Thread: Mex Overreach in Calif. Highlights Unsustainable Immigration

Mexican overreach in California highlights an unsustainable approach to immigration (Rep. Dana Rohrabacher)

By Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) - 06/04/10 03:04 PM ET

Since the signing of the tough new immigration enforcement law in Arizona, which I support, the issue of illegal immigration has once again jettisoned to the forefront of national political discussion. The Obama administration’s reaction to Arizona’s efforts to get an untenable situation under control, has been disappointingly predictable and dismissive of the majority of the American people who support what Arizona is doing. At every turn this administration has attempted to vilify Arizona’s efforts to enforcement the law from threats of litigation by the Justice Department to our President allowing Mexican President, Felipe Calderon, to lecture us about our immigration laws from the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. With each passing day our border remains unsecure, the out of control flow of illegal aliens continues bankrupting border states like my home state of California and puts our national security at risk.

That attitude and the administration’s unequivocal support for amnesty have not gone unnoticed by our neighbors to the South. If anything, it seems to have emboldened the Mexican government even more to thumb their noses at our laws and push for the legalization of 10-20 million illegal aliens, a majority of which are from Mexico.

After all, illegal immigration in the United States is big business for Mexico. After oil, the number two source of income for Mexico is the roughly $25 billion of remittances sent back there from workers in the United States, many of whom are here illegally.

One of the tactics used by the Mexican government to help maintain this revenue source is the issuance of what is known as a “matricula consular ID cardâ€

[quote]It was also brought to my attention that the Mexican Consulate in Los Angeles contacted the local Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office to ask for their “cooperationâ€