The grass-roots rage in America
over illegal immigration is heating up like never
before:
- The volunteers of the
Minuteman Project kept their fourth week of
"vigilante-free" neighborhood watch for America
on the Mexican border.
- South Central Los Angeles` own
Terry Anderson – a radio
personality and one-man army against illegal
immigration – was covered favorably on
60 Minutes last Wednesday (April 20)
- An army of mad-as-hell radio
talk show hosts (including Anderson) arrived in
Washington, D.C. for the "hold
their feet to the fire" lobbying effort.
But even as these unprecedented
events were taking shape, the Senate of the United
States only
narrowly defeated the
AgJobs attempt to pass an
illegal alien amnesty last week.
What does this all mean? It`s all
just another sorry example of the mental disconnect
between our
globalist/internationalist ruling elite and the
American people.
Welcome to the New America.
Nevertheless—at the risk of being
accused of fiddling while Rome burns—VDARE.com readers
sure had a lot to say last week about my take on the
U.S. State Department`s denial of a visa renewal request
Sir Mark Thatcher, son of former Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher.
The most interesting exchange came
from
VDARE.com reader Michael Guignard, a self-identified
former U.S. Foreign Service officer (FSO). For your
reading pleasure, I include his comments, along with a
sampling from other readers that I received via e-mail.
With the help of the VDARE.com
audience, we just might get to the bottom of Sir Mark`s
visa intrigue sooner or later . . . even though
Sir Mark already
decided to live somewhere else (in Europe) after
all.
From: Michael Guignard
"Just a
couple of comments about your
article on anarcho-tyranny. Spouses of U.S.
citizens are eligible to apply for a waiver under
different sections of law – depending if one is applying
for a
non-immigrant or immigrant visa (green
card).
"If
Mr. Thatcher is ineligible for the visa under the
criminal provisions of the immigration law, the U.S.
Consul has no discretion. It is his/her duty as a
commissioned officer of the U.S. to deny the visa.
"The
fact that Mr. Thatcher has a U.S. citizen wife and
children all living in the U.S. is irrelevant to the
finding of ineligibility. Thousands of spouses of U.S.
citizens find themselves waiting outside the U.S. for
months and sometimes years before gaining entry.
Waivers take time.
"I am
surprised that Mr. Thatcher seems to be able to obtain
non-immigrant visas to enter the country, as the
spouse of a U.S. citizen. That is not an easy feat
to accomplish because under our law every non-immigrant
visa applicant is presumed to be an intending immigrant
[under] section 214 (b) of the [Immigration and
Nationality Act] INA. Hundreds of thousands of
applicants are refused visas under this section of law
every year.
"If
your U.S. citizen spouse is living in the U.S., it is
not easy to convince the U.S. Consul that you will not
stay in the U.S. after entering, let`s say, on a tourist
visa.
"U.S.
Consuls perform yeoman work every day at our embassies
and Consulates overseas. Your article does not reflect
that fact. You praise U.S.
CIS [Citizenship and Immigration Services]
U.S.
ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement]
even though there are 11,000,000 illegal aliens in the
U.S., but give the State Dept short shrift.
". . .
You do a public service to publish
numbers for
deportation purposes. But given the `catch and
release` policy of the U.S. government, I don`t know if
ICE acts on the tips."
[Juan
Mann`s reply:]
I have
no idea what kind of status Thatcher had that "expired"
– forcing the renewal request and denial. But if you
were the FSO on the case, would you classify his crime
as a CIMT to deny him??… probably not, right? Hence
the mystery…
I
take it that you`re saying the real reason for the
denial isn`t mysterious at all, since any non-immigrant
status would be denied outright because of his marital
ties. Is this your guess on the subject (given the
limited facts we have)?
[Michael`s reply:]
"If I
was the FSO in this case, I would check the list of
crimes that are on the moral turpitude list and see if
the charge and/or conviction was on that list. I live
near D.C. and Sidney Ponson, a Baltimore Orioles
pitcher, had his
visa delayed because of a bar brawl. I guess he got
a waiver though because he got his visa and is
pitching. He also needed one to be able to
pitch in Canada.
"There
is also a lookout list that all Consuls check when
issuing visas. I think it is called the
NCIC list now. Perhaps someone at the Dept. of
State put Mark Thatcher`s name on it because of his
recent legal troubles. This would be enough to preclude
visa issuance.
"Spouses of U.S. citizens can receive tourist visas if
it is clear that the family lives abroad or that the
foreign national applicant lives abroad. It is just
more difficult for U.S. citizen spouses to get a tourist
visa than for the average applicant. Thatcher is
British so he could come into the U.S. on a visa waiver
if he is not on the lookout list.…
"As an
aside, the 19 hijackers were on no `look out lists.`
Since Saudis (14 of the 19, I think) seldom stay and
work in the U.S. illegally, their visas were issued
rather routinely. See National Review Oct 28,
2002 issue "the terror visas" by Joel Mowbray. Mowbray
focuses on the fact that the terrorists did not answer
all the questions on their visa application forms. But
even if they had completed each and every question
neatly and exhaustively, any misrepresentations they
would have made would probably have gone undiscovered.
"That
happens all the time as evidenced by the fact the 40% of
illegal aliens in the U.S. came in originally with valid
visas."
Excellent point, my friend!
Just think . . . we`re now three
years and counting after
9/11, and there is still no logical
system in place to
detain and deport, let alone to even detect
these very same
"visa over-stayers"
(AKA illegal aliens).
But the President of the United
States still apparently wants to give these same
uninvited
"guest workers" an amnesty by any other
name.
More reader comments on Sir Mark
Thatcher:
From:
Jason Megill:
"I read
your recent VDARE.com column about Mark Thatcher and
think it may miss the mark. I remember reading about
him in Ari Ben-Menashe`s "Profits
of War."
"Granted, books by former spies have to be taken with a
grain of salt. Spies lie for a living. But I think Mark
Thatcher got
bad press in the eighties for arms dealing with
unsavory nations (when his mother was Prime
Minister). One of those countries was
Iraq. Another take on his visa denial is Mark
Thatcher [may have]
sold the Iraqis weapons which are now being
used to kill American soldiers. However, I don`t have
any specialized knowledge and don`t know what he
actually did…
"I do
like your
columns on immigrant
benefit fraud and wish you keep at it."
From:
Bob Howland:
"I
would venture to guess that the main reason he is being
put through the wringer is that he is white, and it`s so
much easier to apply rules and laws to whites because
they can`t scream `hate`,
`racial
profiling`, `prejudice`,
or any other of the currently popular phrases."
From: Anthony Lowry, Berkeley,
CA:
"This
guy was involved in an attempted
COUP of some miserable
3rd world country! This guy is scum and should NEVER
be allowed on US soil again! Who the hell does he think
he is? SCREW HIM!"
[Juan`s
comment: Of course,
this was not proved in a court of law. Maybe Anthony
should consider moving to Equatorial Guinea to show his
support for the
Obiang regime?
Berkeley`s loss could be
Malabo`s gain!]
Juan Mann [send him
email] is a lawyer and the proprietor of
DeportAliens.com.
