Immigration News

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Poll: More likely GOP voters back 2-tier immigration plan
The approach strengthens law enforcement while providing a path to U.S. citizenship


Despite vocal conservative opposition to any kind of amnesty for illegal immigrants, a large majority of likely Republican voters support a two-tier approach that strengthens enforcement while providing a path to citizenship, according to a new poll released Thursday.

And they want action this year, even as Congress loses enthusiasm for tackling the contentious issue with an election months away.

The Tarrance Group, a GOP polling firm, conducted the national survey of 800 registered, likely voters June 12-15 for the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, a conservative think tank.

Three-quarters of the voters favored a policy that reflects Senate legislation.

It would create a system that allows illegal immigrants to come forward, pay a fine and receive a temporary worker permit; and provide these temporary workers with a multi-year path to citizenship if they are put behind others who have applied before them, don't commit crimes, learn English and pay taxes. The proposal also calls for increasing border security and imposing tougher penalties on employers who hire illegal workers.

Forty-nine percent said they did not view this policy as amnesty, while 39 percent said it is amnesty.

The poll found that 47 percent of likely voters supported an immigration reform proposal similar to that backed by the House, while 46 percent said they opposed the House measures.

That legislation calls for increased border security, tougher penalties on employers and workers who violate immigration laws, and an expanded guest worker program that would allow people to work in the country temporarily but generally bans bids for citizenship by illegal workers in the country now.

Although Congress appears unlikely to pass an immigration measure before the mid-term elections in November, 95 percent of voters said it is important that Congress solve the immigration problem this year.

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Mexican trucks to enter U.S. freely?
Bush administration refuses to answer WND's questions


A U.S. government agency has begun a new audit to determine if the Bush administration has resolved inspection issues that would allow Mexican trucks to enter the U.S. freely.

David Barnes, a spokesman for the Office of Inspector General within the U.S. Department of Transportation confirmed to WND a new audit was begun in March 2006 on action by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

Barnes said he could not speculate on the outcome of the new study or on whether FMCSA had made any progress working out on-site safety inspection requirements with Mexico.

Despite repeated calls, WND received no comment from the office of Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta.

The issue draws heightened significance in light of the North American Free Trade Agreement super-highway plans being developed by the Trans-Texas Corridor project. Next month, the Texas Department of Transportation plans to hold the final public hearings on the plan to build a super-highway up to four football fields wide, paralleling I-35, from the border with Mexico at Laredo, Texas, north to the Texas-Oklahoma border. The Texas DOT expects to have final federal approval by the summer of 2007, with construction of the first super-highway segment to begin shortly thereafter.

Also, as WND has reported, the Kansas City SmartPort plans to open a Mexican customs office as part of their "inland port" along I-35. A brochure on the website of the Kansas City SmartPort makes clear that the ultimate plan is to utilize deep-sea Mexican ports, such as Lazaro Cardenas, to unload containers from China and the Far East. The containers will then be brought into the U.S. by Mexican railroads and Mexican trucks, all headed north to Kansas City, where the containers could continue north or be routed east or west, as needed.

Since before the passage of NAFTA, a decision to allow Mexican trucks into the U.S. on a non-restricted basis has been hotly contested.

On June 7, 2004, the U.S. Supreme Court reached a unanimous decision in Department of Transportation v. Public Citizen, ruling that Mexican trucks under NAFTA could enter the U.S. freely, even if the Mexican trucks failed to meet environmental standards as set by state and federal law.

The decision effectively lifted a 1982 U.S. decision to ban Mexican trucks from U.S. roads, except for a 20-mile zone near the border. The ban had been kept in place by the Clinton administration, despite the passage of NAFTA in 1994, with provisions specifying that the Mexican truck moratorium would be lifted.

Still, thousands of Mexican trucks have not started rolling across the border yet. Why not?

The answer lies with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration in the Department of Transportation. According to Section 350 of the Fiscal Year 2002 DOT appropriations act, the FMCSA must first certify that Mexican trucks applying for cross-border entry into the U.S. are safe for long-haul operations.

An Office of Inspector General audit published Jan. 3, 2005, indicating the FMCSA had not implemented the on-site inspections in Mexico.

As of September 2004, FMCSA had received applications from 678 Mexican motor carriers seeking long-haul authority to operate about 4,000 vehicles. This was up from 232 carriers that had applied as of March 2003, seeking authority to operate about 1,400 long-haul vehicles.

"Still, the procedures for FMCSA to conduct on-site safety reviews have not been worked out with Mexico under the terms of NAFTA," the January 3, 2005, OIG report noted.

Teamsters opposition

The Teamsters Union has fought NAFTA since the 1990s, concerned that the ultimate plan was to undermine union trucking as well as independent truckers who are owner-operators.

"With all the obstacles that still need to be overcome, our government must heed the OIG's warnings from the January 2005 audit," Galen Munroe, a spokesperson for the Teamsters Union told WND in an email. "The motor carriers in Mexico need to adhere to the same regulations and standards that our companies and drivers are subject to. Unfortunately, this seems to be a near impossible task with Mexico's current infrastructure."

The safety hazards being scrutinized by the FMCSA are in addition to ongoing environmental concerns. Commenting on the 2004 Supreme Court decision in Department of Transportation v. Public Citizen, legal analyst Noah Sachs noted the adverse consequences likely to follow this decision:

    As a result of the ruling, thirty thousand or more Mexican trucks – which are generally older, more polluting, and less safe than their U.S. counterparts – will be allowed to conduct long haul trucking operations to locations across the United States.

    Recent government studies estimate that eighty to ninety percent of the Mexican truck fleet was manufactured before 1994. In a preliminary environmental review, FMCSA concluded that their emissions "can be expected to translate into incremental increases in premature deaths" and "an enhanced incidence of respiratory diseases" in the United States. A 2002 U.S. EPA study reported a "persuasive" link between inhalation of diesel exhaust and cancer.

Meanwhile, the last remaining barriers to the open entry of Mexican trucks into the U.S. seems to be finalizing procedures for on-site safety inspections in Mexico prior to authorizing Mexican truck operators for long-haul entry into the U.S.

The results of the March 2006 OIG audit will indicated whether FMSCA has made any progress resolving these issues with Mexico in the past year.

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Saudi Men Who Got on School Bus Excused
Saudi men who boarded school bus because they wanted to visit school will avoid prosecution

Two Saudi men accused of boarding a school bus full of students won't be prosecuted if they complete a pretrial intervention program for first-time offenders, the state attorney's office said Monday.

Mana Saleh Almanajam, 23, and Shaker Mohsen Alsidran, 20, were charged with misdemeanor trespassing after boarding the bus bound for Wharton High School on May 19. They told investigators they got on the bus because they wanted to visit the school and didn't know it was just for students.

At the time, the men gave conflicting reasons why they boarded the bus and were kept in jail for the weekend, police said. They were released after detectives determined they meant no harm, and immigration agents found that they were here legally.

The two men arrived in the country seven months ago on student visas and are enrolled at the English Language Institute at the University of South Florida, officials said.

Terms of the pretrial intervention program were not immediately available.

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Number of US visas to Saudis doubles


For the first time since the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, the US State Department has begun to sharply increase the number of entry visas granted to Saudi Arabian nationals seeking to visit the United States, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

Figures obtained by the Post reveal that after three years of steady decline, 2005 saw the number of US visas issued to Saudis remain relatively stable, while this year the number has more than doubled.

In an e-mail to the Post, Amanda D. Rogers-Harper, a spokeswoman for the US State Department, confirmed that as of June 10, a total of 18,683 non-immigrant US visas had been issued to Saudi citizens since the start of the current fiscal year.

"This," she noted, "is twice as many as the 9,338 issuances to Saudis" in the corresponding period last year, marking an increase of over 100 percent in just the past 12 months.

The US government's fiscal year begins October 1.

By contrast, the number of visas issued to Saudis in all of fiscal year 2005 was 22,521, which was nearly equal to the 22,235 that were granted the year before.

"We are pleased to see an increase in visa applicants at posts around the world, including Saudi Arabia," Rogers-Harper said, adding that this year's increase could be attributed to "a new student scholarship program funded by the government of Saudi Arabia, which encourages students to pursue their studies in the US.

"We hope to see a continuation of this positive momentum," she added.

In 2001, the US granted 83,761 non-immigrant visas to Saudis, but that number plummeted after 9/11. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers who carried out the attacks were Saudi citizens.

Subsequently, in fiscal year 2002, the number of visas given to Saudis slumped to 30,065, followed by a further decline in 2003 to 23,254.

Asked what measures were being taken to ensure that potential terrorists do not exploit the increase in the number of visas to the US, Rogers-Harper said: "The security of our visa processing continues to be of paramount concern to the Department of State and the Bureau of Consular Affairs. All applications are carefully screened in real time against a database and name-check system that has been dramatically expanded since September 11, 2001.

"The department," she continued, "has also increased data-sharing with other agencies and law enforcement organizations to ensure that those who receive US visas have been fully screened against these databases."

Figures regarding the number of Saudi applications for visas that were turned down were unavailable, as the State Department declined to release them.

"We do not release refusal rates for any posts around the world because they are constantly changing and there are different types of refusals, including a number of temporary categories," Rogers-Harper said.

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Boarding Passes: Another Loophole for Terrorists?



Online boarding passes might be convenient for travelers. But they could be convenient for terrorists too.

Editing an online boarding pass to make a fake one can be as simple as cutting and pasting in Microsoft Word. It took ABC News interns 20 seconds to doctor a boarding pass.

Because airline security doesn't scan boarding passes at the same time it checks IDs, anyone, including a terrorist, could use a fake boarding pass to bypass the no-fly list.

Bruce Schneier, an airline security expert who's worked with the Transportation Safety Administration says it's another example of why physical security on the plane needs to be improved.

"Things like reinforcing the cockpit door. That's things like teaching passengers they have to fight back," he says.

The TSA told ABC News they're not concerned about fake boarding passes because airports screen for weapons. But Congress is concerned and wants to close the loop hole.

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Agents arrest illegal immigrants working for Pendleton contractor


U.S. agents arrested 22 illegal immigrants Wednesday who worked for a company that provided services to the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps base.

The workers, all Mexican men, were arrested at their homes by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers during an early morning sweep.

Agents were looking for 72 illegal workers employed by Burtech Pipeline, Inc., an Encinitas-based business that had a contract at Camp Pendleton, the base near Oceanside that is home to some 40,000 military personnel, ICE spokeswoman Lauren Mack said.

None of those arrested had worked at Camp Pendleton, but Mack said some of the remaining 50 may have.

Mack said Burtech's contract at Camp Pendleton ended last year. She said employees could have gained access to the base with their employee identity cards.

The arrests are part of an ICE clampdown on private contractors in San Diego County. Since 2003, ICE agents have screened some 900 companies connected to the military and nearly 30 percent of the firms employed illegal workers, including two companies that hired illegal workers to repair warships.

"It is a significant problem," Mack said. "We have no way of knowing what their true identity is or what their motives are if they are using false documents."

Representatives for Burtech Pipeline and Camp Pendleton did not immediately return telephone calls seeking comment.

During the sweep, 17 other illegal immigrants were arrested for reasons unrelated to Burtech, Mack said.

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3 illegal aliens plead guilty to conspiring to sell illegal IDs


Three illegal aliens from Louisville pleaded guilty in a scheme to make bogus permanent U.S. resident cards and Social Security cards, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Eliazar Carrillo-Quintero, 26; Salvador Campos-Ortega, 22; and Fernando Mercado-Florez, 22, face up to 15 years in prison and fines of $250,000, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney's office for the Western District of Kentucky. Sentencing was scheduled for July 6 in U.S. District Court in Louisville.

The three admitted they conspired with others to pass out business cards at Louisville-area businesses indicating they were mechanics, plumbers or handymen, the statement said. But the cards actually provided contact information for obtaining false documents, prosecutors said.

They pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess and sell document-making implements and false identification documents.

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48 Video Cameras Now Help Patrol The Border


Border Patrol agents say new video cameras along a 5.2-mile stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border are helping cut down illegal crossings and increase apprehensions of illegal immigrants.

Agents say the 48 new cameras enable them to get a bird's eye view of those trying to enter the United States illegally, and then track them until they are detained.

"It's like having a second pair of eyes out there," said Wendi Lee, a Border Patrol spokeswoman. "This will help us monitor the area and let the agents in the field know what's going on out there."

Three Border Patrol agents watch a bank of 24 TV monitors in an office in San Ysidro, San Diego's crossing into Mexico and the busiest land border in the world.

The cameras are mounted on 12 poles placed evenly along the north side of a reinforced second border fence that runs east from the San Ysidro border crossing to the Otay Mesa Port of Entry. Each 50-foot pole has four cameras, two for daylight, and two for nighttime use.

Al Gumbs, a Border Patrol agent monitoring the camera system, said 191 suspected illegal immigrants were apprehended in the first week after agents began using the cameras on May 18.

Border officials say apprehensions in the San Diego sector totaled 126,913 in the year that ended Sept. 30. Since then, there have been 108,497.

Cameras have been used in other border areas in California, as well as in Texas and Arizona.

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Senate May Budge on Immigration
Some Republicans show willingness to put House goals of enforcement and security before plans for guest workers and paths to citizenship.


With the House and Senate stalemated over how to overhaul immigration law, the contours of one potential path to an agreement have begun to emerge.

The House has approved a bill that focuses on improving border security and cracking down on illegal hiring. Many of the conservative Republicans who are dominant in the House have said that these security measures must be firmly in place before the House begins discussions about elements of a Senate-passed bill that would create a guest worker program and offer steps to citizenship for most illegal immigrants now in the U.S.

Now some Republican senators are suggesting — though gingerly — that they would be willing to agree to some kind of timetable in which goals related to border security and law enforcement must be met before the guest worker and citizenship programs that the senators favor could begin.

"The idea that we'll look at some sort of trigger before we implement everything else is worth some discussion," said Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.), who wrote part of the Senate plan that would offer legal status to many illegal immigrants.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), an architect of the Senate legislation, said that the Senate bill, in practice, would put border security ahead of other new immigration measures.

"Interior enforcement and border enforcement will go first…. It's going to take 18 months to two years to put the infrastructure in place to deal with guest workers," McCain said. He added that the same was true of the proposed Senate program to create a path to citizenship for most of the nation's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants.

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), who would lead any negotiations with the House, was quoted even more directly by the Washington Times newspaper on the idea of putting in place border security and law enforcement measures before other elements of an immigration package.

"It may be down the line that we will come to some terms on a timetable, with border security first and employment verification first," Specter was quoted as saying in the newspaper's Tuesday editions. Specter, who is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Left unclear in the still-emerging conversation is whether senators would agree that specific border security and law enforcement goals or targets would have to be met before a guest worker or legalization program could begin.

It is also unclear whether the House would accept a step-by-step approach. Many House members say they oppose any citizenship program as an unwelcome "amnesty" for people who broke the law by crossing the border. Others say that guest worker programs undermine wages and job availability for native workers.

Still, some senators appealed Tuesday for House members to join them in negotiations to resolve the significant differences in the House and Senate visions of immigration policy. Those negotiations were expected to begin, but the House said last week that it wanted to hold a new round of hearings across the country on immigration before starting talks with the Senate.

"We are willing to negotiate with those who have specific disagreements with the Senate bill," McCain said Tuesday.

The senators' appeal to the House came as the Senate Appropriations Committee approved $31.7 billion for the Department of Homeland Security and its efforts to strengthen the borders in the fiscal year starting in October.

The funding is almost 5% more than last year's levels, with border protection allocated $65 million more than President Bush had requested.

"We focused aggressively on border protection," said committee chairman Judd Gregg (R-N.H.).

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Democrats: Don't politicize immigration

WASHINGTON - Democrats leading their party's midterm election effort argued on Thursday that any Republican attempt to use immigration as a central campaign issue would backfire.

They cited Republican plans to hold hearings on illegal immigration around the country this summer, rather than passing immigration legislation in Congress, as a sign of the GOP strategy to motivate conservative voters.

"Republicans want to use this like Willie Horton in 1988 and gay marriage in 2004," said Sen. Charles Schumer (news, bio, voting record), chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. "It's no secret they want to use immigration as a political cudgel."

The New York senator was referring to the Republicans use in 2004 of same-sex marriage to build conservative support and in 1988 of the case of Horton, a convicted murderer who raped a woman while on furlough from a Massachusetts prison. Horton was used in a racially tinged ad that put Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis on the defensive.

"There are more than 12 million illegal immigrants in this country because the federal government has failed to enforce the laws," said Rep. Rahm Emanuel (news, bio, voting record), D-Ill., chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. "Their strategy is not going to work as long as we stick to our message."

The GOP-controlled Congress has been unable to agree on immigration legislation. The House passed a bill that emphasized border enforcement and criminalized those who assist immigrants. The Senate passed a bill that combined border enforcement with creation of a guest-worker program.

"They can't get an agreement, so they're running around the country blaming each other," Emanuel said.

Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean told a group of Hispanics Wednesday that Democrats will not use immigration — specifically "immigrant bashing and scapegoating" — to divide the country in the midterms.

Two House elections earlier this month have sent mixed signals about how the illegal immigration issue will affect candidates.

_San Diego Republican Brian Bilbray cited his staunch opposition to illegal immigration as the top factor in winning the seat of ousted Republican Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, who left office because of a bribery scandal.

_Rep. Chris Cannon said his solid victory in Utah's Republican primary is good news for
President Bush and those seeking a consensus on immigration policy this year. Cannon supports President Bush's proposal for a guest-worker program but also voted for the House bill.

Republicans dismissed the Democrats' comments on immigration.

"We plan on running our races district by district on local issues," said Carl Forti, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee. "Democrats are very focused on trying to find a national issue, we're not."

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Guard to miss border mission deadline

The Bush administration has been unable to muster even half of the 2,500 National Guardsmen it planned to have on the Mexican border by the end of June.

As of Thursday, the next-to-last day of the month, fewer than 1,000 troops were in place, according to military officials in the four border states of Texas, California, New Mexico and Arizona.

President Bush's plan called for all 50 states to send troops. But only 10 states — including the four border states — have signed commitments.

Some state officials have argued that they cannot free up Guardsmen because of flooding in the East, wildfires in the West or the prospect of hurricanes in the South.

"It's not a combat priority. It is a volunteer mission," said Kristine Munn, spokeswoman for the National Guard Bureau, an arm of the Pentagon, "so it's a question of balancing the needs of the Border Patrol with the needs of 54 states and territories, and all those balls roll in different directions."

Bush's plan for stemming illegal immigration by using National Guardsmen in a support role called for 2,500 troops to be on the border by June 30, and 6,000 by the end of July.

But National Guard officials said Thursday that they probably won't reach the 2,500 target until early to mid-July and won't make the 6,000 deadline, either. Also, they said the number of troops will fluctuate from week to week over the course of the two-year mission.

"We now anticipate major waves in our deployment. There won't always be 6,000. That will be the maximum," Munn said.

South Carolina's adjutant general said Wednesday he wants to wait until after hurricane season to send 150 Guardsmen.

"South Carolina's hurricane plan requires 1,600 troops to work along the coast during an evacuation and we double that number" to be extra-careful, said South Carolina Guard spokesman Col. Pete Brooks. "If we have a storm like Katrina hit, we'd have every Guard member who's not in
Iraq somewhere out on the street."

White House spokesman Tony Snow said earlier this week that reports of problems with the border deployment were "overblown."

Major problems began to appear last week when California, which has already committed to sending 1,000 troops, said it turned down an administration request for 1,500 more to cover expected shortfalls in the numbers sent by Arizona and New Mexico.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's spokesman, Adam Mendelsohn, said that the state is leading all others in contributing troops and that the shortfalls are not California's responsibility.

"The governor is prepared to do whatever it takes to secure California's border," he said, "However, at the start of fire season, we cannot send troops to New Mexico and Arizona and other states when we already have 1,000 troops committed to this."

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Bill would require Houston police to enforce immigration laws


Local officials continued to debate police policy toward illegal immigrants today after the U.S. House passed a Houston lawmaker's measure that would cut off federal crime-fighting money to cities with sanctuary policies.

The House overwhelmingly approved a spending bill containing an amendment by U.S. Rep. John Culberson, R-Houston, intended to force state and local authorities to get more involved with immigration enforcement — or risk losing millions in federal grants.

In a news release on his amendment, Culberson listed Houston among cities that "have adopted sanctuary policies which prevent law enforcement officers from inquiring about immigration status."

Mayor Bill White, Police Chief Harold Hurtt and the top federal official charged with local immigration enforcement maintain the city doesn't have a sanctuary policy.

Responding to that assertion, Culberson said, "If they are in compliance with the law, and they can prove it to the Justice Department, then they don't have anything to worry about."

The Congressional Research Service, a nonpartisan research arm of the House and Senate, in 2004 included Houston among sanctuary cities.

Culberson said the amendment passed today, and others he has attached to unrelated spending bills, are necessary to combat the government's "widespread and systematic refusal to protect our border and enforce the immigration laws."

The measure won't become law unless it is approved by the Senate, which is set to debate a similar bill later this summer, and signed by President Bush.

Culberson's amendment states that federal funding can't be granted to governments that defy a section in federal law stating that cities and states shouldn't prohibit or restrict their officials from exchanging information with federal immigration authorities.

Local officials say the police department doesn't have such restrictions, and some criticized Culberson's threat to cut off federal crime-fighting money.

"He is basically punishing people in his district and every congressional district in our city," said Councilwoman Carol Alvarado. "He has misinterpreted what our policy is."

Alvarado dismissed the measure as "election year" politics, playing to voters angry over illegal immigration.

She also pledged to "launch an all-out campaign" against an effort by a local group to put a city charter amendment on November's ballot that would permit police to ask the immigration status of people they encounter in routine situations.

Such inquiries now are prohibited under a 1992 Police Department general order.

White disputes the notion that the order constitutes a sanctuary policy, and said the city needs the money Culberson's amendment targets.

"Federal funding is essential for Houston's efforts to fight crimes, especially the war against drugs," the mayor said in a written statement.

The House measure passed the same day Hurtt announced that the city had received $18 million from the Justice Department to help combat a spike in violent crimes and buy new equipment.

Hurtt repeatedly has denied the city has a sanctuary policy.

Bob Rutt, special agent in charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Houston, referred questions about the new legislation to ICE headquarters in Washington — where an answering system doesn't accept messages.

Last week, though, Rutt reinforced Hurtt's view, saying Houston police notify ICE when officers arrest people wanted by ICE. He said officers also call his agency when they suspect violent criminals might be in the country illegally, and they help out on some criminal operations.

The department also flags criminal cases involving illegal immigrants when they are sent to the Harris County District Attorney's office, so ICE agents can determine whether arrestees are in the country legally.

"Houston is not a sanctuary city, by the definition," Rutt told the Chronicle on Saturday. "They do cooperate with us."

Culberson attached the amendment to the nearly $60 billion Science, State, Justice and Commerce Appropriations Bill for fiscal year 2007. The overall bill includes $2.7 billion in assistance to state and local law enforcement for a variety of purposes, from crime fighting to reimbursement for housing illegal immigrants.

"If a local or state law enforcement agency wants federal law enforcement dollars, they need to obey federal law," Culberson said.

The spending bill, approved 393-23, also would pay for space exploration and for other federal agencies during the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.

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 Mexico extraditing more suspects to U.S.

Gone are the days when Americans on the lam could look to Mexico as a refuge. Extraditions and deportations have risen sharply as U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officials work closely together to bring suspected criminals to justice.

Mexico's presidential election Sunday is likely to change that.

It's a big change from the years following the brazen 1985 kidnapping by U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents of a Mexican suspected in the killing of undercover DEA agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena. Mexican politicians were infuriated that the agents would make such a move inside their country, and it took years of careful work to restore good relations.

Mexico's next president could face the toughest test yet of the countries' cooperation: the pending extradition of Osiel Cardenas to face U.S. drug trafficking charges.

The alleged head of the feared Gulf Cartel, Cardenas is believed to be leading a turf war from his prison cell, commanding assassins to make brazen hits on police and rival traffickers as he awaits trial at the top-security La Palma prison west of Mexico City.

Cardenas' capture was seen as a major victory for President Vicente Fox. But his Mexican charges must be resolved before he can be sent to face trial in the United States for organized crime, drug trafficking, money laundering and assaulting federal agents. An army of lawyers is fighting to stall his case as he awaits trial in Mexico.

Many countries remain reluctant to facilitate extraditions, which can challenge notions of national pride and sovereignty. Some lack extradition treaties; others refuse to expose their citizens to a potential death penalty or life in prison in the United States when similar crimes carry lesser penalties in their own countries.

Mexico and Colombia are the major exceptions -- U.S. extraditions from both countries have become almost routine.

"This is not a political bilateral problem, as it used to be in the past," Sigrid Arzt, director the Mexican think tank Democracy, Human Rights and Security, said of Mexico. "Now there's sort of an acceptance."

Heading for the border to avoid prosecution is a long tradition for all types of criminals. So many suspects have fled to Mexico that local prosecutors in the United States often don't request help from the Justice Department unless they are suspected killers, drug traffickers or rapists.

Mexico extradited 41 suspected criminals to the United States last year, up from 34 in 2004, according to the Justice Department. The number has risen steadily since 2000, when 12 were extradited.

When the suspected criminals are U.S. citizens, both countries increasingly work together to deport them from Mexico and avoid the lengthy extradition process. Last year, more than 190 people were expelled from Mexico, compared with 135 the year before, according to the Justice Department.

"It's easier to get someone's privilege to be in that country revoked," said James Schield, chief of the international investigations branch of the U.S. Marshals Service in Washington, which opened an office in Mexico City in 2001.

The extradition process requires that U.S. authorities present documents to Mexican courts and foreign relations officials showing compelling evidence to extradite a person. The courts must approve the request, and the suspect has the right to a hearing and to appeal the court's decision.

Mexico can deny extradition if a suspect faces the death penalty -- a punishment illegal in Mexico -- and this is a source of frustration for prosecutors in the United States. To get around this, some local prosecutors have avoided pushing for death for suspects hiding in Mexico.

The process became more difficult in 2001 when Mexico's Supreme Court declared life sentences to be cruel and unusual punishment, but extraditions have been back on track since the court overturned its ruling in November.

Extraditions also are rising in other parts of the Americas, such as Colombia, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica, Schield said.

Colombia extradited 134 suspects in 2005, up from 91 in 2004 and 40 in 2002, the Justice Department said.

Among them were drug kingpin brothers Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela and Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela -- described as founders of the Cali drug cartel -- who were convicted on drug charges in Colombia in 1995 and then extradited to Miami, Florida.

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Town targets businesses
hiring illegal immigrants
Cape Cod council approves $1,000 fine,
revocation of license for repeat offenders


Forget the New England charm, forget the busy summer tourist season that fuels the local economy – a Cape Cod town council has declared its community is "not a sanctuary for illegal aliens" and has unanimously passed a bylaw to fine businesses $1,000 that employ undocumented workers and to revoke their licenses if they do it repeatedly.

The Sandwich, Mass., Board of Selectmen voted 5-to-0 Thursday evening to attempt to control the influx of illegal immigrants by penalizing the employers who hire them.

"It is very clear that our country is now in the midst of one of the greatest threats to its existence in our history," Selectman Douglas Dexter, who proposed the order, said. "There are millions of criminal aliens invading our cities and towns and destroying the social services and legal systems of our communities."

Sandwich is a seaside community of 23,000 residents located in the northwest corner of Cape Cod. Incorporated in 1639, it's is the oldest town on Cape Cod and one of the oldest towns in the U.S., settled by European immigrants nearly 150 years before the American Revolution.

The proposed bylaw will not take effect until a vote by town meeting, which is expected to be held this fall.

Of the 14,000 registered voters in Sandwich, 3,531 are Democrats and 3,138 are Republicans. All five elected selectmen are registered Republicans.

Dexter said his proposal wasn't motivated by specific concerns in Sandwich, but, rather, frustration with the federal government's failure to deal with illegal immigration and enforce existing laws.

"We have politicians who have turned to mush," he said.

A portion of Dexter's proposal that would have declared English the official language of Sandwich was rejected by his fellow selectmen who were concerned it might offend some of the town's foreign visitors.

Despite the unanimous support for the measure, several of the selectmen voting in the affirmative expressed concern about the bylaw's legality and the town's ability to enforce it.

According to Sandwich's town administrator, Dexter's proposal was submitted to the town attorney but has not yet been fully reviewed.

Terence Burke, a spokesman for State Attorney General Tom Reilly told the Cape Cod Times he could not comment on the bylaw's legality, but that "the Attorney General believes the flow of illegal immigrants into our country and the failure of the Bush administration to enforce our immigration laws is a significant national problem that requires a broad national solution. This problem shouldn't be solved state by state, city by city or town by town."

Dr. Jacqueline Fields, the Sandwich representative to the Barnstable County's Human Rights Commission, said she had not known of the proposed bylaw, but criticized "the unfortunate use of language" by Dexter and other board members. "We need to use language that is less inflammatory and less derogatory," she said.

Dexter is undaunted and unapologetic.

"What part of illegal don't they understand? When they come over the border they are illegal," he said "I don't intend to go hunting for illegal aliens, but we need to take a stand. Most good laws act as a deterrent, rather than a punishment."

Wendy Northcross, president of the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce, expressed concern over the measure, noting that Cape Cod's tourist economy depends heavily on immigrants on temporary visas, particularly during the summer months when the workforce swells from 100,000 to 125,000. "The whole reason the country is involved in this debate is because immigrants are doing the jobs that Americans don't want to do," she said.

Dexter is quick to point out that the bylaw only targets those hired without valid visas or work permits. "I said legal immigrants are welcome – l-e-g-a-l with a capital L," he said.

Federal law requires employers to document employees' citizenship with an I-9 form. As WorldNetDaily has reported, the federal program in existence for the past nine years permits employers to use the Internet to instantly verify prospective hires' legal eligibility to work in the U.S., but is used by less that 1/10 of 1 percent of the nation's companies because it is voluntary, under-publicized and puts its users at a competitive disadvantage to firms who continue to hire illegal workers.

[Soldier4Christ]

Study: States bear the brunt of illegal immigrant costs

Illegal immigrants in Colorado use nearly $225 million in state and local government services annually, according to research issued today by the Denver-based Bell Policy Center.

The illegal immigrants also pay state and local taxes of between $159 million and $194 million, the center's study found. That leaves a gap of at least $31 million illegal immigrants cost state and local governments, according to the center's research.

"The real issue may be that the federal government should do a better job reimbursing the states for these costs," said Bell Policy Center President Wade Buchanan in a statement accompanying the research.

The center's study accounted for the cost of providing education, emergency health care and jails for illegal immigrants statewide. Those services are required under federal law and court rulings.

No one knows how many illegal immigrants live in Colorado, but experts generally rely on estimates from the Washington-based Pew Hispanic Center, which this year guessed Colorado's population at 225,000 to 275,000. The Pew Hispanic Center estimates the national population of illegal immigrants at up to 12 million, and other researchers have put it higher than 20 million.

The Bell Policy Center's findings clash with a study released earlier this year by Defend Colorado Now, a group pushing for a ballot measure that would prohibit government services to illegal immigrants except those required by law. The Defend Colorado Now study estimated illegal immigrants cost taxpayers more than $1 billion a year.