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No one knows the Wisconsin labor markets demand for foreign guest workers better than Wisconsin does.

That is the solid foundation on which Congress should allow states to build their own guest worker visa programs. Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson and Colorado Rep. Ken Buck, both Republicans, have introduced a bill to do just that, the State Sponsored Visa Pilot Program.

We need to recognize that a one-size-fits-all federal model for visas or guest workers doesnt work, Johnson said.

Hes right. The current federal guest worker visa program could scarcely have been designed more contrary to the dairy states interests than if it had been devised specifically as an anti-Wisconsin policy.

Consider the farm guest worker visa program, called H-2A. It is designed to allow seasonal workers to harvest fruit and vegetable crops. Visas are generally for one to 10 months. Half of the 150,000-or-so H-2A visa workers are employed in five states: Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, Washington and California.

The visa virtually ignores the needs of Wisconsins $43 billion-a-year dairy industry. Because of a dearth of American workers interested in dairy farm jobs, immigrant workers make up nearly half of all dairy farm employees in Wisconsin. But unlike the fruit and vegetable farms covered by the H-2A program, dairy farms are not seasonal. They need a visa program that allows workers to be employed 365 days a year.

Despite repeated pleas for change, Congress has failed to act because at the federal level interests are so politically divided that almost no immigration reform is possible. As a result, a high percentage of the foreign workers on Wisconsin dairy farms are estimated to be here illegally. Thats unfair to everyone.

Dairy farmers are not alone. Wisconsins technology, tourism and construction businesses would all benefit from a better visa program that helps employers cope with labor shortages by hiring foreign talent.

The visa proposal from Sen. Johnson and Rep. Buck would give any state the freedom to select and sponsor foreign workers for temporary work visas covering three years, with eligibility for renewal. Visa holders could work anywhere in the sponsoring state. States could form interstate compacts to share guest workers all under the watchful eye of the federal Department of Homeland Security, which would have to approve all visas. By choosing how many and which foreign workers to sponsor, states would also be able to protect citizens from unfair employment competition.

Though Wisconsin would be a prime beneficiary, the bill deserves widespread support. Utah already tried to start its own visa program, only to suffer federal rejection. California, Texas and a handful of other states have debated legislation.

Giving more power over immigration to states is successful elsewhere. Canada and Australia have laws allowing provinces and states to operate their own visa programs.

Allowing states to address their own foreign worker problems by making decisions that suit their particular circumstances should produce better solutions. Let the State Sponsored Visa Pilot Program become law.

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State Journal editorial: Let states tackle immigration reform - Madison.com

For undocumented Chicagoans, a knock on the door means catastrophe.

Some Polish immigrants install doorbells because the sound is less threatening, said Grazyna Zajaczkowska, director of immigration services for the Polish American Association. They also wont answer the door unless they already know whos there.

Every knock on the door for the undocumented is a big deal, she said.

Though President Donald Trumps proposed wall along the Mexican border has become one symbol of the illegal immigration issue, many of Chicagos undocumented residents arrive from overseas. They dont walk; they fly.

And the number of Europeans being deported is rising, and that worries the thousands of undocumented Europeans in Chicago about 11,000,according to a 2014 report from the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.

Through June 24, about 1,300 Europeans had been removed from the United States since Oct. 1, 2016. That compares to 1,450 during the entire 2016 fiscal year, according to the Associated Press.

Although Europeans are a smaller group than the 155,000 Latin American and 12,000 Asian undocumented residents in the city, representatives from Chicago-based organizations for Irish, British, Polish and other Western European communities said Trumps crackdown on immigration has led to heightened tension and increased use of immigration services.

I think they are all [feeling] the same type of fear, said Chicago businessman Billy Lawless, a Galway native who owns several Chicago restaurants. He also serves in the Irish Senate, representing the Irish diaspora.

Trumps initiative to release 10,000 additional U.S. Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement representatives throughout the U.S. contributed to the fear of deportations, Lawless said.

Regardless of where immigrants are from, he said, they all came here because they want to better themselves.

Cyril Regan is chairman of Chicago Celts for Immigration Reform. Though he has legal status now, he didnt always. he said. | Rich Hein/Sun-Times

Cyril Regan, chairman of Chicago Celts for Immigration Reform, lived undocumented in New York City and New Jersey during the 1980s. He was never really afraid, he said.

It was never like this, Regan said. I would be in fear of getting deported now, most definitely.

There are about 5,000 undocumented Irish immigrants in the Chicago area, Regan said. His organization has been telling undocumented residents to keep your heads down, he said.

Chicago is a sanctuary city for now. That means city agencies are prohibited from asking about immigration status and police wont detain undocumented immigrants unless they are wanted on a criminal warrant or arrested for a serious crime.

On July 25, the Justice Department announced it would no longer hand out grant money to certain sanctuary cities including Chicago unless they allow immigration authorities to access local jails and prisons, and give authorities notice before an undocumented immigrant wanted by the government is released.

Earlier this month, Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced the city would sue the Trump administration, claiming the new requirements are unconstitutional.

The number of undocumented Poles in Chicago could range from a thousand to up to thousands and thousands,Zajaczkowska said. About 1,500 people use the Polish American Associations immigration services.Zajaczkowska said her team does not ask residents about immigration status.

The organization, 3834 N Cicero Ave., collaborates with the DePaul University and Chicago Legal Clinics and the Illinois Coalition for Immigrants and Refugees to provide information to Poles about the rights they hold as immigrants.

At the Center for Irish Immigration Services in Chicago, which serves Irish, British and Western European populations, many who have legal status in some way, shape, or form, now want to get it finalized, said executive director Michael Collins.

The organization has recently seen an increase in citizenship applications, as well as people getting married and filing paperwork to finalize their status.

Due to the rhetoric from the current administration, its been a motivation for people to do this sooner rather than later, Collins said.

Others, however, are packing up and leaving, Regan said.

Its hard, especially these days,Zajaczkowska said. Even if they are undocumented and have been residing in the space for a long time and have children, they decide on leaving for Europe.

Young undocumented Europeans are concerned about whether the federal policy known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals will remain in place, Zajaczkowska said. That policy allows certain people who came to the United States as children to request consideration of deferred action for a period of two years, which they can also renew.

Quite often they dont even know their own country,Zajaczkowska said.

Regan said he knows undocumented Irish immigrants who own businesses, employ hundreds of people and even have grandchildren.

They are paying Social Security and their taxes, and there isnt anything that they can do, he said. I cant get my arms around it.

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Thousands of Europeans are among Chicago's undocumented - Chicago Sun-Times

Of the harrowing images televised nationwide from Saturdays white nationalist demonstration in Charlottesville, one of the more chilling sights, amid hours of raging hatred and mayhem, was of camo-clad militiamen on the streets, girded for combat in tactical vests and toting military-style semiautomatic rifles.

Photos and video of the heavily armed cadre a relatively small force commanded by a 45-year-old machinist and long-ago Navy veteran from western Pennsylvania spread rapidly on social media, raising fears the clash of hundreds of neo-Nazis and counterprotesters might end in a bloodbath.

The show of strength was about allegiance ... to the Constitution, particularly the First Amendment, said Christian Yingling, leader of the Pennsylvania Light Foot Militia. He said he and his troops convoyed in to Charlottesville early Saturday to defend free speech by maintaining civic order so everyone present could voice an opinion, regardless of their views.

The fact that no shots were fired, Yingling said, was a testament to the discipline of the 32 brave souls serving under me during this particular operation. In a telephone interview Sunday, he sought to dispel the absurd idea in the publics mind that his group of patriots was allied with or sympathetic to the white nationalists.

Many militia units in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast have mutual defense agreements, Yingling said. Because he has overseen several militia responses at contentious gatherings in recent months helping keep the peace at right-wing public events in Boston; in Gettysburg and Harrisburg, Pa.; and at an April 29 rally in Harrisburg for President Trump Yingling said the commander of a Virginia militia asked him to organize and take tactical command of the Charlottesville operation.

He had never handled anything like this, Yingling said. And given the volatility of the event, it was not a good place to start.

When his group arrived in Charlottesville, we put our own beliefs off to the side, Yingling said. Not one of my people said a word. They were given specific orders to remain quiet the entire time we were there.... Our mission was to help people exercise their First Amendment rights without being physically assaulted.

He added: It was a resounding success until we were just so drastically outnumbered that we couldnt stop the craziness. It was nothing short of horrifying.

In the interview and in a Facebook Live monologue Sunday, Yingling detailed why the militia members participated, how he went about organizing their appearance, and how his group was received which he said was not with much welcome.

Jacka---s, was how he described both sides, meaning the white nationalists, who billed the gathering as Unite the Right, and the counterprotesters, many marching under the banner of Antifa, for anti-fascist. Yingling also criticized police, saying that officers were poorly prepared for the violence and not assertive enough in combating it and that they should have enlisted the militiamen to help prevent the mayhem.

Instead, about five hours after Yingling and his platoon arrived at 7:30a.m., they were ordered by police to leave the area, he said. By 1:42p.m. when a man reputed to be a neo-Nazi adherent allegedly drove his car intentionally through a crowded pedestrian mall and into a sedan, killing a 32-year-old woman and injuring 19 others the militiamen were far from Charlottesville, headed back to their encampment 50 miles northeast of the city, Yingling said.

He said several of his troops were battered and bloodied, having been attacked by people on both sides of the demonstration, yet they did not retaliate.

He said he does not know the suspect in the car killing, James Alex Fields, 20, of Ohio, or any of the white nationalists involved in Saturdays demonstration.

Virginias secretary of public safety, Brian Moran, rejected the assertion that police were ill-equipped to handle Saturdays unrest. To say we were unprepared or inexperienced is absolutely wrong, Moran declared Sunday, adding, We unequivocally acted at the right time and with the appropriate response.

He said: The fighting in the street was sporadic. But soon after it started, we began to have conversations about when to go in. The concern was that the fighting was in the middle of the crowd and that if we went in there, we would lose formation, lose contact. We would be putting the public and law enforcement in jeopardy.

Saturday marked the first time in 28 years the Virginia National Guard was used to help quell a civil disturbance. The militia showed up with long rifles, and we were concerned about that in the mix, Moran said. They seemed like they werent there to cause trouble, but it was a concern to have rifles of that kind in that environment.

Authorities also were worried that Yingling who was carrying a Sig Sauer AR-556 semiautomatic weapon and his troops would be mistaken for National Guard members by the public, Moran said.

Yingling called the weapons one hell of a visual deterrent to would-be attackers from either side. Although the weapons magazines were fully loaded, he said, the days standard procedure was that anyone who was carrying a long gun was not to have a round in the chamber. Now, our sidearms are generally chambered and ready to go.

The Pennsylvania Light Foot Militia is one of several Light Foot Militia outfits in states nationwide. In addition to having overall command of units in Pennsylvania, Yingling said, he is the leader of his home unit, the Light Foot Militia Laurel Highlands Ghost Company, based near his home in New Derry, Pa., about 50 miles east of Pittsburgh. The Ghost Company has about a dozen members, he said.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit watchdog group that monitors extremist organizations, classifies 276 militias in the country as antigovernment groups, meaning they generally define themselves as opposed to the New World Order, engage in groundless conspiracy theorizing, or advocate or adhere to extreme antigovernment doctrines.

The Pennsylvania Light Foot Militia is on the list, as are Light Foot Militia units in South Carolina, Utah, Wisconsin, Idaho, Nevada and Oregon. But the SPLC points out that inclusion on its list does not imply that the groups themselves advocate or engage in violence or other criminal activity, or are racist.

Yingling said he abhors racism and that his company, which usually trains in the woods once or twice a month, is open to prospective members of all races and creeds, although its active roster is entirely white.

A Navy veteran of Operation Desert Storm, Yingling said he was an aviation machinists mate for three years before leaving the service in 1993 as a petty officer third class, meaning he was four rungs up the enlisted ranks.

I joined the military to avoid the addictive lifestyle of my parents, he wrote in a Facebook post. I was raised in a VERY dysfunctional, abusive home. The military gave me the structure I needed. After his discharge, however, I quickly fell right into the lifestyle I had known all my life with my parents. I quit going to church, I started using drugs and alcohol, heavily becoming addicted to both. It started a... downward spiral which led to an eventual suicide attempt.

Then, in 2008, President Barack Obama was elected. Yingling said he was drawn then to right-wing, anti-government extremism.

I left my old addictive lifestyle behind and traded it for the lifestyle of a patriot, he wrote. I had found my calling as a militiaman. I founded The Westmoreland County Militia, Regulators 1st Battalion with two fellow patriots. He later left the unit and formed the Laurel Highlands Ghost Company.

No, I dont think the government, as a whole, is out to get us, he said in the interview, but a lot of people in society are self-absorbed. They dont get involved with the Constitution and defending the freedoms that it gives us. We need to defend those freedoms for everyone, on all sides of the political debate or eventually well lose them.

About a month ago, when he learned the Unite the Right event was being planned, Yingling said, I, like most militia commanders, did not want to touch it with a 10-foot pole for fear of being wrongly perceived as an ally of white supremacists. But after talking it over with a fellow Light Foot commander, in Upstate New York, he decided he had a duty to defend the right of free speech on the streets of Charlottesville.

Through Facebook and various militia chat rooms, he said, he recruited militia members from various East Coast units and organized a rendezvous Friday night at a farm in Unionville, Va. He said he was angered and embarrassed that only 32people showed up. Many others, he said, were afraid of being publicly branded as racists.

We knew what we were walking into, he said on Facebook Live. We knew what the results were going to be. And yet we walked in anyway. We werent afraid. And we didnt give a good damn about our image or about what anybody thought about us. And I still dont.

Continue reading here:
Militiamen came to Charlottesville as neutral First Amendment protectors, commander says - Washington Post

Two Chinese tourists were arrested last Sunday after taking photos of each other giving the Nazi salute in front of the Reichstag building in Berlin. Unlike in the United States, certain types of speech are illegal in Germany, including almost any Nazi symbolism.

Supposed comedian Chelsea Handler, weighed in on the story, suggesting the U.S. be more like Germany, which would require eliminating the First Amendment.

Most people in a civilized society agree that Nazi salutes are offensive, even if given in jest. Labeling speech that we all agree to be wrong as "hate speech" and then banning it by law might seem like a simple solution to the problem of occasionally hearing things that decent people don't like. However, passing laws to weaken our own rights in response to somebody else's poor behavior is not the solution.

If we want to be aware of what can transpire on the fringe of society, everyone should be free to express all of their opinions, even the ones that offend us. The Constitution treats us as grown-ups, depending on us to have the sense to reject opinions that are genuinely evil.

Take the Westboro Baptist Church for example, a group consisting mostly of family members. They scream obscenities and anti-gay slurs as they picket events such as papal visits and the funerals of service members killed overseas. They offend virtually everyone on earth. America, with its population of over 300 million people, seems to have collectively ostracized the 70-member group despite our government never making it a law to do so. No one is terribly worried that their annoying behavior is causing a trend.

Making any type of speech illegal would in itself destroy the First Amendment, which contrary to the claims of some washed up politicians, contains no exception for hate speech. Nor should it. The definition of hate speech is subject to continuous change. There are words no decent person will say, but the banning of even one word would eliminate the right to freedom of speech, replacing it with a subjective list of prohibited terms to which the government could and would add to over time.

It is strange that those who depend on free speech to make their living are often its most vocal opponents. Handler, for example, wants to ban offensive speech, but she engages in it quite often, as when she made fun of the first lady's accent, claiming Melania Trump barely speaks English. It's her right to tell that joke, of course. But it might not be if she had her own way.

Today's "safe space" culture has created the concept that words -- not threats, mind you, just unkind words -- are equivalent to physical harm. It just isn't so. And the First Amendment is a treasure, even if it does subject us all to Kathy Griffin posing in ISIS-inspired photoshoots, Johnny Depp expressing his envy of John Wilkes Booth, and Snoop Dogg shooting a clown dressed as Trump in a music video. As always, the proper answer to offensive speech is more speech, not violence or government coercion.

At a moment when leftists can't seem to get enough of speaking out against the current administration, their sudden turn against the First Amendment is a puzzling and troubling development. Their short-sighted talk of giving our government unacceptable authority to regulate our personal lives should be rejected like all the other bad ideas that people are free to express.

Alana Mastrangelo is a political activist and writer.

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Liberals need to stop messing with the First Amendment - Washington Examiner

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

Several Republican governors have joined President Trump in an exclusive but growing club: They are being sued by left-wing organizations for removing persistent critics from their Facebook or Twitter pages.

In many cases, were talking about trolls, the people who post inflammatory, irrelevant or offensive comments. The latest to face the trolls wrath is Maine Gov. Paul LePage, who the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sued last Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the District of Maine on behalf of two clients who say they were unconstitutionally blocked from Mr. LePages Facebook page.

Mr. LePage responded immediately on his Facebook page: This page was started by volunteers in the governors first campaign to support his candidacy. After that time it became his official political page. This page has never been managed by taxpayer-funded state employees. Under the about section of this Facebook page it states that is Paul LePages official politician page not a government page.

Well, so what, the ACLU suit says, in effect. Youre a public figure and must open yourself to any and all criticism.

On Aug. 1, the ACLU sued Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan on behalf of four disappointed commenters. The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, includes a request for an injunction to block any more removals and to force the reinstatement of several hundred blockheads, er, Mr. Hogans spokespeople call the suit frivolous and note that his site reserves the right to block any comment that is profane, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, defaming, threatening or amounts to spam or repetitiveness. In February, his office reported that they had blocked 450 people for abusive language or spamming.

The ACLU managed to find some clients whose posts they say were none of the above, but the complaints enforcement would effectively stop any blocking.

On July 11, the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University filed a federal suit against President Trump and two aides (former press secretary Sean Spicer and social media director Dan Scavino) in the Southern District of New York for blocking users critical of him from his private Twitter account. The key word here is private. Mr. Trump had the account before becoming president, and the First Amendment does not apply to non-governmental entities. It doesnt matter how big the audience is.

Mr. Trump has in excess of 33 million followers on his @realDonaldTrump Twitter feed and has tweeted more than 35,000 times since first starting the account in 2009, according to USA Today.

One of the plaintiffs, Rebecca Buckwalter of Washington, D.C., is a fellow at the Center for American Progress, a George Soros-funded left-wing think tank. She complained that her response to a June 6 Trump tweet was removed.

Trump: Sorry folks, but if I would have relied on the Fake News of CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS washpost or nytimes, I would have had ZERO chance winning WH.

Buckwalter: To be fair you didnt win the WH: Russia won it for you.

Should Mr. Trump be forced to keep her conspiracy theory tweet on his non-governmental site?

On July 31, the ACLU of Kentucky sued Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky for removing trolls from his Facebook page. Two blocked users are demanding that they and 600 other blockees be reinstated.

Bevin spokesman Woody Maglinger responded that blocking these people in no way violates their right to free speech under the U.S. or Kentucky Constitutions, nor does it prohibit them from expressing their opinion in an open forum.

Not all cases involve Republicans. A federal judge ruled on July 25 that Loudoun County, Virginia county board Chairwoman Phyllis J. Randall, a Democrat, committed a cardinal sin under the First Amendment when she blocked a constituents criticism for half a day from her official Facebook page.

But in his ruling, U.S. District Judge James Cacheris also said public officials are allowed to moderate comments to defend against harassment and against those who take over an online forum in such a way that violates the free speech rights of others.

Given the prevalence of online trolls, this is no mere hypothetical risk, the judge said.

The issue of public officials social media management will eventually wind up at the Supreme Court, where perhaps a clear distinction will be made between public and private communications.

Until the courts definitively rule, troll-beset lawmakers might want to have different social media accounts for different purposes, like Maines Gov. LePage:

This FB page has always noted it is for those who support the governor. This page is not a tool for organized, nationally-connected political protests against the governor. Those organizations wishing to attack and protest Gov. Paul LePage can create their own pages.

Robert Knight is a senior fellow for the American Civil Rights Union.

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Beyond the First Amendment - Washington Times