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Five years ago, my family took a vacation to Niagara Falls. On our return across the Canadian border, U.S. Immigration officials detained us for several tense hours because we happened to be the unlucky renters of a car that matched some sort of suspect list. The same year Immigration officers were busily occupied with the travel risk of the Simpson family, hundreds of thousands of babies were born in hospitals all across the U.S. to parents who gained entry in the country illegally (obviously not driving Hertz rental cars). The parents' reward, other than a beautiful newborn: shiny new made-in-the-USA...

(The Hill)- Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Tuesday he would favor immigration reform that would deport most of the residents of the United States who are here illegally. McCain, who at one point had been the top Republican advocate for immigration legislation promising a pathway to citizenship for some illegal immigrants, said he favored establishing a guest worker program. But McCain expressed opposition to any program that would give illegal immigrants a way to become citizens. “No amnesty. Many of them need to be sent back,” McCain said during an interview on KQTH-FM in Tucson, Ariz. Once the border is...

The Department of Homeland Security has just reported that during 2009, they issued 1,130,818 new Green Cards to foreign nationals, allowing them to work legally in this country. That number represents the fourth highest number of cards issued in one year. 750,000 of the new Green Cards were given to the families of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents. The top four recipient nations are as follows: -Mexico…164,920 -China…receiving 64,238 -Philippines…60,029 -India…57,304 In Feb. 2009, the financial institution Merrill Lynch announced that the nation’s actual unemployment rate had reached 13.9 percent. A year later, that number had risen to 17.3...

McCAIN: My view is you need a physical fence. But we all know that unless physical fences are surveilled, and then people just punch holes in them. And so I saw in Iraq on my visit there that their ability to serveil areas is that we have the technology now. (snip) McCAIN: After the border is secured, then obviously we have to address the issue of the 12 million people who are still in this country illegally. I don't know what ... American public opinion will take. But one of the key elements, as was in our previous legislation, is...

(snip) On immigration: McCain stressed the importance of securing the border and establishing a legal temporary-worker program. Foreign workers could take jobs that Americans wouldn't want - such as agricultural jobs in Yuma that go begging - with the burden on employers to quit employing each person at the end of some specified time. Kyl faulted the administration for short-changing border enforcement. (snip)

Even before Obama’s State of the Union, Democrats were scrambling to change their priorities from health care to jobs. They realized that Scott Brown’s victory in Massachusetts represented a nationwide populist response against big government personified in Obamacare, and that voters are wondering why they are busy putting America into debt rather than dealing with the 25 million Americans out of work. In the words of Obama’s chief economic advisor Larry Summers, "[P]riority Number One has to be assuring rapid job growth.” Rep. Anthony Weiner, one of the strongest proponents of Obamacare, conceded, "I don't think it would be the...

Note: Contact info deleted by me. # Note: The following text is a quote: Secretary Napolitano Designates 11 New Countries as Eligible for H-2a and H-2b Nonimmigrant Visa Programs Release Date: January 22, 2010 For Immediate Release Office of the Press Secretary Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano this week designated 11 new countries as eligible to participate in the H-2A and H-2B nonimmigrant visa programs, which allow U.S. employers to bring foreign nationals to the United States to fill temporary or seasonal jobs for which U.S. workers are not available. The 11 newly designated countries—Croatia, Ecuador, Ethiopia,...

(snip) Back inside, questions about border security and immigration, particularly a guest worker program like the old bracero program the U.S. had. A man asked the senator, "Why don't we have a bracero program?" "We need to have a temporary worker program particularly, even in these tough economic times, particularly in the agricultural sector," McCain answered.(snip)

Those of us who seek to change U.S. immigration policy so that it will no longer serve as a tool to displace, disrupt, and impoverish working Americans get subject to a lot of name calling: "xenophobe," "anti-immigrant," "racist." Those who bash Americans generally get away unscathed in the press. There has been a surge an American-bashing articles recently. This one, claiming Americans don't do their "fair share," comes from Electronic Design news: The H-1B visa program is valuable, and, as the Kauffman Foundation study points out, immigrants have contributed disproportionately to the US economy’s high-tech sector. If Americans are unwilling...

At last week's Job Summit, there was talk of a second stimulus package, of tax credits for small businesses that hire new workers, of an Infrastructure Bank to select national priority pubic works projects like the Hoover Dam and TVA of yesteryear. But no one, it seems, advanced the one obvious idea that would have the most immediate and dramatic impact -- a moratorium on all immigration into the United States. Unemployment is at 10 percent, near the postwar high of 1983. Fifteen million Americans are out of work. Ten million more have given up looking or are working fewer...

(snip) McCain said the presence of the Guard will not only help prevent the violence in Mexico from spilling across the border, but will also take some pressure off of the Border Patrol and U.S. Customs. "When the bad guys see Americans in uniform, it has an effect on them, no doubt about it," McCain said. "But also there is work that Guard personnel could do to relieve the burden from Border Patrol and Customs." That being said, McCain added that cooperation with Mexico on border issues will continue to be important. As part of his trip to Yuma, McCain...

The uber-establishment Council on Foreign Relations said Wednesday it favors granting legal status to many of the roughly 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S., creating a guest worker program for low-skilled foreign workers to come and work in the U.S and opposes local police getting to conduct immigration raids. The CFR issued an immigration policy report Wednesday that looks to lift caps on foreign university students in the U.S. and allow skilled foreign graduates to get more work visas. The international policy group also wants to create legal paths to citizenship for the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants already...

SAN DIEGO -- President Obama recently reignited the immigration debate when he told reporters that congressional leaders of both parties were ready to "actively get something done and not put it off until a year, two years, three years, five years from now, but to start working on this thing right now." In the months ahead, keep an eye on two things: the calendar and the issue of guest workers. The calendar: "Right now" might not be soon enough. The conventional wisdom is that the longer Obama waits, the harder it will be to pass any immigration reform legislation. One...

WASHINGTON — President Obama told congressional lawmakers Thursday that he would push for an overhaul of the nation's immigration system by early next year. But during the White House meeting, a new political obstacle came into view: how to regulate the influx of foreign workers. The issue was raised by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a principal architect of past attempts to rewrite immigration laws. McCain challenged Obama and other Democrats to stand up to labor unions that are pushing a plan business groups fear could be overly restrictive in admitting future immigrant workers. "I would expect the president of the...

At least we know what the priorities are on Capitol Hill. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D.-Nev.) says he wants to enact a new guest worker program as part of a comprehensive immigration reform bill that he is vowing to take up in Congress. Reid announced his intention to enact a new guest worker program last week despite the fact that the economy is in a deep recession and the national unemployment rate has reached 9.4%, a level that has not been seen since 1983 and that is rare in the post-World War II era. Of course, this will be...

WASHINGTON - Congress should enact "badly needed" immigration reforms to bring in both unskilled and skilled foreign workers if it wants to maintain the nation's economic vitality, former Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan said Thursday. Greenspan called for both a temporary worker program for low-skilled jobs and for an increase in visas for highly skilled workers...in testimony at the first Senate hearing this year on the prospects of an immigration overhaul. Noting the "very large participation" of undocumented workers in both low- and high-skilled jobs, he said, "if you were to remove either of those groups, the economy would be...

As part of a trip across the state this week, Arizona Sen. John McCain spent Thursday in Tucson. Here are highlights from an interview with the Star: Nationwide "tea parties": "I think there's a significant grass-roots element in America that's fed up with the taxation level and the complexities of the tax code as well," said McCain. "All of this dissatisfaction is obviously inflamed by the terrible economic times we're in." . . . . . "We must have a temporary- worker program, but we also have to secure our borders first," he said. "The level of the violence has...

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A man's flatulence problem in a Texas motel room annoyed his room-mate so much that he ended up stabbing him. Two friends were sharing a meal in the motel room in Waco, Texas on Tuesday, according to local police, when one of them started passing wind. The other had something of a problem with this, it seems, as he threw a large knife at his companion, hitting him in the leg. For good measure, he then stabbed him in the chest as well. The farty victim was taken to a local hospital, where his injuries are not believed to be...

U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) told Microsoft Corp. this week that U.S. citizens should get priority over H-1B visa holders as the software vendor moves forward on its plan to cut 5,000 jobs. "These work visa programs were never intended to allow a company to retain foreign guest workers rather than similarly qualified American workers, when that company cuts jobs during an economic downturn," Grassley wrote in a letter sent Thursday to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. The letter asked Microsoft to detail the types of jobs that will be eliminated and how those cuts will affect the company's H-1B workers....