Diplomacy, sightseeing top Bush's Mexico trip
By S. Lynne Walker and George E. Condon Jr.
COPLEY NEWS SERVICE

March 30, 2006

CANCUN, Mexico – President Bush arrived in Cancun yesterday evening for two days of diplomacy and some rare sightseeing, finding the beaches, roads and waterways of a city best known for spring breakers now bustling with security forces bracing for protesters.

As helicopters flew over Cancun's posh tourist zone and Navy ships patrolled the pristine coastline, roadblocks slowed traffic to a crawl in front of Le Blanc Spa and Resort, where Bush will stay during his meetings with Mexican President Vicente Fox and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Despite the fears of Mexican authorities, though, few protesters had come to Cancun before Air Force One arrived with the U.S. president.

For one of the few times in his presidency, Bush even agreed to do a little sightseeing. After being criticized for bypassing the Taj Mahal during his recent trip to India, Bush set aside time in his schedule today to see the Mayan ruins of Chichén Itzá and the Pyramid of Kukulkan about 100 miles from here.

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Mexico hopes for stronger pledge by Bush on immigration accord during trilateral summit
By E. Eduardo Castillo
ASSOCIATED PRESS
11:54 a.m. March 29, 2006

CANCUN, Mexico – When President Vicente Fox and U.S. President George W. Bush meet during a trilateral summit here this week, Mexico is hoping the North American leader will promise to more forcefully promote a broad migration accord not based solely on security issues.

That hope has been sparked by the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee's passage Monday of immigration and border security measures that include legalizing some undocumented workers, establishing temporary guest-worker programs and permitting illegal aliens currently in the country to apply for citizenship without first having to return home.

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"WE HAVE GOT TO ELIMINATE THE GRINGOS"
By: Devvy
March 30, 2006
NewsWithViews.com

The words above were spoken by Jose Angel Gutierrez, professor, University of Texas, Arlington and founder of the La Raza Unida political party. His full comment was: "We have an aging white America ... They are dying ...We have got to eliminate the gringo, and what I mean by that is if the worst comes to the worst, we have got to kill him."

In a column dated March 25, 2006, by Ernesto Cienguegos titled "La Gran Marcha" surpasses all expectations," Cienguegos wrote: “What does the immense success of "La Gran Marcha" mean to Mexicanos and other Latinos? It simply means that we now have the numbers, the political will and the organizational skills to direct our own destinies and not be subservient to the White and Jewish power structures. It means that we can now undertake bigger and more significant mass actions to achieve total political and economic liberation like that being proposed by Juan José Gutiérrez, President of Movimiento Latino USA. Juan José Gutiérrez is proposing that the coalition that organized "La Gran Marcha" meet in Arizona or Texas on April 8 to "organize a mass boycott (huelga) against the economy of the USA" to take place on May 5 or 19.”

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Uncomfortable facts about immigration
PAUL KRUGMAN

Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free," wrote Emma Lazarus, in a poem that still puts a lump in my throat. I'm proud of America's immigrant history, and grateful that the door was open when my grandparents fled Russia.

In other words, I'm instinctively, emotionally pro-immigration. But a review of serious, nonpartisan research reveals some uncomfortable facts about the economics of modern immigration, and immigration from Mexico in particular. If people like me are going to respond effectively to anti-immigrant demagogues, we have to acknowledge those facts.

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Immigration reform faces hurdles
With emotions running high on both aisles in Congress, substantive changes won't happen easily
BY GLENN THRUSH
Newsday Washington Bureau
March 30, 2006

WASHINGTON -- With a bruising Republican-on-Republican battle over immigration brewing today in the Senate, many on Capitol Hill are predicting that passing comprehensive reforms before the fall midterm elections seems increasingly like a long shot.

Even if the Senate agrees to an overhaul measure before the April 10 deadline set by Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), immigration reform might face a hostile House, which passed a get-tough border protection measure in December.

"It's going to be tough to pass something before November," said House Homeland Security chairman Peter King (R-Seaford), reflecting a low-grade pessimism permeating both houses of Congress and both sides of the aisle.

The ultimate impediment could be conservative Republicans in the House, who are eager to hammer Democrats as soft on border security during this fall's election and are, on balance, happy with the bill they passed four months ago.

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Group Targets LAPD's Rule to Ignore Residency Status
By Patrick McGreevy, Times Staff Writer
March 30, 2006

A conservative group opposed to a Los Angeles Police Department policy of not asking people about their immigration status without special cause has sued the city for failing to turn over documents showing how the rule is enforced, a representative said Wednesday.

Washington D.C.-based Judicial Watch filed the lawsuit as part of its effort to challenge Special Order 40, an LAPD directive generally preventing police officers from inquiring about a person's residency status.

"This is a disturbing regulation" said Tom Fitton, the group's president. "We believe it is inconsistent with federal immigration laws, and we are trying to get more information. Are crimes going by unpunished as a result of illegals being let go because of this policy?"

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“Mexico Prefers to Export Its Poor, Not Uplift Them”
George W. Grayson:

Indeed, Mexico’s leaders have turned hypocrisy from an art form into an exact science as they shirk their obligations to fellow citizens, while decrying efforts by the US senators and representatives to crack down on illegal immigration at the border and the workplace.

What are some examples of this failure of responsibility?

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Read the story of this flag at Michelle Malkin's Blog

THE AMERICAN FLAG COMES SECOND

By Michelle Malkin · March 29, 2006 01:15 AM

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Mexican flag flies over Chasewood North in Jupiter . . . at least for now
Residents of the Central Boulevard complex were surprised by weekend switch
By KIT BRADSHAW
kit.bradshaw@scripps.com
March 29, 2006

The Stars and Stripes have been replaced by the Mexican flag at Chasewood North, and residents of the condominium community off Central Boulevard are puzzled as to who made the switch.

"I woke up Sunday morning and looked up from my patio and then realized that the American flag wasn't on the flagpole," said Sue Miller a Chasewood North board member. "What captured my attention were the colors — at first I thought it was an Italian flag, but one of our residents said it was the Mexican flag.

"I went to the flagpole, to see if the American flag was maybe on the ground, but they took it, and they cut the rope to get the American flag down and the Mexican flag up as well."