Tag Archives: immigration

national news

ICE is making me very angry!

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The more images I see of immigration thugs roughing up American citizens while searching for people to deport to Timbuktu, the angrier I become.

The testimony of Americans victimized by these goons is piling up. They have killed at least two Americans who were protesting Immigration and Customs Enforcement tactics. One of them, Alex Pretti, was shot at least 10 times by ICE goons while lying face down on the pavement. He was motionless.

These tales of horror are going on unabated. The president of the United States is saying nothing about the mistreatment being leveled against U.S. citizens. Donald Trump and his chief aides are condemning the protesters who, I should mention, are acting within the rights of free speech and expression guarenteed by the U.S. Constitution.

Yet this repression continues. ICE is kidnapping children, separating them from their parents. ICE agents dressed like hooded and masked goons are injuring Americans because they are operating with the full endorsement of the dipshit in chief.

I am not one to march in the street to protest. I prefer to make my protests known through this venue. I speak often and with considerable passion about what I perceive to be the wrong direction we are heading. If I see more ICE continue to harangue Americans in this horrific fashion, I just might be tempted to join a protest against ICE.

These goons have gone too far.

crime news

It’s the masks, man … the masks

Of all the issues surrounding the deployment of federal goons disguised as immigration agents, one issue stands out as particularly troubling to this American patriot.

It’s the use of masks to hide the identity of these brutes as they arrest folks on suspicion that they might be here illegally or worse, up to no good at all.

I heard a Donald Trump administration official explain the reason for the masks, which generally are pullover cloths meant to cover all but the eyes. You’ve seen ’em, right? They cover the faces of heavily armed men who are packing guns, stun devices, cuffs and/or zip ties and are wearing flak jackets under their camo shirts. They wear the masks to protect officers against angry protesters,  the explanation goes.

They present a frightening profile of individuals on orders from the top of the federal chain of command to round up crooks, killers and assorted bad guys. Except too many of them have been law-abiding U.S. citizens. And, yes, a couple of them have died after being shot by these goons.

I am trying to square this method of policing by intimidation with what I see every day in the North Texas community where I live and in neighboring cities and towns throughout the area. I see officers engaging in what they call “community policing,” where police interact one-on-one with residents, building trust between taxpayers and The Man. Princeton police engage in a regular session that includes walks through neighborhoods with residents, giving them a chance to ask questions of the cops.

I want to draw that parallel because we are told that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are being deployed to “enforce the law.” Their tactics, though, run totally counter to the type of police work I see almost daily in the city where I live. We’re on a first-name basis with many of the police who patrol our streets. In places at this moment like Minneapolis, ICE agents are hiding behind masks … and presenting an image of intimidation and fear.

The ICE presence is, to say the least, an astonishingly bad look for the agency and the officers who now are feeling the rage of a community under siege.

crime news

Hold it, masked men!

Ask yourself this question, which I believe is pertinent to the issues discussion we are having these days in the U.S. of A.

How would I feel if I were stopped by a burly dude, armed to the teeth, wearing a flak jacket, with the word “ICE” emblazoned on his chest … and all the while he is hiding his face behind a pullover mask that only reveals his eyes?

My first response? I would be scared feces-less at the sight. I wouldn’t know what to say to any question this fellow might pose.

Now, look, under normal circumstances I couldn’t care less what a law enforcement professional is wearing. These days it’s different, so I am going to comment briefly on the public relations image these ICE agents are presenting to a public that has grown angry at their presence.

ICE stands for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It has become a stand-alone word, kinda like MAGA and FUBAR.

These agents charged with finding undocumented immigrants, arresting them and then deporting them present a frightening image not just to those on their target list but to anyone, even those with nothing to fear.

It’s the masks, man, that give these guys their intimidating image.

I guess it must be the type of image Donald Trump wants to project, given his own stated admiration for world leaders who govern with an iron hand. He wishes he could do so in the United States, except for the Constitution that limits the power of the president.

As one of millions of Americans who are paying for this dog-and-pony show, I just have to declare my own disgust at the image these ICE agents are projecting while terrorizing fellow human beings. Those who are being terrorized deserve to see the faces of those who are bullying them.

national news

Immigration: way up in polling!

Here’s a news flash that ought to get immigrants’ heart pumping: a Gallup poll says 79% of Americans view immigration and immigrants favorably, compared to 64% a year ago.

Who knew?

I am the direct descendant of immigrants who came to this country in the early 20th century because they, along with millions of others, saw the United States as a place where dreams come true. Theirs did.

And yet, some folks in the Donald Trump administration believe immigrants are sullying the national culture. What the hell?

They aren’t just targeting undocumented immigrants. They want to slam the door in the faces of all foreign nationals who choose to become U.S. citizens. I shake my head in shame and wonderment … and ponder what my Mom’s parents would think of that.

I want to single out briefly my maternal grandmother. She was Yiayia to her 12 grandchildren. Hell, her children — Mom and her two brothers — even referred to her that way. She was as patriotic an American as you would find anywhere. She loved Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy. I am prepared to argue that Yiayia was the greatest American I’ve ever known … or ever will know.

She did not sully the character of this nation. She enhanced it! She enriched it! Yiayia and others who choose to live in the world’s most indispensable nation make it even greater than it was before they arrived here.

When I see poll results that tell me that Americans now view immigrants positively, I am heartened by a belief that most of us are rejecting the palaver being offered by Trump and his MAGA cult followers. America’s greatness can be seen every day in the faces of those who chose to seek a better life in the land that offered it to them.

national news

Give these residents a break!

I am overwhelmed by the desire to speak out on behalf of a group of U.S. residents who are getting the short shrift in the current kerfuffle over immigration.

They number in the hundreds of thousands. Maybe even the millions.

They are individuals who came into this country in the custody of parents who sneaked in illegally. Many of them were babies, infants who needed mama’s milk to sustain them. They grew into pre-teens, then teenagers, then young adults and finally into full-grown adult human beings able to — and willing and capable — to contribute to the only society they know.

They are de facto Americans.

Texas is home to many of these individuals. They pay their taxes. They excel academically. A good number of these de facto Americans finish at or near the top of their academic classes. They make good livings, raising their families.

According to many Americans, though, they’re criminals. Why? Because they remained in this country illegally. Donald Trump wants to round them up and deport them. But … to where? The country of their birth. Never mind that these U.S. residents know nothing of their birth nation.

These folks are called Dreamers. They are living their dream by making a life in a country far removed from the deprivation they would suffer at home. They deserve to be treated humanely by the powers that be, not cast off as rubble the way Trump and his MAGA goons want to do.

I see the likes of Trump hit man Steven Miller yammer about deporting criminals and I want to puke. Many of these individuals who draw the ire of Miller and his ilk are seeking a chance to make it right. They want to forge a clear path to either permanent U.S. residency or citizenship. Whether they obtain a green card or a U.S. passport doesn’t make a damn bit of difference to me.

I just want my government, which I pay for with my tax money, to show some heart and humanity to individuals many of whom have given more to the country of their choice than many of us have given to the country of our birth.

State news

Ex-governors relegated to obscurity

Texans elected two men to be their governor and they served, in retrospect, with considerable presence and gravitas.

George W. Bush and Rick Perry served back to back in the early 2000s. Bush got elected president in 2000 as Texas governor, then resigned to enter the White House. Perry, the lieutenant governor, succeeded Bush and served longer than any man in state history.

Let me be clear about one thing. I didn’t vote for either man. Looking back, though, I find them both to be men of considerable stature. What earned them this belated praise from little ol’ me? They both are right on immigration. They both have argued for reforming the nation’s immigration system. They have favored treating foreign-born Texas residents who entered the country as children as Texans. Perry and Bush both argued to allow those residents to enter Texas public universities as in-state students, thus, reducing their costs.

Both men espoused views on immigration that reflected their experiences governing a big, important border state. Perry ran for president in 2016 and was pilloried by the MAGA morons for actually speaking out in favor of the DACA program: Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals. This is an executive order from President Obama that granted amnesty from deportation for those who came here as children of undocumented immigrants, were raised in the United States and became de facto Americans who got educated, landed good jobs and paid taxes.

Perry did become energy secretary in Trump’s first go-round in the White House … and has said or done virtually nothing of significance ever since!

No one should doubt these men’s Republican credentials. Now, they’re considered RINOs — Republicans in name only — for reasons that baffle me.

legal news

Legal scholars got this one right

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A federal judge in Washington state has become the latest Man in the Moment by issuing a temporary halt to Donald Trump’s order ending birthright citizenship for anyone born in the United States of America.

I agree with U.S. District Judge John Coughenour, appointed to the federal bench by President Reagan. He called Trump’s order “blatantly unconstititutional.”

But hold on! He’s getting plenty of push back from conservative legal experts who are backing Trump’s decision.

One of them is Hans Von Spakovsky, who works for the Heritage Foundation. He said: “The 14th Amendment has two key clauses in it. One, you have to be born in the United States, but you also have to be subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. All those who push birthright citizenship just point to that first phrase and ignore the second,” he said. “I’ve done a lot of research on this. I’ve looked at the original passage of the 14th Amendment and what that phrase meant subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. According to the original sponsors of the 14th Amendment in Congress was that you owed your political allegiance to the United States and not a foreign government.” 

I just want to take note, however, of one key ommission in the amendment. It makes no mention of allegiance to a foreign power. It just lays it out there in plain English: If you’re born or are naturalized in this country, you are a U.S. citizen.

Conservatives ought to stand on historical precedent. This proposal to end birthright citizenship is a notion intended to attack the intentions of illegal residents, which has nsothing to do with the children they bring into this world.

International news

Biden restores compassion to immigration

Joe Biden has been vilified unfairly by his critics for what they contend is the president’s so-called “open border policy” on immigration.

The president is seeking, as of today, to strengthen our borders while seeking also to treat immigrants with compassion. He issued an executive order that aims to give undocumented spouses of immigrants a greater pathway to US citizenship.

The Texas Tribune reports: “President Biden has consistently used his executive powers to create additional legal pathways for immigrants, and today’s joyous announcement will help keep many of these mixed-status American families together,” U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar said in a statement. Escobar is a national co-chair of Biden’s reelection campaign and introduced legislation, the American Families United Act, that would offer similar protections for undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens.

What is in his plan? Biden wants to make it easier for so-called Dreamers to qualify for work authorization; undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens will have to have lived in the United States for10 years to qualify for the authorization; those who qualify can apply for a three-year work permit.

None of this smacks of an “open border” policy to my eyes.

One of the major beneficiaries of this policy are those who came here as children when their parents entered the country illegally. The United States is the only country they have known. However, many Republicans — such as Donald Trump — want to deport them immediately. The don’t give a damn about keeping families together, or allowing them to continue to prosper in the only country they have known.

Biden announces protections for undocumented spouses of citizens | The Texas Tribune

I refer here to Deferred Action on Childhood Arrival, an executive order issued by President Obama that aims to grant a form of amnesty to those US residents who came here as children. Obama left office in January 2017 and Trump threatened to deport them all. Then Trump got defeated in 2020 and Biden seeks to restore compassion to our immigration policy.

DACA recipients and their spouses deserve to be treated with kindness, not with blind anger.

crime news, national news

Yes, he was an ‘illegal’ immigrant

Lest you think I am a Joe Biden lackey, I have to acknowledge that the president was wrong to apologize to the killer of a woman whose case has become a rallying cry for the MAGA movement.

Laiken Riley died at the hands of a man who was in this country illegally. President Biden referred to him as an “illegal” immigrant, then apologized to him for his use of the term “illegal.” Biden said he should have called him an “undocumented” immigrant.

Talk about splitting hairs!

The dude was in this country illegally. He reportedly broke U.S. immigration law by coming here, then committed a horrific crime. Riley was killed while jogging on the University of Georgia campus. Police arrested a man from Venezuela, Jose Ibarra, who came to this country — dare I say it — illegally.

The president’s apology now has lifted the issue of immigration to the top shelf of campaign issues heading into the 2024 presidential campaign.

Damn, I wish Biden would take greater care on issues such as this. He blurted out a description that, on its face, is accurate. He did not need to apologize for speaking the truth about an individual charged with a horrible crime.

political news

Ain’t a ‘dog whistle’ now!

Political pundits refer all the time to pols using “dog whistle” language, terms that only their fanatic followers understand.

Donald Trump, though, has tossed the immigration dog whistle into the crapper. He’s saying out loud what he thinks about immigrants and, by cracky, his followers are buying it, too.

He said this past weekend that “immigrants are poisoning the blood of our country.” He didn’t distinguish between legal and undocumented immigrants. He appeared to lump ’em all together.

The irony of Trump’s patently racist epithet is too rich to overlook.

Dude is married to an immigrant. They produced a son, who now becomes a second-generation American. Did Melania “poison” our national blood when she moved here from Slovenia? And is the Trumps’ son, Barron, poisoning the blood by, um, being born?

Of course not. I need to mention, too, that Trump’s late first wife, Ivana, also was an immigrant and they produced three kids. You know their names, as they have been in the news of late.

Still, the hideous blathering from the ex-POTUS does reveal a dark, sinister and evil side of an individual who seeks to become president yet again.

I take particular offense to these remarks because I am the grandson of immigrants. All four of my grandparents came to the U.S.A. from Greece and Turkey. I want to stipulate something here: Turkey is a predominantly Muslim country, but my mother’s parents were ethnic Christian Greeks. Still, as I recall it, Trump referred to Muslim nations as, um, “sh**hole countries.”

OK, I’ll just say this out loud: Donald Trump is an unvarnished dumbfu**!

One of my grandfathers, the one from Turkey, enlisted in the U.S. Army at the end of World War I. Both of Mom’s brothers served in the military, as did Dad, his two brothers and one of his sisters. So, did I, along with several of my cousins. Oh, and Trump? He came up with a tale of bone spurs that kept him out of uniform during the Vietnam War.

Did my immigrant grandparents “poison” the nation’s blood when they arrived here in the early 20th century. No! They enriched it.

I hope you understand a little better just why I detest Donald Trump.

He — not the immigrants he vilifies — is the poison we must avoid.