Thread: Mexico opens California office to provide ID for illegals

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/polit ... 34969.html

Mexico opens California office to provide ID for illegals
By: Sara A. Carter
National Security Correspondent
June 3, 2010

The Mexican government is opening a satellite consular office on Catalina Island -- a small resort off the California coast with a history of drug smuggling and human trafficking -- to provide the island's illegal Mexican immigrants with identification cards, The Washington Examiner has learned.

The Mexican consular office in Los Angeles issued a flier, a copy of which was obtained by The Examiner, listing the Catalina Island Country Club as the location of its satellite office. It invites Mexicans to visit the office to obtain the identification, called matricular cards, by appointment.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a Republican whose district includes Catalina Island, said handing out matricular cards will exacerbate an already dangerous situation.

"Handing out matricular cards to Mexicans who are not in this country legally is wrong no matter where it's done," he said. "But on Catalina it will do more damage. It's a small island but there's evidence it's being used as a portal for illegals to access mainland California."

Rohrabacher added, "If there were a large number of Americans illegally in Mexico and the U.S. consulate was making it easier for them to stay, Mexico would never permit it."

Mexican officials with the consular office in Los Angeles could not be reached immediately for comment. The matricular consular identification card, is issued by the Mexican government to Mexican nationals residing outside the country, regardless of immigration status. The purpose is to provide identification for opening bank accounts and obtaining other services. But the cards are usually used to skirt U.S. immigration laws, since Mexicans in the country legally have documents proving that status, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said.

In 2004 testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, FBI officials called the card an unreliable form of identification. The agency said that Mexico lacks a centralized database for them, which could lead to forgery, duplication, and other forms of abuse.

Officers with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said their agency was asked by Mexican officials not to enforce U.S. immigration laws on the island while the cards were being issued.

"It amazes me every time that the Mexican government has the gall to tell us what to do," said an ICE official, who asked not to be named. "More surprisingly is how many times we stand by and let them. This is just an example of one of hundreds of requests we've had to deal with."

In April, Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies seized a boat carrying large quantities of marijuana and detained three Mexican nationals who said they were being smuggled into the United States.

The island has a sizable Mexican migrant population. Most are undocumented low-income workers.

scarter@washingtonexaminer.com

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"Handing out matricular cards to Mexicans who are not in this country legally is wrong no matter where it's done," he said. "But on Catalina it will do more damage. It's a small island but there's evidence it's being used as a portal for illegals to access mainland California."

Mexican illegal aliens are increasingly coming in by boat and can come into Catalina in the night and leave for LA by ferry. The American teenagers living on the island who want to work are not going to be helped much by this either.

contact:
<img src=http://www.visitcatalinaisland.com/avalon/photoThumbs/poi_countryClub.jpg>
DeeDee Sidars
Catalina Island Country Club
phone: 310-510-7428
email: dsidars@scico.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Cata ... California

In 1972, the Brown Berets, a group of Chicano activists seized and claimed the islands for Mexico, citing the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, a treaty between Mexico and the USA by which Mexico lost more than half of its territory, and arguing that the treaty does not specifically mention the Channel Islands. Though the United States had occupied them since 1852, the group speculated that Mexico could claim the islands and seek their return through litigation before the International Court of Justice. However, a detailed analysis of its situation puts in doubt the likelihood of Mexico winning the case at the International Court of Justice.[citation needed]

Sure, give them a worthless piece of paper. ICE should park their buses right outside the counselate.

So since ICE knows all this is happening when are they going to raid Catalina businesses ?

Think I will ask them and everyone else should also.

I suppose that country club is where all the Chamber of Commerce types go to complain like Mortimer Duke in trading places: "We seem to be paying some of our American Citizen employees an awful lot of money." Where Louis Winthorpe III answers: [laughs] "Can't get around the old minimum wage, Mortimer." Cut scene had Randolph Duke chime in: "I got it, illegal alien 'guest' workers, that is where we need to go -- maybe we can have the Mexican government help us ship them in?" "What do you think Mortimer? We can offer our country club here as a guest consulate for our cheap guest workers?" Mortimer Duke: "Yes Randolph, that's it! An orderly flow of foreign workers take jobs from those greedy American workers demanding the minimum wage.â€

[quote="MarkB"]I suppose that country club is where all the Chamber of Commerce types go to complain like Mortimer Duke in trading places: "We seem to be paying some of our American Citizen employees an awful lot of money." Where Louis Winthorpe III answers: [laughs] "Can't get around the old minimum wage, Mortimer." Cut scene had Randolph Duke chime in: "I got it, illegal alien 'guest' workers, that is where we need to go -- maybe we can have the Mexican government help us ship them in?" "What do you think Mortimer? We can offer our country club here as a guest consulate for our cheap guest workers?" Mortimer Duke: "Yes Randolph, that's it! An orderly flow of foreign workers take jobs from those greedy American workers demanding the minimum wage.â€

That's funny and not funny at the same time. I'm surprised that Mexico has not opened its own offices in the U.S. to issue American Citizenship and Green Cards. It's like people have been saying all along: it's all about Mexico and the consequences of leaving our back door open. Not that this will ever happen, but it would be interesting if the media actually did a truthful report on what new methods are used to smuggle Mexicans and Central Americans into the U.S. I doubt it's only the old desert crossing method.
I don't blame the poor from Mexico for wanting to come to the U.S. to work and enjoy better circumstances. They're usually very good workers. But unauthorized colonization is still wrong. Unauthorized in theory. In practice, they have a green light to enter the U.S. illegally or there wouldn't be millions of them here now.