Feds Let Illegal Aliens Steal Congressional Representation From Citizens

The heavy influx of immigrants cost the Republican Party nine House seats during the 2000 political redistricting process, according to a report released Thursday. At least one of those seats was lost as a result of illegal aliens being counted as part of the national population by the U.S. Census Bureau, the report's authors said.
The report, "Remaking the Political Landscape: The Impact of Illegal and Legal Immigration on Congressional Apportionment," was compiled by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS). It examined the redistribution of House seats as a result of immigration.

The nation's 435 U.S. House seats are distributed among the states based on the census results every 10 years, with each state automatically getting at least one constitutionally mandated seat.

For example, as millions of Americans have left Northern states for warmer climates in the South, those Southern states have gained more seats. The influx of illegal aliens and other non-citizens has also affected congressional reapportionment because census takers count those individuals as well.

Dudley Poston, a Texas A&M sociology professor and author of the CIS report, examined how congressional seats would have been reapportioned if the Census Bureau had not counted naturalized American citizens, legal permanent residents (green-card holders), illegal aliens and those on long-term temporary visas.

"If we do this, there's a 16-seat change [among the states] in the 2000 apportionment. California loses nine of its 53 seats. This means that nine of its 53 seats are attributable to its immigrant population," Poston said. It could even be more than nine, Poston said, because some immigrants end up bearing children in the United States who are not considered foreign-born. "So California is the big winner," he said.

Poston then turned to the partisan implications by designating states Republican or Democrat based on the 2000 presidential election results, the big red-and-blue map.

"If the foreign-born were excluded, the Republicans would gain nine seats," Poston said.

Steven Camorata, CIS director of research, added: "The nine seats redistributed by non-citizens has a very serious effect when one considers that only a total of 12 seats in their entirety changed hands in 2000."

Poston used state estimates prepared by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which indicated that nearly 7 million illegal aliens were counted in the 2000 Census. The illegal alien population, which Poston said is heavily concentrated in just three states - California, Florida and New York - resulted in the creation of at least one new Democrat-dominated congressional district and at the expense of the Republican Party.

The report did not pinpoint a particular district that Democrats, traditionally the favorite party of illegal aliens, seized from Republicans. Rather, the combination effect of the illegal population in America produced the GOP loss of at least one seat, according to the report.

"Illegal immigration also has a significant effect on presidential elections because the Electoral College is based on the size of congressional delegations," the CIS study indicated.

'Voter Erosion' of Citizens

According to the report, many low-immigration states that might seem unaffected by immigration experience "significant voter erosion" of their political influence in Washington.

"Taking away representation from states composed almost entirely of U.S. citizens so that new districts can be created in states with large numbers of non-citizens makes immigrant-induced reapportionment very different from reapportionment caused when natives relocate to other states," Camorata pointed out.

Of the nine states that lost a seat in 2000, only one in 50 residents is a non-citizen, the report revealed. By contrast, one out of every seven California residents is a non-citizen and six of the nine seats redistributed due to non-citizens went to California.

These findings, Poston suggested, might spur a movement among the public and lawmakers to revise the method of census taking.

"The exclusion of illegal immigrants may well be the scenario most likely to gain popular support and spark a legal challenge," Poston said.

The report noted that the Supreme Court has never addressed the substantive legal arguments surrounding the exclusion of illegal aliens in the census. The Federation of Americans for Immigration Reform (FAIR) filed two lawsuits challenging the Census Bureau's methodology of counting illegal aliens, but both suits were dismissed. In the latter suit, plaintiffs included 40 members of Congress and the commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

"Trying to deal with this problem by excluding non-citizens, illegal or legal, would be very difficult politically and is probably impossible as a practical matter," Camorata concluded.

According to Noah Pickus, the director of North Carolina's Institute for Emerging Issues and a participant in Thursday's panel discussion, the findings lend credence to the notion that states have a "perverse" incentive to attract larger populations of illegal aliens, which "undermines the very notion" of the representative republic on which the country was founded.

"The country faces a choice: Either continue to have record amounts of illegal immigration and therefore continue to redistribute seats away from states comprised mostly of American citizens to states with large numbers of illegal and legal immigrants, or better enforce immigration laws so as to reduce if not eliminate illegal immigration," Camorata said.

Source - http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/10/24/102835.shtml

Cops: Wal-Mart Knew of Illegal Aliens

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Evidence including recordings indicates that Wal-Mart had direct knowledge of immigration violations involving its cleaning contractors at stores across the country, federal law enforcement sources said.

Federal agents raided Wal-Mart's headquarters and 60 of its stores across the nation Thursday and arrested more than 300 illegal workers in an immigration crackdown at the world's biggest retailer.

The workers were members of cleaning crews hired by outside contractors, but federal law enforcement officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity said Wal-Mart knew of the violations. They cited recordings of meetings and conversations among Wal-Mart executives, managers and contractors.

"We have seen no evidence of this from the INS, and, if that turns out to be true, we will cooperate fully with law enforcement officials," Wal-Mart spokeswoman Mona Williams said.

The workers were arrested as they finished their night shifts at Wal-Mart stores in 21 states. Agents also hauled away several boxes of documents from an executive's office at Wal-Mart headquarters in Bentonville.

An employer can face civil and criminal penalties for knowingly hiring illegal aliens or failing to comply with certain employee recordkeeping regulations.

Wal-Mart Stores had sales last year of $244.5 billion. The company has about 1.1 million employees in the United States, and it uses more than 100 third-party contractors to clean more than 700 stores nationwide, Williams said.

"We require each of these contractors to use only legal workers," she said.

The law enforcement sources said the investigation grew out of earlier probes of Wal-Mart cleaning crew contractors in 1998 and 2001.

All the arrested workers were in the country illegally, said Garrison Courtney, a spokesman with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. They were detained at local immigration offices. Those who had no criminal record were released with instructions to appear before immigration judges.

Many of the workers said they were Eastern European, and a few were of other ethnicities, Courtney said.

More Corruption in Arkansas

Wal-Mart is not the first big company to be targeted in an immigration investigation. Six managers at Tyson Foods, based one town away from Wal-Mart in Springdale, were charged in an immigrant-smuggling case in 2001.

One defendant shot himself to death a few months after being charged, and two managers entered guilty pleas early in the case. A jury acquitted the poultry company and three other managers.

Ulysses A. Yannas, an analyst with the investment firm Buckman, Buckman and Reid, said it is too much to expect Wal-Mart to keep track of all of its vendors' workers. But he said the investigation could present a problem for the company.

"It is a question of what else it might bring out. These are long, drawn-out processes," Yannas said.

Top Wal-Mart officials learned of Thursday's sweep when store managers began calling headquarters for guidance in dealing with the raids.

Courtney said agents searched the office of one of Wal-Mart's executives. Williams, the spokeswoman, said they spent several hours in the office of a "midlevel manager" at Wal-Mart's headquarters and carried away several boxes of paperwork.

She said she did not know if any other Wal-Mart administrative offices were searched.

The arrests were made at stores in Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia.

Source - http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/10/24/95919.shtml

250 illegal aliens arrested at wal-mart

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Federal officials raided Wal-Mart stores across the United States Thursday, arresting about 250 illegal immigrants working on cleaning crews at 61 stores in 21 states.

Federal agents picked up undocumented workers from Mexico, eastern Europe and other countries who were employed by several contractors used by the world's largest retailer. Many of those arrested in the crackdown, which officials called "Operation Rollback," were coming off night cleaning shifts at various Wal-Mart stores.

Garrison Courtney, a spokesman for the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), said the raids started at 4 a.m. ET and ended about five hours later.

A search warrant also was executed at Wal-Mart headquarters in Bentonville, Ark., Courtney said, but he declined to provide details on what investigators were looking for or what they actually found.

"We are always looking at companies that are knowingly exploiting people for the purpose of making money," Courtney said. He said businesses that employ undocumented workers often pay low wages and offer few or no benefits.

"We're currently trying to understand the scope and the detail of the investigation," Wal-Mart spokeswoman Sharon Weber told CNN. "We are talking to the [immigration bureau] and, of course, are committed to cooperating with them."

Wal-Mart uses at least 100 outside contractors for cleaning services at about 700 stores across the country, she said. "We do require each of these contractors to use only legal workers. We do not know if the current investigation involves one or multiple outside contractors," Weber added.

None of the people arrested were Wal-Mart employees hired by the company to work in its stores, she said.

But federal law enforcement officials said information from an undercover investigation revealed that some Wal-Mart executives and some store managers knew of the immigration violations.

Some of the information in the investigation was gathered through the recording of conversations between store managers and contractor executives, the officials told CNN.

Investigators are concerned that Wal-Mart has kept using contractors who have been convicted of hiring illegal workers in the past. The latest sweep stemmed from a 1998 investigation that also targeted janitorial contractors at Wal-Marts, federal sources said.

Courtney said the penalty for knowingly hiring illegal workers can run up to $10,000 per person. He declined to give the names of the contractors who hired the workers picked up Thursday.

"People have to be authorized to work in the United States," said Courtney. "We are serious about enforcing the law."

The arrests on immigration violations involved no criminal charges. But sources said grand jury subpoenas have been issued in an ongoing investigation that could potentially result in criminal charges.

Industry analysts said the probe might hurt Wal-Mart's image but wouldn't necessarily hurt its financial results.

"It looks like these illegal workers were hired by contractors and not directly by Wal-Mart. Is this really bad press or slightly bad press? I think it's the latter," said Mark Mandel, analyst with Blaylock & Partners. "If Wal-Mart was hiring from sweatshops, that would be much worse."

"Where this could hurt the company is in its reputation of not being a great place to work. If left unchecked, it could have an impact on Wal-Mart's image," said John Allen, senior partner with corporate brand consultant Lippincott & Margulies.

The largest numbers of arrests occurred in Pennsylvania and Texas, officials said.

Other states where arrests occurred were Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.

Source - http://money.cnn.com/2003/10/23/news/companies/walmart_worker_arrests/

Capturing the Illegal Alien Vote

Today, millions of Californians are expected to exercise their right to vote. Voter franchise is the key component in our representative government; its sanctity should be paramount. Yet since the rise of big city machine politics and mass immigration in the 19th century the use of voter fraud to influence elections has threatened this fundamental right. This threat has turned into a full-fledged frontal assault in our time. More disturbing than the mass media's refusal to broach the topic is the determination of politicians to continually flout, not only the people's will, but to also the 15th amendment to the Constitution guaranteeing the right to vote.

Still vivid in our memories are the attempts by the Florida Supreme Court, DNC lawyers and local Democratic officials to tip the 2000 presidential election in candidate Al Gore's favor. Dimpled and hanging chads filled the American conscience for months as the Left, backed by countless media pundits, wailed over the "disenfranchisement" and "intent" of the voters. Noticeably lacking was their concern when it came to instances of abuse or outright fraud that favored their candidate. The 1,400 military votes thrown out in Florida, the media calling the state for Gore one hour before polls closed in the heavily Republican panhandle and the ruling by the Democrat-packed Florida Supreme Court are only some of the examples. Nationwide, the use of immigration policy and the failure to enforce immigration laws were the key to giving Gore his popular vote win. The 2000 election was not an isolated incident; efforts to undermine the electoral process through the nation's immigration policies were a staple of the Clinton years.

A report issued by the Justice Dept. in 2000 detailed a program run under the auspices of then Vice President Gore's "Reinventing Government" project to streamline government services. In a successful effort to clear a backlog of 1.2 million applicants, the INS engaged in this crash program called "Citizenship USA" to naturalize the immigrants between October 1995 and September 1996, not coincidentally, just in time for the presidential election. Douglas Farbrother, an official on Gore's team, is quoted in the report saying he "believed that the (citizenship) program had a deadline that was directly connected to the upcoming election." The Clinton administration bypassed the customary FBI background check for these new citizens demonstrating that creating new Democrat voters was a much higher priority than national security. It is estimated that tens of thousands of applications were approved without FBI review. The Justice Dept. report documented 1,000 cases in Miami; 1,300 cases in Chicago; and an astonishing 2,500 cases in Los Angeles.

The politicization of the INS continued in the 2000 election. As documented by journalist Joseph Farah ,on Nov. 6, 2000, (one day before the national election) the California Democratic Party sent thousands (upwards of 4 million by some estimates) of mailers out to immigrants who had citizenship requests before the INS. These non-citizens were informed, in both English and Spanish, that they were registered to vote as a Democrat and given a special identification card to "help...voting go more smoothly." Follow up investigations by the press pointed to the possible use of INS records to commit this massive voter fraud. How many of the recipients took advantage of the generous offer made by the Democrats is unknown, but based on the estimates it is quite possible that Gore's much touted popular vote win (by just under a million votes) could all be attributed to this scam alone. Flaws in the system continue to be used and expanded upon to give the Left an unfair advantage in elections and to undermine the legitimacy of our most fundamental American right.

Now, thanks to the political pandering of Gray Davis, millions of illegal aliens will soon have the opportunity to take part in the electoral process. The issuance of driver's licenses to all Californians regardless of immigration status has opened up the door to voter registration fraud and weakened the sanctity of the franchise. As California election officials have admitted, an alien who applies for a license need only lie about their immigration status and they are able to register. Thanks to the Motor Voter law, this affront is possible in 13 other states with similar statutes. As a recent Washington Times article points out, a "stealth amnesty" is underway by the states that accept Matricula ID's, non-regulated ID’s issued by the government of Mexico, and grant driver’s licenses to illegals. A Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) report reveals that "The Matricula card is accepted as a valid form of identification by police departments, banks and 12 states for driver's license applications." This disregard for immigration law has no positive impact for Americans except those who seek to grant Democrats additional power. Moreover, this aberration of constitutional law is tantamount to mailing absentee ballots for any future election to Iran, Syria, France, Germany, North Korea, or anywhere else.

In Massachusetts, where an estimated 150,000 illegals reside, local Democrats have sponsored a bill similar to the California law. Democratic State Rep. Eugene O'Flaherly who represents Chelsea, a city with a large illegal population, is the chief sponsor of the bill. He and those who support the measure claim the move would improve public safety by encouraging illegals to obtain insurance—the same argument used by Davis and other proponents in California. They do not mention the added benefit of increasing the number of registered Democrats. In the last gubernatorial election, Republican Mitt Romney beat out his Democratic rival by a mere 107,000 votes; this bill would quickly remedy that nasty staple of democracy.

Another method in use by liberal state officials is the unwillingness to require an ID at the polling place. In 2002 Congress passed the Help America Vote Act, designed to correct some of the irregularities found in the 2000 election. Among the reforms included was a provision that required ID for first time voters. The bill passed 92-2 in the Senate. The two standouts: New York Democrats Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer.

Explaining her vote, Clinton said the ID provision would "disproportionately affect ethnic and racial minorities, recently naturalized American citizens, language minorities, the poor, the homeless, the millions of eligible New York voters who do not have a driver's license, and those individuals who otherwise would have exercised their right to vote without these new provisions." Considering the bill allowed for the use of Social Security numbers, pay stubs (including government issued checks), utility bills and other forms of verification, her real concern seems to be placed squarely on opposition to the prevention of voter fraud by the large illegal population in her state. Forty five percent of Democratic primary voters in New York were minorities, a group Clinton clearly pandered to in making her decision.

Among the special interest groups that oppose requiring ID to vote: The League of Women Voters, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda, La Raza, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

In Washington, D.C., Mayor Anthony Williams gave readers of the Washington Post an insight into the movement to grant non-citizens the right to vote. Saying he is "committed to expanding the franchise," he stated that in order to grant a greater voice to those he sees as underrepresented, that a new standard for voter eligibility is needed, and regardless of what that standard becomes, "it isn't citizenship."

Recently the Republican controlled legislature in Arizona passed a bill that would have demanded some form of identification to vote, but Democrat Governor Janet Napolitano vetoed the bill in front of a meeting of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials to thunderous applause. In an attempt to justify the move, Napolitano made vague references to old Jim Crow-era laws such as poll taxes that were designed to disenfranchise Southern blacks in a disingenuous attempt to link the measure with those racist policies. At a press conference following the veto she suggested "this bill is not designed to prevent voter fraud, I'll tell you that." On the contrary, it would seem her veto was intended to perpetuate voter fraud.

Similar measures have been vetoed over the past few years by Democratic governors in states like New Hampshire, Kansas and Wisconsin, with the governors citing the alleged "chilling effect" presenting ID (including such easily obtained items as utility bills or bank statements) would have on potential voters. These politicians hide behind the rhetoric of identity politics in order to enable the ease with which citizens and non-citizens alike commit voter fraud under the present system.

Following Gray Davis’ lead, Napolitano has also been pushing a measure to grant driver's licenses to illegals, once more subverting the system to play into the hands of those who seek to eliminate our borders. Because of Napolitano's refusal to enact common sense reforms, state Republicans and other concerned citizens have begun a petition drive seeking to add a referendum to the 2004 ballot. Called the "Protect Arizona Now" initiative, the referendum would ask Arizona to end all but emergency public aid to illegal immigrants and require proof of citizenship before being able to vote. A recent poll conducted by Arizona State University found 70 percent of registered voters support the measure. Republican State Rep. Russell Pearce told the Arizona Republic "I'm surprised it's that low. People have been absolutely overwhelming in support of this. They understand that this is...about fraud. We are simply saying, 'Once you've come in through that back door, you can't get taxpayer money through welfare and you can't vote.' "

The poll found broad support that cut across racial and party lines. Even many naturalized Latinos favored the idea, recognizing that those who refuse to play by the rules detract from the gains made by law-abiding Hispanics. It should be noted that not only Democrats play this game. Napolitano's press secretary commented, "Arizona doesn't need this divisive initiative, and the governor joins with (Republican) Senators (John) McCain, (Jon) Kyl and the rest of the (Arizona) congressional delegation in opposing it."

Additionally, Arizona Republican Congressmen Jeff Flake, Jim Kolbe and Sen. John McCain are sponsoring a "guest workers" bill that would create new type of visa for migrant workers, allowing hundreds of thousands of illegals currently working in America to stay here simply by registering for the amnesty and paying a $1,500 fee. Such a law would legitimize these immigrants and grant them access to government programs -- and if Davis, Napolitano and other politicians pushing for licenses for non-citizens have their way, the opportunity to vote, as well. Arizona's Republican delegation are playing into the hands of those seeking to increase probable Democratic voters not only by supporting Napolitano's veto but by pushing for this blanket amnesty. Their opposition to the "Protect Arizona Now" initiative serves the interest of Democrats seeking to block reforms against voter fraud.

Angry Arizonans have not taken their actions lightly. Kolbe's brother Walter has been vocal in his disagreement over his brother's support of the guest worker amnesty and his brother's opposition to the referendum question. Walter has called the guest worker bill "amnesty on the installment plan," and says it is "a slap in the face to people who struggled so hard to come to America legally, lead productive lives, raise families and proudly become citizens of the United States of America." Other Arizona citizens recently expressed their dissent with Kolbe by dumping 22 bags of trash at the congressman's Sierra Vista office. The refuse was collected from trash left by illegals in their trek across the border, proof of the growing problems created by this illegal immigrant invasion.

Even the Bush Administration is contributing to the opening for mass voter disenfranchisement. Recently the Treasury Department handed down a decision allowing banks to accept Matriculas under the Patriot Act, legislation enacted in part to make tracing money to terrorist organizations easier. In Congressional testimony last week spokesmen for both the FBI and Department of Homeland Security backed off previously asserted national security concerns with issuing Matricula cards to illegals. Granting legitimacy to these flawed ID's opens the door wider to massive voter fraud in states granting driver’s licenses to non-citizens, further undermining an already besieged franchise.

The current parity among Democrat and Republican voters evidenced in the 2000 elections and more recently by Zogby polling indicating a continued 50/50 split among Democrat and Republican voters is a political reality. It is clear that the recent push to provide back door access to the polls for illegal immigrants is being done to tip the scales in the Democrat's favor. That they are being aided and abetted by some members of the Republican Party is confounding. Hopefully clear-headed, non-partisan Americans will recognize the power grab for what it is and move to stop the give away of the greatest right we have by exercising that very right itself.

Source - http://archive.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=16042