Illegal Immigration meets RICO statutes - Commentary by Jim Dean, Heritage TV

Jim Dean, Heritage TV producer/host

Jim Dean is the producer of Heritage TV and a member of Georgia Heritage Council.

Illegal Immigration meets RICO statutes – Commentary by Jim Dean

Dear legal Americans,

God Bless the folks we have out on point on this issue, including Mr. Vasquez below. I have long been a proponent of using the RICO statutes to fight the illegal immigration lobby. If ever there was an interstate conspiracy to defraud Americans it is in this case, and the number of crimes and the damages involved are huge.

Why is identity theft a high profile issue while the theft of the identity of the country is an openly organized crime milking traditional Americans and new immigrants---yet with no punishment? We should all look into this for our own communities. I can think of no better way than to put local politicians who are part of the conspiracy on the spot than to ask them to sue the biz crowd to whom they have sold out. I imagine the biz folks would have some interesting things to say about the Pols involved.

The availability of low cost illegal labor is commonly used as a draw for states competing for company relocation. I did a will case a year ago on a Mexican (married to a local) who had been working for the big construction company doing the Emory hospital work...a construction supervisor working 70 hours a week for $10 an hour, over a crew of illegals.

If this is done only in a few places the biz crowd will use the usual divide and conquer routine. They will just go somewhere else. They are experts at this game.

The beautiful thing about these kinds of suits is the deposition and discovery process. It allows you to get hold of massive amounts of evidence that can then be made public so the depth and greed can be laid out over a several year period. I think that is what might help focus the public's attention on this to crank folks up enough to really put the pressure on that is needed.

As I have stated many times in past columns on this subject, our politicians have abandoned us on the field to the illegal immigration invaders and conquerors. They have made their deals with the new rulers. It is very similar to the Reconstruction days in the South after the War Between the States, where Southerners were systematically disenfranchised by the big biz greed hooking up with a minority and exploiting both by playing them off against each other. They will continue doing this to us as long as we let them.

Incumbents will fight any change tooth and nail. That is why a larger turnover of incumbents is critically needed to break the log jam. And that will take a strong grass roots effort to put that reality in their faces. The reality we are facing now, to have our country completely transformed via the greedy big biz crowd, should seem more horrible than the inconvenience of fighting back. But I have seen a strong inclination among way too many to let the schmucks do the fighting so any benefits can be reaped for free. Too many think that that is the smart play, and the big biz crowd is betting that illegal immigration opposition will never be more than a nuisance to them.

They have miscalculated before. Ask Roy Barnes. We are not looking into an impossible task. Our ancestors fought and won these battles...and lost them, too. It remains to be seen whether their descendents can measure up, whether they are worthy heirs of the American experiment.

Jim Dean is the producer of Heritage TV and a member of the Georgia Heritage Council.

Idaho county sues over immigrant workers

By REBECCA BOONE, Associated Press Writer
Posted: Saturday July 16th, 2005, 11:48 AM

BOISE, Idaho (AP) - Faced with the costs of coping with illegal immigrants, one county is looking to the courts for help - by filing a racketeering lawsuit against the businesses that hire these workers.

The legal theory: that a pattern of immigration violations by employers is costing Canyon County millions for law enforcement, education and social services.

"Their presence lowers the labor wage for American citizens and removes employment opportunities," county Commissioner Robert Vasquez, an ambitious politician who just started a bid for Congress, said of the illegal workers. "Certainly it uses tax dollars to provide them with educational services, medical care, unemployment compensation for those that are injured on the job. They are a drain on the taxpayers of Canyon County, the state of Idaho and the U.S. in general."

The county's attempt to recoup its expenses would be filed under the federal Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, commonly called the RICO Act, which has been used against targets ranging from organized crime to Internet spammers.

It would be the first time that a government has sued a business under RICO, enacted in 1970, legal experts say.

The county signed a contract Tuesday with a RICO specialist, Chicago attorney Howard Foster, and Vasquez said the lawsuit was expected to be filed soon.

"There is no such lawsuit ever in American history," Foster said. "I don't know if around the country other county commissioners or governments are really as interested as they should be to protect the rights of their citizens."

Idaho may seem a strange stage for an immigration test case. The state has just 19,000 illegal aliens, and ranks 35th among the states, just above Rhode Island, according to estimates from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Canyon County is just southwest of Boise, against the Oregon line.

But Vasquez has developed a reputation as a staunch opponent of illegal immigration. He has tried to bill the Mexican government for the cost of dealing with illegal immigrants from that country, and he tried unsuccessfully to have Canyon County declared a disaster area for what he claims is an impending "invasion" of illegal immigrants.

Carl Rusnok, a Dallas-based regional spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said he didn't have any specific comments on Canyon County's case.

Vasquez won't say which businesses will be sued until the actual lawsuit is filed. He estimates the county has spent at least $2 million on costs related to illegal aliens.

Employers say the lawsuit could spell the end of many labor-intensive businesses that rely on immigrant labor, or at least drive up the cost, said Ann Bates, executive director of the Idaho Nursery and Landscape Association.

"We do our best to be sure that they are legal, but the laws restrict you as to what you can ask," Bates said. "We hope that someday somebody really understands that if we lose our labor force, they lose."

If Canyon County succeeds, the case could create a legal structure for other governments concerned about undocumented workers.

"Right now people say there's no money in enforcing the law, but now there might be for attorneys and trial lawyers. It could create a vested interest in enforcement," said Steven Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, D.C, which supports immigration restrictions.

The RICO Act does offer a tempting prize, since winners can be awarded triple damages.

On the surface, Canyon County seems to have a solid case, said G. Robert Blakey, one of the authors of the RICO Act and a law professor at the University of Notre Dame.

"If people are knowingly bringing in and exploiting undocumented immigrants, they are creating a federal crime," Blakey said. "What this suit raises is just whether the government units - federal, state and local - can sue for the damages they suffer."

However, Blakey notes that some federal courts have already ruled that governments can't try to recover the cost of being a government.

http://www.bakersfield.com/24hour/nation/story/2561811p-10975272c.html