Michelle Malkin is at it again, and this time she’s placing the blame on illegal immigrants for the financial crisis with WAMU. This misguided woman has taken her credibility to an all time low, which is evident by her fellow conservatives criticizing her for arguing such a far-fetched, conspiracy theory. Normally, her anti-immigrant, illogical reasoning and prejudicial ranting doesn’t phase anyone, but now, even her own party is distances themselves from her. In her most recent blog, she’s blaming the current financial crisis bailout on illegal immgrants, making fellow conservatives cringe with embarrassment.

You’ve heard a lot about Fannie/Freddie and the minority lending shakedowns, but you haven’t heard most commentators/analysts on either the left or the right talk about the massive illegal alien mortgage racket — a topic I’ve reported on for the past five years. That’s because fault lies at the feet of the crime-enabling banking industry and the ethnic lobbyists and the illegal alien-enabling Bush administration.

Malkin argues that illegal immigration may be the cause of this financial crisis, an issue she has been reporting on for the last five years. This radical argument brought out fellow conservatives such as UCLA professor Stephen Bainbridge, who comments:

“Some of my fellow conservatives are not only embarrassing themselves during the financial crisis, they’re embarrassing the rest of us who share that label.”

There’s a lot of room for legitimate criticism of the bailout and there’s a lot of room for partisan point-making to ensure that the public remembers that the Democrats bear more than their fair share of the blame for this mess, but the raving of people like Malkin and Krikorian should be taking place in a padded room in Arkham Asylum not in the public discourse.

Put simply, the freezing up of the credit markets doesn’t have anything to do with either affirmative action or illegal immigration, and people who believe it does are on a par with the conspiracy theorists who think fluoridation is a Chicom plot.” Read it here

Malkin was not the only anti-immigrant activitist speaking out about the the financial crisis. As Bainbridge referred to above, fellow commentator Mark Krikorian basically implied that the crisis is due to minority employees. Say what??

Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies, juxtaposed the downfall of Washington Mutual with its competitive diversity policies and programs, insinuating that minority employees were responsible for the bank’s failure. Read it here.

Bainbridge noted some interesting facts which lead to the crisis, none of which had any connection to illegal immigration or ethnic workers.

When you look at the data, it’s true that minorities are slightly over-represented in the sub-prime mortgage market. Yet, whites (non-minorities) received 72.5% of subprime mortgages. Blacks got 16.2% of subprime mortgages, which isn’t all that different from the 12.4% of the general population that blacks comprise. The Hispanics about whom Malkin is so hysterical got only 6.2% of subprime mortgages, significantly less than their 14.8% of the general population. But you don’t find an analysis of that data at blogs like those of Malkin or Krikorian.

Anti-immigrant haters such as Malkin and Krikorian must be living on another planet. Soon they will blame illegal immigration for the war in Iraq.. hmmm, I think Malkin did that already.

Here in blogville, we can basically post what we want into cyberspace and hope that someone, somwhere, will see it and think about it. As we’re fast approaching the US Presidential Election, many are clueless as to what each candidate stand for in regards to health care, the war in Iraq, the war against terrorism, social security, education, and most dear to me, immigration. Now that we’ve moved beyond Sara Palin’s inadequate foreign policy experience, inept experience in being the second in command, and her ultra conservative position on women’s rights and gay marriage, lets assess what the presidential nominees are are up.

What most of us want to see is passage of fair and just immigration reforms that will protect immigrants from employment discrimination, human rights violations, and provide meaningful opportunities to be able to become US citizens. We hope to have a de-militarize border with Mexico, fairness in refugee and asylum processes and an end to constitutional rights violations. We want an end to frivolous and unmerited detention and raids, and restoration of justice in our policies and programs.

Do we really need to spend billions of dollars securing our borders with Mexico when historically Mexico has supplied our nation with labor and resources it had needed for decades. Can’t we use that money to fix our Social Security system, our Medical programs, or our treatment of victims of Hurrican Katrina and elsewhere?

Read here for the candidates position on immigration. It’s middle ground and considering it’s this close to election, it’s not surprising.

Another arrest and another dark bruise to immigrant advocate groups in the US. immigration system. While most advocate for comprehensive immigration reform, wherein millions of immigrants may be removed from the shadow and consequential abuses by employers and substandard health care, there are those that will abuse and exploit the immigration system for economic profits.

Here’s the Press Release regarding the arrest:

ST. PAUL, Minn. - Two men were sentenced Thursday in federal court for participating in a conspiracy that allowed dozens of Chinese nationals to illegally enter the United States based on sham marriages to U.S. citizens. These sentences resulted from an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

U.S. District Court Judge Paul Magnuson sentenced Le Guo Wu, 31, of Philadelphia, Penn., to 30 months in prison and three years of supervised release. Houa Vang, 24, of St. Paul, was sentenced to12 months and one day in prison along with two years of supervised release. Vang and Wu each pleaded guilty earlier this year to conspiring to profit from arranging, facilitating and participating in fraudulent marriages.

“These sentences show that admission to the United States is not for sale,” said Claude Arnold, special agent in charge of ICE’s Office of Investigations in Bloomington. “Such marriage fraud schemes not only undermine the integrity of our nation’s legal immigration system, they also pose a potential threat to national security.”

“This conspiracy used lies and deceit to prey upon our nation’s immigration laws,” said U.S. Attorney Frank J. Magill. “In the end, this was about generating a profit by trafficking United States citizens and Chinese nationals through our immigration visa system. The integrity of our nation’s borders must be maintained, and these types of crimes will be prosecuted.”

According to their plea agreements, Wu, assisted by Vang, led a coordinated effort to pay U.S. citizens to enter into sham marriages with Chinese nationals to illegally evade U.S. immigration laws. Both men admitted to committing marriage fraud for several purposes, including: profiting financially from the arranged marriages, facilitating the fraudulent entry of Chinese aliens into the U.S., and facilitating the fraudulent acquisition of lawful permanent residency by Chinese aliens.

Wu recruited dozens of U.S. citizens in multiple states to participate in the conspiracy beginning in 2004 and continuing through October 2007. He ran the operation from Philadelphia, but also operated in the Twin Cities, Minn.; New York; and from within China. Vang recruited U.S. citizens to participate in the conspiracy.

Both defendants assisted the recruited U.S. citizens with completing and filing petitions and visa applications to facilitate aliens fraudulently entering into the United States. Wu arranged for U.S. citizens to travel to China so they could document their purported relationships with Chinese nationals, and compensated the U.S. citizens for their participation in the conspiracy.

Vang agreed to enter a fraudulent marriage with a Chinese national in 2006, and made trips to China to document the sham relationship. Vang was offered $20,000 for his part in gaining his fraudulent wife’s illegal entry into the U.S., but ultimately received less than that amount.

ICE agents investigated this case; it was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys David M. Genrich and LeeAnn K. Bell.

These people are disgusting because as they continue to flagrantly disregard and violate the law, they do it in the name of the ultimate good for immigrant families.  First of all, if a Chinese family living in China can afford to pay $20,000 - $40,000 to have a child married off in a sham marriage, they are not exactly considered disadvantaged in their home country. In situations like this, we applaud the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers for this keen investigative work in bringing down these criminal mavericks who egregiously flout our immigration laws.

This child predator was nabbed while at the Los Angeles airport, preparing to board a plane to Bangkok, Thailand. How did the federal government uncover the nefarious, criminal activity? Think internet and think dumbass here posted an article on Craigslist.org requesting assistant with arranging sex meetings with 13 year old Thai boys and Thai girls. This slimeball was ultimately nabbed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers posing as the prospective guide, wherein emails and telephone calls were exchanged so said slimeball can confirm his arrangements.

Here’s the article:

Los Angeles, California - A Santa Barbara sales representative made his initial appearance in federal court here this afternoon to face federal child sex tourism charges after he allegedly advertised on the Internet site Craiglist.com for a “guide” to help him procure children for sex in Thailand.

Michael Patrick Mahoney, 51, was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) special agents at Los Angeles International Airport Saturday night as he boarded a flight ultimately destined for Bangkok, Thailand.

Mahoney is charged in a criminal complaint with one count of traveling with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places, a violation that carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison. At Mahoney’s initial hearing this afternoon, U.S. Magistrate Charles F. Eick set his bond at $100,000.

When ICE agents arrested Mahoney, he had in his possession children’s stuffed animals, Disneyland shirts, chocolates, and approximately $800 in U.S. and Thai currency.

The investigation into Mahoney began last week after ICE agents spotted his suspicious posting on the Craiglist website.

Subsequently, an undercover ICE agent posing as a travel guide e-mailed the defendant and offered to make the requested arrangements. In subsequent e-mails and phone conversations with the undercover agent, Mahoney expressed interest in engaging in sexual activities with 12 and 13-year-old Thai boys and girls. Mahoney asked the agent to call him to confirm that he would be able to procure the children for sexual encounters with him in Bangkok this week.

“This case is yet another disturbing reminder that those who have a sexual interest in children believe they can evade detection and prosecution by committing sex crimes overseas,” said Robert Schoch, special agent in charge for the ICE office of investigations in Los Angeles. “Fortunately for the world’s young people, foreign authorities and U.S. law enforcement are allied in their resolve to combat this problem and bring the perpetrators to justice.”

ICE received assistance in the investigation from its attaché office in Bangkok and members of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

Mahoney is being charged under the provisions of the PROTECT Act, which was signed into law five years ago. The PROTECT Act substantially strengthened federal laws against predatory crimes involving children outside the United States by adding new crimes, increasing sentences, and modifying the burden of proof requirements for federal prosecutors to bring charges.

Mahoney’s arrest is part of Operation Predator, an ongoing ICE enforcement initiative launched five years ago to target those who prey upon and sexually exploit our nation’s children, including Internet pornographers, human traffickers, international sex tourists, and foreign national sexual predators. Since the initiative began, ICE agents have arrested more than 11,000 individuals nationwide.

ICE encourages the reporting of suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at 1-866-DHS-2ICE. This hotline is staffed around the clock by investigators.

Suspected child sexual exploitation or missing children may be reported to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, an Operation Predator partner, at 1-800-843-5678.

- Imperial Valley News (USA) / 19 August 2008

Do people really think that law enforcement do not peruse the Internet? Oh wait, we’re talking about low-life scums who prey on children so they actually don’t really think.