Irish favor immigration restrictions

Seven out of 10 favour immigration restrictions
Poll reveals public concern over welfare strain from 'new' EU citizens

By JEROME REILLY
Sunday June 28 2009

www.independent.ie

A LARGE majority believe immigration from new EU member states into Ireland should be restricted because the perilous economic situation means we no longer have enough jobs, a Sunday Independent poll has revealed.
Nearly seven out of ten Irish people now want the inflow of foreign nationals to be curtailed fearing that further new arrivals will strain the social welfare system.
The poll was conducted after it was revealed in the Sunday Independent last week that the number of foreign nationals on the Live Register is now about 80,000 -- or around 20 per cent of the total.

Continue reading:

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/seven-out-of-10-favour-immigration-restrictions-1794640.html

ICE Enforcement & Street Gangs

Contact: Jessica M. Vaughan (508)346-3380 or jmv@cis.org

Immigration Law Enforcement Helps Check Criminal Street Gangs

WASHINGTON (October 1, 2008) – A new Center for Immigration Studies Backgrounder finds that immigration law enforcement has been highly effective in fighting gang activity around the country. Local law enforcement agencies that shun involvement with immigration law enforcement are missing an opportunity to protect their communities, according to the authors.

Since 2005, ICE has arrested more than 8,000 immigrant gangsters from more than 700 different gangs under an initiative known as Operation Community Shield. The Backgrounder,'Taking Back the Streets: ICE and Local Law Enforcement Target Immigrant Gangs,' by Jessica M. Vaughan and Jon D. Feere, was funded by the Department of Justice and describes the unique public safety problems posed by immigrant gangs. The authors present previously unpublished statistics on gang arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), describe how immigration law enforcement authorities are used to combat gang activity, and offer policy recommendations to improve federal-local cooperation, and without damaging relations with immigrant communities. The authors can provide statistics for 99 different cities upon request. The full report is available online at http://www.cis.org/ImmigrantGang . An introductory video has also been produced and is available online at http://www.cis.org/ImmigrantGangsVideo .

Among the findings:

# Transnational immigrant gangs have been spreading rapidly and sprouting in suburban and rural areas where communities are not always equipped to deal with them.

# A very large share of immigrant gang members are illegal aliens and removable aliens. Federal sources estimate that 60 to 90 percent of the members of MS-13, the most notorious immigrant gang, are illegal aliens. In one jurisdiction studied, Northern Virginia, 30 to 40 percent of the gang task force case load were removable aliens.

# MS-13 activity was found in 48 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

# The immigrant gangsters arrested were a significant menace to the public. About 80 percent had committed serious crimes in addition to their immigration violations and 40 percent were violent criminals.

# The ICE offices logging the largest number of immigrant gang arrests were San Diego, Atlanta, San Francisco, and Dallas. Some cities with significant gang problems, such as Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Houston, had few arrests. These cities had sanctuary, or “don’t ask, don’t tell,” immigration policies in place over the time period studied.

# While many of the immigrant gangs targeted were neighborhood operations, others were ethnic-based, such as Armenian Power, Kurdish Pride, or Oriental Killer Boys. But nearly half of the aliens arrested over the period studied were affiliated with MS-13 and Surenos-13, two of the largest and most notorious transnational gangs with largely immigrant membership.

# Nearly 60 percent of immigrant gangsters arrested by ICE were Mexican citizens, 17 percent were Salvadoran, and 5 percent were Honduran. In all, 53 different countries were represented.

# Immigrant gang members rarely make a living as gangsters. They typaically work by day in construction, auto repair, farming, landscaping and other low-skill occupations, often using false documents. Some gangs are involved in the production and sale of false documents.

# The research found no “chilling effect” on the reporting of crime as a result of local law enforcement partnerships with ICE. Instead of spreading this misconception, immigrant advocacy groups should help reinforce the message that crime victims and witnesses are not targets of immigration law enforcement.

# All gang task forces should include either an ICE agent or local officers with formal immigration law training, such as 287(g). Programs aimed solely at removing incarcerated aliens, while helpful, are not as effective in addressing gang activity as investigative programs.

# While immigration law enforcement is a federal responsibility, ICE cannot do the job effectively without assistance from state and local law enforcement, particularly when it comes to immigrant gangs.

# Failure to adequately control the U.S.-Mexico border and to deter illegal settlement in general undermines the progress ICE and local law enforcement agencies have made in disrupting criminal immigrant street gangs.
# # #

The Center for Immigration Studies is an independent research institute that examines the impact of immigration on the United States.
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Poor Diarmada Cracks Down!

Ahem . . . Ahem . . . Ahem . . ! While the Celtic Tiger Government continues to advocate for a massive amnesty in the United States, Poor Diarmada cracks down on illegal immigration in Ireland and Europe . . . Ah sure those Irish Americans . . . they'll never cop on to us at all, at all! See below from the Irish Times! - Patrick Hurley

www.irishtimes.com

Monday, July 7, 2008
Ireland may sign pact to crack down on illegal immigration
JAMIE SMYTH, European Correspondent, in Cannes, France

THE GOVERNMENT says it may sign up to a major new initiative designed to crack down on illegal immigration and co-ordinate asylum policies in the EU. Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern will meet fellow EU justice ministers in Cannes today to debate a European pact on immigration and asylum. A draft copy of the pact obtained by The Irish Times shows that it will call on EU states to expel more illegal immigrants, harmonise their asylum procedures and make more effort to integrate immigrants into their societies.

The draft pact states that the EU does not have the resources to decently receive "all who see Europe as an El Dorado". It also warns that poorly-managed immigration may disrupt the social cohesion of host countries. "The organisation of immigration must consequently take account of Europe's reception capacity in terms of its labour market, housing, and health, education and social services, and protect migrants against possible exploitation by criminal networks," says the pact, which has been prepared by France, the current holder of the six-month rotating EU presidency. French president Nicolas Sarkozy has made combating illegal immigration a key priority of his country's EU presidency, arguing that migration flows across Europe mean that states cannot solve the problem alone. Paris has also indicated that too much immigration is having a corrosive impact on EU public attitudes.

Last week French immigration minister Brice Hortefeux, who has been working on the fine details of the immigration pact, said concerns about immigration were one of the reasons why Irish voters had rejected the Lisbon Treaty last month. His statement corresponds to anecdotal comments made by many local politicians after the treaty result. However, an opinion poll commissioned by the European Commission found just 1 per cent of voters cited immigration as the primary reason for voting against the treaty.

The draft European Pact on Immigration and Asylum is probably the most comprehensive blueprint for Europe's future immigration policy ever drawn up. It touches on a range of policy areas, including legal migration, how to integrate immigrants, making agreements with migrants' countries of origin to enable deportations, and the issue of regularising illegal immigrants.

EU ministers for justice will debate the draft pact today, and European diplomats expect them to formally sign the eight-page text in October. A spokesman for Minister for Justice Mr Ahern said last night that the Government was favourably disposed towards the pact, agreed with most of its points, and could envisage signing up to it after debating it more closely.
A decision to sign up to such a policy document would represent a shift in Irish policy towards EU immigration initiatives.

Up until now the Government has chosen not to take part in a range of initiatives in the field, preferring to co-ordinate its policies with Britain to sustain the common travel area between Britain and Ireland. For example, recently the Government chose not to get involved in the co-called Blue Card initiative, which would enable skilled immigrants to come to the EU legally. However, the Government has taken part in other EU initiatives to combat illegal immigration such as joint repatriation flights for illegal immigrants.

The pact estimates that about two million migrants enter the EU every year. The European Commission estimates that there are up to eight million illegal immigrants currently living in the union. More than 200,000 illegal immigrants were arrested in the first half of 2007, and fewer than 90,000 were expelled, according to the EU executive.

www.irishtimes.com

The New Case Against Immigration

Roy Beck, President, NumbersUSA


'Post-American' leaders doubt national community .... New book shows immigration's threat

You can order "The New Case Against Immigration (Both Legal and Illegal)" by Mark Krikorian at Amazon. And you can read reviews and descriptions here.

Mark Krikorian (with four Armenian immigrant grandparents) is as American as the 4th of July. But multitudes of the leaders of our nation's establishment and elites don't appear to be -- that is, they are not "as American as the 4th of July," regardless of how many generations their families have been in this country. The distinction is one of the most important contributions of his new book by the Sentinel imprint of Penuin publishers (although Krikorian does not claim any special designation for himself). In myriad ways, he describes how those elites have lost confidence in the ideas behind the 1776 Movement we honor today.

As you celebrate the 1776 Movement this weekend, keep in mind that we are commemorating the creation of a separate national community which would govern itself for the benefit of the members of the community. Krikorian's book raises real questions about how many of our nation's top political, business, labor, religious, academic and media leaders still believe in that central 4th of July idea. (Read this and other recent NumbersUSA blogs at our blogs page. And go daily to www.NumbersUSA.com home page to see the latest immigration news, blogs and actions.)

HIGH IMMIGRATION THREATENS 1776 IDEA

Perhaps nowhere is this loss of confidence more clear than in the majority of the elite's position on immigration. They insist on mass immigration to make up for the fact that (as these elites believe) 300 million Americans are (pick your favorites) too old, too lazy, too dumb, too content, too in-bred, too soft, too infertile or just too American to survive or thrive on their own. Both John McCain and Barack Obama have their version of this belief which has been a hallmark of the George W. Bush presidency.

Krikorian, a fascinating writer and thinker with a knack for coining phrases that stick (plenty of them in this book) has a word for these kinds of elites: Post-Americans. He has been touting the label and the concept for years. To Krikorian, these elites aren't anti-American. They aren't loyal to another country. They aren't traitors. They simply no longer have a sense that sovereign nations are particularly important, or that they as elites bear a lot of extra responsibility toward members of their own national community. By virtue of birth, they are U.S. citizens, but their loyalty is not to a national community. Thus, these post-Americans insist on obscenely high immigration numbers regardless of their effects on members of our (their?) national community. If a politician stands up today and extolls patriotism but also supports policies that imported 1.6 million "less-educated" immigrants (2000-2005) while pushing nearly 1 million "less-educated" Americans into unemployment and another 1.5 million "less-educated" Americans out of the labor market altogether, just what kind of a patriotic American is he/she?

LIVELY WRITING, INSIGHTFUL THINKING, NEW ANALYSIS

I found the first two chapters on "The Cracked Melting Pot" and on sovereignty by themselves to be worth getting the book. As long-time members of NumbersUSA know, my top interests in immigration have been about its effect on economic justice and environmental/quality-of-life sustainability. But Krikorian totally captivated me with his analysis of the assimilation and sovereignty issues. For two decades, you've seen and heard Mark Krikorian as the most quoted man in America on immigration, on national TV, radio, the blogosphere and print media. He is nearly always interesting. I see three reasons why this book is so readable, even for those of us who have been reading about immigration for years:

He worked and traveled extensively throughout the nations of the former Soviet Union. This has given him special insights in and appreciation of natural human longings to live within communities that feel like their own and what a marvelously delicate creation a functioning national community is.

He has been quite a student of Marxist theory and practice and frequently brings the skewed humor and lessons of failed utopianism into his analysis. He frequently compares the absurdity of our immigration policies to various experiments inside communist countries.

As the long-time executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, he has read all those reports, studies and data tables that the rest of us should have been inhaling but never quite got the job done. This 235-page book is an extremely boiled down version of all that research, providing us the most cogent, entertaining and useful nuggets. Because the CIS research has been so broad, Mark is able to provide us with a truly expansive view of our subject. Even if you think you know enough to understand -- and debate -- our immigration mess, I recommend this book because it indeed does offer a lot of "new" case material. And because it will save you having to read a lot of other books and research.

CHALLENGING ELITES IN WAYS THEY MIGHT HEAR

Perhaps the most powerful aspect of Krikorian's book is that it is far more than pointed analysis that provides those of us concerned about immigration something to cheer about. Rather, every opinion is backed by solid evidence and stated in the dispassionate style of a quality think tank. Krikorian does not trigger emotionalism with emotionalist language. His years of debating in the media have taught him well how to anticipate reactions and rejoinders to anything he says. So, his pages are filled with caveats and nuances that add credibility and moderation to his arguments. Although Krikorian's "New Case Against Immigration" is primarily a case against the nation's elites who have abandoned their less fortunate countrymen, he presents it in a way that I am hopeful will cause many elites to rethink positions that they have almost accidentally fallen into.

CROSSING IDEOLOGICAL BARRIERS

Although the Center for Immigration Studies has plenty of liberal scholars, Krikorian has played a major role among the conservative intelligensia in arguing for immigration reductions. I had expected this book to be primarily aimed at post-American conservatives and to be a tool for other conservatives as they fight for sensible immigration policies. I was surprised to find arguments that should resonate with most moderate and liberal Americans, as well. Krikorian argues for this, writing: "This is not a strictly conservative argument, though I am a conservative. While there may be anti-Americans on the hard left or post-Americans on the libertarian right, whose ideologies lead them to welcome the effects of mass immigration, this book is intended for Americans in the patriotic mainstream, liberal and conservative, who can agree on the broad contours of a desirable society ... " He then lists eight goals that seem far beyond ideology, with an appeal across ideological spectrums:

A strong sense of shared national identity

Opportunities for upward mobility, especially for the poor, the less educated and generally those at the margins of society

The availability of high-wage jobs in knowledge-intensive, capital-intensive industries

A large middle class, with the gap between rich and poor not growing inordinately

A functional, responsible, and affordable system of social provision for the poor

Middle-class norms of behavior, such as orderliness and cleanliness of public places, residential occupancy limits and zoning rules, and obeying traffic laws

Government spending on certain kinds of infrastructure, such as schools, roads and public amenities like national parks

Environmental stewardship, to provide clean air and water to our descendants, and historical stewardship, to preserve the treasures handed down to us by our ancestors

Considering NumbersUSA's wide diversity in membership, I would think these are fairly acceptable and honored goals among our members, regardless of ideology. Krikorian uses his seven chapters to argue how our immigration policies undermine all those goals and that the key factor of the large number of problems with immigration is the large numbers themselves. Maybe these aren't exactly "happy" greetings on Independence Day, but I am convinced that we are unlikely to get immigration -- and America -- back on track until a significant minority of the nation's elites join the rest of us in once again thinking of themselves as members of our national community, dedicated to immigration policies that stop hurting the members of our community. Krikorian's book is a happy step in that direction - Roy Beck

Roy Beck is the president of NumbersUSA, an organization dedicated to fighting illegal immigration and to implementing a commonsensical, rational immigration policy.

Editor's Note: Irish American News and Opinion advocates the securing of U.S. borders, the termination of illegal immigration and the implementation of a legal immigration policy that is conducive to the cultural, economical, intellectual and security interests of the United States.

Specifically, Irish American News and Opinion advocates the overturn of the discriminatory 1965 Kennedy Immigration Act, which ended legal immigration from Ireland and other European countries. Accordingly, it advocates for European visa quotas, which would increase the diversity of the U.S. immigration pool after over forty years of a discriminatory, anti - European admissions policy .