Pentagon officials have said the program was productive and had detected
international terrorist interests in specific military bases. But they also
acknowledged that some officials may not have been using the system
properly.
The TALON reports - collected by an array of Defense Department agencies
including law enforcement, intelligence, counterintelligence and security -
are kept in a large database and analyzed by an obscure Pentagon agency,
the Counterintelligence Field Activity. CIFA is a three-year-old outfit
whose size and budget are secret.
Last year, a Pentagon review found that as many as 260 reports in the
database were improperly collected or kept there. At the time, the Pentagon
said there were about 13,000 entries in the database, and that less than 2
percent either were wrongly added or were not purged later when they were
determined not to involve real threats.
Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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Legislative Alerts and Updates Key Votes Capitol Hill Basics
Action Alert
Oppose S. 1639! (Updated 6/26/07)
The controversial immigration reform bill (S. 1348) has been given a new life
under a new bill number - S. 1639.
The Senate is expected re-launch floor debate on the so-called immigration
reform bill. For several weeks now The John Birch Society has been sending
out legislative e-alerts on S. 1348, the Comprehensive Reform Act of 2007. Our
e-alert users were successful in urging the Senate to oppose S. 1348! On June
7, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) pulled the legislation from the
Senate floor due to a failure to obtain enough supporters to end debate and
have a vote on the bill. Over the past few weeks the White House has been
working closely with key members of Congress to renegotiate the terms of the
immigration legislation.
This new comprehensive immigration reform bill (S. 1639), introduced by
Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) on June 18, is not so new at all. The bill still
carries the same amnesty provisions and guestworker program that caused S. 1348
to fail in the first place. Additionally, the Kennedy amendment attached to S.
1348 (S. Amdt. #1150) that called for the acceleration of the Security and
Prosperity Partnership of North America, is still included in Section 413 of S.
1639:
It is the sense of Congress that the United States and Mexico should
accelerate the implementation of the Partnership for Prosperity to help
generate economic growth and improve the standard of living in Mexico, which
will lead to reduced migration
So what exactly has changed in this legislation? In a word, nothing! The
basic elements of the Bush/Kennedy grand compromise remain in the bill.
Continuous pressure on members of the Senate is essential in defeating the
passage of S. 1639 which would among other things place millions of illegal
immigrants on a path toward citizenship.
Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC), an opponent of S. 1639, argued on Monday that the
only way to block the immigration bill is for "the American people raise the
level of their voices in the next 24 hours."
Proceed to the alert below to contact your senators on this issue. Tell them
that you oppose: 1) amnesty, 2) a guestworker program that would displace
countless American workers, and 3) U.S. involvement in the Security and
Prosperity Partnership of North America.
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function in order to avoid the appearance of a form letter being sent out en
mass.
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Over the past few weeks I have been keeping in close contact with you and your
office on the immigration reform debate. Recently I have been made aware that
the immigration reform bill (S. 1348) has been reintroduced under a new bill
number, S 1639. Introduced by Senator Kennedy of Massachusetts, S. 1639
contains all the same provisions that I was opposed to in S. 1348. Namely, S.
1639 would:
- Create the Z visa which would place millions of illegal immigrants on a
path toward citizenship
- Establish an enhanced guestworker program that would displace American
workers
- Call for the acceleration of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of
North America - an agenda backed by President Bush that would eventually merge
the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, into a common "North American Community"
Please oppose S. 1639 and any other legislation that would promote and/or
provide amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants, or any of the other reasons
listed above.
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Social Security for illegal aliens! Americans Outraged
Posted on Friday, January 05 @ 15:10:40 CST
Topic: congress senate illegal Immigration Laws
By Stephen Dinan
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
January 4, 2007
An agreement the Bush administration reached with Mexico on Social Security
benefits would allow illegal aliens granted amnesty in the future to claim
credit for the time they worked illegally.
The deal was reached in 2004 but never released publicly because it hasn't
been submitted to Congress. The TREA Senior Citizens League, a Social Security
advocacy group, recently obtained the document through a Freedom of Information
Act, and said it confirms the group's worst fears.
The document is a jumble of definitions and legal language, but a spokesman
for the group said what's important is what's not in the text: It does nothing
to prevent undocumented aliens who later get legal status from receiving
benefits for the time they worked illegally. And that comes as the Social
Security system's finances are about to be put under greater strain by the
retirement of baby boomers.
"If you open up the trust fund to people who have been working in the country
illegally for many years, that bankruptcy date can only come sooner," spokesman
Brad Phillips said. "People on the other side of this, people who have been
arguing that of course illegal aliens can't get their hands on Social Security
benefits, now can't make that argument easily anymore."
But Mark Lassiter, a spokesman for the Social Security Administration, said
the agreement doesn't change U.S. law. The law states that those who do not
have authorization to work will not get benefits under a totalization agreement.
Topics: Illegal Immigration, Social Security, illegal aliens, illegal
immigrants, George Bush, Mexico, Social Security Administration
"To get Social Security benefits, you do have to be legally in the United
States. This agreement does not address in any way immigration, immigration
laws or override current law," he said, adding that a 2004 law, the Social
Security Protection Act, prevents illegal aliens from getting benefits.
But the seniors group said the 2004 law also states that if those aliens
later get legal status -- through an amnesty or some sort of legalization plan
such as the one President Bush and the Senate tried to enact last year -- they
would be able to collect the benefits based on their time as illegal workers.
The deal has not taken effect because Mr. Bush has not signed it or submitted
it to Congress. Once he does, Congress would have 60 days to vote against it or
it automatically would become law.
Congress has never defeated any of the 21 other totalization agreements the
United States has reached. Most of those have been with European nations, with
the financial effects known to be smaller.
Some lawmakers say Mr. Bush has not submitted the agreement because it would
get caught up in the debate over Social Security's poor fiscal health, which
could doom the measure.
Totalization agreements end double taxation, so workers have to pay only into
one country's system, and allow a worker who didn't have enough credits in any
one country to qualify for benefits to pool his or her credits. In the United
States, it takes 10 years, or 40 quarters, to qualify.
Mr. Lassiter said that's not to say Mexican workers who spent less time, such
as the six quarters minimum needed to pool credits, would get benefits equal to
someone who had worked his or her full life here.
As for the document's status, he said the Social Security Administration
hasn't submitted it to the State Department because officials are still waiting
for the Mexican government to help reach a side agreement on how to treat
illegal aliens. The United States sent a diplomatic note trying to clarify the
situation but has not heard back from the Mexican government, he said.
"At this point, there's no action that is planned or that will be taken until
that process goes through," Mr. Lassiter said.
Rafael Laveaga, a spokesman for the Mexican Embassy in Washington, said the
agreement has to be ratified by the Mexican Congress as well, but beyond that
he had no details to offer.
The issue has been contentious for several years.
A 2003 report by the General Accounting Office, Congress' investigative
branch, said the agreement with Mexico was shoddy work that didn't investigate
the reliability of Mexico's data, or take into account the millions of illegal
aliens who would become eligible.
The GAO also disputed the Social Security Administration's estimate that the
agreement would cost $105 million a year for the first five years, saying the
costs could be much higher given the uncertainty of who could benefit.
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Social Security for Illegal Aliens?
James Joyner | Friday, May 19, 2006
The Senate yesterday narrowly defeated an amendment by John Ensign that would
have denied Social Security benefits to illegal aliens.
The Senate voted yesterday to allow illegal aliens to collect Social Security
benefits based on past illegal employment even if the job was obtained
through forged or stolen documents. There was a felony they were committing,
and now they cant be prosecuted. That sounds like amnesty to me, said Sen.
John Ensign, the Nevada Republican who offered the amendment yesterday to strip
out those provisions of the immigration reform bill. It just boggles the mind
how people could be against this amendment.
The Ensign amendment was defeated on a 50-49 vote. We all know that millions
of undocumented immigrants pay Social Security and Medicare taxes for years and
sometimes decades while they work to contribute to our economy, said Sen. John
McCain, Arizona Republican. The Ensign amendment would undermine the work of
these people by preventing lawfully present immigrant workers from claiming
Social Security benefits that they earned before they were authorized to work
in our community, he said. If this amendment were enacted, the nest egg that
these immigrants have worked hard for would be taken from them and their
families.
[
]
It makes no sense to reward millions of illegal immigrants for criminal
behavior while our Social Security system is already in crisis, said Sen. Jim
DeMint, South Carolina Republican. Why in the world would we endorse this
criminal activity with federal benefits? The Senate missed a big opportunity to
improve this bill, and I doubt American seniors will be pleased with the
result.
[
]
Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, Vermont Democrat, said it would be unfair to deny
illegals the benefits. We should not steal their funds or empty their Social
Security accounts, he said. That is not fair. It does not reward their hard
work or their financial contributions. It violates the trust that underlies the
Social Security Trust Fund.
Ensign and DeMint are being dishonest in saying that illegal aliens are
criminals, let alone felons. While they are in violation of immigration law,
they are not in violation of current criminal lawlet alone convicted of such.
There has been an attempt in recent weeks to change that, although without
success. Even if the law were changed, it would not apply ex post facto.
Further, while my initial reaction in getting an email (from DeMints office)
with the subject: Illegals granted Social Security! was negative, it only
takes a moments reflection to see that McCain and Leahy are right. Social
Security is, theoretically if not in reality, a pay-as-you-go system. For those
people who pay into the system to be denied benefits would be unconscionable.
Indeed, while the law was recently amended to deny Social Security benefits
to fugitives and inmates, my understanding is that those no longer
incarcerated, even convicted felons, are entitled to their benefits. It would
be quite strange to treat people whose only crime was sneaking across our
border to work were treated more harshly than pedophiles and murderers.
Still, this is a great political issue:
Within hours, the vote had become an issue in this falls elections, raised
by a Republican challenger to Sen. Debbie Stabenow, Michigan Democrat. Instead
of protecting the retirement security of Americans who are earning an honest
living and abiding by the laws of our country, Debbie Stabenow sided with
people who are here illegally and abuse our Social Security system, Oakland
County, Mich., Sheriff Michael Bouchard said in a press release. Allowing
illegal immigrants to use their illegal work history as credit towards
receiving Social Security benefits shows that Debbie Stabenow has forgotten who
she is supposed to be working for in the U.S. Senate.
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