Fausta's Blog

A record number of people were deported from the United States last year, and now the same administration changed the law by executive action because it is politically useful, so that Illegal Immigrants Flock to Youth Program.

What could go wrong?

U.S. to Stop Deporting Some Illegal Immigrants

Under the administration plan, illegal immigrants will be immune from deportation if they were brought to the U.S. before they turned 16 and are younger than 30, have been in the country for at least five continuous years, have no criminal history, graduated from a U.S. high school or earned an equivalent degree, or served in the military. They also can apply for a work permit that will be good for two years with no limits on how many times it can be renewed.

Hmmm… work permit + permanent address = driver’s license => voter registration => non-citizens voting?

Nah, I must be misjudging.

UPDATE,
On DREAM order, Obama short circuits consensus for short term political gain

The benefits to Obama are obvious: He undercuts Marco Rubio’s efforts to accomplish this, you know, via the democratic legislative process. And Obama also gets to score political points with a growing voting bloc — just in time for his re-election efforts.

But the real consequences have little to do with politics. As someone who opposed the Arizona law — and has supported Rubio’s DREAM ACT — I am convinced that America needs to have a serious national discussion about immigration reform. Short-circuiting the legislative process deprives us of that organic discussion. It also guarantees there will be no bipartisan consensus. Perhaps Rubio could have persuaded more conservatives to back common sense reforms? The water is now poisoned. Obama — for transparently political purposes — has made sure that conservatives and Republicans will feel slighted and kept out of the loop.

That’s because they have been.

The downside, of course, is that this does nothing to heal this nation, nothing to bring us together, and only serves as a short-term solution for immigrants when a long-term solution — one based on consensus, not political opportunism — was needed.

ARGENTINA
Argentina as No Claims-Nation Revealed in Repsol Losses: Energy

Repsol YPF SA (REP), the Spanish oil explorer seeking $10.5 billion from Argentina for seizing its assets, will line up behind companies from Exxon Mobil Corp. to Unisys Corp. yet to be repaid by the most-sued nation on earth.

There are 26 cases pending against Argentina, more than any other country, at the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes in Washington, the principal arbitration court for claims against sovereign countries. So far, it has refused to pay any of the tribunal’s judgments, according to a Bank of America Merrill Lynch economists’ report.

Argentina’s state-owned firms
So far, not so good
Can YPF avoid the grim fate of other nationalised companies?

BOLIVIA
Bases militares venezolanas: Entrevista a la Diputada Norma Pierola

CHILE
Chile charges suspect with Japanese astronomer murder
A Chilean man has been charged with the murder of Japanese astronomer Koichiro Morita in Santiago earlier this week.

CUBA
Smile, You’re on Candid Camera.

Getting Ready for Life after Castro
Managing the transition to a democratic Cuba: A user’s guide.

More Red Than Cross

ECUADOR
Ecuador seeks answer to riddle of Inca emperor’s tomb

Chevron’s Ecuador Morass
The U.S. oil company charges that the $18 billion judgment against it was secured by fraud.

UPDATE:
MUST-WATCH VIDEO,

EL SALVADOR
Central America’s gangs
A meeting of the maras
Precarious truces between gangs have lowered the murder rate in two of the world’s most violent countries—but for how long?

GUATEMALA
End of times not quite here yet: Mayan art and calendar at Xultun stun archaeologists

“The ancient Maya predicted the world would continue, that 7,000 years from now, things would be exactly like this,” he said.

MEXICO
Maps Show 330 Illegal Aliens Crossing Ariz. Border in One Night in March, Including Ultralight Incursion

Forty-nine headless corpses found in Mexico

Mexico’s presidential election
Political lucha libre

Mexico’s leading presidential candidate is handsome, popular and still a mystery

PERU
‘Mutated’ Shining Path Resurfaces in Peru

Peru ministers resign over Shining Path rebel clashes
Peru’s interior and defence ministers have resigned in the face of a public outcry over a failed security operation against Shining Path rebels.

PUERTO RICO
Puerto Rico Plans to Stop Deficit Borrowing by Fiscal 2014

Puerto Rico plans to offer free Web connections at dozens of centers and public plazas

VENEZUELA
Venezuela’s narcostate

Venezuelan politics
A modest concession to reality, but the weird news continue: Venezuela crossword Chavez assassination plot denied
A Venezuelan crossword compiler has been questioned by intelligence agents after being accused of hiding a coded assassination message in a puzzle.

Venezuela analysts cast doubt on presidential election
Venezuelan analysts in Miami said the Hugo Chávez administration is casting doubts about this year’s presidential election.

Watching Some “Strategic” Companies In Bolivarian Venezuela

The week’s posts:
Saturday tango: CNN version

Cuban slave labor used to build Ikea furniture in the 1980s

The History of Ernesto Che Guevara – A Short Story

Argentina’s Olympic gaffe

Mexico: The boob tube UPDATED with VIDEO

In Defense of Marco Rubio’s Story of His Family’s Exile

ARGENTINA
S&P downgrades Argentina’s outlook after YPF deal, H/T Gates of Vienna.

Kirchner Aide Pushed Her to Take Over Oil Firm

BARBADOS
Caribbean aviation
Red in the face

BRAZIL
Brazil sex worker may sue U.S. embassy over injuries

BTG Pactual goes public
Back to basics
A purist pay scheme at Brazil’s high-flying investment bank

COLOMBIA
Colombia’s top diplomat demands apology from President Obama for Secret Service hooker scandal
“It is necessary, and I want to hear it from the White House,’ says Gabriel Silva

Prostitution in Colombia
Not the kind of press they were after

The Colombian-Venezuelan border
Pick your poison
Drug gangs now dominate where guerrillas once reigned

Panetta: Iranian influence in South America akin to ‘expanding terrorism’, via Legal Insurrection.

Journalist missing as Farc attacks Colombia drugs raid
A French journalist is missing after Farc rebels killed four soldiers trying to destroy cocaine laboratories. via BadBlue.

ECUADOR
Ecuador should scrap new media bill, draft new one

HAITI
The UN in Haiti
First, do no harm
Foreign peacekeepers have worn out their welcome. How can they be held accountable for their actions?

MEXICO
Guadalajara’s Bosque de la Primavera

MMFA’S RESPONSE TO ‘FAST AND FURIOUS’ PLAYS FAST AND LOOSE WITH FACTS

Young men in Mexico say the US no longer offers them a better future
Seismic shifts in immigration and demographics leave towns full of young men who once would have dreamed of the US, H/T Gates of Vienna.

Mexican immigration
Low tide

Walmart
Walmart’s Mexican morass
The world’s biggest retailer is sent reeling by allegations of bribery

EL SALVADOR
EXCLUSIVE: New Secret Service scandal centers on strippers, prostitutes in El Salvador
U.S. Secret Service agents brag they routinely use third-world prostitutes while conducting out-of-country security detail for Presidential visits

LATIN AMERICA
Populists, centrists square off in South America’s leadership divide
Argentina, along with Venezuela Ecuador, Bolivia and Nicaragua, is part of a movement to centralize power in the executive, taking greater control of courts and the media. On the opposite end are Colombia, Chile, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay, which are led by centrist presidents using orthodox economic policies attuned to social needs

PANAMA
Panama denies Lavitola corruption allegations
Berlusconi aide suspected of illegal prison contracts, bribes

PUERTO RICO
Puerto Rico’s Growing Voter Fraud Scandal

VENEZUELA
Venezuela’s judiciary
Whistle-blown
An impeached judge says the courts are subservient and corrupt

Eladio Aponte’s Plan B

The week’s posts:
Obama got Osama but not much else
Venezuela: Chavez giveth, Chavez taketh away
Hugo Chavez and the singing judge
More Mexicans returning to Mx than coming to USA, UPDATED

At Real Clear World,
Bolivia: Venezuela Has Five Military Bases in the Country

WaPo headline,
For first time since Depression, more Mexicans leave U.S. than enter

Nearly 1.4 million Mexicans moved from the United States to Mexico between 2005 and 2010, double the number who did so a decade earlier. The number of Mexicans who moved to the United States during that period fell to less than half of the 3 million who came between 1995 and 2000.

The Pew Hispanic Center‘s study focuses on Mexicans because,

Mexicans now comprise about 58% of the unauthorized immigrants living in the United States. They also account for 30% of all U.S. immigrants. The next largest country of origin for U.S. immigrants, China, accounts for just 5% of the nation’s stock of nearly 40 million immigrants.

The WaPo article mentions four reasons for the reverse migration:

• tightened border controls,
• a weak U.S. job and housing construction market,
• a rise in deportations,
• a decline in Mexican birthrates

Mickey Kaus adds another one,

I have a nagging feeling we’re missing something … maybe something that happened in “the last half of the decade” when Pew thinks  the return flow started … say in the period between George W. Bush’s reelection in 2005 and 2007, when the population of illegal Mexican immigrants peaked and when … wait, it’s coming back to me now … Bush’s “comprehensive” amnesty was unexpectedly and decisively defeated. … Don’t you think the MSM and Pew should at least mention the possibility that many Mexicans and others came here with the expectation that they’d gain permanent legal residence, maybe citizenship, as part of the new amnesty they’d heard so much about. When those hopes were dashed, staying here became less appealing and going home more attractive. That would hardly be an irrational calculus. But it’s independent of greater or lesser “border enforcement.” The amnesty magnet was turned off.

Could be.

However, The U.S. Chamber’s Plan for Immigration Reform
Immigration Policy Priorities for 2012 is a most interesting outline on immigration proposals, particularly on the subject of skilled workers.

An even more important issue for the USA is the fact that border security is national security: the drug cartels, which may be working with Iran-sponsored terror groups, are a clear danger.

UPDATE,
The Mexicans aren’t the only ones leaving:
Last year, nearly 1,800 American expatriates renounced their citizenship.

Linked by Obi’s Sister. Thanks!

After reading the posts about the proposed Galway monument to Che, several friends are forwarding Irish stories,

New Irish exodu$ rivals days of old

New York beckons again for Ireland’s latest lost generation, her sons and daughters fleeing their country’s battered economy on a scale not seen since the early 20th century.
After the spectacular boom years of the famous Celtic Tiger turned to bust in 2007, more than 350,000 emigrants have fled, more than half the number that left over a 20 year period between 1900-1920. It’s Ireland’s traditional safety valve during painful periods of economic distress.
Hundreds of Irish workers are streaming into New York every month, according to Irish community leaders. That reverses an earlier trend, when some Irish workers in New York went back home to participate in the Emerald Isle’s once blistering growth.
…
When Ireland entered recession in 2008, people were already packing: 42,200 left in 2007, 45,300 emigrated in 2008, 65,000 in 2009, the same number in 2010, 76,400 last year. And more than 60,000 are forecast to go in 2012. That’s about 355,000 in six years — out of a population of 4.5 million.

I expect that is the trend from the PIIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, and Spain) countries, too.

The other Irish story this morning?Dublin patron saint’s heart stolen from Christ Church Cathedral
The heart was housed in a wooden box surrounded by an iron cage
The preserved heart of Dublin’s patron saint has been stolen from the city’s Christ Church Cathedral, officials say. St Laurence O’Toole is Dublin’s patron saint. Laurence O’Toole would make a great name for an actor, too, as it evokes Lawrence Olivier and Peter O’Toole.

No word as to whether St Larry’s heart “migrated” to US shores.

Meanwhile, back in the old country,they’re looking forward to the second annual Che Do Bheatha festival, due to be held in the seaside town of Kilkee this September because

is not a celebration of Guevara himself, but rather his image. It was made popular by artist Jim Fitzpatrick, who worked in Kilkee at the time of the visit. “It is not a political thing here and is a fun celebration,” [organizer Tom] Byrne says.

Alberto de la Cruz suggests,

As long as we are “celebrating” the “fun” side of vicious and ruthless murderers, here are a couple of suggestions for some other festivals they may want to consider:
The Idi Amin Food Festival
Political opposition, they’re not just for breakfast

* * *

The Pol Pot Gardening Festival
How the right fertilizer can make your killing fields into a prize winning garden

Maybe the Galway Council ought to look into Pinochet’s ancestry, too, while they’re at it.

As a final note, yesterday someone tweeted this,

To which I replied,

Did I make myself clear?

Obama had dominating Democratic majorities in 2009 and 2010, and could have chosen to press forward with his own plans on immigration reform.

For several months, Obama had a veto-proof majority in the Senate, as well as at least a few Republicans who would have been inclined to go along on the issue, such as John McCain and Lindsey Graham. He could have tackled immigration reform at any point in those first two years, and might have built enough bipartisan goodwill to boost his party’s chances in the midterms. Instead, Obama pushed it to the back burner and instead pursued an unpopular health-care overhaul that cost his party 68 House seats, ruining his chances to push through any more of his agenda in the final two years of his term.

So. Now he goes on Univision to say he’s taking the Latino vote for granted, and besides, he’ll get around to passing immigration amnesty sometime because he’s got “another five years“, while blaming Republicans in a meandering paragraph:

PIOLIN: We’re going to start right away because this is what our community wants to know. During your presidency, you have not delivered the immigration reform that we were hoping for. Thousands of families have been separated by deportation, leaving their children behind, alone in this country. Do you think that you still have the support of the Latino community?

OBAMA: Well, first of all Piolin, my presidency is not over, I’ve got another five years coming up. We’re going to get this done. And — and absolutely we have strong support in the Latino community because they have seen something we are working on. First of all, strengthening the economy, we were able to get the payroll tax done that provides 25 million Latinos with an extra 40 dollars in every paycheck and is going to strengthen the economy. We made sure unemployment insurance got extended because the Latino community has been so hard hit. A million Latinos are going to be benefiting from that. The housing settlement that we just passed, which will help Latino families all across the country who were taken advantage of by subprime lenders to be able to stay in their homes. The work we have done on education, to make sure millions of students — many Latino students are still getting Pell Grants and other scholarships and financial aid so that they can go to college. So, there are a lot of issues that we have worked on that have directly benefited millions of Latino families.

You’re right though, immigration reform is something we still have to get done and as I’ve told you since before I was elected president, the only way we are going to get this done fully is by getting Congress to do its job.

What we’ve been able to do is, administratively, we’ve said, let’s reemphasize our focus when it comes to enforcement on criminals and at the borders and let’s not be focusing our attention on hard-working families who are just trying to make ends meet. We’ve administratively proposed to reform the “three and 10” program so that families aren’t separated when they’re applying to stay here in this country.

So we are trying to do a lot to soften the effects of immigration, but ultimately, the only way we are going to do this is to get something passed through Congress, and that’s why we have to keep the pressure up.

Unfortunately, the Republican side, which used to at least give lip service to immigration reform, now they’ve gone completely to a different place and have shown themselves unwilling to talk at all about any sensible solutions to this issue and we are just going to have to keep up the pressure until they act.

My fellow Latinos and Latinas who favor immigration reform of any kind: if you fall for this line, the word best describing you is pendejos. Might as well wait for that algae fuel to gas up your car.

To my English-speaking readers who don’t know what the word means, the polite term is suckers.

ARGENTINA
The Argentine president and her empire in the south
Argentine President Cristina Kirchner has been quick to accuse Britain of ‘imperialism’. But, as Ian Mount and Philip Sherwell write, she has been creating a rather impressive empire of her own.

Argentina in UK ‘nuclear’ claim
Argentina accuses the UK of sending a nuclear-armed submarine to the South Atlantic, and makes an official complaint to the UN over the Falklands.

Barack Obama’s shameless Falklands betrayal will overshadow David Cameron’s Washington visit

Repsol Says Argentine Shale-Oil Formation Requires $250 Billion Investment

BRAZIL
Concerns with the Brazil Narrative

Privatising Brazil’s airports
Fasten your seat belts
Sky-high prices raise the prospect of more sell-offs

Drippy No More
Once viewed as filler for mass-market brands, Brazilian coffee is hot. A look at its sweet and nutty charms

The Wall Street Journal has a Brazil Special: Have It Your Way
There’s a lot to see in a country with 4,600 miles of coastline and nearly half the landmass of South America. But whether you’re into art, urbanity or the outdoors, you’ll find something to love in this destination trifecta

CHILE
Chile drops brush fire charges against Israeli

COLOMBIA
Colombia seizes Farc rebels’ explosives cache
The Colombian security forces have seized three tonnes of explosives and arms belonging to the country’s biggest left-wing rebel group, the Farc.

CUBA
How Kennedy bought 1,200 hand rolled Cuban cigars just hours before he ordered blockade of communist state 50 years ago

Will The Pope Absolve Fidel Castro?

Hey Fidel, Abuse of the Sacrament of Confession is a Mortal Sin

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Dominicans in deadly migrant boat accident say they pleaded to return

GUATEMALA
U.N. Investigative Body to Stay in Guatemala

IMMIGRATION
California’s Demographic Revolution
If the upward mobility of the impending Hispanic majority doesn’t improve, the state’s economic future is in peril

The problem some Texans have with border fence

LATIN AMERICA
The Obama Effect in Latin America
Placating enemies instead of strengthening partnerships with friends.

President BO’s “not much of a policy” toward Latin America

Self-deportation works

MEXICO
Cynthia Vanier’s Background and Activities in Libya
Ms. Vanier, who traveled to Libya in 2011 as a consultant to a large Canadian construction company and is now jailed in Mexico, is accused of trying to help smuggle Saadi Qaddafi, the son of the former Libyan dictator, into the country

Mexico mob kills three suspected kidnappers
Security officials in Mexico say three men have been killed by a mob for allegedly trying to kidnap a group of youths.

Candidacy tests Mexico’s culture of machismo

Mexico’s Presidential Election and the Cartel War

PANAMA
Potrerillos Neighborhood Watch & Public Safety Report: 2/9/2012

PERU
Sendero Luminoso, fragilidad institucional y socialismo del Siglo XXI en el Peru, PDF file.

PUERTO RICO
Puerto Rico Referendum Could Revitalize D.C. Status Debate

VENEZUELA
On Obama’s Watch

Venezuela’s presidential campaign
Mano a mano
The opposition has got its act together at last. Will that be enough to topple a convalescent and vulnerable Hugo Chávez?

Threats against Venezuelan state employees may suppress turnout for Sunday’s primary election

The week’s posts:
Ecuador: More persecution of journalists
Drugs, guns, and bundlers UPDATED

Obama’s heading to Disney World,

While specifics of his tourism plan were hazy, there is one topic at the top of the political wish list for Central Florida’s tourism industry: visa reform. The tourism industry has been pushing Congress and Obama to make travel easier for visitors from emerging nations such as Brazil, India and China.

“We understand that he [Obama] is going to trumpet the value of travel generally and improve facilitation for international travel, especially from China and Brazil,” said Blain Rethmeier, senior vice president of public affairs at the U.S. Travel Association.

Michelle Malkin reminds us,

In case anyone needs reminding, it was the relentless drive of the tourism industry and kowtowing State Department bureaucrats that led to the Bush-era Visa Express program — which relaxed visa policies, eliminated in-person consulate interviews, and opened the door to the 9/11 hijackers.

Change…

ARGENTINA
Tropical City: Buenos Aires?

CHILE
Suspicions rise in Pablo Neruda’s death

Today’s Video: Injustice in Chile

COLOMBIA
Colombia’s former paramilitaries
Criminals with attitude
A crime mob takes on the government

CUBA
Going old school with Fidel and Raul

Dictatorship engaged in game of “whack-a-dissident”

ECUADOR
Ahmadinejad visits Ecuador to marshal support

EL SALVADOR
Admin. extends Salvadoran deportation freeze (h/t GoV)

GUATEMALA
Mexico Security Memo: The Future of Methamphetamine in Guatemala

Otherwise, the cartels could be expanding their operations as most successful businesses tend to do. Control of transportation networks, especially ports, is critical for business because maritime shipping accounts for the majority of illegal trade worldwide.

The significance for Guatemala is notable. The Central American country has long been a transit corridor for cocaine from South America into Mexico, but it is now becoming a drug producer — even if all the precursor chemicals found there are not immediately contributing to the drug trade. Without U.S. or Mexican assistance, the Guatemalan government will be unable to control any increased production of methamphetamine — or the violence, corruption and increased use that will accompany it.

HAITI
Many question whether Haiti quake donations put to best use
Two years after the devastating earthquake in Haiti, many complain that they haven’t seen where billions in donations were spent.

HONDURAS
Happy news

JAMAICA
A Massacre in Jamaica
After the United States demanded the extradition of a drug lord, a bloodletting ensued.

MEXICO
Remittances to Mexico are rebounding
Mexican immigrants living in the U.S. sent an estimated 8% more money back to relatives last year compared with 2010, thanks to an improving U.S. job market.

Mexico drug war deaths over five years now total 47,515
Mexican officials say nearly 13,000 people were killed in violence blamed on organised crime between January and September last year

PARAGUAY
Prime suspect in conspiracy to kill Paraguayan reporter freed

PERU
Lima’s metro
The train leaves platform one at last
Better late than never

PUERTO RICO
Ruth Fernández, Singer and Senator in Puerto Rico, Dies at 92

VENEZUELA
Venezuela and Iran strengthen ties, mock US disapproval

Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez taunt US over ‘big atomic bomb’ Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez joked about having “a big atomic bomb” and mocked US disapproval during a meeting between the two allies in Caracas.

Iran in Latin America is no laughing matter

Chávez: ‘There will be no consulate in Miami’
The decision, which is in response to the expulsion of consul Livia Acosta, impacts more than 200,000 Venezuelans in the Southeast.

The week’s posts:
Where the coke comes from
Van der Sloot pleads guilty to murder
50 busted for Puerto Rican ID theft
Good news, bad news
Ahmadinejad rolls through Latin America
Mercedes-Che?
Sony fined $656k over Tiririca song
Argentina’s flight of capital
Today’s update re: two crazy tyrants in Venezuela