US Election 2012: Newt Gingrich Risks Angering Republican Voters with Immigration Plan

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Newt Gingrich, the Republican presidential hopeful who has surged into the lead of national opinion polls, risked alienating the party's core voters on Tuesday night by proposing that millions of illegal immigrants should be allowed to stay in the US.

The former Speaker of the House of Representatives said “community boards” should be set up across America to judge which of the estimated 11 million people living there without permission should be deported, and which given the right to remain.

“If you've been here 25 years and you have got three kids and two grandkids, you've been paying taxes and obeying the law, you belong to a local church, I don't think we're going to separate you from your family, uproot you forcefully and kick you out,” he said during a debate on national security in Washington, DC.

Mr Gingrich's proposal was attacked by his rivals and risked enraging the conservative Tea Party movement, which was unforgiving when Governor Rick Perry of Texas said in a previous debate that anyone opposing subsidised education for the children of illegal immigrants was “heartless”.

Insisting he was “prepared to take the heat” for the plan, Mr Gingrich was criticised by Michelle Bachmann, a Minnesota congresswoman, who said: “We need to move away from magnets, not offer more”.

Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who remains the favourite to win the nomination, said the policy would “only encourage more people to do the same thing”, adding: “People respond to incentives”. » | Jon Swaine, Washington | Wednesday, November 23, 2011

US State Signs Harsh Immigration Law
The governor of the state of Alabama has signed into law one of the country's toughest measures to crackdown on immigration. The law is expected to take effect on September 1, giving police the power to arrest anyone suspected of being undocumented.

Republicans Wage War on Immigrants in Constitution Citizenship Challenge
THE TELEGRAPH: Leading Republicans have joined a push for a repeal of the constitutional amendment that confers citizenship upon anyone born in the United States as immigration takes centre stage ahead of the mid term elections.

They argue that the 14th amendment, which was enacted in 1868, is being exploited by illegal immigrants as well as wealthy people who want to use their children to "anchor" themselves to the US.

The suggestion of a review or repeal of the amendment is a highly controversial move as most American view the constitution as sacrosanct. The 14th amendment was designed to prevent individual states refusing to grant citizenship to slaves freed in the aftermath of the Civil War.

Among the leading Republicans in the Senate supporting the move is John McCain, the 2008 presidential candidate, who is currently facing a Right-wing challenge from within his own party in his re-election bid in Arizona, the border state where immigration is a dominant issue. >>> Alex Spillius in Washington | Wednesday, August 04, 2010

Immigration Law Divides The US
SKY NEWS: Barack Obama has won the first round in his fight against a controversial new immigration law in Arizona. Opponents claim parts of the law requiring police to find out the immigration status of all they arrest is 'racial profiling'. Greg Milam reports.

US President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama and their daughters Sasha and Malia tour Hopi Point with Park Ranger Scott Kraynak at Grand Canyon National Park. Photograph: The Independent
Last Minute Decision Blocks Parts of Arizona Immigration Law
THE INDEPENDENT: A federal judge on Wednesday blocked the most controversial parts of Arizona's immigration law from taking effect, delivering a last-minute victory to opponents of the crackdown.

The overall law will still take effect Thursday, but without the provisions that angered opponents — including sections that required officers to check a person's immigration status while enforcing other laws.

The judge also put on hold parts of the law that required immigrants to carry their papers at all times and made it illegal for undocumented workers to solicit employment in public places.

U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton ruled that those sections should be put on hold until the courts resolve the issues. Other provisions of the law, many of them procedural and slight revisions to existing Arizona immigraiton statute, will go into effect at 12:01 a.m.

The ruling came just as police were making last-minute preparations to begin enforcement of the law and protesters were planning large demonstrations to speak out against the measure. At least one group planned to block access to federal offices, daring officers to ask them about their immigration status. >>> Associated Press | Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Sarah Palin Slams Immigration Suit: Former Alaska governor weighs in on administration taking Arizona to court


Obamonomics: Spend, spend, spend, tax, tax, tax! Make government big, big, bigger. Let the people pay! Socialize the bloody lot! – ©Mark

Gingrich: 'The Obama Administration Doesn't Understand America'

LTC Allen West on Illegal Immigration

The US problem few politicians have the stomach to do anything about
When a Dallas pizza chain began accepting Mexican money, its owner received a flood of hate mail. The Times reports on the rise of Hispanic America and the ‘culture war’

THE TIMES: Antonio Swad presses a button on his answerphone. A deep male voice fills his office. “F*** you,” it says slowly and deliberately. “Your attempt to Mexicanise our country is an insult to all of us...I and my buddies in the American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars and all the other organisations I belong to are going to spread the word and do all we can to f*** you. You have insulted this wonderful country.” Mr Swad, a trim 50-year-old American of Italian-Lebanese descent, merely laughs. He has become used to such abuse since announcing in early January that Pizza Patron, his Dallas-based chain of pizza shops, would accept Mexican pesos. He has been deluged with similar messages from across the US.

“Pizza for pesos” was meant to be nothing more than a promotional stunt to curry favour with the Latinos who are Pizza Patron’s core market, and to soak up the loose change that Mexican workers bring back to the US after Christmas visits home. In fact it provided a new rallying point — and a fresh source of outrage after last year’s row over the Spanish version of The Star-Spangled Banner — for the legions of white Americans who believe that Hispanics are overrunning their country, destroying their culture and threatening their Anglo-Saxon dominance.

At most Swad expected a few paragraphs in the trade press. But after The Dallas Morning News ran a story on his offer one Saturday morning, he found reporters and television trucks beseiging his outlets with their “Aceptamos pesos” signs.

The story made the national news, the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and The Colbert Report. CNN gave it 20 minutes. It was picked up by Rush Limbaugh. “This stuff doesn’t go away,” fumed America’s leading right-wing chat-show host. “It’s just like gay marriage. It’s like illegal immigration...It’ll grow.” Soon abusive e-mails, irate calls and even death threats were pouring in to Pizza Patron’s headquarters. No matter that countless countries around the world accept US dollars, or that the Canadian dollar is accepted along America’s northern border, or that pizza is a foreign import. The sheer hatred of the e-mails — 5,400 at the latest count — was remarkable.

“You’re catering to illegal immigrants and promoting Mexico over the US...damn you to Hell and take your freaking wetback illegals with you when you go!!!!!,” said one. “You absolutely sicken us taxpaying citizens that want these cockroaches OUT OF THIS COUNTRY,” said another. Yanqui doodle dandy by Martin Fletcher

Mark Alexander