In my active fantasy life (category: immigration enforcement), happy musings often start with Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his low-rent tent city jail located in Maricopa County, Arizona.

Not only are illegal aliens and other perps housed in bare-bones tents, they are issued old-fashioned striped prison uniforms (no worry about self-esteem evidently) and pink underwear. Sheriff Joe brags on how little he spends on prisoners’ chow, just 40 cents per day.

Furthermore, Sheriff Arpaio believes that punishing lawbreaking illegal aliens has a deterrent affect. Imagine that.

Since US detention facilities are likely a big improvement on the housing many Mexicans came from (despite the recent wailing of immigration anarchists about workplace arrests), it only makes sense to make jail less appealing than home. Otherwise, foreigners might not be properly deterred.

Anyway, I was cheered to read about a souped-up tent city built by the feds.

RAYMONDVILLE, Tex. — Ringed by barbed wire, a futuristic tent city rises from the Rio Grande Valley in the remote southern tip of Texas, the largest camp in a federal detention system rapidly gearing up to keep pace with Washington’s increasing demand for stronger enforcement of immigration laws.

About 2,000 illegal immigrants, part of a record 26,500 held across the United States by federal authorities, will call the 10 giant tents home for weeks, months and perhaps years before they are removed from the United States and sent back to their home countries.

The $65 million tent city, built hastily last summer between a federal prison and a county jail, marks both the success and the limits of the government’s new policy of holding captured non-Mexicans until they are sent home. Previously, most such detainees were released into the United States before hearings, and a majority simply disappeared.
[Border Policy's Success Strains Resources, Washington Post 2/02/07]

That’s way too expensive for this facility to be consider a real Arpaioville, but it does show that Washington can deal with open borders when it makes up its mind. The bad news is that the recent surge of enforcement has been part of the Bush strategy to demonstrate that he is doing arrests for a couple months so it’s cool for Congress to vote for an amnesty.

Despite its spartan conditions, the facility in Willacy County, 260 miles south of Austin, is a key to President Bush’s drive to create a channel for temporary foreign workers and a path toward legalization for as many as 12 million illegal immigrants living in the United States.

To do so, the government must convince skeptics that it can credibly enforce laws aimed at illegal immigrants and their employers, and can hold and deport those caught by the U.S. Border Patrol.

There’s a difference between the ability to do something for show and the political will to maintain an activity 24/7 for decades. The voters know that, and most don’t trust Bush a nickel’s worth.

But back to my original point, Arpaiovilles can indeed be a helpful bit of strategy in the war to save America.

The Bank Of America Boycott website has this Youtube video of phonecalls to Mexican banks, asking them if they accept the Matricula Consular as a form of identification. They don’t. Which is interesting, because American banks do.

The Boycott Bank Of America coalition has a list of reasons why you should boycott the bank:

1. Bank of America accepts the worthless Mexican ID called a Matricula Consular card. Only illegal aliens in America need this card to function.
2. Bank of America knowingly gives illegal aliens bank accounts and home mortgages at a time when foreclosures are at historically high levels for legal American citizens.
3. Bank of America is now targeting illegal aliens to receive credit cards with no social security or credit history. In effect, illegal aliens will be given preferential treatment over American credit consumers.
4. Bank of America gives tens of thousands of dollars to racist groups that support illegal immigration such as La Raza (The Race), MALDEF, and LULAC. They also give money to try and defeat immigration enforcement measures supported by the American public such as Arizona’s proposition 200!

Check it out at Bankofamericaboycott.com.

Via the Lonewacko blog [M. Elizabeth Roman on fear-struck sweatshop workers] I see there’s a story in a Worcester, Massachusetts paper about illegal immigrants being worried about getting caught. This is actually a good thing; it’s called deterrence.

Here’s a sample of how they’re worrying:

“It is devastating to families,” said Matthew Feinstein [Send him mail]of the Worcester Global Action Network. “The police presence caused many to fear to go to work or send their children to school.”

That should say are afraid to “go to work illegally or send their children to school illegally,”
Also the repeated references later in the story to the “immigrant community” should, of course, be the illegal immigrant community.

But the best part is the title:Immigration raid rattles locals [By M. Elizabeth Roman [Send her mail]Worcester Telegram & Gazette March 11, 2007 ]

“Locals” is a new one in the list of euphemisms for illegal immigrants. Let M. Elizabeth Roman know what you think of it.

Billionaire Bill Gates, in calling for more cheap foreign labor, wrote in the Washington Post

“The United States provides 65,000 temporary H-1B visas each year to make up this shortfall — not nearly enough to fill open technical positions.”[How to Keep America Competitive< /a> February 25, 2007]

In the wake of Mr. Gates’ one-man Congressional testimony staged by Teddy Kennedy, hundreds of news organizations published this 65,000 figure for the number of H-1B visas.

Unfortunately, the 65,000 it is simply wrong. According to the latest figures from United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the number of new H-1B visas approved has been:

FY 2002: 103,584 (Before the “cut”)
FY 2003: 105,314 (Before the “cut”)
FY 2004: 130,497 (Current Law)
FY 2005: 116,927 (Current Law)

During the promotion of the SKIL BILL in 2006, industry lobbyists and politicians claimed the legislation would increase the number of H-1B visas from 65,000 to 115,000. Just this week Investors Business Daily laments Congress’s failure to pass that legislation and gives those same bogus figures.[Brain Barrier March 9, 2007]

As you can see, the actual visa numbers are not in accord with the claim that the SKIL BILL would increase H-1B visas TO 115,000 a year.

USCIS contributed to this deception (and continues to do so). After the law governing the limits on H-1B visas changed in 2004, USCIS kept the number of H-1B visas being approved under wraps. While the law requires USCIS to produce an annual report on the H-1B program, it waited until November 2006 to do so for 2004 and 2005. Adding to the confusion, USCIS appears to have only produced hard copies of the report distributed to Congress and did not post the report to its web site. The only versions of the report available to the public are those that have been scanned in by Congressional staff members.

Since I have sisters, nieces and nephews in Guatemala, I am always on the look out for news items from that unstable Central American country.

Apparently, Bush’s visit earlier this week displeased the Mayan priests so much that, according to an Associated Press report, they felt compelled to “purify” a sacred archaeological site to eliminate “bad spirits” eft behind by Bush.[Priests to Purify Site After Bush Visit By Juan Carlos Llorca, Associated Press March 8, 2007]

While I am totally sympathetic to the anti-Bush sentiment, I was taken aback by the reasons given by the Mayan religious and political leaders. On the top of their list of grievances against Bush is his

“persecution of our migrant brothers in the United States…”

Where do they get this stuff? Not a shred of evidence exists that Guatemalans have been poorly treated in the U.S. Now if you want to see some harsh treatment of humans against each other you might want to take a tour of the Guatemalan prison system...if you dare.