-We begin the blotter with a bone-chilling story focusing upon a particularly senseless, brutal murder by a 27 year-old Mexican national in Stark County, Ohio. The heartless, illegal killer of 61 year-old taxi company owner and driver Jerry Laury-a man who, as his sister points out, had survived both a kidney transplant and open heart surgery-was given a 33 year sentence, after which he can be deported, although I’m sure that’s small solace to Mr. Laury’s surviving family members. The death of Jerry Laury at the hands of this piece of sub-human detritus concretizes the senselessness of our country’s open borders policies.

-Meanwhile, on the Left Coast, jury selection began in the trial of another 27 year-old illegal alien who gunned down 60 year-old Charles Ellsworth Richardson in front of his trailer repair shop in Riverside County, California. This charming fellow, in addition to being a cold-blooded killer, has already been convicted of the following crimes:

...possession of marijuana for sale, transportation of marijuana for sale, possession of an assault weapon and a misdemeanor count of carrying a loaded firearm in public.

Aren’t you glad this “undocumented American” is part of the wonderful new mosaic of California?

-Next, we move a bit north, to the Pacific Northwest, where another Mexican national who had been deported just three weeks prior murdered his 21 year-old former girlfriend, who was the mother of his five year-old son, Griselda Ocampo Meza. A statutory rapist with previous convictions for domestic violence? Good to know that in the future such pettifogging crimes won’t merit the attention of American immigration enforcement.

-Finally, we head south to the Sunshine State where, courtesy of the New American, comes word of the 13 year sentence handed down to a 26 year-old, illegal border jumper convicted of vehicular manslaughter in Sarasota, Florida. We wish we could say this was an isolated incident, but as the New American points out-and as has been reported on American Rattlesnake in the past-the link between drunk driving and illegal aliens is one that continually reappears, and one that will keep cropping up if our government persists in its lackadaisical policies, re: immigration enforcement.

They only get recycled, especially if those ideas were conceived on Capitol Hill by people who have no interest in serving their ostensible constituents. We were all wondering when our president would return to the Democrat Party’s favorite demagogic talking point. Well, we finally have our answer.

Despite the seeming patina of bipartisanship reflected by this meeting’s invitees-open borders devotees from the Republican as well as the Democratic parties were invited to this elaborately orchestrated charade-there was no disguising what the true agenda of this “gathering” was. Nor was there any doubt as to why its participants decided to take part in an exercise that most impartial observers view as a futile endeavor in the newly constituted, strongly pro-enforcement Republican Congress.

Our own mayor, Michael Bloomberg, desperately wants to deflect attention from his flailing, bordering on disastrous-no to mention completely unwarranted-third term in office, while former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has his sights set on something more ambitious. Namely, the presidency of the European Union. Their counterparts in Mr. Obama’s party, on the other hand, want to cement their party’s status as the one political vehicle in this country that panders exclusively to Hispanic voters, even if that means embracing a policy that rewards lawlessness, ensures future waves of illegal immigration, and compromises our national security, all while alienating hard-working American citizens and legal immigrants from their own society. 

Make no mistake, this meeting was not about policy but politics, and politics practiced in the most naked, exploitative manner possible. Barack Obama is not delusional, and the notion that he believes a meeting with the likes of Al Sharpton and Michael Bloomberg will convince Republicans in the House of Representatives to abandon one of the stances most responsible for their newfound majority is patently absurd. Therefore, the only logical conclusion is that this stagecraft is intended to bolster President Obama’s flagging support among likely voters within the Latino community. 

The good news, at least from our perspective, is that this bit of political chicanery does not appear to be working with its intended audience. The (very) early reviews are in, and it does not look pretty for the President. The Phoenix New Times, a radical-left open borders rag,  mercilessly panned this gathering of open borders advocates, focusing its ire specifically on what it views as Obama’s overly harsh and contentless rhetoric regarding his proposed comprehensive reform. This, in tandem with the ultimately empty-yet still provocative-posturing of Congressman Luis Gutierrez add up to a huge political problem for the President with just one year until the 2012 presidential election. 

Whether he can find a way to square the circle, i.e. retain his heretofore solid support among Hispanic voters without accomplishing anything substantive to palliate his most rabid, pro-amnesty base, is something that remains to be seen.

For someone who up until relatively recently had a rather anemic record in support of immigration enforcement, Orrin Hatch has proven himself to be a reliable voice in the United States for more robust immigration controls. Now, whether this newfound hawkishness on immigration is an outgrowth of political expediency-and a strong desire to deflect a potential challenge from impressive Utah congressman Jason Chaffetz-or a genuine epiphany is a question that can’t be answered.

However, the Center for Immigration Studies has an informative update on Senator Hatch’s proposal to abolish the disastrous Visa Diversity Lottery, whose many deficiencies were chronicled in an earlier backgrounder by Janice Kephart. Whether or not Senator Hatch’s bill achieves success-which is unlikely in a Senate controlled by Majority Leader Harry Reid-the mere fact that it is being discussed is an achievement of sorts. 

Senator Hatch might not have been with us in the past, but the fact is his proposal is desperately needed, especially at a time of increased attempts at apocalyptic terrorism by Islamic terror organizations such as Al Qaeda and Lashkar e-Taiba. Our friends across the Atlantic have already learned the lesson of what happens when open borders meets multicultural appeasement. Diversity is laudable, but it shouldn’t come at the cost of America’s security.

The bill that can’t seem to die an honorable death is once again being resurrected, thanks to the efforts of Lindsay Grahamnesty and Juan McCain. Mark Krikorian has the bad news.

There isn’t much in his analysis that I disagree with, although I’m probably more anxious about the prospects of an amnesty push in the new Congress than he is. You would think that with Republicans exercising a substantial governing majority the idea of another broad-based amnesty would be dead on arrival. However, nothing is ever certain when you have a political class of such dubious moral character, always eager to cut deals that would encroach upon or negate entirely the birthright of their constituents.

We all know what Speaker Boehner thinks about the idea of amnesty, and if his past statements are any indication, he is not a fan. Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell has also spoken out-as recently as last week-against the concept of conferring permanent citizenship upon millions of illegal aliens. However, we can’t rely upon words in order to keep this nation secure from yet another disastrous immigration bill. Despite the slightly more favorable makeup of the current Congress, there are still dozens upon dozens of members who are fighting to enact their retrograde open borders policies. Whether it’s the Democratic leadership in the U.S. Senate, Charles Schumer, Dick Durbin and Majority Leader Reid-who want to drum up reliable voters for future elections-or the consistently wrongheaded path of Senators McCain and Graham, the drive to turn back the clock has not slackened one bit since the voters chastised our politicians in the previous election cycle.

That is why you need to work harder than ever to prevent these bad ideas from being enacted into law. If Congress had its way, we would already be greenlighting citizenship for over 20 million illegals, including potential future terrorists, right now. The only thing standing in the way of this horrible scenario is the energized, aggravated American electorate. That’s why we need to keep our eye on the ball and continue to fight the likes of Senator Graham until they get the message that their ideas on immigration are not welcome in the halls of Congress.

It’s time to bury amnesty, once and for all.

As we mark the end of the old year and the beginning of something new, it’s wise to take a step back and assess the accomplishments and setbacks of our movement. 2010 was probably the most significant year in terms of advancing the debate over immigration enforcement within the body politic of this country in recent memory.

The most notable event, of course, was the decision by Governor Jan Brewer of Arizona to sign into law Senator Russell Pearce’s signature piece of legislation, SB 1070. As a quick reminder, the Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act makes it a misdemeanor to be an illegal alien, requires the enforcement of all relevant federal immigration laws by state and local law enforcement officials during their regular duties, and targets those who hire, shelter, or harbor people living in Arizona illegally.

Although large parts of the law have been enjoined by Judge Susan Bolton, Governor Brewer and the state of Arizona are appealing that injunction. In fact, the likelihood that this law will eventually reach the Supreme Court, as another Arizona law targeting employers of illegal aliens already has, is high. But even more importantly, the decision by President Obama’s Department of Justice, led by Attorney General Eric Holder, to sue the state of Arizona served as a litmus test moment in the broader immigration debate we’ve been engaged in since Californian’s approval of Proposition 187 in 1994.

Taking the side of special interest groups like the National Council of La Raza, LULAC and other opponents of immigration enforcement in the United States, such as the ACLU and the government of Mexico, against the state of Arizona, as well as the vast majority of the American public, told us all where the Obama administration stands on this issue. It also galvanized public support for the stance of Governor Brewer and spurred efforts to enact similar laws in other states, as this New Year’s article by UPI points out.

But SB 1070 wasn’t the only major national development in the world of immigration reform. 2010 also saw the attempt by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and his deputy whip, Senator Dick Durbin, to foist the DREAM Act upon us after being rebuffed repeatedly by Congress in the decade since it was first conceived. Thankfully, opponents of DREAM, led by the indefatigable Senator Sessions and his allies at Numbers USA, were able to defeat their backdoor attempt at amnesty for millions of illegal aliens.

As gratifying as this victory was, it was not the only success we had over the course of the past year. 2010 also saw the widespread adoption of Secure Communities, a program mandating local authorities share the fingerprints of arrestees with ICE, by  states and localities around the country, including ones run by governors with notoriously weak records on this issue, such as Massachusetts and our very own New York State. While perhaps a small step in the right direction, it is an indication that the Obama administration can be prodded into immigration enforcement when it is politically pressured to do so.

Perhaps the single greatest achievement of 2010, though, was the electoral victory of November 2nd, when the forces of immigration enforcement and reform defeated Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s deputies across the nation. And even though there were some blots on an otherwise great score card, the overall results represented a huge shift away from the House of Representatives that passed the DREAM Act in a lame duck session. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, whose comical efforts I’ve chronicled in the past, will be replaced in the new Congress with immigration hawk Steve King, while the former chairman of the Homeland Security Subcommittee, anti-fence, anti-enforcement Rep. Bennie Thompson, will be replaced with a congressman familiar with that territory, Rep. Peter King.

And even though the campaign to unseat amnesty proponent and panderer Harry Reid fell short, we did see the replacement of several dreadful members of the U.S. Senate this year, including the defeat of DREAM Act supporter Bob Bennet, and the retirement of former co-sponsor Sam Brownback-who is now the governor of Kansas. Overall, the November elections marked a huge shift in favor of immigration enforcement and common sense tools like e-Verify, which is a priority of new House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith.

Overall, I think we can look back on the past year with a great degree of pride in our achievements and determination to correct those mistakes that were made in the course of this struggle. The focus of most of our energies over the past year has been in thwarting potentially disastrous legislation on the federal level, such as the DREAM Act and AgJobs, and helping states pick up the slack of the federal government, as was the case with SB 1070. I think 2011 will mark a transition to a focus on the federal government assuming its proper, but long-neglected, role in border security and immigration enforcement. The success of Secure Communities proves that state-federal cooperation can be an effective tool in stemming the flow of illegal immigration.

Rest assured, this website will continue to bring you news of any developments on that front as the year progresses.

Today’s a time for reflection upon how we achieved this victory, and what we can do in the future to build upon our past successes.

I realize that we’ve had many, many false alarms in the past-as Senate Majority Leader Reid has pulled back his troops to fight yet another day on behalf of amnesty and open borders, but this is not a fire drill! This is the final cloture vote on DREAM, and it’s happening in two days. The Senate plans to vote on DREAM in the early hours of the day, and you can watch live-streaming coverage of the debate by Numbers USA here. 

Use the rest of today to bombard those squishy senators who’ve been ducking a public stance on this incredibly important piece of legislation. Here’s a list of them, along with their office numbers, provided courtesy of the invaluable Michelle Malkin. And here are some fantastic talking points you might consider using in your telephone calls to “undecided” members of the U.S. Senate, provided courtesy of the great Roy Beck of Numbers USA.

It’s now or never, people! We need to defeat this bill, but in order to do so you need to make your voices heard loud and clear. 

NO TO AMNESTY!

NO TO THE DREAM ACT!

YES TO BORDER SECURITY!

We must stop the DREAM.

With apologies to Daniel Tosh, I thought I’d use today’s update to add a little levity to a somewhat grim situation.

The truth is, no one knows what will happen next in the United States Senate, neither with regard to the impending-but once again delayed-vote on approving the DREAM ACT, nor with any other “vital” piece of legislation on that legislative body’s docket. 

All we do know is that this is the first time in recent memory when not a single appropriations bill has been passed by Congress-one of the chief responsibilities of our nation’s legislative branch-but that a huge omnibus spending bill, larded with earmarks, is about to be brought to the floor of the United States Senate. We also know that Senator Harry Reid will not go quietly into the night, and intends to use this lame duck session of Congress as yet another excuse to enact the already-repudiated DREAM Act. 

That is why we must use this week to marshal our forces against this deleterious and potentially economically devastating bill. Man those phones, call your senator, and make sure he or she is on the record, re: DREAM. Do not let them weasel out of their responsibilities. They are there to represent us!

The vote on a bill extending many of the Bush Era tax cuts could come as soon as monday evening, if this deal holds up, which isn’t a  guarantee. Once it has passed the House, and presumably the Senate, pro-amnesty Republicans, e.g. Dick Lugar and Bob Bennet, will vote to give another sliver of this country over to illegals and their extended families.

Keep in mind, Senator Reid will not bring DREAM up for a Senate vote if he has even the slightest suspicion that he will not achieve cloture, especially after the embarrassment he suffered today. There will be no cloture vote UNTIL Reid has finagled enough Republicans to vote for this nightmarish bill. The bill will either be defeated when this session of Congress expires in early January, or we will have another mass amnesty. 

I fear that the latter option is the more likely scenario, but the former is still possible if you continue your persistent lobbying against this horrible measure. That’s why you need to call the key members of the U.S. Senate listed in the updates I’ve provided in previous days. Hold their feet to the fire! Our prospects for thwarting DREAM look very dim, but there is still hope.