Open borders, closed minds
By Tony Blankley
Jan 18, 2006

It's not that I expect an orderly, predictable world. I have read enough of history to understand that the dynamics of the human personality in a world of constant change will yield radical, often chaotic upheavals.

But still and all, a chap doesn't expect to find a full-grown rhinoceros in his desk drawer, or a man-eating sparrow on his window ledge.

So you can imagine my astonishment when I picked up Tuesday's Washington Times and read on the front page the headline: "Mexican military incursions reported: U.S. Border Patrol alerts Arizona agents."

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Two illegal aliens held on suspicion of forgery
BY JAMES GILBERT, SUN STAFF WRITER

Two Mexican nationals who were in the country illegally and carrying false identification were arrested early Tuesday morning at a vacant house in Yuma, according to court records.

Later the same afternoon, Florencio Mendez-Santiago and Isaac Merino-Ortiz, both made their initial appearances in Yuma Justice Court before Justice of the Peace David Cooper, who informed them of the allegations against them and set their bonds at $7,259.

Cooper told Santiago and Ortiz that police were asking prosecutors to file one felony charge of forgery against each of them.

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Aliens say helicopter saved them from bandits
FROM STAFF REPORTS

Two illegal immigrants are crediting a Border Patrol helicopter with saving them from four gunmen who had tied them up and planned to kill them during a holdup near Yuma on Monday night.

The helicopter's arrival at the scene of holdup prompted the four robbers to flee, allowing the two aliens to untie themselves and run to a nearby road, where they were found by Border Patrol agents shortly before midnight, the patrol said.

The aliens told agents that after the crossing Colorado River from Mexico, they were confronted by four people brandishing rifles near County 14th Street. The robbers robbed the aliens of $80, tied them up, forced them to the ground, beat them with sticks and kicked them, the aliens told agents.

Just as the robbers told the aliens they going to kill them, the helicopter appeared, causing the robbers to flee into Mexico, the aliens said.

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Good Fences Make Good Neighbors
Marty Lich

Words are powerful. So when I hear another country’s foreign secretary state that his country is not going to “permit or allow” a stupid thing like our proposed border fence I have to repeat these words; “Won’t allow or permit?” Who has the right to tell our country what she will and will not do on her own soil? Mexico? Guatemala? They think so.

These two countries are seeking illegal alien’s rights in America. They say a border fence is discriminatory and against freedom for their citizens. In part, this is true. By preventing unlawful entry into our country the ‘freedom’ of disregarding our laws will halt. Discrimination is against only those who break our laws. All who illegally enter the U.S. today receive free public school enrollment, tax-funded emergency and preventative health care, and a large range of taxpayer welfare services with no questions asked. We do not arm our borders with our military and we do not send our police out on impromptu raids, targeting neighborhoods known for harboring illegal alien residents. We do not allow illegal aliens to be deported overnight even if they were originally arrested for committing other crimes. When ICE decides certain illegal aliens are going to be deported from our country, they are released first on their own recognizance here until such time that an U.S. immigration court hearing can be provided for them.

Americans are a kind-hearted people. We find a border fence preferable, an act of prevention rather than an act of apprehension, believing that an “ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

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Yuma Area Smugglers Continue to Endanger Lives
CBP Border Patrol Agents Arrest 13 Illegal Aliens after Stolen Jeep Rolls Over

Yuma, Arizona – U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Border Patrol Agents encountered a sport utility vehicle containing 13 illegal aliens from Mexico after it crashed into a civilian vehicle in Yuma.

Just after 7 a.m., a Remote Video Surveillance (RVS) camera observed a Jeep Liberty illegally cross from Mexico into the U.S. approximately 7 miles east of the San Luis, Arizona Port of Entry. Yuma Sector Border Patrol Agents attempted to catch up to the vehicle as it drove into the Yuma City limits. When agents arrived at 32nd Street and 4th Avenue, they discovered that the Jeep had collided with a minivan.

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Four Alleged Marijuana Smugglers Arrested by CBP Agents
Suspects were in a Stolen Truck Containing Almost 1000 Pounds of Marijuana

Yuma, Arizona – U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Border Patrol Agents intercepted a stolen SUV filled with bundles of marijuana after it illegally drove from Mexico into the United States.

Shortly after dark, Yuma Sector Border Patrol Agents observed a 2000 GMC Yukon driving from the international boundary with Mexico at a high rate of speed. The vehicle was driving northbound without its headlights on just south of Sentinel, Arizona. Border Patrol Agents deployed a Controlled Tire Deflation Device (CTDD) to disable the vehicle and later discovered it abandoned with flat tires. The vehicle contained 638 pounds of marijuana worth just over $510,000.

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'WeAreRacist.com' Website Shut Down 'Due to Threats'
By Jeff Johnson

(CNSNews.com) - The Hispanic lobbying group that launched a website labeling opponents of illegal immigration "racists, cowards" and "domestic terrorists" claims to have disabled the site "Due to the threats" from "anti-immigrant" individuals.

The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) launched WeAreRacist.com to criticize opponents of illegal immigration who are members or affiliates of the Minuteman Project. Local chapters of the Minutemen have been photographing and videotaping contractors hiring workers at day laborer centers in Herndon, Va., and other locations and using the information to pursue violations of licensing and labor laws. The Minutemen believe many of the men hired are illegal aliens.

LULAC created WeAreRacist.com on Dec. 13, 2005, and WeAreRacists.com the next day. Both domain names pointed to the same site, which featured photographs of the Minutemen who participated in the contractor surveillance and identified them as, "racists, cowards, un-Americans (sic), vigilantes, [and] domestic terrorists."

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DHS Press Release
Fact Sheet: Secure Borders and Open Doors in the Information Age

Since 9/11, the Bush Administration has set many changes in motion to improve border security while still welcoming visitors to the United States. There have been two great challenges: to harmonize all these changes for maximum effect while maintaining the right balance between stronger security and facilitating travel.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff have been working together to manage these challenges. The result is a three part vision to guide the current and future development of solutions that ensure the best use of new technologies and the most efficient processes—all of which will ensure that our joint facilitation and security objectives are met.

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New ID card for crossing into Mexico is proposed
Louie Gilot
El Paso Times

Border crossers will need new secure identification cards, not passports, to enter the United States by the end of the year, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced Tuesday.

"We're talking about, essentially, the kind of driver's license or other simple card identification that almost all of us carry in our wallets day in and day out," Chertoff said in a speech in Washington, D.C.

The cards, called People Access Security Service, or PASS, would cost people around $50, or half the fee for a passport.

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Jury selection to begin in Texas smuggling deaths case
By JUAN A. LOZANO
Associated Press Writer

HOUSTON (AP) -- Three people accused of operating smuggling cells were part of a ring responsible for the nation's deadliest human smuggling attempt, according to federal prosecutors.

Jury selection was to begin Wednesday afternoon in the trial of Victor Sanchez Rodriguez; his wife, Emma Sapata Rodriguez, and Rosa Sarrata Gonzalez, Sapata's half-sister.

The three are charged with harboring and transporting illegal immigrants in connection with a May 2003 smuggling attempt that killed 19 illegal immigrants. If convicted, all three could face up to life in prison.

More than 70 people were being transported in an airtight tractor-trailer from South Texas to Houston when they began to succumb to the deadly heat inside. Seventeen people died of dehydration, overheating and suffocation. Two died later.

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CAREER CRIMINAL ALIEN SENTENCED TO 115 MONTHS IN PRISON
Mexican national had produced fraudulent documents, and used 10 different aliases

DETROIT - A career criminal alien from Mexico was sentenced here today to 115 months in federal prison and deportation for manufacturing fraudulent documents and re-entering the U.S. after having been previously deported. Today's sentence was announced by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Special Agent-in-Charge Brian M. Moskowitz, and Social Security Administration (SSA), Office of the Inspector General (OIG), Resident Agent-in-Charge John Keenan.

Felipe Molina-Marquez, 45, a citizen of Mexico, was apprehended by ICE special agents at his residence on an Outstanding Warrant of Arrest for Gerardo Hernandez in February 2005. ICE agents conducted database checks and determined that Hernandez was in fact Felipe Molina-Marquez, who was first deported to Mexico in December 1995. At the time of his arrest, Marquez possessed fraudulent Social Security and Alien Registration cards.

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Video (requires Real Player)
Mexico's Government Believes Mexicans Are Entitled to Enter U.S. (01/16/06)

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Tijuana business leaders seek crime crackdown
By Anna Cearley
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

TIJUANA – The city's business leaders, who have recently expressed concerns about kidnappings, announced a series of proposals yesterday that they hope can reduce the city's crime problem.

"This was started because we have a problem, a problem of insecurity," said Daniel Romero, president of a coalition of business groups that includes the Chamber of Commerce and industry associations.

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National Data, By Edwin S. Rubenstein

Immigration Implies Higher Health Care Costs

They come in uninsured and often with infectious diseases But, because new immigrants are generally younger than natives, on a per capita basis they utilize 55 percent less health care ($1,139 vs. $2,546 per capita.) This was the conclusion of Dr. Sarita A. Mohanty of USC [send her email] in a study she did for the express purpose of making immigrant health care costs look good.

However, thereafter things get worse, not for the first time in the immigration debate. Long-term exposure to U.S. culture appears to be dangerous to immigrant health, and to the health of their U.S.-born children. Result: Immigration-imported health care costs are a ticking time bomb.