By Debbie Schlussel
Remember all the outcry over the House Immigration bill (legislation which is now all but dead)? Critics shrieked all over the place about criminalizing those who help illegal aliens. We were told that innocent members of the clergy could go to jail for giving a sip of water to an illegal alien fresh from the parching desert.
Well, now, we see why priests and rabbis (and definitely, imams) must not be immune or considered untouchable by authorities. Exhibit A: Elvira Arellano, now a resident of Chicago’s Adalberto United Methodist Church.
An illegal alien, she got here after illegally crossing into the USA in 1997, and has been here ever since. Like many illegal aliens, she used a false social security number so that she could work as a cleaning woman at O’Hare International Airport (a security risk? ya think). She was ordered deported, but has lived at the Methodist Church since August 15th, the day she was supposed to surrender for deportation.

Elvira Arellano & Son Saul
Arellano is a textbook study in the usual problems with U.S. Immigration law and the unwillingness of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) to enforce it.
When she was caught and convicted of working under a false Social Security number at O’Hare, she wasn’t immediately deported. Nope. Arellano was permitted to stay here so she could serve three years of probation. Only after that was Arellano ordered to appear at the Chicago ICE Detention and Removal Operations office in Chicago for deportation.
And, like many illegal aliens, Arellano gave birth to an anchor baby. Her son, Saul Arellano, has no father in his life, like many illegal aliens’ anchor babies. Seven years old and a U.S. citizen by virtue of birth here, he lives with Mommy at the church, when he’s not on international speaking engagements.
The way Ms. Arellano is using her son is disgusting. She’s produced signs that say, “Don’t Let the Migra Take My Mommy Away.”
This week, Saul, a 2nd-grader in our tax-supported schools, was in Mexico City getting the Mexican Chamber of Deputies to pass a resolution calling on America to stop deporting illegal aliens who have U.S. citizen children. Saul and his mother claim she should not have to choose between leaving her son or taking away his opportunities here.
But she made that choice long ago. She made that choice when she crossed the border illegally. She made that choice when she stayed here illegally. She made that choice when she used a false social security number. She made that choice when she took a job using that false social security number. She made that choice when she had sex with Saul’s father, whoever he is. And she made that choice when she gave birth to Saul on U.S. soil.
Elvira Arellano made several choices, all of them deliberate. It has been up to the U.S. for decades to make the right choice and match other countries’ immigration laws, under which illegal aliens’ children do not get automatic citizenship merely because of the luck of birth location. Congress has not made the right choice, and hasn’t emulated those laws.
Now, it’s up to ICE officials to make the choice to enforce immigration laws, which so far ICE chieftess Julie L. Myers a/k/a “The ICE Princess” won’t.
There is no reason–but for wimpitude in the face of likely bad press–for ICE to allow Elvira to remain a fugitive in the Adalberto United Methodist Church. There is no legal sanctuary from immigration enforcement in churches, synagogues, mosques, ashrams, communes, or any other such place of worship.
ICE and Homeland Security spokespeople told the press that there is nothing to prevent them from arresting Arellano. So why the heck haven’t they? By refusing to do so in the face of bad publicity they are making that the de facto law.
Gail Montenegro of ICE told AP that “We will arrest and deport her as required by law at an appropriate time and place.”
That time was anytime after August 15th, when Elvira Arellano didn’t surrender, and the place is the Methodist Church. Time for ICE to show us they’re serious.
Otherwise, expect churches, synagogues, and mosques to become the new Motel 6s of illegal aliens under deportation orders.
They’ll leave the light on for you.

By Debbie Schlussel
A college football great and coaching legend, Glenn “Bo” Schembechler, passed away this morning of a massive heart attack at age 77.
He was coach at the University of Michigan for many years, including the beginning of my tenure as an undergrad there.
Schembechler was rushed to the hospital, this morning, after collapsing while taping his Saturday local college football show at Detroit’s Channel 7/WXYZ-TV. He passed away at the hospital.
The timing is strangely auspicious because it’s just on the eve of what is probably the biggest college football contest of the season and one of the most important in Michigan football history, this weekend’s contest between #1 Ohio State University and #2 (for now) University of Michigan.

I predict that Michigan players will “win one for the Gipper” and react to Bo’s death by winning this gridiron contest in his memory and honor, tomorrow. Schembechler was from Ohio, but grew to be a true Maize & Blue Michigan Wolverine. Read the piece from excellent sports columnist, Michael Rosenberg (quickly becoming one of my fave sports writers), about his son, “Shemy’s,” “intermarriage” with an Ohio State fan.
It’s a sad day on Moscow on the Huron a/k/a the People’s Republic of Ann Arbor (with apologies to Moscow), even though Bo was a Republican.
Bo Schembechler, Rest in Peace. And Go Blue.

By Debbie Schlussel
Well, House Republicans just didn’t get the message and, this morning, re-elected John Boehner of Ohio as their leader. That means, expect more of his hounding ICE officials for doing their job deporting Muslim Illegal alien “constituents” of his and more of this . . .

GOP House Majority Leader John Boehner Plays Golf,
Aids & Abets Muslim Illegal Alien Fatima Raziuddin

By Debbie Schlussel
**** SCROLL DOWN FOR UPDATE ****
A Palestinian Muslim goes to the University of Arkansas, gets U.S. Citizenship, and uses this to help Islamic Jihad.
This story should be national news. But it isn’t. Maybe that’s because it would get in the way of the Mainstream Media’s agenda of bringing more foreign students from the Muslim world here to “go to college” like the 11 then-missing Egyptian students from this past summer.
The media tells us that being exposed to Americans will make them hate us less. Really? Tell that to Sayyid Qutb (Bin Laden’s spiritual guru, who was a student here and hated us even more). And tell that to Arwah Jaber, the Islamic Jihad operative, whose disturbing story is below and only featured on Little Rock, Arkansas’ KHTV News:

A former University of Arkansas graduate student from the Middle East lost his U.S. citizenship Thursday and was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison.
Arwah Jaber was previously acquitted of an aiding-terrorism charge but convicted of lesser offenses, including obtaining his citizenship fraudulently. He also was sentenced to three years supervised probation upon completion of his prison term.
Jaber, who was born in the West Bank, was arrested at the Northwest Regional Airport on June 14, 2005, as he prepared to leave on a trip to the Middle East. Prosecutors said he planned to join Palestinian Islamic Jihad, labeled by U.S. authorities as a terrorist organization.
Jaber was acquitted June 20 of attempting to provide material support to a terrorist organization. But, the jury convicted Jaber of five lesser charges: obtaining his naturalization unlawfully, making false statements on passport and immigration applications, and two counts of making false statements on credit card applications.

Time to restrict foreign student admissions MORE, not LESS. Ditto for citizenship applications from students who allegedly only came here to study and then go home.
**** UPDATE: Some readers asked why Jaber isn’t deported. The following excerpt from The Morning News of Northwest Arkansas (the only other media outlet to cover the story, unless you count a foreign paper, below) reveals more. It also reveals how Jaber stole and used someone’s social security number. After his jail term is over, if he gets to stay here for 3 years of supervised parole, our country is even more asleep than originally thought:

FAYETTEVILLE — A former University of Arkansas graduate student will spend 15 months in federal prison and have his citizenship revoked, a federal judge decided Thursday.
Arwah Jaber was sentenced to concurrent terms on five federal convictions.
Jaber was acquitted in July of plotting to help terrorists, but was convicted of several lesser charges, including obtaining his naturalization by fraud.
Specifically, federal prosecutors said Jaber lied on a naturalization form when he said he had no other names or aliases and that he had not committed any crimes for which he had not been convicted. He was also convicted of lying on a credit card application.
Jaber used a Social Security number belonging to a teenager to obtain credit cards and open a bank account, and did not note the crime on his naturalization form.
Jaber will also face three years’ supervised parole following his release, unless immigration authorities deport him following his prison time.

Only a foreign paper, the International Herald Tribune, ran an apologist AP story on Jaber. Listen to his excuse for lying about his real name:

Jaber said at his trial that he did not cite his Palestinian name, Orwah Houshia, in immigration papers – though he applied for credit cards using that name – because he had used Arwah Jaber on all his immigration papers up until then.

Oh, and Arwa Jaber is the English name for Orwah Houshia? Hardly.

By Debbie Schlussel
A lawsuit just decided shows us the real Bono. We’ve written repeatedly about what a phony this pop star is. He’s sooooo generous, such a humanitarian . . . when it comes to OUR tax money.
But when it comes to his own stuff, well, it’s a different story.
BBC reports that Bono and his U2 group just won their lawsuit against their former stylist, Lola Cashman, over a cowboy hat and some clothes she got from them back in 1987(!). The items are worth about $5,100 in U.S. Dollars.
The woman, who is not wealthy, claims she was given the hat and clothes as gifts, again, back in 1987. But petty, cheap Bono and U2 sued her and won. Remember that, the next time he whines about how little U.S. taxpayers give to his precious African debt relief cause.

Here’s more on the lawsuit, to give you an example of how petty and stingy these phony humanitarians are:

Rock group U2 have won a legal battle against their former stylist, forcing her to hand over a cowboy hat and clothes she took from them in 1987.
Singer Bono told Dublin’s High Court last month that Lola Cashman acquired the items without permission during the band’s Joshua Tree tour.
She insisted they were a gift to her from the star and appealed against a ruling that she must return them.
In a statement the band said they were “relieved” the legal battle is over.
“Proceedings were issued in Ireland very much as a last resort and with great reluctance,” they said.
They added that they wished Ms Cashman “well in the future” and they would not be pursuing costs from her, despite being entitled to.
The possessions were estimated to be valued at 5,000 euros (£3,400).
U2 had been fighting with Ms Cashman over the ownership of a Stetson hat, a pair of metal hooped earrings, a green sweatshirt and a pair of black trousers.

So, what was it Bono was saying about American taxpayers not paying enough gazillions in AIDS and debt relief? It’s a joke that TIME named this faker one of its Persons/Humanitarians of the Year, calling him a “Good Samaritan.” Incredible.

By Debbie Schlussel
A great economist, proud Jew, and–most important–great American and patriot, Milton Friedman, died last night.
A scholar, prolific author and writer, and simply a brilliant man, Milton Friedman and his wife, Rose, helped the world understand that to have vibrant freedom (both economic AND political) you need vital capitalism. His landmark book, “Capitalism and Freedom,” will have its 45th anniversary, next year. Not as well known, but also must-read, is his “Free to Choose: A Personal Statement” (written with Rose Friedman).
Friedman saw that welfare, progressive taxation, and minimum wage laws hurt the economy. Even Bill Clinton, no Friedmanite, instituted welfare reforms inspired by Friedman’s genius. My friend, Jeremy Fand’s Dad, Dr. David I. Fand was one of Friedman’s few, lucky, and bright proteges. Dr. Fand always asked me, “Are you a renter or a rent seeker?”
Milton Friedman, Zichrono LiVrachah (“Blessed Be His Memory”).

By Debbie Schlussel
Well, it’s official.
Noam Shalit, father, of Gilad Shalit–the Israeli soldier kidnapped by Palestinian terrorists, this summer, and still held hostage by them–has morally equivocated innocent Israelis with Palestinian terrorists.
Today, he went to Tel Aviv’s Sourasky Medical Center, a hospital, to visit Palestinians, some of whom acted as human shields, who got injured in Beit Hanoun when Israelis were fighting Palestinian terrorists. Some of them were trying to block Israeli soldiers from getting to Palestinian terrorists holed up in a building.
But Shalit made the specious claim that the people of Beit Hanoun are not involved in terrorism. That’s like saying Al-Qaeda is not involved in terrorism. Beit Hanoun is a terrorism hotbed. Its refugee camps are run by HAMAS, which nurtures its residents’ hate from cradle to grave.

Noam Shalit (right) with Palestinians, Pal Official Saeb Erekat (left)
Here are some of the absurd statements by Noam Shalit from Israeli newspaper, Yediot Achronot:

I came to the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center in order to express my sympathy with the families from Beit Hanoun who lost 20 of their loved ones and have a large number of injured here at the center.
I have met the families, and I can see that the people of Beit Hanoun are peace-seeking and not involved in terror, and they only want to provide for themselves.

And he knows this because . . .?

I feel that the Atamna family and the other families who lost their loved ones are exactly like the Slotzker family in Sderot and my family in the Galilee. We are all victims of the same madness, the same incessant wars and illogical violence, from firing rockets towards populated centers, to two terribly erroneous shells, the common denominator is that the civilian population pays the price.

Uh, no. They are NOT the same. Shalit’s son was kidnapped when Palestinian terrorists snuck into Israel and kidnapped him. The Atamna family members were injured because some of them may have acted as human shields for Palestinian terrorists as hundreds of Beit Hanoun residents did. They were certainly injured because they and their fellow Beit Hanounites allowed Palestinian terrorists to rocket Israel from Beit Hanoun. As my former law professor Stuart McCaulley used to say, “You pays your money, you takes your chances.”

Shalit also spoke of his regret over the injured children that lay unconscious in the hospital, and that they were the ones paying the price of “these useless wars.” He urged the Israeli government and Palestinian leaders to “end the violence which brings more violence and hatred in a perpetual cycle that must be broken.”

We are the world. We are the children. Can’t we all just get along. Yadda, yadda, yadda. Apparently, Abba [Father] Shalit seems to have forgotten that the Palestinians, including the ones he went to visit in an Israeli hospital whose Israeli employees are treating them, still won’t accept Israel’s right to exist and want to cleanse it of Jews.
Noam Shalit, the Israeli Cindy Sheehan. What a schmuck!

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In covering the Shalit issue, FOX News’ Israel correspondent, Jennifer Griffin, displayed her cluelessness on the Mid-East. She claimed the Israelis don’t want to exchange prisoners for Gilad Shalit because they “don’t want to set a precedent” of trading prisoners for hostages with terrorists.
Hello . . .? Has Jennifer Griffin been in a coma for the last five years? Read this for a list of the continued, absurd prisoner trades Israel has engaged in for hostages with terrorist groups.
They have set a precedent, which is why they’re being asked to do it again. And why they will.

By Debbie Schlussel
Surprise, surprise! Yet another Muslim got caught with dangerous material and a ton of cash at my local airport, Detroit Metropolitan Airport.
The man, Ethiopian Muslim (strangely, his religion is NOT mentioned in ANY of the news reports) Sisayehiticha Dinssa, had almost $80,000 in cash on him and info on nuclear material and cyanide on his laptop.
Oh, and by the way, we’re paying for his legal defense, federal public defender Leroy Soles, who also represented a member of the Detroit Terror Cell. One stop shopping.
That’s a guy they caught. But there are many like him and worse they have not caught or have been forbidden from searching as thoroughly. I know, based on info from Federal sources working there. And, whatta coincidence, he came to America through Amsterdam, just like shoe bomber Richard Reid once tried to do before settling on France as his departing point.

Frankly, the place ought to be renamed “Jihad International,” given the fact that there is a prayer room for Muslims (where people suspiciously congregate a la Paris’ de Gaulle Airport), many Muslims are employed to conduct TSA screenings (including at least one who supported Bin Laden, Sadeq Naji Ahmed), and still others are gate agents with full access to the airport (not to mention, Nada Houssaiky, the mother of the TracFonistan suspect who transported security and passenger info offsite). And how did “former” Islamic terrorist Imad Hamad find out the super secret office location of the Federal Air Marshals’ inside Detroit Metro? I’m told he knew the exact address to which to send a Christmas card.
Then, there are TSA screeners Michael Sbandi and Joel Mayer, most recently of Dulles International Airport. They stole a crate from a bar, but a local sheriff doesn’t think it’s a crime. And though Homeland Security has suspended them, it won’t or can’t fire them and is hoping they’ll go away. Uh-uh. They’ve hired lawyers. Look for them to be back on the job real soon. Washington Post columnist Marc Fisher has taken the side of these slackers.
But as one Homeland Security agent rhetorically asks us,

What’s the point of looking for bad things instead of bad people when we have bozos like these doing the looking?

Exactly. What is the point? We’re in trouble, America.

By Debbie Schlussel
Check my column out in Today’s New York Post. Yasser Arafat’s personal taste tester as House GOP policy setter?!
Even more info at DarrellIssa.net.

By Debbie Schlussel
Did American Airlines’ flight crew deserve to die on 9/11? Why is American Airlines honoring an actress who says exactly that?
On 9/11, American Airlines flight attendants Madeleine Amy Sweeney and Betty Ong were heroes.
Instead of calling their families to say good-bye, they called American Airlines’ ground crew and told them what was happening on their planes. Sweeney was on Mohammed Atta’s flight, and her identification of him is credited for alerting the government that the attack was an Al-Qaeda plot.
She never got to say good-bye to her two daughters or her husband, Michael Sweeney. The plane she was on, American Airlines Flight 11, hit the World Trade Center’s North Tower, and her life ended.

On 9/11, American Airlines lost two flights, 11 and 77. The airline lost 16 flight crew, including Sweeney, Ong, and pilot Charles “Chick” Burlingame.
But American Airlines seems to have forgotten them. The November 1st issue of its in-flight magazine, “American Way,” is a slap in the face of the American employees–and passengers–who gave their lives in the terrorist attacks.
In the back pocket of every seat on American flights, this month, “American Way’s” cover girl is smiling actress Maggie Gyllenhaal. Inside, a gushing article and fawning interview discuss Gyllenhaal’s life and her favorite spots to eat and do yoga. There’s nary a mention in the piece about Gyllenhaal’s most famous comment. On the 9/11 attacks, she said:

Because I think America has done reprehensible things and is responsible in some way.

Yes, according to Gyllenhaal, America and Americans–and, yes, American Airlines–deserved it. They deserved what happened on 9/11 because “America has done reprehensible things and is responsible.”
Apparently, this glaring slap in the face of Sweeney, Ong, and the other murdered American Airlines crew, didn’t occur to Sherri Gulczynski Burns, the magazine’s editor, or her boss, American Airlines Chairman and CEO Gerard J. Arpey. He has a full page article at the front of the magazine pushing contributions to UNICEF and thanking flight attendants for collecting donations from passengers.
Apparently, it’s more important to recognize the flight crews’ assistance to a questionable international charity than it is to give a thought to those who died in the name of his airline.
But American Airlines is not the only company that has forgotten the 9/11 attacks and gotten lazy in the continuing War on Terror.
Take Comerica bank, a chain headquartered in Michigan.
One of Comerica’s clients is LIFE for Relief and Development, America’s largest Islamic charity. It has seven accounts with the bank. In September, the Detroit-based charity was raided by the FBI because of its ties to terrorists.
For years, LIFE openly donated millions to HAMAS and is believed to be funding Al-Qaeda and Taliban insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan. The charity has close ties to Al-Qaeda and is run by Saddam loyalists.
After the FBI raids, Comerica Bank officials informed LIFE that it would be terminating their banking relationship with the charity and closing its accounts.

But Comerica didn’t exactly get tough with LIFE. It was just before the start of Ramadan, when millions of Muslims give the bulk of their charity contributions for the year. And LIFE asked Comerica to delay any action until after Ramadan.
Under pressure from “former” terrorist Imad Hamad, his Muslim-dominated American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, and the Council on American Islamic Relations, spineless bank officials acquiesced. This allowed LIFE to continue to collect millions in monies that may ultimately go to terrorist activities.
Last week, LIFE delivered thousands of packages (containing who knows what) to refugee camp residents in Beit Hanoon and other Palestinian cities, where HAMAS runs the show. At the same time LIFE “packages” were delivered to LIFE’s HAMAS friends, HAMAS terrorists were busy attacking Israeli soldiers in Beit Hanoon and hundreds of Palestinian women served as human shields for the terrorists. They game the terrorists food and other aid, likely that which they received from LIFE.
By allowing LIFE, a charity that openly donates millions to terrorists, to keep its accounts open even a day after FBI raids, Comerica helped fund terror. The bank helped Islamic terrorists murder innocent people, all in the name of pandering to Islamic pressure groups who will never be fully appeased.
When, after the 9/11 attacks, did America fall asleep? And when will America’s airlines, banks and other corporations wake up?
Will it take 16 more dead American Airlines flight crew? Let’s hope not.
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Send an e-mail message to “American Way” editor Sherri Gulczynski Burns, and let her know how you feel about her magazine gushing over Maggie Gyllenhaal.