May 15, 2006

Remember The Minutemen—Report Illegals!

As a VDARE.COM reader pointed out before Bush’s speech, he could easily show he was serious about illegal aliens—by making it easier for citizens to report them.

Citizen action works. Extraordinary efforts like the Minuteman Project and its precursors—including the California Coalition for Immigration Reform and Glenn Spencer’s heroic American Border Patrol—have transformed the once non-existent illegal immigration “debate” into a raging national firestorm.

By showing that Americans can do the jobs that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) can’t or won’t do—namely, identifying and reporting illegal aliens—these “undocumented Border Patrol Agents” have gotten the attention of Congress and the President of the United States.

So don’t give up . . . ever.

Here at VDARE.com, among other things, I’ve been providing what I believe to be the most effective information for reporting illegal aliens to the federal government. There is also a similar link on Glenn Spencer’s American Patrol.

(Please use them—don’t report illegal aliens to us. In this area, we have no special powers!)

I warned last week that

“We hear a lot from VDARE.com readers who have followed up on reporting illegal aliens and criminal alien residents and who have realized that nothing has happened. Often, the federal immigration bureaucracy apparently couldn’t care less about these reports.”

Subsequently, I received the following e-mail on May 9 from a whistleblowing VDARE.com reader. As the reader is self-identified as a federal employee, I provide the following disclaimer:

The opinions expressed on this page do not in any way represent the official position of the DOJ, EOIR, BIA, DHS, CBP, ICE, CIS or any other branch of the United States government . . . but they will someday!

This VDARE.com reader writes:

“I just finished reading your latest post [Reporting Illegal Aliens – More Immigration Reality from Juan’s In-Box] on VDARE.COM. I can tell you, without any doubt whatsoever, that you will never get a response from ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] when you report an illegal alien. It doesn’t matter who you are or where you work.

“I am an Immigration Inspector working for CBP [Customs and Border Protection]. I personally talked to both ICE and CIS [Citizenship and Immigration Services] about an illegal alien. I went so far as to give them proof of the person’s status and even a fraudulent application for an Immigration benefit that was filed on their behalf. Nothing has been done.

“The person I reported became a visa overstay over 18 months ago. Her visa expired 3 months ago. She is working illegally in the U.S. She fraudulently acquired a driver’s license. I talked to ICE. Nothing has been done.

“The aunt of this person filed a fraudulent I-130 on her behalf. The aunt obtained a fraudulent birth certificate from their home country showing this person to be her sister. The aunt filed the I-130 naming her niece as the sister of a U.S. citizen. I talked to CIS. Nothing has been done.

“Also, while investigating all this, I discovered that the aunt and her husband, now US citizens, obtained their LPR [lawful permanent resident] status through a fraudulent asylum petition. Nothing will ever be done about this, either.

“Tell those that write you upset that nothing gets done to not take it personally. I work in the immigration field and can get nothing done. I know the “right people” to contact and can get nothing done. I have documentation from government databases and can get nothing done. I have even offered to take them to where they live and work and can get nothing done.

“Do you really think that ICE, CIS & CBP care about doing the job properly? The people in charge sure don’t.”

So someone already working within the federal immigration bureaucracy can’t get action on reporting an illegal alien to ICE. How much hope is there for the average American citizen (or law-abiding immigrants and non-immigrants—they write to us all the time too)?

This is a monumental scandal—and something that can easily be fixed by a good election.

But it’s still worth reporting aliens.

Firstly, if someone makes a report against a particular criminal alien that ICE just so happens to be interested in, ICE Special Agents with guns just might be paying that particular alien an early-morning visit sometime soon.

Secondly, even if the illegal alien is just, well, illegal, a file will still be created—a “paper chain” that the bureaucrats will know might one day trap them.

It might seem improbable—it might even require a President other than a Bush dynasty member—but hey, none of these people ever thought our collapsing southern border would be a political issue either. So they can’t rest easy.

I say again: Citizen action does work. Maybe the next step is for patriotic Americans to shame the federal government even further by establishing a private cyber registry to out the co-ordinates of illegal aliens—and their employers.

Until then, we all must do our part in the fight against immigration anarchy—and that means reporting illegal aliens to the feds, whether they like it or not.

How about this for a rallying cry: remember the Minutemen!

Juan Mann [email him] is an attorney and the proprietor of DeportAliens.com. He writes a weekly column for VDARE.com and contributes to Michelle Malkin’s Immigration BLOG.