Misc. Immigration News

The Hazleton trial starts tomorrow. Bottom line: In large part it's about the bottom line and steps localities can take to address costs:

Police spent $17,000 in overtime after the murder of Derek Kichline on May 10, 2006. Illegal immigrants were arrested in the case, which hasn't come to trial, and approximately one-third of the overtime budget is spent on crimes involving illegal immigrants, the brief says.

At least 47 crimes have been committed by illegal immigrants since the spring of 2006, and one-third of those arrested in the city for drug-related crimes in 2005 were illegal immigrants, the brief says.

Immigration caused the cost of teaching English as a second language in the Hazleton Area School District to increase from next to nothing in 2000 to $1.145 million last year, the brief says.

At Hazleton General Hospital, the brief says, patients wait for hours at the emergency room, and every visit by illegal immigrants costs $1,500 to $2,000.

The trial beginning in Scranton tomorrow is only the first step for this particular case, however. Key plaintiff's, who are illegal immigrants, have been permitted to remain anonymous. In addition to a robust smack in the face to Hazleton taxpayers, this ruling by the judge likely will contribute to the stack of reasons this case is going higher.

On a related note, Virginia localities are attempting to determine the costs:

Culpeper's study is not yet complete, but officials in Prince William County found in a study released in January that their agencies spent more than $3 million last year on public services for illegal aliens.

We need to see data for Loudoun.

Georgie Anne Geyer: Amnesty and citizenship? It's bad-idea deja vu all over again.

Interesting point: With the 1986 amnesty, which was to solve the problem forever, only one-third of those granted the "precious" privilege of American citizenship deemed it worth taking. Two-thirds did not apply for it. The explanation is actually a healthy one: Most illegals come here to work, make money and go home, not to become Americans.

But the U.S. Congress, led by the eternal Teddy and supported by a White House desperate for a victory -- somewhere -- seems to want to continue with the "Balkanization" of America.

In Massachusetts: Illegals taking more and more jobs:

"It's blatant and it's everywhere," he said. "It's happening in prevailing wage jobs and it's happening in state projects. It's happening all over the place."

John O'Connor, a senior organizer with the carpenter's union, said the employment situation in Massachusetts has been so changed by illegal labor that it is even becoming impossible for high school students to find such traditional part-time positions as bus boys, landscapers or painters.

And it's not just a problem of the immigrants undercutting high wages by working cheap, he said.

"They're taking the lower-wage jobs from Americans who work in lower-wage jobs."

(That story is worth reading if only for the take by Barney Frank ... maybe the message will get through, eventually, to the Democrats).

Meanwhile, the national Republican Party steadfastly holds to its policy of national suicide:

In his previous bill, "We had so many penalties and what not on these people, by the way, and trying not to make it amnesty, and it still got called amnesty. So this time around I'm going to be a little lighter on the sentences and try to just say call it what you will. We've got 12 million people, we've got a broken-down system, we've just got to find a way to come to some sensible outcome."

Spokesman Ken Lundberg said Martinez didn't mean the sentences would be lighter, but that he would talk less about the punitive aspects of the bill.

This is at least a mildly refreshing bit of honesty from the national GOP.

As a side note, anyone who has sent money to the national GOP in the past several months or intends to do so in the future should report immediately to the nearest medical facility to have their head extracted from their ass. If you select an emergency room, obviously, be sure to set aside sufficient time.

I happen to know someone who is now attempting to gain citizenship legally, who likely will not qualify for the "grandfather" clause in the upcoming Senate amnesty bill. You want to talk about the GOP alienating a huge bloc of potential future voters? It's not the illegals of Latino descent they should be worried about, it's all those who played by the rules over the past 20 years.

Finally - and I don't know what made me think of this - the domain johnwarneryousuck.com is surprisingly available. Point of interest.