupant drove by at a high rate of speed towards Rt. 221.

The responding deputy met the Honda near Virginia Memorial Park on Rt. 221. The driver of the Honda identified himself as Victor Rodas, 19, of Lynchburg. While talking with Rodas, Sheriff Brown says the deputy learned that Rodas was an illegal alien. Rodas was subsequently detained and taken to the Bedford County Sheriff's Office.

Sheriff Brown says U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was contacted Tuesday morning.

Also Tuesday morning, the Bedford County Sheriff's Office learned there was report for a missing 17-year-old male from Lynchburg filed earlier that morning.

Later Tuesday afternoon, the Medical Examiner identified the body found on Roaring Run Rd. as the missing 17-year-old Raymond Wood.

Sheriff Brown says it was determined Wood did not leave Lynchburg voluntarily.

Just after 8 a.m. Tuesday, a local Bedford County resident called the Bedford County Sheriff's Office to report that two Hispanic males approached him and asked him to make a call for them with his cell phone.

After the phone call, a small sports car, driven by a Hispanic male, showed up and picked the two males up. A short time later, Sheriff Brown says the same vehicle returned and two more Hispanic males appeared out of hiding and left at a high rate of speed.

The same resident said the car headed towards Lynchburg on Rt. 221.

Dispatchers subsequently put out a description of the car and minutes later deputies found the car on Rt. 221 and stopped it on Cottontown Road. in Forest.

The vehicle was occupied by three Hispanic males. Two of the three occupants in the car, including Jose Coreas-Ventura, who is wanted for a murder in Maryland, were determined to be illegal aliens.

The three occupants, along with the vehicle were transported to the Bedford County Sheriff's Office.

On Tuesday afternoon, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrived at Bedford County and detained Rodas and Lisandro Vasquez, 24 and transported them to Roanoke City Jail. Coreas-Ventura was taken to Blue Ridge Regional Jail and is being held on the Maryland murder charge.

The driver of the vehicle was not detained.

All three detained males are known MS-13 gang members and illegal aliens, Sheriff Brown says.

Authorities obtained second-degree murder warrants for 19-year-old Rodas and 21-year-old Corea-Ventura, both of Lynchburg, and 24-year-old Vasquez of Maryland.

The sheriff said this investigation is still on going.

A few questions that remain are; what we still don't know is why was Wood killed? Why the is the charge second-degree murder as opposed to first-degree murder?

[BillyT]

Right in Other Dogs " neck of the woods"  I used to spend the night in the Food Lion market parking lot off 29 in Lynchburg in the early 2000s pure country, no noticeable gang presence! MS 13 is the worst of the worst! Just saw the video of the stroke who hit the church bus in Texas weaving all over the road, looked like a dually PU!

[kscarbel2]

 

[kscarbel2]

Detained [illegal] immigrants launch hunger strike in Washington state

Reuters  /  April 11, 2017

Hundreds of [illegal alien] detainees at an immigration holding center in Washington state began refusing meals in a hunger strike to protest conditions at the facility and delayed immigration hearings [humorous given they are uninvited guests].

A group of about 100 detainees at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington, refused their lunches on Monday, with 300 others joining the protest that night and the following morning.

The 1,575-bed facility houses immigrants awaiting hearings or deportation after being arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.

The Tacoma protesters' demands include expedited legal proceedings and higher-quality food.

Seattle ICE spokeswoman Rose Richeson said the agency was aware of the situation in Tacoma but said it would not count as a hunger strike under ICE guidelines until it had lasted at least 72 hours.

Any detainees that do cross the 72-hour limit can be isolated and could eventually be ordered by a court into medical care [at U.S. taxpayer expense], according to ICE guidelines.

Richeson declined to comment on demands by the protesting detainees.

[kscarbel2]

Trump order to target foreign worker visa program

BBC  /  April 18, 2017

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to review a temporary visa program used to place foreign workers in high-skilled US jobs.

The order directs agencies to enforce government rules on excluding foreign contractors from bids for government projects.

He signed the so-called Buy America, Hire America order on a visit to a tool factory in the US state of Wisconsin.

The order is aimed at fulfilling his "America First" campaign promises.

But it falls way short of Mr Trump's campaign pledge to end the H-1B visa program.

“I will end forever the use of the H-1B as a cheap labor program, and institute an absolute requirement to hire American workers first for every visa and immigration program,” Trump says on his website. “No exceptions.”

(https://www.donaldjtrump.com/press-releases/donald-j.-trump-position-on-visas)

Mr Trump will direct the departments of State, Justice, Homeland Security and Labour to propose reforms to the scheme, which allows American employers to bring foreign workers to fill US jobs.

"With this action we are sending a powerful signal to the world that were going to defend our workers, protect our jobs and finally put America first," he said at the Snap-On Inc headquarters in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Mr Trump's wife Melania used an H-1B visa in her early days as a model in New York, says the BBC's Gary O'Donoghue in Washington.

The administration's goal is to ensure such visas are given to the most qualified or highest-paid applicant, according to two senior officials.

The four departments will then submit their findings to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and release a report in 220 days.

Last year, Disney was accused of taking advantage of the H-1B visa scheme to lay off American technology workers, who were forced to train their foreign replacements.

The government allows 85,000 immigrants each year through the H-1B visa program, which is reserved for foreign nationals in "specialty occupations" and is largely used by the technology industry.

The government uses a lottery system to grant 65,000 visas every year and randomly distributes an additional 20,000 to graduate students.

In recent years, the US has been overwhelmed by applications for the program.

But the number of applicants fell to 199,000 this year, down from 236,000 in 2016, according to US Citizenship and Immigration Services.

A senior Trump administration official argued on Monday that the H-1B visas are supposed to be awarded to highly qualified workers, but often bring in less skilled employees who earn lower wages than those they are meant to replace.

Under the new order, the H-1B visa would no longer serve as a cheap way for companies to replace US workers, the official added.

Tech companies contend the program is used to recruit top talent, but some of the H-1B visas are also used for outsourcing firms. Critics say these undercut unemployed Americans and fill lower-level information technology jobs.

Indian nationals are the largest group of recipients of the H-1B visas issued each year.

More than 15% of Facebook's US employees last year used a temporary work visa, according to a Reuters analysis of US Labor Department filings.

The executive order will also focus on reviewing waivers in free-trade agreements and whether they allow foreign firms to undermine American companies in the global government procurement market.

"If it turns out America is a net loser because of those free-trade agreement waivers, which apply to almost 60 countries, these waivers may be promptly renegotiated or revoked," a second official said.

[kscarbel2]

What we want to say to the world is, please come lawfully.

Wait your turn, make your application and it will be evaluated.

And if you're accepted, come. But don't come illegally.

Jeff Sessions

.

 

[kscarbel2]

Trump, GOP senators introduce bill to slash legal immigration levels

The Washington Post  /  August 2, 2017

President Trump on Wednesday endorsed a new bill in the Senate aimed at slashing legal immigration levels over a decade, a goal Trump endorsed on the campaign trail that would represent a profound change to U.S. immigration policies that have been in place for half a century. 

Trump appeared with Sens. Tom Cotton (Ark.) and David Perdue (Ga.) at the White House to unveil a modified version of a bill the senators first introduced in April to cut immigration by half from the current level of more than 1 million green cards per year granting foreigners permanent legal residence in the United States.

The outlines of the legislation reflect the aims Trump touted on the campaign trail, when he argued that the rapid growth of immigration over the past half century had harmed job opportunities for American workers and led to risks to national security. Trump had met twice previously at the White House with Cotton and Perdue to discuss the details of their legislation, which is titled the Reforming American Immigration for Strong Employment (RAISE) Act.

“This would be the most significant reform to the immigration system in half a century,” said Trump, flanked by the senators in the Roosevelt Room. “It is a historic and very vital proposal.”

The legislation would mark a major shift in U.S. immigration laws, which over the past half century have permitted a growing number of immigrants to come to the country to work or join relatives already living here legally.

To achieve the reductions and create what they call a “merit-based system,” Cotton and Perdue are taking aim at green cards for extended family members of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents, limiting such avenues for grown children and siblings. Minor children and spouses would still be eligible to apply for green cards.

The senators also propose to end a visa diversity lottery that has awarded 50,000 green cards a year, mostly to areas in the world that traditionally do not have as many immigrants to the United States, including Africa. And the bill caps refugee levels at 50,000 per year.

Under the bill, the new immigration system would award points to green card applicants based on such factors as English ability, education levels and job skills. The senators said the proposal is modeled after immigration programs in Canada and Australia.

Cotton said that while immigrant rights groups might view the current system as a “symbol of America virtue and generosity,” he sees it “as a symbol we’re not committed to working-class Americans and we need to change that.”

Trump's appearance with the senators came as the White House moved to elevate immigration back to the political forefront after the president suffered a major defeat when the Senate narrowly rejected his push to repeal the Affordable Care Act. The president made a speech last Friday on Long Island in which he pushed Congress to devote more resources to fighting illegal immigration, including transnational gangs.

The event on Wednesday illustrated the president's efforts to broaden his push to reform border control laws beyond illegal immigration. Trump called the changes to legal immigration necessary to protect American workers, including racial minorities, from rising competition for lower-paid jobs.

“Among those who have been hit hardest in recent years are immigrants and minority workers competing for jobs against brand new arrivals,” Trump said. “It has not been fair to our people, our citizens and our workers.”

But the bill's prospects are dim in the Senate, where Republicans hold a narrow majority and would have difficulty getting 60 votes to prevent a filibuster. The legislation is expected to face fierce resistance from congressional Democrats and immigrant rights groups and opposition from business leaders and some moderate Republicans in states with large immigrant populations.

Opponents of slashing immigration levels said immigrants help boost the economy and that studies have shown they commit crimes at lower levels than do native-born Americans.

“This is just a fundamental restructuring of our immigration system which has huge implications for the future,” said Kevin Appleby, the senior director of international migration policy for the Center for Migration Studies. “This is part of a broader strategy by this administration to rid the country of low-skilled immigrants they don't favor in favor of immigrants in their image.”

Other critics said the RAISE Act, which maintains the annual cap for employment-based green cards at the current level of 140,000, would not increase skilled immigration and could make it more difficult for employers to hire the workers they need. And they noted that Canada and Australia admit more than twice the number of immigrants to their countries as the United States does currently when judged as a percentage of their overall population levels.

"Just because you have a PhD doesn't mean you're necessarily more valuable to the U.S. economy," said Stuart Anderson, executive director of the National Foundation for American Policy. "The best indication of whether a person is employable is if someone wants to hire them."

[kscarbel2]

I saw this today:

"calling illegal aliens undocumented immigrants is like calling drug dealers unlicensed pharmacists"

[kscarbel2]

The new America - Who’s in control ???

(The authorities are one or more steps behind....reactive rather than proactive)

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Notorious gang 'behead man' near Washington

AFP  /  November 22, 2017

Washington (AFP) - The ultra-violent Latino street gang MS-13 that President Donald Trump has vowed to wipe out beheaded a man and cut out his heart before burying him in a park near the US capital.

The victim was stabbed more than 100 times in Wheaton, Maryland just outside Washington DC, according the Montgomery County Police Department.

Police found the body buried in a grave, deep in the woods of Wheaton Regional Park, that the attackers dug before the slaying. The investigation began in early September, when detectives spoke to an informant who said he knew of an MS-13 murder that occurred in the spring of this year in the park. The informant led detectives to the gravesite. The remains were exhumed and examined by the Maryland Medical Examiner’s Office.

Authorities have so far arrested Miguel Angel Lopez-Abrego, 19, on first-degree murder.

Lopez-Abrego is a citizen of El Salvador, is in the United States illegally and is currently in immigration proceedings, officials from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Wednesday.

Investigators say Lopez-Abrego helped dig the grave and “waited near the edge of the wood line with a handheld ­walkie-talkie radio to alert the other suspects of the victim’s arrival.” He also used a 15-inch knife in the attack.

Charging documents added the victim was decapitated and had his heart removed from his chest, in an attack planned for two weeks and involving up to 10 people.

The victim was a Hispanic man, about 5-foot-2 and weighing 126 pounds. He had short, dark brown hair and was wearing a gray sweatshirt with “First United Methodist Church Laurel” written on the upper left side.

On Sept. 29, patrol officers stopped a car driven by another MS-13 member in which Lopez-Abrego was a passenger. Detectives interviewed Lopez-Abrego, but he denied any involvement in the park murder. Montgomery police tried to find Lopez-Abrego after that interview but couldn’t. Law enforcement agents, looking for a different MS-13 suspect from Maryland — Milton Portillo-Rodriguez, accused of a murder in Anne Arundel County — tracked that man to Avery County, North Carolina. On November 4, a group of 10 agents from the U.S. Marshals Service and the local sheriff’s office arrived at a condominium. A person — but not the suspect — answered the door. The deputies and agents found Portillo-Rodriguez, Lopez-Abrego and a third MS-13 member from Maryland attempting to hide inside. The third suspect is accused in a different attack in another secluded part of the same Wheaton park. In that incident, as many as 15 assailants surrounded two victims, punching them, kicking them and striking them with large tree limbs, according to arrest records. The victims were hospitalized but survived. Police identified the suspect in that assault as Edwin Ruiz-Urrutia, 19. He is being held on no-bond status in Montgomery County on charges including ­attempted second-degree murder and first-degree assault. Avery County Sheriff Kevin Frye said the three gang members found in the apartment hadn’t made much of an impact. “They were new arrivals, and no one really knew who they were.”

MS-13, also known as the Mara Salvatrucha gang, is estimated to have 10,000 members in the United States.

The gang works as an umbrella grouping of units known in Spanish as "clicas," some of which are larger and more violent than others.

It has become a focus of Trump's crackdown on crime, which he claims has surged as a result of borders easily crossed by gang members.

Most members trace their heritage to El Salvador, Honduras or Guatemala, and among the members there are as many immigrants as there are US citizens. Many were born in the United States.

The brutal slaying at the Wheaton park is part of a resurgence of killings in the Washington region that police and prosecutors attribute to MS-13.

In one case, assailants armed with knives lured a 34-year-old to his already-dug grave. A 22-year-old also was taken to a wooded area and ordered to his knees before he was shot in the face. And in another case, an 18-year-old was ambushed near a stream, stabbed and stoned before he died under a bridge of the Capital Beltway.

Authorities last week announced they had netted 214 members of the gang in a month-long nationwide sweep.

More than half of those picked up in the action which was led by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, were arrested on immigration violations. But 93 were dealt federal criminal charges including murder, robbery, drugs and racketeering.

[kscarbel2]

Terrorist-like beheadings and cutting out hearts?  An ISIS-like organization out of control in our backyard.

One is forced to ponder, are your children safe out and about alone?

Many in the country illegally (but not all), the government can't go after people it doesn't know are here (hence the reason for ridding the country of illegal aliens and eliminating so-called sanctuary cities).

[kscarbel2]

The first time the media has used the term “illegal immigrant” in quite a while.

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Illegal immigrant indicted on federal charges after San Francisco murder acquittal

Reuters  /  December 6, 2017

WASHINGTON - A grand jury on Tuesday indicted on federal charges an illegal immigrant from Mexico who was acquitted last week of murder by a San Francisco jury, the U.S. Justice Department said in a statement.

Jose Ines Garcia Zarate was indicted on charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm, and for being an illegal immigrant in possession of a firearm.

Garcia Zarate has been deported to Mexico five times since first entering the United States as a juvenile.

[kscarbel2]

Trump derides protections for immigrants from ‘sh*thole’ countries

The Washington Post  /  January 11, 2018

President Trump grew frustrated with lawmakers Thursday in the Oval Office when they discussed protecting immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and African countries as part of a bipartisan immigration deal, according to several people briefed on the meeting.

“Why are we having all these people from sh*thole countries come here?” Trump said, according to these people, referring to countries mentioned by the lawmakers.

Trump then suggested that the United States should instead bring more people from countries such as Norway, whose prime minister he met with Wednesday. The president, according to a White House official, also suggested he would be open to more immigrants from Asian countries because he felt they help the United States economically.

In addition, the president singled out Haiti, telling lawmakers that immigrants from that country must be left out of any deal, these people said.

“Why do we need more Haitians?” Trump said, according to people familiar with the meeting. “Take them out.” 

Lawmakers were taken aback by the comments, according to people familiar with their reactions. Sens. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) and Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) had proposed cutting the visa lottery program by 50 percent and then prioritizing countries already in the system, a White House official said. 

A White House spokesman defended Trump’s position on immigration without directly addressing his remarks. White House officials did not dispute the account. 

 “Certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries, but President Trump will always fight for the American people,” spokesman Raj Shah said in a statement issued after The Washington Post first reported Trump’s remarks. “. . . Like other nations that have merit-based immigration, President Trump is fighting for permanent solutions that make our country stronger by welcoming those who can contribute to our society, grow our economy and assimilate into our great nation.”

Outlining a potential bipartisan deal, the lawmakers discussed restoring protections for countries that have been removed from the temporary protected status (TPS) program while committing $1.5 billion for a border wall and making changes to the visa lottery system. Lawmakers mentioned that members of the Congressional Black Caucus had requested that some African countries be included in a deal, according to a White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a private conversation.

The exchange was “salty” on all sides, this person said, with the president growing profane and animated while discussing immigrants from other countries. “It did not go well,” this person said. 

The administration announced this week that it was removing TPS status for citizens of El Salvador. Haitians were added to the TPS program because of a strong earthquake that devastated Haiti eight years ago.

Trump had seemed amenable to a deal earlier in the day during phone calls with lawmakers, aides said, but shifted his position in the meeting and did not seem interested in the bipartisan compromise.

The scene played out hurriedly in the morning. Graham and Durbin thought they would be meeting with Trump alone and were surprised to find immigration hard-liners such as Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) at the meeting. White House and Capitol Hill aides say Stephen Miller, the president’s top immigration official, was concerned there could be a deal proposed that was too liberal and made sure conservative lawmakers were present.

After the meeting, Marc Short, Trump’s director of legislative affairs, said the White House was nowhere near a bipartisan agreement on immigration. 

“We still think we can get there,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at the daily White House news briefing.

[TS7]

So was the question answered? 

[kscarbel2]

It's a very good question.

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In 1932, President Hoover and the State Department essentially shut down immigration during the Great Depression as immigration went from 236,000 in 1929 to 23,000 in 1933. This was accompanied by voluntary repatriation to Europe and Mexico, and coerced repatriation and deportation of between 500,000 and 2 million Mexican Americans, mostly citizens, in the Mexican Repatriation.

Total immigration in the decade of 1931 to 1940 was 528,000 averaging less than 53,000 a year.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_laws_concerning_immigration_and_naturalization_in_the_United_States

The National Origins Formula was an American system of immigration quotas, used between 1921 and 1965, which restricted immigration on the basis of existing proportions of the population. It aimed to reduce the overall number of unskilled immigrants, to allow families to re-unite, and to prevent immigration from changing the ethnic distribution of the population.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Origins_Formula