So how bad is illegal immigration?

[dbacks fan]

Here are two stories on the same incident in El Paso TX.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/06/25/20100625texas-border-shooting-of-teen.html

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/06/08/20100608border-patrol-shoots-boy.html

They still don't know if he was shot from the Mexico side or the US side.

[dbacks fan]

Legislation like 1070 is not a new issue in Arizona, it has been going on since the mid 90's

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/06/18/20100618arizona-immigration-law-timeline-slideshow.html

[dbacks fan]

As to Arizona's defense of 1070 in Federal Court, the state has raised $123,000.00 in private donations from all fifty states.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/06/25/20100625arizona-immigration-law-federal-challenge-lawsuit.html

[dbacks fan]

Here are three articles on the last time there was immigration reform in 1986 by Reagan.

http://www.postonpolitics.com/2009/11/rubio-reagan-erred-in-supporting-1986-amnesty-for-illegal-immigrants/

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=18399

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2008/jan/06/rudy-giuliani/yep-reagan-did-the-a-word/

Just my opinion, when Reagan granted Amnesty then it opened the flood gates that we now have. It's also interesting that as much as the right bashes Hugo Chavez, and the left may embrace him, I don't see too many immigrants from Venezuela, as I do Honduras, Guatemala, and several other Central American countries. If you want to catagorize the hispanic illegals, they seem to be mostly from south of Mexico to just north of South America and this is not including those that come through Central America and then through Mexico to get here.

[guido911]

Give credit when due. Obama to send National Guard to border.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/07/19/national-guard-deploy-southwest-border-aug/

[heironymouspasparagus]

Venezuela ain't no paradise.  All the oil money used to go to the CIA backed regime.  Now it goes to Chavez and his buddies.  New boss same as the old boss.  Except that Chavez has done just a little more for the people.

Most people there are still very poor - the benefits don't trickle down. And last time I was there, the little Spanish I understand let me see on the news they were having a malaria epidemic/outbreak.  And I forgot my DEET!!!

[Conan71]

The Chinese sure understood the need for strong border security.

[Vashta Nerada]

2 die after helicopter opens fire

LA JOYA, Texas (AP) — A Texas state trooper who fired on a pickup truck from a helicopter during a deadly chase through the desert was trying to disable the vehicle and suspected it was being used to smuggle drugs, authorities said Friday.

The disclosure came a day after the incident left two illegal immigrants from Guatemala dead on an isolated gravel road near the town of La Joya, just north of the Mexico border.

State game wardens were the first to encounter the truck Thursday. After the driver refused to stop, they radioed for help and state police responded, according to Parks and Wildlife Department spokesman Mike Cox.
When the helicopter with a sharpshooter arrived, officers concluded that the truck appeared to be carrying a "typical covered drug load" on its bed and was traveling at reckless speeds, police said.

After the shots were fired and the truck's tires blown out, the driver lost control and crashed into a ditch.
Eight people who were in the truck were arrested. At least seven of them were also from Guatemala. No drugs were found.
The sharpshooter was placed on administrative leave, a standard procedure after such incidents.

An expert on police chases said the decision to fire on the truck was "a reckless act" that served "no legitimate law enforcement purpose."
"In 25 years following police pursuits, I hadn't seen a situation where an officer shot a speeding vehicle from a helicopter," said Geoffrey Alpert, professor of criminology at the University of South Carolina. Such action would be reasonable only if "you know for sure the person driving the car deserves to die and that there are no other occupants."

In general, he said, law enforcement agencies allow the use of deadly force only when the car is being used as a weapon, not "just on a hunch," Alpert added.
The Texas Department of Public Safety did not immediately respond to an Associated Press request for the agency's policy governing the use of deadly force.

Other law enforcement agencies that patrol the border say they have limits on the practice.
But a report presented Thursday to the United Nations by the American Civil Liberties Union said shootings and excessive force by Customs and Border Protection agents on the border have left at least 20 individuals dead or seriously hurt since January 2010.

Of those, eight cases involved agents responding to reports of people throwing rocks. Six involved people killed while standing on the Mexican side of the border.

In recent years, Texas state police have increased their presence in the border area, deploying more agents, more helicopters and more boats to patrol the Rio Grande.
Troopers are regularly involved in high-speed pursuits, often chasing drug smugglers into the river and back to Mexico.