Horse Trailer Carrying Dozens Of Illegal Immigrants Crashes
By Jim Becker and Dan Marries KOLD News 13 Reporter

Customers and workers at shops along Ajo near Mission thought animals might have been hurt.

It was natural for them to feel this way. After all, it was a 12' X 8' horse trailer they saw crash into a light pole, one designed to transport two horses at a time.

Suddenly, they saw heads popping out of the trailer, and they weren't horses heads.

"They started running out of the trailer," said Brenda Collins, who was working at a dog grooming shop. "They wanted to come in. We held the door and locked the doors, and they were just running everywhere."

Agents from US Customs and Border Protection say there were a total of 42 illegal immigrants inside the trailer. Witnesses say there may have been as many as 60.

In any event, those who could run did, and the border patrol believes it caught all of them.

There were also 12 injured inside the trailer who couldn't run. They were hospitalized, their injuries, non life-threatening, according to border patrol spokespersons.

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Ban on U.S., Mexican flags spurs protest at Skyline
100 at Longmont high school walk out over policy
By Bill Scanlon, Rocky Mountain News

LONGMONT - Skyline High School students walked out of class Friday morning to protest the school administration's new policy banning the carrying or wearing of American and Mexican flags.

Most of the 100 students were protesting that American flags were included in the ban. Many of them were unclear about the policy, thinking that only American flags were banned, when in fact the ban covers the flags of both countries.

The ban likely will be short-lived, lasting only as long as it takes for tempers to cool in the wake of Congress debating a contentious immigration bill, principal Tom Stumpf said.

"The flags no longer were being used as symbols of patriotism or of cultural heritage, but of ethnic intimidation, harassment and blatant bigotry," Stumpf said.

The American flag still flies on the flagpole in front of the school in east Longmont, and each classroom has an American flag. But tensions between Hispanics and non-Hispanics were building, Stumpf said, and the flags were being used as the wrong kinds of symbols.

Lowest common denominator governing once again! Don't deal with the issues correctly, just eliminate the symptoms! -mm

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Chasm among US lawmakers over immigration bill
Sun Apr 2, 2006 1:00 PM ET
By Mark Felsenthal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers clashed on Sunday over whether to let some illegal immigrants stay in the United States and work for citizenship, suggesting compromise may elude Congress on a politically sensitive issue.

"There's a chasm between the House and the Senate," Illinois Democratic Sen. Richard Durbin said on CBS's "Face the Nation."

The Senate is debating a bill that would tighten security along the Mexican border, create a temporary "guest-worker" program, and could create a process for some of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States to become citizens.

The immigration issue has taken on heightened importance ahead of November congressional elections and poses a dilemma for U.S. President George W. Bush, who wants Congress to approve a guest-worker program despite strong opposition from within his own Republican Party.