Until just recently, I had not heard of the syndicated columnist Bill Press. (Why, oh, why, could I not have been left alone to wallow in my own ignorant bliss?)

I came to know him after stumbling across his column praising the bottom-feeding Bank of America for having the good business sense to get its oily hands into a new market, i.e., giving credit cards to illegal aliens and, among other things, saying Rep. Tom Tancredo is someone “who has yet to see an immigrant he didn’t hate,” “Bank of America Rejects English-Only Plastic,” Feb. 22.

Here’s the part of the column that makes me wonder whether Press [Send him mail] has been paying attention to the news in recent years:

” . . . the bank is not promoting illegal immigration. It’s not luring these immigrants across the border with the promise of a credit card. They’re already here.”

I suppose Press also believes that more illegal immigration isn’t encouraged by amnesties like the one now proposed by the loathsome Sen. Edward Kennedy, or those goofball state and local governments that give illegals drivers licenses, instate tuition and accept Mexico’s matricula consular as valid ID.

Press is the second person I’ve seen who notes that Bank of America was founded by A. P. Giannini, the son of Italian immigrants, “for the express purpose of serving poor immigrants, mainly Italians at that time, to whom no other banks would make a loan.”

Why is it that Press, like his fellow apologists for the moral lepers who run much of Corporate America, always fail to mention certain critical facts when they fall all over themselves demonstrating just how much they don’t know about the immigration issue? In this case, that the “poor immigrants” Giannini wanted to help had entered this country playing by the rules.

The ACLU is consistently on the frontlines of giving aid to America’s enemies. The idea that terrorists have a “right” to enter this nation is more of the same Commie crap for which the ACLU is known.

A civil rights group asked a judge Friday to find it unconstitutional for the federal government to exclude a prominent Muslim scholar or anyone else from the United States on the grounds that they may have endorsed or espoused terrorism.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed the papers attacking the policy in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. The group included in its submissions a written declaration in which the scholar, Tariq Ramadan, said he has always “opposed terrorism not only through my words but also through my actions.” [ACLU: US Can't Bar Terrorism Supporters February 24, 2007]

Millions of Mexicans cross illegally into the U.S., and the Mexican government defends them and demands rights for them .

But when U.S. construction workers, building a border fence, accidentally cross 10 yards into Mexico, the Mexican government gets offended .

Mexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa lodged a complaint and the workers and equipment were returned forthwith to the American side of the border.

There’s nothing at all suprising about this from the Mexican point of view. What should bother Americans is the response of U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza, Bush crony and husband of the richest woman in Mexico, billionaire beer baroness Maria Asuncion.

Garza assured Mexico that

“The US is sensitive to Mexican concerns… [and] has the deepest respect for the integrity of the sovereignty of Mexican soil”.

What Garza should have said is something like this :

“The US is willing to apologize for crossing 10 yards into Mexico, as soon as Mexico stops encouraging illegal immigration, meddling in U.S. immigration policy and claiming legal jurisdiction over U.S. citizens of Mexican descent.”

But, that’s impossible to imagine coming from the mouth of a Bush administration official, isn’t it?