May 30, 2006

Fines For Immigration Officials—Tax Money For Immigration Lawyers? Whistleblowers Expose Senate’s Amnesty Atrocity

By Juan Mann

[See also: Guest Worker Amnesty—The Horrific Implementation Problems  by "Prolific Whistleblower X"]

VDARE.com readers responded in force to my Needs More Whistleblowing! cry for help last week.  And now that the Senate of the United States has approved an immoral illegal alien amnesty (S. 2611), America needs whistleblowing patriots now more than ever.

Today, I turn the floor over to those who have sent me their insights via e-mail on various amnesty-related topics . . . in a belated Memorial Day Salute to the Whistleblowers!

More Horrific Details Of Senate Amnesty Atrocity

I doubt you will have many ICE attorney whistleblowers when they are as overloaded as they are with massive amounts of work in the bloated EOIR courts and BIA process!

Have you seen some of the bombs being planted in the Senate amnesty bill—and, incredibly, actually being pushed by the White House?

[Juan Mann writes: No! I’ve not seen these “bombs” because, scandalously, no copy of the final bill is as yet available to the public. So I can’t confirm what my correspondent tells me was in the early versions—and it’s quite possible that it will all be law before Americans know anything about it.]

There is even a provision to allow affidavits from day labor centers (what's next—affidavits for tamale vendors and popsicle vendors?) to "prove" employment; fines of up to $10K for immigration officers who dare to use evidence that aliens have committed fraud in immigration applications to disbar them from citizenship; “persecutors” [aliens who have persecuted political opponents in their native countries] and criminals to qualify; tax-funded pay for attorneys for aliens to help them apply; and greater job protections to guest workers than Americans have. I bet AILA [the American Immigration Lawyers Association] is foaming at their collective mouths with this bonanza.

You know, I don't even know right now why any alien would appeal or fight removal at this point under this Senate bill. You could have 20 formal removals, have used an imposter card, punched out or "rocked" a Customs and Border Protection inspector and fled from pursuing police, committed crimes, committed genocide, torture, executions, or been a woman-raping, arm-chopping Janjaweed soldier (as long as you were in the U.S. for 5 years)  and still qualify for amnesty under the Senate bill!!!!!

Anyone deported today could simply re-enter illegally, and still get amnesty.  Or, as John McCain calls it, a banana.

I guess the DHS deportation officers will be reassigned as, what, "welcoming officers?" "regularization officers?"...or remain as demoralized insignificant casualties of "comprehensive immigration reform."

With all the stories floating around about the massive costs an amnesty will inflict on the American people for years to come, I cannot believe this one has been overlooked and gone unnoticed. This AP story from the New York Times—"For 20 Years, Immigrants' Status Stalled," May 23, 2006—needs to be publicized more. It highlights some of most unsavory and objectionable byproducts of any so-called "immigration reform" . . .:

1. The 1986 amnesty spawned a lot of class-action lawsuits on behalf of illegal aliens who did not qualify or were ineligible—per Congress's wishes. One lawsuit, by rabid pro-illegal attorney Peter Schey (send him mail), lasted 20 years, at significant taxpayer expense and use of immigration and government resources. After 20 years, the government finally settled and allowed all the unqualified aliens to file for green cards anyway. Some aliens had been out of the country for 6 months, a year, or more, committed fraud claiming they had been here all along by presenting an "affidavit" that could be created or purchased from any document mill, or committed fraud by misusing a visa to shuttle in and out of the U.S. to their home countries…and still expected the government to accept that they met the continuous residence requirement. And eventually it did.

2. When the largest lawsuits were settled, they spawned 400,000 "late amnesty" new applicants…plus, of course, their extended families.

3. Thanks to the example set by the 1986 amnesty, attorneys (and Peter Schey is at the head of the line) are standing by ready to file class-action lawsuits on behalf of any alien who cannot qualify for permanent status under the new "reform."  And in the meantime, the aliens still get to stay, buy houses, have children, etc, while their lawsuits are pending. The immigration lawyers collect millions in fees from the taxpayer, and countless government attorneys are tied up fighting off these meritless lawsuits.

Another point: I routinely check the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decisions page for precedent decisions that may affect our operations.  Immigration cases take up a healthy part of their docket, there are usually 10 or so a month.  But since the "reform" debate in Congress has ramped up—only one decision was made at the beginning of May—and none since then.

I have to wonder if the Ninth Circuit is deliberately holding off deciding cases because it thinks the immigration legislation will almost certainly benefit any alien currently under appeal. And there are amendments floating around that will make ineligible those with final orders or fugitives.  By not making a decision, the court can simply remand the case to let the alien apply for whatever amnesty gets passed.  Or am I paranoid?

Finally…did you know that last month, someone in DHS finally ordered reinstatements of removal to resume within the Ninth Circuit jurisdiction? 

And this how many months after the Ninth agreed to an en banc hearing, with the explicit order [PDF] that the previous decision by the three-person panel not be interpreted as a precedent decision?

Meet Two Future Amnesty Winners

I read your last article, and I am spreading it around!  Read about these two winners from Pakistan who apparently will be eligible for the Senate's amnesty on this link from the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals: [Raja Akthar; Mohammed Salman v. Gonzalez (5th Cir., May 23, 2006). (2006 WL 1390263) PDF.]

Both of these aliens (Akthar and Salman) had full hearings in [EOIR] Immigration Court, they had their appeals to the BIA [Board of Immigration Appeals], and then they filed Petitions for Review to the Court of Appeals.  All because they are able to challenge a regulation that prevents adjustment of status to certain aliens who were not "admitted" at a port of entry upon their last arrival but were instead paroled into the country.

These two aliens did not have permission to come to the United States. But once here, they were allowed to drag out the process of removal for years and cost the U.S. government many man-hours of legal work and who knows how much money.

If DHS [Department of Homeland Security] and DOJ [Department of Justice] had only known what the President and the Senate wanted for our country, they could have raised the white flag years ago and saved time and taxpayer money. 

We will not know who we are dealing with until it is too late.  We will never know their true identities or be able to adequately check out their backgrounds before giving them amnesty. It is not much of a stretch to guess that a percentage of them are here to harm us.

Lately I have been wondering what it is costing the government to handle the current scheme of removal proceedings and endless appeals through the circuit courts, DOJ [Department of Justice] / Office of Immigration Litigation, EOIR [Executive Office for Immigration Review], and the DHS [Department of Homeland Security] /ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] legal programs. 

With that figure in hand, I think anybody with any brains would see that expedited removal is the only way to go.  [Juan’s Comment: Huzzah!  For all the details, read my Absolutely Definitive Essay on summary removal.]

Why do aliens who entered or tried to enter our country on fake documents have the right to anything other than interviews with asylum officers if they express a fear of persecution if returned?  Consideration for withholding of removal is the only obligation the U.S. government has to them.

The fact that both aliens in the above case are claiming valid marriages to U.S. citizens should not change the fact that they need to go home and be processed for immigrant visas and fraud waivers in their own country.  That rationale should be extended to aliens who enter on valid visas but overstay.  Of course, aliens who crossed our borders illegally should all be forced to return to their countries to gain any status here—but not according to the Senate Democrats or the President.

It is so difficult to accept that our elected officials are trying to force another amnesty on us and that they think they can fool us by calling it a "path to citizenship."

Let us pray that the House of Representatives will save us from this, because these two aliens represent tens of thousands of others who came here on fake documents and who will come out of their hiding places if amnesty is passed.

Only Pro-Alien Attorneys Need Apply

I am a third-year law student from [X city].  Last summer, I interned at the [X city] Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office.

I was told then and have been told a number of times since that I was out of luck for future employment at ICE. This because, after the reorganization of departments and the consolidation of INS [Immigration and Naturalization Service] into DHS, ICE no longer hires graduating law students, as DOJ entities do.

My understanding is that, in order to be hired as an attorney for ICE nowadays, one must have several years experience in immigration litigation. And since the only private-sector immigration litigation experience is working for immigration defense, what kind of attorneys will ICE be able to hire?

It won't be prosecutorial-minded ones.

Or patriotic ones. In this corrupt system, whistleblowers are America’s only defense.

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.