Mediaboss Marketing

For some idea of how misguided the Trump administrations approach to illegal immigration is, consider the problem of illegal immigration in Madison and Dane County, and the method by which the administration would fix it.

It starts with the numbers.

Its hard to get an accurate figure for how many of the 531,000 residents of Dane County or 249,000 residents of Madison are in this country illegally. The Migration Policy Institute puts it at about 10,000 for the years 2010-14, with about 6,000 of them from Mexico.

The Pew Research Centers estimate for the state as a whole was about 80,000 in 2014, with about 74 percent from Mexico. Dane County makes up about 9 percent of the states population, so if immigrants here illegally were spread evenly across the state, that would mean about 7,400 living in the county.

Trump more so than Barack Obama, who ramped up deportations says he wants immigration enforcement focused on those who have committed serious crimes. So its worth looking at some immigration-related numbers from the Dane County Jail.

As part of the booking process, jail officials ask inmates for their country of birth, and if they are foreign-born and cant prove they are in the country legally, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is contacted.

Of the approximately 16,000 bookings a year at the jail, Sheriffs Office spokeswoman Elise Schaffer said 63 were reported last year to ICE.

Schaffer wasnt able to immediately check which charges those 63 bookings were for, and the Sheriffs Office doesnt track how many people reported to ICE are ultimately deported. According to ICE, the agency took 1,631 convicted criminals and 695 non-criminals into custody last year from the region consisting of Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky.

These numbers suggest that immigrants who came to this country illegally account for a tiny percentage of serious crime in Madison and Dane County.

Nevertheless, its this tiny threat that has Attorney General Jeff Sessions warning municipalities that they could lose out on millions in federal law enforcement grants for failing to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.

The Trump administration hasnt specified what qualifies as cooperation. For the Dane County Sheriffs Office, the only time immigration status really comes up is during booking, but Sheriff Dave Mahoney contends Dane is not a so-called sanctuary county.

Madison police have a formal policy against routinely asking suspects about immigration status or detaining them solely for immigration violations, but Police Chief Mike Koval contends that doesnt make Madison a sanctuary city.

Dane County currently is making use of about $1.4 million in federal law enforcement grants, and Madison has more than $2.7 million. They go toward fighting addiction, handling mentally ill suspects, hiring officers and other needs.

The Trump administration could make Dane County and Madison ineligible for those kinds of dollars because of their reluctance to help the feds enforce immigration law.

Although that would probably do more to harm to public safety than illegal immigration does.

View post:
Chris Rickert: Donald Trump's fix for 'sanctuary cities' more dangerous than illegal immigration - Madison.com

A Defense Department official says that the U.S. military will continue to welcome noncitizen recruits and that the Trump administration also will continue a long-standing policy that allows members of the military and their families a pathway to citizenship for their service.

Today's service members are eligible for expedited citizenship under a July 2002 executive order and the military services have worked closely with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to streamline citizenship processing for service members, Lt. Col. Myles Caggins said last week in an email to Fox News. Law ensures that the sacrifice of noncitizens during a time of national need is met with an opportunity for early citizenship, to recognize their contribution and sacrifice.

IMMIGRANT VET AWAITS JUDGE'S DEPORTATION RULING AFTER DRUG CONVICTION

Caggins said there are no plans to discontinue or modify the initiative.

President Trump has been a staunch advocate for bolstering the military and has repeatedly expressed his intentions to stop the flow of illegal immigrants into the U.S. But he has not publicly offered a definitive opinion on the immigration policy concerning noncitizens in the military.

The closest Trump has come to addressing the issue was on Sept. 7, 2016, during a presidential candidates' forum. He was asked by a woman who served in the military whether he thinks that a person living in the United States illegally who wants to serve in the U.S. armed forces should be allowed to stay in the country legally.

I think when you serve in the armed forces, thats a very special situation and I could see myself working that out, absolutely, Trump replied.

Then, after speaking about the necessity to properly vet people, Trump said,But the answer is it would be a very special circumstance, yes.

According to DoD data, 5,000 legal permanent residents are recruited each year under the Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest Program launched in 2009. The average number of noncitizens on active duty from 2010 to 2016 was about 18,700.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service established the Naturalization at Basic Training Initiative in August 2009 with the Army to give noncitizen enlistees the opportunity to naturalize when they graduate from basic training. By 2013, the Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps had followed suit.

In fiscal year 2016 alone, 359 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients, also referred to as Dreamers, enlisted in the Army, which is the only branch that accepts this immigrant category.

"Concerning naturalization, the decision to become a U.S. citizen is a voluntary individual decision and each service provides assistance to service members seeking citizenship, Caggins said.Per U.S. Customs and Immigration Service, more than 109,000 servicemen and women have naturalized through 2015.

TRUMP OPEN TO GRANTING LEGAL STATUS TO UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS SERVING IN MILITARY

The list of immigrants who have made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of their new country is long and distinguished.

On March 21, 2003, Guatemalan native and U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Jose Gutierrez was among the first servicemen to die in Iraq. He was posthumously granted full citizenship. A week later, Mexican immigrant and fellow Marine Jesus Alberto Suarez del Solarwas killed in action during a tour in Iraq.

Alex Nowrasteh, immigration policy analyst for the Cato Institute, said recruits must have some kind of recognized immigration status to join the military, whether they are a DACA recipient, green card holder or on a work or student visa. He said the military wont take someone who has no documentation.

With that being said, Nowrasteh said the military is a viable option toward citizenship if the individual accepts the risks and obligation.

It is absolutely a good thing for immigrants to serve in the U.S. military, he said. There is a long history of non-citizens serving with distinction in the military.

Joseph J. Kolb is a regular contributor to Fox News Latino.

Follow us on twitter.com/foxnewslatinoLike us at facebook.com/foxnewslatino

Originally posted here:
Trump will allow immigrants to obtain citizenship through military service - Fox News

Many illegal immigrants may have a serious misunderstanding of the word "sanctuary" when it comes to the controversial issue of so-called sanctuary cities. One expert says the misunderstanding means some immigrants may have placed too much faith in their city's elected leaders who make sweeping declarations of "sanctuary" with the net result being more friction between local police and the immigrant community.

According to an email obtained from the Seattle mayor's office through an open records request, many illegal immigrants there apparently think that 'sanctuary' means that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is completely powerless within the jurisdiction of a city that has given itself the "sanctuary" label.

In the email, sent just days after the 2016 election, a local immigration activist warned some in the mayor's office about the confusion.

"I attended a community event tonight and several people expressed that they were happy that ICE could not take action within City limits. I had to later clarify that this is not what was meant by 'sanctuary' and people were really confused about this," the activist said. Later in the email, the author concluded that, "I am worried that some community members may be getting a false sense of security that ICE won't be able to conduct enforcement actions"

In the most general sense, a sanctuary city is one that does not cooperate with detainer requests from federal ICE agents when a suspected illegal immigrant is already in custody for some other criminal justice issue.

Jessica Vaughn, the director of policy studies for the Center For Immigration Studies, a conservative think-tank that describes itself as "low-immigration, pro-immigrant," says this deep misunderstanding of the word, "could lead people to have unrealistic expectations" about their ability to avoid detection or interaction of any kind with ICE.

"It leads to tension sometimes between the public and advocacy groups and lawmakers and police in some situations," when ICE still conducts deportation activities. Or in some cases, the city selectively breaks their policy of non-cooperation with ICE.

One current example of that can be found in Santa Fe, N.M.

A recent report by New Mexico In-Depth said that despite the city's sanctuary declaration, "during the past two-plus years, (Santa Fe Police Department) has tipped off Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at least three times about suspected undocumented immigrants." The story adds later, "the case represents a rare but not unheard of practice for a police department that reports to a mayor who has become a prominent figure in the national "sanctuary city" movement."

Also from the Washington Examiner

"We had a great day with the president," Paul said. "We talked about a little bit of healthcare."

04/02/17 5:29 PM

An immigration activist in Santa Fe remarked, "But when I read a quote from the new police chief saying, 'We're not going to turn anyone over to ICE unless they're a criminal,' well, he just said what Donald Trump said. And we all know that's bullst," illustrating how the misunderstanding of the word seeps down to mistrust at the local level.

The sanctuary issue moved back into the forefront this week, with Attorney General Jeff Sessions saying the Trump administration would "claw back" federal funds from local governments that didn't cooperate with federal instructions on immigration enforcement. Days after that, a group of mayors met with Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly to insist that their cities' policies were not against federal law.

Complicating the issue between the cites and the administration is the fact that the term "sanctuary city" still remains something of a nebulous term. DHS said a definition of the term is coming soon.

Meanwhile, some cities have been trying to change the messaging, calling themselves "welcoming cities," but the change in branding doesn't seem to have taken hold anywhere yet, especially where the national debate is concerned.

"They realize 'sanctuary' has become something of a pejorative now," Vaughn said.

Also from the Washington Examiner

Owen Hill says that the state needs a new voice in Washington

04/02/17 4:51 PM

See the article here:
Term 'sanctuary city' is misleading to illegal immigrants - Washington Examiner

HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) -- Virginia gubernatorial hopeful Corey Stewart held a rally on the steps of the Rockingham Circuit Courthouse Saturday, April 1, to voice his opposition to illegal immigration in the United States.

"It's a beautiful day and we're on the court steps, so I think it probably turned out for the better," said the Republican.

Earlier in the week, Stewart proposed stricter rules to tackle illegal entry into the country, including forcing law enforcement to determine the immigration status of all inmates and stripping state funding from sanctuary cities.

"He's a very good man. I think he's very true to what he says," said Alma Bible, who was in attendance.

"My husband immigrated to this country when he was four from Peru. It's an incredibly emotional topic," Elizabeth Ochoa said.

The change of location to Court Square was made after two city restaurants refused to host his event, due to miscommunication over its nature.

Stewart claimed this was the result of a conspiracy from "liberal activists" with ties to multi-billionaire George Soros.

"This indivisible group [...] has been calling around to these restaurants, trying to get them to pull the location which they were successful in doing in Harrisonburg," said Stewart.

Harrisonburg Indivisible, a community activist group, said they did place calls to the restaurants.

"We felt it would be better for Corey Stewart to hold his rally in a neutral public space rather than in a restaurant where some of the patrons and some of the employees are immigrants," said organizer John Schaldach. "Today we saw peaceful protests. We saw a direct action type of behavior with the restaurants this week, and Corey Stewart got to get his message out there. This is what democracy looks like."

Even after the events this week, Stewart said he has optimism moving forward.

"The gain for me is to push out the voters on June 13 right here in the Valley, because this is where we're getting a lot of our support," he said.

It appears Stewart has a steep hill to climb before June. In a recent poll from Christopher Newport University, the fired Trump campaign state chairman trailed more than 25 points behind Ed Gillespie for the nomination, with 38-percent of Republicans questioned still undecided.

A local organizer said this was not Stewart's last stop in the Valley. He will make several more appearances here in the coming weeks before the primary on June 13.

View original post here:
GOP gubernatorial hopeful holds rally against illegal immigration - WHSV

Its started already. Twice in the last week, I have read about the Japanese internment during World War II. Its clear where this is going. The liberal Fake News outlets are going to attempt to use history to make everyone feel guilty and tie it in with the deportation of illegal immigrants. However, there is nothing to tie in.

This is a subject I am qualified to write about because I was alive at that time. I was 9 years old when WWII ended. The Japanese internment is totally different from what is going on now, as I will explain.

First, some background, when America was attacked on Dec. 7, 1941, we were an economic power, not a military power. There was real fear that we would be defeated and overrun by Germany, Japan or both. Each nation had a very powerful military.

There was a fear that Japanese on American soil might be loyal to their homeland, and they were largely concentrated on the West Coast. The fear was, in the event of an invasion, they might fight against us. Also, there was a fear they would spy and sabotage.

Because of the dastardly and deadly surprise attack at Pearl Harbor, it was a time of extreme paranoia and hatred of the Japanese.

When I was 7 years old, and the war had been raging for almost two years, I remember asking my grandmother, Will we win the war? She replied, I dont know, honey. I then asked, When I grow up, will I have to go fight? Again she answered, I dont know.

Those were sincere and serious questions asked by a scared little 7-year-old boy. For you who didnt live during that time and have gotten your information from books, it may be hard to understand the fear and hardships we had. Fear was the mood of the whole country.

Liberals are using this shameful part of American history by trying to correlate it to the deportation of illegal immigrants; however, there is no correlation! Theyre using half-truths to stir up dissension against President Trump, and a half-truth is a whole lie.

To compare the Japanese internment with present-day events is like comparing apples to oranges. Its the illegal immigrants that President Trump is talking about deporting, especially the felons. Hes not talking about legal immigrants, nor stopping legal immigration.

No matter how much sympathy you have for them, or how long theyve been here, all illegal immigrants are criminals. Its a difficult problem that must be dealt with. You can rest assured that families are not going to be unreasonably torn apart with mass deportations.

Some may have to pay a fine or leave temporarily and come back through a legal process. Either were a nation of laws, or were not. Its the thread that holds society together. All the mass hysteria needs to stop.

Remember, were Americans and well find a way to make the illegals, legal. At this time in our history, great wisdom is needed. The media needs to stop with the lies and half truths which cause dissension.

Hoot Gibson is a resident of Valdosta. He is the author of Hoots Wisdom Nuggets to Help You Become a Super Salesman. He may be reached at 36hoot@gmail.com.

More:
Japanese internment vs. illegal immigration - Valdosta Daily Times