20 MILLION ILLEGAL ALIENS?(by beautiful mind MICHELLE MALKIN )

Barron's has an important lead article out today on "the underground economy" (password required).

According to Robert Justich, a senior managing director at Bear Stearns Asset Management in New York, current estimates of the illegal alien population (most news articles cite the old 8 to 13 million figure) are too low. He puts the figure at 18 million to 20 million.

The article's author, Jim McTague, notes some devastating consequences of the failure to enforce our immigration laws--and he does so with a bluntness that is unusual for the usually open-borders-friendly business press:

[T]he underground economy is undermining the effectiveness of the Internal Revenue Service, which is highly dependent on employees' withholding taxes. If the IRS could collect all the taxes it says that it is owed from the underground economy in a given year, then the current budget deficit would disappear overnight. And if the IRS could collect these taxes every year, then the nation would have surpluses as far as the eye can see. The IRS has estimated that its tax gap -- the estimated amount of taxes owed minus the amount collected -- is around $311 billion in any given year. The agency will produce a new estimate in 2005, and it could be as high as $400 billion, says former IRS Commissioner Donald Alexander.

McTague addresses pollyannas who note that our underground economy is smaller than other high-tax European countries:

To be sure, the U.S. underground economy, as a percentage of GDP, is smaller than those of some other countries. In a 2000 paper in a publication of the Independent Institute, a nonprofit research organization, Schneider found that Greece, as of 1998, had the largest underground economy, at 29% of its GDP, followed by Italy at 27.8% and Spain at 23.4%. Countries with high tax burdens and high social security costs lead the list.

But the sheer growth of the underground economy in the U.S. is cause for concern. If Justich's estimate of illegal immigrant workers is correct, the underground economy may now be growing at a markedly faster rate than the legitimate economy. Justich, working with Bear Stearns colleague Betty Ng, an emerging- markets economist, says he's found evidence of a larger illegal immigrant population by analyzing data on construction and on remittances sent from the U.S. to Mexico and other countries. He also had conversations with over 100 immigrants from Mexico, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Guinea, China and Tibet. And he interviewed local business owners, real-estate sales people and police...

A larger number of illegal immigrants also would have a profound impact on coming discussions on immigration reform. President Bush proposes temporary amnesty for illegal aliens already in the country, allowing them to obtain permits to work legally for three years and stay longer if their jobs otherwise can't be filled by native-born workers. But if there are, in fact, 20 million illegal aliens, the Bush proposal could engender a situation not unlike the German unification of the 1990s, which triggered huge demand for social services in East Germany. Unanticipated costs here could be enormous.

The article should be must-reading for every member of Congress as President Bush prepares to foist his amnesty plan on America.

Americans are afraid to ask, "What next?"

The Mexican government now publishes a book instructing its nationals on how to be an illegal.

Ironically, one of the big selling points of the NAFTA deal was that it would greatly alleviate illegal Mexican border-jumping......but since that time it has skyrocketed.

Adding insult to injury American taxpayers are subsidizing foreign aid transfers to Mexico.

The government of Mexico---with all of its oil revenue potential ----needs to be taking care of its own people, not "outsourcing' them as wards of American taxpayers.

Mexico can well-afford it. Mexico has more "Forbes" billionaires, 11, than all but eight other nations. It has more billionaires than Saudi Arabia, Switzerland or Taiwan. It also has more than 85,000 millionaires.

According to a CNN report, Mexico sits on oil reserves worth about $400 billion, but Mexico's state-owned oil company, Pemex, doesn't have the investment funds to tap those reserves, and Mexico's Congress refuses to allow foreign investment in Pemex.

American money sent South of the Border by illegals constitutes $38 BILLION this year alone constituting Mexico's second largest most profitable industry.

America needs to seal our borders and let Vincente Fox know that we will cut off every penny in aid he gets from the United States.

America should demand proof for all cash transfers out of the US and/or force all transferring agencies -- banks, credit unions, Amex, Western Union to collect a substantial withholding tax -- 50%, say -- on every unexplained foreign remittance.

Bump for the lovely, bright Michelle!

In case you didn't catch this article by her:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1236624/posts

The elephant in the room
| October 6, 2004 | Michelle Malkin

Posted on 10/06/2004 3:41:49 AM PDT by MikeJ75

You know what makes me nervous about President Bush? It's not his facial expressions. Nor his verbal clumsiness. I don't care about his alleged weakness at the podium. What concerns me more than anything else is his demonstrated weakness at our borders.

Immigration enforcement is the six-ton elephant in the room. Barely two sentences were devoted to border control in the first presidential debate, despite the fact that the major issue of the showdown was leadership on national security. Both President Bush and Sen. Kerry bloviated about throwing more money at the Department of Homeland Security, while ignoring the fundamental problem: Our immigration laws are being broken en masse because America is unwilling to enforce them – clearly, consistently and unapologetically – until it is too late.

The vice presidential candidates are no better. Dick Cheney, alas, has dutifully defended the administration's abominable amnesty plan, which amounts to a mass government pardon of illegal visa overstayers and border crossers and deportation fugitives at a time of war. (We are at war, aren't we, gentlemen?) For his part, Sen. John Edwards supports the just-as-awful Democratic version of this illegal alien incentive policy.

On the same day of the presidential debate last week, alarming news broke in McAllen, Texas, which underscores the illegal immigration-terrorism nexus. The feds have been investigating evidence from a high-level al-Qaida operative that the terrorists were planning to poison our military's supply of MREs (meals ready-to-eat). In the course of the investigation, law enforcement officers initiated a sweep of a McAllen-area defense subcontractor, the Wornick Company, which produced MREs and had been an alleged target of al-Qaida. snip-----

From this month's issue of the NEA magazine is an article on the lengths to which teachers go to keep the illegals in school: NEA January 2005 article. The following section of the article is worth reading:

Parent Involvement
'¡Llámeme!'

Call me, says a family facilitator from a New Jersey elementary school. Surprisingly, parents do. "What did I miss last night?" Hermalinda Ribera asks anxiously, as she stands in the black asphalt yard of the Lincoln School Annex in New Brunswick, New Jersey, watching as her 6-year-old son and 9-year-old daughter skip to class.

Más información, she hears.

Nearly 70 other parents at this tiny school—just 190 kindergartners through third-graders—joined their full-time family liaison at their first monthly meeting of the school year. They heard about math and literacy nights (pajamas encouraged!), homework help sessions for both kids and adults, and the new Universidad de los Padres.

"You can always come here," family liaison Marlon Osuna assures Ribera.

It's an invitation that parents take seriously at the Lincoln School Annex, where the entire staff embarked last year on a five-year project to close the achievement gap that frustrates its mostly Hispanic student body. The Academy Project, jointly run by the New Jersey Education Association and the local board of education, relies on a few research-based reforms: smaller classes, more professional development, and a new resolve to involve parents.

Let's face it, Osuna told the packed gymnasium on family night, teachers have the children for just eight hours a day. "You are the most important people," he told them.

And he's not talking about bake sales.

Home Life
In 1999, 50 percent of parents who earned $50,000 or more volunteered or served on a committee at school, compared with 21 percent of those earning less than $10,000. Source: Education Testing Service

Study after study shows the most accurate predictor of a student's success is the extent to which his or her family can create an encouraging home environment, express high expectations, and be involved in his or her education.

But research also shows that superficial attendance at holiday pageants isn't the kind of "involvement" that makes a difference. Parents need to reinforce what's taught at school with home activities like reading before bed or checking homework, and they also should stay informed of decisions at the school about curriculum and management.

With that in mind, Osuna and his colleagues want parents to be full-time partners—but that's not an easy task. Surrounded by sagging three-story houses, subdivided into tiny apartments with Mexican flags on front porches, the Annex serves many new immigrants. While many children know little English and attend bilingual classes, some parents know even less, make little money, lack health insurance, and in many cases, because they're not here legally, don't want to call attention to themselves.

It's not easy to make these parents feel comfortable in any government building—even a small school with a smiling staff. But it helps that Osuna, who is originally from Nicaragua, has lived in the community for more than a decade. Plus, he's persistent and empathetic, says Principal Mary Jane McDonald.

"Llámeme," he tells parents—Call me!

Before anything else, Osuna and his colleagues take care of their families' basic needs. Students can't learn when their teeth ache or they can't read their teacher's scrawl across the blackboard, notes nurse Marilyn Crawford, who often starts her mornings with a few parents at her door—as frequently seeking help for their own fevers and pains as for their children's.

The Basics First
At Lincoln School Annex, involving parents means stocking home freezers, negotiating with landlords and welfare officers, and arranging for doctor visits. (Osuna, who passes out his seven cell phone digits like a love-hungry teenager, will even chauffeur families to the hospital clinic.)

If I were in Charge
"Require parents and families to spend at least 30 minutes a day with their child or children to do literacy work."
— Rhogenia McMillan, Grace Warner Elementary, Reno, Nevada

Then, when everyone is feeling full and well, the school turns to a more ambitious effort—turning its hundreds of non-English-speaking parents into a force that can help them in the classroom.

Parents appreciate that their children are learning English—except for one thing: Some say they can't keep up. So now, involving parents means offering English-language classes—morning and night—so they can read their children's books. It means buying calculators so that some parents, who arrived here from Mexico or Guatemala with less schooling than their 9-year-olds, can play "addition bingo" and check math homework.

It even means installing a new washer and dryer in the school's basement and inviting parents to do a load of wash while they volunteer in classrooms.

"You have to believe that parents are doing the best they can, and parents have to know you believe that. Then together, we can make a difference," says Susanne Clark, who serves as liaison between the school board and the union on this joint effort.

Adriana Herrera, the mother of a second-grader, has been taking English classes for more than a year and attends every family event. This year, she's enrolling in GED classes—"I want to finish school, not for me, but for her," she says. "I want something better for my children."

Last year, the school tapped a $5,000 NEA Urban Grant, local business partners, and community volunteers to run evening programs. The tiny school sent three full buses to the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City—including dozens of parents who had never reached inside a "touch tank" and stroked a live sea creature.

This year, it turned to Rutgers University and Dow Chemical to help staff a new Parent University, organized by teacher Barbara Collister. Parent Leticia Vivas is taking an evening computer class through the program, hoping that new skills can bring her a better job than delivering bagels, she says.

None of this is easy. Osuna, Clark, Collister, and their colleagues work long hours—sometimes from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. "People keep asking me, 'Why are you doing this? It's so much time and effort,'" Collister says. "But I know it's going to be worth it for the families."

FYI
Mexico has more "Forbes" billionaires, 11, than all but eight other nations. It has more billionaires than Saudi Arabia, Switzerland or Taiwan. It also has more than 85,000 millionaires.

Aired 12/16/04 On CNN

DOBBS: Tonight, an estimated 15 million illegal aliens live in this country, at least half of them from Mexico. Many are here because they chose to flee crushing poverty in Mexico.

But, in point of fact, Mexico is one of the richest countries in Latin America, amongst -- the millionaires, billionaires and its wealth concentrated in the hands of very few.

CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They sneak across the border seeking jobs they can't find in Mexico. The question isn't why they come, it's why can't Mexico's economy support its own people.

Nearly half of Mexico's population lives in poverty. Ten percent are indigent, existing on a dollar a day. Yet the nation has vast wealth. Mexico has more "Forbes" billionaires, 11, than all but eight other nations. It has more billionaires than Saudi Arabia, Switzerland or Taiwan. It also has more than 85,000 millionaires.

GEORGE W. GRAYSON, COLLEGE OF WILLIAM & MARY: There is a small economic elite who live like maharajas, and there's a political elite that protects them. Our border provides an escape valve which really lets the Mexican political and economic elite off the hook in terms of providing opportunities for their own people.

WIAN : About 10 percent of Mexico's 105 million people live here in the United States. They're called national heroes by President Vicente Fox because this year they'll send home about $16 billion, more than any Mexican industry except oil. The country sits on oil reserves worth about $400 billion, but Mexico's state-owned oil company, Pemex, doesn't have the investment funds to tap those reserves, and Mexico's Congress refuses to allow foreign investment in Pemex.

Mexico's outdated tax system is plagued by widespread tax evasion. It collects taxes at less than half the rate of the United States. As a result, Mexico's public-school and health-care systems suffer. CHRIS WOODRUFF, CENTER FOR U.S.-MEXICO STUDIES: We now realize -- and particularly in a world where capitalists are mobile -- that redistribution isn't going to work, and what people focus on now instead is allowing the poor to build assets. Mexico has undertaken some programs which will allow the poor to do that. But that's not a process that changes overnight.

WIAN: Meanwhile, the gap between rich and poor is growing. So Mexico continues to export one of its most valuable assets, people.

DOBBS: The invasion of illegal aliens into this country is one of several threats to our wealth, our standard of living, our quality of life. Another is our exploding trade deficit and the rising export of American wealth overseas. The trend is beginning to discourage if none at home, some at least in foreign countries who are investing in this country.

DOBBS: And a federal judge in Texas today dismissed charges against a defendant in an illegal alien smuggling case. The judge says there was no evidence the defendant profited from the smuggling scheme. Nineteen people were found dead in a truck found in southern Texas in 2003. Two co-defendants will stay on trial in that case.

snip-------
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0412/16/ldt.01.html

Well, as Terry Anderson says, "if you ain't mad, you ain't paying attention!

www.theterryandersonshow.com

African-Americans drowning in wave
of illegal immigration

By TERRY ANDERSON

THE black community has made great strides in the last few
decades. Racism has certainly not been eradicated, but it is no
longer accepted with a wink and a nod as it once was. We are
proud to see Secretary of State Colin Powell, even when we do
not agree with everything he does. The same with Condoleezza
Rice, the president's national security adviser, and many others.

That's the good news.

The bad news is that in some regions we black folks are so
overwhelmed by the huge numbers of immigrants that we are
being displaced in our schools, jobs and neighborhoods.

That may seem a harsh thing for a black person to say against
brown people, but I don't see it that way. I am an American,
proud of both my nation and my race. What I see in my
community of South Central Los Angeles -- where I have lived
nearly all my life -- is thousands of Mexicans who care nothing
about our traditions and culture, and only want to impose their
way on us. That's not immigration, that is invasion.

It is sad what has happened in my neighborhood. This was a
respectable, blue-collar area of hard-working black folks living in
their bungalows and going to their jobs. In just a couple decades it
has become almost entirely Mexican. They live several families to
a three-bedroom house and keep chickens in the yard, but the
city doesn't care about the zoning violations or the noise of having
so many crowded into a small space.

According to the Census Bureau, nearby Watts is now 60 percent
Hispanic, and it was previously the black community on the West
Coast. No longer.

The immigration situation is really hard on our young people. A
17-year-old kid on my street couldn't get a job at McDonald's
because he didn't speak Spanish. Another young neighbor boy
was thrown into a bilingual classroom at age 8 and was forced to
listen to Spanish all day long. His six-hour school day was turned
into three hours. When his mother asked for an English-only class,
she was told "there are none."

Would you believe that I, a black man, have been called a racist
many times for speaking up against this invasion? I have a radio
program on the subject and therefore hear from a lot of people,
even some in Mexico.

When they call me a racist, I put this question to them: What if a
hundred thousand Vietnamese were suddenly dropped into
Guadalajara? And what if those newcomers didn't speak Spanish,
and further insisted that their children be taught in Vietnamese?
What would you think if they were happy to work for half the
normal wages for any job they could get, thereby putting
thousands of your local Guadalajarans out of work? Would it be
racist to say there was a problem?

When people of good will and good sense hear the situation put
that way, nearly all understand and respect my viewpoint.

Now if only they would listen in Washington. America's political
leaders are the problem. They have been selling out this great
nation for real and imaginary political benefits while ignoring the
dangers. Even after Sept. 11, nothing has been done to plug up
our borders. Another terrorist attack could be 10 times worse,
and it would likely happen because Congress and the president
learned nothing about the need to keep the nation's borders
secure.

If I sound angry, you hear right. Like other Americans, I want
immigration to be legal, controlled and reduced. But as a black
American, I see that the burden my people must carry is heavier
than for many others. I am sure that if Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,
were alive, he would understand the fundamental unfairness to the
black community of allowing more immigration than the nation can
handle.

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