Noem Opposes DREAM Act; Pentagon Disagrees

Matt Hildreth of The Independent Local takes Kristi Noem to task for her opposition to the DREAM Act:

You call the DREAM Act “amnesty,” you even say it "rewards those who have broken the law.”

Representative elect, to say that the DREAM Act is amnesty is to say that your children are fugitives. Maybe we should have detained your kids for the +27 times you broken the law.

According to you, it would be “amnesty” not to [Matt Hildreth, "Were Noem's Children Granted Amnesty?" The Independent Local, 2010.12.10].

The Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act wouldn't exactly let children of illegal immigrants off scot free. The only crime these kids have committed lies in not running away from their parents to avoid coming to or staying in America. The DREAM Act would give these kids a conditional path to citizenship: i.e., they have to work to become citizens, either by going to college or by serving in the military for two years.

Dang, that's not much different from the "advice" the judge gave Bill Janklow back when he was a rowdy teenager raising real trouble.

The Pentagon thinks the DREAM Act is a great idea, since it would get thousands more fresh recruits each year. But Noem and the Republicans see a chance to holler about those others who are threatening our American way of life. Keep fear alive, Kristi....

-----------------
Bonus Fiscal Conservatism: CBO says the DREAM Act cuts the deficit $1.4 billion and raises federal revenues $2.3 billion over ten years. Wow! Pass 52 more bills like that, and we'll cover the cost of the tax breaks for the rich we're passing this week!

GOP Immigration Posturing Proves SD Legislature Getting Dumber

Arrgghh: the Republican supermajority in our South Dakota Legislature is already proving its inability to use its powers for good. With a giant budget deficit and persistent school funding problems, the Republicans are determined to ignore our real problems and fight the illegal immigrant boogeyman.

Proof of idiocy:

1. State Rep. Manny Steele (R-12/Sioux Falls) wants to make it a crime to give an illegal immigrant a home or a ride in South Dakota. But he wants to exempt from punishment the real causes of the problem: the employers who demand cheap illegal immigrant labor. Steele says it would be unfair to punish employers, because "Most employers don't have the training—what's a legal or an illegal immigration document." But landlords and good Samaritan motorists do? Seriously?
2. State Senator-Elect Angie Buhl (D-15/Sioux Falls) points out that Rep. Steele's legislation would make a criminal out of a citizen who gives an illegal immigrant woman beaten by her husband a ride to a domestic abuse shelter. Steele would bust someone like that, but not a mega-dairy that hires dozens of illegal workers to cut costs.
   
3. Attorney General Marty Jackley doesn't want to give illegal immigrants a home. He's helping the Republican yahoos write their distracting legislation, but he says he doesn't want to spend tax dollars to put illegal immigrants in South Dakota jails.
   
4. State Rep. Lora Hubbel (R-11/Sioux Falls) must live in an alternative reality. She claims illegal immigration came up regularly during her door-knocking. She tells that Sioux Falls paper, "The voters don't care about the same things (the local media) care about.... They don't care about school budgets. They're concerned about the federal government taking their rights away." We don't care about school budgets... no, Lora, I think you're mistaking the Republican caucus for the general public.

Wow. If you thought Don Kopp and Kristi Noem made South Dakota look dumb with their astrology legislation, just wait for the 2011 Republican Legislature. It's going to be a doozy.

America Feeds the World: Thank Immigrant Labor!

Troy Hadrick cites this AP article finding Americans won't take low-wage farm jobs and offers this sanctimonious conclusion:

Regardless of your position on immigration, the bigger story here is that many people don’t want to work even when jobs are available. Unfortunately, many people don’t develop a work ethic and would rather rely on the government for an unemployment check. It’s a rather sad commentary on our society [Troy Hadrick, "Americans Don't Want Farm Jobs," Advocates for Agriculture, 2010.09.29].

Leave it to a professional propagandist for the ag industry to offer pompous distractions from practical policy issues. Hadrick pops off with arrogant, manly-man horsepuckey about how the rest of society obviously isn't as industrious or independent as he is. He deliberately spins away from the bigger story, which is that your cheap groceries come thanks immigrant labor, much of it driven here by our own predatory trade practices, and the immorally low wages the ag-industrialists pay their workers.

Hadrick's agriculture industry likes to repeat the mantra Tell Your Story. The immigrant workers who ensure our food supply would like to have time to tell their story, too, but they're too busy doing our work and feeding America.

So the next time the ag-industrial complex tells you to Thank a Farmer®, maybe you should walk over to the Mexican part of town and say gracias to an immigrant.

Veblen Dairy's Korean Investors Keep Green Cards...

...but probably lose green.

I noted that those attending the bankruptcy auction of the Veblen East Dairy last week included Terry N. Prendergast, representing the Hanul Professional Law Corporation. Hanul is the Korean law outfit that handles EB-5 visa applications for foreign investors participating in South Dakota Regional Center programs. That's the program through which rich foreigners can buy their green cards simply by dumping a half-million dollars or more into American job creation projects. Veblen East Dairy is one of several projects in South Dakota that has benefited from this investment program.

So I got to wondering: could any of those Korean investors be losing their green cards due to the failure of Richard Millner's Veblen operation?

I contacted Joop Bollen, president of the SDRC, to find out what's up with our Korean investors. Mr. Bollen says the Korean may have a fight on their hands to recoup their investment, but their green cards are safe.

All that matters to the EB-5 program is that the investors' money creates jobs within the first two years. Each investor's money needs to generate 10 jobs, direct or indirect. The EB-5 program calculates that one job on a dairy operation translates into 2.66 jobs in the local economy (hire one guy to shovel poop, and he goes to town to buy more beer and lumber, which generates enough economic activity for the bar and the lumberyard to hire 1.66 new people). Thus, if one Korean's $500,000 can be shown to create four actual dairy jobs, the EB-5 number crunchers apply that multiplier, declare 10.64 jobs created, and Uncle Sam erases the word "conditional" from the Korean's green card. Welcome to America!

The Veblen East Dairy satisfied the job creation criterion for all of its Korean investors before it declared bankruptcy. Most of the Korean investors have already received their permanent status. A few investors have applied for but not yet received approval of permanent status from the feds, but the bankruptcy proceedings and change of ownership have no impact on those remaining applications. It doesn't matter who owns the operation, as long as the jobs have been created. And as I understand Mr. Bollen's explanation, it wouldn't even matter if the new owners couldn't keep the dairy going and the whole operation collapsed. Once the EB-5 investors' money creates the necessary jobs (real and statistically assumed), their green cards are secure.

Not so secure are their greenbacks, which are what Mr. Prendergast was in the neighborhood last week to check on. Mr. Bollen's office isn't involved at all with the bankruptcy proceedings, but he says Hanul and the Korean investors are discussing how they might recoup their investment with the new owners' group organized by Richard Millner (that's Vista "Family" Dairies). The investors might well "have to take a haircut," says Bollen. I am encouraged, at least, to see that the Korean investors are still paying attention and trying to hold Millner and partners accountable for their cash.
----------------------------------
Bonus Business: Vista "Family" Dairies has 30 days to get together the $23.1 million it bid for Veblen East. If Millner's minions can't convince their remaining friends to chip in for this latest Millner shell game, VFD loses the bid, and backup bidder Whetstone Valley Dairy gets Veblen East. According to the articles of organization filed last week with the Secretary of State, Whetstone Valley Dairy, LLC, is managed by Steve Myers and Michael Crinion of Brookings.

Feds Fail to Enforce River Law: Time for SD to Act!

Rebecca Terk points out we have our own need for some Arizona-style, federal-authority-usurping legislation right here in South Dakota. She noted that on the Missouri River near her home, people break the law regularly by running jet skis in the restricted waters of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968. The National Park Service banned personal watercraft from WSRA-designated stretches of the Missouri in 2000, citing damage to wildlife, oil pollution, conflict with other more mellow recreationists, noise pollution (hear hear!), and high accident and injury rates. But the jetskiers keep rop-rop-roaring along the protected waterway in flagrant violation of federal law.

Terk says she has contacted the local heat to go after these lawbreakers. Their response: yup, they're illegal, but we can't touch 'em. Only a federal agent can enforce federal law, and the National Park Service hasn't even stationed a ranger in the area.

Well, who are we to let a little thing like federal jurisdiction stop us from enforcing the laws of the land? South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley is filing a friend of the court brief supporting Arizona's effort to usurp federal authority on immigration law. AG Jackley justifies our state's involvement by saying illegal immigration "is really a public safety issue." GOP House candidate Kristi Noem favors expanding state government power to enforce laws when the feds fail to do so.

When the 2011 South Dakota Legislature gets on its high horse and puts off working on the budget to pass grandstanding legislation on immigration (and they're already chomping at the bit to do so), they should consider expanding any such proposal to a general declaration that South Dakota's sheriffs, city cops, Highway Patrol, and game wardens will gladly enforce any law that the federal government isn't... including the ban on jet skis on the Missouri downstream from Yankton.

After all, our support for Arizona's immigration law isn't just about those darned Mexicans. It's about our unwavering support for the rule of law and strong government... right?

-------------------------
Bonus Fun Fact: Congressman John Thune was outraged when this ban was announced in 2000. He demanded the National Park Service reopen the issue for public comment. NPS did so. 82% of the folks who commented supported the ban.

South Dakota Wages Lowest in Nation

Funny Dakota Roots doesn't mention that...

Put an R after that B—Anna Bahney writes a bang-up article on South Dakota's last-in-the-nation wages, $16.53 an hour. Ms. Bahney knows whereof she speaks: marriage brought her to Sioux Falls after living and journalizing in New York City (NY state: $25.48 an hour, fourth highest in the U.S.) and Washington, D.C. ($32.37 an hour, best wages). Even our neighbors in North Dakota, where they have a state income tax and crappier weather, kick our butts at $18.75 an hour.

Why do our wages suck? Bahney finds South Dakota economists to lay out some reasons:

1. Low brain power: "...what we're missing is the high knowledge-based and high human-capital type services," says USD economist emeritus Ralph Brown. Bahney cites Richard Florida, who finds a corrleation between high wages and high education levels. (Note to folks hoping to raise SD wages: Russ Olson and the Republicans voted to balance our state budget mostly by hacking education.
   
2. Bad policy: "We attract out-of-state firms with our low corporate and low personal income tax. But it is a development strategy that will leave us in last place," says Augie econ prof Reynold Nesiba. He says we need to quit chasing smokestacks and focus on "economic gardening," growing our own entrepreneurs. (That's what I've been saying!)
3. Wide open spaces: Doc Brown says this is the biggest factor. Bahney explains: "greater density leads to greater worker productivity and higher wages attributed to what economists call 'agglomeration.' In cities, there is a knowledge spillover as a result of greater specialization." (Now explain how equally desolate North Dakota beats our wages by over 13%.)
   
4. Low taxes: Again, Doc Brown: "The results indicate that state differences in tax burden are capitalized into wages. This indicates that workers living in high-tax states receive a compensating wage to account for the higher tax burden." Tax increases don't automatically kill growth; the market compensates.
5. No unions: Says Nesiba, "Power matters in economics, and workers have very little power here.... Workers able to come together and bargain collectively for higher wages and benefits is an important factor."

Brainy stuff: read the full Bahney article.

South Dakota's average 2008 wage was 76% of the national average. Our cost of living generally floats around 90% of the national average. So even if you factor some of our lower costs, South Dakota still comes out behind. I don't have 2008 cost-of-living data handy, but when I factor by the current COL, I find South Dakota wages only go 84% as far as the national average.

You can thus say that our low cost of living means we don't really have the lowest average hourly wage in the nation; factor in cost of living, and we tie with Mississippi for the fifth lowest purchasing power by hourly wage, at 84% of the national average. By cost-of-living adjustment, worse off than South Dakota are Montana, Vermont, Maine, and, worst of all, Hawaii, where folks have 58% of the national average purchasing power. Pierre's propaganda about our great low cost of living misses the fact that people moving here will find it harder to make ends meet in South Dakota than they will in all but four other states.

Speaking of moving here, check this out: South Dakota has the second lowest number of foreign-born immigrants in the country. Just 1.9% of our population has come from another country. The only state with a lower proportion of foreign-born immigrants is West Virginia, with 1.3%. Nationally, 12.5% of us are from elsewhere.

The Migration Policy Institute data I'm looking at includes estimates of illegal immigrants. The data show states with higher immigrant populations tend to have higher wages. This makes sense: if people are coming to America, they may tend to pick states with more economic opportunity. And they apparently aren't picking South Dakota.

-------------------
Read more!

• Wage data available in the March 2010 Monthly Labor Review from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
• Play with the data yourself on this Excel spreadsheet. (If that link doesn't work, give me a shout, and I can e-mail you the sheet!)
  

Want Nazi Tactics? See Arizona's Anti-Immigration Law

• President Obama signing health reform—not fascism.
• Arizona police walking up to you and saying, "Show me your papers"—fascism.

Seth Meyers said it last night... and it's really not a joke. For all you 9-12ers hollering that President Obama is acting like Hitler, let's hear some protest about the real police state tactics just passed by the Republicans running Arizona. Their new state immigration policy authorizes police to approach anyone they consider suspicious and demand proof of citizenship.

Quick check: policeman walks up to you on the street and says, "Prove you're an American. Prove you're here legally." Can you?

Sheriff Joe Arpaio thinks this new power is a great idea. His new county attorney Rick Romley thinks it's a terrible idea, an unfunded mandate threatening civil rights.

Conservatives should be up in arms over this presumption of guilt and expansion of police power beyond probable cause. Some truckers are ready to boycott the state, and I can't blame them.

Yes, we need a secure border. Yes, immigrants must follow the law. But a law that allows police to yank us off the street just for looking suspicious and not carrying the right documents is the wrong way to enforce our laws. It's the Nazi way.

Serve God, Not INS: Pastor Boese on Immigration, Outreach, and Separating Church and State

Pastor Shel Boese wins my praise for separation of church and state done right.

Today on his News, Thoughts, Theology, Teaching blog, Pastor Boese addresses immigration and the church. The National Association of Evangelicals has called for immigration reform and justice and compassion for immigrants. The Christian and Missionary Alliance gets its undies in a bunch and makes clear that membership in its congregations is contingent on proving legal residence in the U.S. of A.

Pastor Boese smells a Caesarian rat:

I assumed as a church our goal was to reach as many people for Christ as possible, and our first allegiance is Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God. Our job is NOT enforcing state laws that may conflict with Scriptural commands to welcome the alien and stranger among us. If the Alliance is first and foremost an arm of the state I have serious reservations as this news blurb seems to indicate.

...At Mercy Church, we do not screen members based on education, race, nationality, ethnicity or citizenship in the United States in our membership process at Mercy Church. And we will not start doing so [Pastor Shel Boese, "I guess I am more Evangelical than Christian & Missionary Alliance," News, Thoughts, Theology, Teaching, 2009.10.12].

Pastor Boese and I probably disagree on the creation of the world and other business. But we both have read enough Exodus to know that the church has a certain obligation to migrants of all sorts, not just the ones who have the king's stamp of approval.

Illegal Immigrants Get Health Care: The Non-Unique Disadvantage

I'm at the annual convention of the Speech Communication Association of South Dakota. Tomorrow I join a panel to talk about judging interp (whoo-hoo!), but this morning I'd like to give a shout-out to all my debate judging friends by applying some policy debate terminology to this nonsense about illegal immigrants getting American health care.

Actually, it's not nonsense: illegal immigrants would get health care under the proposed health care reforms... just like they do now. Federal law currently bars hospitals from denying service based on immigration status or ability to pay. So even if you think it's wrong to treat patients who are in our country illegally, that position is no reason to vote against H.R. 3200 or any of the other ideas floated this year for health coverage reform. The disadvantage happens whether we pass H.R. 3200 or stick with the status quo.

In policy debate, we call that the non-unique disadvantage. And when you run a non-unique disadvantage, you lose the debate.

---------------------
Now if you really are bugged by providing health care to illegal immigrants (many of whom are doing work that we gringos are too stuck-up to do ourselves), you need to propose some additional reform, overturning the federal ban on hospitals denying service and requiring that every patient, from the clinic to the emergency room, present proof of citizenship before receiving any assistance. Then when you bring your daughter to the ER with a broken arm and they throw you out because you forgot to bring her passport, or when you call 911 with chest pains and the operator refuses to send an ambulance because you can't punch in the proper citizenship code, you can be thankful that America is putting Americans first and not letting any undeserving foreigners enjoy our wealth.

Passports at the emergency-room door: another great idea from those who complain about bureaucrats standing between you and your doctor.

----------------------------
Update 13:05 CDT. Oh yeah, and guess who signed into law the current federal regulation making illegal immigrants eligible for emergency care? Ronald Wilson Reagan, 1986. (Good catch, Bob!)

Obama's Right: No Benefits for Illegal Immigrants in H.R. 3200

I guess this is why our Congresspeople need to read the bills they are voting on....

Faithful reader Tim Higgins leaps to the defense of the grossly indecorous Rep. Joe Wilson and calls President Obama a liar:

His address also contained and he was accurately describes as such, liar.

He contradicted several things that are in the House Bill. Please Obama read the bill. Of particular interest, "We will not provide health care coverage to illegal immigrants".

After reading this statement from his teleprompter, Mr. Wilson accurately describe him as a liar. Section 152 page 50-51 HC will be provided to ALL NON-US citizens.

Wrong again, Tim. Here's the text of HR 3200, Section 152:

(a) In General- Except as otherwise explicitly permitted by this Act and by subsequent regulations consistent with this Act, all health care and related services (including insurance coverage and public health activities) covered by this Act shall be provided without regard to personal characteristics extraneous to the provision of high quality health care or related services.

(b) Implementation- To implement the requirement set forth in subsection (a), the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall, not later than 18 months after the date of the enactment of this Act, promulgate such regulations as are necessary or appropriate to insure that all health care and related services (including insurance coverage and public health activities) covered by this Act are provided (whether directly or through contractual, licensing, or other arrangements) without regard to personal characteristics extraneous to the provision of high quality health care or related services.

Did you catch that first line: "Except as otherwise explicitly permitted by this Act..."? Read that again, then turn to Section 246:

Nothing in this subtitle shall allow Federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States.

So illegal immigrants are not covered under this legislation.

Tim and Rep. Wilson are wrong. But consider: don't illegal immigrants currently get health care in the U.S.? Do emergency room staff require ID and turn you away if your green card isn't legit? Aren't we already shouldering those bills in our insurance premiums and other payouts the hospitals use to cover the difference?

And heck, let's jump into the bizzaro alternative universe in which Joe Wilson lives. Would Joe and Tim and Rush and Glenn seriously reject a plan that could save 22,000 American citizens' lives each year just because Paco and María would keep getting free stitches after injuring themselves working double shifts at the meatpacking plant that cranks out America's cheap weiners?

President Obama is right... and the Right has nothing but fumes.

p.s.: A corollary to the health care debate: when someone cites page numbers in H.R. 3200, call their bluff. Demand a hyperlink. Make them read you the actual text, word for word. Nine times out of ten, they'll prove themselves wrong, just by reading the very bill they think they are citing.

New Trinity Pastors Get to America the Hard Way: Sheer Luck

Revs. Dirk and Constanze Hagmaier, the new pastors at Trinity Lutheran Church in Madison are lucky to be in America. Literally.

Originally from Germany, they immigrated to the U.S. in 1999, were ordained in 2001 and became naturalized citizens in 2006.

...After completing seminary, the two started considering options for ministry outside Germany because there aren't many openings for pastors there.

...they saw a small notice the local newspaper about a green card lottery. Those who applied for a green card within a certain period of time would be entered into a drawing. Both entered among 14 million other people. Dirk Hagmaier's name was selected among 90,000. They were both able to apply because they were married. After providing background information, the two made it past the first screening which narrowed the list to 40,000 people [Elisa Sand, "New Trinity Pastors Come from Germany," Madison Daily Leader, 2009.06.08, print edition, p. 1].

From that point, they still had to pass, as Sand puts it, an "intense interview," but the immigration clerk saw they were headed to South Dakota to preach and rubber stamped them. But to get to that point, assuming no divine intervention, the Reverend Hagmaiers had only one chance in 175, or 0.29%. And they were able to double their odds over single people with their dual apps.

I'm pleased the new pastors have been so fortunate—we can use some rigorous intellectual Lutheran theology straight from the old country.

But consider that if Pastor Dirk had stuck with being a stockbroker and had $500,000 to blow on risky American business ventures, they could have skipped the lottery and bought their way into America through South Dakota's EB-5 visa program, as several foreigners have done by pumping money into Rick Millner's stinky cattle concentration camps up by Veblen.

Separating Capital from Cowpoop: Koreans Buy Green Cards by Funding South Dakota Feedlots

I was doing some more reading on Rick Millner's Veblen dairy operations and other atrocious feedlots. I've noted before that South Dakota state government takes a pro-immigration policy to promote our factory dairies. Turns out that pro-immigration policy includes helping wealthy foreigners jump the queue and buy their green cards.

South Dakota's EB-5 program helps foreigners get EB-5 visas, a special kind of employment-based visa. The deal:

1. Invest $500K in a business venture in a "distressed" area.
2. Receive conditional green cards for you and your whole immediate family.
3. Provide evidence that your investment created ten jobs.
4. Receive premanent green cards.

You don't have to work at the feedlot or meatpacking plant or ethanol plant your money supports. You don't even have to live in the same community. You never have to smell the manure lagoons or hear the whine of the ethanol processing equipment that keeps your "neighbors" up at night. You just buy your way into America, go live wherever you want, and send your kids to good American colleges, while thousands of other less-wealthy applicants go through the regular, arduous, sometimes years-long process of winning the same privilege to pursue their dreams in America.

Mr. Millner evidently got his current Veblen operation off the ground with 27 such queue-jumping Korean investors (just curious: anyone up in Veblen see an increase in demand for Korean groceries at the store?). This list also shows the Swiers got a couple Korean investors to buy their green cards by investing in their dairy operation here in Lake County. (Huh—I didn't know Lake County was a "distressed" area.)

The investors don't appear terribly concerned about the long-term profitability or sustainability of the projects they make possible. We should be doubly concerned: the fact that these projects can't snag regular investors without offering the additional carrot of expedited immigration to America should put up red flags about their financial viability. And when the money to run a "farm" comes from someone who doesn't live on the land, who never sees the land, who doesn't care about the land, that tells me we are going to come out on the short and stinky end of the externalities stick.

(One commentator takes the position that such investment-for-immigration is a heck of a deal, alleging that a lot of these economically unviable projects would likely end up drawing government pork. There's always a bright side. Better to have wealthy foreigners than American taxpayers on the hook... I guess.)

The EB-5 program has a "money for nothing" feel to it... and "money for nothing" usually works out badly. If these foreign investors view their $500K as an immigration fee rather than an actual investment, they won't hold the dairies and other businesses as accountable as would investors operating from the proper capitalist motivation. And an immigration policy favoring irresponsible investors denies places in America for folks who can't buy their green card but who are willing to come to America and invest their capital and their lives in the same community.

From New Jersey to Ortonville, Taxes Don't Drive Migration of Wealthy

South Dakota's fiscal regressives like to pretend that our low taxes, including the absence of an income tax, are a great draw for getting folks to move here.

Reality will pop at least part of that balloon: a report in yesterday's New York Times makes clear that rich people just don't base their mobility on tax policy:

...[T]here is surprisingly little evidence to support the proposition that rich New Yorkers would bolt if forced to pay higher income taxes. Though tracking the movement of wealthy taxpayers from state to state is difficult, experts on public finance and migration say they have yet to document a substantial “rich drain” in states that have raised income taxes in recent years.

“At the level we’re talking about, there’s no quantitative evidence that it affects the mobility decisions of affluent taxpayers,” said Douglas S. Massey, a demographer at Princeton University and president of the American Academy of Political and Social Science [Nicholas Confessore, "Taxes Not Seen as Making the Rich Flee New York," New York Times, 2009.03.18].

New Jersey did see a little wealth-flight after 2004 when it raised its income tax 2.6% on folks making over a half-million a year. 50 to 350 "half-millionaire" households left the state—less than 0.1% of households in that tax bracket. That emigration cost the state maybe $38 million... but folks who stayed and did their civic duty chipped in $895 million more.

Confessore also points out that California's high taxes haven't driven residents of Silicon Valley to Sioux Falls yet:

Also in 2004, California voters approved a 1 percent income tax surcharge on personal income over $1 million, and Silicon Valley and Beverly Hills appear to remain well populated with the wealthy. From 2004 to 2007, according to a study by the California Budget Project, a left-leaning research organization, the number of millionaire taxpayers rose by close to 50 percent, well outpacing the 8.6 percent growth in the total number of those paying personal income tax.

“It is one of the oft-cited urban legends in California politics — that the rich are leaving California because of higher taxes,” said Jean M. Ross, the project’s executive director [Confessore, 2009.03.18].

As a local example, consider the Big Stone City–Ortonville metroplex. These two towns straddle the South Dakota–Minnesota border at the southern tip of Big Stone Lake. They are one mile and two bridges apart. If tax policy dictated migration the way South Dakota politicians like to say it does, we should expect hordes of poor downtrodden Minnesotans to hop the border to homestead in Big Stone City while commuting the extra mile to their jobs in Ortonville... or better yet, to just forsake Minnesota completely and build their businesses on the sunnier shores of the Whetstone River.

But if you've driven through Big Stone City and Ortonville, you know that's not the case. Big Stone City has a population of 549. Ortonville has a population of 1,980 (and like so many Minnesota towns, looks bigger than South Dakota towns of comparable population). Ortonville's main street has much more activity than Big Stone City's. Big Stone City does have a higher per capita income, but it also has higher poverty rates, especially among kids and senior citizens.

statistic	Big Stone City, SD	Ortonville, MN
population (2007)	549	1,980
per capita income	$19,297	$17,132
median household income	$41,659	$38,264
poverty	11.2%	9.2%
families in poverty	7.4%	7.2%
children in poverty	17.7%	9.5%
folks 65+ in poverty	16.5%	10.1%
median house value	$72,508	$88,593
new single-family permitted, 1996–2007	19	51

Perhaps some of Ortonville's wealthy elites have snuck across the river and settled in that little arm of Big Stone City along Lake Drive, but Ortonville is still seeing more building and better general welfare for families and Main Street. After years of different state tax policies, Ortonville is still the bigger town.

Culture and other factors—"school, jobs, even the weather"—have much more to do with migration than tax policy. There are other economic arguments to make about the wisdom of various tax policies, but let's put the canard about tax-driven migration to bed.

Veblen Dairies Raided for Illegal Immigrants

A juxtaposition:

(1) One of the latest near-full-page spreads from the Russell Olson campaign touts the increased production of milk in our state and says Olson will keep that milk flowing. I'm still trying to figure out from the ad exactly what Russ did to expand the dairy industry (was he out milking cows himself while our other elected officials were legislating?), but far be it from me to criticize a Republican for running an ad that will alienate the lactose-intolerant.

(2) Our industrial dairy operations won't continue to expand if the Department of Homeland Security keeps paying visits. Yesterday Immigrations and Customs Enforcement raided dairies up in Veblen (originally on KSFY; see this Aberdeen American News article) and arrested 27 people: 14 for immigration violations, 13 for identity theft.

Details aren't in yet, but Madville Times readers will recall that Rick Millner of Veblen is CEO of Prairie Ridge Management, the outfit that runs the Excel Dairy in Thief River Falls, Minnesota, a big confined animal feeding operation that stunk neighbors out of their homes last June. The Minnesota Department of Health declared Millner's Thief River Falls CAFO a public health hazard this month. We'll find out soon enough if Millner's Veblen operations are responsible for polluting our state with criminal labor.

That our growing industrial dairies turn their profits on illegal immigrant labor is no secret. Faced with a proposed CAFO, folks in Grant County were more worried about the potential damage to air, water, and roads. But they also complained that these big dairies provide more jobs to illegal immigrants than to locals, and all those reasons together elicited enough citizen opposition to kill the project.

Farming turned into a factory operation is bad enough environmentally and spiritually. Industrial agriculture based on criminal activity is all the worse. If dairies can't make it without illegal immigrant labor, is that really the kind of industry we want to promote?

Howard Industries Exec Donates to Tough-on-Immigration Candidates, Hires Illegals

The Howard Industries electrical equipment plant in Laurel, Mississippi, was raided by Immigration and Customs Enforcement Monday. ICE rounded up 350 suspected undocumented workers in the raid.

Howard Industries CEO Billy Howard couldn't be reached for comment right away. But he and his wife can be reached for campiagn donations. OpenSecrets.org lists contributions to candidates like GOP Congressman Chip Pickering, Dem Senate candidate Ronny Musgrove, GOP Secretary of State candidate C. Delbert Hosemann, and GOP Senator Trent Lott, all of whom have talked the need to crack down on illegal immigration.

By the way, Howard Industries got a $31.5-million subsidy (er, "taxpayer-backed incentive plan") from the Mississippi Legislature in 2002. Howard Industries also got $20M in Gulf Opportunity Zone tax credits from the federal government (i.e., us— see this PDF July 2008 report from the GAO, p. 46).

Good capitalist patriots, all, those big business owners. Sure wouldn't want to arrest pillars of the community like that. Just the poor folks they take advantage of.

Bust Illegal Immigrants... and the Americans Employing Them

The New York Times editorializes about the harsh treatment of illegal immigrants caught in a raid on an Agriprocessors kosher plant in Postville, Iowa, as described by a court translator disgusted with the process:

Under the old way of doing things, the workers, nearly all Guatemalans, would have been simply and swiftly deported. But in a twist of Dickensian cruelty, more than 260 were charged as serious criminals for using false Social Security numbers or residency papers, and most were sentenced to five months in prison.

What is worse, (court translator) Dr. Camayd-Freixas wrote, is that the system was clearly rigged for the wholesale imposition of mass guilt. He said the court-appointed lawyers had little time in the raids’ hectic aftermath to meet with the workers, many of whom ended up waiving their rights and seemed not to understand the complicated charges against them.

“Driven single-file in groups of 10, shackled at the wrists, waist and ankles, chains dragging as they shuffled through, the slaughterhouse workers were brought in for arraignment, sat and listened through headsets to the interpreted initial appearance, before marching out again to be bused to different county jails, only to make room for the next row of 10” [editorial, "The Shame of Postville, Iowa," New York Times, 2008.07.13

The Feds are making arrests of some low-level supervisors in the company as well. But wouldn't it be nice to see the owners of the corporation shackled together and paraded before a judge to take responsibility for their un-American business practices? Or maybe just treat the entire corporation as a person (just like the Supreme Court says it is) and put the entire corporation in jail... or at least revoke its charter.

Father Gallagher -- Bittersweet Resolution?

Father Cathal Gallagher has left the building, but not the country. The Irish priest bid farewell to his tearful parishioners in Kingsbury County on Sunday, and was ready to obey the U.S. government, which had told him he had to leave the country on July 1 since immigration officials had lost his application for permanent residency. And then yesterday...

Progress! Father received a call from Senator Johnson’s office informing him of positive progress with his immigration case. Father was instructed a) NOT to leave the country, b) that consideration of his case is progressing in communication with Washington DC, and c) that he should schedule an appointment to get his fingerprints and updated photos taken in Sioux Falls on July 14 (two weeks). He was informed that this is a very positive development, although still nothing is assured at this point [update from HelpFather.com, 2008.07.01].

Better late than never. But the Sioux Falls Diocese has already installed a new priest in the Kingsbury County parishes, so, as Father Gallagher tells KSFY, "All options are open, the only option that's not open is returning to Kingsbury County."

Even in this surprise step toward a bittersweet victory, Father Gallagher remains humble:

Still shell shocked by the changing events, Gallagher tells me he is humbled by those who fought to give him this second chance. "I've done nothing to earn what came today" [Brian Allen, "DeSmet Priest Immigration Case Now Under Federal Review," KSFY.com, 2008.07.01].

Sometimes you eat the bear, sometimes the bear eats you... and sometimes everybody gets bit.

Ná Díbrigí An t-Ath. Ó Gallchóir!

...don't deport Father Gallagher!

While reader Michael Blume (see correction at bottom of article) says people like me need to move to New York, a reader from Queens sends a token of appreciation:



Thanks for the bumper sticker, dear Celtic reader! I wish I could return the favor by publishing a Gaelic edition of the Madville Times, but we just don't have the staff... ;-)

Father Gallagher gave a wonderfully eloquent yet humble interview on SDPB Wednesday. Despite having every right to sound defiant and indignant, Father Gallagher spoke with nothing but love for his congregation and South Dakota, appreciation for all those who have rallied to his cause, and pure submission to God's will, wherever it may take him. (Readers, you can determine within your own theology whether you consider bungling by U.S. immigration officials as God's will.)

Father Gallagher also made special mention of Governor Rounds for taking a very active interest in the case and making calls to various officials trying to get them to come to their senses, process the papers, and stop Father Gallagher's deportation. Let's hope someone in Washington is listening!

p.s.: Here's proof positive that the sender of the bumper sticker is from New York... and has spectacular penmanship! "Lake Herman" never looked better in print.

Father Gallagher on SDPB Tomorrow

Father Cathal Gallagher of DeSmet faces deportation in one week, assuming the bureaucrats don't find the priest's permanent residency application that they lost in some desk in Washington, DC. The good father got some good press in that Sioux Falls paper on Sunday; now SDPB gives Father Gallagher a chance to tell his story on the air. Listen to Father Gallagher tomorrow (Wednesday) noon on Dakota Midday.

DeSmet Still Fighting for Priest, Getting Wider Press

No word from the feds yet on whether they'll 'fess up to their mistakes and let Father Cathal Gallagher keep preaching in Kingsbury County. The folks around DeSmet have been working hard to keep the government from deporting the Irish priest, gathering signatures, contacting our elected officials, and, according to the latest (June 9) update on the "Help Father" website, appealing to the regional immigration office in Nebraska for a re-opening of Father Gallagher's application for permanent residency. The Lincoln office held a hearing on the case last week and is expected to issue a ruling within days.

There's no guarantee this will help, but the case is getting some wider press. New York's Irish Voice and Irish Echo have picked up the story. The story gets coverage in Dublin's Irish Times and a mention from the venerable BBC. Let's hope some more positive attention comes Father Gallgher's way to stave off his July 1 deportation date.