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Tom Tancredo was packing his back for a trip to Rhode Island and Providence College today, but before you hit the PC bookstore, you may want to rethink your plans to grab your Providence College t-shirt and matching mug.  Providence reneged on their speaking engagement for the former Colorado Congressmen due to his stance on immigration, which contrast with Bishop Thomas Tobin, one of the school’s trustees.

The school released a statement stating the followng:

“If a similar request to host a speaker on this topic is made in a future semester, the College will encourage and facilitate a format that allows for multiple points of view to be expressed.”

To make the story more interesting, the student group that invited Tancredo, Youth For Western Civilization, is not an official student group recognized by the school.  You gotta fill out all those Student Activities forms, come on guys…

I am available for spot dates, in case anyone is wondering…

As the government attempts to stay ahead of the recent outbreak of swine flu, Revolution Radio has published an article linking lax immigration policy with the return of…wait for it…wait for it…the Measles.  You know measles, the disease we effectively wiped out in the U.S. in 2000, that disease that most American babies are vaccinated against, and oh yeah, that one that the Pilgrims had in their blankets and wreaked havoc on Native Americans forever changing the course of history.  Yep, that’s the measles for you.

According to the article, illegal immigration has given rise to new cases of measles developing in the United States, as the disease is brought over to America by people from other countries who have not been vaccinated, for various reasons.  Political strategist Mike Baker told the website, “With growing number of people entering the United States illegally, the threat of them bringing with them diseases once thought to be eliminated is increasing the vulnerability of our citizens.”

While the new measles cases have been imported mostly from Europe, there is also a spreading disease south of the border that has many people up in arms.  The swine flu, which is a mix of bird, swing, and the human flu virus, has killed more than 90 people in Mexico, with a handful of cases showing up in California, Ohio, New York and select other states.  Over the weekend, President Obama took steps to develop a new vaccine, as well as screen travelers entering the United States via Mexico.  While the disease is severe in Mexico, at this time, it is not wide spread in the United States.

President Barack Obama spoke of immigration overhaul plans during his election campaign, and after his victory showed signs of promise in that regard.  Last week the president met with Mexico’s first in charge, and also talk of moving forward on immigration reform.  However, an article appearing today on Bloomberg.com suggests that Obama’s immigration plans may be put on hold for at least a year…

Why is that?  Well, the economy is still in shambles, a commercial real estate bubble is set to burst at any moment, and the United States is seeing its highest unemployment rate in more that 25 years.  All that, as the Bloomberg article states, could “make it difficult for President Barack Obama to push legislation that would legalize millions of immigrants in the country illegally and create a new guest-worker program.”

Indeed.  Obama’s had a harder time than envisioned gaining support from Republicans as witnessed by what’s unfolded with his Stimulus Package.  Those opposed to his immigration platform will surely have enough ammunition given the poor economy to charge Obama with misplacing his values and turning his attention away from American jobs for American citizens.

New York University’s Rogan Kersh sums it up best by saying, “Rising unemployment rates, coupled with continuing dismal economic news, are battering the public’s inclination to back a change in illegal immigrants’ status, which was never that strong to begin with.”

David Axelrod and others in the Obama camp say the president is committed to immigration reform, but they are realistic that any immediate movement is, well, not realistic.

President Barack Obama is heading to Mexico City today where he will meet with Mexico’s President, Felipe Calderon.  The two are expected to address Mexico’s ongoing drug wars, as well as immigration problems.  The two will then hold a joint press conference, scheduled for 4:45 EST.

The visit and meeting comes one day after President Obama took action against Sinaloa, Los Zetas and La Familia Michoacana, three of Mexico’s biggest drug cartels.  Obama identified each cartel as a drug kingpin, which allows the United States government to take action against any American known to be doing business with any of the three parties.  In addition, the U.S. is now empowered to move on the cartel’s assets, which are believed to range between 19-39 billion dollars/year.

According to the Washinton Post,

“Since 2000, 78 drug kingpin groups and individuals have been blacklisted by the U.S. government, along with nearly 500 others who have supported them. The law has been used most extensively against Colombian drug traffickers, particularly the Cali cartel.”

For those thinking that Mexico’s drug problem is a South of the Border issue, think again.  Experts and others in the know estimate that 90% of weapons used by drug cartels in Mexico have their origins in the United States.  Arizon, New Mexico, California, and other southwestern states serve as gun smuggling sites for many of Mexico’s most violent.  Obama and Calderon face a difficult road in stopping the gun movement, and, curtailing Mexico’s economic reliance on the drug trade.

Obama’s move yesterday follows his pledge to send 450 federal agents to Mexico, as well as provide Mexico $1.4 billion in aid to opposed drug trafficking.  Obama has also asked for an additional $350 million to shore up U.S. borders.

Mexico’s official are all for tougher gun laws, and believe that U.S. gun control is a key issues to solving their problems.  Obama and Calderon will hopefully make headway today.  We’ll keep you updated.

I read an interesting article in the Huffington Post today regarding immigration reform’s link to drug control.  It’s an understatement to say that things are greatly out of hand in Mexico.  I fully agree with the pieces author, Mike Papantonio when he starts his article with,

“The Mexican U.S. border would be an ideal place to film a Mel Gibson-Mad Max sequel where lawlessness, carnage and chaos dominate most of the scenes. A Mexican citizen has a better chance of being killed on the streets of Ciudad Juarez than he would on the streets of Kabul.”

The fighting between Mexico’s drug cartels dates back to the 80’s, and reached staggering heights over the last several years.  It is now, with a yearly drug income of nearly 14 Billion dollars, and gruesome slayings, that America and the rest of the world is taking more notice.  Rolling Stone has done two features on Mexico’s drug wars in 2009, and Bill Maher also recently touched on the topic in his HBO show, Politically Incorrect.

Papantonio’s thesis statement is that immigration reform in the United States must include solving Mexico’s drug war, for multiple reasons.  One major consideration is Mexico’s border towns, many of whom supply tourism dollars, and also claim that violence has yet to find them.  Also, the border is obviously right next to the United States and we need to think of our own security.  In addition, right wingers use Mexico’s drug wars to assume that all Mexican immigrants are coming to the U.S. for such purposes, something else that is untrue.  Obama has said that he would like to start making strides towards reform.  According to papantonio, this would be a good place to start.

For more info, check out the LA Times covering of the war here.

John Demjanjuk, 89, lost his immigration appeal, and is now facing deportation back to Germany. Demjajuk is accused of serving as a Nazi prison guard during WWII, and assisting in the murder of more than 29,000 Jews under the moniker “Ivan The Terrible”. Demjajuk arrived in the United States in 1952, and settled in Cleveland. Since that time, he’s claimed that he was not a guard at a concentration camp, but instead a prisoner of war. Both Germany and Israel, and now the United States have found that there is enough supporting evidence to show that he was in fact a guard that participated willfully in the Holocaust.

Demjanjuk lost his American citizenship in 2002, and in 2009, German officials issued an arrest warrant for him. They were expecting him back much earlier, but Demjanjuk got an emergency stay due to his declining health. American immigration officials expect that Demjanjuk will appeal the latest ruling as well.

South and Central American countries are hot beds for Major League Baseball teams looking to add skill to their rosters.  The number of great Latin players is long and storied, including legends such as Roberto Clemente, Roberto Alomar, Sammy Sosa, hey, even Carlos Baerga as well as current stars Vladimir Guerrero, Alexi Ramirez, and so on and so forth.  Many Latin countries work with MLB to create development centers, and many youngsters see baseball as a way to better their lives, some see it as the only way.

Baseball teams want to produce the best product at the lowest price, and young kids badly want to make it to the majors.  On top of that, MLB works with scouts who rest their jobs and reputations on producing prospects ready for American baseball.  It should come as no surprise then that names, birthdates, social security numbers etc. are all up for grabs and a new report has found that as many as 70 players have used fake information to make it to the majors.

Worse, at least for me, The Chicago White Sox seem to be at the heart of the most recent scandal involving a beleagured and battered MLB.  ESPN.com reports:

“The Commissioner’s Office became heavily involved in these matters when White Sox personnel director Dave Wilder was found to have smuggled cash into the United States, and the resulting investigation revealed a major scandal involving kickbacks of cash that was supposed to be bonus money paid to teenage prospects.

According to security sources, White Sox general manager Ken Williams was “distraught” by what happened, and opened every team computer and book to MLB investigators. Team owner Jerry Reinsdorf was outraged because of what had been done to poor players from Latin countries, and reportedly has been a driving force, along with Selig, in trying to solve these problems.

Baseball union head Donald Fehr said recently that the union will attempt to ensure foreign players mentioned in reports of use of PEDs are treated the same as U.S. citizens.”

So, as you can see tell from looking at the site, there’s been a little bit of a gap in updates.  Now, this may come as a shock to everyone reading this, but in actuality, there really hasn’t been much to report as of late.  Immigration, immigration reform, immigration protest, pretty much everything immigration went on pause to coordinate with the site.  Now that we’re back to the updates, immigrants have been given the green light, errr, card (pun intended) to resume crossing the border.  Politicians and police departments have been given the green light to resume what it is they do regarding immigration, so on and so forth…It’s good to be back.  Things will be picking up soon.  Thanks for reading.

Shortly after I joined Fronteras, I started my immigration spotlight, which focused on famous and accomplished immigrants in the fields of politics, music, and entertainment.  Well, I was doing my daily news rounding of immigration headlines and saw that there is another immigration spotlighter…Taking a page from Jay-Z’s book, I decided to embrace rather than hate, and help shine the spotlight a little brighter.

In her About.com immigration blog, Jennifer McFayden writes about immigrants who have become astronauts.  As she points out, citizeship is a requirement to become an astronaut, and there are currently 7 naturalized citizens in the N.A.S.A ranks.

Click here to read up on them.

Barack Obama is set to be sworn in as the next president of the United States in less than 12 hours.  On Friday, Obama was presented with ‘10 Ideas For Change.’  The list was made through a contest at Change.org, in which viewers could nominate and vote on ideas that will help change America into a better country.  Passing the DREAM Act, a bill that would allow children of undocumented immigrants that have lived most of their life in America to obtain financial aid for college was amongst the top vote getters.  It is also something that Barack Obama has supported in the past, as evidenced by the video above.

To see the rest of the list, visit www.change.org…I’ve written previously about the DREAM Act, and the way I feel about its passing.  I also read an article today in the San Francisco Chronicle, in which President Bush and other officials highlight the need for America to do a better job of assimilating new immigrants.  Education is a great tool for assimilation, as well as the belief that opportunity follows with adopting American values, and effectively learning English.  American schools and places of higher learning can be central points for helping new immigrants feel comfortable here.  The DREAM Act would invest more kids into their futures, and not to mention, help some of the most poor amongst us to elevate their social and economic standing, thus building a bigger middle class.