Illegal Immigrants Growing Impatient

[m>s]

I mean allowing nog infestation in your country

[Winehole23]

The detention center is run by the Management and Training Corporation, which operates ten other facilities around the state, employed 373 workers at the site, about half of whom live in the Raymondville and Willacy County areas while the rest live across the Rio Grande Valley." Those folks are now looking for work. According to the McAllen Monitor, "The prison pays [Willacy County] for every inmate it holds, pumping more than $2.7 million into county coffers last year." In addition, "In Raymondville, City Manager Eleazar Garcia said the prison’s closure could mean the loss of about $50,000 a month in water sales in the city whose annual budget projected about $3.6 million in water revenue." Observed the SA Express News:

The Willacy County economy is deeply dependent on the prison industry, floating tens of millions of dollars in bonds through a “Public Facilities Corp.” to build the Correctional Center. The county also has a 500-bed detention center operated by MTC under a U.S. Marshals contract, and a 1,000-bed state jail, operated by Corrections Corp. of America.


Each of the more than 2,800 prisoners in the Willacy correctional facility puts $2.50 per day in county coffers, adding up to about a quarter of its yearly budget of $8.1 million. It’s unclear who will be ultimately responsible for repairs to the building or how soon prisoners will return, if at all, leading some officials to worry the county could soon be faced with a budget shortfall.

Further, "The county owes about $63 million on the prison that opened in 2006," according to the county auditor, but the commissioners court claims "bond holders would assume any risk." That's a bit of fanciful thinking of which I'm sure the good folks in McLennan County could dissuade them, if anyone has ears to listen. Or, maybe they'll listen to S&P, which just downgraded the county's bond rating because of episode.

http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.co...-economic.html

[Winehole23]

Let's bottom line the effectiveness of Texas' border security measures. DPS and the National Guard aren't immigration enforcers and they score no "apprehensions" following the overwhelming number of do ented "detections" of illegal border crossings (53 out of 113,000). So from a law enforcement perspective, drug enforcement vs. the cartels is the main reason they're down there (even if most of the GOP base fails to grasp the distinction). Jeremy Schwartz at the Austin Statesman (Feb. 27) further demonstrated the futility of that effort when he reported that the DPS surge has had no impact on retail drug prices in Texas, at all, meaning DPS has done nothing to reduce drug supplies and the whole "surge" gambit has been a pointless fiasco.


Indeed, reported Schwartz, drug prices declined during this period, meaning availabilty of drugs increased in response to the DPS surge, or at least in spite of it. This exchange from a recent Texas Senate Finance Committee meeting captured the seldom-spoken reality:

“Can you sit there and say there’s been a reduction of street drugs in any of our major metropolitan areas?” [state Sen. John] Whitmire continued.


“I can’t say there has been,” [DPS chief Steve] McCraw responded. “The challenge we have now with numbers on street cost, there’s no question that it’s a good indicator of whether we are succeeding or not.”

Instead, “'We’re not seeing any slowdown in supply,' said Greg Thrash, resident agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration in Austin.' From the wholesale level, (illegal drug prices) are dropping like the price of gas (was).'”


Illegal drugs operate in an unfettered black market and their pricing reflects raw supply and demand. If prices are "dropping," more drug supply is entering the market, meaning DPS' "surge" not only didn't reduce drug trafficking, they presided over its statewide expansion with this misbegotten "Ready, Fire, Aim!" strategy.

http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.co...duce-drug.html

[Winehole23]

See related Grits posts:

• DPS surge will take four years to staff; apprehension rate abysmal on border crossings
  
• Lies, damn lies and drug war statistics: DPS edition
• DPS border 'surge' compromised crime fighting in rest of state
• If Lege can pay $735 million for border boondoggle, why can't they scrounge $220 million from the couch cushions to abolish the Driver Responsibility surcharge?
• McCraw: Terrorist threat at Texas border a myth
• Do border surges work? For in bent pols but not really for the rest of us
• Fiscal impact of border security: Spend less on roads
• Border boondoggle: Lack of goal, success metrics don't prevent squandering tax dollars
• Ramped up enforcement along Texas border failed to raise drug prices
• DPS won't use roadblocks without legislative approval
• DPS outsourced key border security tasks to shadowy private contractor
  
• Is Texas border crime 'overwhelming' or at historic lows?
• DPS, border violence, and the boy who cried 'wolf'

[Winehole23]

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has suggested hiring and sending 500 additional state troopers to the border. But Col. Steve McCraw of the Department of Public Safety told the House Committee on Emerging Law Enforcement Issues yesterday that it would take four years - two biennia - to deploy 500 troopers to the border. And before that happens, the agency presently has 243 vacant positions it needs to fill in addition to the 500. That number is expected to drop to 187 after the next cadet class graduates in June.

[Winehole23]

Who is surprised to learn that the border "surge" by the Texas Department of Public Safety "compromised the Department of Public Safety’s ability to combat crimes elsewhere"? Or so the agency told the governor and state leaders in a secret assessment which was leaked to the Houston Chronicle.


According to the paper, "While the report gave more detail than has been publicly released about the claim often made by [Lt. Gov. Dan] Patrick and other state leaders that the deployment has reduced crime, it focused on illegal crossings and cartel activity in the operation zone, providing less detail about local crimes and leaving open the possibility that criminals have simply shifted their efforts elsewhere." The story noted dryly that "some experts have attributed [the reduction in illegal crossings] to other factors," which is a pretty dramatic understatement. The border was already the safest region in the state before DPS began any "surge" operations, which is probably why the agency didn't even attempt to claim it reduced crime in the area - any such claim would inevitably run afoul of contradictory Uniform Crime Report data in the medium to long term. We've been around this block many times.


The Texas Senate has proposed spending an astonishing $815 million over the next biennium on border security above and beyond regular DPS patrols in the area. That's an insanely large amount of money being funneled down a black hole. Grits has suggested the state could abolish the Driver Responsibility surcharge with a portion of that money and still spend well more than double what was budgeted last biennium on border security.


There's no public safety justification for spending that much at the border. Thumbing the state's collective nose at a president who will never again run for re-election just isn't worth that much scratch, and at root that's the only reason this is happening.

http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.co...sed-crime.html

[boutons_deux]

Boner caves, House will vote on DHS funding, WITHOUT the "screw Obama" section.

[hater]

Revolucion! take what's ours

[boutons_deux]

House Releases Hostage, Approves Funding For DHS Without Immigration Measures

The grudge match between Republicans and Democrats over the president's immigration policies and funding the Department of Homeland Security ended Tuesday -- with a win for Democrats.

House Republicans approved $39.7 billion in funding for DHS without any measures to block President Barack Obama's executive actions on immigration, which could allow as many as 5 million undo ented immigrants to remain in the country and work for three years.

The vote was 257 to 167, with most Republicans voting against the bill.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/0...tent=FullStory

all y'alls tea baggers, Kockenstein monsters, Confederates, seccessionists, racists, white supremacists, right-wing anarchists, etc got KNOCKED THE OUT!

[boutons_deux]

The Fate Of Nearly 5 Million Immigrants Rests With One Of The Most Conservative Courts In America

After waiting fruitlessly for a Republican judge to give them an answer one way or another on a request to stay one of his previous decisions, the Justice Department asked the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to bypass that judge and issue the stay themselves. The Fifth Circuit, however, is one of the most conservative federal appeals courts in the country. So the Justice Department may have simply traded one set of problems for another.

Last month, Judge Andrew Hanen, a Republican with a history of hostility towards the Obama administration’s immigration policies, issued an order single-handedly halting changes President Obama announced last November that would allow approximately 4.9 million undo ented immigrants to temporarily live openly in the United States. Since then, Hanen has delayed ruling on a Justice Department motion asking him to stay this decision, delays that make it difficult for DOJ to seek a stay from a higher court.

On Thursday, the Justice Department filed a motion asking the United States Courts of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to bypass Hanen and grant such a stay anyway. Such motions seeking to bypass a federal trial judge are not usually granted, although judges also typically do not sit on stay requests in the way Hanen has delayed deciding DOJ’s request.

If DOJ has not enjoyed the dismissive treatment they’ve experienced in Judge Hanen’s courtroom, however, they may find that the Fifth Circuit is no more hospitable.

Ten of the Fifth Circuit’s judges are Republican appointees, while only five were appointed by Democratic presidents.

A panel of the Fifth Circuit once suggested that undo ented immigrants are not en led to the Fourth Amendment’s protections against unlawful searches and seizures.

Five of its judges once voted to allow a man to be executed despite the fact that his lawyer slept through much of his trial.

The court once ordered a high school cheerleader to pay sanctions after she sued the school district that told her to cheer for her alleged rapist.

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/201...ourts-america/

dubya gave the 5th the judicial, anti-law garbage of Priscilla Owen

So it sure looks like Repug judges will accomplish what Repug politicians couldn't (but of course it was Repug politicians who packed the US Federal courts with right-wing hacks)

[m>s]

yeah! Everyone give a round of applause for rule of law!

[Winehole23]

you'll not be singing the same tune when he gets slapped down on appeal.

face it, m>s you don't believe in the rule of law, except when you like the outcome.

[m>s]

I believe in the Nuremberg laws

[boutons_deux]

The Fate Of Over 4 Million People Could Rest With Justice Scalia

Under the Court’s rules, such a request for an extension ordinarily “may be acted on by the Clerk in the first instance.” After the clerk rules on whether to grant the extension, “any party aggrieved by the Clerk’s action may request that the application be submitted to a Justice or to the Court.”

So here’s where things get interesting. If the clerk decides to grant the extension, DOJ can ask that the full Court reconsider that decision. That, at least, leaves the timing of this case up to the five justices most likely to be sympathetic to their position. If the clerk denies the extension, however, then Texas can ask a single justice to reconsider that decision. And the Circuit Justice for the Fifth Circuit — the justice who ordinarily hears similar procedural motions that arise out of the Fifth Circuit — is Justice Scalia.

Should this case be decided on the merits, the Justice Department has good reason to be optimistic that they will prevail. Shortly after Obama announced the DACA program in 2012, the Court handed down an opinion emphasizing the executive branch’s “broad discretion” in immigration matters. “Discretion in the enforcement of immigration law embraces immediate human concerns,” the Court explained. “Unauthorized workers trying to support their families, for example, likely pose less danger than alien smugglers or aliens who commit a serious crime.”

This opinion was authored by Justice Anthony Kennedy and joined by Chief Justice John Roberts, both of whom are Republicans.

One justice that did not join this opinion, however, was Scalia. Scalia, moreover, included a dig at the DACA program in his dissent.

Thus, if he has the power to decide Texas’s likely request for delay, he will have the power to leave his preferred policy outcome in place for at least another year.

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/201...ustice-scalia/

[boutons_deux]

Illegal immigration continues to decline, reaches 13-year low

At the most recent Republican presidential debate, Donald Trump recited familiar concerns about immigration, which has helped propel him to the front of the pack. “We have no borders…. Illegal immigration is beyond belief,” the GOP frontrunner said. He added,

“I’m tired of seeing what’s going on, between the border where the people flow over; people come in; they live; they shoot.”

That’s probably a decent summary of how many Republican voters see the problem of illegal immigration. Imagine how surprised they’d be if they considered the real-world evidence. The L.A. Times reported overnight:

The number of immigrants living in the U.S. illegally is at its lowest in more than a decade and, for the first time in years, has probably dropped below 11 million.A new study by the Center for Migration Studies estimates that 10.9 million immigrants are living in the country without authorization. That is the lowest level since 2003 and the first time the number has dipped below 11 million since 2004.

if facts had a powerful effect on our political debates, especially during the presidential campaign, but

Republican voters believe

President Obama has increased the deficit,

given Iran permission to build a nuclear weapon,

abandoned border security,

proposed widespread gun confiscation, and

imposed socialized medicine on the country –

none of which is even remotely true.

It’s hard to be optimistic about the introduction of new facts shaping the debate in any meaningful way when one of the major parties and its national candidates don’t even believe in climate change.

Illegal immigration has declined in the United States in every year of the Obama era. How many GOP candidates would acknowledge such a detail? How loud would the booing be if they did?

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/illegal-immigration-continues-decline-reaches-13-year-low?cid=sm_fb_maddow

[boutons_deux]

 Here’s Why the US Is Stepping Up the Deportation of Central Americans

They come because their countries have been destroyed by US policy.

Every single “push” factor driving the refugee crisis is or has been created by Washington and Wall Street: The transnational gangs and drug cartels that rule large swaths of Central America and Mexico are direct blowback from the Cold War (in the case of Central America) and the War on Drugs (Mexico).

The US’s relentless promotion of trade and financial liberalization and its push for biofuels and mining has destroyed regional agricultural markets and driven down wages, leading to rural dislocation.

The disaster, as I and many others (see especially Laura Carlsen at CIP Americas) have described, in Central America and Mexico can be traced back to Bill Clinton’s three signature Latin American initiatives:

escalation of the drug war (Plan Colombia);

economic liberalization (NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, which paved the way for similar treaties with Central America and Colombia and will culminate in the Obama-backed Trans Pacific Partnership); and the

militarization of the Mexican-US border.

The Obama administration inherited the disaster, but continues the policies that perpetuate it (see the 2009 coup in Honduras).

In El Salvador, it was none other than Ambassador Aponte –today lecturing Salvadorans about the pedagogic utility of deportations – who three years ago, in 2012, threatened to withhold critical development aid unless El Salvador passed a major privatization law.

(Hilary Goodfriend, a researcher based in El Salvador who works with the ever vital Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador, discusses the law here).

It is a job requirement of US envoys to El Salvador to be skilled in the art of the threat.

And Aponte, named ambassador in 2010, is a pro. In particular, she’s been tasked with making sure the former insurgent FMLN, which first won the presidency in 2009 and was reelected in 2014, reconciles itself to neoliberal reality.

She’s menaced the government about the need to buy corporate manufactured GMO seeds, insisting that the FMLN’s seed-cooperative program violates the terms of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (Martha Pskowksi writes:

“In 2011, the first FMLN administration began buying 88,000 quintales of corn seeds annually from eighteen Salvadoran cooperatives to distribute to 400,000 campesinos as part of the Family Agriculture Plan”).

Last year, Aponte warned the FMLN that US aid would be withheld if it continued to publicly support Venezuela.

In Salvador, at least, Aponte is the face of the vicious circle: economic liberalization; militarization; deportation.

http://www.thenation.com/article/her...ral-americans/

"Why Do They Hate Us?"

[boutons_deux]

even old white people think immigrants are OK, part of the community now. It was corporate takeovers, buy outs, mechanization and their children leaving rural areas for the big city, aka urbanization that extends backs 100+ years. The immigrants took company jobs the Anglos wouldn't do. And crime in unchanged, or down.

iow, the Repugs are LYING.

In Iowa farm town, immigration debate yields surprising views




http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-iowa-trump-latinos-20160122-story.html

[Bender]

It's funny how illegal immigrants say they want to pay taxes, of course they do they usually get tax refunds

yes, but it's technically not a "refund" when they had $800 in withholding, and they get back $4,000 due to EIC and other welfare BS. Call it what it is, a handout.

[boutons_deux]

yes, but it's technically not a "refund" when they had $800 in withholding, and they get back $4,000 due to EIC and other welfare BS. Call it what it is, a handout.

BigFinance gets $10Bs in tax breaks. Big banks are required to deposit with the Fed, which pays a guaranteed 6%. etc, etc, etc. tax avoidance, criminal tax evasion are rampant.