Size of L.A. March Surprises Authorities
By PETER PRENGAMAN
Associated Press Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Thousands of immigration advocates marched through downtown Los Angeles in one of the largest demonstrations for any cause in recent U.S. history.

More than 500,000 protesters - demanding that Congress abandon attempts to make illegal immigration a felony and to build more walls along the border - surprised police who estimated the crowd size using aerial photographs and other techniques, police Cmdr. Louis Gray Jr. said.

Wearing white T-shirts to symbolize peace, the demonstrators chanted "Mexico!" "USA!" and "Si se puede," an old Mexican-American civil rights shout that means "Yes, we can.

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A G.O.P. Split on Immigration Vexes a Senator
By RACHEL L. SWARNS

HOUSTON — The telephone lines in the unassuming offices of Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, have been sizzling here in recent weeks as anxious Republican voters call to find out precisely where their tough-minded senator stands on illegal immigration.

But as the Senate prepares to wrestle the week of March 27 with the question of legalizing much of the illegal immigrant population, Mr. Cornyn, like many Republicans, finds himself squeezed by warring factions in his own party.

Mr. Cornyn has been criticized on conservative talk radio and labeled a "sellout" on some Weblogs for promoting legislation that would allow millions of illegal immigrants to remain here for five more years. The proposal would also create a temporary worker program that would allow those immigrants and hundreds of thousands of foreigners abroad to work here legally for up to six years.

At the same time, business groups have been pressing him to go further by supporting legislation that would put their illegal workers on the road to citizenship.

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A Border War
Tom Tancredo is pulling the immigration debate to the right—and away from Bush.
By Holly Bailey
Newsweek
April 3, 2006 issue

Tancredo may not be a household name yet, but he's doing everything he can to change that. As the House and Senate debate the nation's immigration and border-security laws, the four-term Coloradan has positioned himself as the loudest, angriest voice against the estimated 11 million illegal aliens now living in the United States. They are "a scourge that threatens the very future of our nation," he says. He laments "the cult of multiculturalism," and worries about America's becoming a "Tower of Babel." If Republican presidential candidates don't put the problem atop the agenda in 2008, he says he'll run himself, just to force the front runners to talk about it. Not that he thinks he'd win the White House. He declares himself "too fat, too short and too bald" to be president. If the Republicans lose the election because he's too tough on the issue, he says, "So be it."

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Panel starts immigration work today
Lawmakers weigh variety of plans after massive pro-migrant rallies
By Nedra Pickler
The Associated Press

Washington — Founded by immigrants and praised as a haven for the oppressed, the United States now is struggling to decide the fate of as many as 12 million people living in the country illegally.

The Senate takes up the emotional debate on the heels of weekend rallies that drew hundreds of thousands of people protesting attempts to toughen laws against immigrants. Among the ideas that President Bush and members of Congress are considering:

● Erecting a fence on the Mexican border to deter illegal immigration.

● Treating people who sneak across the border as felons to be deported.

● Allowing foreigners to stay in the country legally as custodians, dishwashers, construction workers and other low-paid employees.

● Allowing those working in the United States a path to citizenship.

● Requiring them to get in line behind everyone else back in their home countries who want to become Americans.

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Police find 6 shot dead in northern Mexico
AP Photo/ Juan Manuel Villaseor

GENERAL BRAVO, Mexico (AP) -- The bodies of six men - blindfolded, handcuffed and shot to death - were found Sunday packed inside a pickup truck on the side of a highway leading to the Texas border.

Police found the men in General Bravo, a town about 55 miles from Reynosa, across the border from McAllen, Texas, said Camerino Ortiz, a police spokesman.

Ortiz said one of those killed was in the cabin and the rest were stashed in the back of the truck. All had their eyes covered with bandages and were handcuffed with their feet tied.

Investigators recovered more than 50 bullet casings near the abandoned pickup.

Marcelo Garza, director of investigations for Nuevo Leon state, where General Bravo is located, said investigators found a message inside the truck. It said: "This is a message for those in the Gulf Cartel, traitorous pals."

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About 70 immigrants caught at checkpoint
Michael D. Hernandez
El Paso Times
Monday, March 27, 2006

A checkpoint near Cornudas, Texas, meant to catch motorists without driver's licenses or proof of insurance yielded the apprehension of about 70 undocumented immigrants during a 24-hour span that ended Sunday morning, sheriff's officials from Hudspeth and Culberson counties said.

Sheriff's deputies manning the checkpoint about 80 miles east of El Paso along US Highway 62-180 were overwhelmed by the high number of undocumented immigrants they found and turned over to Border Patrol, said Culberson County Sheriff Oscar Carrillo.

Carrillo said he and Hudspeth County Sheriff Arvin West conceived and implemented the checkpoint.

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Protesters build mock wall outside U.S. Embassy in Mexico to protest immigration bill
By Marco Ugarte
ASSOCIATED PRESS

MEXICO CITY – About 50 students used cardboard boxes to build a small wall in front of the gates of the U.S. Embassy here Sunday, protesting a proposed law that would extend fences along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The students, some waving Communist Party flags, covered their makeshift wall with anti-American graffiti and likenesses of Latin American leftist revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara. One poster showed a manipulated picture of U.S. President George W. Bush doing a Nazi salute under a swastika insignia.

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Study: Illegals land jobs, others pay
More American-born workers are unemployed
By Lilly Rockwell Cox News Service
Whittier Daily News

WASHINGTON - As Congress grapples with the question of how to design a guest-worker program for millions of illegal immigrants in the United States, a study shows that the number of illegal immigrants working is rising as more American-born workers are becoming unemployed.

Based on government labor statistics over the last five years, a report by the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors less immigration, found that employment of illegal immigrants with a high school diploma or less has grown as employment of Americans with the same credentials has dropped.

Steve Camarota, the author of the report, said illegal immigrants are gaining jobs in a competitive low-skilled labor market that Americans aren't.

"The people taking it on the chin are the people at the bottom," Camarota said.

As the number of immigrants in the U.S. work force grew by 3percent, or 1.5 million, the number of Americans who were unemployed or not in the labor force increased by 4 percent, or 2.6 million.

Industries like construction, farming and food preparation are increasingly becoming dominated by immigrant workers, leaving some American-born workers jobless, he said. The unemployment rate in those industries hovers around 11 percent, while the employment of illegal immigrants is around 18 percent.