PRESTOPUNDIT -- "It's a team sport, baby!"

AMERICA'S #1 IMPORT --

POVERTY. Quotable:

Compared with 1990, there were actually 700,000 fewer non-Hispanic whites in poverty last year. Among blacks, the drop since 1990 is between 700,000 and 1 million .. Meanwhile, the number of poor Hispanics is up by 3 million since 1990 ..

there's no mystery here. If more poor and unskilled people enter the country � and have children � there will be more poverty. (The Census figures cover both legal and illegal immigrants; estimates of illegals range upward from 7 million.) About 33 percent of all immigrants .. lack a high-school education .. if the poverty persists � and is compounded by more immigration � then it will create mounting political and social problems. One possibility: a growing competition for government benefits between the poor and baby-boom retirees.

THE FRIGHTENING THING

about George Bush.

AN INTERVIEW

with Michelle Malkin on racial profiling, WWII, and the war on terror.

THEY COME BY THE HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS

from China, Brazil, Pakistan, Ethiopia, etc. headed for Mexico City. Final destination? The United States.

Quotable: "The Mexican authorities report that a surging number of migrants from all around the world are traveling through Mexico to get to the United States. So far this year, Mexico has detained nearly 112,000 illegal migrants, compared with 150,000 in all of 2001. Authorities said they expected total detentions for this year to reach 200,000."

And then there is this. Quotable: "[Congressmen and law enforcement officials are] worried about what they derisively call the Department of Homeland Security's "capture and release" program .. the program allows immigration officials to routinely release tens of thousands of illegal immigrants from countries other than Mexico .. Homeland Security officials acknowledge that more than 70 percent of those released disappear from law enforcement's radar, resulting in a fugitive population of 400,000 nationwide .. "I don't think people realize that 15,000 of these people (non-Mexican migrants) have been dumped in communities in Texas in the last eight months," said Republican U.S. Rep. Henry Bonilla .. "

POLL SHOWS

Bush is wasting his time going after the illegal alien vote. Quotable:

Don't bother talking ethnic solidarity to Debbie Valdez, 38. Unemployed in Santa Fe, she speaks no Spanish. A Republican from a long-established local Hispanic family, she says she'll vote for Bush because Democrats are too pro-immigration. "Mexicans are taking over," she says. "You can't even get a job at Wal-Mart."

THE GAME IS

CATCH-AND-RELEASE.

THE WASHINGTON TIMES

has a major story on illegal immigration -- and what our government isn't doing to stop it. Quotable:

"Taxpayers each year spend more than $7 billion to educate the children of illegal aliens, $1 billion for health care and emergency treatment, and nearly $3 billion to detain illegal aliens in state and local jails."

"The vast majority of illegal aliens flooding into America � an estimated 1 million a year � draw little attention once they pass through the "border region"

"Nearly half of the 48 al Qaeda terrorists tied to violent acts in the United States between 1993 and 2001 committed significant immigration-law violations prior to those events but were never detained or deported."

LA'S GANG PROBLEM --

brought to you by illegal immigration: "Before immigration optimists issue another rosy prognosis for America�s multicultural future, they might visit Belmont High School in Los Angeles�s overwhelmingly Hispanic, gang-ridden Rampart district. �Upward and onward� is not a phrase that comes to mind when speaking to the first- and second-generation immigrant teens milling around the school this January. �Most of the people I used to hang out with when I first came to the school have dropped out,� observes Jackie, a vivacious illegal alien from Guatemala. �Others got kicked out or got into drugs. Five graduated, and four home girls got pregnant.� Certainly, none of the older teens I met outside Belmont was on track to graduate. MORE Heather Mac Donald "The Immigrant Gang Plague".

Illegal Immigration & the job market.

A ParaPundit indepth analysis. Quotable:

"Note that the absolute number of employed Hispanics has increased in the last year by more than the number of employed non-Hispanics. So most new jobs now go to Hispanics."

""The median, or midpoint, weekly earnings for Latinos dropped from $402 in the first quarter of 2003 to $395 during the same period this year .. " .. A person earning about $20,000 a year is not paying much in taxes. If that person has even a single child then the cost of that child's education per year is way more than the person pays in taxes. Add in subsidized medical care and other subsidies it is easy to see that the employers of the low salaried workers are getting labor subsidized by taxpayers. That decline in wages translates into more demand for government services and less taxes paid to the government. The middle and upper classes have to pay more in taxes and get less in government services to pay for this trend in labor costs and the growth in the number of illegal Hispanics living in the United States."

Mexicans drain $13.8bn from U.S. economy.

Read the story here.

Smugglers & illegal aliens released in case of 900 square foot "clown house".

"A shortage of detention space and resources has foiled attempts by federal prosecutors to build a case against three alleged smugglers accused of holding 110 illegal immigrants at a "drop house" in Watts. The number of immigrants overwhelmed the system and made it impossible for federal officials to comply with a judge's order to make them available to defense attorneys, officials with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said. Because the government could not comply, smuggling charges against the alleged "coyotes" were dropped. Since then, many of the 88 immigrants apprehended in the raid have been released .. ". Case against Watts smugglers falling apart.

Fetus of illegal alien declared U.S. citizen.

A Federal judge has refused to allow the deportation of an illegal alien based on his decision that the woman's unborn fetus was an American citizen. The judge cites "Laci's Law" as the rationale for his decision ..

Immigrants are a job threat -- culture should be shared.

So say the citizens of Mexico. Quotable: "Almost half of Mexicans, whose country has less industrial development than others polled, said they see immigrants as a threat to their own work force. "In spite of so many Mexicans migrating to the United States, Mexicans have a harsh view on immigration in general," said Jorge Buendia of Ipsos-Bimsa in Mexico. A large majority of Mexicans, 71 percent, said they think it's better if almost everyone in a country shares the same customs and traditions .. ". MORE AP world poll in immigration.

Bush Plan produces "Season of Death".

"At the bottleneck of human smuggling here in the Sonoran Desert, illegal immigrants are dying in record numbers as they try to cross from Mexico into the United States in the wake of a new Bush administration amnesty proposal that is being perceived by some migrants as a magnet to cross .. Mr. Garc�a said he had heard that the new Bush immigration plan, which would grant work visas to millions of illegal immigrants inside the United States and to others who can prove they have a job, was "amnesty," and he wondered why he was arrested. He said he would try to cross again in a few days .. "It's like catch-and-release fishing," Mr. Stroud, the Border Patrol agent, said with a shrug after helping Mr. Garc�a with his blisters. "One week, I arrested the same guy three times. If I dwell on it, it can be frustrating." Agents .. say the spike in crossings and deaths are the fault of the Bush proposal, which .. has created a stir in Mexico, they say. "They've dangled this carrot, and as a result apprehensions in Arizona are just spiking beyond belief," said T. J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, which represents about 9,000 agents. "The average field agent is just mystified by the administration's throwing in the towel on this." Mr. Bonner // said the people were crossing in huge numbers, even at the high risk of dying in the desert, because "they're trying to get in line for the big lottery we've offered them." .. ". MORE "Border Desert Proves Deadly for Mexicans".

The cost of immigration.

"Two decades of growth in the supply of immigrant workers cost native-born American men an average $1,700 in annual wages," according to a study by Harvard economist George Borjas, a leading authority on the economics of immigration. MORE "Immigrant labor holds down wages, report says".

Open borders -- it's official policy.

"I am appalled and outraged that federal law enforcement officials would hold a meeting with lawbreakers to tell them they won't enforce the law." -- U.S. Rep. John Culberson, R-Houston after U.S. immigration officials promised a meeting of illegal immigrants that Federal agents would be prohibited from enforcing U.S. immigration laws in the workplace.

LA -- 1,200 illegals with outstanding warrants for homicide.

"We've seen many examples of illegal aliens who were stopped by local police but set free, only to commit crimes instead of being deported. One such case is the notorious Dec. 19, 2002, gang rape in Queens, N.Y., of a mother of two by five illegal aliens from Mexico and Central America who had been arrested several times, but never turned over to the immigration agency.

The most famous example is Washington, D.C.-area sniper Lee Malvo, a Jamaican who was caught by local law enforcement in Bellingham, Wash. He was identified as an illegal alien who should have been deported, but instead was set free by federal authorities.

Three of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers, including ringleader Mohammed Atta, had been stopped and ticketed for significant traffic violations, such as driving without a license and speeding at 90 mph. Thousands of innocent lives could have been saved had there been closer cooperation between local police and immigration authorities.

The Los Angeles police department is handcuffed by Special Order 40, which prohibits the police from asking anyone they arrest about their immigration status unless the suspect is already charged with a felony. The police cannot notify immigration authorities about an illegal alien picked up for minor violations, even though it is well known that enforcing laws against minor crimes often prevents major ones.

The 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act makes it unlawful for any municipality to restrict its employees from reporting illegal aliens to federal authorities. It also allows the federal government and local police to work together under specific written agreements. A few local agencies have reached such agreements, and Virginia just became the third state to give its state police more authority to detain illegal aliens.

Former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, trying to defend his city's sanctuary policy, fought against that law all the way to the Supreme Court. He lost in court, but Mayor Michael Bloomberg's "don't ask, don't tell" rule continues to skirt the 1996 law.

There are 400,000 illegal aliens walking our streets who are under standing deportation orders, known as absconders, of whom 80,000 are criminal aliens and nearly 3,800 are from countries with a known al-Qaeda presence. The Los Angeles Police Department has more than 1,200 outstanding warrants for illegal aliens on homicide charges.

The foreign born make up 30 percent of federal prisoners. The big-city gangs are mostly foreign born, and their viciousness is illustrated by Valentino Mitchell Arenas, the 16-year-old who on April 21 is alleged to have shot and killed California Highway Patrol officer Thomas Steiner as the boy's admission ticket to the 12th Street Pomona gang, which authorities say has ties to the Mexican Mafia .. ". MORE Phyllis Schlafly.

Immigration horrors - now routine.

"The doors of the small bungalow in Watts were chained and the windows covered with metal bars and plywood. Inside, about 110 barefoot and no doubt frightened men, women and children waited for their relatives to deliver ransom money, as much as $9,000 each, that would free them from the immigrant-smugglers, the coyotes, who held them under guard. The chain of misery was disrupted Wednesday by agents of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, tipped by one immigrant who had got out. Most of the illegal immigrants are in custody. The smugglers got away. Was this an exceptional event .. Apparently not. Commenting on the raid, local law enforcement officials said that, other than the large number of people in the house, there was nothing unusual except that most such houses and human smuggling rings go without federal notice ...

The victims include not just the people in such houses but cities like Los Angeles, the gateway and often destination for waves of immigrants. It is a problem that can be addressed only by the federal government, which is, as Los Angeles City Council member Janice Hahn put it, "turning a blind eye." .. ". More - "Broken Immigration Policy".

Sierra Club & Immigration.

Richard Lamm & other challengers are crushed by Sierra Club candidates unopposed to mass immigration into the United States.

Illegal Immigration.

HOUSTON -- "Rumor of immigrant raid clears apartments, leaves school desks empty".

Immigration fight splits Sierra Club.

Wine and cheese people debate the candidacy of Richard Lamm.

1,000,000 in just 3 years.

Immigration nightmare -- 1,000,000 new residents inundate Southern California in last 3 years. Quotable: "Southern California's residential growth over the last three years is akin to scattering the entire population of San Francisco and Marin counties among communities from Ventura south to San Ysidro, a flow of humanity measured in worsening traffic jams, escalating housing costs and portable classrooms parked on school campuses .. ". More SoCal POPULATION EXPLOSION.

Immigration -- Britain in an uproar.

One-legged roof tilers and other British immigration scandals: "The government had lost control of immigration." And a British minister resigns.

Immigration & California.

Those clicking over from the Volokh Conspiracy can find my postings on immigration here and my many posts on the overspending crisis in California here.

HeadsUp: The best coverage of the immigration crisis, the California overspending crisis, and the confluence of the two has come from KFI640's John & Ken radio talk show, a program which has more listeners than the LA Times has readers.

Immigration & the Welfare State.

Tyler Cowen presents the case for expanded immigration and a somewhat restricted welfare state -- it's a serious argument. I come out differently in my conclusions, an argument I'll expand on later. But the view staked out by Cowen requires serious attending to by those who come out with a different position on either mass immigration or a beefy welfare state. Quotable: " The bigger the welfare state, the more the costs of immigration are socialized in an unfair, unsustainable, and undesirable way. So immigration and the welfare state are substitutes at the relevant margin. I choose immigration .. I prefer high growth, minimum domestic transfers, and a higher rate of immigration. Growth plus resource mobility is the best anti-poverty strategy we are likely to find. And this recipe is closer to classical liberalism than to modern liberalism. I might also add that the United States, through immigration, satisfies the Rawlsian formula better than does Western Europe."

UPDATE: David Bernstein joins the conversation.

Mass Immigration.

Tent cities are being built to house a massive new surge in illegal immigration. Almost a quarter million illegal aliens were detained over the past 6 months in the Tucson, AZ sector alone.

Mass Immigration.

Contemplate the 100+ language LA's government school system, and then contemplate this editorial cartoon.

Mass Immigration.

America, is seems, has room for everyone -- including scores who killed and torturered for their governments. Now that's an open borders policy to write home about.

Immigration.

"Republican congressional offices say their correspondence is running as much as 400 � or even 1,000 � to 1 against" Bush's open borders plan.

Richard Lamm.

How to destroy America in eight easy steps.

40 Job Openings.

At a major retail store where I work part time. These are jobs ranging from the stock room to security to commissioned sales in major appliances. And the store can get only a small trickle of job seekers to even apply for these positions. This include six opening for the very job position President George Bush once held -- and at the very same national retailer. Of course, an ever increasing majority of the jobs held at the retailer where I work are now taken by folks from outside the country -- and wages have dropped steadily for two decades, down several dollars an hour even just in the past couple of years. So count a job the President himself once held as "JOBS AMERICANS WON'T DO" which American businesses can now fill at extremely low wages by shipping in foreign workers under the Presidents plan giving amnesty for illegals -- and effectively open borders for lowest bid foreign labor.

Sierra Club at War.

Richard Lamm says opponents have launched a campaign of environmental McCarthyism against him.

Foreign Power Subverts American Democracy.

"The Mexican government .. is working with a group called the Instituto de los Mexicanos en el Exterior to use its matricula consular database to deploy illegals to state legislatures and city councils across America. There, the illegal aliens .. pack the gallery and seek to apply pressure against legislators who sponsor or intend to vote for bills that enhance immigration law enforcement .. ". more on MEXICAN SUBVERSION OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY. (via John & Ken).

IMMIGRATION.

Immigration pop quiz. Sample question:

If 2 million illegals enter our country through the U.S. Border Patrol's Tucson Sector annually .. and 7 percent .. have criminal records, how many criminals are entering our country each year in Pima and Cochise counties alone?

Immigration & Health Care. "Immigrants (legal and illegal) who arrived between 1994 and 1998 and their children accounted for 59 percent of the growth in the size of the uninsured population in the last ten years .. ". more on IMMIGRATION & THE U.S. HEATHCARE SYSTEM.

Unemployment & Immigration. A telling piece on unemployment statistics and the black market in labor. Quotable:

"The number of people on formal payrolls remains low because new jobs tend to be ones that don't show up on payrolls. Employment gains are among the self-employed and contract workers, or in the informal "gray" and "black" labor markets. People are doing temporary day work or contracting that's kept off the books. These don't tend to be highly paid jobs or jobs with benefits like health insurance, and they are often performed by immigrants, especially undocumented immigrants .. The numbers suggest that native-born workers � particularly teenagers and young adults without college degrees � are being displaced by new immigrants. Indeed, last year the employment rate for teens reached a record low, down 9 percentage points since 2000. These are the very people who might benefit from the unskilled jobs now going to foreign workers .. Large increases in unskilled immigrant workers have helped fuel real-wage declines at the bottom of the labor market and increased earnings inequality .. The proposed guest-worker program will expand supply in an already oversupplied labor market, foster the further development of a substratum outside of existing laws and customs that regulate employment, and further diminish the chances of teens and other young adults, especially from low-income and minority communities, to get valuable work experience .. ".

Off-shoring, the black market in labor, overseas production -- all of these are measures folks in the non-government sector are taking to opt-out from taxes, regulations and lawsuits imposed by the American government sector. The folks getting screwed are the only folks without the protection of free and unregulated trade -- overtaxed, over regulated American workers. There is a 20 - 40 percent tax tariff on American workers seeking to contract with American business. The regulation and tort tariff on the American worker must add another 10-20 percent on the anti-American worker tax penalty laid upon the back of the American employee. With this huge trade wall of tariffs blockading free trade between American business and American laborers, no wonder American labor is becoming the sick man of world trade.

Immigration. "Mass immigration, and its social and economic ramifications, is what has bankrupted California and why she may have reached a tipping point from which there is no return. For her taxpayers are fleeing .. the influx of immigrant poor and the exodus of the middle class means repeated hikes in tax rates and continuous cuts in social services, making life ever harsher for middle-class folks who stick it out. So they too soon head for the highways out ..". MORE Pat Buchanan.