News From the Border

Providing the news from a different front but from a war that we must win as well! I recognize the poverty and desperate conditions that many Latinos live in. We, as the USA, have a responsibility to do as much as we can to reach out to aid and assist spiritually with the Gospel and naturally with training, technology and resources. But poverty gives no one the right to break the laws of another sovereign nation.

Sunday, April 30, 2006

May Day Protests

Immigration Rights Advocates Plan 'Day Without Immigrants' Boycott (Fox News)

Fast Facts: Immigration Events

Mayday Walkout (Video)

Immigrant activitists call for legislative reform at prayer vigil

A Day Without Immigrants: Widespread actions expected

Some talk of blockade Monday at Andrade port

Scope of Immigrant Work Boycott Unclear

Activist plugs boycott support

Organizers change plans for May 1 demonstrations (Video)

Businesses prepare for boycott

Employers expecting workers to ignore stoppage, boycott

Boycott pits business against activists

Protests can widen divides

Mexican Standoff by Charlie Daniels

Mexicans, You Are Marching in the Wrong Country!

A Day Without Illegal Aliens Is a Boon to Taxpayers

California
prepares for boycott that could be historic or routine

Events Related to Day Without Immigrants


Citizens urged to shop Monday


Tyson to shutter plants over immigration protest


Cardinal urges Catholics to boycott May 1 immigration-related boycott

Illegal Alien Boycott May 1, 2006; Scheme Out of Gay and Lesbian Playbook



Friday, April 28, 2006

May 1st Fiasco

There is so much in the news regarding the May 1st protests that I am going to list them together just as headlines. -mm


May 1 protest should impact Yuma region

Commercial Port of Entry to be closed May 1st for fear of protests.

May 1st Immigrate boycott aims to "close" US cities.

Workplaces ready for day without immigrant staff.

California State Senate Supports Immigrant Walkout.

Latin hollywood actors back immigrant boycott.

Counter-protest: Don't eat meat on Monday.

Coalition advocates Tucson role in Monday immigration boycott

U.S. lobbyists warn Mexico of 'Nothing Gringo' backfire

Mexican lawmakers will travel to L.A. to support immigrant protests

Muslims to join pro-illegals protest in L.A.


Mexico is Key to U.S. Immigration Woes

By Jeffrey Young
Washington, D.C.

Jeffrey Young's Focus Report (MP3 2.68 MB) audio clip
Jeffrey Young's Focus Report (RA 912 KB) audio clip
Listen to Jeffrey Young's Focus Report (RA 912 KB) audio clip

Manuel Orozco, with a Washington-based research group called the Inter- American Dialogue, says that for decades Mexican migration has been a "safety valve," easing some of the pressure on the Mexican government to institute reforms as well as a way for people to escape substandard living conditions.

"The government cannot afford to take care of these people in terms of delivery of social and public goods. It is relieving the country of its inability to perform better economically, because the local economy cannot compete in the global economy, cannot generate enough wealth to keep people employed," says Orozco.

According to U.S. government figures, Mexico's population now stands at more than 107 million. Its gross domestic product is a little more than one trillion U.S. dollars, which amounts to about $10,000 per person. While Mexico's economy is considered strong compared to other Latin American countries, per-capita income is only a fourth of that of the United States. Forty percent of Mexico's population lives below the poverty line. So many Mexicans go to the United States to work and send money back home to their families.


The U.S. National Anthem in Spanish

Star-Spangled Banner -- in Spanish -- drawing protest, rage
By LAURA WIDES-MUNOZ
Associated Press

MIAMI -- British music producer Adam Kidron says he just wanted to honor the millions of immigrants seeking a better life in the U.S. when he came up with the idea of a Spanish-language version of the national anthem.

The initial version of Nuestro Himno, or Our Anthem comes out Friday and features artists such as Wyclef Jean, hip-hop star Pitbull and Puerto Rican singers Carlos Ponce and Olga Tanon.

Some Internet bloggers and others are infuriated by the thought of The Star-Spangled Banner sung in a language other than English, and the version of the song has already been the target of a fierce backlash.

``Would the French accept people singing the La Marseillaise in English as a sign of French patriotism? Of course not,'' said Mark Krikorian, head of the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank that supports tighter immigration controls.


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Bush Says Anthem Should Be in English
By JEANNINE AVERSA

WASHINGTON (AP) - The national anthem should be sung in English - not Spanish - President Bush declared Friday, amid growing restlessness over the millions of immigrants here illegally.

"One of the things that's very important is, when we debate this issue, that we not lose our national soul," the president exclaimed. "One of the great things about America is that we've been able to take people from all walks of life bound as one nation under God. And that's the challenge ahead of us."

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Listen to the audio and read the words in Spanish.


Mexico to decriminalize pot, cocaine and heroin

By Noel Randewich1 hour, 37 minutes ago

Possessing marijuana, cocaine and even heroin will no longer be a crime in Mexico if the drugs are carried in small amounts for personal use, under legislation passed by Congress.

The measure given final passage by senators in a late night session on Thursday allows police to focus on their battle against major drug dealers, the government says, and President Vicente Fox is expected to sign it into law.

"This law provides more judicial tools for authorities to fight crime," presidential spokesman Ruben Aguilar said on Friday. The measure was approved earlier by the lower house.

Under the legislation, police will not penalize people for possessing up to 5 grams of marijuana, 5 grams of opium, 25 milligrams of heroin or 500 milligrams of cocaine.


Thursday, April 27, 2006

Woman Uses Nail Clippers in Desert Birth
TUCSON, Ariz.

An 18-year-old woman who gave birth in the desert used nail clippers to cut her baby girl's umbilical cord before being rescued by U.S. Border Patrol agents, authorities said Wednesday.

The woman was spotted Monday night by a Border Patrol helicopter pilot about 25 miles north of the border, said Ron Bellavia, commander of the agency's search, trauma and rescue operations in the Tucson sector.

The woman, believed to be an illegal immigrant, was with two other people, and all appeared in distress, agents said. Her nationality was not immediately known.

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Measure would require agencies to divulge details of illegal workers
By Tim Funk and Liz Chandler
Knight Ridder Newspapers
Phot0 By Lauren Victoria Burke, AP

WASHINGTON - Congress is moving to knock down barriers that currently bar the IRS and Social Security Administration from sharing information that could help law enforcement identify illegal immigrants and the firms that employ them.

In the immigration legislation now in the Senate, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, has included a measure that allows the sharing of information with prosecutors on the most egregious examples of employers who send the two agencies inaccurate Social Security numbers for their workers.

Grassley described the protection of taxpayer information "a cornerstone of our voluntary tax system," but he said that the IRS could share selected information that wouldn't violate the privacy protections Americans expect.

On Wednesday, Rep. Sue Myrick, R-N.C., announced plans to introduce bills requiring Social Security to notify immigration officials - and any American citizens affected - whenever more than one person uses the same Social Security number.

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U.S. firms say Mexico boycott could backfire
‘This is like shooting oneself in the foot,’ business group says of campaign
The Associated Press

MEXICO CITY - U.S. lobbyists lashed out Wednesday at the Mexican "Nothing Gringo" campaign timed for May 1 to coincide with the "Day Without Immigrants" boycott in the United States.

The American Chamber of Commerce in Mexico said organizers are risking a backlash and foolishly targeting some of their best allies, since U.S. corporations have actively lobbied the U.S. Congress for immigration reform including legalization for many of the estimated 11 million undocumented migrants.

Mexicans' refusal to "buy American" on May 1 could further polarize the debate and make reform supporters seem anti-American at the very moment that lobbyists are trying to persuade lawmakers in Washington to pass a bill that would benefit migrants, worries Larry Rubin, the chamber's president.

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Schwarzenegger Calls On Californians To Ignore Protest

LOS ANGELES -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is calling on immigrants and supporters to ignore the call to protest a proposed limited-immigration bill that would criminalize undocumented workers by staying home from work and boycotting businesses on Monday, May 1.

Video

"No work, no school, no selling, no buying" is the call to action for Monday -- which is being billed by organizers as "The Great American Boycott" and "a day without an immigrant," but Schwarzenegger said he believes it's a bad idea.

"I don't see the upside .. I only see downside," Schwarzenegger said. "So therefore I strongly recommend to everyone to go and continue working."

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Extremists Declare 'Open Season' on Immigrants: Hispanics Target of Incitement and Violence.

As the public debate over immigration reform has taken center-stage in American politics and public life, white supremacists, neo-Nazis and other racists have declared "open season" on immigrants and attempted to co-opt and exploit the controversy by focusing their efforts -- and their anger -- on the minority group at the center of the controversy: Hispanics.

As a result, to a level unprecedented in recent years, America's Latino immigrant population has become the primary focus of hateful and racist rhetoric and extreme violence -- aided, abetted and encouraged by America's white supremacist and racist haters.

Spurred in recent weeks by the debate on Capitol Hill and the groundswell of grassroots activism in support of America's immigrant community, extremists have become increasingly emboldened by, and fixated on, the controversy over immigration policy, encouraging their supporters to capitalize on the issue by encouraging anti-immigrant activism, and even violence against all Hispanics.

This is deplorable! The debate over illegal immigration is not a racist issue. It is a matter of law, of security, of the sovereignty of these United States. If Canadians or Europeans or Australians or Indonesians or Laotians were streaming illegally across our borders in the numbers that the Latinos are, the reaction would be the same. These hate groups only serve to give validity to claims of those who "play the race card". It is not about race. It is about law and soverneignty. It is about our right to decide who does and does not come into our country and under what circumstances. No foreign country or person has the right to demand otherwise no matter what their genetic origin! -mm

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Senate OKs $2 billion to stop illegals
By Charles Hurt
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

The Senate yesterday approved immediately spending nearly $2 billion to stop illegal immigration, the largest such infusion of emergency cash for the effort in recent years.

Nearly every member of the Senate voted in favor of the new spending, but Democrats and Republicans split over whether to find cuts elsewhere in the massive spending bill to offset the border security expenditures. Republicans ultimately prevailed and roughly 3 percent will be cut from defense spending contained in the same bill.

"Porous borders are a threat to our national security, and the Senate has acted today to provide vital funding that will increase our border defenses," Majority Leader Bill Frist, Tennessee Republican, said after the vote.

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Smuggler once more convicted of murder
Illegal immigrants died in 2003 crash
By Jose Luis Jiménez
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

VISTA – An immigrant smuggler was convicted yesterday of second-degree murder for killing three illegal immigrants in a high-speed crash while fleeing the California Highway Patrol near Borrego Springs.

Antonio Sanchez, 30, showed no reaction to the verdict, which marked the second time a jury has found him guilty of murder for the deaths stemming from the June 26, 2003, accident. An appellate court overturned the original murder convictions after the state Supreme Court changed the law under which Sanchez was first found guilty.

Shortly after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border near El Centro, Sanchez was driving a Ford LTD on state Route 78 near Borrego Springs when he saw a CHP officer. Sanchez sped away, lost control on a curve while driving an estimated 80 mph and collided with a car coming from the opposite direction, according to testimony.

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10 Guatemalan migrants en route to United States die in Mexico truck crash
ASSOCIATED PRESS

RAUDALES MALPASO, Mexico – A speeding truck loaded with Guatemalan migrants en route to the United States collided head-on Wednesday with another truck in southern Mexico, killing 10 migrants and injuring 16, authorities said.

Eighty Guatemalans were packed inside the truck at the time of the collision on a bridge in Raudales Malpaso, about 60 miles northeast of Tuxtla Gutierrez, said Martin Rabanales, a spokesman for the state of Chiapas, which borders Guatemala.

The truck carrying the migrants was traveling at 87 mph in a 50 mph zone and the truck driver was inexperienced, Rabanales said.


Wednesday, April 26, 2006

US agriculture and immigration tied in a knot
By Christine Stebbins
Reuters

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Agribusiness is warning Americans that the $12 trillion U.S. economy could be forced to go on an expensive diet if immigrant workers are restricted.

Immigrants have flooded into many industries for what President George W. Bush calls "the jobs Americans don't want." Agriculture is a prime area where mostly Mexican immigrants have sent down roots so strong that companies may no longer be able to operate without them.

"To find and deport workers who are in the country right now would throw a wrench into the economy of the United States that would leave people in disbelief," said Dave Ray, spokesman for the American Meat Institute, which represents beef and pork companies.

"What makes food so cheap in the United States is because we do things efficiently and if you wiped out that efficiency by creating an unnecessary labor shortage, it essentially will foist a high food price on to consumers," Ray said.

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Border drone crashes near Tubac
The Associated Press

An unmanned aerial drone used to help Border Patrol agents find smugglers and illegal immigrants crossing the border crashed Tuesday in southern Arizona, authorities said.

Operators lost contact with the $6.5 million Predator B drone about 3 a.m. Mountain time. A government helicopter found the crash site about three hours later, said Michael Friel, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Washington.

Friel said officials didn't know the extent of the damage done to the drone. The cause of the crash also remained under investigation.

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Official escapes injury in attack in Mexicali
FROM STAFF AND AP REPORTS

The man who oversees the police forces of Baja California state escaped injury in Mexicali Tuesday when at least 10 assailants fired on and threw grenades at the convoy carrying him.

The attack, plus the killing of a police officer in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, were the latest in a series of incidents that have revealed the depth of violence in parts of Mexico. Investigators say most of the bloodshed is caused by drug gangs who are battling for control of lucrative smuggling routes into the United States.

But Gerardo Carranza, the director of federal Attorney General's office in San Luis Rio Colorado, Son., said attacks against officers in that city are rare, and that organized crime is not a problem as it is in other parts of Mexico.

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Heroin, meth seized at San Luis port
FROM STAFF REPORTS

A 30-year-old man from San Luis Rio Colorado, Son., is in custody on suspicion of drug smuggling after a narcotics detection dog sniffed out heroin and methamphetamine in the vehicle he was driving across the border Monday morning.

Four pounds of heroin and 3 pounds of methamphetamine was seized from the vehicle by Customs and Border Protection Officers at the U.S. Port of Entry at San Luis, Ariz., the CBP said in a news release. The street value of the drugs was estimated at $535,000.

The drugs were found in a hidden compartment above the rear tires after Reno, the dog, picked up the scent of narcotics in the 1993 Mazda that the unidentified man was driving.

He was arrested and turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents for further investigation.

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Bush and Senate near illegal-immigrant deal
By Dave Montgomery
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS

WASHINGTON — President Bush delivered a breakthrough Tuesday in on-again, off-again efforts to push comprehensive immigration legislation through Congress this year, Senate leaders said following a White House meeting with the president.

Bush met with a bipartisan group of more than a dozen senators for an hour and went further than ever before in embracing the core ingredients of a sweeping bill that would grant citizenship to millions of illegal workers, participants said.

With Bush's stance, the senators expressed confidence that the compromise will pass the Senate by the end of May. Hard work lies ahead after that, however, in reconciling the Senate version with a tough border-enforcement-only bill passed in December by the House of Representatives.

In a statement issued after he'd met the senators, Bush said: "I strongly believe that we have a chance to get an immigration bill that is comprehensive in nature to my desk before the end of this year."

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Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Border Patrol pot busts up 110 percent from last year
BY BLAKE SCHMIDT, SUN STAFF WRITER

In separate pot busts this weekend that mirrored each other, Yuma sector Border Patrol agents seized more than $2 million worth of marijuana, according to a U.S. Border Patrol news release.

The patrol said the two busts were some of the largest seizures in what is shaping up to be a record-setting year for pot seizures in the Yuma sector.

Halfway into the fiscal year that started Oct. 1, Yuma sector agents have seized 27,658 pounds of marijuana valued at more than $22 million, which is more pot than was seized in the sector in all of 2004, and a 110-percent increase over seizures in the same time last year.

In both cases this weekend, smugglers drove across the Colorado River from Baja California, saw Border Patrol agents, abandoned their pot-loaded pickup trucks and fled back into Mexico on foot.

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Agents nab suspected DVD smuggler
BY BLAKE SCHMIDT, SUN STAFF WRITER

Apparently, it's not just drugs and people that are being smuggled into the United States.

Yuma sector Border Patrol agents on Sunday arrested an illegal alien who allegedly was trying to smuggle pirated DVDs through a highway checkpoint.

Agents stopped a man driving a Toyota at the Interstate 8 checkpoint east of Yuma Sunday at about noon, and found that he was an illegal alien from Mexico, according to a Border Patrol news release.

Upon searching his car, agents found a box of 90 pirated DVDs, the release said.

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Bush: Deporting won't work
By Bob Keefe
COX NEWS SERVICE
Photo by Jebb Harris / Orange County Register

IRVINE, Calif. — With Congress preparing to renew its debate on comprehensive immigration reform, President Bush on Monday denounced calls to deport the nearly 12 million immigrants already in the country illegally.

"Massive deportation of the people here is unrealistic," Bush said above the sound of protesters chanting outside the hotel where he was speaking. "You can hear people out there hollering it's going to work … but it's not going to work."

Bush said he favored both strengthening the borders and creating a guest-worker program that would let illegal immigrants who have been here for more than five years remain in their jobs and gain citizenship, as a Senate bill proposes.

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31 migrants caught this weekend
Louie Gilot
El Paso Times

On Friday night, El Paso police called the Border Patrol with a tip from an anonymous caller who suspected undocumented immigrants at a house in the 10200 block of Kellogg Street. Border Patrol agents went to the house and found 16 migrants, 15 from Guatemala and one from Honduras.

"All are being processed and will be removed to their native countries," Border Patrol spokesman Doug Mosier said.

Then Sunday morning, sheriff's deputies followed a tip from an anonymous caller and visited the Cotton Valley Motel at 1590 Clint Cutoff Road. They found 15 undocumented immigrants, including three women.

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Banning Patriotism
By Aaron Hanscom
FrontPageMagazine.com | April 25, 2006

But why should students in America feel threatened or insulted by the display of the American flag? After all, they pledge allegiance to it at the start of each school day. The reason seems to have something to do with American educators’ unwillingness to offend the sensitivities of Hispanic students. Conversely, these educators see nothing amiss with encouraging Mexican pride. For instance, upcoming Cinco de Mayo celebrations in schools around the country will feature children dressed in the Mexican colors of red, white and green. Parents were notified of them with letters home written in Spanish.

Unfortunately, such efforts to promote “multiculturalism” often have an adverse impact on the minority students they are intended to benefit. Elementary school students in the largely Hispanic schools in Los Angeles, where I am a substitute teacher, cannot hum “America the Beautiful” or even distinguish between George Washington and George Bush. Yet they have no problem knowing why some schools are named after union icon Caesar Chavez. By contrast, Hispanic students who gain an appreciation of America are less likely to harbor resentment over its imperfections and to romanticize the countries from which their parents and grandparents sought refuge.

To encourage American pride, however, is to encourage assimilation -- and assimilation has become a dirty word in American education.

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Pew Hispanic Center Fact Sheet

The Labor Force Status of Short-Term Unauthorized Workers

Download the complete factsheet

In order to better understand the impact of some proposals before Congress, this fact sheet examines the labor force status of unauthorized workers who have been in the country for five years or less. These short-term illegal migrants would not be eligible for a legalization program under some proposals. Estimates based on the March 2005 Current Population Survey show that 2.5 million unauthorized workers arrived in the country between 2000 and 2005, accounting for just under 2% of the U.S. labor force. More than half of them are employed in construction and service occupations where they make up a larger share of the labor force. For example, short-term unauthorized workers make up about 10% of all persons employed in food preparation and service. This fact sheet provides estimates of the number of short-term unauthorized workers by industry and occupation as well as their weekly earnings and unemployment rate.

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From the National Border Patrol Council

Patrolling Chaos.

An insightful portrayal of life in the U.S. Border Patrol in Deep South Texas. Sociologist Robert Lee Maril rode with agents from the McAllen Border Patrol Station for two years, and details these experiences in a manner that captures and holds your attention. He concludes with a number of recommendations for improving the Border Patrol's ability to accomplish its mission, as well as for attracting and retaining highly-qualified employees.

Read an Excerpt From the Book Here




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As Guest Worker Amnesty Looms—Remember The GAO Fraud Report!
By Juan Mann

[Also by Juan Mann: 03/27/06 - Do Reconquistas Already Run Federal Immigration Bureaucracy?]

Another illegal alien amnesty looms on the political horizon. But as long as the Department of Homeland Security’s Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) division administers it, an immigration benefit fraud free-for-all will certainly result.

Why do I make such harsh judgment?

Look no further than the staggeringly comprehensive Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released in March—IMMIGRATION BENEFITS: Additional Controls and Sanctions Strategy Could Enhance DHS’s Ability to Control Benefit Fraud (GAO-06-259) [PDF].

The Treason Lobby and its handmaidens in the Senate of the Untied States would rather have this report seized and burned than allow it to ever see the light of day in the mainstream media, which hasn’t reported it at all.

But here at VDARE.com, the GAO report is still right on the front burner.

So to review, here’s what the GAO wrote about the agency that will be charged with passing out millions of uninvited “guest worker” cards sometime in the future, if the Treason Lobby carries the day.

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Statewide ICE operation nets 183 fugitives and immigration violators
43 felons among the arrested including a citizen of Guatemala who molested a three-year-old child

MIAMI- Fugitives and immigration violators were among 183 arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention and removal officers and special agents during a weeklong statewide operation that culminated Friday.

The operation was spearheaded by ICE Fugitive Operations teams in Miami, Tampa, Jacksonville and Orlando. The arrests are part of an ICE ongoing effort to identify and arrest those who pose a threat to our community and who have no legal right to remain in the country. Among the arrested were 130 fugitive criminal aliens that were ordered removed by a federal immigration judge but failed to comply with their lawful orders. Some of the fugitives have been in hiding evading law enforcement for years.

The remaining 53 arrested were illegal aliens amenable to removal from the United States. All have been charged administratively for being in violation of immigration laws.


Monday, April 24, 2006

Illegal aliens robbed after crossing border
FROM STAFF REPORTS

Four illegal aliens who had just crossed into the United States were robbed at gunpoint Saturday night in an area that has seen many similar incidents.

The Yuma County Sheriff’s Office said that three adults and one juvenile reported that their money and personal effects were stolen by three suspects with handguns at 11 p.m. at County 18-1/2 Street and the Colorado River.

The four aliens were apprehended later by U.S. Border Patrol agents and reported the thefts. YCSO said that the four had crossed the border together and were not part of a larger group.

The three suspects ran back to Mexico after the robbery. YCSO provided no description of the suspects.

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Frist will try again for immigration bill
David Espo
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Majority Leader Bill Frist intends to seek Senate passage of immigration legislation by Memorial Day, hoping to revive a bill that would tighten border security and give millions of undocumented immigrants a chance at citizenship, Republican leadership aides said Friday.

In a gesture to conservative critics of the measure, Frist and other Republicans also intend to seek roughly $2 billion in immediate additional spending for border protection.

The aides said the money would allow for training of Border Patrol agents, construction of detention facilities for immigrants caught entering the country illegally, the purchase of helicopters and surveillance aircraft, and construction of a fence in high-traffic areas.

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2 agencies hold data that could indict entrants
But IRS, Social Security won't aid prosecutors
By Liz Chandler
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS

WASHINGTON — Two federal agencies are refusing to turn over a mountain of evidence that investigators could use to indict the nation's burgeoning work force of illegal immigrants and the firms that employ them.

Last week, immigration cops trumpeted the arrests of nearly 1,200 illegal workers in a massive sting on a single company, but they admit that they relied on old-fashioned confidential informants and an unsolicited tip to get their investigation going.

It didn't have to be that hard.

The IRS and the Social Security Administration routinely collect strong evidence of potential workplace crimes, including names and addresses of millions of people who are using bogus Social Security numbers, their wage records and the identities of the bosses who knowingly hire them.

But they keep those facts secret.

"If the government bothered to look, it could find abundant evidence of illegal aliens' gaming our system and the unscrupulous employers who are aiding and abetting them," said Rep. J.D. Hayworth, R-Ariz.

The two agencies don't analyze their data to root out likely immigration fraud — and they won't share their millions of records so that law enforcement agencies can do that, either.

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U.S. Custom and Border Protection Newsletter

Frontline April 2006

In this issue...

1. 911 call leads CBP Border Patrol agents to the rescue

2. Migrants found in secret compartment

3. CBP officers seize 558 pounds of marijuana

4. Stolen vehicle recovered; criminal apprehended

5. OFO newsbytes

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The Immigration Wars
By William R. Hawkins
FrontPageMagazine.com | April 24, 2006

Conservative talk radio made much of all the foreign flags being waved during the first round of pro-illegal alien demonstrations in March. So when protests were staged in Washington April 10, organizers distributed thousands of American flags and warned activists not to wave the standards of Mexico or El Salvador. CASA of Maryland distributed many of these new false flags. CASA was founded in 1985 by mostly El Salvadoran leftists fleeing from the anti-communist government supported by the Reagan administration during the civil wars in Central America.

The effort to change the image of the April protest was only partially successful. The first demonstrator I encountered outside my office was holding an American flag, but was wearing a Che Guevara T-shirt. Since he had presumably dressed himself, his decision to glorify the communist revolutionary was more indicative of his outlook than the flag given to him for PR purposes.

Some demonstrators have raised the issue of "La Reconquista" of the American Southwest by Mexican immigrants. This is most often expressed in signs that read "we didn't cross the border, the border crossed us." It is taught in Mexican schools that what are now the states of Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, California , and Utah, along with parts of Colorado and Wyoming, were "stolen" from Mexico between 1836 and 1848 by American imperialists and will one day be regained. Ironically, the revolt that won Texas independence was staged by colonists and "guest workers" originally invited into the territory by the Mexican government. But the threat to American independence is not limited to the Southwest, as illegals do not all stay in the border areas. They spread out across the United States. Thus, the political aim of those mobilizing the immigrants is to take national power in Washington and change the course of American destiny.

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The UN's "Borderless" World
By Joseph Klein
FrontPageMagazine.com | April 24, 2006

While pro-immigrant rallies get most of the attention from the mainstream press, many law-abiding American citizens are fed up with the reality of tens of thousands of foreign nationals every few weeks continuing to enter this country illegally through our porous borders, added to the more than 11 million illegal aliens who are already here. Americans are bearing a grossly disproportionate share of the security risks and economic costs associated with such migration, which makes it a national problem for Americans to solve through their elected representatives and through voluntary groups like the Minuteman Project.

Citizens are demanding that their government ensure effective protection at the borders against more illegal entrants, who at the very least will become tax burdens on the American people and could pose a much more serious security threat. Congress and the President must decide what to do about this mounting problem, consistent with the tenets of the U.S. Constitution. Our democratic institutions can and must handle this situation without any outside interference.

The United Nations sees the matter differently.

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As U.S. struggles with migration, Mexicans see it as inevitable part of life
By Mark Stevenson
ASSOCIATED PRESS

ATOTONILCO, Mexico – They name their babies Johnny and Leslie, so certain are they that their kids' future lies in the United States. Returning migrants sprinkle English into their speech as they talk knowingly about job markets in U.S. towns.

America may want to stop illegal immigration, but most Mexicans accept it as a fact of life they can't imagine changing.

Mexico's economy, society and political system are built around the assumption that migration and amnesties for undocumented migrants will continue – and that the $20 billion they send home every year will keep coming, and almost certainly grow.

In fact, the government is counting on continued cash from a Mexican-born U.S. population it predicts will rise from 11 million to between 17.9 million and 20.4 million by 2030.

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Specter: Immigration Bill Possible in '06
The Associated Press WASHINGTON -- The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said Sunday he believes Congress will be able to work out differences and pass an election-year immigration bill, calling reform too important to neglect.

"I think the committee bill which got to the floor has the key ingredients of a successful bill," said Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., who has pledged to have legislation ready for debate soon after lawmakers return Monday from their two-week recess.

Specter noted that the Senate bill is aimed at protecting the borders, regulating the flow into the country of so-called guest workers and determining the legal future of the 11 million illegal immigrants already here.

"I think that there has to be an agreement between Democrats and Republicans on a list of amendments," he said. "And it would be a tough conference, candidly, with the House, but we were able to work through the Patriot Act although there were big disagreements."

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Black Activists Join To March With Minutemen

(CBS) LOS ANGELES Several black activists plan to join members of the Minutemen Project to protest illegal immigration, which organizer Ted Hayes touted as the “biggest threat to blacks in America since slavery.”

The protest, organized by Hayes’ Crispus Attucks Brigade and the American Black Citizens Opposed to Illegal Immigration Invasion, is scheduled to start at 1 p.m.

Hayes, a homeless activist, alleged that most homeless people in Los Angeles are black and illegal immigration compounds the problem since blacks refuse to accept the “slave wages” that many illegal immigrants accept.

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Border Bound
Cari Hammerstrom
Monitor Staff Writer
Photo by Nathan Lambrecht/The Monitor

It is Jan. 26, and Silva and the Marshals are aboard a Mexican repatriation flight, along with 29 other illegal immigrants who had been previously held at a Florida detention center.

Two to four times a week, solid-white Boeing 727s with no identifying insignia holding anywhere from 30 to up to 120 undocumented Mexican immigrants touch down at Valley International Airport. Their pilots carry out part of one of the most vital, yet misunderstood and invisible, components of this nation’s divisive struggle against illegal immigration — a process known as “removal.”

It is a complex system of diplomatic accords involving would-be immigrants with their own stories to tell and tweaks in U.S. immigration policy.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, deported more than 162,000 illegal immigrants of all nationalities during fiscal year 2005, including 83,000 criminals.

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Execution Delayed for "Railroad Killer"

HOUSTON (AP) -- Next month's scheduled execution of a Mexican drifter dubbed the "Railroad Killer" has been delayed to allow more psychiatric testing.

Maturino Resendiz was condemned for the 1998 murder of 39-year-old Doctor Claudia Benton, who was raped, stabbed and beaten in her Houston-area home. He was linked to 14 slayings in Texas, California, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky and Illinois near the rail lines he rode nationwide and has claimed still more killings.


Sunday, April 23, 2006

Border battler
New York Daily News

Apart from a well-chosen warning about criminalizing Jesus, Sen. Hillary Clinton hasn't waded too deeply into the details of the immigration mess. Until now.

In an interview Friday, she cited specific goals that could, and hopefully will, become the heart of bipartisan legislation that might actually fix this national crisis.

A fence or a wall? She's for it.

A two-step process, where our borders are secured before the 11 million illegal immigrants already here begin to get legalized? She's for that, too.

The sudden crackdown by Washington on employers who hire illegal immigrants? She welcomes it.

The work and school boycott advocacy groups are planning for May 1? She's against it.


Saturday, April 22, 2006

Migrant tally called misleading
Experts: Apprehension numbers aside, most entrants make it in
By Brady McCombs
ARIZONA DAILY STAR

In late February, Border Patrol agents apprehended and deported Roberto Robledo Sandoval after finding him with others inside a drop house in Mesa.

Robledo Sandoval, 45, called the experience — armed men kept them in the house waiting for family members in Mexico to wire more money — the worst nightmare of his life.

Nonetheless, after Border Patrol agents dropped him off the border in Nogales, he found another coyote — a people smuggler — and tried again the next day. A couple of days later, while walking in the Altar Valley southwest of Tucson, Border Patrol agents caught him again.

His story is a common one among the estimated 500,000 illegal entrants who make their way into the country each year, said Princeton professor Douglas Massey. He said research suggests that apprehensions don't stop migrants but rather force them to try repeatedly until they make it.

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Speaker says ‘modern-day slavery’ rife along border
BY BLAKE SCHMIDT, SUN STAFF WRITER

They're just prostitutes.

That's the impression that many people have of Norma Hotaling's clients, she said.

The executive director of Standing Against Global Exploitation, a nonprofit group dedicated to treating victims of commercial sexual exploitation and raising awareness of sex trafficking, Hotaling was the victim of sex trafficking as a child, she said.

"(Human trafficking) exists everywhere, it's sad to think that way, but it does," said Margie Dallabetta, the president of the Soroptimists International of Yuma.

Marisa Ugarte, who has developed social service programs in Tijuana, Baja Calif., said human "trafficking" is different than smuggling.

With smuggling, the relationship between a human smuggler and the immigrant consists of a monetary transaction, which ends when the immigrant reaches a destination.

With trafficking, the transaction does not end at the border. She said victims of trafficking are essentially victims of "modern-day slavery," which can involve abduction, sexual exploitation, and the buying and selling of people.

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Help on border, Mexico told
Restrict perilous crossings, report urges
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

MEXICO CITY — An immigration study partly funded by the Mexican government recommended Friday that Mexico bar its citizens from the most dangerous illegal border crossings.

The recommendations from the joint report by U.S. and Mexican immigration experts run counter to Mexico's long-standing claim that it cannot prevent its own citizens from massing at the border, because the constitution guarantees freedom of movement.

But Assistant Foreign Relations Secretary Geronimo Gutierrez said his country was willing to consider the recommendation that "restricted-access zones should be established in dangerous areas."

"It's no secret this topic has been taboo in Mexican politics," Gutierrez said at a news conference presenting the report.

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U.S. targets business in new entrant plan
By Brady McCombs

ARIZONA DAILY STAR

The government unveiled a new plan for interior immigration enforcement Thursday that places the target squarely on employers' backs.

"Employers are now the bad guys," said Demetrios Papademetriou, president of the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington-based think tank that studies international migration. "Which means we have created an environment that if we pass new legislation it will be much tougher on employers than anything we've ever had in the United States."

The Department of Homeland Security plan — phase two of the Secure Border Initiative that first concentrated on border control — reads like a to-do list for a country struggling with illegal immigration:

● Crack down on employers who knowingly hire illegal entrants and eliminate the workers' use of fraudulent Social Security numbers.

● Target and dismantle human-smuggling organizations that traffic in illegal entrants.

● Identify and deport known illegal-entrant criminals, fugitives and immigration violators.

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Department of Homeland Security unveils comprehensive immigration enforcement strategy for the nation’s interior
WASHINGTON, D.C.

The interior enforcement strategy will complement the Department’s border security efforts by expanding existing efforts to target employers of illegal aliens and immigration violators inside this country, as well as the many criminal networks that support these activities. The primary objectives are to reverse the tolerance of illegal employment and illegal immigration in the United States. To meet these objectives, the strategy sets out three primary goals or courses of action that will be carried out simultaneously:

• The first is to identify and remove criminal aliens, immigration fugitives and other immigration violators from this country.

• The second is to build strong worksite enforcement and compliance programs to deter illegal employment in this country.

• The third is to uproot the criminal infrastructures at home and abroad that support illegal immigration, including human smuggling / trafficking organizations and document / benefit fraud organizations.

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'Coyotes' do business in the open in Mexico
By Julie Watson
ASSOCIATED PRESS

MEXICO CITY – Sidling up to migrants who arrive at the Tijuana airport and cruising the streets in border towns, “coyotes” in gold chains and dark sunglasses openly find customers for nightly scrambles across the U.S. border.

Mexico's president offered to crack down on smuggling at a recent summit with President Bush. But close to 100 smuggling gangs are still operating, government officials say, in plain sight of Mexican law enforcement.

“While drug smugglers are invisible for the most part, people smugglers are visible, working right in front of authorities,” said Tijuana border expert Victor Clark, who has studied the illegal trade for decades.

Smuggling people into the United States from around the world has become a $10 billion-a-year industry, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. Global crime networks use Mexican smugglers to sneak in Cubans, Brazilians, Iraqis, Africans and Chinese, according to Interpol, the international police network.

Border experts say the price for Mexican migrants has quadrupled from $300 to more than $1,200 since 1994, when the U.S. last tightened the rules. The price is higher for migrants from Central and South America – Brazilians said they pay $10,000 to $15,000 for a package that includes airfare to Mexico City and crossing the border into the U.S.

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In Acapulco, heads of police officials found in front of government building
By Natalia Parra
ASSOCIATED PRESS

ACAPULCO, Mexico – The decapitated heads of two police officials were found early Thursday dumped in front of a government building in this Pacific coast resort, authorities said.

The heads of police commander Mario Nunez Magana and officer Jesus Alberto Ibarra were found at the same site where four drug traffickers died during a shootout with law enforcement. The heads of the two – who were involved in the Jan. 27 shootout – were accompanied by sign that warned, “So that you learn to respect.”

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Hispanic leaders split over boycott tactics
Mexican government calls meeting with Latinos, expected to urge U.S. leaders to reconsider May 1

Latino organizers of a May 1 economic boycott in the U.S. remain confident participation will be high, but factionalism has developed over planned tactics and, now, the government of Mexico is interjecting itself in what some see as an attempt to derail the protest altogether.

The boycott, announced in the wake of congressional debate on immigration reform that included making presence in the U.S. illegally a felony, was originally planned as a day on which Latinos and immigrants would refrain from spending. It garnered support from many labor and church leaders in the border states.


Thursday, April 20, 2006

Immigration arrests 9 bosses along with 1,000 workers
Strategy to focus more on companies that employ illegal workers
From Terry Frieden and Mike M. Ahlers
CNN Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Federal immigration authorities arrested nine people linked to the firm IFCO Systems and rounded up more than 1,000 illegal immigrants in multistate raids, federal law enforcement officials said.

Among those arrested and charged in connection with the employment of immigrants are seven current and former managers and two lower-level employees of the company, said U.S. Attorney Glenn Suddaby.

The operation came as Bush administration officials and a federal prosecutor plan a new strategy aimed at companies that employ illegal immigrants. IFCO is an industry leader in the manufacture of wooden pallets, crates and containers. The criminal complaint involving IFCO charges the seven managers with conspiracy to transport, harbor, and employ illegal immigrants for private gain. (Watch the young woman whose boyfriend got hauled in -- 1:06)

Federal authorities checked a sample of 5,800 IFCO employee records last year and found that 53 percent had faulty Social Security numbers, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official said.(Watch how bosses allegedly helped workers fake records -- 1:25)

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Minutemen to Bush: Build fence or we will
By ARTHUR H. ROTSTEIN
Associated Press Writer
AP Photo/GREGORY BULL

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) -- Minuteman border watch leader Chris Simcox has a message for President Bush: Build new security fencing along the border with Mexico or private citizens will.

Simcox said Wednesday that he's sending an ultimatum to the president, through the media, of course - "You can't get through to the president any other way" - to deploy military reserves and the National Guard to the Arizona border by May 25.

Or, Simcox said, by the Memorial Day weekend Minuteman Civil Defense Corps volunteers and supporters will break ground to start erecting fencing privately.

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Mexican Consulate criticizes sheriff's role in arrests
Louie Gilot
El Paso Times

The immigration raid that found 26 undocumented immigrants at a far East quarry Monday was conducted by El Paso sheriff's deputies, prompting officials at the Mexican Consulate in El Paso to complain that the agency has been overstepping its duties.

Consulate spokeswoman Socorro Cordova said her office has talked to Sheriff Leo Samaniego on two occasions, asking him not to intervene in immigration matters.

"It's the sixth incident, counting the raids on hotels and motels," she said, referring to the detention last month of 57 undocumented immigrants in Downtown hotels. In February, the Sheriff's Office boasted the arrest of 229 undocumented immigrants at motels in the county and at other locations.

What gives the Mexican government the right to tell US Law Enforcement what it can and cannot do? -mm

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Chertoff downplays Mexican military incursions
Homeland Security chief insists reports of past 10 years 'overblown'
World Net Daily

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff downplayed reports by the U.S. Border Patrol of more than 200 incursions by the Mexican military over the last 10 years, calling them "scare tactics."

While acknowledging the Border Patrol reports of crossings by uniformed troops, Chertoff told reporters in Washington yesterday he believes many of the incursions could have been innocent mistakes, according to the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin in Ontario, Calif.

"I think the stories are overblown," Chertoff said. "I asked the chief of the Border Patrol about it. The number has not increased; in fact, it had decreased a little bit."

In some cases, Chertoff suggested, it could be a matter of Mexican authorities crossing where the dividing line is unclear or criminals in camouflage are mistaken for soldiers.

T.J. Bonner, the president of the National Border Patrol Council, asserted Chertoff is uninformed.

"Were he to go out there on actual patrol with Border Patrol agents ... and experience what we experience – where you encounter a group of highly trained, very well-armed Mexican soldiers coming across our border, and your closest backup is an hour or more away – I think he would be a lot more concerned about it," he told the Ontario newspaper.

Some Border Patrol agents contend Mexican military officers have been colluding with drug-smuggling cartels.

Mr. Secretary. you are either trying to be politically correct, afraid to face the issues, naive, misinformed or a coward. -mm

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Nevada senator studies immigration in Yuma area
BY JEFFREY GAUTREAUX, SUN STAFF WRITER
PHOTO BY TERRY KETRON/THE SUN

A Nevada senator who came to Yuma to get an up-close look at the situation along the southern border said providing a path to citizenship should not be included in any new immigration reform plan Congress considers.

U.S. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., toured the operations at the Yuma sector Border Patrol Wednesday with a focus on advancing technologies being used by agents in the field. He said resources are stretched thin and will only get thinner if immigration reform rewards illegal aliens through anything approaching amnesty.

"If you offer amnesty, you'll have a flood," he said. "And we're finding that about 10 percent of those who are captured have a criminal record."