Border Agents to Americans: "You Have Been Invaded" -->

[Dr. Jones]

Not sure whether I agree with the term "invaded," but nonetheless, this article spells out in no uncertain terms the dire straits our current immigration policy is in from border agents themselves.

The author of this article, Jim Kouri, CPP, is currently fifth vice-president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police.

On May 1, the US Border Patrol Agents Local 2544 will be doing their part to offset any adverse impact on the American economy as a result of the upcoming illegal aliens' boycott. Local 2544, which represents Border Patrol agents in Arizona, vows to make big-ticket item purchases of computers and other expensive items on May 1... "Thousands more illegal aliens make it into (the United States) every day. We simply cannot stop them. We don't even have a reliable two-way communications system in the border patrol. Many times, if an agent gets caught up in a bad situation in a remote area, he or she is on their own," claim members of Local 2544.

While the federal government and Washington lawmakers tell they American people that they are beefing up border security, the men and women on the frontlines know the sad truth: "There is no way to call for backup. It's inexcusable. Our vehicle fleet is falling apart, with many patrol vehicle in excess of 100,000 or 200,000 very hard miles. We are constantly told there is 'no funding' for new vehicles, so we continue to drive unreliable junk year after year after year."

Take it from the troops on the front lines America -- the borders of this country are completely out of control. "Don't listen to the smooth-talking pinheads who tell you otherwise," said Local 2544 in their press release. So what can you and I do about this dangerous situation? Well, let's heed the advice of the men and women on the frontlines of the border war:

"We need your help. What can you do? Call your congressmen and senators. Demand that they get our borders under control. Demand that they properly fund the border patrol so we can get the equipment and infrastructure we need to do our jobs. Demand that they give us the freedom to do our jobs (yes, even if it means offending someone). Demand that they back off the all-out assault on border patrol agents' workplace rights (they want to shut our union down and gain the authority to fire us for any reason without any meaningful third party scrutiny)."

Source: http://www.newswithviews.com/Kouri/jim49.htm

[Avalux]

1. The entire situation has the blessing of our government.

They have turned a blind eye to controlling the border because they want undocomented workers here in this country. The Mexican government tells people to come here, and US companies go to Mexico to recruit workers...making them false promises to lure them.

Of course our government knows all of this but does absolutely nothing to enforce laws or come down on these companies.

What we have is slave labor; undocumented workers in a lot of cases living in substandard conditions making pennies.

Where is the outrage over this clear human rights issue? Why aren't those who are capitalizing on the situation being held accountable for exploiting undocumented workers?

Because just like everything else, since the powerful are making money, it's all good, right?

I don't like the use of the word invaded in the article - but it is clear we must get control of our borders.

[DBoon]

4. and this is a win-win for the RW

They get cheap labor that because it is illegal can be subjected to any sort of abuse.

and the xenophobes get a ready target for their own frustrations. By acting out on these frustrations, they make the illegal immigrants even more vulnerable and susceptible to exploitation.

Illegal immigrants are to 21st century America what Jews were to Czarist Russia - a convenient target on which the opressed and uneducated vent their frustrations, a target sanctioned by the ruling powers.

[Dr. Jones]

5. SPOT ON, Sparosnare!

Yep, it IS a human rights issue. It probably hasn't been viewed as such because this has been swept under the carpet for so many years, and now it's REALLY coming to the fore. Also I guess they assume since these illegals are in America, they MUSt by default be treated very well since we are wealthy and oh so nice.

And yes, so long as they are making money off of these poor folks, they'll continue to do so.

[Avalux]

6. I live in San Antonio, and that's how I see it.

There's really something terribly wrong when a subsidiary of Haliburton sends reps to Mexico to recruit workers, promising them 8 bucks and hour plus room and board. So they come (smuggled) and end up in a trailer with 15 other people, making 70 bucks a week. They are trapped, stuck, with nowhere to go.

Pisses me off. Here's an article about our mayor, Phil Hardberger's efforts to help the families of those who were rounded up and deported a few weeks ago. He's a good man and I'm proud to say I voted for him. A humanitarian look at the problem:

http://www.mysanantonio.com/business/stories/MYSA042606...

[Dr. Jones]

9. There's no doubt

that these American companies have done this. And also have advertised heavily in Mexico. They are lawbreakers, BLATANT lawbreakers! And they should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

That's why I believe if it EVER comes to deporting the illegals, I fear mass violence and chaos because they will finally realize they've been lied to and manipulated. I hope it doesn't come to that though...

[Kansas Wyatt]

12. Massive fines against Employers employing illegal workers

Included with a three strikes law, where the business and it's assets are seized and sold by the Feds. All fines and seizure proceeds, after administrative expenses, should go to an extended unemployment fund for the citizens the illegal practice has hurt.

Illegal workers will stop coming, since they will have no work left. Employers will no longer risk hiring illegal workers, especially when their money, assets, and business will end up going to legal workers they refuse to pay a fair wage to in the first place.

[Dr. Jones]

15. an excellent plan...

if only Bush wasn't in bed with the companies he's in office to represent (he is, after all is said and done, our "CEO in Chief"). So long as he IS in office, unfortunately this ain't gonna happen.

[noonwitch]

17. Not to mention the guys who load up illegals in vans and let them die

from heat and thirst.

Some commentator I saw over the weekend was saying that the guest worker program is essentially slavery for mexicans.

[slaveplanet]

13. It's much worse than that

They are actively orchestrating the stand down http://www.washtimes.com/national/20050513-122032-5055r...

and LA Times reported late December that Bush met with Vincente Fox at Crawford in December and formulated the media blitz that over the next four months resulted in the organized protests and this mayday event. The PR firm in charge is the same one that set up the phony human rights group "Democracy Watch" http://tinyurl.com/ozanv and ran both Fox's 2000 campaign and Bush's bid against Ann Richards in 1994 and both presidential campaigns.
They are dropping millions to convince us this is a good thing. This is way above mere companies doing this.



sparosnare wrote:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
They have turned a blind eye to controlling the border because they want undocomented workers here in this country. The Mexican government tells people to come here, and US companies go to Mexico to recruit workers...making them false promises to lure them.

Of course our government knows all of this but does absolutely nothing to enforce laws or come down on these companies.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bush also offered air marshal positions to the border patrol that has decimated their ranks.

Once again, they are not letting it happen, they are making it happpen.

[Dr. Jones]

16. Wow...

I'd like to see a new thread opened on this topic...would you want to do this? Also, please check out Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) which Bush/Fox are working towards. Basically it is a plan to create a new unified, borderless North/Central/South America into one huge trading bloc.

Making it happen on purpose? You betcha. Just like 9/11 (my opinion anyway based on the PNAC documents and the new "Pearl Harbor" they sought after), just like Katrina - it's Bush's way. The sooner we impeach this bastard the better!!

[slaveplanet]

20. The FTAA angle

is the one thing that fits the facts as to why Fox and Buscho would work in concert. They purposely played their PR off Sensenbrenner's over the top bill.

The LA times report was pulled.

but the AP headline was:
Fox Turns to Texas PR Firm to Shape Mexico's Image in US

here's sourcewatch link: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Allyn_%26_Co...

Clients

Clients listed on its website and in press reports include:

* George W. Bush
* Republicans for Clean Air
* Vicente Fox, PAN party President of Mexico
* Democracy Watch


Mexican-Americans feel slighted by Allyn hiring

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/world/...

11:58 PM CST on Thursday, December 22, 2005

By ANABEL MÁRQUEZ / Al Día

The hiring of Dallas consultant Rob Allyn by the Mexican government to lead a public relations blitz against tougher U.S. immigration measures was criticized Thursday by at least two North Texas Hispanic leaders.

Carlos Quintanilla, a businessman from Dallas who is active in community issues, called a news conference outside the Mexican Consulate to complain that Mr. Allyn was chosen over a Mexican or a Mexican-American.

“I think that Vicente Fox’s intentions were good, but his choice was erroneous,” Mr. Quintanilla said. “I think a Mexican knows best how our people have suffered and can better convey that message to the American public.”

(could it be that the M/A PR firms weren't well connected enough for the job at hand?)

[Dr. Jones]

25. Wow again!

Damn, the Bush admin is one HUGE PR stunt, that's all it is! These guys use PR for EVERY DAMN THING. It's disgusting.

So in reality, it's typical Bush. Say one thing and do another. Pretend to side with the American people and be "tough on immigration" while out the other side of his mouth he's advocating an open border to allow even more illegals through. Man! Can we impeach the bastard yet?

[KAT119]

21. Annual cost to US taxpayers $16 Billion per year plus loss of jobs.

[Dr. Jones]

26. From an economic perspective, you have to figure

whether this cost is offset by the lower wages illegals receive, resulting in lower costs of goods, resulting in more money in the pockets of middle class Americans. I'd wager a bet that in reality, illegals are more of a liability to our economy in the long run.

Economics is only one aspect of this problem. There's also the human toll, as you mentioned, the millions who have been displaced from their lifetime careers by illegals who have taken their jobs care of companies who hired them ILLEGALLY.

It is OUTRAGEOUS to me that the companies have gotten away with this slave labor! Outrageous that they have brought upon us a massive humanitarian crisis where in the middle of all this is a group of illegals who simply wanted a better life for themselves and for their families.

[MADem]

2. So much fer 'Nahn Wun Wun changed EVERYTHING!!!!'

We don't even have a reliable two-way communications system in the border patrol.

Gee, the Chimp has had over five years to solve that little problem...wonder why he didn't get on it straight away, if he was SERIOUS about the problem??? Or could it be his business pals need the cheap labor...????

[Dr. Jones]

10. Excellent point.

I have read numerous articles that state potential terrorists have found easy entry through our southern border. You would think after 9/11 the very first thing Bush would have done is secure our southern border. But Nooooooo!

As you say, he and his business pals need that cheap labor at the expense of the safety and welfare of the American people.

[MADem]

14. Not just 'terrists' but undocumented aliens from all countries, not just

the Spanish/Portuguese speakers to our south. A lot of CHINESE come in that way!!! And many of them are, in essence, SLAVES:

Globally, the main smuggling pipelines stretch from Asia, across Europe, through Central America and the Caribbean to the United States (Winer, 1997). The largest influx of humans trafficked to the U.S. are coming from the less developed regions of the world. The most popular transit route for Chinese, South Americans and South Asians is through Central America and Mexico (IOM, 1999). Panama is a also a major transit point for migrants coming from Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Cuba, India and the People's Republic of China. In addition, South Africa has also become a major transit point into the United States (Williams, 1997). And traffickers are increasingly utilizing the U.S. Canadian border as a corridor into the U.S....
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/international/ht.html

[Dr. Jones]

18. Which is exactly why

the "racist" and "xenophobic" arguments have no merit. It's not just Mexicans coming across our borders illegally, it's a whole lot of other people from varying backgrounds and ethnicities.

It's also more organzied than previously thought, as per your article, human trafficking. Wow. Something MUST be done about this humanitarian DISASTER!!

[MADem]

19. I have a theory about WHY they are beating up on Mexicans

I think the bottom is gonna drop out of the economy, and they NEED those jobs for the 'Murcans. It'll cost too much to put them all on unemployment and welfare. So we'll see former auto workers doing those janitorial and other low wage jobs as their jobs are shipped offshore.

Whenever we have a labor shortage, like we did during WW2 and the Korean War, we've looked south of the border. Then, when the shortages ended, we got rid of the guys doing the "good" jobs (construction, railroad workers, e.g.) so that returning service personnel would have employment.


At the end of World War II, Mexican workers were ousted from their jobs by workers coming out of wartime industries and by returning servicemen. By 1947, the Emergency Farm Labor Service was working on decreasing the amount of Mexican labor imported. By the 1960s, an overflow of "illegal" agricultural workers along with the invention of the mechanical cotton harvester, diminished the practicality and appeal of the bracero program. These events, added to the gross humanitarian violations of bracero employers, brought the program to an end in 1964.


http://www.pbs.org/kpbs/theborder/history/timeline/17.h...

Edit4spelling!

[Dr. Jones]

22. Fascinating, absolutely fascinating...

So in essence we have a case of history repeating itself. The dynamics are such that yes, illegals could very well be getting set up for the "scapegoats" when the economy does crumble. We all should be cognizant of this and proclaim, "It's not so much the illegals that have taken our jobs, it's the damn companies who were given carte blanche permission from our Repug government to BREAK THE LAW with no accountability!"

I really do fear though the outbreak of violence and chaos that would be inevitable at the time illegals discover they have been used, absued, and thrown out. Really hope it doesn't come to that.

[MADem]

24. Well, if you look at what they are saying over at the Fed

...it's a bit of a mixed message. I'm no economist, but I have an uneasy feeling...and people I talk to seemed worried, there's not a sense of confidence and optimism out there. People worry about their jobs being outsourced, about being fired for minor infractions, about being able to afford to retire, or pay for stuff as wages don't keep up with costs...it feels a lot like the malaise of the 70s, to me.

U.S. inflation picks up as factory activity, consumer spending surge
http://www.cbc.ca/cp/business/060501/b050166.html

WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. economy carried its strong momentum into the second quarter as factories cranked up activity, builders boosted construction spending to a record high and consumers opened their pocketbooks ever wider.

But inflation picked up, too. The information was contained in a trio of economic reports released Monday....The report also showed the prices are rising not only for energy but also for other commodities, such as aluminum and copper.

"The indicators of prices ... are beginning to point more clearly toward inflation pressures," said Stephen Stanley, chief economist at RBS Greenwich Capital. ..

Boom in retirements could slow economy, Fed report predicts
If conclusions prove correct, 'it changes everything'

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/268508_boomers01...

...If a new Federal Reserve report is correct, the lost labor of the 77 million boomers will be so hard to replace that over the next decade the national economy will grow at a significantly slower pace than it has in the past 10 years.

How much slower? The lost growth, by one estimate, will come to $1,322 per person by 2015 -- or $13 billion.

That's a lot of money for what sounds like a small change: an average growth rate in the next 10 years that's 0.3 percent slower than it would be without the boomer exodus.

The new report predicting that outcome was compiled by five economists at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. Their preliminary draft (the final version is expected in July) has been called "revolutionary" by one Wall Street economist.

Experts poring over its findings predict sweeping implications if the report proves true, affecting the course of interest rates and the level of wages. The interaction of demographics, economic choices and individual behavior raised in the report is so complex that forecasters may be studying the conclusions for some time to come....

[Dr. Jones]

27. That uneasy feeling is the American middle class crumbling

due to insourcing, outsourcing, and illegal immigration taking the jobs Americans do while the companies are allowed to illegally hire their slave labor.

As far as a crunch on the economy as a result of retirements, we'll just have to see. Many people are choosing to retire later on in life now, as life expectancy increases. So we may not have the huge wave of retirements as feared. We'll have to see. If it is true, I simply hope enough younger Americans are educated in order to fill the gap.

[Bridget Burke]

3. I totally disagree with the word "Invaded"....

No aerial bombings destroying our infrastructure, no foreign armies marching into our cities, no fake government is being set up by an occupying force. If you want to see what an "Invasion" looks like, check out Iraq.

Kouri is a staff writer with "New Media Alliance"

www.thenma.org/writer_bio_jkouri.htm

From their home page: The New Media Alliance, Inc. is a conservative issue advocacy and information group established to promote and defend conservative social, political and economic principles nationally. We are a non-partisan, nonprofit, tax-exempt educational foundation under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Codes.

Our work is achieved primarily through the origination, coordination and distribution of commentary, analysis, news and research tools via the public Internet and other media channels. The efforts we progress are intended to promote awareness and educate all Americans to the impact of government, educational and traditional media policies and agendas, that have become increasingly repressive and partisan. Our mission is, therefore, to help sustain America’s most basic and cherished freedoms by aggressively empowering conservative thought and perspective.

[suffragette]

23. Thanks for pointing out the conservative roots of the writer

of the article.

And I agree with you about how "invaded" is being used wrongly here.

It is an interesting word choice, one clearly meant to stir up fear and animosity against the "other."

[Touchdown]

7. They are being invited.

...by American employers who want cheap labor. There is no invasion if they've been invited to come.

[UTUSN]

8. Use of the word "pinheads" gives it away as an O'LOOFAH follower n/t

[democracyindanger]

11. But you have to admit

the ads for discount gold and persecuted Christians really give it legitimacy.