Posted on 01/18/2002 4:22:54 AM PST by Brownie74
Ms. Hernandez Gonzalez, a Mexican immigrant, said she returned to her Dallas home recently after attending a crime watch meeting, only to find her front door wide open. Someone had broken into her apartment and stolen a large amount of cash she had hidden inside a jacket.
That, she said, is why she thinks a new program announced Thursday in Dallas is so important.
"This program is one way of helping people stay secure and not be as afraid" of being burglarized, she said.
The program – Communities Banking for Safety, or Seguridad Bancaria – is a cooperative effort among local law enforcement, businesses, civic groups and the U.S. and Mexican government. It seeks to reduce the number of Hispanic victims of robberies, burglaries and thefts. Officials at a Thursday news conference stressed that cultural as well as legal reasons prompt many Hispanics in North Texas to either carry large sums of cash or keep such money in their homes instead of using banks.
Dallas Police Chief Terrell Bolton said Hispanics account for 40 percent of the city's victims of robberies or burglaries where cash is taken.
"And remember, these are reported crimes. It does not take into account those crimes not reported," Chief Bolton said.
In addition to educating Hispanics, especially Spanish-speaking residents, about the U.S. banking system, the program is designed to make it easier for people, regardless of their immigration status, to open and maintain bank accounts.
Ezequiel Padilla Couttolenc, Mexico's consul general in Dallas, said that for those who do not have resident immigrant cards, participating institutions have agreed to accept Mexican identification, such as a consulate-issued matricula consular passports, or voter registration cards issued by Mexico's federal electoral institute.
Anne Estrada, INS district director in Dallas, said: "The INS has no interest or intent to arrest undocumented aliens because of participation in this program. The principal objective of this program is safety."
Participating financial institutions in North Texas are Bank One, City Credit Union, First State Bank, JP Morgan Chase Bank, Surety Bank and Wells Fargo.
FIND OUT MORE:
For more information about Communities Banking for Safety, call Diana Watts at 214-670-4404 or Eloisa Vasquez at 214-670-5387. Maria Hernandez Gonzalez says she knows what can happen when you don't use a bank.
What can I say!!
I still can't figure out who my Rep. in the house is. Pete Sessions says I belong to Eddie Bernice Johnson (God forbid) and EBJ says I belong to Pete Sessions. Ain't split districts great?
I am also going to phone, FAX, or email this INS woman here in Dallas and rattle her chain a little.
That fact of the matter is that we have far too many laws, and far too much complexity in law, for the laws to be uniformly and reasonably enforced.
The state is simply short-handed. Since it is shorthanded, the agents of the state must pick and choose which crimes to punish and which laws to enforce. One hopes that the agents be judicious in their choices, but many, even most will simply choose to punish the crimes and enforce the laws in a way that increases their own personal power.
One side effect of this discretion is that many laws that we really do want to be enforced will not be enforced well, which can increase the penalties on the books to draconian levels, so as to raise the product ( probability of punishment * severity of punishment. )
In its naturalization role, it wants more immigrants -- more immigrants to keep track of and more immigrants pursuing naturalization increases the agency's power and wealth. Even illegal immigration increases its power, since it gets to do fun things like raid and fine employers -- and you never know, the illegals might get an amnesty.
( True story: a family friend, who owns a few blueberry farms, was raided a couple of years back on an anonymous tip. No illegals were found, and no charges were ever filed, though the INS did keep a few souveniers which have yet to be returned. )
Preventive measures ( better control at the border ) beyond a certain point are counterproductive from the point of view of the agency's self-interest.
What needs to be done here is to split the agency in two -- naturalization service, and immigration control, the latter working closely with customs.
That's what's really changed the agency, IMO. The weigt of these internal responsibilities has rendered border control ineffective.
Thanks for the information, I think Political Correctness and Corporate greed has done far more to make the agency ineffective. I know it is claimed that illegals do the jobs Americans won't do, but I know personally that they do far more than just jobs Americans won't do. They take jobs that Americans need themselves and for less money.
A company paying out less in wages is no justification for this invasion. It is ultimately harmful to the fabric of our nation.
He had just attempted to float, as a trial balloon, a scheme to penalize the U.S. businesses that benefit from the low wages that they pay illegal aliens. There might be some merit to that idea, but this panderer wanted use the fines to provide benefits to the illegals.
If any additional fines are imposed on these companies, they should be used to pay for the deportation of these illegals. These fines could also be used to compensate the U.S. citizens that had their jobs stolen by these cheap, illegal laborers.
Another liberal Democrat trial balloon goes down in flames.
You're right. I hope they fry Tyson's gizzards. You're also right about deporting these people.
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