A Democratic congressman wants millions of people who hold U.S. green cards to become American citizens in order to send Donald Trump and other Republicans a message that they're 'mean and frankly, let’s be honest, racist.'
Louis Gutierrez, who is the senior House Democrat from Illinois and a Puerto Rican immigrant, spoke on the House floor just after 10:00 Wednesday morning, delivering a message especially to more than 5 million Hispanic U.S. residens who are eligible for citizenship today.
'Every time you see Trump’s face on your TV, vow to learn a little more English or a few more history facts so you can take the [citizenship] test,' he said.
'Let’s turn Trump’s negative words into something positive. That is how you deal with bullies and bigots.'
Gutierrez spoke next to a poster of an angry-looking Trump, at times becoming just as animated himself.
Gutierrez said Hispanics with temporary immigration status in the U.S. should take a page from other groups throughout American history and join the group of voting-eliible Americans.
'Latinos should do just what the Irish and the Polish and the Italians did. Become citizens and vote,' he said.
'Almost all of the immigrants in this country are going to remain in this country until the day they die, let’s be honest. So for the millions who meet the requirements of citizenship I say: take the step.'
Gutierrez spokesman Douglas Rivlin told DailyMail.com that while Trump's rhetoric has energized the national debate about illegal immigrants, 'he is not making a prediction about who will be the nominee. Only that for many Americans, right now, Trump is the face of the Republican Party.'
'In the past, anti-immigrant rhetoric has had a political consequence for the GOP,' Rivlin said in an email, 'and the congressman hopes that citizenship and voter registration are among the consequences for the GOP in the wake of Trump’s attacks.'
Trump has emerged as the GOP's presidential front-runner, placing first with 17 per cent support in a new Suffolk University/USA Today poll. Just six weeks ago he was polling at 2 per cent.
But his campaign launch lit up the airwaves with the claim that 'rapists' and other criminals are streaming into the U.S. from south of the border, and the Obama administration is unwilling to stop it.
A Trump campaign official told DailyMail.com on Wednesday that 'Mr. Trump believes a nation without borders is not a nation at all.'
'He is the only candidate who will build a wall to secure our border and maintain the rule of law. The silent majority will no longer be silent.'
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said that “five different sources” told him that Mexico’s government is sending people to the US on Wednesday’s “Morning Joe” on MSNBC.
Trump was asked, “Do you believe that Mexican immigrants are rapists and murderers?” He said, “Illegal immigrants are causing tremendous problem[s] coming in. I want legal immigrants, illegal immigrants are causing tremendous problems, Mika. There’s crime. It’s a crime wave. It’s a disaster. Do I believe many people — I mean, look, as far as I’m concerned, I hire, I have hundreds and hundreds of Mexicans working for me. I love Mexican people. I love their spirit. The problem we’re having with Mexico is that their government officials and negotiators are far smarter than ours, like from a different planet. And they are negotiating deals, trade deals, the border, everything else. We are getting the short end of the stick in every single instance. And we are having a big problem. Let me just tell you just to finish, Mexico is sending a lot of their people over that they don’t want. And that includes people that should be in Mexican prisons and you know it and I know it and nobody wants to talk about it.”
Trump was then asked how he knew the Mexican government is sending people to the US, he said, “Because I heard from five different sources. And if you speak to the border guards, who I’ve spoke to many of, if you speak to border guards, and these guys are terrific. They’re almost crying, they’ve almost got tears in their eyes when they explain that they’re not allowed to do their job.”
After he was asked by panelist Mark Halperin what these five sources were, Trump stated, “I’ll reveal my sources when you reveal your sources, Mark. I have a lot of information on it, and so does everyone else. And you probably do, too. And for some reason they don’t want to put out this information. Mexico — and if you remember, many years ago when Fidel Castro opened [his] prisons and sent the people over, and everybody knew it. We never sent them back. We took these — all of these prisoners. Mexico, in a far more sophisticated way, is doing something very similar. They’re sending tremendously — you look at the man that killed Kate. You look at Jamiel, Jamiel Shaw, you look at so many — thousands of instances where illegals are coming in, and it’s a crime wave. And, frankly, Mexico doesn’t care, from the standpoint that they don’t want to house these people for a long period of time in their prisons. They say, ‘Let the United States take care of them. Let the United States put them in their jails. Why should we pay for it?’ And believe me it’s happening, and it’s happening big league, and this country doesn’t know.”
Earlier, Trump said of the Iran deal, “It’s a ridiculous deal. Even a thing like, you know, nuclear’s so important, and stopping nuclear proliferation, which this deal, I think will enhance, but so important. But something like at the beginning, when they were discussing it, we had three prisoners. We now have four prisoners. Automatically you say, ‘Listen, not going to do you any good. Release the prisoners.’ We’d send a great signal to everybody, you don’t care about them, but we do, important for the United States, just release the prisoners. Now, if that’s delivered by right messenger, they would have done it a long time ago. Amazingly, they — I don’t even think that Kerry brought it up. It sounds like he never even brought it up. He said one thing has nothing to do with the other. The other thing is giving billions and billions of dollars to them, releasing the money before you even do the deal, where they’re getting billions of dollars, they are going to be so rich and so powerful. And when you talk about the deal itself, anytime, anywhere, you have to go in and inspect anytime anywhere. Now, they have a 24-day notice provision. Give a 24-day notice to go in and inspect? I think it’s made by people that are incompetent. And it might very well get by, because probably the veto is, you know, it’s going to be — he’s in pretty good shape in terms of that. But I think it’s a disgrace. And we should have doubled up the sanctions, and we should have made a deal where they caved. We were dealing from desperation. We look so desperate, and it’s a disgrace. … I love the idea of a deal, by the way, but it’s not a well-negotiated deal. We should have doubled up the sanctions and made a much better deal.”
Trump was then asked if he’d read the deal, he answered that he had “seen the deal,” had “seen it broken down in every newspaper you can imagine” and had read “the good points and the bad points. And the good points aren’t very strong.” Trump was then questioned about whether the US could have held the sanctions together, he responded, “If you had a president that was a leader, he would be able. He can’t even talk. When you look at where we are with countries, with — as an example, with Russia, they can’t even talk together. Putin can’t stand him, in all fairness, he can’t stand Putin. But Putin doesn’t respect him. It’s about leadership. You have to hold the sanctions together. And if they — if we had the right leadership, it would be something much different. You know, Russia is a big beneficiary of this deal. There are numerous places that are going to be big beneficiaries of this deal.”
After Donald Trump spoke in Vegas today, a man who said he’s from Mexico confronted him during his Q&A and said he’s “incredibly insulted” by what Trump has been saying about illegal immigrants and Mexico.
He told Trump he’s being unfair to paint all illegal immigrants with a broad brush, but Trump piped up, “Did the government of Mexico ask you to come up and say this?”
The man dismissed Trump’s comment and asked him if he would build walls around every U.S. state to keep out all the rapists and criminals who are already in the United States and cross state lines.
Trump continued to stand by everything he’s said thus far on the matter, and right before they moved on, the man shouted, “Did you read the Statue of Liberty?”
Rick Perry told Hannity last night that Donald Trump painted with a broad brush and basically said ALL MEXICANS were rapists and killers, which is patently false. Hannity challenged him on that mischaracterization but Perry gave a non-answer, refusing to acknowledge that Trump was only referring to ‘some’ illegals.
Watch (the exchange happens near the beginning):
I’ve liked Rick Perry for a long time and believe he did a lot of good things for Texas, things that would be good for the country. But I am now seeing a side of him I do not like. It’s one thing to disagree with his comments in an honest way, but it’s another thing to completely mischaracterize them in order to bolster your own position. That’s something Democrats do all the time. I don’t like it then and I don’t like it now.
The gun used by a Mexican illegal immigrant when he allegedly shot dead a 32-year-old woman at a San Francisco pier belonged to a federal agent, a source confirmed to Fox News Tuesday.
It was not immediately clear how Francisco Sanchez, 45, would have obtained the weapon. However, the San Francisco Chronicle reported sources told the paper the gun had been stolen during a car burglary in June.
Earlier Tuesday, Sanchez pled not guilty to first-degree murder in last week's shooting of Kathryn Steinle, 32, while she was walking with her father and a family friend at Pier 14. Police said witnesses heard no argument or dispute before the shooting, suggesting it was a random attack.
Sanchez had previously told KGO-TV Sunday in a mix of Spanish and English that he found a gun wrapped inside a shirt while he was sitting on a bench at the pier and smoking a cigarette.
"So I picked it up and ... it started to fire on its own," Sanchez said, adding that he heard three shots go off.
A source familiar with the investigation told the San Francisco Chronicle that Sanchez said he was at the popular pier to shoot at sea lions, and discarded the firearm after realizing he had shot Steinle.
The Obama administration has been helping to facilitate a series of events nationwide at Mexican Consulate offices to enroll people in Obamacare – and a key activist says the efforts are “our responsibility” regardless of citizenship.
“Whether they’re Mexican nationals or whether they’re United States citizens or whether they’re in transition-- and if they’re there it is our responsibility within all of America to educate on the Affordable Care Act,” Enroll America Field Organizer Jose Medrano told Breitbart News on Wednesday.
Health Care insurance navigator groups hosted an Obamacare enrollment fair on Tuesday in the Mexican Consulate’s Brownsville office, The Rio Grande Guardianreported last Friday, where Mexican nationals among others were counseled about enrolling in the ACA.
“The Mexican consulate is a very reliable source of information to the Latino community. And therefore when they host their events, yesterday being the health fair, there are several hundred people that show up,” Medrano said.
Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), undocumented immigrants aren't supposed to be receiving government-run health benefits or subsidized coverage. However, President Barack Obama told Latinos in early March that the Healthcare.gov website would not be used to find out about an individual’s immigration status.
“None of the information that is provided in order for you to obtain health insurance is in any way transferred to immigration services,” he said.
According to Medrano, 101 families were represented at the ACA enrollment and education fair at the Brownsville Mexican Consulate on Tuesday and about 60 percent of them spoke to a health care counselor. Medrano says that the consulate’s office is helpful “as part of the transition” to “mainstream… America.”
This is not the first time the Mexican Consulate has been used to enroll individuals into Obamacare. Get Covered Illinois announced in late February that the Erie Family Health Center hoped to increase its enrollment numbers at the Mexican Consulate in Chicago,The Sun Times reported.
According to Vegas Seven, in Nevada, the Latino community is being targeted for ACA enrollment at the Mexican Consulate in downtown Las Vegas. Insurance News says Hispanic National Advocacy groups like National Alliance for Hispanic Health have helped lead the push to get more Latinos enrolled in Obamacare.
At a community meeting Thursday night in Bell, DMV officials listen to testimony on driver's licenses for immigrants without legal status. Immigrants can apply for the new licenses beginning Jan. 1, 2015, but some lack official documents proving who they are or where they live. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times / February 13, 2014)
By Cindy Chang
February 14, 2014, 5:13 p.m.
As the California Department of Motor Vehicles prepares for a historic expansion of driving privileges, some immigrants may be left out because they lack documents proving who they are or where they live.
The DMV is hiring about 1,000 workers and opening five temporary offices to handle a flood of driver’s license applications beginning Jan. 1, 2015, from immigrants without legal status. In a few months, the agency will issue regulations on the documents required to obtain the new license.
According to a law signed by Gov. Jerry Brown last October, the immigrant driver’s licenses will contain a distinguishing mark but will otherwise resemble regular licenses. The applicants may include people from rural villages who never obtained birth certificates as well as day laborers with no fixed address to prove California residency.
At a meeting with DMV officials Thursday night in Bell that drew hundreds of potential applicants, many speakers asked the agency to accept church records, school IDs and other non-government documents.
“A lot of day laborers have lost all their personal identification,” said Ana Garcia of the Central American Resource Center. “We provide worker center IDs, and that’s all they have. They don’t have a permanent home.”
Moises Alfaro, a day laborer in the San Fernando Valley, said many of his coworkers do not have an ITIN – an identification number used to pay taxes – because jobs have been scarce. An income tax return is listed in the driver’s license law as an accepted document, along with official IDs such as a passport. The new DMV regulations may expand on the options mentioned in the law.
“I also drive and I would like a license, like all of us,” Alfaro said. “For all of us, it would be an improvement to get a car.”
Some immigrants do not have birth certificates because their births were never registered in their home countries. They are then unable to obtain official documents such as a passport or the matricula consular used as identification by many Mexican immigrants.
Here’s a good one; a Mexican man who came to the U.S. illegally as a youth is suing a state agency for discrimination because it refuses to hire him for using a fake Social Security to work for nearly a decade.
It’s as if a bold and extremely confident class of illegal alien has emerged in the last few years. The case comes out of northern California and it involves a naturalized American citizen who could easily serve as the poster child for President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), a special amnesty for youths brought to the U.S. illegally “through no fault of their own.”
The man in this case, Victor Guerrero, came to the U.S. illegally from Mexico when he was 11, according to thenonprofit legal group representing him. At the age of 15 he got a job in a restaurant using someone else’s Social Security. He did that for around seven years before somehow becoming a legal U.S. resident in 2007. Unbelievably, three years later he became an American citizen.
When Guerrero applied for a job as a prison guard with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the fake Social Security scam caught up to him. He passed all the required tests, both physical and written, and agreed to the mandatory background check. The state agency rightfully denied employment, stating that he lacked honesty, integrity and good judgment after learning about his Social Security scam.
Guerrero applied for the prison guard job a second time and again was refused the position over using a bogus Social Security to work for seven years. The State Personnel Board upheld the corrections department’s decision and this month Guerrero filed a discrimination lawsuit against both agencies in federal court. In his laughable complaint Guerrero claims that the policy excluding criminals from being hired violates fair employment laws and unfairly hurts Latino job applicants.
“By filing this case, Mr. Guerrero seeks to vindicate the right of work-authorized job applicants to be fairly considered for employment opportunities without their prior undocumented status being held against them,” says an announcement released by the group, Legal Aid Society, handling the case. It also quotes Guerrero playing the race card: “Those who are legally authorized to work should be able to do so regardless of their race, accent or the country they come from.”
Thank God that something works in Washington. We can't do a website site for ObamaCare but we can get in the Mexican president's system and read his emails.
"The National Security Agency (NSA) has a division for particularly difficult missions. Called "Tailored Access Operations" (TAO), this department devises special methods for special targets. That category includes surveillance of neighboring Mexico, and in May 2010, the division reported its mission accomplished. A report classified as "top secret" said: "TAO successfully exploited a key mail server in the Mexican Presidencia domain within the Mexican Presidential network to gain first-ever access to President Felipe Calderon's public email account."
According to the NSA, this email domain was also used by cabinet members, and contained "diplomatic, economic and leadership communications which continue to provide insight into Mexico's political system and internal stability."
The president's office, the NSA reported, was now "a lucrative source."
This operation, dubbed "Flatliquid," is described in a document leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden, which SPIEGEL has now had the opportunity to analyze. The case is likely to cause further strain on relations between Mexico and the United States, which have been tense since Brazilian television network TV Globo revealed in September that the NSA monitored then-presidential candidate Enrique Peña Nieto and others around him in the summer of 2012. Peña Nieto, now Mexico's president, summoned the US ambassador in the wake of that news, but confined his reaction to demanding an investigation into the matter."
It has long been known that U.S. authorities use unmanned aerial drones to patrol the nearly 2,000-mile U.S./Mexico border. However, a recent report by FOX News’ William La Jeunesse reveals the U.S. is engaging in aerial surveillance over Mexican soil—manned surveillance flights.
Such efforts are not new on the part of U.S. authorities. Manned surveillance flights have long been a part of U.S. efforts to break the backs of Colombian drug cartels. The Colombian mission has seen its share of catastrophe, though. Two surveillance planes went down, a pilot was killed by narco-guerrillas, and a number of Americans were held captive for years until Operation Jaque, a Colombian operation, freed them.
A private company conducts the operations, which La Jeunesse says are daily. He was quoted Aram Roston of vocative.com as stating: "I'm told that they fly daily and as much as possible. They land, they refuel, they get their maintenance, and they get out again.” He also wrote that the planes are manned by a defense contractor named Sierra Nevada.
The privatization of U.S. border security and anti-cartel efforts are not new in the war against Mexican cartels, though they have been substantially under-reported in U.S. media. Several sources in U.S. law enforcement who work directly on such issues have acknowledged to Breitbart News that rural border counties sometimes hire privatized narcotics interdiction teams to assist in drug war efforts with boots on the ground.
Law enforcement from Laredo, Texas to Oregon have acknowledged that a severe lack of resources exist to handle the Mexican cartels’ efforts in rural U.S. counties. Laredo Police Department’s Joe Baeza spoke to Breitbart News on multiple past occasions regarding rural Texas counties along the U.S./Mexico border that do not have internet, much less the gear, firepower, or manpower to deal with such organized criminal efforts.
