American Rattlesnake recently recounted the tale of “V.M.” an Indian maid kept in servitude in upstate New York.

Most striking is how this injustice was found out — by a simple phone call. Immigration officials were tipped off to the situation by information provided by the National Human Trafficking Resource Center, who themselves got the information through an anonymous tip.

Illegal immigration harms the legitimate residents of this country, by depressing wages and working conditions, and by promoting law-breaking, insular, un-American communities.  But too often illegal immigrants are victims themselves.

By reporting their abuse, you can help them, and help stop the worst traffickers of illegal immigrants into this country.  If you suspect something suspicious, you can call the NHTRC directly at 1-888-3737-888, or make a report via the Polaris Project.

…the best use of the boats would be to deal with what border lawmen call ‘splash downs.’ When drug smugglers are confronted with law enforcement officers in Texas, they currently can speed back to the Rio Grande, drive their vehicle into the river, and then, using rafts, float themselves and their drug cargoes back to Mexico.

“Currently, they have just been allowed to do that,” (Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman Tom) Vinger said. “Now, with these boats, we will be able to arrest and interdict these smugglers.”

The Rio Grande has been the scene of deadly violence in the recent past:

Last year, U.S. law enforcement officials exchanged shots over the Rio Grande with suspected drug runners near the south Texas town of Abram, according to news reports. In a separate incident, a West Texas road crew in Hudspeth County, east of El Paso, came under fire from Mexico.

Then in September 2010, U.S. citizen David Hartley was fatally shot while riding a personal watercraft on Falcon Lake, which straddles the Texas-Mexico border.

 

Ng, a naturalized U.S. citizen, boasted about his long history of duping state DMV workers.

“I’ve helped people with the written test for more than 10 years,” Ng told the undercover before helping him nail a glowing 86 out of 95 questions on the exam.

According to court papers, the investigation found that potentially “hundreds of drivers” who couldn’t read or speak English were issued commercial licenses by the state of New York.

The drivers needed to pass a road test once they passed the written test and paid $12.50 for a commercial driving permit.

Authorities said at least 720 people in the last 26 months took their road tests in vehicles registered to the Ngs’ business, state-licensed N&Y Professional Service Line.

Included in that number was King Yiu Cheng, 37, who was driving north on Interstate 95 on May 31, 2011, when his bus crashed. Four people were killed and dozens injured in the wreck after Cheng fell asleep at the wheel.

American Rattlesnake is hopeful that someone will bring this episode to Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck’s attention.  Chief Beck actually advocates  issuing driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants. This story illustrates just why that is such a wrongheaded policy, with potentially disastrous consequences for ordinary American citizens.

As health care costs keep rising, a good part of that rise is due to insurance fraud.  According to the New York Times, 10 doctors, in 9 separate clinics, funneling money  through a total of 105 different corporations conspired to defraud private insurance programs for over $250 million.  And this plot is just the tip of the iceberg in a vast culture of fraud.

American Rattlesnake cares because most of these conspirators are immigrants from the ex-Soviet Union:

This one, like many others, was rooted in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, the locus of the city’s Russian-speaking immigrant population, many of whom grew up under a Communist system that bred disdain for the rules and a willingness to cheat to get around them.

Brighton Beach has one of the highest rates of health care fraud in the nation, according to federal statistics. In fact, an analysis of data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the federal agency that regulates those two programs, shows that more health care providers in the Brighton Beach ZIP code are currently barred from the programs for malfeasance than in almost any other ZIP code in the United States. (The top spot is in southern Florida, with its high proportion of older residents.)

“This is the Russian mind-set, and this is why it’s endemic in the system,” said one law-enforcement official who has investigated organized-crime groups from the former Soviet Union. “If you’re not scamming the system, if you’re not scamming the government, you’re not doing what you’re supposed to be doing — you’re looked upon as a patsy.”

“The police here are friendly. They patrol the neighborhood often. I’ve never had a problem,” Rivera said from behind the counter of the store, an upbeat ballad playing in Spanish in the background. “But now, with this law, someone could be killing and robbing me and I wouldn’t call the cops.”

American Rattlesnake is amazed at the notion that people want to enjoy the benefits of living in this country, and to be protected by our laws and police, but resent the  enforcement of those laws when it is inconvenient to themselves.

 The photograph you see above was, perhaps unsurprisingly, taken in the United Kingdom. However, it could just as easily have been photographed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Lewiston, Maine, or Clarkston, Georgia. In fact, it could have been taken in any of the numerous, bucolic surburbs or thriving cities that have been the unwelcome recipient of thousands of Somali refugees who have been resettled inside of the United States in the wake of the post-1991 collapse of the Mohammed Siad Barre regime. 

Contrary to glowing accounts of these newcomers coming from mainstream press organs, these Somalis are far from integrated into the American cultural fabric. The ones who’ve settled in Minnesota have been linked to interstate white slavery and recruitment of fellow Somalian immigrants for Al Qaeda affiiate Al Shabaab-including the participation of one Somali living here in a suicide bombing during the ongoing civil conflict in that country. Now, courtesy of a Fox News affiliate in that state, we have video evidence confirming what most of us have known all along, i.e. attempting to get tens of thousands of Somalis to adapt to a culture that’s poles apart from that found in a nomadic, sternly Islamic, third world country is virtually impossible. As the brilliant Theodore Dalrymple has pointed out  on many an occasion, these newcomers often wind up adopting the worst aspects of Western culture, e.g. glamorization of urban violence, disrespect for authority figures-regardless of the legitimacy of their demands-and complete indifference to, if not ignorance of, the rich bequest of Western civilization.

Yet they also retain the worst aspects of the culture that they fled-the culture that is chiefly responsible for turning their homeland into the morass which makes them seek shelter within countries like the United Kingdom and the United States-which means that we are left to bear the cost. Whether it be flash mobs beating innocent Americans senseless, or young girls impressed into service as sex slaves, or Somalis who come here just to be trained in the art of death and destruction, it can no longer be argued that these refugees, in aggregate, are a net benefit to American society. While I’m extremely proud that brave Dutch dissident, Islamic apostate, and member of the Darod clan Ayaan Hirsi Ali now makes her home in the United States, I don’t think that means every Somali refugee should be welcomed into the United States. The perils of superficial humanitarianism, which exacts traumatic costs in real world terms from American citizens, should not be forgotten when we’re exploring this nation’s immigration policy. 

To learn more about the tragic story of Tad Mattle, I suggest you read this heart-rending op-ed written by his father and published in the Huntsville Times. Here are some details about the Save Act  and the Clear Act. Both are pivotal steps in any comprehensive immigration enforcement bill.

I’m not generally a fan of Rick Perry, as most of you know, but I must congratulate him for sticking to his guns in this case. A vile, homicidal rapist won’t be able to victimize any more American citizens, and that is something to be commended. 

I just received an e-mail from the president of NY ICE which provides some good suggestions for voicing your displeasure with Governor Andrew Cuomo’s recent decision to gut Secure Communities in order to pander to illegal aliens and their advocates within New York State. Her press release is reproduced in full below.

Hi NY ICers!

Well, this came as no surprise.

Our governor, Andrew Cuomo, has suspended the program called “Secure Communities”, which would allow for communication between ICE agents and the NYPD.

This is what Cuomo’s lawyer, a graduate of Columbia Law School, Mylan Denerstein had to say about the reason for the “suspension”:

In a June 1 letter to the Department of Homeland Security, Cuomo’s counsel Mylan Denerstein noted that since the commencement of Cuomo’s administration in January, “we have received numerous complaints and questions about the purpose and implementation of the Secure Communities Program to which the prior administration committed New York State.”

I contacted Cuomo’s Office and spoke with someone whose name sounded like “Jovan” and she said that if I want an answer to the question of WHEN this “suspension” will be lifted, I should email Cuomo using the form online, which I did.

This is my e-mail:

I am VERY disappointed in your decision to suspend Secure Communities.  This would help LEGAL New Yorkers, which is with whom your allegiance should lie.  SUPPORT Secure Communities! WHEN do you intend to lift the suspension of this program??  Please get back to me.

Here’s what I’m asking NY ICers to do:

Call *and* email Cuomo’s office and ask when he intends to LIFT the suspension of “Secure Communities”, which is a program you should say you SUPPORT.

Here is the contact information:

Email

Phone: 518-474-8390

As always, try to get the name of the staffer you speak to.

Let me know how it goes.  This war is far from over.  Let me know how your contact of Cuomo’s Office goes! 

Joanna, President of  (NY ICE) New Yorkers for Immigration Control and Enforcement.

I’ve been remiss in addressing this subject, but I think that the recent Supreme Court decision mandating the eventual release of thousands of prisoners currently incarcerated in California’s penal system is worth commenting upon for several reasons.

There is obviously the question of whether courts are excessively involved in micromanaging statewide corrections facilities, as well as a debate over whether the fiscal illiteracy and general profligacy of the California state legislature paved the way for this dramatic ultimatum from the Supreme Court. However, I’d like to address another aspect of this issue, which involves abiding by the Court’s decision without endangering the lives and security of Americans. 

I believe the Washington Times has stumbled upon a perfect solution-or as perfect as can be devised, given the exigent circumstances-to California’s dilemma. Namely, reach a memorandum of understanding with the federal government that would entail the deportation of an estimated 19,000 illegal aliens serving prison time in that state’s correctional facilities. Considering Governor Jerry Brown’s ambiguous record in opposing illegal immigration, it’s far from certain that he would embrace such a course of action. However, as the Times notes in the editorial above, less than two years ago the idea of alleviating California’s budget woes by repatriating foreign nationals imprisoned in California was openly discussed. 

Although deporting the sub-population of California inmates that consists of illegal aliens will not completely resolve the prison crisis, it will be a step in the right direction, not only in terms of satisfying the Court’s ruling, but in ensuring the security of ordinary Californians. As Heather Mac Donald pointed out in her congressional testimony several years ago, their state is the American epicenter of criminal alien gangs, such as MS-13, the 18th Street Gang, and other predominately Mexican and Central American gangs that wreak havoc on a daily basis within Los Angeles. If California decides not to pursue this tack, it will be a decision born of political expediency and shameless pandering, not made with the best interests of California residents at heart.