Welcome the New Neighbors Alert!

The Raleigh News and Observer (who coined "welcoming the new neighbors") is shocked that Crowds crush DMV offices:

Immigrants trying to beat a Feb. 2 cutoff for some forms of ID swell lines for licenses across Triangle

An initiative meant to keep criminals and possibly terrorists from obtaining driver licenses is creating congestion, confusion and frayed nerves at the state's Division of Motor Vehicle offices.

As a crush of immigrants seek licenses before the state stops accepting Mexican identification cards and some other IDs on Feb. 2, a trip to the DMV is turning into an hours-long ordeal.

Some customers camped out overnight, and others arrived before dawn to be in line when the doors opened at 8 a.m. Friday at the DMV office on Miami Boulevard in Durham. People waited a half day or more for service at other offices in the Triangle, and the DMV warned that the problem will get worse.
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When the initiative takes effect Feb. 2, Mexican immigrants will no longer be able to use several ID cards that they've relied on to get driver licenses. They include military and voting cards issued by Mexico and the popular matricula cards issued by Mexican consulates in the United States and commonly used by illegal immigrants.

Hey, I know how to thin out the lines! Park big vans with a huge signs saying "Border Patrol" next to the offices.

And speaking of the Border Patrol, how about Border Patrol: Did Bush send you here?

Border Patrol agents along the southern frontier are surveying illegals to find out if President Bush's controversial immigration reform plan announcement prompted them to come.

Agents have been instructed to ask one out of every five illegal aliens they catch if they were aware of Bush's proposed guest worker program and if it motivated them to come, the Tucson Citizen newspaper reported.

The daily said a citizen border watchdog group, Civil Homeland Defense, believes it already has seen an effect from the announcement.

The group caught 85 people entering the country illegally last weekend, said founder Chris Simcox.

"They were, like, 'What's the problem? President Bush said it was OK,'" he told the Tucson paper. "That's the attitude out there, and [Border Patrol] agents are totally demoralized."

And more:

But according to the Los Angeles Times, agents say there is anecdotal evidence a new wave of immigration has begun, as detainees have demanded "amnesty" upon their capture.

Well that's swell news although no surprise to anyone with even minor acquaintance with human nature. UPDATE: More in Bush Plan a Magnet.

And speaking of human nature, the usual suspects like to trot out the whine that "American was built by immigrants" and the illegals "are just looking for a better life for themselves." Aside from the fact that earlier immigrants were legal and not living off the largesse of the taxpayers, there's a wee problem that along with all the swell folks streaming across the border there are some who aren't so nice. Besides the occasional terrorist like Alleged Hizballah 'Fighter' Snuck Into U.S. from Mexico how about The Illegal-Alien Crime Wave?

Police commanders may not want to discuss, much less respond to, the illegal-alien crisis, but its magnitude for law enforcement is startling. Some examples:

• In Los Angeles, 95 percent of all outstanding warrants for homicide (which total 1,200 to 1,500) target illegal aliens. Up to two-thirds of all fugitive felony warrants (17,000) are for illegal aliens.

• A confidential California Department of Justice study reported in 1995 that 60 percent of the 20,000-strong 18th Street Gang in southern California is illegal; police officers say the proportion is actually much greater. The bloody gang collaborates with the Mexican Mafia, the dominant force in California prisons, on complex drug-distribution schemes, extortion, and drive-by assassinations, and commits an assault or robbery every day in L.A. County. The gang has grown dramatically over the last two decades by recruiting recently arrived youngsters, most of them illegal, from Central America and Mexico.

• The leadership of the Columbia Lil’ Cycos gang, which uses murder and racketeering to control the drug market around L.A.’s MacArthur Park, was about 60 percent illegal in 2002, says former assistant U.S. attorney Luis Li. Francisco Martinez, a Mexican Mafia member and an illegal alien, controlled the gang from prison, while serving time for felonious reentry following deportation.

Good luck finding any reference to such facts in official crime analysis.

And why's that?

Some of the most violent criminals at large today are illegal aliens. Yet in cities where the crime these aliens commit is highest, the police cannot use the most obvious tool to apprehend them: their immigration status. In Los Angeles, for example, dozens of members of a ruthless Salvadoran prison gang have sneaked back into town after having been deported for such crimes as murder, assault with a deadly weapon, and drug trafficking. Police officers know who they are and know that their mere presence in the country is a felony. Yet should a cop arrest an illegal gangbanger for felonious reentry, it is he who will be treated as a criminal, for violating the LAPD’s rule against enforcing immigration law.

The LAPD’s ban on immigration enforcement mirrors bans in immigrant-saturated cities around the country, from New York and Chicago to San Diego, Austin, and Houston. These “sanctuary policies” generally prohibit city employees, including the cops, from reporting immigration violations to federal authorities.

Such laws testify to the sheer political power of immigrant lobbies, a power so irresistible that police officials shrink from even mentioning the illegal-alien crime wave. “We can’t even talk about it,” says a frustrated LAPD captain. “People are afraid of a backlash from Hispanics.” Another LAPD commander in a predominantly Hispanic, gang-infested district sighs: “I would get a firestorm of criticism if I talked about [enforcing the immigration law against illegals].” Neither captain would speak for attribution.

Here's a test you can do at home - Google the web for your county or state's "Ten Most Wanted List" and see how many are Spanish-surnamed. For the case of the little rural county I live in, there are 3 people on the Most Wanted List but 2 are Spanish-surnamed. For the state, 3 of 7 are Spanish-surnamed. Since I live in one of the original 13 colonies over 1000 miles from Mexico, I don't think too many of these folks had roots here.

But Cracker, you say, "We just can't round up all of them and ship them back!" I say that economics brought them here and economics will send them back if we crack down on employers of illegal aliens. I'd also like to say crack down on a variety of taxpayer benefits like schools and hospitals too, but the usual suspects have gotten some judges to discover new rights in the Constitution for illegal aliens. We'll have to work fast before they find that the Constitution guarantees illegal aliens the right to a job too.