DfDeportation's Blog

John Boehner - House Republican Leader

 

Washington, May 6 - Democrats are prepared to bring to the House floor legislation purportedly written to assist Americans impacted by the recent housing slump. But in recent days, it has become increasingly clear who this legislation is really out to serve: scam artists, speculators, and trial lawyers.

That’s right: the bill forces taxpayers to pay for a massive $300 billion bailout at the expense of innocent victims who truly need assistance and hard-working families who continue to pay their mortgage on time. And it includes language slipped-in by House Democrats at the last minute to fund a giant $35 million slush fund for trial lawyers seeking to capitalize on the housing downturn.

But the goodies for the friends of the Democratic Majority don’t stop there. House Democrats quietly tucked another giveaway into the long, complicated bill in order to benefit their political allies with virtually no prior public scrutiny or debate. Take a look at this political giveaway – “Assistance for the Raza Development Fund” – straight from the text of the bill:

(c) ASSISTANCE FOR RAZA DEVELOPMENT FUND.—

(1) USE.—The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development may make a grant to the Raza Development Fund for the purpose of providing technical and financial assistance to local non-profit organizations to undertake community development and affordable housing projects and programs serving low- and moderate-income households, particularly through organizations located in neighborhoods with substantial populations of income-disadvantaged households of Hispanic origin. Assistance provided by the Secretary under this subsection may be used by the Raza Development Fund…

(2) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.— There is authorized to be appropriated for grants under this subsection—

(A) $5,000,000 for fiscal year 2008; and
(B) $10,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2009 and 2010.

In short, House Democrats are expecting American taxpayers to shell out $25 million to the Raza Development Fund – an arm of the National Council of La Raza and Democratic political ally that has made its name by promoting pro-illegal immigration policies and opposing real border security.

American families are struggling with rising costs for everything from gasoline to food to mortgages. Times like these require Congress to work in a bipartisan way on behalf of the American people. But instead, this Democratic Majority has produced a bill that rewards scam artists, speculators, trial lawyers, and political allies like La Raza…all at the expense of taxpayers and homeowners who really need help. Sadly, it’s yet more example of what American taxpayers have come to expect from a broken Washington under the leadership of House Democrats.

Study: 25% of LA's Welfare Goes to Undocumented Immigrants
May 6, 2008, 5:42 AM PDT

L.A. County Supervisor Mike Antonovich says the county spends more than $1 billion a year on benefits to undocumented immigrants.

According to new data from the Department of Public Social Services, nearly twenty five percent of Los Angeles County 's welfare and food stamp benefits goes directly to the children of undocumented immigrants, at a cost of $36 million a month -- for a projected annual cost of $432 million.

"The total cost for illegal immigrants to County taxpayers far exceeds $1 billion a year - not including the millions of dollars for education," said Antonovich.

"With $220 million for public safety, $400 million for healthcare, and $432 million in welfare allocations, illegal immigration continues to have a devastating impact on Los Angeles County taxpayers."

The supervisor said, in March, undocumented immigrants collected over $19 million in welfare assistance and over $16 million in food stamp allocations.

Story from KHTS

Copyright © 2008, KTLA

'Illiterate peasants'?

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Posted: May 05, 2008
1:00 am Eastern

© 2008 

 

Editor's note: Michael Ackley's columns may include satire and parody based on current events, and thus mix fact with fiction. He assumes informed readers will be able to tell which is which.

Where are illiterate peasants not illiterate peasants?

That would be in the Colorado state legislature, or at least its House of Representatives, where Rep. Kathleen Curry (D) gaveled down Rep. Douglas Bruce (R) for his rhetoric in opposing a farm guest-worker bill. "How dare you!?" sizzled Curry after Bruce opined that the Centennial State didn't need "5,000 more illiterate peasants."

Rep. Terrance Carroll (D), the House's assistant majority leader, said Bruce's remark might bring an ethics investigation.

"He clearly violated the decorum of the House," the Denver Post quoted Carroll. "It was premeditated bigotry. Doug Bruce is not a stupid man. He thinks about what he's going to say."

There is some question whether or not the latter may be said of the House leadership, for we sought out majority caucus spokeswoman Amy Handleman and asked her if she knew the definition of "peasant."

Shooting us a "you can't trap me" look, she said, "Let's just look at my dictionary. It says, 'Peasant: 1. Any person of the class of small farmers or of farm laborers …' Wait, that can't be right. I'll get back to you."

True to her word, Handleman called a few minutes later.

"House Majority Leader Alice Madden has pointed out she has 'never heard people in a civilized society call people peasants," she reminded us, "but while 'peasant' was bad, it wasn't the biggest problem.

"The biggest problem was that Rep. Bruce used the modifier 'illiterate,' which was clearly bigoted."

Leaving aside Ms. Madden's lack of contact either with civilized societies or with learned texts, we asked, "How will Colorado make sure its guest workers are literate? Is it going to test them? Will their children be able to keep up in Colorado schools?"

"I think it's safe to assume these Mexican workers will be literate," she said, "because Mexico is a progressive nation with a model system of public education. We're sure that those who come to Colorado will be students taking a break from their rigorous studies to help our beleaguered farmers. At the same time they'll be shedding some of the stress of their challenging, post-baccalaureate programs."

"So they won't be illiterate?"

"Not at all."

"Never?"

"Never."

"And they won't be burdensome to Colorado's medical care system, welfare system or public schools?"

"Certainly not."

"And they'll go right back to Mexico when their work visas expire?"

"Of course. They have their studies to think about, and who wouldn't want to return home anyway?"

Well, then, that's that. However, we will have to make a couple of new additions to the Blind Partisan's Dictionary:

Bigot: 1. a person who holds blindly and intolerantly to a particular creed, opinion, etc. 2. a Colorado Democrat.

Peasant: 1. any of a mythical class of small farmers or of farm laborers, 2. an archaic term no longer applied to the gardeners and domestic laborers employed by Democratic legislators.

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For the record: Those who believe the United States doesn't welcome immigrants should look at the statistics. We are absorbing hundreds of thousands of legal immigrants every year, and the greatest percentage of these are from Mexico. In fact, the greatest percentage of new citizens every year – more or less 12 percent – are from Mexico.

According to the latest statistics available, for 2006, more than 9,000 former Mexicans were being naturalized every month. These new Americans are not "illiterate peasants," but individuals willing to go through the rigorous immigration process that requires them to understand English, to have a grasp of our governing principles and to swear an oath of allegiance to the United States. They have not come here on temporary work visas and blended into the populace after those visas expired; they have not sneaked across the border.

They bring with them strong family values and an incredible work ethic. Unlike the illiterate peasants referred to by Rep. Bruce, they have not been imported as a kind of subsidy for American agribusiness. They were not brought here to be exploited and cast aside after the harvest, often staying to become a burden on society – a cost that is not factored into your grocery bill.

Those legislators whose hearts bleed when such people are accurately called "peasants," are far from compassionate; they are in league with the exploiters. Their actions also help preserve the quasi feudal system that maintains the Mexican institution of the campesino (read "peasant").

As for Ms. Madden's assertion that people in "civilized societies" don't call people peasants: This is as ignorant as it is arrogant. It's the kind of assertion you might hear from a California legislator, representing Aztlan and the reconquista.

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Border mayors, Colorado lawmaker fight over 'no border' comments

 

Web Posted: 05/02/2008 11:13 PM CDT

 

By Lynn Brezosky
Express-News

 

BROWNSVILLE — Members of the Texas Border Coalition are sparring with Colorado Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo over his muttered suggestion that if politicians think a border fence will disrupt the region's multiculturalism, the best place for it might be north of Brownsville.

Tancredo sent a letter to Brownsville Mayor Pat Ahumada and Eagle Pass Mayor Chad Foster on Thursday “clarifying” the comment, which came during a congressional field hearing Monday at the University of Texas-Brownsville, which could lose land to the fence.

Tancredo and U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., strong proponents of the fence, were at odds with Democrats on the panel who said the fence will be an ineffective blight for a region that thrives on social and economic ties with Mexico.

“Securing the border is not a local issue,” Tancredo wrote to Ahumada. “Local communities have expressed multiculturalist sentiment by suggesting that ‘there is no border' between the U.S. and Mexico, and refusing to cooperate with federal authorities over the congressionally approved border fence.

“This is a matter of national importance, and the American public should not be asked to sit back and allow a handful of local governments and their friends in the ‘open borders' lobby to exercise veto power over something that impacts not only our national security, but our national sovereignty.”

Ahumada and Foster responded Friday by accusing Tancredo of misquoting them and suggested Tancredo take Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff's advice to “grow up.”

Chertoff made the comment during a January interview with the Associated Press. He was referring to critics of new documentation rules at border crossings.

“We have never said, ‘there is no border,'” the mayors wrote. “The Rio Grande ... has been our border since the agreement to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. To ascribe that quote to us, even by inference, in your tirade is ridiculously juvenile.”

Their letter ends, “Best wishes in your post-congressional career.”

Monday's hearing was led by U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., who has sponsored legislation to repeal authority given to Chertoff to waive environmental and land use laws that could delay construction of the fence.

Man who had sex with mentally disabled teen gets 1 1/2 years

Associated Press - May 3, 2008 5:05 PM ET

SHEBOYGAN, Wis. (AP) - A Sheboygan man who admitted having sex with a mentally disabled teen has been sentenced to 1 1/2 years in prison.

Forty-4-year-old Juan Aguilar pleaded no contest in February to charges of exposing himself to a child and causing a child to view pornography.

The girl is 17, but court records say she has the mental capacity of a third- or fourth-grader.

Defense attorney Thomas Gerleman had asked the judge to sentence Aguilar to probation only. He said Aguilar had no criminal history and worked to send money to his family in Mexico.

Assistant district attorney Jim Haasch recommended two years in prison, saying the offense was too serious for just probation.

Sheboygan County Circuit Judge James Bolgert says he considered both Aguilar's character and the girl's condition when he levied the sentence.

The judge noted that Aguilar is an illegal immigrant who's expected to be deported at the end of his prison sentence.

 

Information from: The Sheboygan Press, http://www.sheboygan-press.com

Woman Allegedly Held Hostage at Abandoned Building for 16 Days Last Edited: Saturday, 03 May 2008, 10:21 PM PDT Created: Saturday, 03 May 2008, 5:10 PM PDT A 20-year-old Maywood woman allegedly kidnapped by her ex-boyfriend and beaten and raped over a two-week period was recovering Saturday. The woman was allegedly locked in a 12-by-12-foot room at an abandoned building on East Slauson Avenue near Mettler Avenue. SideBar
Related Items Videos or just enabling jstl so that we can just write ${bean.property} and jsp takes care of the new lines. -->
Los Angeles -- A 20-year-old Maywood woman allegedly kidnapped by her ex-boyfriend and beaten and raped over a two-week period was recovering Saturday and the man was in custody, police said.

The woman was reported missing April 16 by a friend who told police the woman's ex-boyfriend, 35-year-old Mario Menas, also known as Porfirio Izaguirre, might have something to do with it.

Menas allegedly kidnapped the woman from her Maywood home and locked her in a 12-by-12-foot room at an abandoned building on East Slauson Avenue near Mettler Avenue, said Maywood-Cudahy police Chief Frank Hauptmann.

He allegedly beat and sexually assaulted her over a two-week period and did not give her any food, police said.

Menas took the woman's cell phone, but at some point she got it back and called a friend, who alerted authorities.

Working with the FBI, police tracked the cell phone signal to the building, which they were about to enter when Menas showed up and was arrested, Hauptmann said.

The woman was found inside.

"The victim was found in a traumatic state due to the ordeal of being held captive for 16 days," he said. "She was relieved to see that the police were successful in locating her in such a short period of time."

"She was under the threat that had she not done anything ... he wanted, if she reported anything, if she were to try to make any sort of an escape that certain members of her family, her extended family and friends would be killed," Hauptmann said.

The woman was taken to a hospital, where doctors determined "it was apparent that she had been deprived of food and was sexually assaulted numerous times," he said.

Menas was in jail on suspicion of kidnapping, rape and assault. He is to be arraigned early next week.

May Day Illegal Alien Rally Today; KFI will be on the scene. Will Tony Villar be there? Will the freeways clear? Find out live at 3:00!

As thousands of immigrant workers and their supporters prepared to march through downtown Los Angeles today, some powerful new allies—business leaders—will be joining the call for an end to blanket immigration raids on work sites.

The Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, joined by labor and political leaders at a news conference this morning, renewed its call for immigration reform that includes more worker visas and a path to legalization for undocumented immigrants.

Chamber officials will be armed with a new study by the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., scheduled for release today, showing that tens of thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in revenue could be lost if continued raids forced businesses to flee the state. They said the government should concentrate its limited resources and enforcement efforts on those companies with a clear history of exploitation of workers. . .

Illinois State Rep. Luis Arroyo Says Minutemen Shoot People At The BorderPosted by:  Pro-Illegal Groups

Illinois Review

Listen to Exhibit A — Download HB2747committeehearing.wmv — and the time of question and answer between State Rep. Luis Arroyo, House Executive Committee Chairman Daniel Burke and concerned citizens Rosanna Pulido (right) and Rick Jones, volunteer representative of the Chicago Minutemen Project.

Rep. Arroyo accuses the Minutemen of “stopping illegal people at the border and shoot[ing] them” then and goes on to demean Ms. Pulido, insinuating she is a traitor to her Mexican heritage for questioning HB 2747. In its original language, HB 2747 would have expanded the amount of time illegal detainees would have with spiritual counsel (pastors and/or lay people) from two hours a month to an unlimited number of visits.

Ms. Pulido and Mr. Jones expressed the unfairness of such provisions for illegal aliens who had committed a felony and were awaiting deportation. Their concerns are valid, so much so that adjustments have been made to the bill since this hearing. HB 2747 passed committee that day with an 8 to 3 vote. Those opposing the bill in committee were Rep. Bob Biggins, Rep. Dan Brady and Rep. Jim Meyers, all Republicans.

Read more.

Luis Arroyo

 

Springfield Office:
264 S Stratton Bldg
Springfield, IL 62706
(217) 782-0480
(217) 557-9609 FAX

District Office:
4150 West Armitage Ave
Chicago, IL 60639
(773) 292-0202
(773) 292-1903 FAX
Cook County

Elvira Continues To Abuse Her Son

WRADIO

Chicago, April 28, 2008.- “I want to be a normal boy, but I can’t said Saull, son of the undocumented Mexican Elvira Arellano, who now has been added to the fight to fight for the migrant Mexicans in the United States.

The boy of nine years of age arrived on Saturday to Chicago to participate in the events organized by the movement for immigrants, including the massive march on May 1st.

Saúl came in representation of his mother, who hid last year in a church to elude an order of deportation, until she was placed under arrest last August and deported to Tijuana.

This Monday, the child participated in a press conference with other children that integrate a campaign against the separation of families by deportations, in which he barely gave some words.

A day before been present in a religious service carried out in the Adalberto Methodist church, where he found refuge with his mother.

Saúl was quiet and evasive, and under the insistence of some in the mass media he expressed: “I want to be a normal boy, but I can’t”.

The small one, who was born and went to to the third grade in the United States, has already changed from English to Spanish as his main tongue.

That is why he resorted to Ema Lozano, his godmother and leader of the Central group Without Borders, so she can translate his words and respond to a question that a reporter in English gave him.

“He said that he should be a free boy, and not a boy that has to fight continuously to defend his mother,” stated Lozano.

Saúl recognized that it causes him to be a little nervous to participate in a massive protest as the one that is prepared for Thursday May 1 in this city.

In the scarce statements that he did, he affirmed that he felt happy to live in Mexico in complete liberty and next to his mother, as it has been for more than eight months.

IDENTITY CRISIS
Companies in fear of crackdown on illegals.

Fear is spreading among many L.A. companies as the federal government steps up its enforcement of immigration rules, raiding workplaces and issuing audit notices that require businesses to prove their employees are legal.

Companies in industries with high numbers of undocumented workers are re-interviewing workers, firing those who can’t produce adequate documentation and even considering importing workers from other states – all in an effort to head off enforcement actions that can close down a business.

“You look at the apparel, restaurant, construction and agriculture industries, and there’s definitely more fear among employers now,” said Josie Gonzalez, partner at Pasadena-based immigration law firm Gonzalez & Harris LLP and chair of the American Immigration Lawyers Association’s worksite enforcement committee. . .

See the video of CEO Dov Charney in his underwear running around the plant

Nunez Wants Workplace Immigration Raids Stopped
Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez says he wants so-called workplace raids to stop. By Steve Gregory/KFI NEWS Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Listen to Steve Gregory's Report

 

 

Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez says the economy is more important than the mass enforcement of immigration laws.  He wants so called workplace raids to stop.

 

 

Nunez says immigration officials are profiling people based on their appearance.

 

 

"As Speaker of the Assembly I am announcing today that I will be introducing legislation condemning the questionable practices perpetrated by ICE," Nunez says.

 

 

He says he has seen proof agents have violated people's constitutional rights during enforcement operations.

 

Oklahoma Adding Jobs Despite National Downturn

Gosh, who should we believe, the real statistics, or this study claiming that cracking down on illegal immigration would cost Oklahoma 1.8 billion dollars? It seems to me that when illegal aliens leave, they are replaced by unemployed Americans.

Norman Transcript

Our governor, business leaders and area Realtors keep telling us that the economic turbulence that has hit much of the country seems to have missed us. We got another sign of that this past week.

Oklahoma appears to be adding jobs while much of the nation is losing them. Non-farm employers added more than 11,000 jobs in March.

The state’s unemployment rate continues to drop. The statewide rate for March was 3.2 percent, down from 3.5 percent in February and 4.2 percent in January. A year ago, the rate was 4.3 percent.

Nationwide, during the same period, unemployment has risen. The national rate for March 2008 is 5.1 percent compared to 4.8 percent in February and 4.9 percent in January. A year ago, the national unemployment rate was 4.4 percent.

State officials say many of the new jobs came from the service providing industries. The only category to lose jobs in Oklahoma in March was manufacturing which lost a net of 100 jobs. For the year, Oklahoma has added 15,700 new jobs.

An Example of AP's Bias in Favor of Illegal Immigration By Warner Todd Huston | April 25, 2008 - 21:44 ET

The issue of illegal immigration has seemed to drift from the front pages of the news, of late, but the AP is not finished trying to advocate for law breakers everywhere, it seems. On April 25, the Associated Press posted a story that serves as a perfect example of how the wire service aims their reporting to support illegal immigration in the United States. In "Arizona sheriff stirs furor with crackdown on illegals," all the negative framing of the issue is used against Sheriff Joe Arpaio's efforts to curb illegal immigration and those who stand against him are constantly given the benefit of the doubt with neutral or positive language describing their actions. Additionally, whenever illegals are mentioned they are presented as victims, one "afraid" immigrant even being quoted as calling our immigration officials "the devil."

The subject of the story is Sheriff Arpaio's recent "crackdown" on illegal immigrants in his jurisdiction of Maricopa County, Arizona. After Federal training was given to his officers, the sheriff began a series of sweeps across the county to detain illegal immigrants. His actions are completely legal and not a single case of abuse by the sheriff's officers has been reported -- a fact that the AP story doesn't bother to mention until the 20th paragraph of the 22 paragraph story.

As the AP piece starts we get a shot at Arpiao right away with a snarky description of the man as being the "self-proclaimed 'toughest sheriff in America.'" Then the AP starts right in with several paragraphs of Hispanic pandering, public officials in small towns inside Arpaio's jurisdiction attacking the sheriff's actions. In fact, as paragraph after paragraph of the his detractors appear in the AP piece railing against the man's work, the man himself gets only a few lines in the story to defend himself.

But, even as the sheriff's actions are proven legal and professional, he is accused of "grandstanding," "racial profiling," and ignoring the elected officials of the towns in which his sweeps have occurred. The AP also reminds us that the sheriff's "raids" are occurring "on heavily Hispanic sections." This "heavily Hispanic" line is thrown into the story as if looking for illegals in "heavily Hispanic" areas is somehow a racist action. Of course, logic would make one ask where else would one look for illegals if not in the areas in which they congregate?

Then we get the AP's catalogue of Hispanic pandering, public officials attacking the sheriff.

"I was upset. We did not request them here," said Guadalupe Mayor Rebecca Jimenez, who charged that the patrols were meant to raise Arpaio's profile for his re-election campaign this year.

 

So, this mayor is allowed to charge Arpaio of grandstanding merely for campaign purposes, yet the question is never asked of her why so many illegals were found in her town in the first place? Why is she looking the other way as her town fills with illegal aliens?

Then we get the whining from Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon.

As for Phoenix, Mayor Phil Gordon said Arpaio should be concentrating on more pressing duties such as finding people with warrants against them, and he has asked for a federal civil rights investigation, complaining the sheriff is singling out people who are "driving with a broken taillight or have brown skin." The U.S. Justice Department refused to comment.

 

This panderer is given space to say that Arpaio is illicitly employing racial profiling even as no proof was offered that Arpaio has pulled people over merely for having "brown skin." While it's quite a charge, the AP offers no real proof to substantiate the bald politically charged claim made by Mayor Gordon.

Then, even as the sheriff is accused in the AP piece of sparking "protests" with his actions, the AP gives the police chief of Mesa a chance to seem as if he merely wants notification of future sweeps so that he might work to protect people from "unrest."

And in Mesa, Arizona's third-largest city, the police chief has requested two days' notice of any sweeps Arpaio might conduct there, so that his officers can be prepared for any unrest.

 

It does not occur to the AP, though, that if Sheriff Arpaio were to alert the police chief of Mesa ahead of time, this would not help stop protests, but will instead give the sheriff's opponents time to organize before he has a chance to institute the sweep. In other words, should the sheriff warn Mesa ahead of time, not only will illegals get the word to go into hiding, but opponents of the sheriff will be there to meet him and protests will certainly end up occurring. The Mesa police chief most likely isn't interested in protecting against "unrest" he's interested in fostering it.

Now, it cannot be ignored that the sheriff is observing the law. Yet, the AP negatively describes Arpaio's efforts as "pushing the boundaries on immigration." Are the illegals themselves not pushing the boundaries of the law? Apparently the AP doesn't see it that way. As far as the AP is concerned only the sheriff is being provocative by enforcing the law but those actually breaking the law are not doing anything wrong.

Naturally, the AP wants to portray the sheriff's actions as creating civil unrest, maybe even handing the reader a thinly veiled warning of riots.

The crackdowns have led to demonstrations by protesters on both sides of the immigration debate.

 

So, once again, imagine how things might get out of hand if Arpaio was stupid enough to have announced his targets ahead of time like the police chief of Mesa wants!

Then the AP portrays the illegals as innocents, folks who are victims of Arpaio's mean-spirited "raids."

Civil rights advocates said Arpaio is spreading fear among Hispanics, illegal or not. "You have cooks, landscapers, nannies afraid to drive," said Hector Yturralde, president of the group Somos America.

 

And...

Weeks after the crackdown, 20 Spanish-speaking day laborers gathered at a dusty intersection to wait for people to offer them work. Ramon Arajon Contreras, a laborer from Mexico who has lived in Guadalupe for eight years, said the sweep frightened him so much that he hid out in his house until it was over. He said he is still afraid.

"If I see immigration officers," he said, "it's like I see the devil."

 

Isn't it a good thing that a man who has been breaking our laws for over 8 years is finally finding some fear that he is a criminal? Not according to the AP, sadly.

All in all, this AP story was little else but a sustained attack on Arpaio as he tries to enforce our nation's laws with enemies to our laws given all the space they want to call the sheriff names and cast doubts on his integrity and motives. Meanwhile, the man himself is given little space to explain himself and his supporters afforded but sparse room to show their appreciation for his actions.

The net effect is to show that the AP is plainly on the side of law breakers and stands firmly against our immigration laws.

Senator pushes school course on mass 1930s deportations By Steve Lawrence
Associated Press Article Launched: 04/21/2008 01:32:59 AM PDT

 

SACRAMENTO - State Sen. Gil Cedillo is trying to shine some light on a shocking but little known episode in American history. He faces an uphill battle.

The Los Angeles Democrat is the author of a bill that would require public junior high and high schools to teach students about the deportation of about 2 million Latinos, including 400,000 Californians, to Mexico during the Great Depression.

Elementary schools would have the option of including information about the deportations in social science instruction.

The deportation program was started in 1929 (and ran to 1944) by the Hoover administration, supposedly as a way to get rid of illegal immigrants and open up jobs during the Depression. Most of those rounded up and sent to Mexico were American citizens or legal immigrants, critics say.

Cedillo calls it "an embarrassment to all Americans."

"Those that don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it," he said. "That would be another tragedy upon a tragedy. . . . The way to avoid that is through education."

Cedillo's bill is scheduled to be considered today by the Senate Appropriations Committee.

That committee shelved an earlier version of the legislation last year as part of an effort to hold down spending. A committee analysis said the bill could lead to hundreds of thousands of dollars in state costs to reimburse school districts for a new mandate.

Cedillo said he might be able to "tweak the

language regarding what's mandatory, what's optional or available" to get the bill out of committee.

Even if the bill clears the Legislature, it faces a possible veto by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who turned down similar legislation in 2006 that was introduced by then-Sen. Joe Dunn, a Democrat from Garden Grove.

Cardinal Mahony is asking L.A. parishes to help pay for sexual abuse settlements. April 19, 2008
Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the United States has provided the requisite quota of breathlessly televised pageantry. But the most dramatic moment in his brief visit surely was his meeting with three Catholics who, as children, suffered sexual abuse at the hands of priests.

Benedict called for the church to do more for the thousands who endured similar outrages. Los Angeles' Cardinal Roger M. Mahony echoed that sentiment following the meeting. "We've got to face it [the abuse crisis] head on and deal with it," he told The Times. The pope, he said, "asked us to set a better tone in the church."

Back in Los Angeles, where the archdiocese reached a record $660-million settlement with hundreds of abuse victims last summer, Mahony is already engaged in an unprecedented exercise that sheds light on what that new tone may entail.

Combined with an earlier payout, the 2007 settlement brought the archdiocese's total liability to $720 million. When Mahony announced the agreement, he pledged that it would not involve the sale of any parish or school properties, as has occurred in other dioceses. Most local Catholics took that as an assurance that their parishes wouldn't be asked to pay for pedophiles.

In the months since, however, the cardinal and his lay financial advisors have decided that the archdiocese -- which already has drastically cut staff, sold real estate and liquidated investments -- must seek help from at least some of its parishes if it is to repay a bank loan of about $50 million that was taken out to cover part of the settlement.

There are 288 parishes in the archdiocese, and their money is held in a common investment pool -- currently $600 million -- managed by the archdiocese. Many older, more affluent parishes have what amount to endowments built up over many years. In February, Mahony wrote to the pastors of 101 parishes, telling them that because they are part of "a group of parishes with cash investments of $1 million or more ... I am asking you and your parish leaders to consider ways to assist me and our local church" with outright grants or no- or low-interest loans. Depending on the amount of their uncommitted investments, Mahony suggested that the individual parishes contribute as much as $400,000. Theoretically, the cardinal could simply order the parishes to contribute, but he has declined to do so.

On Friday, archdiocese spokesman Todd Tamberg told The Times that "the funding of the settlement of the civil cases, which did not include any parish or parish school assets, required a substantial amount of borrowing by the archdiocese's administrative office. Increasing the revenues of the archdiocese administrative office and decreasing the amount of settlement debt through voluntary parish loans and grants" will allow the diocese to go on providing essential services.

The $50-million loan that must be repaid is held by Allied Irish Bank, and the archdiocese was forced to put up six Catholic high school facilities as collateral -- Daniel Murphy (slated to close this June), St. Bernard, Bishop Montgomery, Bishop Amat, Damien, Bishop Conaty-Loretto and St. Bonaventure. Whatever the 101 parishes decide, Tamberg said, "the archdiocese has no intention whatsoever of selling any of these high schools." There is no reason to doubt the sincerity of the archdiocese on this question. But making collateral of schools demonstrates just how deeply into the fabric of diocesan life the abuse crisis has reached.

So does Mahony's extraordinary personal appeal to the parishes for voluntary contributions. Over the past weeks, he has personally appeared at 20 regional meetings to apologize for his own role in the crisis, to urge further understanding of the victims' injury and to appeal for financial help. Most pastors have submitted the request to their lay parish and financial councils. Many plan meetings before the end-of-May deadline the cardinal set for a response.

Mahony's efforts are playing out against an extraordinary backdrop. What's come to be called "the abuse crisis" involved a tiny fraction of American priests, but the majority of the country's bishops were either negligent or overtly malfeasant in the way they dealt with the crimes.

In an article published Friday in the Tablet, an influential British Catholic newspaper, the American commentator George Weigel pointed out that Catholics have "rallied to the support of the good priests they knew -- who were, after all, 97% (at least) of the American presbyterate -- and one senses no lingering anger at priests. There is, however, residual anger at bishops who failed to act, who protected abusive clergy, who have put their diocese under financial pressure and who have not been called to account."

In his attempt to persuade Los Angeles Catholics to dip into their parish reserves to compensate victims who suffered abuse under three cardinals, Mahony has chosen to rely on moral authority rather than his power as a prince of the church. It's an important test of his own relationship with the people in the pews -- a plebiscite of sorts on whether L.A.'s Catholics believe their church and its cardinal really have learned from this wrenching tragedy.

timothy.rutten@latimes.com