Mexico Seeks U.S. Immigration Changes

November 6, 2004 09:13 AM EST

MEXICO CITY - Mexico is holding out hope that Latin America will get more attention during President Bush's second term and obtain changes in what a senior Cabinet minister calls "absurd" U.S. immigration policies.

Secretary of State Colin Powell, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and several other U.S. Cabinet members are expected to begin a two-day visit to Mexico City starting Monday. During the talks, Mexico will push for a long-awaited accord on migrants' rights - and seek to put the region back on the White House agenda.

"It's absurd that (the United States) is spending as much as it's spending to stop immigration flows that can't be stopped ... instead of using that money on real threats that pose risks for both countries," Interior Secretary Santiago Creel said earlier this week. Read More

Action filed vs. radio hosts over talk attacks
By Lisa Friedman
Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- In a complaint to the Federal Elections Commission, the National Republican Campaign Committee accused radio station KFI-AM (640) co-hosts John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou of "criminal behavior" for attacking Rep. David Dreier, R-Glendora, and endorsing his Democratic opponent, Cynthia Matthews.

By criticizing Dreier's positions on immigration, promoting a "Fire Dreier" campaign and making on-air appeals for voters to elect Matthews, the NRCC said, the hosts gave Matthews an unlawful corporate, in-kind contribution of more than $25,000. Read More

The Outing
David Dreier and his straight hypocrisy
by Doug Ireland

Groping for answers: The
congressman, with an ex-boss
(Photo by AP/WideWorld)

The latest target of a Capitol Hill outing campaign — designed to expose closeted homosexual Republicans who oppose civil rights for gay people — is San Gabriel Valley Congressman David Dreier.

The powerful 12-term congressman — chairman of the House Rules Committee, chairman of the California Republican House delegation, co-chairman of Californians for Bush, chairman of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s transition team — is in the cross hairs of Mike Rogers and his Blogactive.com Web site, whose outing campaign has already forced one GOP congressman out of politics. Representative Ed Schrock, a reactionary from Virginia, ended his re-election campaign last month after Rogers put on his Web site an audiotape of Schrock trolling for tricks on a gay chat line. [more]

Posted on Wed, Oct. 20, 2004

Lawmakers getting flu shot sparks debate, Dreier got his!!!

MARK SHERMAN

Associated Press

WASHINGTON - President Bush didn't get one. Neither did most of his Cabinet. Same for Democrat John Kerry and running mate John Edwards. The presidential candidates said they passed up a flu shot because of the vaccine shortage.

But on Capitol Hill, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., allowed his office to be used as a makeshift clinic for dispensing shots to senators on Oct. 7. That was two days after federal officials announced there would be a severe shortage this year and urged healthy adults to forgo shots so that children, the chronically ill and people 65 and older could get vaccinated. Those are the groups considered most at risk of serious complications from the flu. Read More

6 Killed in Arizona As SUV Flees Deputies

October 16, 2004 10:46 PM EDT

PHOENIX - A stolen truck filled with suspected illegal immigrants and speeding away from deputies rolled over at a busy intersection near an Army post Saturday, causing an 11-car crash that killed six people and seriously injured 15, sheriff's officials said.

Passengers were thrown out of the truck bed as the truck hit a center median and began to spiral, hitting vehicles waiting at a turn lane, said Deputy Chief Randy Redmond of the Sierra Vista Fire Department. Investigators think the truck was traveling at about 90 mph when it lost control near Fort Huachuca in southeastern Arizona, he said.

At least 20 people were in the truck, Redmond said.

National IDs for everybody?

October 4, 2004, 12:01 PM PT

Declan McCullagh
Rep. David Dreier wants to force all Americans to carry a national ID card around with them.

The California Republican is not about to describe his new bill in those terms, but that's the reality.

Dreier's legislation would prohibit employers from hiring people unless the job applicants first obtain new federal ID cards with their photograph, Social Security number and an "encrypted electronic strip" with additional information. Any employer who fails to comply faces hefty fines and prison terms of up to five years.

Dreier is smart enough to realize that these federal IDs would be immediately forged, so he takes the next step of linking them to an employment eligibility database that's queried by card readers whenever the ID is swiped. The employment database is required to include "all such data maintained by the Department of Homeland Security," combined with what the Social Security Administration has on file. More

September 27, 2004

Looking south, the heart can take a beating.

You may have seen the arresting photograph in Friday's Union-Tribune, the one of artists placing on the Tijuana border fence a large painting of a stylized human skeleton. He's striding across a desert landscape, carrying a plastic water jug in each bony hand.

According to the caption, the painting recognizes the 10th anniversary of Operation Gatekeeper, the famous crackdown that drove illegal border crossers to the east, exposing them to harsh, often fatal, conditions.

I ask you: What should those of us living comfortably in San Diego feel as we regard the skeleton?

Anger? Pity? Detachment?

The same question can be asked of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's recent veto of unmarked driver licenses for illegal immigrants.

Just more than 10 years ago, during an intense anti-immigration wave, the Department of Motor Vehicles stopped issuing driving licenses to undocumented residents. Now the pressure is building to once again allow them to operate vehicles legally.

So how are we to feel when we learn that, in a mere four hours, a safety checkpoint in Escondido netted 76 unlicensed drivers, most of whom were driving uninsured cars? What is our reaction when police confiscate the vehicles?

Anger? Pity? Detachment? More

Plan to block benefits for undocumented fails!

Don't look at me, I didn't do anything! An appropriations amendment that would have blocked illegal Mexican immigrants from collecting U.S. Social Security benefits failed Thursday on a 225-178 vote in the House of Representatives. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach, supported the Hayworth Amendment, which he said would have kept illegal immigrants from collecting benefits if they one day obtained citizenship. “Our senior citizens do not believe that Social Security should be provided to illegal immigrants,” Rohrabacher said in a heated floor debate. “It will bankrupt the system.” The congressman introduced a bill similar to this amendment last year, the No Social Security for Illegal Immigrants Act of 2003, which has stalled in committee.

Our friend, Congressman David Dreier voted against the block of benifits to illegals, see for yourself here

'Fire Dreier' rally draws hundreds of protesters

By Marianne Love , Staff Writer
GLENDORA -- Two radio talk show hosts held a "Fire Dreier' rally Thursday, criticizing a local Republican Congressman for doing nothing to keep illegal immigrants from coming into the United States. KFI AM-640 listeners came to the rally next to the office of Rep. David Dreier on Route 66 armed with protest signs and bullhorns. Many honked their horns in support of the rally, which lasted from 3 to 7 p.m. Police said several hundred people came and went during the rally. More

Dreier boosts Bonner Plan

By Jason Newell , Staff Writer

Calling for an extensive crackdown on illegal immigration, Rep. David Dreier, R-Glendora, introduced a plan Tuesday to hire 700 new border patrol agents, add new anti-fraud protections to Social Security cards and significantly increase penalties for employers who hire workers illegally.

The legislation, dubbed the Illegal Immigration Enforcement and Social Security Protection Act of 2004, would set aside $150 million for immigration enforcement agencies and make it more difficult to counterfeit documents needed to get a job.

Dreier, targeted in recent weeks for "political human sacrifice' by a radio show and constituents upset with his voting record on immigration, said the proposal was fueled by a recent Time magazine article and not by the campaign to unseat him in November. Read More

Don't throw the bums out: Burn them at the stake!

Posted: September 16, 2004
1:00 a.m. Eastern

Angst over the shoddy performance of congressional representatives often leads to cries of "Throw the bums out!"

But, alas, when confronted with that opportunity in the voting booth, we get cold feet. When push comes to shove, we really aren't sure that our bum is all that bad. Could the problem lie with the bums in all the other districts, or could it be that we simply lack the intestinal fortitude to fire someone? More