Baby held in locked room at airport dies

If by chance you still think the rules and regulations of airport security are working just fine, read this disturbing story in the Honolulu Advertiser:

A 14-day-old infant traveling here for heart surgery died at Honolulu International Airport on Friday after he, his mother and a nurse were detained by immigration officials in a locked room, a lawyer for the boy's family said.

The Honolulu medical examiner's office yesterday identified the infant as Michael Futi of Tafuna, American Samoa's largest village, which is located on the east coast of Tutuila Island. Autopsy findings have been deferred.

According to police, the child died at 5:50 a.m. It is unknown why immigration officials detained the mother, the nurse and the child.

Scott Ishikawa, a spokesman for the state Department of Transportation, said the child went into respiratory failure while in the customs office, which is located near the baggage claims area of the overseas terminal. Airport paramedics were called about 6:10 a.m., he said.

The group arrived on a Hawaiian Airlines flight that landed at 5:30 a.m.

"We were later told the baby was coming here for heart surgery," Ishikawa said.

Attorney Rick Fried said the child had come to Hawai'i from American Samoa for heart surgery.

The boy's family plans to file a wrongful death lawsuit, Fried said.

Meanwhile, who's building the new US embassy in Baghdad?

Why, illegal immigrants, of course! Reporting from the Iraq Updates news service states:

More than 100 illegal Indian migrant workers are constructing the biggest and most expensive US embassy in the world in strife-torn Baghdad.

The US plans to open its “Vatican-sized” diplomatic enclave in Baghdad by September this year, and workers from the central Indian province of Andhra Pradesh are now racing against time to meet the deadline.

...

Since the UAE, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries are tightening their immigration rules, unskilled labourers from backward districts now prefer strife-torn Iraq for jobs.

Since they are shipped to the bunkers by US military aircraft, visa and immigration rules are relaxed and the workers are free to stay as long as they wish.

Well, it is the American, way, isn't it?

Newt Gingrich is a Big Fat Liar

To borrow Al Franken's description of Rush Limbaugh, Newt has gone to new lengths of out-and-out lying. In a shameless attempt to fire up immigration policy opponents — and bolster his support with that crowd for a possible 2008 presidential run — Gingrich released a video yesterday on his website and at YouTube.

In the video, he makes the highly inflammatory — and completely false — statement that "Mohamed Atta, and several other 9/11 hijackers were in the United States illegally." In fact, the 9-11 Commission Report found that all 19 of the men who were responsible for the hijackings on 9-11 entered the United States legally on either a tourist or student visa. Which makes my head throb all the more when I try to follow what seems to be a Republican trail of logic these days. Gingrich follows his lie with this statement: "Today, more than five years since that tragic day, our borders remain open to gangs, drug dealers and terrorists."

Huh? This is a new low, even for Gingrich, to tie the immigration debate to the violence of 9-11. Read more here.