NICARAGUA’S PLANS: The office of Rep. Tom Tancredo (R.-Colo.), chairman of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus, is distributing a May 3 memo from the American embassy in Managua to the secretary of state’s office that notes that Nicaragua plans to replicate Mexico’s matricula consular ID card. The matricula is used by illegal immigrants to facilitate living illegally here. Legal immigrants already have authoritative identity documents such as passports or green cards. "The GON [government of Nicaragua] plans to implement a consular ID card program similar to the one begun by the Mexican government for Mexican citizens in the U.S. . . .," says the memo. "In issuing a consular ID card, the GON will not inquire as to the individual’s legal status in the U.S." Could countries such as Pakistan and China be next?
WHERE’S SENSENBRENNER? The House subcommittee on immigration has been looking into the matricula issue, and Rep. Elton Gallegly (R.-Calif.) has a bill (HR 687) that would forbid federal agencies from accepting it as a valid form of ID (see "Gallegly Bill Would Ban Mexican ID at U.S. Agencies" in the June 23, 2003, issue). But the bill is unlikely to advance without the support of House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Sensenbrenner (R.-Wis.). Tancredo said that Sensenbrenner and House GOP leaders were feeling pressure from the White House not to do anything on the immigration issue. Immigration subcommittee chairman and immigration hawk Rep. John Hostettler (R.-Ind.) "can do only what the chairman lets him do, and he does only what the leadership tells him to do, and they do what the White House wants them to do," said Tancredo. Calls to the offices of Sensenbrenner and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R.-Tex.) seeking their attitudes on the matricula issue and Gallegly’s bill yielded no responses.
UNWANTED GUESTS? Rep. Jeff Flake (R.-Ariz.), along with Rep. Jim Kolbe (R.-Ariz.) and Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D.-Tex.), is working on legislation to establish a guest worker program in the United States, which many fear could lead to another amnesty for illegal aliens. Flake justifies his bill as a way to stop alien smuggling. "I’m not convinced that increased penalties on smugglers, absent some sort of temporary worker program, will do much to reduce the number of deaths on the border," he said June 24. "A temporary worker program will provide these workers with a legal framework to enter and work in the country, and then return home."
ORWELL CONTINUES: The left continues to stamp out dissent in the institutions it controls, trying now to intimidate California judges from being involved in the Boy Scouts because the group "discriminates" against homosexuals. Incredibly, reported CNS News June 24, "rules adopted eight years ago forbade California judges from being members of organizations that discriminate against homosexuals" (does that include Christian churches that believe in the Bible and Orthodox Jewish synagogues?). An exception was made for "non-profit youth organizations," but now, says CNS News, the state supreme court "has made it clear that judges with ties to the Scouts should either have to step down or notify litigants in cases dealing with discrimination based on sexual orientation." California’s judicial ethics code says, "A judge should not belong to organizations that practice invidious discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion, national origin or sexual orientation."
ABORTIONISTS’ TROUBLE: Abortionists in Europe have been trying to circumvent pro-life laws in certain countries by sailing around in a ship named the Langenort and offering abortions to women in places such as Ireland. The abortionists ran into trouble off Poland, however. Reported BBC News, "Customs officials have boarded the ship operated by a Dutch abortion rights group to search for contraceptive pills that are illegal in Poland. However, Malgorzata Wilkosz Sliwa, a spokeswoman for state prosecutors, said the crew would not be in breach of Polish abortion laws so long as any pills remained on the ship. ‘If no one tries to distribute [the pills], then there is no crime,’ she said. Crew member Jeanette Kruseman admits RU-486 pills are on board, but under a seal that will not be broken while the ship remains in Poland. The ship arrived at the Baltic Sea port of Wladyslawowo on Sunday where it was met with fierce protests in a country that has one of Europe’s toughest anti-abortion laws." The Dutch Women on Waves group operates the ship.
