Immigration tensions spark flag-burning in A.J.
By Blake Herzog,
Tribune
March 31, 2006

This week’s tensions over immigration reform literally caught fire in the East Valley on Thursday when students raised a Mexican flag over Apache Junction High School — and then other students yanked it down and burned it.

“I know (they) shouldn’t have burned the Mexican flag,” said Jacob Stewart, a 16-year-old sophomore. “I heard it was raised above the American flag and that just irked me.”

He said the turbulence was tied to the newsmaking debates in the state Legislature and in Congress, where ideas from offering illegal immigrants a chance at citizenship to making them felons are being considered.

Freshman Chelsea Garcia, 15, and junior Brittany Ramage, 16, said the unrest had more to do with longrunning racial tensions at the school.

“(This week’s events) might have sparked a little more anger,” Ramage said. “But kids are not very deep about that stuff.”

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Yuma students take protest to City Hall
By Jeffrey Gautreaux And Michelle Volkmann, Sun Staff Writers
Photo By Terry Ketron/The Sun

Starting at 8:30 a.m. Friday, an estimated 200 students, mostly from Kofa High School, marched throughout Yuma for hours waving U.S. and Mexican flags. They were protesting immigration legislation, including a bill passed by the U.S. House of Representations that would make it a felony to be an illegal immigrant or to offer aid to them.

"Our families came here and we want to support that," Kofa student Ramon Haro said. "Just because I talk to my family, does that make me a felon?"

As the students marched, they were greeted with honking horns from some drivers. One person, a white man, yelled "Go home" at the students while another driver, a Hispanic, told the group "to keep going."

Arriving at Yuma City Hall, the students congregated at the front entrance, where Yuma police officers stood in front of the doors to the building. The demonstration was described as peaceful as students chanted "Si se puede," or "Yes, we can" and recited the Pledge of Allegiance. An hour later, the group continued its march, ending up at Carver Park.

Kofa High School freshman Julia Montoya carried a sign saying "We didn't cross the border. The border crossed us."

This attitude I cannot abide! -mm

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Crash after smuggling chase sends 3 to YRMC
By Blake Schmidt, Sun Staff Writer

A U.S. Border Patrol agent and two illegal immigrants went to the hospital Friday morning for minor injuries suffered in one of two car crashes that occurred after two pickups loaded with marijuana entered the country from Mexico.

The patrol arrested two suspected smugglers and seized 2,310 pounds of marijuana in the incident. The pot was valued at more than $1.8 million.

"That's a considerable bust," said Rick Hays, Border Patrol spokesman.

The incident began after agents saw the two pickups, traveling in tandem, traveling in the area of County 14th Street and the Colorado River at 6:45 a.m., the patrol said in a news release.

As agents approached, one of the trucks tried to return to Mexico, ramming a Border Patrol vehicle in the process, the patrol said.

The driver of the truck got out of the vehicle and tried to run back into Mexico on foot, but was apprehended, Hays said.

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Aliens found in sweltering Yuma home
From Staff Reports

An anonymous tip Thursday morning led Border Patrol agents to a Yuma home where they found and detained 93 illegal immigrants from Mexico, the patrol said in a news release.

The home on 1st Street is a suspected drop house, where the aliens were being kept until they could be smuggled to locations in the interior of the United States, the release said.
Many of aliens were women and children who said they had been in the house for two days, the patrol said.

The inside of the house was described by the patrol as sweltering and filthy, with garbage strewn about. All windows in the house were closed.

Some of the 93 aliens were found in a utility shed on the property behind the house, the patrol said.

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Latino media give marching orders
By Gillian Flaccus

LOS ANGELES -- The marching orders were clear: Carry American flags and pack the kids, pick up your trash and wear white for peace and for effect.

Many of the 500,000 people who crammed downtown Los Angeles on Saturday to protest immigration legislation learned where, when and even how to demonstrate from the Spanish-language media.

For English-speaking America, the mass protests in Los Angeles and other U.S. cities have been surprising for their size and seeming spontaneity. But they were organized, promoted or publicized for weeks by Spanish-language radio and TV.

In Milwaukee, where at least 10,000 people rallied last week, one radio station manager called employers to ask that they not fire protesters for skipping work. A Chicago rally that drew 100,000 people received coverage on local TV more than a week in advance.

''This was a much bigger story for the Latino media,'' said Felix Gutierrez, a professor at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication. ''If the mainstream media had been paying better attention, there would not have been the surprise about the turnout.''

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Q&A on immigration reform debate
Three goals, some conflicting, focus of Senate immigration debate
By Suzanne Gamboa
The Associated Press

Immigration and border security proposals being debated in the Senate encompass three goals: to stem the influx of illegal immigrants across the U.S.-Mexico border, to deal with people already here illegally and to satisfy U.S. companies that say they need the workers.

The task is anything but simple. And any legislation produced by the Senate would have to be negotiated with the House, which has passed a harsher bill that would make being an illegal immigrant a felony.

Here are some questions and answers on the issue:

Q: How many illegal immigrants are in the United States?

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Drug-smuggling suspects caught
Daniel Borunda
El Paso Times

U.S. Border Patrol agents and Juárez police teamed up to catch gang members suspected of smuggling marijuana into San Elizario, Border Patrol officials said Friday.

On Wednesday, Border Patrol agents seized 89 pounds of marijuana seen smuggled across the Rio Grande in two burlap sacks by a group that fled to Mexico. Agents notified police, who arrested the five Juárez gang members. The gang members are thought to be involved in drug trafficking.

The names of those arrested were not released. A cross-border investigation continues.

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11 charged in ICE crackdown on south Los Angeles counterfeit document mills
Mills produced fake "green cards," Social Security cards, and drivers licenses

LOS ANGELES - Eleven defendants face federal charges today following a massive multi-agency operation led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) targeting a string of counterfeit document mills suspected of supplying a significant quantity of the fraudulent immigration and identity documents being sold on the streets of Los Angeles.

Yesterday morning, ICE agents and investigators from the California Department of Motor Vehicles executed search warrants at seven suspected counterfeit document mills housed in residences in south Los Angeles. Authorities arrested ten of the defendants as part of yesterday's enforcement action. The remaining suspect was already in custody on unrelated state charges.

During the day-long operation, investigators seized a wide array of document making equipment and materials, including computers, printers, software, and laminates. At one of the locations, agents also recovered a loaded, sawed-off shotgun.

According to the search warrant affidavits, the four-month ICE undercover probe revealed that the targeted document mills were manufacturing a variety of counterfeit immigration and identity documents, such as permanent resident alien or “green” cards, Social Security cards, and California driver licenses. The affidavit details how ICE orchestrated undercover buys of counterfeit documents from the targeted producers for prices ranging from $100 to $150 a set. The sets typically included a fraudulent “green card” and Social Security card.

“Trafficking in counterfeit documents poses a serious security vulnerability and contributes to a host of other types of crimes, including identity theft and financial fraud,” said Kevin Jeffery, acting special agent in charge for ICE investigations in Los Angeles. “Our goal is to identify and ultimately dismantle the criminal organizations behind these highly lucrative schemes.”

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Bush gets an earful on coming border ID card requirement
By George E. Condon Jr. and S. Lynne Walker
Copley News Service

Cancun, Mexico – President Bush concluded his two-day summit with the leaders of Mexico and Canada, declaring progress on security issues but acknowledging the concerns of U.S. neighbors that border crossings may be complicated when new travel passports will be demanded of all visitors.

The Bush administration has been struggling for more than a year to come up with a secure travel ID card that will meet the requirements of a 2004 law passed by Congress without lengthening already long lines at border crossings or bringing commerce to a halt.