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Kronberg is predicting that Republicans will compete to be "most restrictive" on the issue. State politicians, says the article, are following the lead of the US House of Representatives in calling for more fences and criminal penalties.

One fascinating fact: 4,207 babies out of 5,775 born at one Fort Worth hospital were delivered of undocumented mothers. After citing this fact, the newpaper next quotes a Republican politician about "the crisis". But what constitutes these babies as a crisis? Does Texas have a zero-growth population policy?

More sobering is reference to a report by the Center for Immigration Study in which author Steven A. Camarota argues that the meager growth in job opportunities between 2000 and 2004 went largely to immigrants. Strangely enough, Camarota reports this was least true in Florida (where Camarota gives 15 percent of new jobs to immigrants) and California (where he gives 49 percent). In Texas, Camarota’s figures show that 86 percent of job increases went to immigrant workers.

At first glance, it is not clear why Camarota’s working totals are somewhat different from numbers reported at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For "number working in 2004" Camarota reports 19.7 million "immigrants" and 115.3 million "native born" whereas the BLS reports employment of 20.3 "foreign born" workers and 119 million "native born". At the BLS table, unemployment for both sets of workers is tied at 5.5 percent.

Also not mentioned in the newspaper article is a Bureau of Labor Statistics report that foreign-born workers earn 75 percent of what native born workers earn and their increase in earnings is lower than native workers.

If we compare BLS earnings to Camarota’s totals, we might think that job growth between 2000-2004 offered earnings at substantially lower rates than what native-born workers were used to, with diminishing promise of advancement. Indeed, this offers a likely reason why immigrants will move to the front of the line when it comes to Republican scapegoating strategies. As voters come to the polls with the feeling that things are not getting better in the employment sector, Republican candidates can blame the very people who hold the worst jobs. This strategy will attempt to keep everyone’s eyes off the deeper meanings of employment stagnation. Meanwhile, with the scapegoats in focus, Halliburton stands ready to build the "concentration camps".

More than half of the foreign born working-age population in the USA are non-Hispanic says the BLS. Of 31.3 million foreign born people over age 16 in the USA, 14.6 million are Hispanic.

We’ve clipped the full Star-Telegram article:

By JOHN KIRSCHSTAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER

Illegal immigration is emerging as a growing issue in the 2006 state elections, with several polls indicating rising public concern.

With an estimated 9.7 million immigrants living in the country illegally, including 1.3 million in Texas, constituents worry about competition for jobs and the effect on social services, according to lawmakers and political analysts. And some candidates, most of them Republicans, aim to take advantage of voter discontent.

State Rep. Vicki Truitt, R-Keller, said a recent poll she conducted indicated that immigration was the No. 1 concern of residents in her district, which includes most of Northeast Tarrant County. State Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Lewisville, said immigration is also a top issue at town-hall meetings she holds in her district, which includes parts of Denton and Tarrant counties.

Across the region, far from Texas’ 1,200-mile border with Mexico, other candidates in the March 7 primaries say they see the same concern.

"It’s going to be the single biggest issue, along with property taxes, in state House and Senate races. And pretty much every candidate, both Democrats and Republicans, ignore it at their peril," said Harvey Kronberg, editor of an online political newsletter in Austin.

Border concerns

Kari Harris, a neighborhood watch leader in north Fort Worth, echoes the concerns felt by many Texans. She said she is concerned about jobs, and she worries that the state’s porous border with Mexico makes it easy for terrorists to enter the United States.

A recent Scripps Howard Texas Poll indicated that 79 percent of Texans believe the government is not doing enough to stop illegal immigration. Eighty-six percent also believe that U.S. businesses add to the problem by hiring illegal immigrants, the poll indicated.

That’s consistent with a national Rasmussen poll in November, in which 75 percent of respondents said they believe immigration will be somewhat or very important in influencing their vote on Election Day.

"I do think it should be a priority," Harris said. Truitt said state officials must demand more action by federal officials who oversee the U.S.-Mexican border. Federal officials should consider sanctions against Mexico if the tide of immigrants does not stop, she said.

The three candidates for the GOP nomination in Tarrant County’s state House District 99, incumbent Charlie Geren and challengers Chris Hatley and Colby Brown, said they applaud Republican Gov. Rick Perry’s recent decision to spend nearly $10 million to beef up border security. Perry, who is seeking re-election, said the money will pay for more border personnel, training and equipment.

But Geren said more needs to be done. He said he would like a state House committee to convene and hear testimony from border law enforcement officials about how the state could stop illegal immigration.

In Tarrant County’s House District 91, GOP primary candidate Kelly Hancock said the state should work with citizen volunteers to increase border patrols but was undecided whether the Minutemen group should serve as a model.

The state candidates are taking a page from their congressional counterparts who passed legislation in December calling for building more fences on the U.S.-Mexico border to keep out illegal immigrants.

U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Flower Mound, who supports the bill, described the flow of illegal immigrants into the United States as an "invasion" that is burdening social-services programs, including local hospitals.

Babies born to women living in the country illegally made up nearly three-fourths of the births at Fort Worth’s public John Peter Smith Hospital this year, the Star-Telegram reported. Of the 5,775 deliveries during fiscal year 2005, which ended in September, 4,207 were the children of women without immigration documents.

"The crisis is so severe that it’s imperative that we simply secure the border," Burgess said.

Illegal immigration has also fueled concern about jobs for native-born Americans. The Center for Immigration Studies reports that immigrants account for almost 44 percent of workers in farming, fishing and forestry and almost 26 percent of construction and extraction workers. The unemployment rate for native-born Americans in those industr

ies is 12.6 percent and 11.3 percent, respectively – about twice the national unemployment rate.

Steven Camarota, director of research for the Center for Immigration Studies, said that not every job taken by an immigrant costs a native-born American a job.

"But it would also be a mistake to assume that dramatically increasing the number of workers in these occupations as a result of immigration policy has no impact on the employment prospects of natives," Camarota wrote in his December 2005 report.

However, Michele Waslin, director of immigration policy research for the National Council of La Raza, a Latino civil-rights advocacy group, said a "disconnect" exists between the nature of the U.S. work force and growing sectors of the economy. Workers are getting older and more educated, but most new jobs are in low-wage service industries that require little advanced education, she said. More immigrants will be needed to avoid labor shortages.

"You don’t see a lot of people raising their kids to be farm workers and work in meatpacking plants," Waslin said.

‘Immigrant bashing’

The Texas Democratic Party’s 2004 platform supports stronger border security. But it also opposes "immigrant bashing." Amber Moon, a spokeswoman for the state Democratic Party, said Republicans were exploiting immigration for political gain.

"Instead of proposing real solutions, it’s a race to the right, as they compete to see who can come up with the most inflammatory language," Moon said in a written statement. Truitt rejected that argument, saying she is responding to her constituents’ concerns.

The political risk among Hispanic-Americans may be minimal. They rank education, healthcare, the economy and jobs as bigger issues than immigration, according to a survey released in August 2005 by the Pew Hispanic Center. Although a majority of Hispanics surveyed nationally express positive attitudes toward immigrants, relatively few favor increasing the flow of legal immigration from Latin America.

"These findings clearly indicate that in a policy debate Latinos will not automatically or unanimously adopt what might be commonly perceived as the pro-immigrant position," the survey report states.

Locally, state Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, whose district is more than 60 percent Hispanic, said his constituents rarely ask him about immigration issues. Burnam said Republicans could still suffer some backlash from Hispanic voters if they back punitive measures.

That happened in California after Gov. Pete Wilson, a Republican, backed Proposition 187. The measure, approved by California voters in 1994, would have barred illegal immigrants from attending public schools and receiving social services from the state. Court challenges have prevented the proposition from taking effect. But Hispanic support for Republican candidates fell, helping Democrats gain power in California. And some Texas Hispanics are paying attention to the rhetoric.

"If candidates talk about shipping everybody back to Mexico, we’re certainly going to be aware of that and make sure the community knows," said Alberto Govea of Fort Worth, a former district director for the League of United Latin American Citizens.

But for now, many candidates see little downside in backing get-tough policies as they seek ways to gain advantage over rivals, Kronberg said.

"There will be a race among Republicans to be the most restrictive on immigration," Kronberg said.

This report includes material from Star-Telegram archives.

John Kirsch, (817) 685-3805
jkirsch@star-telegram.com

"Posted on Feb. 21, 2006"

This email from Paul Wright, Editor of Prison Legal News: "The fifth circuit upheld the conviction of three INS officers who showed a depraved indifference to an immigration detainees medical indifference. After a raid a 15 year old suffered a broken back, how isn’t said, but the defendants were convicted of a civil rights violation for wiping their feet on the now paralyzed child, pepper spraying him to see if he would move, driving him around Texas on the floor of a police bus, etc. He died 11 months later."

EXCERPT from opinion of the court: IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT; No. 04-20131; UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. Richard Gonzales, Louis Gomez, Carlos Reyna:

The defendants, Gonzales, Gomez, and Reyna worked as
deportation officers for the San Antonio division of the INS.
They were members of the elite San Antonio Fugitive Unit, a group that specialized in tracking down and deporting illegal aliens with criminal records. Early in the morning of March 25, 2001, their unit, together with INS agents from Houston, prepared to raid a house in Bryan, Texas. They were advised to be alert. The night before, agents had encountered an armed 15-year old near the house.
At 8:00 AM, the raid began. The San Antonio unit rushed in
the front door while the Houston officers maintained a perimeter
around the house. Minutes later, one of the house’s occupants,
Serafin Carrera, lay paralyzed on the kitchen floor.

The testimony is unclear about which officers took down
Carrera, though Gonzales, Gomez, and Reyna were all involved.
The prosecution did not charge the defendants with excessive
force in taking Carrera down or with causing the broken neck
which he suffered in that process. Instead, the defendants were
convicted for their behavior thereafter.

All three defendants had close contact with Carrera while he
lay handcuffed on the floor. Carrera begged for help, screaming
"they broke me . . . Tell them to kill me . . . Tell them to take me to a hospital." In response, Gomez taunted, "From here you’re going to go to jail and you’re never going to get out, you son of a f*cking mother." Officer Gonzales called him "cabron" and invited his fellow officers to wipe their feet on him. The three defendants stood in the kitchen, with Carrera on the floor crying for help, trying to figure out how to get their paralyzed detainee into an INS van. Officer Gonzales, the San Antonio team leader, ordered a detention officer to pull the van closer to the house, saying "I don’t want anybody to see what’s going on." Next, Gonzales, Gomez, and two other officers dragged Carrera from the house, across the backyard, and into the van. Carrera complained of pain, asking to be shot and put out of his misery, while Officer Gomez pulled him through the van door and onto the front seat. Gomez struggled to position Carrera’s limp body on the seat, finally leaving him slumped on his side and handcuffed. As the van departed for the Brazos County Jail, Officer Reyna asked the driver to give Carrera a screen test—an unofficial maneuver in which the driver slams on the brake causing a handcuffed passenger to lurch forward and hit his face against the screen.

The nearby Brazos County Jail was not the final destination
for Carrera or any of the other detainees. The INS Officers
merely used its parking lot as a makeshift processing area for
the illegal aliens. After processing, the aliens were to be sent by bus to New Braunfels, and then removed to Mexico.

After all the aliens were loaded into two vans, the officers
returned to their cars and followed the vans to the Brazos County Jail for processing. At the jail, all three defendants dragged Carrera off the van, hitting his head against the door on the way out. They dragged him across the parking lot while taunting him and playing with his limp body. Gonzales ordered the bus driver to open the luggage compartment, and threatened, jokingly, to make Carrera ride below. INS officers testified that Gonzales said, "Let’s Mace the f*cker, see if he budges."

The three defendants dragged Carrera onto the bus. Because the bus had tinted windows, no one outside of it saw what happened next, but after a few minutes all three defendants ran off the bus choking and laughing. With a smirk, Gonzales claimed that he had an "accidental discharge" of pepper spray. A nurse was on duty at the Brazos County Jail, and a hospital just four miles away, but the defendants left Carrera by himself on the floor of the bus, handcuffed, eyes swollen shut, and foaming at the mouth. At around 11:30 AM, three hours after Carrera’s neck
was broken, the bus left for New Braunfels. Carrera rode on the
floor of the bus for three more hours until he reached the Comal
County Jail. Upon his arrival, the intake nurse refused to take
custody of Carrera without a medical evaluation. He was taken
by ambulance to a nearby hospital and then airlifted to a trauma
center in San Antonio. Eleven months later, Carrera died.

The next day, the cover-up began. Gonzales called everyone into his office and assured them, "we’re going to get through this." When Gonzales found out that a bus driver had already written a memo about the incident, he called the bus driver into his office and said, "who the f*ck told [you] to write a memo . .
. nobody told you to write any memos . . . I’m the one that’s
going to take care of the memos." Gonzales demanded that the bus driver change his account to say that Carrera had assaulted them. The driver refused.

Excerpts from an AP report posted at CBS News

In Houston, Jose Rivera, an immigrant from El Salvador, went to one of the company’s Houston operations to search for information about his 22-year-old son, an IFCO Systems employee who was arrested Wednesday. Rivera said a brother, who worked at an IFCO operation in Louisiana, also was arrested Wednesday.

“I really feel angry because this is an injustice,” he said through a translator. “It’s an injustice because one person, who come from another country, why can’t you work?”
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested seven current and former IFCO Systems managers on charges they conspired to transport, harbor and encourage illegal workers to reside in the United States for commercial advantage and private financial gain, said Glenn T. Suddaby, the chief federal prosecutor in Albany, N.Y., where some arrests were made.

German-based IFCO Systems describes itself as the leading pallet services company in the United States, focusing on recycling millions of the wooden platforms used to stack and move all manner of goods. It operates about five dozen facilities nationwide and has been expanding steadily, according to the company’s Web site.

Last week, operators of three restaurants in Baltimore pleaded guilty to similar immigration charges, while nine people affiliated with two temporary employment agencies that do business in New Jersey, Ohio and Pennsylvania were charged in a $5.3 million scheme involving the employment and harboring of illegal aliens.

Last year, Wal-Mart stores agreed to pay $11 million to settle allegations concerning the employment and mistreatment of illegal immigrants.

Wal-Mart has maintained that top executives did not know that cleaning contractors were hiring illegal immigrants, who sometimes slept in the back of the stores. An ICE affidavit unsealed as part of that case asserted that two executives were aware of the practice.

Not often do we harvest articles whole from the mainstream press, but when I tripped over a copy of the Dallas Morning News this morning, the top-of-the-fold-headline said "hey buddy, this is exactly what you’ve been looking for." Indeed, it was a story about a Colorado congressman calling for militarization of the USA border with Mexico, based on a recent "provocation" involving three SUVs, almost a ton of pot, and narco warriors packing 50 caliber heat. We darn sure warned you about this…
Border incident sparks outrage

Lawmakers urge troops after police encounter well-armed smugglers

08:30 AM CST on Wednesday, January 25, 2006

By DAVID McLEMORE / The Dallas Morning News

A West Texas standoff along the Rio Grande between U.S. law enforcement officers and heavily armed Mexican drug smugglers in military-style clothing prompted congressional demands Tuesday for an international investigation and a call for deployment of U.S. troops to the border.

The incident, which occurred Monday on U.S. soil at an isolated river crossing about 50 miles east of El Paso, is the latest involving armed incursions along the U.S. border with Mexico.

And it comes less than a week after Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff called a California newspaper’s account of such border incursions "overblown."

The incident Monday involved an encounter between two Hudspeth County Sheriff’s Department deputies and three Department of Public Safety troopers and 10 heavily armed drug smugglers at an area about 50 miles down the river from El Paso.

A spokesman for Mexico’s Foreign Ministry said Mexican military personnel had nothing to do with the incident and suggested the trespassers may have been drug traffickers wearing military-style gear.

The incident began on Interstate 10 near the Sierra Blanca checkpoint when DPS troopers began chasing three westbound SUVs believed to be carrying marijuana.

When the SUV drivers saw that they were being followed, they made a U-turn and headed south toward the river to an area known as Neely’s Crossing, said Rick Glancey, executive director of the Texas Border Sheriffs Coalition.

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En español

At the crossing, one of the SUVs drove across the shallow river into Mexico. A second one got stuck in the muddy banks. And as the Texas deputies watched, a military-style Humvee attempted to pull it from the mud, while several armed men in green uniforms fanned out around it, Mr. Glancey said.

When the Humvee failed to extricate the truck, a group of men in civilian clothes walked into the ankle-deep river, removed what appeared to be bales of marijuana and hauled them to the Mexican side. They then set the truck, a Ford Expedition, ablaze.

The third vehicle, a Cadillac Escalade, was abandoned on the U.S. side with a flat tire as the driver escaped on foot. Deputies found 1,447 pounds of marijuana inside.

"What this latest incidence underscores is the necessity of increased support for local law enforcement to aid improving our border security," said Mr. Glancey. "If this doesn’t open D.C.’s eyes, I don’t know what will."
Inquiry launched

Monday’s incident was not the first face-to-face confrontation for Hudspeth County deputies. In November, deputies responded to assist Border Patrol agents at the border town of Fort Hancock where they encountered six men in military uniforms attempting to carry a load of marijuana over the river.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials said Tuesday they have launched an inquiry into the Monday incident and asked Mexican authorities for a thorough investigation and full answer on what happened.

Customs "is coordinating closely with the appropriate federal, state and local authorities," said Kristi Clemens, Customs’ assistant commissioner for public affairs. "The U.S. government is also discussing the matter with the government of Mexico and is asking for a thorough investigation and response. We take very seriously and investigate fully any alleged incident of criminal activity, threats against our agents or possible incursions."

Gov. Rick Perry also has ordered an investigation, spokeswoman Kathy Walt said.

U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., a frequent critic of the administration’s border security efforts, called Tuesday for the federal government and the governments of southern border states to immediately deploy troops to the U.S.-Mexico border in light of what he termed "recent armed assistance Mexico’s military has given to drug smugglers."

"Our border has literally turned into a war zone with foreign military personnel challenging our laws and our sovereignty," Mr. Tancredo said.

"The only way to deal with this dangerous situation is to tap the resources of our own military," Mr. Tancredo said. "I call on President Bush and the governors of border states to immediately deploy military personnel to defend our borders against the Mexican military."

U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security, called on Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice to initiate a formal investigation on the reported border crossings and to begin a dialogue with Mexican officials to prevent further occurrences.

"These illegal incursions are a violation of our sovereignty and pose a significant danger to U.S. law enforcement officials and citizens near the border – especially if all parties involved are armed. The potential for violence is significant.

Mr. Kyl noted that the Department of Homeland Security released figures that indicate that there have been 231 documented incursions along the 2,000-mile border with Mexico since 1996.

Of those, 63 in that nine-year period occurred in Arizona and 28 occurred along the Texas border, according to Homeland Security.

In each instance, U.S. agents at the local level asked Mexican federal police and army officials to clarify what happened.
Border forays

Many included accidental forays by legitimate Mexican authorities across a poorly defined border in rough and isolated country while in pursuit of drug dealers. The Texas-Mexico border, however, is delineated by the Rio Grande River.

Investigators have long documented that Mexican drug gangs often wear camouflage clothing and carry military-style automatic weapons.

But Tuesday’s request for a Mexican government response significantly ups the ante, federal officials said.

In Mexico, officials said the National Defense Ministry has begun an investigation of the incident and launched a search for the vehicles identified by photographs taken by Hudspeth County deputies.

Hudspeth County Chief Deputy Mike Doyal said that men dressed as Mexican soldiers manned what looked like .50-caliber machine guns mounted on vehicles about 200 yards inside the U.S. border during the incident.

In Mexico, a ministry spokesman said that the Army’s Ciudad Juarez garrison does not maintain Humvees with mounted .50-caliber machine guns.

"It cannot be ruled out that said actions are designed as much to harm the image of our armed forces as the bilateral cooperation between Mexico and the United States in the fight against organized crime and, in particular, narcotrafficking," a foreign ministry spokesman said.

Staff writer Lennox Samuels contributed to this report from Mexico City. David McLemore reported from San Antonio.

E-mail dmclemore@dallasnews.com