Category: immigration

Fat Tony is F%$#ing Nuts

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I’ve said on a number of occasions that Antonin Scalia has given up even trying to appear not to be a partisan hack.

Well, I think that I was wrong. Antonin Scalia has gone nuts.

His dissent on today’s Arizona immigration law decision, is a clear evidence of this. A prominent constitutional scholar Adam Winkler, called it jumping the shark, but I simply think he’s gone around the bend.

I cannot excerpt it and do justice, you can read the full opinion and dissent here, he suggests that federal immigration legislation would have sundered the union (this is strict constructionist?), declares it somehow illegitimate for the executive to prioritize enforcement, and that it’s just the same as bubble gum.

Seriously, I think that Scalia has been waiting for nearly 30 years to be the chief justice, and when he realized it was never going to happen, he had two choices:

  1. Leave the court, and make millions on the paid right wing talker/book circuit.
  2. F%$# you.

He has clearly chosen door number two, and I am expecting his spleen to leap from his body and throttle a litigant soon.

As to the actual decision, the Supreme Court struck down 3 of the 4 sections of the law, with the “papers please” section being given a pass for now, though the opinion makes it clear that this is not a final thing, and that there can be additional challenges to this section of the law, either on a constitutional level, or on the specific implementation.

Nino is F%$#ing Nuts

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I mean, of course, Antonin Scalia, who just compared Arizona’s “Papers Please” law to the FBI investigating bank robberies:

The debate surrounding Arizona’s immigration law is a heated one — and on Wednesday, Justice Antonin Scalia added to the strong sentiments swirling in the case. Questioning U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, Scalia asked what’s wrong with states enforcing federal law, adding, “There is a federal law against robbing federal banks. Can it be made a state crime to rob those banks?”

Charlie pierce has concluded that fat Tony is phoning it in, (See also here.) and that he has realized that he’ll never be chief justice, and he’s bored with the court, and he’s just f%$#ing with use.

I’m inclined to agree.

Republicans the Party of Values

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What a surprise. We have an Arizona sheriff being accused of corruption after he threatened to deport his gay lover in order to force his silence:

Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu — who became the face of Arizona border security nationally after he started stridently opposing illegal immigration — threatened his Mexican ex-lover with deportation when the man refused to promise never to disclose their years-long relationship, the former boyfriend and his lawyer tell New Times.

The latest of the alleged threats were made through Babeu’s personal attorney, who’s also running the sheriff’s campaign for Congress in District 4, the ex-lover says.

He says lawyer Chris DeRose demanded he sign an agreement that he would never breathe a word about the affair. But Jose (New Times is withholding his last name because Babeu and his attorney have challenged his legal status) refused.

This guy first came to prominence when one of his deputies fabricated a story about being shot at by illegal aliens, and Babeu went on a self promotional media tour.

BTW, until this all blew up, he was one of Mitt Romney’s campaign co-chairmen in Arizona.

Only In America

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There’s a deli near where I work, the Charwood Deli.

It’s a little shop located in an industrial park.

It has the full range of deli sandwiches, along with hot sandwiches like cheese steaks, and their fries are very nice.

The proprietors are Korean, and they have about a dozen Korean and Korean inspired items which are quite good.

Well today, I got a Gyro, the Greek lamb based wrap.

Greek ethnic food cooked up for me, and done quite well, by Korean immigrants.

This is a microcosm of the immigrant experience in the United States, and something to be admired.

Schadenfreud Futures are Dropping from Oversupply

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For the 2nd time in as many months, Alabama law enforcement has arrested a senior foreign auto executive in their state:

To arrest one foreign car-making executive under Alabama’s new tough immigration laws may be regarded as a misfortune; to arrest a second looks like carelessness.

A judge has acted to put a Japanese employee of Honda Motor Company out of his misery by dismissing immigration charges against him, three days after he was booked under Alabama’s new immigration laws that have been billed as the most swingeing in America. Ichiro Yada is one of about 100 Japanese managers of the company on assignment in southern state.

Yada was stopped in Leeds, Alabama, at a checkpoint set up by police to catch unlicenced drivers. He was ticketed on the spot, despite the fact that he showed an international driver’s licence, a valid passport and a US work permit.

Key parts of the new immigration law, HB56, came into effect in late September, including the driving provisions. Under them, the police are required to check up on the immigration status of anyone they stop who they suspect of being in the country illegally.

In addition, all drivers are required to carry a valid driver’s licence, either from a US state or from their native country if they are from abroad. The law is designed to trap undocumented immigrants – in practice, Hispanics largely from Mexico – who are no longer allowed to apply for driving licences.

Over the past two months thousands of undocumented Latinos have fled the state and many more have ceased driving for fear of being caught and incarcerated.

Yada is the second foreign car executive to fall foul of the new law. Last month police officers arrested a German director of Mercedes-Benz for failing to carry a valid driver’s licence. The move exposed Alabama to widespread criticism and ridicule.

What the Germans and Japanese don’t understand is that the compliant workforce, born of a vehement opposition of unions and worker protections, naturally leads to this, because hatred of the other is a way to deflect criticism for creating so many have-nots.

I believe in tough immigration enforcement, but effective immigration enforcement must raise the risks of employing illegal aliens, not simply this sort of security theater.

More Foreign Worker Visa Fraud

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It turns out that notorious software off shoring operation Infosys decided at some point that cheating H1b visa fraud was too damn much time and money so they have become more inventive:

In a case that threatens to scald Infosys in the North American market, from where it gets over 60% of its revenues, and intensify the debate on outsourcing in the US, Jack Palmer said the company was circumventing H-1B visa rules by sending low-level and unskilled employees to the US on B1 visas instead.

H-1B visas, which are needed to send employees to work in the US, have become more expensive and harder to get than B1 visas that are only meant for meeting, conferences and business negotiations. Palmer, who has been working with the company since 2008, further said that Infosys managers in the US were intentionally committing fraud to avoid paying taxes locally and that the company mistreated him when he filed a complaint as part of the whistleblower policy.

Outsourcing has been an inflammable issue in the US as it continues to struggle with high unemployment. The Indian IT services have often been accused of taking away American jobs to cheaper destinations. This anti-outsourcing sentiment has also resulted in visa norms becoming more stringent in the past few years.

This raises an interesting point.

My solution to H1b visa abuse, it’s largely used to bring in cheap labor and depress wages, is to raise the cost of the application and permitting process, but obviously this would tend to drive exactly this sort of fraud.

I’m beginning to think a bounty program, with people who rat out their employers getting 3 to 5 year work permits, might be the most effective way to deal with enforcing the laws.

H/t Naked Capitalism.

A Non-Wisconsin Wingnut Recalled

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In this case, it’s the wingnut Arizona state Senate president, Russell Pearce, one of the main architects of the radical right wing agenda in that state:

A citizens’ group that opposes the Arizona senate president because of his stance on illegal immigration and other issues has collected enough signatures to force a recall election for him, officials said on Friday.

Republican state Senator Russell Pearce rose to national attention as the chief architect of the state’s tough anti-immigration law that was signed into law last year, but has been blocked by the courts.

Maricopa County elections officials certified the group Citizens for a Better Arizona has collected over 10,300 signatures in their effort to force a recall election for Pearce, said Yvonne Reed, a county elections spokeswoman.

The group only was required to collect 7,756 valid signatures under state law, Reed said.

Barring any successful legal challenges, officials said the recall election for Pearce, who represents Mesa, Arizona, could be called for November or March.

I think that this is actually a long shot, unlike other states, there is no separate ballot for the recall and the election, just a new election, and if no serious Republican runs against him, it’s unlikely that a Democrat, even a ConservaDem, would prevail, but it’s nice to put the fear of the electorate into this ratf%$#’s heart.

Supreme Court Rules that State Can Impose Sanctions for Violating Immigration Law

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The Supreme Court ruled that the Arizona law penalizing employers who knowingly employ illegal aliens is constitutional.

Note that this law is a distinct entity from Arizona’s “Papers Please” law, this law simply applies penalties on employers who are found to have deliberately hired illegals, which is a pretty high bar in the real world:

The 2007 law in question, known as the Legal Arizona Workers Act, or LAWA, allows state authorities to suspend, and if necessary, to revoke the business licences of employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens. Even more striking, the law also mandates that employers adopt a workplace verification system known as “E-Verify” to screen prospective employees based on their legal status.

Two lower courts ruled in 2008 that LAWA was constitutional, despite furious challenges from a coalition of civil rights and immigration rights organisations, and business groups, which saw the sanctions law as likely to interfere with their ability to hire cheap foreign labour. The two lower courts, and now the US supreme court, cited a critical but little-known 1976 supreme court decision upholding a state employer sanctions law in California, as well as the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act, or IRCA, which established a new federal employer sanctions regime, but explicitly excluded issues relating to “business licencing” from the scope of the law.

I have mixed emotions on this.

On the whole, an aggressive program of sanctions against employers who flout immigration laws to save money is a good thing, but I also believe that this action should be done at the federal, not the state level.

The Most Morally Repugnant Industry on the Face of the Earth

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It’s the private prison industry, which is lobbying for draconian immigrations laws, like Arizona’s “Papers Please” law, because more people in detention means more money for them:

NPR spent the past several months analyzing hundreds of pages of campaign finance reports, lobbying documents and corporate records. What they show is a quiet, behind-the-scenes effort to help draft and pass Arizona Senate Bill 1070 by an industry that stands to benefit from it: the private prison industry.

The law could send hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants to prison in a way never done before. And it could mean hundreds of millions of dollars in profits to private prison companies responsible for housing them.

The story leads off with a private prison pitching an immigration detention facility for women and children in Benson, Arizona.

There are certain functions that cannot be fobbed off on the private sector, and this is perhaps the most sterling example.

C=MI*

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Seriously, It Sounds Like Tertiary Syphillis


And then when challenged by the press, she flees

I don’t know what is going on with Arizona governor Jan Brewer, but I hope that she has a substance abuse problem, because if her opening statment at the debate and her interview post debate are any indication, if it’s not that, she has a serious neurological problem.

Of course, I am an engineer, not a Doctor, Dammit†, but her goes well beyond someone who, thanks to Barack Obama hiring Napolitano, was promoted well past her capabilities, she has a serious screw loose.

Props to here opponent Terry Goddard, who, when accused of being responsible for the boycott, or at least supporting it, responds that when the governor of the state is lying about beheadings, it makes her a part of the tourism downturn.

I still think that Brewer is going to win, particularly with Sheriff Arpaio continuing his attempt to intimidate and harass Hispanic voters in the Phoenix area, but what passes for a mainstream Republican these days just buggers the mind.

*Conservatism = Mental Illness.

†I LOVE IT when I get to go all Doctor McCoy!!!

2 Snaps Up to Senator Schumer

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He just made the obvious point that the current H1B program does not serve the needs of the American people:

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) says that the H-1B program has created “multinational temp agencies” that undercut U.S. wages and discourage students from entering tech fields.

Schumer said the H-1B program has morphed into program used to hire foreign tech workers “willing to accept less pay than their American counterparts.” He spoke on the Senate floor in advance of its approval Thursday of $600 million for border security that includes an H-1B visa fee increase.

He’s right, of course. The program is not about finding people who cannot be found in the US, it’s about importing cheap labor.

The rise in the H-1B fees is perhaps the best part of the law, thought, of course, the foreign body shops are apoplectic about this, claiming that “The US is giving a very strong signal foreigners are not welcome.”

My heart bleeds borscht for them, but they should consider themselves lucky: I would set a soft cap of something like 50K a year visas, and raise the rates when the number of applications exceed this.

As an alternative, you could go with a bidding system, with something like quarterly auctions, which would raise the cost from a $2,500 fee

The new law added $2000 for firms that have more than 50% non citizen/green card workforces, which is still too low.

Judge Suspense Portions of Arizona’s “Papers Please” Law

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I’m a hard liner on immigration, but I oppose this law.

It has been passed by people who as a matter of course disenfranchise Arizona hispanics for political advantage, so the judge’s ruling is a welcome development:

A federal judge on Wednesday blocked the most controversial parts of Arizona’s immigration enforcement law from going into effect, a ruling that at least temporarily squashed a state policy that had inflamed the national debate over immigration.

Judge Susan Bolton of Federal District Court issued a preliminary injunction against sections of the law, scheduled to take effect on Thursday, that called for police officers to check a person’s immigration status while enforcing other laws and required immigrants to prove that they were authorized to be in the country or risk state charges. She issued the injunction in response to a legal challenge brought against the law by the Obama administration.

If you want to get tough on illegal aliens, go after the employers.

The Meth Lab of Democracy

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You know, maybe legislators should engage in a mental exorcise known as a Jon Stewart test

Arizona, of course, Stewart makes the comment about 1 minute in.

As Wyatt Cenac notes, the authorities are just looking for suspicious behavior, like, “Gardening or burping white people’s babies.”

I so want one of his writers as a speech writer if I ever run for office.

When the Bigots Lose Tom Tancredo………

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You know that they have gone too far:

Former Congressman Tom Tancredo — the same guy who said we should send the president back to Kenya and said a Supreme Court nominee is part of the “Latino KKK” — said this weekend that the new Arizona immigration law goes a little too far.

“If I had anything to say about it, we’d be doing it in Colorado,” Tancredo told Denver news station KDVR. But, he said, “I do not want people here, there in Arizona, pulled over because you look like should be pulled over.”

We live in very strange times.

On Arizona’s Immigration Law

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I tend to be a hard-ass on immigration. I tend to refer to them as “illegal,” not “undocumented,” and I favor strict penalties against those who negligently (the current standard is knowingly) employ illegal aliens/

I also understand the reality of the situation, that about ⅓ of illegals in the US entered illegally and overstayed their visas, which means that they are not the stereotypical Hispanic, and that much of the immigration fraud in the US occurs in things like the H1B and L1A visas, who are overwhelmingly not Hispanic, where a significant proportion of the visas are granted in violation of the regulations.

That being said, Arizona’s new immigration law sucks. (Google news link)

Basically, it’s an excuse for police officers to stop, detain, and arrest people for “driving while Hispanic.”

It’s standard Republican populist bigotry and racism.