Consumer Alert: Beware "free English lesson" calls

The Texas Attorney General today issued a press release warning that," Spanish-speaking consumers are being targeted on their residential and mobile phones by scam artists offering a “free” English course. According to recent complaints to the Office of the Attorney General, callers are posing as employees of a purported nonprofit agency and claiming that call recipients could qualify for a “free” federal government English course. The scam artists ask unsuspecting customers for their personal information and the personal information of three friends as references." You can read the full press release here.

Deportation before Conviction: A question of priorities or money?

Dallas ABC affiliate WFAA ran it's Deporting Justice story last night. The transcript reads, "Hundreds of accused felons charged with murder, rape, assault and kidnapping have been deported from Dallas County without having to face criminal prosecution. News 8 has found that the practice to allow charged felons to circumvent the justice system occurs not only in Dallas, but in major cities throughout Texas and the nation."

The federal government generally makes it a priority to place illegal immigrants accused of serious crimes in custody and ship them back to their home country. Many times, according to the article, the government does not tell the prosecuting attorneys. Thus, criminal defendants are deported before a case can go to trial.

I have a quibble with the story. It fails to mention a major reason why county jails want the federal government to take their undocumented prisoners- money. It costs money for counties to house prisoners. So there is an incentive for county and city prisons to let their prisoners go into ICE's custody. It also costs money for the federal government to house illegal immigrants awaiting deportation. Thus, ICE has streamlined the process and tries to deport illegal aliens accused of serious crimes as quickly as possible.

CNBC's Darren Rovell: Don't celebrate NY Marthon Champion because he's not American- ok maybe he is but barely...

On Wednesday, November 4, 2009, CNBC Sports Business reporter Darren Rovell wrote an article that states in part:

It's a stunning headline: American Wins Men's NYC Marathon For First Time Since '82. Meb Keflezighi of the US celebrates his victory in the New York City Marathon November 1, 2009 in New York. Unfortunately, it's not as good as it sounds. Meb Keflezighi, who won yesterday in New York, is technically American by virtue of him becoming a citizen in 1998, but the fact that he's not American-born takes away from the magnitude of the achievement the headline implies.

The rest of his article then laments that Keflezighi is not "American born" and that "he's like a ringer who you hire to work a couple hours at your office so that you can win the executive softball league." Thus, Rovell reasons the victory should not be a source of national pride.

A few hours and several angry emails later, Rovell wrote another column. This time he said, "Let me be clear: Meb Keflezighi is an American and any suggestion otherwise is wrong." But Rovell continued and said,"All I was saying was that we should celebrate an American marathon champion who has completely been brought up through the American system." Rovell then apologized that he was wrong about Keflezighi because the runner immigrated to the United States when he was 12 years old and not deserving of being called a "ringer."

So I suppose if Mr. Keflezighi became a citizen at age 18, Mr. Rovell would consider him a ringer and not really an American hero?

Arizona TV Station: Sheriff Arpaio under FBI investigation

Phoenix CBS television affiliate, KPHO reports that the "FBI is looking into accusations that Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is using his position to settle political vendettas." The so-called "America's toughest sheriff" and anti-immigration icon has denied any wrong doing but the article states:

The list of people subjected to the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office ivestigations reads like a Who's Who of the Valley, and it includes people who have authority over the sheriff and people who challenged his authority:

Dan Saban, who ran against the sheriff in 2004 and 2008
Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard
Maricopa County Manager David Smith
The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors
Superior Court Presiding Judge Barbara
Mundell
ACLU attorney Daniel Pochoda

None of the investigations resulted in convictions; however, they cost the targets hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees and tarnished reputations. Many of the targets were never charged with a crime.

Better to harness prayer than anger.

The group Americans for Legal Immigration issued a press release where it vowed to prepare "tea parties" to oppose comprehensive immigration reform and "to organize and channel the backlash wave of anger that is coming into peaceful civic action designed to remove many lawmakers who do not serve the wishes or interests of their constituents in 2010!" According to their website, there is a tea party protest against immigration reform scheduled for November 14, 2009 at the Tarrant County Courthouse from 12-3pm.

I have blogged before that immigration is a hard issue to discuss because it invokes so many emotions. But this is a blog that seeks to view immigration from a Christian perspective.

So what would Jesus do on November 14th if he were in Fort Worth?

"Sanctuary" fight in San Francisco

The San Francisco Gate, the online portal of the San Francisco Chronicle, reports that the City's Board of Supervisors "passed legislation that relaxes the year-old policy of reporting undocumented youth to immigration authorities as soon as they are charged with a felony." This is part of an ongoing dispute between the Board of Supervisors, the Mayor, and other officials. About a year ago, Mayor Gavin Newsome began requiring probation officials to notify the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) when undocumented juvenile offenders were charged with a felony. The Board of Supervisors amended the Mayor's policy and only requires notification if and when the juvenile is convicted of a felony. Supervisor David Campos was quoted as saying, "The whole point of having a sanctuary ordinance is that we choose not to be in the business of federal immigration enforcement. We are not an arm of ICE." The Mayor, however, vowed to ignore the legislation.

You can read more about so-called "sanctuary policies" in the August 2008 ISAAC E-News here.

Religious groups seeking common ground on immigration

U.S. News and World Report has a good article suggesting that both Republican and Democrat evangelicals could come together about immigration reform. The article quotes former President Bush speechwriter, Michael Gerson as saying, "There has been a significant shift among evangelical leaders who view the immigration reform debate as an important measure of their [Christian] witness."

It's a good thing that Christian leaders are framing the debate in terms of their own faith. Too many times, Christians have allowed others to frame the discussion for them.