Michelle Mittelstadt reports in this morning’s edition of the Houston Chronicle (as does Stephen Dinan in The Washington Times) that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin (D-IL) have decided, in the face of a whithering grassroots’ uproar, to put the DREAM Act (SA 2919) in abeyance and live to fight yet another day for amnesty and a path to citizenship for illegal aliens. Indeed, that appears to be the pattern among tone-deaf Senate elites: if at first you don’t succeed, try, try, again (and again and again). Indeed, it matters not to them whatsoever that the vast majority of American voters have long since registered their frustrations with the Congress, while sending a clear message of ENFORCEMENT FIRST to their elected representatives in Washington.

As Mittelstadt reports:

The prospects for immediate Senate action on the DREAM Act, which would grant legal status to hundreds of thousands of young illegal immigrants, disappeared Wednesday amid Republican opposition.But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., pledged that senators would vote on the the measure, which is strongly opposed by anti-illegal immigration groups, before the Senate finishes its work for the year in mid-November.

“All who care about this matter should know that we will move to proceed to this matter before we leave here,” he said.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., had sought to attach the DREAM Act to the defense authorization bill. But Reid announced Wednesday night that Democrats were shelving the effort because of difficulties getting past legislative roadblocks.

“Unfortunately, some Republicans are opposed to this proposal and are unwilling to let us move forward on this bill,” Reid said.

Who do Senate elites work for, if not for the American people? The following is telling:

Durbin and immigrant rights advocates were dismayed by the setback but vowed to find other means to pass the legislation, which they have sought since 2001.”There is no question that this issue doesn’t stop here,” said Cecilia Muñoz, senior vice president of the National Council of La Raza. “The longer we wait, the more talented young people we close the door of opportunity to.”

To be sure, this stealth-scheme to award amnesty, a path to citizenship, and benefits’ giveaways to a targeted segment of the illegal alien population in this country (now pegged at around 20+ million in total) had not a thing to do with “talented young people.” Were that the case, the public education system in our country would be second to none instead of disgracefully lagging behind those of most Western democracies.

Rather, what this Senate Amendment (SA 2919) to a Department of Defense (DOD) authorization bill (HR 1585) was all about was employing the “salami technique” as a legislative tactic: to wit, if you cannot get sweeping, one-size-fits-all, comprehensive amnesty and American citizenship for lawbreakers (targeted as future voters and a self-perpetuating supply of cheap, exploitable labor), then whittle away at the resistance of the American people by securing individual slices of the salami over a period of time until you end up with what you wanted in the first place.

Truth be known, that’s what the DREAM Act was really all about — namely, a piecemeal legislative approach, designed to come in under the radar in stealth fashion, to grant amnesty, citizenship, and a vast array of taxpayer-subsidized benefits to those who illegally jumped our land borders, breeched our maritime ports, and purposefully overstayed their tempoary visas, and all done at the behest of unscrupulous elements of the two major political parties, American industry, the corrupt (and corrupting) government of Mexico, its vast network of meddling Consular offices, and Latino activist groups bent on reshaping America’s culture and political heritage in their own image, Reconquista-style.

But to the credit of most Americans and the grassroots’ organizations that continue to serve them well (e.g., NumbersUSA, F.I.R.E. Coalition, Grassfire.org, FAIR, ALIPAC, and Team America) this latest legislative forray on behalf of those who continue to invade our country and thwart its rule of law has been repulsed. But just understand that the elitists in the Congress who remain hellbent on defying the majority of American voters will live to fight another day, so we must too!

As Laura Ingraham would say, Power To The People !!!

Postscript:

Marcus Epstein, writing for the esteemed VDARE.Blog, and in the context of this latest, resounding, grassroots’ defeat of the DREAM Act, observed (with my emphasis added):

We still cannot be complacent. The amnesty crowd has insisted that they will continue to press the issue. While we have defeated the DREAM act many times, they only need to win once.

It is also significant, that the conservative movement that took credit for defeating the amnesty has been complacent. Very few blogs, and most of the main talk radio hosts who vehemently opposed the initial amnesty gave little or no notice to the DREAM act.

I believe what Mr. Epstein meant by this was that few conservative bloggers published posts informing their readers about Dick Durbin’s DREAM Act or rallied their readers to oppose it, although many had gotten behind the effort back in June to defeat the Bush-Kennedy Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill.

Well, this blogger took the Senate to task in June and took it to task again this past month, and will continue to be vigilant and oppose any legislation at whatever level of government designed to reward and encourage illegal immigration. Fact is, this writer via his blog, A Certain Slant Of Light, has fought the good fight and will continue to do so. And I thank those engaged in this fight who have read my blog, linked to it, and bookmarked or syndicated it. Your support sustains my efforts! And I encourage my readers to look at the large number of valuable sites I have linked in my site’s blogroll under the heading of “Illegal Immigration” in the right sidebar. They’re top-drawer and valuable resources. Support them too, please!

Follow-Up: Click on this link for The Dan Stein Report, where you’ll find information on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s plans to bring the DREAM Act to a vote later this year, as well as a link to an important Podcast from FAIR’s president, Dan Stein, providing the latest information on this amnesty-laden legislative initiative. Stay informed, Folks, as it’s not going away anytime soon!

Senator Richard Durbin’s “DREAM Act 2.0″ (SA 2919) is a re-drafted stealth-scheme to grant amnesty, American citizenship, and additional benefits’ giveaways to a group of foreign nationals here in our country illegally. It is being slyly attached to a Department of Defense (DOD) authorization bill (HR 1585) in an effort to slide it through the Senate chamber with minimal to non-existent floor debate and public awareness to ensure its passage.

It is deceitful legislation, whether in its original form or its current iteration, that compromises American sovereignty, devalues American citizenship, undermines the rule of law, and makes a mockery of the American Founding. It’s unadulterated Senate sleight-of-hand to dodge the American mainstream and to circumvent the grassroots’ uprising that killed the Bush-Kennedy Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill this past June. It’s symptomatic of a Senate elite working on behalf of illegal immigrants, Latino special interest groups (e.g., the National Council of La Raza), and the corrupt government of Mexico, rather than for the bona-fide American citizens who feel less and less represented in the halls of Congress. In a nutshell, it’s another shamnesty nightmare being perpetrated on a largely unsuspecting public and it must be revealed for what it is, beaten back, and defeated.

Hard as it is to believe, the United States Senate needs yet another unambiguous message sent to it from the American people in the form of phone calls, faxes, and e-mails — an unwavering message of outrage, rebuke, and insistance on NO AMNESTY FOR ILLEGALS. We made it clear in June and we need to make it clear again this week: ENFORCEMENT FIRST, pure and simple. Secure our borders and ports, preclude visa overstays, and conduct active internal enforcement to ferret out and punish employers who knowingly employ undocumented aliens.

In a Politico.com story by Carrie Budoff Brown, published yesterday, Senator Durbin (D-IL) is quoted as follows:

“The fundamental premise,” Durbin said on the floor last week, “is that we shouldn’t punish children for the mistakes their parents made. That isn’t the American way. The DREAM Act says to these students: America is going to give you a chance. It won’t be easy, but you can earn your way into legal status.”

As Carrie Brown explains:

Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) has been trying for years to stitch together a bipartisan coalition for a narrower measure that he calls the DREAM Act. It would give illegal immigrants who were brought to the country at 15 years old or younger — and have remained here for at least five years — a path to citizenship if they go to college or enter the military.

What Carrie Brown fails to report in her piece, however, is what the NumbersUSA organization has been quick to observe:

The big argument for this amnesty is that it is for teenagers who are here illegally because their parents broke the law. Even with the new “less-than-30″ age requirement, far more than teens can get this amnesty (and Sen. Durbin has included “humanitarian” and “family unity” exceptions to the age limit). Nonetheless, the argument is that the teenagers should not be punished for the crimes of their parents.

But as soon as DREAM amnesty citizens are over 21, they can bring in their parents who broke the law to get them into the country. The chief criminals will be rewarded after all.

And because of Chain Migration, the amnestied “teens” can see their aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents getting permanent U.S. residency as well.

More pertinent and troubling is the following revelation from NumbersUSA on this “amnesty on the installment plan” legislation:

Illegal immigrants are not required to submit fingerprints or undergo background security checks at any point in the DREAM Act process. Therefore, DHS has no way of learning whether an alien seeking DREAM Act amnesty is a terrorist or criminal. This security failure is compounded by the confidentiality section of the DREAM Act, which is a relic from pre-9/11 days (it’s modeled on the fraud-prone 1986 amnesty). This section basically requires DHS to hide information about terrorist and criminal aliens from itself. If a DHS adjudicator at USCIS learns from a DREAM Act application that an alien poses terrori st or criminal concerns, the adjudicator is prohibited from alerting ICE enforcement officers at DHS, and in fact, if the adjudicator did volunteer such information to ICE, he could be fined $10,000. To cap it all, DHS is prohibited from removing from the United States all aliens, including criminals, terrorists, fraudsters, and other ineligible alien! s while they have a DREAM Act application pending, even if that application is based upon fraud or the alien is ineligible.

And NumbersUSA tells it like it is in showing how Durbin’s Senate amendment is crafted and marketed in such a way not to mean what it says (or, better put, not to say what it means):

The marketing campaign for the DREAM Act makes as though the amnesty is intended for high school graduates who are on their way to college or military service. But the bill as written ensures that illegal immigrants don’t have to attend high school or go to college to qualify for the amnesty: they need only take an ability-to-benefit test and complete a 1-year vocational program to get eventual citizenship (and there’s no requirement that they actually complete their college education). Nor do aliens have to join the Armed Forces: they need only go to work for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or Public Health Service for 2 years to get eventual citizenship.

Bottom-line, it is American citizens who should not be punished (i.e., their citizenship devalued and their wallets tapped again) by the United States Congress for the past decisions of illegal alien parents to jump our land borders, breech our maritime ports, or to purposefully overstay their visas. Durbin has it all wrong. His job and that of the other 99 Senators is to represent WE THE PEOPLE, not THEM THE FOREIGN LAWBREAKERS.

Get busy and remind your two Senators of that today!

And for excellent background information on the DREAM Act (SA 2919) and its prospects for being voted on this week, I encourage my readers to take the time right now to listen to this important Podcast from Dan Stein, president, Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) and author of the daily “must-read” The Dan Stein Report.

Follow-Up: Gabriel Garnica, writing for Family Security Matters, addresses the DREAM Act and, to her credit, doesn’t mince words:

A simple review of this legislation demonstrates why anyone who supports this provision cares much more about illegal immigrants than either this country or those of us who lawfully live here.

She continues:

Let us begin with the fact that this provision provides a channel by which an illegal immigrant minor can gain a green card both for himself and his family, thus providing a loophole and incentive for continued manipulation and abuse of the system. According to The Heritage Foundation, this measure provides backdoor amnesty to millions of illegal aliens who bring their children into The United States. Simply put, it rewards people for ignoring, mocking and breaking our laws by providing their children with cheaper college education. That’s like getting half tuition because you rob a bank. Anyone who knows the rational level of the liberal mindset should not be shocked by that one.

Secondly, the Dream Act actually favors those who break the law over those who obey it by, for example, charging a law-abiding student from one state who attends school in another three times the tuition charged to an illegal alien whose very presence in this country is a violation of federal law. In summary, this absurd piece of rubbish posing as legislation would actually make breaking federal law a pre-requisite to obtaining special favors and preferential treatment while punishing those who obey the law with disfavored status.

And here’s the money quote (with my emphasis added):

There is something wrong with a system, a belief or a position that somehow makes doing the right thing an imbecilic, asinine and mindless thing to do. One family follows the laws, enters legally, and works hard to give its children the best chance for a future. Another family breaks the law, mocks the system, also works hard, but somehow ends up in a much better position than the family who obeyed the law.

The Dream Act and anyone who supports it are dreaming about an America very different than the one that became the greatest country on earth. Their America is the land of handouts, sellouts and fallouts. It is a parody of the one envisioned by The American Dream. From where I am standing, supporters of The Dream Act are less about The American Dream than they are about The American Scheme.

Follow-Up II: And here are some additional compelling viewpoints from Dan Stein of FAIR and The Dan Stein Report, as quoted in an article on the DREAM Act by DiverseEducation.com:

“The DREAM Act amounts to a massive amnesty under the guise of being sympathetic to kids,” said Dan Stein, FAIR president. “Unfortunately, sympathy for one group of illegal aliens would come at a huge cost to other people’s children.”

“While the kids may not have made the decision to break the law, the reasons most parents migrate illegally is ‘to do better for their families,’” Stein said. “What better inducement could there be for illegal immigration than a green card and a subsidized college education for their kids?”

Follow-Up III: And if you wonder whether or not phone calls, faxes, and e-mails to the United States Senate can be instrumental in defeating this stealth-scheme to award amnesty and citizenship to illegal aliens, then I encourage you to read this assessment (and let’s hope she’s right) of Michelle Mittlestadt’s, as published in today’s edition of the Houston Chronicle. An excerpt:

The hope for immediate Senate action on the DREAM Act, which would grant legal status to hundreds of thousands of young illegal immigrants, faded Tuesday as the measure’s chief Senate sponsor acknowledged he was having difficulty surmounting Republican opposition.

But don’t be deluded into thinking you (or any of us) should relax your (our) efforts at citizen-patriot lobbying of the U.S. Senate. Indeed, this proves we’re having an impact (just as we did in June) and that we should continue our grassroots’ efforts in earnest today.

Follow-Up IV: Michelle Malkin, as always, continues her superb job of monitoring the DREAM Act — what she correctly characterizes as “Shamnesty” legislation. Kudos to Michelle!

Follow-Up V: And what kind of message are Dick Durbin and his Praetorian Guard cohorts sending to those who have come to our country legally or are currently patiently standing in line to do so? The Arizona Star answers that question in this Op-Ed piece (from which the following excerpt is taken):

As it stands, Congress is sending a conflicting message abroad.

The Dallas Morning News (as does the Arizona Daily Star) favors addressing the aspects of illegal immigration, including DREAM Act provisions, through comprehensive reform. But in the meantime, let’s not neglect those who are standing in line, waiting and following the rules.

Congress needs to show the world that we reward those who immigrate legally. At a minimum, we need to stop penalizing those whose only fault is obeying the law.

And the Kansas City Star echoes a similar strain in this Op-Ed encouraging a “NO” vote on the DREAM Act:

It would be difficult to exaggerate all of the perverse incentives in the Dream Act, which provide illegals with better treatment than citizens and noncitizens who obey the law.

This is a clear-cut issue: The Dream Act is a nightmare.

Frank Miele, writing for the Daily InterLake (a northwest Montana newspaper), amplifies sentiments similar to those I expressed in this post of mine this past Friday on Senator Richard Durbin’s (D-IL) “Dream Act” (i.e., SA 2919 to HR 1585) — yet another legislative attempt at an amnesty/benefits giveaway for illegal aliens.

In that post, I wrote, in part:

You see, for Senator Durbin and others of his ilk in the Praetorian Guard, the will of the people is meaningless. Despite the strong chords of “enforcement first” that reverberated through the country this past June in response to the Bush-Kennedy Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill (i.e., the “Shamnesty Bill”), many Senators in both parties continue to sing from their own song sheets and have now adopted a piecemeal, stealth approach to securing the blessings of America for those who have illegally breeched our borders and maritime ports or purposefully overstayed their visas. So much for “homeland security.”

But Frank Miele, to his credit, runs down the field with this theme and spikes it in the end zone. So I encourage you to read his entire piece as a “must-read” explanation of what exactly is afoot in the United States Senate just a mere three months after a resounding grassroots-led defeat of the Senate’s Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill.

Here are some excerpts to give you a flavor of Mr. Miele’s well-placed outrage over yet another stealth-scheme by our duly elected members of the Praetorian Guard to secure amnesty/benefits for those who have jumped our borders and thwarted our “Rule of Law.” You see (and just as I am), Frank Miele is thoroughly fed up with the tone-deaf elitists in Washington D.C. who choose to devalue American citizenship, while concomitantly disregarding the very principles of the American Founding.

Writes Miele:

Oligarchy, in case you don’t remember your high school history classes, is a fancy name for rule by the few — government by an elite segment of society which considers itself best qualified by education, experience, and family connections to make decisions for the rest of us.

You would not think that would apply to Congress, which is supposed to be a representative body answerable to “We the People.” But if you really think that Congress — or your individual senator or congressperson — is answerable to “You the People,” then you haven’t been paying attention.

If you had reason to doubt the arrogance of Congress, you might ponder again the issue of illegal immigration. Here you have a case where the fundamental and paramount birthright of the American people — citizenship — is being auctioned off by Congress to the highest bidder. At least, it would be, if there hadn’t been a peaceful uprising of voters this summer that got the attention of at least some senators.

But remember, those same voters were insulted and denigrated by the powers that be as racists, nativists, haters, fear-mongers, you name it. The proponents of “comprehensive immigration reform” used subterfuge and deceit to try to convince the American people that illegal immigration is such a mess that we ought to just pretend it doesn’t exist. Or maybe they really believe that.

And so it is not surprising, in the wake of the defeat of the immigration bill in June, that some senators hope to slip through yet another amnesty program for illegal aliens before anyone notices what they are doing.

Miele continues:

Sen. Dick Durbin has been trying to drum up support for getting the DREAM Act passed as an amendment to the pending defense authorization bill. That’s DREAM as in “your worst nightmare.” The ultraliberal senator from Illinois wants to make sure there are no sad little illegal immigrant children falling through the cracks of our mean-hearted society. That’s why he wrote the bill, whose full title is the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act of 2007.

At least, that’s supposedly why he wrote it. But you don’t even have to read the fine print to spot the flim-flam in this bit of legislative sleight-of-hand. Just start with the title. The bill is supposed to be about helping “Alien Minors,” but that is a complete falsehood. George Orwell, meet Dick Durbin.

Do read the entire piece to understand why Frank Miele correctly concludes (with my emphasis added in bold):

Are we making U.S. citizenship contingent on college attendance? Or even on military service? Or is this just a convenient ploy to argue that these illegal immigrants are worthy of U.S. citizenship because they are such hard workers and so dedicated to improving themselves and helping the country they broke into.

Democrats object to having their Iraq policy called “cut and run,” so I won’t call their immigration policy “bow and grovel.” Instead, we can call both policies by a plain-spoken word that is simple, direct and accurate — surrender. And, of course, there are plenty of Republicans who are happy to throw up the white flag, too. This is not a partisan issue; it is a survival issue.

For extensive background information on “The Dream Act” (formerly SA 2237 and since re-drafted as SA 2919), please read this post of mine of September 17th, including the series of updates I published over subsequent days.

Most of all, do something about it tomorrow morning (Monday)! Call your two Senators and tell them to put the brakes on amnesty for illegals. Let’s kill “The Dream Act,” just as we did the Bush-Kennedy-sponsored Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill.

Michelle Mittelestadt of the Houston Chronicle’s Washington Bureau reports in today’s edition precisely what I pointed to in this post of mine on Wednesday evening of this week — namely, that Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) is cosmetically tweaking his “Dream Act” amendment (formerly SA 2237 and now SA 2919) to make the latest iteration of the Senate’s determined effort to grant amnesty and benefits giveaways to illegal aliens more palatable to both Republicans and Democrats. And, as I have reported, his “Dream Act” is tantamount to a stealth-scheme to confer more rights and privileges on border-jumpers because Senator Durbin has had the audacity to attach his amnesty-laden dreams to a defense bill (HR 1585). Talk about hypocrisy from one of the Senate’s leading proponents of defeatism.

You see, for Senator Durbin and others of his ilk in the Praetorian Guard, the will of the people is meaningless. Despite the strong chords of “enforcement first” that reverberated through the country this past June in response to the Bush-Kennedy Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill (i.e., the “Shamnesty Bill”), many Senators in both parties continue to sing from their own song sheets and have now adopted a piecemeal, stealth approach to securing the blessings of America for those who have illegally breeched our borders and maritime ports or purposefully overstayed their visas. So much for “homeland security.”

According to Middelstadt, Dick Durbin is reported as saying:

“The fundamental premise of the DREAM Act is that we shouldn’t punish children for the mistakes their parents made. That isn’t the American way.”

Well, let me remind the disingenuous Senator Durbin that the true American Dream is that to which the Declaration of Independence spoke so eloquently: that this grand experiment in representative democracy — this Democratic Republic of ours — was established in order to assure that American citizens (and those who migrate to our country legally and assimilate and become U.S. citizens) enjoy the God-given unalienable rights to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. This country was not founded, however, to give the corrupt government of Mexico — a government patently indifferent to its hapless poor and illiterate citizens — a safety valve, escape path, and major source of cash (or a welcome mat for “Reconquista”) .

It is incomprehensible that with all of the problems facing our country in an age of international terrorism that the United States Senate will be devoting itself next week to providing in-state tuition for illegal aliens and a clear-cut, unimpeded path to citizenship for lawbreakers, and all at the expense of tapped out American taxpayers. Maybe what the Senate should be doing instead is holding hearings on why Michael Chertoff and the Department of Homeland Security are dragging their feet on getting a border fence constructed and our land borders and maritime ports secured. After all, it’s now been six long years since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and our Congress is still diddling.

How about calling your Senators today to remind them who they work for!

Follow-Up: In-state tuition and amnesty/citizenship for illegal aliens got you down? Well, get a grip on your incredulity and outrage before reading this from Warner Todd Huston, writing for NewsBusters. An excerpt:

At the beginning of September, Channel 5 News revealed a shocking story in Roma, Texas. As their cameras chronicled, each morning dozens of Mexican kids are crossing the border from Mexico into the Texas border town of Roma to attend an American school, free of charge. You read that correctly. American tax money is funding the education of kids who actually live IN Mexico and who are illegally crossing the border every single day to attend U.S. schools. I have waited a suitable period of time to bring this story up, hoping that the national news sources will pick up on this absurd violation of our National sovereignty and misuse of our tax money… yet not a peep has been heard to my knowledge.It is estimated that $4 million has been spent on Mexican kids just in Roma, Texas, alone. And no one really even knows how much has been thrown down the rat hole in other Texas border towns, not to mentions similar towns in other border states.

But this is not the half of it, Folks. Not only is taxpayer-funded public education being given away gratis, but the long reach of Mexico is invading our public education system in other ways as well. Read this from the Associated Press (AP), as reported by kgw.com (Northwest NewsChannel 8):

Some Oregon high schools are adopting Mexico’s public school curriculum to help educate Spanish-speaking students with textbooks, an online Web site, DVDs and CDs provided free by Mexico to teach math, science and even U.S. history.

The Oregon Department of Education and Mexico’s Secretariat of Public Education are discussing aligning their curricula so courses will be valid in both countries.

Similar ventures are under way in Yakima, Wash., San Diego, Calif., and Austin, Texas.

Follow-Up II: Michelle Malkin, citing information gleened from the NumbersUSA organization’s Web site, provides a list of the current “wafflers” in the United States Senate — i.e., those who prefer holding their cards close to their vests, rather than doing the right thing and publicly announcing that amnesty for illegal aliens should NOT be a recruiting tool for the United States military. If your Senator(s) is on the list, how about calling him or her on Monday and letting your feelings about the devaluation of American citizenship and the undermining of the “Rule of Law” be heard. Isn’t it an interesting concept: illegally breech our borders or maritime ports, or overstay your visa, and our elected representatives in the United States Congress will annoint you with amnesty and confer U.S. citizenship on you provided you do a stint in our military. What must the ghosts in olive drab, in brown khaki, and in blue and gray be thinking about Senator Durbin’s deceitfulness? More importantly, what are you thinking as you read this?

“Duty, Honor, Country” — all to be undone by a passel of tone-deaf, self-styled patricians pandering for new Latino voters from Third World countries and totally unmindful of the unambiguous “enforcement first” mandate given them just this past June.  That’s precisely why they’re referred to as “elitists.” They know better! And that’s precisely why we need to crash the Senate switchboard (202-224-3121), as we did in June.

Further to my extensive post on “The Dream Act” (i.e., SA 2237), I encourage readers of this blog to listen to the following podcast (audio file) from Dan Stein, president, Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), on information gained by FAIR’s Government Relations Director on new developments vis-a-vis Senator Dick Durbin’s amendment (SA 2237) to HR 1585. Apparently, the author of the Senate’s latest amnesty/benefits giveaway on behalf of illegal aliens is beside himself tonight owing to growing grassroots’ activism in opposition to this latest legislative outrage.

According to FAIR’s report, Senator Durbin is applying gobs of make-up to hide the major blemish in his amendment — amnesty for illegal aliens. So SA 2237 is in the midst of a re-draft. But, as the saying goes, you can’t put lipstick on a pig.

So keep calling your Senators and sending in those e-mails and faxes. Let them hear your voices. Register your outrage! Defeat this nonsense!

Follow-Up (09/20/07): Well, here’s proof from The Washington Times this morning of Senator Dick Durbin’s (D-IL) cynical determination to secure an amnesty/benefits giveaway for illegal aliens by tweaking his Senate amendment (i.e., SA 2237 now re-drafted as SA 2919) in an effort to mitigate the effects of a grassroots’ uprising among American citizens over this hypocritical stealth-scheme by a vocal anti-Iraq War defeatist to attach amnesty provisions for illegal border-jumpers to a Department of Defense authorization bill (i.e., HR 1585).

Stephen Dinan writes (excerpt follows):

Sen. Richard J. Durbin, trying to win support to pass his proposal to give legal status to illegal aliens who go to college or join the military, said yesterday he has dropped from his plan a mandate for in-state tuition rates and is promising to impose an age limit to cut the number of people who would be eligible.

“If we can make these changes and win votes by doing so, then I’m prepared to,” said Mr. Durbin, Illinois Democrat and Senate majority whip. “I think the ultimate goal is to give these young people a chance to show by their lives that they are deserving of status.”

Follow-Up II (09/20/07): This was a nightmare for the family and friends of a U.S. Marine and his date. Meanwhile, we have U.S. Senators trying to secure amnesty and benefits via “The Dream Act” (re-drafted as SA 2919) for illegal aliens who enter the U.S. military! Give us a break! This is an insult to American sovereignty, American citizenship, and to our brave men and women serving our country in the United States Armed Forces. We should be encouraging self-deportation, not encouraging illegal aliens to stay and enter our colleges, universities, and military. How about protecting American citizens, securing America’s borders and maritime ports, and ensuring that the “Rule of Law” prevails as the cornerstone of our democratic republic?

Follow-Up III (09/20/07): Senator Dick Durbin’s Senate Amendment 2237 “Dream Act” has now morphed into Senate Amendment 2919 via a re-draft (source: “Americans for Lergal Immigration”). Here’s more on this development from Bob McCarty, including important links.

Follow-Up IV (09/20/07): Updated information on SA 2919 (”Dream Act”) from Michelle Malkin, including important links.

Dear Senators Hutchison (R-TX) and Cornyn (R-TX):

NumbersUSA, of which I am a member, is reporting that the two of you have yet to publicly commit to voting NO on “The Dream Act” (i.e., SA 2237 attached to HR 1585) — Senator Dick Durbin’s (D-IL) stealth-scheme to award amnesty and taxpayer-subsidized educational benefits to illegal aliens.

As an American citizen and resident-homeowner of the state of Texas, I find it incomprehensible that neither of you has been willing to denounce publicly this patent amnesty legislation — legislation that runs counter to the clear-cut, grassroots’ message sent to the United States Senate this past June by the vast majority of American voters who want “enforcement first,” not more benefits for foreign nationals who have entered our country illegally or knowingly overstayed their visas.

I have called your respective Senate offices this week and sent a number of faxes on this critical issue and I want to reiterate that I expect a NO vote from you on this and any other legislation — piecemeal or comprehensive — to grant amnesty, citizenship, or benefits to illegal alien lawbreakers. We should be encouraging them to self-deport via disincentives and determined internal enforcement, rather than assuring that they’ll stay through continued incentives and a lame Department of Homeland Security.

Why such common sense continues to escape the United States Senate defies belief? What’s there to think about? Do not the “Rule of Law” and the principles of the American Founding dictate your vote with regard to “The Dream Act?” Just how low must public opinion of the United States Congress sink before both political parties begin devoting themselves to the legitimate needs of bona-fide American citizens (not the Harry Reid variety), rather than those of border-jumpers?

And while I am on the subject of illegal immigration and borders-ports security, this country needs more jobs, jobs-training, and educational incentives for bona-fide American citizens, not for those who have defied our federal immigration laws, breeched our borders, and eroded wage-benefits levels in a number of industries. Accordingly, I presently oppose any increase in H-1B and H-2B visas. Let’s stop exporting American jobs, while importing foreign workers. Let’s rightly put America first.

So I ask you both to please come out publicly today and declare yourselves OPPOSED to SA 2237. This is not a “Dream Act”; rather, it is yet another Senate-spawned nightmare and Americans are becoming increasingly fed up with the United States Congress’ penchant for devoting its energies to undermining American sovereignty and devaluing American citizenship. Get over it. Amnesty is an outrage and past Congressional promises have proven hollow. And you’re being watched.

This past June, you each voted AGAINST the Shamnesty monstrosity that was the Senate’s Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill. I applauded you then for your votes. I trust you will each follow suit in rejecting SA 2237 — “The Dream Act” — so I can applaud you again and vote for your re-election; but, I’d feel much better knowing in advance that you categorically reject this nightmarish grant of undeserved amnesty and benefits to lawbreakers. Besides, it would be helpful if your leadership on this issue would help persuade other of your collegaues to vote similarly.

American taxpayers are tapped out and thoroughly frustrated, so we emphasize yet again: ENFORCEMENT FIRST !!!

Fail to heed this imperative at your own political peril. Rank-and-file voters are determined to take America back from the cluthes of special interest groups and the Congressmen who do their bidding.

Follow-Up: Here is the latest information at midday from NumbersUSA on those Senators (a total of only 17) who have publicly committed to voting against “The Dream Act” (i.e., SA 2237) – Senator Durbin’s amnesty/giveaway amendment cleverly added to a House Defense Appropriations Bill (i.e., HR 1585). As can be seen, neither of Texas’ Republican Senators is on that list yet, which remains disappointing to this Texas-based writer and NumbersUSA member-activist.

The Senate switchboard number is: 202-224-3121. And here’s a handy Congressional contact guide published courtesy of NumbersUSA. Please call your Senators and Representative today. Tell them you oppose amnesty and freebies/benefits for illegal aliens!

Follow-Up II: According to this post of Michelle Malkin’s, Senator Cornyn is likely to vote AGAINST SA 2237 (based on reporting from The Jawa Report), while Senator Hutchison continues to be perched astride a fence (certainly not any border fence!). If this is correct, kudos to John Cornyn and an audible sigh of dismay directed towards Kay Bailey Hutchison’s amnesty-hedging.

It’s not that they — many members of the United States Senate — still don’t get it. They get it all right. Their collective hides still burn from getting their backsides singed this past June when a grassroots’, “enforcement first” uprising of American political will killed the Bush-Kennedy-sponsored “Shamnesty” legislation. But, after all, they wouldn’t be members of the august, perpetually preening Praetorian Guard and a do-nothing, abjectly unpopular Congress, if they weren’t hellbent on disregarding the wishes of the majority of American voters in favor of securing amnesty and taxpayer-subsidized windfalls for foreign nationals who have entered our country illegally or purposefully overstayed their visas. Indeed, their legislative playbook centers on a time-honored gambit: if at first you don’t succeed through brazen, overweening, comprehensive legislation, then do it piecemeal and by stealth with blue smoke and mirrors.

Mind you, it’s not that they march to the beat of their own drums. Rather, it’s that they willfully march to the beat of the corrupt government of Mexico, Latino activist groups that serve it, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and business interests addicted to exploitable “cheap labor,” and a liberal-progressive, mainstream media skilled at heralding the virtues of multiculturalism, trumpeting the benefits of a foreign workers, and staunchly defending the efficacy of unfettered “free trade.”

In a nutshell, it’s a conspiracy of special interest groups and the senators who serve them, who are determined to launch and secure yet another amnesty/benefits windfall for the undocumented masses and, as always, at the expense of bona-fide, tapped-out, American citizens-taxpayers and their dependents, and its euphemistically labelled “The Dream Act.”

Here’s the gist of it — the “Keep On Dreamin’ Act” for illegal border-jumpers — and as provided by the NumberUSA organization:

The DREAM Act (Amendment 2237 to the Defense Authorization bill) is a nightmare. It is a massive amnesty that extends to the millions of illegal aliens who entered the United States before the age of 16.

There is no upper age limit. Any illegal alien can walk into a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office and declare that he is eligible. For example, a 45 year old can claim that he illegally entered the United States 30 years ago at the age of 15. There is no requirement that the alien prove that he entered the United States at the claimed time by providing particular documents. The DREAM Act’s Section 4(a) merely requires him to “demonstrate” that he is eligible-which in practice could mean simply making a sworn statement to that effect. Thus, it is an invitation for just about every illegal alien to fraudulently claim the amnesty.

The alien then has six years to adjust his status from a conditional green card holder to a non-conditional one. To do so, he need only complete two years of study at an institution of higher education, including any vocational school. If the alien has already completed two years of study, he can convert to non-conditional status immediately (and use his green card as a platform to sponsor parents and other family members). As an alternative to two years of study, he can enlist in the U.S. military for two years. This provision allows Senator Durbin to claim that the DREAM Act is somehow germane to the defense authorization bill.

An illegal alien who applies for the DREAM Act amnesty gets to count his years under “conditional” green card status toward the five years needed for citizenship. On top of that, the illegal alien could claim “retroactive benefits” and start the clock running the day that the DREAM Act is enacted. In combination, these two provisions put illegal aliens on a high-speed track to U.S. citizenship-moving from illegal alien to U.S. citizen in as little as five years. Lawfully present aliens, meanwhile, must follow a slower path to citizenship.

It would be absurdly easy for just about any illegal alien-even one who does not qualify for the amnesty-to evade the law. According to Section 4(f) of the DREAM Act, once an alien files an application-any application, no matter how ridiculous-the federal government is prohibited from deporting him. Moreover, with few exceptions, federal officers are prohibited from either using information from the application to deport the alien or sharing that information with another federal agency, under threat of up to $10,000 fine. Thus, an alien’s admission that he has violated federal immigration law cannot be used against him-even if he never had any chance of qualifying for the DREAM Act amnesty in the first place.

The DREAM Act also allows illegal aliens to receive in-state tuition rates at public universities, discriminating against U.S. citizens from out of state and law-abiding foreign students.

The DREAM Act also makes the illegal aliens eligible for federal student loans and federal work-study programs-another benefit that law-abiding foreign students cannot receive-all at taxpayer expense.

A consistent theme emerges: Illegal aliens are treated much more favorably than aliens who fol,low the law. There is no penalty for illegal behavior.

So what can you do? Plenty! And you had better begin doing it right now — today.

Michelle Malkin gives you the particulars and the numbers to call.

And if you haven’t already, I encourage you to join a premier grassroots’ organization (e.g., NumbersUSA and/or the F.I.R.E. Coalition) to assure that your voice and outrage are being heard in the halls of the United States Congress. And to stay current on the whole spectrum of immigration-related issues, you cannot do better than to regularly read the VDARE blog and the other sites, mine included, I have listed links to in my blogroll (see right sidebar) under the “Illegal Immigration” heading.

Let’s kill “The Dream Act,” so it doesn’t become an American nightmare!

Follow-Up: The Dan Stein Report indicates that Sen. Martinez (R-FL) has heard the justified uproar of conservatives over “The Dream Act” and is rethinking his position vis-a-vis amnesty, in whole or in part.

Follow-Up II: Conservative talk-show host and writer Laura Ingraham described “The Dream Act” during her radio broadcast this morning as “amnesty on the installment plan” and denounces it on her Web site as a “total outrage.”

Follow-Up III: Diggers Realm reports on California’s version of “The Dream Act” — legislation to provide a college education for illegal aliens at the expense and exclusion of American citizens.

Follow-Up IV: I failed in the body of my post to point to another meritorious grassroots’ organization, GrassFire.org — do take a look at their excellent site.

Follow-Up V: Lonewacko provides additional information and links related to the Senate’s attempt this week to bilk American taxpayers on behalf of illegal alien. This is a site you should bookmark.

Follow-Up VI: And Polipundit.com weighs in on what it terms “anti-American forces in the Democratic Party” seeking to muscle amnesty through the Senate.

Follow-Up VII: And, true to form, the Heritage Foundation has published the “must-read” column on “The Dream Act” by Kris W. Kobac. An excerpt (but do read it all):

The DREAM Act (S. 774) is a nightmare. It is a mas­sive amnesty that extends to the millions of illegal aliens who entered the United States before the age of 16. The illegal alien who applies for this amnesty is immediately rewarded with “conditional” lawful per­manent resident (green card) status, which can be converted to a non-conditional green card in short order. The alien can then use his newly acquired status to seek green cards for the parents who brought him in illegally in the first place. In this way, it is also a back­door amnesty for the millions of illegal aliens who brought their children with them to the United States.

What is less well known about the DREAM Act is that it also allows illegal aliens to receive in-state tuition rates at public universities, discriminating against U.S. citizens from out of state and law-abiding foreign students. It repeals a 1996 federal law that pro­hibits any state from offering in-state tuition rates to illegal aliens unless the state also offers in-state tuition rates to all U.S. citizens.

Follow-Up VIII (09/18/07): Marcus Epstein’s post at VDARE.com (along with this sterling example of prescience) is a “must-read” before you dutifully begin making your citizen-patriot calls to your United States Senators today (we all must do our part to defeat “The Dream Act” and all the other stealth-schemes to grant amnesty and windfalls to people who have entered our country illegally and leveraged that broad social safety net of services that American taxpayers subsidize). Additionally, I’d like to thank Patrick Cleburne of the VDARE Blog for his kind link and gracious comments. He’s been a long-standing supporter of my work and I am grateful.

Follow-Up IX (09/18/07): Michael Cutler’s column at Family Security Matters is an excellent exposition of “The Dream Act,” but, even better, provides a list of key “stealth” senators and their office numbers for you (i.e., concerned American citizen-taxpayers) to call and express your disgust over their scheming on behalf of lawbreakers. First order of business, however, is to contact your own Congressmen. As information, I’ve both faxed and called mine.

Follow-Up X (09/18/07): Here’s Kate O’Beirne’s take on this travesty at National Review Online (NRO). She writes, in part, on this back door, stealth amnesty:

Under the DREAM Act, applicants for amnesty who claim to be enrolled in a community college, technical school, or university will receive immediate “conditional” legal status. Sound familiar? The Migration Policy Institute estimates that about 1.3 million illegal aliens will be eligible for the amnesty. Because the act’s provisions are retroactive, additional illegal aliens will also qualify. Along with illegal aliens who have graduated from high school or completed a G.E.D., any illegal alien, regardless of age, who initially came here illegally before age 16 and meets the education provisions qualifies for a green card and eventual citizenship. As green-card holders, they can all sponsor their illegal alien parents for green cards. To accommodate DREAM Act aliens and their parents, numerical limits on green cards are lifted.

The DREAM Act also makes illegal aliens, present and future, eligible for discounted, in-state tuition rates by repealing the federal law that prohibits such a benefit for illegal aliens, unless it is also extended to citizens and lawful residents. Unlike legal foreign students, illegal aliens will also qualify for federal financial assistance.

She correctly concludes:

“Comprehensive” immigration reform included both beefed-up enforcement measures and amnesty for illegal aliens. The reform failed because public support for the former was overwhelmed by public opposition to the latter. “Comprehensive” reform may be dead, but amnesty is very much alive.

Follow-Up XI (09/18/07): “Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting” (FAIR) provides a detailed summary of “The Dream Act,” as well as this nicely done overview. This legislation (i.e., Senate Amendment #2237 attached to HR 1585) is indeed a “wolf in sheep’s clothing.” Let your Senators know what you think today!

Follow-Up XII (09/18/07): At this juncture, NumbersUSA reports that only six (6) Senators have categorically committed to voting against The Dream Act. So phone calls made to (at minimum) your state’s two U.S. Senators today remain essential. Please: do your part in defeating this travesty. Here’s a list provided by NumbersUSA of the Senators (including their Senate phone numbers) who at this point have yet to commit to voting against this back-door amnesty legislation. Where do your Senators stand on amnesty?

Follow-Up XIII (09/18/07): NumbersUSA is now reporting late this afternoon that the list of Senators committed to voting AGAINST the “Dream Act” (i.e., SA 2237) has grown to 18. To defeat this Senate amendment to HR 1585 a total of 41 No votes is needed. So, please, do your part: Senate switchboard — 202-224-3121. Get after the many Senators who continue to “waffle” by not committing to voting AGAINST this amnesty bill. Where do your Senators stand?

Follow-Up XIV (09/19/07): Ace at Ace of Spades HQ describes The Dream Act:

This is the most dangerous form of legislation– the kind that easily slips past public scrutiny because no one is paying attention outside of Congress. They can do pretty much anything with unexamined bills — and they seem intent on doing precisely what we forbade them to last time we were actually notified of their intentions.

He further links to Mickey Kaus’ take at Slate on this stealth-scheme to secure amnesty for illegal aliens:

Democratic Sen. Durbin’s revived “DREAM Act” is typically billed as a way to address “the tragedy of young people”–students who were brought into the country when they were very young, and now want to attend college. I was going to criticize it because it inevitably offers an incentive to future illegal immigration–i.e. “sneak across the border and your already-born children can go to U.S. colleges, pay in-state tuition, and become citizens!” It seemed precisely the sort of compassionate measure that should become possible after the borders had been shown to be secure for several years (as opposed to after a few quick showy raids and deportations). But it’s actually not that bad. It’s much, much worse! Kris Kobach persuasively argues that, thanks to loose drafting, it’s potentially a huge de facto legalization program of the sort many observers thought had been defeated.

Follow-Up XV (09/19/07): The Washington Times has published an editorial on The Dream Act. An excerpt:

The DREAM Act would repeal a 1996 law — the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act — which included a provision barring any state from offering discounted tuition to illegals unless it provided the same tuition discount to all U.S. citizens. But 10 states (California, Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah and Washington) currently grant reduced in-state tuition to illegals in violation of federal law. It would be difficult to exaggerate all of the perverse incentives in the DREAM Act, which provide illegals with better treatment than citizens and noncitizens who obey the law. Some states actually make breaking federal law a condition for receiving in-state tuition rates by denying in-state tuition to legal aliens with valid student visas. The laws also show contempt for law-abiding American citizens.

Follow-Up XVI (09/19/07): Conservative talk-radio host and author Laura Ingraham is interviewing nationally-syndicated columnist Mark Steyn this morning on her broadcast and with regard to “The Dream Act” Steyn is branding it “an assault on American sovereignty.” He further states that “this kind of sentimentalism doesn’t wash with the Republican base.” He basically argues that it’s preposterous that the Congress feels it owes foreign nationals who have entered our country illegally a college education and amnesty.

Follow-Up XVII (09/19/07): John Hawkins of Right Wing News publishes an interview with Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) on the implications of “The Dream Act.” Hawkins goes on to write:

So, the pitch is, “do it for the children,” but the reality is that you can have 30 or 40 year old illegals claiming they got here before they were 16 and using that as a wedge to get citizenship.

Moreover, even the idea of giving an 18 year old illegal going to college here citizenship is a terrible idea because what happens when their illegal parents get deported? “Oh, you’re splitting up the families! We have to let the parents be citizens, too!”

Additionally, note that supporters of the DREAM ACT are favoring illegal aliens over American citizens. If you’re an illegal alien here from say, France, they support giving you in-state tuition when American citizens one state over don’t get the same thing.

Follow-Up XVIII (09/19/07): Here is a “must-hear” audio file from the good folks at GrassFire.org, providing important information and insights on “The Dream Act” and its amnesty/giveaway provisions. After clicking on the link, you’ll see an arrow icon to click on at the top of the left-hand column of the page. Do listen to the entire audio file! Then call your two Senators today and tell them you strongly oppose SA 2237!

Follow-Up XIX (09/19/07): The Dan Stein Report, which should be on everyone’s daily list of must-reads, links to the FAIR podcast on “The Dream Act.”

Follow-Up XX (09/20/07): Senator Dick Durbin’s Dream Act (formerly SA 2237) has now morphed into SA 2919 via re-draft. I have written on this cynical tweaking of the original amendment here.

Follow-Up XXI (09/20/07): Updated information on SA 2919 (”Dream Act”) from Michelle Malkin, including important links.

The Associated Press (AP) has apparently decided it’s high time to throw a jounalistic blanket over the fast-emerging evidence of a bona-fide “Reconquista” movement in the United States — a “Reconquista” movement taking many forms and guises, but a “Reconquista” movement nonetheless.

And, true to form for the progressive-liberal press in this country, it has done so by taking dead aim at those of us who oppose open borders and the abundant rights and privileges those who enter (and re-enter) our country illegally unabashedly leverage from a vast social safety net of taxpayer-subsidized services that our indifferent, asleep-at-the-wheel federal government wittingly provides to them.

Write Travis Loller and Peter Prengaman of the Associated Press:

On the far fringes of the pro-immigration movement, some Hispanic activists openly yearn for the day when immigrants rise up and retake the American Southwest, more than 150 years after the U.S. annexed it.

“If somebody steals your car, how much of it do you want back? Just the tires? The seats?” asks Olin Tezcatlipoca of the Los Angeles-based Mexica Movement.

Mainstream immigration advocacy groups — as well as academics and experts on nearly all sides of the illegal immigration issue — dismiss these “reconquista” notions as rhetorical, not to be taken seriously.

But such talk appears to be galvanizing foes of immigration. Anti-immigrant activists and some conservatives have seized on such rhetoric to claim that a conspiracy is afoot among illegal immigrants to reconquer the Southwest.

“Foes of immigration.” “Anti-immigrant activists.” I suppose I should regard this patently slanted piece as charitable since “nativists” and “xenophobes” and “racists” were omitted from the article. To be sure, I’m conservative and oppose illegal immigration and porous borders (as clearly stated in the header of my blog), but I’m categorically not “anti-immigrant” or a “foe” of people who come to our country legally and patiently become its citizens by following normal immigration channels, all the while adhering to our nation’s “Rule of Law,” switching their allegiance to the United States of America, and learning its language – English.

I suspect the AP felt time was of the essence on the heels of the uproar over El Presidente Felipe Calderon’s imperialistic, extra-terrirotrial declaration of this past week (unanswered by President Bush) that unambiguously smacked of “Reconquista.” As Jon Christian Ryter recounts in his column for NewsWithViews.com (entitled: “Calderon The Conqueror”), the new president of Mexico shamelessly declared in his first “State of the Nation” address:

“…Mexico does not stop at its borders. That means wherever there is a Mexican, there is Mexico. And, for this reason, the government action on behalf of our countrymen is guided by principles, for the defense and protection of their rights.”

Call it “Reconquista” or “El Plan De Aztlan” or even the newest iteration of German-style “Lebensraum” — whatever — but Ryter and many alarmed Americans are becoming increasingly convinced that pervasive multiculturalism, 20+ million illegal aliens in our midst (with 500,000 more jumping our borders each year), escalating illegal alien crime, and a growing cadre of left-wing Hispanic activist groups using the streets and the courts to thwart federal immigration law enforcement at every turn evidence an unmistakable linkage to a calculated territorial push by Third World countries (principally Mexico) to conquer and reshape America and rewrite its Founding to suit their selfish purposes.

As Ryter continues:

The Nazification of Europe began with Hitler’s argument that wherever German people live, they live on German soil. (Sound familiar? If not, reread the first paragraph.) Hitler positioned himself as the injured party in a scrape with Europe over land seized from Germany at the end of World War I.

Calderon’s speech suggests—and, in the United States, the overt action of the National Council of La Raza, the League of United Latin American Citizens [LULAC], the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund [MALDEF] and the Moviemiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan (the most radical of all of the Hispanic groups)—that Mexico has claimstaked all of the land Mexico ceded to the United States in the Treaty of Guadeloupe Hidalgo, signed between the United States and Mexico at the end of the Mexican-American War on Feb. 2, 1848. The land ceded to the United States included all of what is now California, Nevada and Utah and parts of what is now Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming—or 525,000 square miles of what is now some of the most valuable real estate in the Western United States. Simply put, Mexico—or the Hispanic advocacy groups causing civil unrest in the southwest—wants the land back. They view the citizens of the United States, not the illegal aliens flooding across the border in an unbroken stream, as the squatters.

Along these same lines, Douglas MacKinnon, writing for Townhall.com, points to Prince William County, Virginia, as a major skirmish line — a microcosm — in the war that legions of illegal aliens, the governments that have purposefully exported them, and the radical groups that do their bidding, have begun waging on the United States of America. Writes MacKinnon:

… the situation has gone from bad to worse for the law-abiding citizens of Prince William County. In late July, thousands of illegal aliens and their supporters met in Prince William County to declare that they would punish the county for daring to enforce it laws by boycotting non-immigrant businesses, striking against those innocent owners and suing the county into bankruptcy.

Earlier this week, as many as seven thousand illegal aliens and their pro-law breaking supporters – including Hispanic Priests – converged once again at the seat of the Prince William County government to intensity their militancy as they sought to intimidate the Prince William board and the legal citizens of the county. It should be noted that this threatening protest was led by a group that calls itself “Mexicans Without Borders.” An organization headed-up by an individual who, it has been reported, draws his inspiration from the violent Marxist Zapatista Army of National Liberation. Pure and simple, these militants intend to take the county down and then take their guerilla campaign to the next city or county that has the temerity to try and enforce the laws of the United States.Point blank. If you are an American business that willingly employs illegal aliens, you are putting us all at risk. If you are the mayor or city council of a sanctuary city, you are putting us all at risk. Should the unthinkable happen, you will bear much of the responsibility.Combative, illegal aliens have established a beachhead in Prince William County, Virginia. Millions of illegal aliens and their supporters around the nation are closely following this confrontation. Should the militant illegal aliens prevail in Prince William county, the others around the nation will be emboldened to try the same.

The Associated Press may not find anything sinister in this (or from which logical conclusions can be drawn), but MacKinnon doesn’t mince words:

… the U.S. Military and intelligence officials believe that Venezuela – at the direction of dictator Hugo Chavez – is emerging as a hub of terrorism in the Western Hemisphere. That the Chavez government is teaching Islamists how to speak Spanish, supplying them with Venezuelan identity cards, and facilitating their illegal entry into the United States.
What more proof do these irresponsible politicians, lawyers, and members of the media need? Are they waiting for a mushroom cloud to appear over an American city before they will admit that by not locking down our borders and controlling illegal immigration, we are putting ourselves at tremendous risk.

Meanwhile, federal immigration enforcement continues to be thwarted at every turn. And when it fails, as it has now for nearly three decades, American citizenship is devalued, its citizens put in harm’s way, its treasury depleted, its “Rule of Law” undermined, and the fabric of “American culture” rented. Look at the corrupt and corrupting government of Mexico. Is that what we want here in the United States?

Invasions come in many forms and guises and they need not be armed incursions to pose a clear and present danger to our way of life and the laws that are supposed to protect it. The mainstream media may disingenuously refer to illegal alien border-jumpers and visa overstayers as “immigrants” and “undocumeted workers.” And President Bush may disarmingly refer to them as being awash in “family values” and “here to do the jobs Americans are unwilling to do.” But, fact is, there is not a thing whatsoever innocuous about 20+ million colonists afoot in our land and moving through it unimpeded on a mission. Worse, American taxpayers are being strong-armed by the federal government into subsidizing their own demise by footing the bill for these freeloading invaders.

It’s Reconquista, pure and simple and unfettered.

Follow-Up: Mexico’s intrusion — indeed, its meddling insinuation — into the internal affairs of America has come in the form of a far-flung, unprecedented network of 47 consulates (including “mobile” consulates) that form a “Fifth Column” of sorts in the United States and a massive flanking action against any material pushback by federal or state governments in withstanding (let alone defeating) Mexico’s purposeful invasion of our country. I’ve written on this subject here and here, and encourage you to take the additional time both to read these posts and to bookmark or syndicate my site to stay curent on developments.

Follow-Up II: Important to know is that 10% of Mexico’s population now resides in the United States and 46% of its population would come to the United States to live if given its druthers. Even the liberal San Francisco Chronicle has reported:

The current migration of Mexicans and Central Americans to the United States is one of the largest diasporas in modern history, experts say.
Roughly 10 percent of Mexico’s population of about 107 million is now living in the United States, estimates show. About 15 percent of Mexico’s labor force is working in the United States. One in every 7 Mexican workers migrates to the United States.

Follow-Up III: While this illuminating piece on “Reconquista” by Allan Wall, published by VDARE.com, may appear dated at first blush, its insights into the mindset of those who believe Americans and their government owe illegal Mexican immigrants and their government something is truly a case study in unadulterated arrogance and unabashed complicity. It lays bare the sinister aims of those both sponsoring and facilitating the human invasion from the south.

And as Deneen G. Peterson, Ph.d., wrote for American Chronicle:

Our sovereign nation is facing an overwhelming illegal alien invasion by an Hispanic ‘migrant army’ that has defied our immigration laws and sovereignty. The invasion of America now totals 20 -23 million and rising. Of that number, 90% are Hispanics who balkanize our cities and towns, and arrogantly corrupt our unifying national language while actively disrespecting our culture, society and country! All this is being accomplished while our complicit government shamelessly stands by blatantly ignoring the anarchy, by allowing Mexico’s human tsunami of illegal aliens to lawlessly overrun America.

The invading illegal alien horde is diminishing our quality-of-life, overloading our hospitals, schools and jails, and bankrupting our taxpayer treasury. It is a Mexican invasion, an act of war, that has reduced our country to nothing but a lawless territory with little or no sovereignty left! Mexico has been waging their one-sided war for decades by sending a migrant army of some 20 million of its citizens to colonize and reconquista America. It is a war they intend to win “without firing a shot!” It is a clear and evident de facto war, totally ignored by our government. It is a war that has been carefully planned, blatantly conducted and arrogantly executed without a single change or deviation from the original 1982 ‘Mexican Manifesto.’

Six years after the horrific terrorist attack of 9/11/01 on the World Trade Center Towers in New York City and the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, wouldn’t you think by now our nation’s Central Intelligence Agency and its burgeoning Department of Homeland Security would be talking to one another?

I ask, because NewsMax reports the following today:

In a rare public address CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden warned of new attacks by al-Qaida:”Our analysts assess with high confidence that al-Qaida’s central leadership is planning high-impact plots against the U.S. homeland.”

Hayden’s unusual public address was made at his request at the Council of Foreign Relations.

And I ask incredulously, because the DHS has set-up shop in a trade show booth at the Islamic Society of North America’s convention, while at the same time condoning the fact that its U.S. Customs and Border Protection division has relaxed its inspection standards at a major Port of Entry along Texas’ contiguous border with Mexico.  (Read it all here!)

Meanwhile, Mexican trucks and Mexican drivers now have the run of the United States.

What ever happened to good old-fashioned American common sense and a government looking out first for its own citizens’ well-being?

Recall this nonsense from the Department of Homeland Security chief? As MSNBC reported (via the Associated Press), Michael Chertoff had a visceral sense of imminent danger this summer:

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff’s “gut feeling” about an increased terrorist risk this summer did not send law enforcement officials scrambling for increased security, although authorities said Wednesday his remark emphasized the need for vigilance.

Well, turns out he couldn’t have been too terribly concerned, because The Washington Times has reported this piece of disturbingly contradictory news:

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in Texas have been ordered to abbreviate national security checks at one of the nation”s busiest ports of entry to speed up travel between the United States and Mexico, according to official documents and multiple interviews with agents.

An Aug. 16 memorandum from CBP El Paso field office Director Luis Garcia directs agents to limit inspections of vehicle and pedestrian border crossers as wait times escalate. The document, obtained by The Washington Times, sets new guidelines that border inspectors say undermine efforts to prevent terrorists and other criminals from entering the United States.

That agency is a part of the unwieldy Department of Homeland Security, so such an edict falls within Michael Chertoff’s purview to approve or rescind.

Of course, maybe this consequential memorandum was issued at a time when Chertoff was busying himself with such material security matters as arranging for the DHS’ participation at the Islamic Society of North America’s annual convention.

I sure wish President Bush would heed my advice on what to do about Michael Chertoff.

Follow-Up: Diggers Realm has also posted on this nonsense and I encourage you to read his well-done amplification of the issue.

Here’s the “must read” of the day from columnist Pat Buchanan. I’ve as much expressed the same sentiments here, here, and here.

An excerpt from the Buchanan piece:

“Mexico does not end at its borders. … Where there is a Mexican, there is Mexico.”

That astonishing claim by Mexican President Felipe Calderon, in his state of the nation address at the National Palace Sunday, brought his audience wildly cheering to its feet.

Were the United States a serious nation, Calderon’s claim that Mexico extends into the United States would have produced an instant demand from the U.S. ambassador for clarification. Failing to receive it, he would have packed his bags, and the United States would be on the verge of severing diplomatic relations.

In an earlier time, U.S. troops would be rolling to the border.

For this is not the first time an arrogant Mexican ruler has made a claim to extra-territorial rights inside the United States and, indeed, to U.S. territory. Mexico’s presidents have gotten into a habit of suborning treason against the United States.

What’s glaringly missing from the whole national discussion about porous borders, unsecured ports, visa overstayers, sanctuary cities, anchor babies, illegal alien crime, 20+ million illegal aliens afoot in our land, and the egregiously lax enforcement of federal immigration laws is exactly what is the Bush Administration (and future administrations) going to do about Mexico?

Why does Mexico keep getting a pass, while American citizens and taxpayers keep taking it on the chin? Why does the U.S. government bow to the ridiculous demands of Felipe Calderon (and his predecessors) with protections and benefits for his people not even afforded to our own?

Maybe the easiest thing (although I suspect we’d soon hear the wailing and gnashing of teeth from the Kennedy wing of the Democratic Party) would be to simply adopt Mexico’s immigration policies here in the United States. Now that’s what I would call “meaningful” immigration reform. And, after all, turnaround is and ought to be fair play!

Imagine a Bush-Kennedy-Kyl-McCain “Comprehensive Immigration Reform” bill modeled after Mexico’s. Consider the following:

Mexico welcomes only foreigners who will be useful to Mexican society:

• Foreigners are admitted into Mexico “according to their possibilities of contributing to national progress.”

• Immigration officials must “ensure” that “immigrants will be useful elements for the country and that they have the necessary funds for their sustenance” and for their dependents.

• Foreigners may be barred from the country if their presence upsets “the equilibrium of the national demographics,” when foreigners are deemed detrimental to “economic or national interests,” when they do not behave like good citizens in their own country, when they have broken Mexican laws, and when “they are not found to be physically or mentally healthy.”

• The Secretary of Governance may “suspend or prohibit the admission of foreigners when he determines it to be in the national interest.”

Mexican authorities must keep track of every single person in the country:

• Federal, local and municipal police must cooperate with federal immigration authorities upon request, i.e., to assist in the arrests of illegal immigrants.

• A National Population Registry keeps track of “every single individual who comprises the population of the country,” and verifies each individual’s identity.

• A national Catalog of Foreigners tracks foreign tourists and immigrants, and assigns each individual with a unique tracking number.

Foreigners with fake papers, or who enter the country under false pretenses, may be imprisoned:

• Foreigners with fake immigration papers may be fined or imprisoned.

• Foreigners who sign government documents “with a signature that is false or different from that which he normally uses” are subject to fine and imprisonment. (Article 116)

Foreigners who fail to obey the rules will be fined, deported, and/or imprisoned as felons:

• Foreigners who fail to obey a deportation order are to be punished.

• Foreigners who are deported from Mexico and attempt to re-enter the country without authorization can be imprisoned for up to 10 years.

• Foreigners who violate the terms of their visa may be sentenced to up to six years in prison. Foreigners who misrepresent the terms of their visa while in Mexico — such as working with out a permit — can also be imprisoned.

Under Mexican law, illegal immigration is a felony. The General Law on Population says:

• “A penalty of up to two years in prison and a fine of three hundred to five thousand pesos will be imposed on the foreigner who enters the country illegally.”

• Foreigners with legal immigration problems may be deported from Mexico instead of being imprisoned.

• Foreigners who “attempt against national sovereignty or security” will be deported.

Mexicans who help illegal aliens enter the country are themselves considered criminals under the law:

• A Mexican who marries a foreigner with the sole objective of helping the foreigner live in the country is subject to up to five years in prison. (Article 127)

• Shipping and airline companies that bring undocumented foreigners into Mexico will be fined.

(Source: Human Events)

Guatemalans will be electing a new president come Sunday and it wouldn’t surprise me if the president-elect, borrowing from Mexico’s president Felipe Calderon’s “State of the Nation” address, were to declare on the heels of his victory: “Wherever there is a Guatemalan, there is Guatemala!”

Why not? After all, undocumented Guatemalans hardly fare as well in Mexico, as undocumented Mexican nationals do in the United States. In the former, they’re regarded as “felons” and are subjected to all kinds of physical abuse; while in the latter, they’re candidates for amnesty and a path to citizenship and regularly annointed with all kinds of benefits and protections at taxpayers’ expense.

After all, the hypocritical and thoroughly corrupt (and corrupting) government of Mexico plays it both ways on the issue of illegal immigration, actively encouraging, on the one hand, the mass exportation of its hapless poor, illiterate, and criminal population to the United States in order to garner $23+ billion in annual remittances, while, on the other, ruthlessly confronting border-jumpers from Guatemala (and other Latin American countries) on its own southern border.

As Jim Kouri reports:

Considered felons by the Mexican government, these immigrants fear detention, rape and robbery. Police and soldiers hunt them down at railroads, bus stations and fleabag hotels. Sometimes they are deported; more often officers beat them and simply take their money and possessions.

While illegal immigrants in the United States have held huge rallies in recent weeks, the thousands and thousands of undocumented Central Americans in Mexico endure their inhumane treatment in silent fear. In fact, Mexico’s constitution prohibits non-citizens from participating in protests or other public demonstrations against the Mexican government.

According to the Washington Times, undocumented Central Americans complain much more about how they are treated by Mexican officials than about authorities on the US side of the border, where aliens may resent being caught but often praise the professionalism of the agents scouring the desert for their trail.

If an immigrant is carrying any money, Mexican police officers of soldiers take it from the hapless illegal immigrant. And it’s not just local cops: Federal and state police officers are equally corrupt and brutal. There is no such thing as a sanctuary city in Mexico. And the illegal immigrants are lucky if the are confronted by police officers; the soldiers are far worse in their treatment of these foreigners.

But why such a flow of Guatemalans into the heartland of Mexico? The answer to this question may resonate with those familiar with one of George W. Bush’s favorite pro-porous borders’ canards. For, according to reporter Ginger Thompson of the Herald Tribune International, it’s as simple as this:

Guatemalans cross legally and illegally to do jobs that Mexicans departing for the north no longer want.

Here’s a must-read post (including a photograph) from Little Green Footballs (H/T: The Dan Stein Report).

Hope you’re sitting down before reading this and that if you suffer from hypertension that you’ve taken your medicine today.

The decisions by DHS and other agencies to have booths at the Islamic Society of North America convention is raising eyebrows.

Follow-Up: Maybe if President Bush would follow my advice regarding DHS’ head Michael Chertoff, we’d get a border fence built, instead of having display booths up at Islamic Society conventions. Your tax dollars at work! I guess Mr. Chertoff had a “gut feeling” that it’s DHS’ role to participate in these sorts of innocuous get-togethers.

Follow-Up II: Here’s some incisive journalistic reporting from blogger Debbie Schlussel on the internal machinations of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its largest investigative arm, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) divison. Makes for good bedtime reading, but have the Alkazelser at the ready!

Follow-Up III: More grist for the mill, as the GAO releases an unflattering governmental audit of the effectiveness (i.e, lack thereof) of the white elephant that is the Department of Homeland Security.

While the world is focused on the failure of the Iraqi government to meet its benchmarks, auditors in Washington are reporting that the Department of Homeland Security “has failed to make even moderate progress toward eight of 14 internal government benchmarks” in the four years since it was created, according to The Washington Post.

Not cited was the Trade Show-Convention segment (I presume one must exist) of Michael Chertoff’s vast, far-flung, tax-consuming, largely inept enterprise.

Follow-Up IV (09/07/07): Corruption Chronicles adds this observation with respect to the damning GAO report on DHS:

Less than half of the department’s performance goals were met and many of the 180,000-member agency’s problems involved illegal immigration. Among the agency’s failures in this area is identifying border spots where people enter the country illegally, establishing an effective strategy to prevent human smuggling and removing illegal aliens with criminal records.

Just last month Homeland Security’s Inspector General revealed that a power struggle between the two sub agencies—the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)—charged with intercepting terrorists in the U.S. has led to an appalling lack of cooperation that has left the country vulnerable to another deadly attack.

Cases and leads involving terrorist activities in the United States have actually been dropped because the FBI and ICE refuse to team up. Other domestic terrorism investigations have experienced major delays because the agencies won’t cooperate with each other.

Makes you wonder, doesn’t it, why a federal government bureaucracy this screwed up, yet given such a vital security mission, is screwing around with a booth/display at the Islamic Society of North America convention? Well, maybe that’s precisely reflective of why it and its leader, Michael Chertoff, are so screwed up!

Follow-Up V (09/07/07): Bless his heart, but here’s another slam on Michael Chertoff from blogger Debbie Schlussel. Do take the time to read it.

The whole specious, convoluted, self-serving, nonsensical premise of the unadulterated outrage that is  “Sanctuary” policies for illegal immigrants — of which 3 states and 31 cities and counties now participate across America – is now to be shamelessly codified by our federal government.

This from CNS News:

People who come into the United States illegally and then become victims of crime may get special protection from the U.S. government.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on Wednesday announced an interim final rule that grants “temporary immigration benefits” to crime victims who assist government officials in investigating or prosecuting the criminal activity.

The goal is to bring crime victims out of the shadows where they tend to hide if they fear deportation.

The new rule offers protection and temporary benefits to victims who are illegal aliens — and it also bolsters the capabilities of police to investigate and prosecute criminal activity, USCIS said.

Did Newark, New Jersey’s “Sanctuary City” policy thwart the heinous, execution-style murders of three black college students? After all, sanctuary cities use the same lame rationale that the USCIS is now championing — namely, that if you foster trust between the government and the illegal alien population, more members of the latter will come forward to assist the former in the apprehension of criminals. Right. Sure!

Need we any further reminder than this to know we’re being sold yet another phony bill of goods?

And isn’t it already bad enough that the U.S. federal government has granted immunity to an illegal alien drug smuggler in order to prosecute and incarcerate two U.S. Border Patrol agents who were merely doing their jobs? Talk about the tale of the tape!

And what about American victims of illegal immigrant criminals — what rights do they have in a country with porous land borders, unsecured maritime ports, and tempoary visa holders purposefully overstaying those visas at will? Indeed, what rights do bona-fide American citizens have when the Congress and the President of the United States devote themselves time and time again to securing amnesty and a path to citizenship for illegal aliens? Is this our country or Felipe Calderon’s?

Come on, Folks: doesn’t this just frost you?

People eligible for “U nonimmigrant status” include those who have suffered substantial mental or physical abuse because of illegal activity; have information regarding that activity; and are willing to assist government officials in the investigation and prosecution of the crime.

The crime must have happened in the United States (or its territories and possessions).

According to USCIS, “Individuals granted U nonimmigrant status may remain in the United States for up to four years, and may be accompanied by eligible family members (spouse, children, unmarried siblings under 18, and parents).

“Not only do eligible petitioners obtain legal status to remain in the country, but [they] will also be provided referrals to nongovernmental organizations for assistance and additional resources, and automatic employment authorization.”

Follow-Up: Maybe this will put what the USCIS is up to in much better perspective:

Illegal aliens are killing more Americans than the Iraq war, says a new report from Family Security Matters that estimates some 2,158 murders are committed every year by illegal aliens in the U.S. The group says that number is more than 15 percent of all the murders reported by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the U.S. and about three times the representation of illegal aliens in the general population.

The report from FSM estimates that the 267,000 illegal aliens currently incarcerated in the nation are responsible for nearly 1,300,000 crimes, ranging from drug arrests to rape and murder. Such statistics, Cutler contends, debunk the claim that illegal immigration is a victimless crime.

Isn’t it high time that the Bush Administration stop fretting over the welfare of the Mexican nationals that Felipe Calderon and his predecesors export to the United States and start worrying about the deleterious impact (including loss of life) to American citizens of runaway illegal immigration and an illegal alien crime wave that continues to escalate? For if not, where will it all end — in this, this, and this?

Why shouldn’t American citizens be even further convinced now, on the heels of the outrageously imperialistic remarks of Mexico’s president Felipe Calderon, that the Bush Administration is and has been in bed with the corrupt (and corrupting) government of Mexico throughout his two terms? After all, neither President Bush, nor the U.S. Department of State, has responded forcefully and with clear-cut indignation over the unambiguous “Reconquista” posturing of Felipe Calderon in his recent “State of the Nation” address.

Indeed, the president has been tellingly mum. Worse, Tom Casey, Deputy Spokesman for the State Department, said the following during a press briefing on Tuesday, September 4th:

QUESTION: Yes, on Mexico. This weekend during his first official state of the union address, President Calderon was very critical of what he called the unilateral measures taken by the U.S. Congress and the U.S. Government that he said exacerbate the persecution and abusive treatment against Mexican undocumented workers in the U.S. Any comments?

MR. CASEY: I’m not sure necessarily what he was referring to, but look, certainly, immigration is a very sensitive issue for us as well as for Mexico. We do want to continue working with the government of President Calderon as well as more broadly with the Mexican Government to ensure that even as we implement our laws, we do so in a way that respects the dignity of those involved and that doesn’t put anyone under any kind of undue pressure.

Certainly, if President Calderon has ideas or concerns that he wishes to raise with us, I’m sure we’ll be happy to hear from him about them because again, the important thing for us is that we recognize that issues involving immigration affect both our countries and we need to be able to work together to deal with them.

QUESTION: Are you concerned that this perception from the leadership of Mexico that there’s a persecution against Mexican undocumented workers actually hampers your cooperation with Mexico in other areas; for example, security?

MR. CASEY: Well, look, I think we’re all aware of the importance of immigration for the Government of Mexico as well as for our government. It’s an issue that has been there for a long time. It’s one that we continue to work with Mexico on. And again, I don’t think that anything that’s occurred recently is going to affect our basic good cooperation with our Mexican friends on a broad range of issues.

But certainly, we have many channels and opportunities to talk about this and other issues with the Mexican Government. And any specific concerns that the president may have are things I am sure we will be able to discuss and address in the future.

And in yesterday’s daily press briefing, Tom Casey continued in this same lame, circumspect, fatuous vein:

QUESTION: This is on Mexico, to follow up on your comments yesterday on President Calderon’s speech to the State of the Union. In the speech, he said that Mexico’s borders don’t end in Mexico, and wherever a Mexican is should be considered part of Mexico, meaning that Mexican citizens in the U.S. should be treated accordingly. Do you think that’s — those comments are a threat to U.S. sovereignty in any way?

MR. CASEY: I am not sure I read his remarks that closely. But look, I would think — my interpretation of them, based on what you’ve said, is that that’s the same thing as me standing here saying the United States cares very greatly about U.S. citizens living abroad and believes that it has an obligation to ensure that they receive appropriate treatment and protection under the laws of the countries where they reside. And frankly, based on my limited reading of his remarks, that’s how I’d view those comments.

What unadulterated crap: “… the United States cares very greatly about U.S. citizens living abroad …” Right.

A front-page, above-the-fold story by James Pinkerton in today’s edition of the Houston Chronicle knocks the wind out of that fatuous claim vis-a-vis U.S. citizens in Mexico. Here’s an excerpt:

Perera, 44, is one of 50 U.S. citizens who have disappeared and are still missing in Mexico, including 33 who vanished in Mexican towns along the Texas border, according to FBI officials. Some of these cases date to 2004.

The unresolved fate of these Americans has brought heartbreak, anguish and misery to their relatives, as well as frustration to U.S. law enforcement authorities who have no jurisdiction to investigate the missing in Mexico.

The cases are a mix of abductions related to the drug trade along the border, kidnappings for ransom, abductions to settle personal disputes as well as cases of mistaken identity, U.S. officials said. In some cases, the motives are unknown.

And what of our citizens right here at home who go about their daily lives largely unprotected by the criminality of illegal aliens, protected as the border-jumpers are by lax border and maritime port security, and exacerbated by the misguided ”sanctuary” policies of 3 states and 31 cities and counties?

But let’s return to the money quote from Tom Casey of our U.S. Department of State:

I don’t think that anything that’s occurred recently is going to affect our basic good cooperation with our Mexican friends on a broad range of issues.

That says it all, don’t you think? And that observation, which speaks volumes, could have been made just as easily by President Bush. And, to be sure, note that the U.S. State Department spokesman doesn’t even use the term (”issue,” in point of fact) “illegal immigration,” but rather “immigration.” Who’s he kidding with 20+ million illegal aliens afoot in our land and with millions more on the way?

As must have been the case with most bona-fide American citizens (not the Harry Reid variety), I took umbrage when I first read an account of Mexican president Felipe Calderon’s recent “State of the Nation” address, in which he blasted U.S. immigration policy and waxed patently imperialistic in making the preposterous claim that “Mexico does not end at its borders” and that “wherever there is a Mexican there is Mexico.”

And last evening, while watching CNN’s Lou Dobbs’account of Calderon’s declaration, and again today, in reading his amplified commentary, I felt the same sense of rage. And why not? After all, the majority of the 20+ million illegal aliens in this country are Mexican nationals or foreigners from other lands who entered the United States by illegally crossing our southern contiguous border with Mexico. And, more to the point, the corrupt government of Mexico officially encourages the emigration of its poor, illiterate masses (over 10% of its population now lives in the United States) through government-funded “How To” guides, while benefiting unabashedly from the $23+ billion in annual remittances from those it exploits and chases north through purposeful indifference and crafty exploitation. Indeed, Felipe Calderon’s address was tantamount to a clarion call for “Reconquista.”

But, along with the boiling rage I feel, I have also come to take a contrarian view, thinking to myself that at least Mexico has ostensibly a president who not only champions Mexico’s sovereignty, but argues, albeit unconvincingly, that it extends beyond its own borders, insinuating itself across the length and breadth of the United States of Mexico (I mean “of America”). Our president, in stark contrast to Felipe Calderon, devalues American citizenship, undermines his country’s sovereignty, fails to enforce its “Rule of Law,” and time and again has sought amnesty and a path to citizenship for the legions of illegal alien border-jumpers and visa overstayers in our midst. George W. Bush works in concert with Felipe Calderon (and Calderon’s predecessor, Vicente Fox) and the national interests of Mexico, rather than protecting America’s national security interests by securing its land borders and maritime ports in a post-9/11 age of international terrorism. Is there anything more telling than this?

That’s precisely why there has yet to issue forth from the White House any formal expression of indignation over Calderon’s outrageous remarks and patent interference with the internal policies of the United States. And that’s precisely why Mexico’s vast network of consulates (including mobile consulates) is being permitted to grow unfettered in our country (much like its population) in order to advance Mexico’s interests at the expense of the rights, safety, and pocketbooks of America’s citizens.

Follow-Up: Do read Patrick Buchanan’s column, published at VDARE.com, on the history of “arrogant Mexican rulers” making “extra-territorial” claims to U.S. territory.