Scott Doyle Verified

Not sure if there's been anything on PegNews about the recent announcement, but per this DMN article:

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in North Texas will no longer detain most illegal immigrants arrested for Class C misdemeanors, citing a dramatic increase in referrals and limited resources.

10 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Michael McCullough Verified

Minnie,

...council member Tim O’Hare attributed all the problems of the City of Farmers Branch to undocumented citizens.

O'Hare attributed all of the problems of Farmers Branch to "undocumented citizens?"

Citation, please.

Also, where did you come with the phrase undocumented citizens." They are not citizens, for Pete's sake! They are here illegally.

*Uniting Farmers Branch is a non-partisan, multiethnic group of residents...."

The organization’s mission includes ... seeking to unite, rather than divide.

...

“We worked with LULAC, ACLU and MELDEF who brought the three lawsuits against the City of Farmers Branch."

1. If they're seeking to unite, why did they bring 3 lawsuits?

2. They're "non-partisan" but they've worked with LULAC, ACLU, and MELDEF? I've got some sad news for you, Minnie: those organizations range from left-wing to downright seditionist.

Here's a quote from the founder of MALDEF. It's all over the internet (see http://boards.brownpride.com/showthre... , for example).

Mario Obledo(1998 Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient and former head of Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund—MALDEF) “California is going to be a Mexican state, we are going to control all the institutions. If people don’t like it they should leave.”

Yeah, that's pretty non-partisan, isn't it?

MALDEF and LULAC are both associated with the movement to create a new Mexican state called Aztlan that will consist of every American state from Texas to California (see http://www.sonorannews.com/aztlan.html , for example).

Minnie, I appreciate the fact that Pegasus news is open about the bias of their reporters. However, that doesn't relieve you of the burden to actually report the facts. Part of my duties at work include technical research and writing. If I conveniently left out facts or manipulated the facts like you guys do, I would be out of a job.

Minnie, do your research and report the news. Being a reporter means more than subject-verb agreement. It's fine to say in your article that you disagree with what certain groups or individuals are doing, but it's not okay to leave out things that don't support your spin or to manipulate facts.

-Mike

8 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Michael McCullough Verified

fakelord:

[EdWeirdness] uses facts, I do to but am much angrier at the problems unfairly imposed on all legal citizens of my country. The greatest that has ever existed in the history of this planet.

Oh, good grief. Your forgot to say that Amerika is stoopid and that George McChimpyBushburton is Hitler.

Have you read what life was like for Jews and many other under Hitler? Do you know that Stalin intentionally starved or otherwise killed millions? Do you know what it's like to be Christian -- or even a regular citizen -- in China? Do you know what life is like for non-Muslims in Muslim countries? Heck, do you know what it's like to be a woman in a Muslim country or a Christian in Sudan? Do you realize that anti-semitism are on the rise everywhere, especially in Europe. Take a trip to Mexico and see what real poverty is.

Yeah, it really is a lot worse here in Amerika than in those places.

Your post is a perfect example of why conservatives consider liberals to be whiny and out of touch with reality.

Life is really good here in the United States. If you lived in China and had made a post critical of the Chinese government, you would be in jail right now.

-Mike

8 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Scott Doyle Verified

I'm wondering why this bounced straight from municipal to federal? What happened to the state also having a say in how we handle border-jumpers? Call me conservative, but damn...why outsource the issue to people who aren't in the thick of it and don't have the resources to handle it?

Not that I agree with the Farmers Branch approach, but I'm obviously on board with Irving's. Is anybody in the state legislature 'radical' enough to talk about how we can create resources on our own?

8 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Michael McCullough Verified

Scott Doyle:

I'm wondering why this bounced straight from municipal to federal?

Because the activists know that the federal government is doing little or nothing to combat illegal immigration -- or "undocumented citizens" if you happen to be Minnie.

If the next administration and congress get tough on illegal immigration, then you can bet that the same activists will whine that the feds should butt out and leave it to the states and municipalities to handle "undocumented citizens."

-Mike

8 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Michael McCullough Verified

Blair Lovern:

Illegal entry into the U.S. is a misdemeanor.

You are correct, and a first-time offense is punishable by a fine ranging from $50 to $250 and up to 6 months in jail. However, the crime is little-enforced and in sanctuary cities like Dallas city employees are not allowed to report illegal aliens -- er, "undocumented citizens" if you're Minnie -- to the federal government. See http://www.ojjpac.org/sanctuary.asp for an informal list of sanctuary cities.

It is illegal for cities to do this because it is in direct violation of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) passed in 1996 that requires that requires local governments to cooperate with federal official regarding illegal immigration. See http://www.uscis.gov/propub/ProPubVAP... to view the 1996 act.

Of course, you won't see any activists complaining about sanctuary cities and asking that they enforce federal law.

However, it is a felony for someone to re-enter the US after being deported. See http://immigration.findlaw.com/immigr... . Do you care to guess how often that law is enforced?

-Mike

8 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Michael McCullough Verified

Scott Doyle:

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in North Texas will no longer detain most illegal immigrants arrested for Class C misdemeanors, citing a dramatic increase in referrals and limited resources.

Is it any wonder that the activists want to leave enforcement of "undocumented citizens" to the feds?

Thank you, Minnie, for introducing me to the phrase "undocumented citizens." That's the funniest thing I've heard in months.

-Mike

8 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Michael McCullough Verified

Mike Orren:

It was actually this story:

http://www.pegasusnews.com/news/2008/...

Catherine was not being dishonest in her reporting but she did not exactly report the whole story. It's a long, involved process before a lessor would be fined $500.

The link to the ordinance is here:

http://www.supportfarmersbranch.com/O...

Links are good.

I agree that controlling illegal immigration -- "undocumented citizens" per Minnie -- should not be a function of a local government except to the extent required by federal law as I noted (and, ahem, linked to) in another post. However, the federal government is failing to do its job of controlling the borders. If the feds don't do their job, then local government sometimes has to step in and carry the burden.

In fact, according to the Founding Fathers, protecting our borders is one of the few jobs that the federal government is supposed to do. Now they're in our faces about everything but enforcing the borders.

By the way, I was in a class at a church in Farmers Branch last Sunday afternoon because my wife is godmother to her nephew who is taking CCD there. The class is 75% non-English speaking and I would bet my next paycheck that most of them are illegal.

I was thinking about the flurry of posting this time last week and still stand by my opinion on how to address the problem: (1) close the borders; (2) once the borders are closed, provide a reasonable path to citizenship.

The nun, who was born in Mexico, told our class before Christmas that, if they want to live in America, they need to learn English and integrate with other Americans. I've never heard so much groaning in my life. I compared their response with that of the Vietnamese refugees who flooded my high school in the late 70s and the two who became the valedictorian and salutatorian of our graduating class despite not knowing a word of English when they stepped off the boat a few years earlier. Different cultures.

-Mike

8 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Michael McCullough Verified

CastleHills

Wow. Michael, I'm feel so bad for you and the world you live in, where non-English=bad=illegal.

I never said that not speaking English should be illegal. However, I don't see how you can possibly argue the point that refusing to learn English when you come to America won't keep people from reaching their full potential.

I taught ESL classes for years -- mostly to illegal aliens. It wasn't always easy for them, but they knew that if they wanted a better life, they would have to learn English. Strangely enough, the classes were about 75% female. The women recognized that learning English would benefit them. The husbands didn't want to be bothered.

I got hammered on this last week, but when my company sent me to live in the Laurentian mountains north of Montreal for about half a year, I took the effort to learn Quebecois? Why? Because I knew that I would be hindered in a French-speaking (if you can call Quebecois French) if I couldn't converse with the the people that I needed to talk to.

My wife is of Hispanic descent, and though the most recent immigrant in her family tree was a grandfather who came here as a baby, she did not learn to speak English until she started school. She was lost and humiliated. Is that what you want for immigrant children to feel when they're thrust into an English-speaking society?

Liberals like to position themselves as standing up for the oppressed. However, telling Hispanics that they don't have to learn English is very, very cruel.

It's probably a lot like being a woman in your household.

My wife would find your statement very, very funny.

-Mike

8 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Michael McCullough Verified

jtmbls,

Mike - Just out of curiosity, how did your wife feel about the comparison you made earlier about the difference between the Hispanic and Vietnamese cultures, her being of Hispanic discent and all?

She is far, far more critical than I am. Her family moved to Farmers Branch around 1960 and were the first Hispanics in their neighborhood. Her parents spoke English fluently yet only spoke Spanish at home.

My wife did not know a word of English when she started first grade. She had to endure the ridicule of children and teachers alike for not being able to speak English. Her parents wouldn't help her with homework and lied about her age to put her to work in a sewing factory at age 13.

My wife vowed to be a different kind of parent, and she is. Her daughter refused Hispanic-only scholarships to college because she considers race-based scholarships to be, well, racist. I'm proud of her.

I fume when those defending illegal immigration say that "illegal immigrants do the jobs that Americans don't want to do." It is perilously close to the arguments made for defending slavery.

I want something better for people who come to the United States. Our current policy of not encouraging them to learn English guarantees that they will be limited to the most menial of jobs.

Those on the left will say that the comparison I made (and that my wife makes, too) is racist. It's not -- it's reality. There is an SAT-learning center just off of I-75 near Beltline. It's on the northeastern edge of a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood yet the sign is in English -- and Chinese. It makes me sad.

8 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )