Security and Prosperity Partnership
North American Union: Fact or Fiction?

www.CanadaFreePress
By Henry Lamb

Reaction to reports about a possible North American Union have been robust, at least. Reaction from a few conservative pundits is way beyond robust, nearing the ridiculous. Popular radio talk show host, Michael Medved, describes the reporters of a possible North American Union as bastards and creeps and jug-heads and drunks and reprobates.

John Hawkins, a blogger at;Right Wing News says claims about a North American Union are “…not true at all,” and then explains why he thinks the claims are false.

People who are unfamiliar with the Security and Prosperity Partnership, or the North America Free Trade Agreement, or the Trans-Texas Corridor, or the European Union could easily believe the very superficial analysis of these two, and other pundits who have ridiculed the formation of what could easily become a North American Union.

About the only thing that is correct in the reaction of either of these two pundits is the fact that no one is admitting officially that a North American Union is under construction.

What is quite publicly under construction is a “North American Community,” with the express goal of deeper “integration” of the economies and culture of the United States, Canada, and Mexico. This North American Community is the brainchild of Dr. Robert Pastor, who, as co-chair of a special Task Force of the Council on Foreign Relations, produced a report entitled “Building a North American Community”.

This report is essentially a regurgitation of Pastor’s earlier book: Toward a North American Community.

Among other goals, Pastor wants the three countries to:

Adopt a common external tariff.

Adopt a North American Approach to Regulation

Establish a common security perimeter by 2010.

Establish a North American investment fund

Establish a permanent tribunal for North American dispute resolution.

Hold an annual North American Summit meeting

Establish minister-led working groups

Create a North American Advisory Council

Create a North American Inter-Parliamentary Group.

Pastor considers NAFTA to be …the first draft of an economic constitution for North America, because it sets up the legal mechanism for achieving all his goals without bothering Congress.

The President apparently agrees with these goals, because he launched the Security and Prosperity Partnership in 2005, which consists of nearly 20 “Minister-led” working groups, with appointed bureaucrats from each of the three countries, all working toward deeper “integration” through harmonization of procedures, rules, and regulations – all of which is happening without bothering Congress.

While this is happening, Pastor, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Security and Prosperity Partnership, all say that they “in no way, shape, or form” are working toward a North American Union. What they are working toward, is Pastor’s North American Community.

If it looks like a skunk, and smells like a skunk, it’s probably a skunk – regardless of what you call it.

Is it just a coincidence that what is now the European Union began its life in 1957 as a as a Customs Union called the European Economic Community. A customs union is a free trade area with a common external tariff. The participant countries set up common external trade policies

People, including pundits, who fail to see this work in progress could learn much from this NAU presentation. The NAU is moving quickly, and quietly toward the same kind of political reality that now grips Europe. Only a concerned and enlightened constituency can compel elected officials to stop this erosion of America’s sovereignty.

Please read the rest here, then call your Senator and ask why you seem to know more about this than they do.

Georgia Senators here and here.

From November 6, 2005
Zamarripa, coconuts, racism and American heroes
Posted by D.A. King

While enduring a “Town Hall Meeting” Friday night that was staged – and I do mean staged – here in Cobb County by Georgia state senator Sam Zamarripa’s propaganda machine – the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials [GALEO] – I couldn’t help but think about a friend of ours in Idaho.

I listened to a former Atlanta Mexican Consul General who continues to find ways to profit from the hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens in Georgia tell the audience “most undocumented immigrants in the United States come from Canada.”

That explains why we see the Canadian flag so much on Buford Highway.

Like many in the worlds oldest profession, that Teodoro Maus fellow can be pretty entertaining.

Another recurring theme was that illegal aliens were really just “immigrants”
…and that illegally entering, residing and working in the U.S. was not really a crime if the illegals paid rent and sales taxes…I cannot make stuff like this up.

Read the original post here.

From the Sierra Vista Herald:

Agencies busy with border jumpers

By Gentry Braswell

Herald/Review

SIERRA VISTA — The nice weather this time of year brings about heavy illegal immigration traffic, and last weekend’s bright moonlight ushered in a few police car chases with illegal immigrants.

A vehicle disregarded an attempted Sierra Vista police traffic stop on Highway 92 eastbound Monday near the Mall at Sierra Vista, at about 1 a.m. The pursuit commenced east on Snyder Boulevard, across Avenida del Sol into the brush, according to a city police report summary.

About a dozen suspected illegal immigrants from the fleeing vehicle bailed out of the car once it went off the road, and U.S. Border Patrol personnel were contacted.

Less than an hour later, a Huachuca City police officer saw six northbound vehicles suspected of trafficking illegal immigrants, Chief Dennis Grey said. When his officer tried to stop one of the vehicles, the vehicles fled north, reaching speeds of perhaps 100 mph, Grey said.

North of Huachuca City, around mile post 300, Arizona Department of Public Safety patrol joined the pursuit, and road spikes were placed on the highway by DPS, Grey said.

One of the vehicles, a Chevy Suburban, hit the DPS spikes and ran off the road. All but two of its occupants fled on foot, Grey said.

There were no injuries, and the two female immigrants who remained in the Suburban were turned over to Border Patrol custody, Grey said.

Another vehicle from that chase was stopped by Benson police, and the remainder of the fleeing vehicles split at the Highway 90/Interstate 10 intersection, some turning east and some turning west, Grey said.

Radio traffic indicated Border Patrol found a group of more than 100 illegal immigrants off Highway 90, Grey said.

Spokesman Gustavo Soto of the Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector was not able to comment on specific incidents from the weekend.

“It’s pretty active out there,” Soto said.

Throughout the sector, 15 to 20 vehicles per day are seized, a number of which are from pursuits, so the reports of each one are not always immediately available in detail to Border Patrol’s media liaisons, he said.

March and April are the most active months for the Tucson Sector, mostly consisting of northbound traffic, Soto said.

Many illegal immigrants are returning from their Mexico homes after having traveled back for the holiday season, Soto said.

The local weather can still reach deadly extremes in the spring, but not as deadly as the dog days of the summer, Soto said.

The illegal immigrant activity continued as the sun rose Monday.

At about 6 a.m., another Sierra Vista police traffic stop on Busby Drive, east of Seventh Street was this time heeded by the suspect vehicle. Four illegal aliens were turned over to Border Patrol custody, according to Sierra Vista police, and three others ran off into a nearby field.

South of town, about 10 minutes later, eight illegal entrants were picked up by Border Patrol at a residence on South San Paulo, Cochise County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Carol Capas said.

As the busy weekend began Friday night, DPS deployed road spikes for a northbound vehicle suspected of trafficking illegal immigrants, DPS Sgt. Vince Fero said.

The tires of a green and silver Chevrolet dually pickup with a camper shell were punctured just south of Kartchner Caverns State Park, Fero said, at about 10 p.m.

The occupants of the pickup all fled when it came to a stop, the Huachuca City police chief said.

Basic Pilot is changing, it is now easier for employers to verify the eligibility of its newly hired employees

Preventing Illegal Employment:
Federal “Basic Pilot” Verification Program is an Effective and Business-friendly Tool
House Committee on Labor
Rhode Island General Assembly
Providence, Rhode Island

March 14, 2007

Statement of Jessica M. Vaughan
Senior Policy Analyst
Center for Immigration Studies

Accuracy and Completeness of the Basic Pilot Databases. The Basic Pilot program relies on the databases maintained by the Social Security Administration and Department of Homeland Security. These agencies recognize the need to return accurate results to employers, so that authorized workers are not denied employment. Some organizations, including the Chamber of Commerce, National Immigration Law Center and ethnic advocacy groups, have objected to mandatory verification on the grounds that some authorized individuals could be denied employment due to errors in the database. This is theoretically a possibility; however, the system has safeguards built in to ensure that a tentative non-confirmation does not result in termination. Upon receipt of a tentative non-confirmation, employers have the chance to correct any data entry errors that may have been made, and the employee has a chance to correct any erroneous or out-dated information in the federal record. One common reason for a discrepancy is that the worker recently was married or divorced, but neglected to notify the SSA. Some workers may be known by their middle name, and use that on a job application, but find that the Social Security record has the full legal name. Expanding mandatory use of Basic Pilot will actually work to increase the accuracy of these federal databases, by providing further impetus for workers to update or correct the Social Security database well before it is time for them to begin collecting Social Security benefits.

As for the immigration records, DHS has taken steps to make the Basic Pilot system more interoperable with all the various sub-systems that could confirm an alien’s work authorization, including recent immigrants, temporary workers, refugees and asylees, those who change status, and other special cases. Most of the criticisms raising this objection are based on the early evaluations of Basic Pilot, and the issues have since been addressed. For instance, the first evaluation of Basic Pilot in 2002 noted that sometimes a new immigrant’s data would not be entered into the system for 6-9 months, meaning he could wrongfully be denied authorization. By 2005 it only took 10-12 days for this information to make it into the system, which is well within the time period before someone would be terminated for non-confirmation. Following the appropriation of more than $100 million in federal funding earmarked for Basic Pilot last year, DHS is now in the process of doing four new upgrades, scheduled for completion by June, 2007.

If a tentative non-confirmation turns out not to be the result of inaccurate data entry, the agencies will attempt a manual confirmation, whereby a staff member will comb records by hand to try to establish a worker’s status. According to DHS, this is usually accomplished in anywhere from one to ten days, depending on the situation.

The real-life experience of the state of Arizona is instructive. Arizona has been verifying the Social Security numbers of all 42,000 state employees about every five weeks since the fall of 2005. These regular audits reportedly turned up only 409 no-matches over the year, most of which were caused by the kind of name changes described above, meaning more than 99.9 percent of the state employees were verified without a problem. That is an impressive accuracy rate that should reassure other state governments contemplating this move”.

Complete testimony here

From the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Website:

Registration for Employment Verification Pilot Programs

The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Bureau (USCIS) and the Social Security Administration (SSA) are jointly conducting the Employment Eligibility Verification Program (EEV), formerly known as the Basic Pilot Program. EEV involves verification checks of the SSA and DHS databases, using an automated system to verify the employment authorization of all newly hired employees.

There are four types of access methods for EEV.

EEV/Basic Pilot
The EEV/Basic Pilot access method is a web-based program that provides a company with a way to electronically verify the employment authorization of all newly hired employees, regardless of citizenship.

Designated Agent
The Designated Agent access method is a web-based program available to companies (Designated Agents) to verifying the employment authorization of all newly hired employees on behalf of other companies (Client Companies).

Corporate Administrator
The Corporate Administrator access method is a web-based program that provides companies with multiple sites using the EEV/Basic Pilot Program, the functionality to create and manage multiple EEV/Basic Pilot accounts for those sites under the jurisdiction of a Corporate Office. Corporate Administrators have oversight of these company accounts. They are provided the ability to view reports and administer new and existing user accounts. The Corporate Administrator access method cannot perform employment eligibility verifications for newly hired employees. To verify the employment eligibility for your Corporate Office’s newly hired employees, the Corporate Office needs to also register for Basic Pilot access.

Web-Services
The Web-Service access method allows a company to extract information from the company’s existing system or an electronic Form I-9 and transmit the data to SSA and USCIS to verify the employment authorization of newly hired employees. The web-services access method requires your company to develop software to interface between your company’s system and USCIS’ database.

An employer’s participation in EEV is voluntary and is currently free to employers.

Users can access the web-based access methods using any Internet-capable Windows based personal computer and a web browser of Internet Explorer 5.5 or Netscape 4.7 or higher (with the exception of Netscape 7.0).

To participate, an employer must register online and accept the electronic Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that sets forth the responsibilities of the SSA, USCIS and the employer.

If your company wants to participate in EEV, as an EEV/Basic Pilot user, designated agent, or corporate administrator, or if your company is interested in the web-service access method, click the “Begin Employment Verification Registration” button* shown below.
If you need assistance in completing the registration process or need additional information relating to EEV, please call the Office of Verification toll free at 1-888-464-4218.

*BUTTON HERE

Seven minute video on the scourge of MEChA

Here.

FROM FAIR

Call Your Senators Today and Urge Them to Reject the White House Guest Worker Amnesty Plan!

For weeks, White House officials have been meeting with Senators in back-door sessions, attempting to negotiate a guest worker amnesty program that will attract substantial support—especially from Republicans. Yesterday, as a result of those negotiations, the White House released a new guest worker amnesty plan to gauge reaction on Capitol Hill, hoping it is positive enough to encourage many Senators to sign on.

Call your Senators’ district offices today and urge them to reject this plan!

As reported by CongressDaily, the convoluted White House plan creates not one, not two, but three guest worker programs. The first program grants amnesty to illegal aliens currently in the country by first granting them legal status through “Z” visas, which are renewable indefinitely. In addition, those holding Z visas are eligible to apply for green cards. The plan incorporates a “touchback” requirement for green card applicants (like the Flake-Gutierrez bill), but only heads of households would have to make the token trip and the Z visa would guarantee them the right to re-entry. Green cards would be given out first to those who had higher skill levels, but all illegal aliens would still be eligible to apply.

The second guest worker program, intended to cover a broad set of workers, awards visas to “guest” workers for two years, but the visas could be renewed for a total of six years. Between each two-year period, workers would be required to return to their home countries for six months. These “guest” workers would also be able to apply for green cards. The annual cap is not defined, but will be set by the administration based on “market need.”

Call your Senators’ district offices today and urge them to reject this plan!

The third guest worker program targets low-skilled workers and combines the current agricultural (H-2A) and unskilled (H-2B) guest worker programs. These “guest” workers could remain in the country for nine months and would be required to return to their home countries for three months, but renewals under the seasonal program would be unlimited. In addition, these guest workers would also be able to apply for green cards.

The plan has a trigger of that consists of several border security provisions, including the addition of adding more border patrol agents and the construction of 370 miles of fencing (only about half of what the Secure Fence Act calls for). However, the trigger only requires the partial implementation of the new documentation requirements and partial implementation of the employment eligibility verification system before the new guest worker amnesty plan begins.

Call your Senators’ district offices today and urge them to reject this plan!

Through its new plan, the White House has demonstrated its stubborn determination to accommodate illegal aliens and low-wage foreign workers—all at the expense of the American worker and the American middle class! It is imperative that you tell your elected officials that you oppose this plan!

THIS WEEK MAY BE THE MOST IMPORTANT WEEK THIS YEAR FOR YOU TO CONTACT OR VISIT YOUR SENATOR.

Senate leaders have said they plan to have immigration legislation on the floor before Memorial Day. And beginning today, the Senate starts a week-long recess during which most Senators will be back in their home states. While your Senators are at home, please call their district offices and urge them to reject the White House plan.

Tell your Senators:

The White House has created nothing but a convoluted, deceptive plan that pretends to reform our immigration system, but in reality is intended to placate special interests.

We don’t need a guest worker amnesty program to end illegal immigration; we need an administration that is willing to enforce the laws already on the books.

The Department of Homeland Security is entirely unequipped and unprepared to handle a mass guest worker amnesty program—the Department cannot even handle its current workload and has no effective program in place to track when foreign workers (or any visitors for that matter) leave the country.

Guest worker amnesty programs displace American workers and depress wages—there are no jobs Americans won’t do for a living wage!

Amnesty rewards criminal behavior and does nothing to end illegal immigration; instead it only encourages more illegal immigration.

Amnesty is inherently unfair to people all over the world who play by the rules, wait their turn in line, and come to the U.S. legally.

To find the district office number of your Senators, click here.