"This whole thing has been built on a foundation of lawlessness"

Here's a nice look at how Homeland Security gets the job done:

Texas mayors and business leaders filed a class-action lawsuit Friday alleging Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff hoodwinked landowners into waiving their property rights for construction of a fence along the Mexican border.

Members of the Texas Border Coalition said Chertoff did not fairly negotiate compensation with landowners for access to their land for six-month surveys to choose fence sites.

[...]

"They are determined to build a wall to appease mid-America," [Brownsville Mayor Pat] Ahumada said. "This is a political problem that's being addressed at the expense of all the border communities."

Whole thing here. For reason's coverage of anti-immigrant hysteria, look here, here, here, and here.

Comments

MikeP | May 19, 2008, 5:55pm | #

From the article...

The coalition's attorney, Peter Schey, said Chertoff violated a 1996 immigration law that requires fair negotiation with landowners.

Googling Peter Schey on lonewacko.com yields 90 hits.

Don't say you weren't warned...

lunchstealer | May 19, 2008, 6:10pm | #

Y'know, if immigrants are the cause of as much crime as everyone claims, law abiding citizens in border towns would be the first to clamor for a wall. That they are not just unsupportive, but actively oppose the border fence strikes me as a serious bit of counter-evidence to the immigrant-as-crime-fiend theory.

Juan | May 19, 2008, 6:14pm | #

Googling Peter Schey on lonewacko.com yields 90 hits.

Peter Schey, or PeterSchey?

Kwix | May 19, 2008, 6:16pm | #

lunchstealer,
It's just a ploy for the reconquista of former MexicanLands. The mayors of all those border towns are in the pocket of BigWetback. If somebody had the guts they'd ask hard questions like this, and this.

SIV | May 19, 2008, 6:20pm | #

Off-topic, yet in reference to the article:

Chertoff did not fairly negotiate compensation with landowners for access to their land for six-month surveys to choose fence sites.

Compensation for just a land survey is usually only if crops or timber are damaged. Negotiation for purchase of land or an easement occurs after the survey, once a route/site has been selected for the actual construction.

Orange Line Special | May 19, 2008, 6:24pm | #

The casual visitor will note that the post and the comments are run-of-the-mill around here. Rather than discussing things in an adult fashion, this is like a kindergarten.

What the post fails to note is that the person offering the titular quote has a not-so-secret secret. You won't hear about that "secret" from MSM hacks who feature his quotes, nor will you hear about it from "libertarian" hacks who support corporate welfare.

Let me suggest reading better sites than this one.

Paul | May 19, 2008, 6:30pm | #

Members of the Texas Border Coalition said Chertoff did not fairly negotiate compensation with landowners for access to their land for six-month surveys to choose fence sites.

But they had a plan...

Chris Potter | May 19, 2008, 6:32pm | #

Peter Schey, or PeterSchey?

You owe me $25 for a new keyboard after you made milkshake squirt out through my nose.

MikeP | May 19, 2008, 6:34pm | #

Especially since he was drinking Coke.

Mike | May 19, 2008, 6:38pm | #

Hoodwinked by the FedGov? Heavens to betsy, what next?

MikeP | May 19, 2008, 7:00pm | #

Lonewacko,

There are people who specialize in immigration law who favor more open immigration.

There are interests of immigrants and illegal immigrants that foreign organizations, including foreign governments, need adjudicated in US courts. In order to do so, they must be represented by someone who is qualified and authorized to represent them in a US court.

One can therefore construct a proof that people such as Peter Schey exist -- people who are pro-immigration and legally qualified to represent others who are pro-immigration. It is only the specific person's name that needs to be filled in.

How does this represent an argument against immigration?

childish libertarian | May 19, 2008, 7:57pm | #

Oh surprise, look who is again whining about childish or "kindergarten" level discussion around here. Once again, this is from someone who wrote about reason:

Overall, I give this site a "D". The girls aren't that good looking, the guys are creepy looking

And this:

To set the record straight, your Reason membership pledge includes access to:

DumbHairyLibertarians.com
CosmosWithRothbards.br
AsianSexyCatooeys.th
AbbysCosmos.au
BoundButFree.so

There's some "adult" discussion for you.

He further demonstrates his maturity when he calls a reason writer as a "true lightweight" or "ignorant" or "hacks" or any of the other insults he routinely spews about anyone intelligent enough not to hold is xenophobic views.

But, you have to love the unintentional irony of this gem of sophisticated thought:

Ron Paul fans have got to be some of the dumbest (and most narcissistic) people around.

Buddy | May 19, 2008, 8:06pm | #

You sit on a throne of lies!

Dave | May 19, 2008, 8:27pm | #

Let me get this straight... we have these border communities that are apparently making their bread and butter by supporting illegal immigration, and they are complaining that DHS is acting lawlessly???

That is just way too rich for me to digest!!!

Quite frankly, if these "border communities" are dependent on illegal immigration, then they are no better than the wetbacks. Put 'em out of business and make them find an honorable way to support themselves.

Dave | May 19, 2008, 8:36pm | #

Hey lunchstealer:

Y'know, EVERY illegal immigrant is a criminal. That's why the call 'em "illegal" immigrants. Y'see?

MikeP | May 19, 2008, 9:32pm | #

Dave,

Say that a series of laws were passed that placed migration restrictions between Kansas and Missouri. Say the laws got more and more onerous, and the enforcement more and more severe, until finally legislation was passed that would allow for the seizing of land and the building of a fence to stop the migration.

What would the people of Kansas City, Kansas, and Kansas City, Missouri, think? How would they react? Would they, in trying to operate as best they could around the law and the enforcement be "making their bread and butter" by supporting illegal migration? Or would they simply be trying to live the lives they had previously lived in peace.

The border with Mexico used to be much more porous. Migration used to be much more free. And consequently the border towns have developed interdependencies across the border because it makes the communities on both sides better off.

Free migration is the natural order of things. It is the law, the enforcement, and now the fence that are dishonorable here.

MikeP | May 19, 2008, 9:39pm | #

Y'know, EVERY illegal immigrant is a criminal. That's why the call 'em "illegal" immigrants. Y'see?

And every fugitive slave was a criminal. That's why they called 'em "fugitive" slaves.

Click 'n' Learn | May 19, 2008, 10:10pm | #

Apparently MikeP is unable to click and to learn, because if he had clicked on the link I provided above and provide again here, he'd know that the issue isn't that MrSchey is an ImmigrationLawyer. The issue is who he's worked for and collaborated with.

The last thing MikeP would do is try to mislead by misrepresenting my concerns about MrSchey, so I'm sure it just must be that he didn't click the link and find out what the corporate welfare queens at Reason didn't know or didn't want to disclose.

J sub D | May 19, 2008, 10:29pm | #

It is my reasoned opinion that if LoneWhackOff got himself a HotMexicanSenorita his unhealthy obsessions with immigration, the NAFTA superhighway, the Amero, the CouncilOfForeigRelations etc. would cease immediately.

C'mon LW. You know you want a hot blooded, vile tempered, latino lover to turn your lonely frustrated nights into ones filled with raw, animal, cross border licentiousness. Don't deny yourself any longer, Run For the Border®.

MikeP | May 19, 2008, 10:40pm | #

Lonewacko,

Here is what your learned link says...

Peter Schey, a lawyer from Los Angeles hired by the Mexican consulate here to represent some of the detainees...

How does that differ from what I said above? I told you that the foreign organizations that must at times be represented in a US court by an American barred attorney may include foreign governments. You tell me that Peter Schey represented the Mexican consulate.

Where is the misrepresentation?

Paul | May 19, 2008, 10:41pm | #

C'mon LW. You know you want a hot blooded, vile tempered, latino lover to turn your lonely frustrated nights into ones filled with raw, animal, cross border licentiousness.

J sub, I submit that he already has one, hence his desire to send all the Mexicans back. She's too much woman for him, and he just doesn't have the stomach to clock her over the head, box her up in a crate and stamp it:

To: Mexico City...don't open 'til xmas.

BakedPenguin | May 19, 2008, 11:42pm | #

MikeP obviously works for the MexicanGovernment. Like the rest of the posters on this site, he needs to GrowUp and recognize the grave threat that the NorthAmericanUnion poses.

Adults also know that they should GetHysterical over VodkaAds, because they obviously represent real PoliticalPlotting from enemies of this country, and not merely some company trying to SellBooze.

Click 'n' Learn | May 20, 2008, 12:04am | #

This is pretty funny. The point is that MrSchey has a series of such links. And, the MSM - and corporate welfare queens at Reason - either don't know about or fail to report such links when they are, in fact, quite material to any discussion of his actions. And, his actions go back much further and include being involved in a major SupremeCourt case.

Yet, to the corporate welfare queens at Reason, he's just a guy who gave a quote in an article.

There are no doubt better libertarian sites out there - and ones that are actually libertarian - and I suggest the reader considers visiting those instead.

Chris Potter | May 20, 2008, 12:45am | #

You know you want a hot blooded, vile tempered, latino lover to turn your lonely frustrated nights into ones filled with raw, animal, cross border licentiousness.

You mean "Latina", not "Latino", right? Unless there's more to LoneWacko than meats the eye.

Bob H | May 20, 2008, 12:55am | #

Why does the author consistently refer to "immigrants" instead of "illegal immigrants"? The wall would have no effect on legal immigrants, just those who prefer to start their life in our country by breaking the law.

dpsc | May 20, 2008, 1:48am | #

You owe me $25 for a new keyboard after you made milkshake squirt out through my nose.

I've seen hundreds of people post variations on this over the years, and I'm frankly curious about it. Did you really spew a milkshake on your keyboard? It seems a bit dodgy to me- I mean, first, it wasn't all that funny.

And uproarious laughter is sort of a social thing- that's why they have laugh-tracks in sitcoms. Do you really sit, alone, in front of your computer, and laugh hard enough at unfunny comments that fluids come out of your nose with enough velocity to reach your keyboard? Or do you gather the whole family around the h+r comments and laugh, and laugh, and laugh? Either way, a bit creepy.

Also, given how many posts like this I've seen, and how few of the posts on the internet I've read, I have to think that literally hundreds of thousands of keyboards and monitors get sent to landfills each year due to almost entirely not amusing posts on the internet. If so, this would be a pretty serious environmental problem. Maybe we all ought to tone down the humor factor from here on in. Some people just can't read responsibly.

I also have to wonder about your locution "You owe me a new keyboard..." If I, hypothetically, saw a very attractive woman on the metro and became so aroused that I wound up pissing myself I would not present her with the dry-cleaning bill, at least once she, hypothetically, made it clear that she would get a restraining order if I contacted her again. Apparently you would.

Unless there's more to LoneWacko than meats the eye.

I don't know if that was a Freudian slip or if inspiration briefly touched you in an inappropriate fashion, but you now owe me an entire new computer. Not only was I drinking a milkshake, I was having a high colonic when I read that.

LOL | May 20, 2008, 3:50am | #

dpsc.

J sub D | May 20, 2008, 9:45am | #

You mean "Latina", not "Latino", right? Unless there's more to LoneWacko than meats the eye.

I stand corrected.

Chris Potter | May 20, 2008, 11:01am | #

dpsc,

No, I didn't really spew milkshake all over my keyboard. It did however make its presence felt in my upper nose. I apologize for misleading the H&R populace and promise to give paper cuts to every one of my typing fingers if I ever do so again.

And I thought it was funny at the time -- the first thing I thought when reading this article was that LoneWacko was going to be all over this, and then bam, the joke about the WordsPressedTogether. You know, how something just catches you at a certain time, and then you look back and wonder, what was I thinking?

R C Dean | May 20, 2008, 5:57pm | #

Unless there's more to LoneWacko than meats the eye.

Another prize-winning typo.