On Monday, Sen. Specter’s Band of Traitors will present a hearing demonstrating that “immigrants” (aka illegal aliens) are an important part of our military forces [Immigrants in military are focus of hearing, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 7/8/06] .

“Especially in the Army, there are a high percentage of Hispanic Americans, and people from different countries. They do it without asking for anything, because they want to serve their country,” said Castro, 24, a Honduran immigrant who volunteered in 2000 and is now a U.S. citizen. [...]

Military personnel like Castro, who left the Army in 2004, will be the focus of an unusual U.S. Senate field hearing Monday, when legislators bring their immigration road show to Miami. Seeking to garner public support for a bill that would overhaul the immigration system, senators plan to highlight the contributions of foreign-born soldiers in the war on terror.

There is a word for this kind of soldier: “mercenary.” The financial benefits are considerable for an illegal alien when he receives expedited naturalization in return for a couple years service.

Furthermore, it’s not true that non-citizen soldiers aren’t “asking for anything.” Some are quite miffed that their entire families aren’t given amnesty [Veterans Drawn Into Immigration Debate, Washington Post, 4/24/06].

Marcial Rodriguez, a U.S. Marine who grew up in a Mexican farming village, is offended that the country he went to war for might deport his relatives who are living here illegally. [...]

It is unclear how many soldiers find their loyalties similarly divided, but at a time when Pentagon has stepped up recruiting of Hispanics to fill recruiting quotas, experts say a crackdown on illegal immigration would undoubtedly cause resentment in the ranks.

Convicted terrorist Ali Mohamed is another example of why permitting foreign soldiers can be unwise. A naturalized citizen from Egypt, he used the experience of his US Army background to train Osama’s bodyguards as well as plan the 1998 African embassy bombings, which killed 12 Americans and a couple hundred Africans.

Over in Iraq, Hispanic gang graffiti have shown up on walls and military vehicles. “Be all you can be” has apparently been taken to heart by foreign gangsters.

Instead of celebrating military “diversity,” we should consider the associated problems of welcoming recruits with divided loyalties and providing military training for gangsters and enemies. The armed forces have already had at least one member of al Qaeda wearing the uniform–how many are now?

Molly Ivins writes on CommonDreams:

The catch-and-release program currently run for Mexicans by the U.S. government is damn silly. So what will work? If you want to stop Mexicans from crossing the border to work here, put Americans who hire them in jail. Since the Americans who hire them are also often (not always) large donors to the Republican Party, you will have to take that up with them.

This raised the question of why Democrats have been so lax on illegal employers. My guess is that this is largely intertia from the days when employers of illegal workers were largely Democrats.

Lawmakers in Colorado met this week to debate about a zillion immigration reform measures which included a Senate bill asking Congress to deny automatic citizenship to children born in the United States to illegal immigrants.

In other words, end the Anchor Baby Scam created by an irresponsible and erroneous application of the 14th Amendment.

In Colorado, this is roughly 6,ooo children per year.

Sponsored by Senator Ron Teck (R-Grand Junction) the legislation was shot down by the Democrat controlled legislature–and not (of course)without a lot of petulant name calling and “you’re a racist” finger pointing.

“The racism behind this is repugnant to me.” said Sen. Peter Groff (D-Denver) “The whole idea of dragging kids into this discussion is reprehensible.”

[Plan urging citizenship ban killed by April M. Washington, Rocky Mountain News]

Why can’t one these legislators just introduce a bill which bans the use of the word “racism” or “racist?” Perhaps they could limit usage only to say, legitimate acts a racism.

Like, something that is based on someone’s actual race, rather than a crime they’ve committed like crossing the border illegallyy. Not only are illegals of all races, including white, crossing the southern border, but there are thousands of really very white Irish illegals, who might, under the current Fourteenth Amendment silliness, become the new Kennedys. And we know how well that worked out.

Unacceptable uses would include what I call Plan B: The Liberal Trump Card Strategy.

It goes a little something like this: “Uh-oh, we don’t have the votes to stop this catastrophic bill…it actually benefits somebody other ourselves and could make our opponents look good at election time…jeepers, what are we going to do? Ooh, we’ll just call them racists and invite everybody but FOX news to the press conference! Can somebody see if the Reverand Jackson is available for a stage background photo-op?”

Speaking of Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald (D-Golden)…yeah, she’s a real treat and rumor has it she’s got her eye on the Governor’s mansion.

Here’s the lowdown:

There was supposed to be a ballot measure (Initiative 55) headed for Colorado voters which would deny state services to illegal immigrants. Unfortunately, the “we’re smarter than you silly mortals because we wear black robes and speak at least ten words in Latin so quit trying to think for yourselves” Colorado Supreme Court decided to remove it from the ballot because…well, because they could.

Senator Fitz-Gerald came up with her own bill (1023) which supposedly lists the specific services that would be denied and those that would continue–she claims that the language in her bill is more straight-forward and therefore less likely to face legal opposition.

Yeah, her bill would probably manage to avoid all those customary (and costly) legal hassles created by the MALDEF Mafia whenever any good immigration reform measure threatens to become law…because it isn’t a good immigration reform measure!!

Sheesh…when applying for state benefits, the Fitz-Gerald scam would allow illegal immigrants to simply sign an affidavit swearing U.S. citizenship instead of providing legitimate documentation. Why would the likes of MALDEF fight a bill which sounds like something they wrote?

In any event, the Republicans are insisting (or attempting to insist) that the issue go before the voters.

Of course, any legislation drafted by the Legislature cannot conflict with federal law but some of the services the state of Colorado can legally deny to illegal immigrants include:

1. Drivers licenses
2. Unemployment benefits
3. Welfare
4. Assisted housing
5. College education

In fairness, the Democrats do want to send a couple of measures to the voters: One measure would penalize (sure it would) employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens and the other measure would ask the feds to enforce immigration laws.

Wow…that oughta do the trick…just ask the feds to do the job they have been unable and unwilling to do for the past…well, ever.

On an interesting note, the Legislature did vote to increase the age of marital consent from 12 years-old to 18 years-old so the day wasn’t completely wasted.

Up until now, 12 years-old was the age of consent in Colorado?? Seriously? Crikey….that sounds like European law circa 1509 or Iraqi law circa…well, today.

In a word: GROSS