Immigration News

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Only 483 Guard Working on Mexican Border

On the deadline to have 2,500 troops along the Mexican border, the National Guard said Friday that only 483 were in position and working with the U.S. Border Patrol as the Bush administration had directed.

But Guard officials said more than 2,000 others were somewhere inside the four southwestern border states, training or helping plan the deployment. Bush administration officials argued Friday that the presence of troops in those states spelled success in the first stage of the mission.

Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, an arm of the Pentagon, had promised June 1 that by the end of the month 2,500 Guard troops would be working "on the border."

"As defined by the operation, the National Guard has met and exceeded its goal of deploying 2,500 soldiers and airmen to the four Southwest border states," said White House spokesman Blain Rethmeier. "Progress to date is real and the Guard's efforts are making a positive difference in this national effort."

As evidence, he said the early arrival of troops had allowed the Border Patrol to send 125 agents "back to the front lines," and helped the Border Patrol catch nearly 200 illegal immigrants, seize 123 pounds of marijuana, 18 pounds of cocaine and seven vehicles.

Through initial pay requests filed with the Air Guard and orders filed with the Army Guard, the Guard bureau verified 2,547 troops were in the four border states for the mission, said Daniel Donohue, a spokesman for the National Guard Bureau.

Only 483 were physically on the border, he conceded.

The remaining forces _ 1,816 _ are in training somewhere in the four states, with some at bases as far away as Sacramento _ 600 miles from the border. Donohue said 248 are assigned to headquarters and planning roles.

Asked to clarify, Blum spokesman Mark Allen responded by e-mail that the general had never specifically promised to deliver troops to a "geographically defined latitude and longitude."

Still, there were signs the deployment was picking up speed.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry said 1,000 Army and Air National Guardsmen were either on the border or "on their way," adding 500 to totals released Thursday. But his office said the additional troops didn't actually reach the border, but were considered deployed when they left Friday for two weeks of training.

Several states whose Guard leaders and governors had been contacted by the National Guard Bureau in the last 48 hours also made announcements Friday that they would send troops.

Gov. Mike Easley of North Carolina said he would reluctantly deploy 300 troops to the border in mid-July.

"I would prefer not to have any of the North Carolina National Guard deployed to other states at this time," he said. "However, the Guard units in the western states are spread thin as they battle raging wildfires. We must all step up and do our part to keep our country safe."

Kentucky announced it would send up to 650 National Guard troops. Arkansas also said it would send 200. New Jersey also said it would send up to 650 for three-week assignments.

Damon Foreman, senior patrol agent and spokesman for the Border Patrol in San Diego, said agents there eagerly await the Guard's help.

"We would welcome all the help we could get. We could absorb them as fast as we could give them instructions on what to do," Foreman said, adding that the delayed deployment, however, had not affected operations.

"We've been doing a considerably effective job for a long time now, we'll keep doing our job whether the whole number of Guard show up tomorrow, a week from tomorrow, or a month from now."

President 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.

Bush had said the mission would free up thousands of officers now on other duties to actively patrol the border. Guardsmen are expected to build fences, conduct routine surveillance and take care of other administrative duties for the border patrol.

[Soldier4Christ]

Hispanics argue hearings impede immigration reform


MILWAUKEE - Hispanic leaders said Friday national hearings on an immigration bill were nothing but a stall tactic aimed at delaying progress on reforming the nation's immigration system.

Speakers at the League of United Latin American Citizens' annual convention said Republicans are trying to use the issue to win votes in the upcoming midterm elections. A series of hearings on the bill will only delay passage of immigration reform, said John Tresvina, president of the Mexican American Legal and Education Defense Fund.

"It's basically a stalling tactic," Tresvina said at an immigration forum Friday at the convention in Milwaukee. "It's a way to appeal to their base."

Latinos do not pose a threat to the government and should be valued for their economic contributions, said Dolores Huerta, who co-founded United Farm Workers of America with Cesar Chavez. Republicans won't let progress take place if they continue to hold hearings and use immigration as a way to win votes, she said.

"We have to let people know what the truth is. This is a distraction," Huerta said.

House Republican leaders scheduled the hearings, which continue next week, to get input on a Senate-passed bill that would offer legal status to millions of illegal immigrants. Speakers Friday said the measure is far from perfect but still better than the one offered by U.S. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., which would have subjected those in the country illegally to felony prosecution.

On Wednesday, Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean warned that Republicans were using "immigrant bashing and scapegoating" to win the election. His Republican counterpart, Ken Mehlman, canceled his address because of weather-related travel problems but said in a letter to attendees that it was important for the party to reach out to Hispanic voters and continue working on the immigration issue.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of California, in prepared remarks for her speech Friday evening, said Republicans showed their true colors this week when two-thirds of them voted to eliminate ballots in more than one language.

"We believe any diminishing of language assistance and bilingual ballots is a diminishment of our American democracy," Pelosi said.

Many speakers throughout the weeklong convention took issue with Sensenbrenner, whose home of Menomonee Falls is not far from Milwaukee. They invited him to address the group, but his office said he could not because of official duties and constituent visits.

Sensenbrenner, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, was disappointed at the tone of some activists at the convention, said a spokesman, Jeff Lungren.

"Unfortunately, this type of misleading and divisive rhetoric only makes it more difficult to reach an agreement on how to fix our border and immigration problems," Lungren said.

[Soldier4Christ]

Central Texas woman run off road, raped

GROESBECK, Texas — A Central Texas woman was recuperating at a Temple hospital after she reported being run off a rural road, kidnapped and then raped and beaten by her abductors, authorities said.

The 18-year-old woman was in stable condition Thursday following surgery. She had walked and crawled a half-mile to find help after her abductors left her for dead along a highway early Wednesday morning, authorities said.

"She spent more than two hours in hell," Limestone County Sheriff Dennis Wilson said.

Wilson said Javier Guzman Martinez, 17, and Noel Darwin Hernandez, 22, both of Mexia, had been arrested for the crime and were charged Thursday with aggravated assault and aggravated kidnapping.

The suspects began following the woman late Tuesday night as she left Mexia, about 40 miles east of Waco, where she was visiting friends, authorities said. The suspects did not know the woman.

The woman told investigators she was driving at about 2:30 a.m. Wednesday on a state highway toward her home in a Limestone County town when a car rammed her sport utility vehicle and forced her off the road, Wilson said.

The woman told investigators that the men forced her into their car, and then drove around rural county roads while they sexually assaulted, stabbed and beat her, Wilson said.

The woman said the men left her about a mile south of Coolidge in a ditch, where she pretended to be dead until they left, Wilson said. She then found help at a nearby trailer.

Dena Lincoln said the woman, covered in blood, came to her trailer door at about 4:30 a.m.

"I will never, as long as I live, get that look that was on her face out of my mind," Lincoln said. "She kept saying, 'I'm going to die. I'm going to die.' I told her, 'No, honey, you are going to be all right. We are going to get you some help.'"

The woman was flown by helicopter to a Temple hospital with numerous cuts and stab wounds, including an injury that endangered one eye, Wilson said.

Wilson said investigators canvassed the area on Wednesday with the description of the suspects given by the women.

Officers found Martinez at his Mexia residence. Wilson said he confessed to the incident and told officers of Hernandez's involvement. U.S. Marshall's tracked Hernandez to a Waco bus station, where he was arrested Wednesday night.

Martinez was being held in the Limestone County Jail while Hernandez was to be transferred to Limestone County from McLennan County, officials said. Wilson said both men are apparently in the United States illegally and will be held without bond on immigration charges. Hernandez is from Honduras, and Martinez is from Mexico, Wilson said.

[Soldier4Christ]

Up to 61 million immigrants might flow into U.S. under proposed reform

Think the immigration debate is mainly about giving amnesty to the 10 million illegals already here? Think again. Amnesty is a drop in the bucket. The real issue is the staggering increase in legal immigration hidden in the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act, recently passed in the Senate.

By a ratio of about 4-1, U.S. voters would prefer less immigration, not more. But the Senate bill would do just the opposite. The original bill would have allowed as many as 100 million people to legally immigrate to the United States over the next 20 years. We're talking about a seismic shift of unprecedented proportions.

Facing criticism, the Senate has amended the bill - which now would allow "only" 61 million new immigrants. That still more than doubles the current legal immigration rate, from 1 million a year now to 2.5 million.

Current law would let 19 million legal immigrants enter the United States over the next 20 years; the Senate immigration bill would add an extra 42 million.

Why such extraordinary growth? Consider how the new law would work.

Under the Senate bill, immigrants could enter or attain lawful status within the country through nine channels. In each channel, immigrants would gain permanent residence and the right to become citizens:

Current law visas: About 950,000 persons now get permanent-residence visas every year under current law. Over 20 years, the inflow of immigrants through this channel would be 19 million.

Amnesty: The bill would grant amnesty to roughly 10 million illegal immigrants now living in the U.S.

Spouses/children of illegal immigrants given amnesty: Illegals who got amnesty could bring their spouses and children into the country as legal permanent residents with the opportunity for full citizenship. The resulting number of spouses and children who would enter the United States? At least 5 million.

"Family chain" migration: Today's law limits the number of kinship visas for secondary family members, such as adult brothers and sisters. The Senate bill would raise the cap on such secondary family immigration from around 230,000 to 480,000 per year, bringing in 5 million new immigrants over 20 years.

Temporary guest workers for life: The amended Senate bill would let 200,000 people enter through the guest-worker program each year. Over 20 years, that works out to a total inflow of 4 million. The "guest workers" aren't temporary at all, but could stay in the U.S. permanently and become citizens.

Spouses/children of guest workers: Guest workers could bring their spouses and children to the United States as permanent residents, adding another 4.8 million entrants over 20 years.

Worker visas for skilled specialty occupations: The Senate bill would initially double the number of specialty workers who could enter the U.S., and would then allow the number to increase by 20 percent in each subsequent year. These workers would be permitted to request permanent residence, and, in most cases, would be able to stay in the U.S. for life. More than 5.5 million legal immigrant workers could enter under these provisions over the next two decades.

Spouses/children of specialty workers: Specialty workers could bring their spouses and children to the United States as permanent residents, adding another 3 million entrants over 20 years.

Refugee women: Under the bill, an unlimited number of women who fear they may undergo "harm" as a result of their sex may enter the U.S. as refugees and become citizens. The numbers who would enter under this open-ended provision is uncertain, but 1 million over 20 years is a reasonable estimate.

Parents of naturalized citizens: The Senate bill would greatly increase the number of naturalized citizens, each would have an unlimited right to bring their parents into the country as legal permanent residents. The resulting number of parents who would enter as permanent legal residents? Around 3.5 million over 20 years.

If the Senate bill became law, foreign-born immigrants would rise to around 18 percent of the total U.S. population, an immigration level far higher than at any previous time in U.S. history.

Many in this looming tidal wave of immigration would be low-skilled individuals who will impose great social and economic costs on the nation. For example, more than half of the 10 million illegals who will get amnesty are high-school dropouts; on average, each immigrant dropout will cost the U.S. taxpayers $85,000 over the course of his life.

In sum, the Senate bill would bring profound change, transforming the United States socially, economically and politically. Within two decades, the character of our country would differ dramatically from what exists today.

Americans need to ask: Is that what we want?

[Soldier4Christ]

Immigration judges under fire for rulings

After Islamic militants murdered Seemab Shah's father, she said, they came for her. Terrified, Shah left her newborn son in the care of relatives and fled Pakistan for the United States.

She begged a U.S. immigration judge to grant her asylum. She presented the court with her father's death certificate and newspaper photos of him lying in a pool of blood.

Despite the evidence, Judge Donald Ferlise concluded Shah's father wasn't dead, rejected her story as "totally incredible" and denied her request to remain in the United States.

But Shah, 33, isn't going home anytime soon. The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia concluded Ferlise had ignored undisputed evidence of her father's death. The court reversed his decision and ordered another judge to hear the case. In May, Ferlise was removed from hearing cases.

Ferlise's ruling and similar decisions by other immigration judges have come under intense scrutiny by federal appeals courts.

A review by McClatchy Newspapers found that appeals courts have sent back dozens of rulings by immigration judges in the past two years. In one recent rebuke, an appeals-court panel deemed an asylum decision "incomprehensible."

The appeals courts also singled out judges for what they've called rude and bullying behavior. One appeals-court panel reversed a decision because, it said, the judge acted like a "prosecutor anxious to pick holes" in immigrants' stories instead of as an impartial jurist.

The appeals-court judges' unusually sharp tone has prompted calls for an overhaul of the immigration courts, the forum of last resort for many of the world's refugees who flee to the United States from governments that may have tortured or imprisoned them.

Responding to the criticism, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales began a review of the courts in January. He is expected to make recommendations in the next few months on how to improve the court system.

Immigration judges said the criticism was overblown because the federal circuit courts upheld the vast majority of their rulings.

The judges think the scrutiny stems from a profound misunderstanding of the pressures on their courts.

A judge could jeopardize the nation's security by allowing the wrong person to remain in the United States. But rejecting a valid asylum request can send a refugee back to a country in which he or she would face torture, imprisonment or death.

"It can be the equivalent of imposing a death sentence," said Dana Leigh Marks, an immigration judge and the vice president of the National Association of Immigration Judges.

However, immigration judges often are forced to depend on the testimony of a single witness: the immigrant. Documents that might support a story can be sparse because many immigrants can't return to their homelands to collect proof. Some immigrants take advantage of the low threshold of evidence and lie, law-enforcement officials said.

Although so much hinges on their testimony, immigrants often tell their stories through interpreters, who may or may not be qualified. Unlike federal court, many testify without being represented by attorneys.

"The immigration court is a bizarre Frankensteinlike creature," said Chris Carlson, an immigration lawyer in Minneapolis.

To make matters worse, immigration judges say they're overwhelmed by a growing crush of cases.

Last year, the more than 200 immigration judges handled roughly 300,000 immigration matters. To keep up, a single judge has to complete 1,400 cases a year, or nearly 27 a week. As a result, some immigrants wait up to a year to appear before judges.

"Given the volume of cases, you walk out of court often stressed out because you don't have enough time, or angered because you have been forced to make a decision that you personally don't believe is right," said Joe Vail, a former Houston immigration judge who resigned in 1999.

But some lawyers said the Justice Department hadn't done a good job of disciplining judges who verbally attacked immigrants or lawyers, or who issued decisions without legal basis.

In the past 10 years, about 140 complaints have been filed against immigration judges, but only two have been removed and two others reassigned. Justice Department officials said a more precise breakdown of complaints wasn't available.

Ferlise, the judge in the Shah case, didn't return phone calls requesting comment. Some lawyers who'd appeared before him said he was being singled out unfairly because of the recent reversals, which they said didn't reflect the thousands of cases he'd heard in his 11 years on the bench.

"There are worse judges than Judge Ferlise," said Kent Frederick, the chief counsel who oversees the government's immigration lawyers in Philadelphia.

The problem isn't limited to judges who reject asylum requests, said Frederick.

"The problem is on both extremes," Frederick said. "There also has been some really terrible behavior by judges who grant the requests in favor of the aliens."

[Soldier4Christ]

Immigration issues are not exclusive to the U.S. alone.


__________________________


Thousands Rally in Paris Over Immigration

PARIS — Thousands of people marched through Paris on Saturday to protest plans to tighten restrictions on immigration and step up deportations of immigrant families with children who are in the country illegally.

Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy's new immigration law, which passed in parliament Friday, makes it harder to gain residency permits and ends the practice of automatically granting papers to illegal immigrants who can prove they have lived in France for 10 years. Sarkozy also has vowed to send home at least 25,000 illegals this year, up from about 20,000 in 2005.

Many leaders of the Socialist opposition attended Saturday's march, including former Finance Minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn, former Prime Minister Laurent Fabius and former Labor Minister Martine Aubry.

Polls suggest illegal immigration is a top concern ahead of next year's presidential elections, with many in France fearing that immigrants poach jobs, soak up rich state welfare payments and commit crimes.

In October, Sarkozy temporarily suspended plans to deport thousands of school-age illegal immigrants and their families until the end of the academic year on July 4. With that date fast approaching, some activists say they are ready to hide families from police.

[Soldier4Christ]

Troopers use undocumented workers, may enforce immigration laws


BOSTON --Gov. Mitt Romney proposed deputizing state troopers, giving them the authority to arrest undocumented immigrants. But state police have for years relied on a cleaning company that is staffed in large part by undocumented immigrants, The Boston Globe reported Sunday.

More than 80 percent of the 192 workers at the company, National Facility Services of Boylston, had questionable or illegitimate Social Security numbers listed on 2004 payroll data.

The company has also had contracts to clean the state Department of Fish and Game, the state Executive Office of Environmental affairs and other government buildings.

A lawyer for the company said National Facility Services is now complying with immigration laws, even if it did hire undocumented immigrants in the past.

More than $2.2 million in state contracts have gone to the company since 2000. Its unionized workers clean state police headquarters in Framingham and 18 additional barracks in the Commonwealth.

Of the 192 workers whose records were reviewed, at least 18 had Social Security numbers of dead people. At least 162 of the workers appeared to have problems with their numbers.

A spokeswoman for the state police, Lt. Sharon Costine, said if police are using undocumented workers, "it shouldn't be happening."

A spokeswoman for the Turnpike Authority, which uses National Facility Services to clean the Fast Lane service center in Auburn said the authority would take "appropriate action" as far as doing business with the company.

Ali Noorani, executive director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition said the findings underscored the fact that undocumented immigrants bolster the economy.

"The irony from my perspective is that the governor is scapegoating immigrants, but then is turning around and realizing that his offices would not be clean without them," he said.

Eric Fehrnstrom, spokesman for the governor, would not say if Romney planned to take actions against National Facility Services.

"For anyone who has any doubts, this should dramatically illustrate why it is important for the state police to have the power to detain people who are in this country illegally," he said.

[Soldier4Christ]

 Never have we seen immigration on this scale: we just can't cope


'We recognise the positive contributions immigration makes to the country and the economy," the Prime Minister's official spokesman said last week. "If we don't have migration, we don't have the growth from the economy that we all benefit from."

He was responding to some concerns about the rate of immigration raised by Frank Field, the Labour MP for Birkenhead - but Downing Street's claim that "if we don't have immigration, we won't have economic growth" has been stated over and over again since Labour took office in 1997.

If you repeat something often enough, you can perhaps make people believe it. What you cannot do is turn it from being false into being true. And the Government's claim about the economic benefits of immigration is false. As an academic economist, I have examined many serious studies that have analysed the economic effects of immigration.

There is no evidence from any of them that large-scale immigration generates large-scale economic benefits for the existing population as a whole. On the contrary, all the research suggests that the benefits are either close to zero, or negative.

Immigration can't solve the pensions crisis, nor solve the problem of an ageing population, as its advocates so often claim. It can, at most, delay the day of reckoning, because, of course, immigrants themselves grow old, and they need pensions.

The injection of large numbers of unskilled workers into the economy does not benefit the bulk of the population to any great extent. It benefits the nanny-and housecleaner-using classes; it benefits employers who want to pay low wages; but it does not benefit indigenous, unskilled Britons, who have to compete with immigrants willing to work hard for very low wages in unpleasant working conditions.

For low-skilled Britons, the result is that there are only two options: very low pay or unemployment. The economy becomes dependent on a constant influx of immigrants who are willing to accept low pay and poor working conditions. That is what Labour ministers mean when they insist that "public services would collapse without immigrants".

It is bizarre that the Labour Party, which still continues to insist that it is the party of the poor and vulnerable, should endorse a policy the purpose of which is the creation of what Marx called "a reserve army of labour": a pool of workers whose presence ensures that rates of pay for cleaners and ancillary staff in the NHS can be kept as low as possible.

Highly skilled immigrants - doctors, scientists, lawyers, accountants, even professional sportsmen - can provide economic benefits to the whole of society. Their skills can generate wealth, and they pay far more in taxes than they receive in benefits from the state. But most immigrants who arrive in Britain from outside the EU, and who hope to settle permanently here, are not highly skilled. Some have no skills at all. Many female immigrants do not want to work in paid employment, or are actively discouraged from seeking it by their spouses and families.

Unskilled migrants and their families often are net consumers of taxes: their children are educated in state schools, they are looked after when they have medical problems by the NHS, and they are eligible for state benefits if they are unable to find work. The new arrivals place a significant strain on the housing stock and delivery of public services in the neighbourhoods where new immigrants live: schools, hospitals and GP surgeries become more crowded, and state-subsidised housing gets more difficult to obtain.

The places where most immigrants can afford to live are usually already poor: they are forced to congregate in those areas where the native population is already disadvantaged. These are not, of course, the areas in which Government ministers and the nanny-and cleaner-employing classes choose to buy their homes. That may explain why they don't seem to care about what happens to them.

It is important to dispense with some additional myths surrounding immigration. First: asylum-seekers are not the major cause of migration into the UK. Refugees and others granted special leave to remain under the asylum rules account for only 10 per cent of immigration to Britain. Most permanent immigration consists of people who are economic migrants together with their dependants.

They are here because they believe they have a better chance of a decent life in Britain than in their native country. They aren't people fleeing persecution. Many of them have been given work permits by the Government.

Second: while Britain has always had immigration, the recent influx is totally without precedent in modern times. Relative to population, the scale of immigration is now much greater than during any period since the Anglo-Saxon and Danish invasions over a thousand years ago.

In 2004, the most recent year for which statistics are available, 223,000 more people migrated into the UK than left it. Before Labour came to power, the number of people leaving Britain roughly balanced the number arriving, so the net contribution of immigration to population growth was modest. The total population of Britain was expected to remain roughly constant.

At the present rate of 223,000 additional immigrants every year, though, and adding the children that they will produce, the population of Britain will grow by more than 12 million to reach 73.2 million by 2046. There is no parallel for such a huge influx over a mere 40 years in our recorded history.

Most of the immigrants will settle in London and the South-East, because that is where the jobs are. There is already a chronic housing shortage in that part of England, a large portion of which is due to immigration.

It is difficult to see how many millions of extra people can be housed in the South-East without concreting over what few green field areas are left. Exacerbating the housing shortage and increasing the amount and density of built-on land, however, is only one of a series of transformations that will be triggered by the constant arrival of immigrants. They will inevitably completely change the culture and complexion of many cities.

I am not suggesting that all those changes will be bad, because I am sure that not all of them will be. While the immigration lobby tries to smear anyone who questions the benefits of large-scale immigration as "racist", the real issue is not whether you like or dislike the social changes that the colossal influx of immigrants will bring.

It is rather that the Government has embarked on a policy that will totally change the nature of many of the communities in which we live without consulting any of us.

"We have have always been completely open about our case for migration," said Downing Street last week. That is simply not true. Labour has never formally announced that it is committed to increasing immigration indefinitely: the closest any minister came to it was David Blunkett, who, as Home Secretary, announced that he thought there was "no natural limit" to the number of immigrants Britain could absorb.

But that's about it. There was nothing about increasing immigration in Labour's manifesto of 1997, or of 2001, or of 2005.

The only justification the Government has ever given for increasing immigration is the economic benefits it alleges immigration has for the existing population. But those benefits are a mirage, and if they are the only justification the Government has, it is following a policy which is based on a fundamental error.

We desperately need an honest debate on the issue. But if the Government's record is anything to go by, it will do everything it can to prevent one.

[Soldier4Christ]

Immigration at a crossroads: Vista residents cope with raids, rallies and rogues

By: EDWARD SIFUENTES - Staff Writer

VISTA ---- With rallies outside City Hall, Minutemen and pro-immigrant activists squaring off on street corners and teens hurling rocks at deputies in riot gear, this city of about 90,000 residents has caught more than its share of media attention in recent months.

It has become a flash point for a heated countywide, even national, debate on immigration.

And in the neighborhoods beyond the well-publicized street corners, after the news cameras are packed up, people who call Vista home ---- parents, activists, city leaders and day laborers, whose presence has attracted so much attention, ---- say the increasing tension is affecting the city in different ways.

"More than anything, I'm scared to come to the park," said Maria Hernandez, 58, who looked after her two young grandchildren at Raintree Park on Wednesday. "But kids get restless at home and they don't understand."

Opinion varies


Much of the tension in Vista revolves around day laborers who stand on corners looking for work and the groups trying to shut their gathering spots down.

Mike Spencer, a Vista resident who helped found one of the anti-illegal immigrant groups, said he is concerned about the high levels of uncontrolled immigration into the country and into Vista. His group, the Vista Citizens Brigade, routinely spies on employers looking to hire day laborers at the corner of South Santa Fe and Escondido avenues.

"I soon won't be able to communicate in the language that the Constitution was written in," Spencer said.

Dozens of day laborers, most of whom are Latino, have gathered for years at the corner and others throughout North County looking for work. The men say there are different reasons why they seek work in that manner. Some say they get higher wages, others say they want to supplement their income from other jobs and others say they are not legally allowed to work in the country.

Spencer and other activists say they believe most of the men are in the country illegally and avoid paying taxes by offering themselves as day laborers. Members of the group and others, such as the San Diego Minutemen, videotape and photograph would-be employers and their license plates.

Day laborers who gather on the corner said last week that work offers have dropped dramatically due to the anti-illegal immigration activists, who they say are racially motivated.

"They are nothing but racists who don't want us on the corner," said Jose Nieto, a 71-year-old day laborer who said he is a legal resident. "There is no work right now, and this is a time when there should be a lot of work. There are people here who haven't worked in 15 days."

Nieto said he works as a day laborer because businesses will not hire him due to his age.

Anti-illegal immigration activists reject the criticism that their efforts are racially motivated. They say their ranks include nonwhites.

"If they were racists, they would not have accepted me into their group," said Claudia Spencer, a Mexican immigrant and anti-illegal immigration activist who is married to Mike Spencer. "We oppose illegal immigration completely."

Political action


Nieto said he plans to leave Vista soon to stay with family in Boston. But many other day laborers said they will stubbornly hold on to their corner as long as they can. Immigrant rights activists are trying to help them.

Members of groups of pro-immigrant activists, including the Coalition for Justice, Peace and Dignity, regularly stand by day laborers videotaping and photographing their opponents. The clash prompted city leaders into action.

On Tuesday, the Vista City Council voted to adopt a law that requires employers to register with the city before hiring day laborers. Council members said the law, which anti-illegal immigrants support, aims to curb abuses against day laborers ---- including employers who skip out on workers without paying them.

Council members reject criticisms from Latinos that the law is biased against Latino workers.

"The ordinance is not about race," said Councilman Frank Lopez. "It's to protect the day laborers in this community."

Pro-immigrant advocates say the new law, which was drafted by City Attorney Darold Pieper without prior public input, is a thinly veiled attempt to remove the day workers.

"Everyone but the city attorney seems to know what this is really about," said Claudia Smith, a longtime immigrant rights activist.

The day labor law comes in the midst of a national debate on immigration. Congressional leaders plan a series of hearings in the coming weeks in San Diego and throughout the country on proposed immigration reform plans.

Leaders in the U.S. House and Senate are at loggerheads over widely differing legislation. The House measure strongly favors tough enforcement efforts, while the Senate would provide a guest-worker program.

In Vista, Tina Jillings, who heads the Coalition of Justice, Peace and Dignity, said the city's day labor law also comes on the heels of increasing cooperation between local law enforcement and immigration enforcement agents that are creating a sense of fear and uncertainty among illegal immigrants in the community.

Sheriff's Department Lt. Hernando Torres said his department is accused by both pro-immigrant and anti-immigrant groups of being in cahoots with the other side. He said his deputies are expected to enforce the law without prejudice toward anyone.

"My personal beliefs stay at home," Torres said in his office where music in Spanish sometimes plays softly in the background. "Once we put our uniform on, we don't take sides."

cont'd

[Soldier4Christ]

On the beat


Torres, a 23-year veteran of the force who has spent a large part of his career in Vista, said the department is taking steps to make inroads with the Latino community. For example, the department developed a workbook that teaches English learners about the role of the department.

But Torres also acknowledges that the department needs to hire more Spanish-speaking officers to better serve the city. Only five of the department's 82 sworn personnel serving in Vista, and only one of the 38 deputies on patrol, speak Spanish fluently, he said.

"That's the problem that I have," he said. "Now you know what the problem is."

The language barrier may be contributing to the residents' sense of fear. Some say they are afraid to call on deputies for help because the Sheriff's Department sometimes works with immigration officials.

Last summer, three Latino men died in deputy-involved shootings that galvanized pro-immigrant, Latino-rights activists. The shootings also spurred grass-roots groups of anti-illegal immigrant activists to action.

Torres said his department sometimes has little choice in that matter. The Sheriff's Department has several cooperative relationships with other state, federal and local law enforcement groups, such as gang and traffic-control task forces.

As part of those task forces, deputies work with immigration agents to arrest gang members or set up checkpoints to catch people driving without licenses, insurance, seat belts or proper registration.

Deputies and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested 52 people for various crimes, including 30 for immigration violations, in late May.

It was the fourth weekend that the Vista Sheriff's Station has conducted the patrols with help from ICE officials.

Some Latino residents in the Townsite neighborhood say they appreciate the work deputies have done to help prevent crime in the area.

"I think people fear that if they call the police, the police are going to call immigration, but I tell them not to be afraid," said Jorge Luis Perez, a Townsite resident. "We have to help one another."

On patrol, sheriff's Deputy Bill Thomas is regularly called to help other deputies. He is the department's only fluent Spanish speaker assigned to patrol duty in Vista.

Thomas was called to help defuse a tense situation involving a Latino teenager threatening to hurt himself; he helped interpret for a Spanish-speaking woman involved in a traffic collision; and he spoke in Spanish with a man who said his girlfriend had left with their child ---- all within the span of the first three hours of his 12-hour shift Thursday afternoon.

"(Being bilingual) helps me because it helps me get my job done," Thomas said.

'Trust in God'


Another problem facing the Sheriff's Department in Vista is frequent turnover, officials said. Patrolling the city's streets is both demanding and rewarding, Torres said.

Deputies gain experience quicker in the city than in other parts of the county. When higher posts become available, Vista officers can point to a large body of work and are often promoted, Torres said.

That is partly why he took the Vista assignment, Thomas said.

"Patrol is a requirement for anything else in law enforcement," he said. "This is a busy city and things can happen at any time."

Latino activists say the city needs to create its own police department, rather than contract with the Sheriff's Department, because they believe such a department will mean less turnover, more accountability and greater understanding of the Latino community in Vista.

City and Sheriff's Department officials have said that the department provides a level of service that the city could not otherwise afford, including the ability to provide over 100 deputies and a helicopter on short notice, as it did Tuesday when protesters on both sides of the illegal immigration divide rallied.

For Hernandez, the Vista grandmother, and other residents, the trade-off comes in simpler terms. She said she has seen immigration agents arrest many people in the neighborhood. She has also seen many cars impounded at checkpoints near Townsite Park.

She arrived about 20 years ago from Mexico, she worked many years picking tomatoes, and she raised a family by herself. Her grown children are now sponsoring her to legalize her immigration status, she said. But she still lives in fear that she may one day be caught outside her home and deported, she said.

"We have to trust in God, and we have to leave our homes sometimes," she said.

[Soldier4Christ]

State creates new division to deal with immigration

A step forward in Colorado's response in immigration reform began as three of the more controversial laws approved by Democrats take effect, including a special task force created to enforce these measures.

According to Senate Bill 225, Colorado will begin paying more than $1.5 million to create a division within the Colorado State Patrol to address immigration, specifically human trafficking and smuggling.

"I think they (Coloradans) should be glad that we did something," Rep. Jim Riesberg, D-Greeley said. "For the most part it's not as much as people wanted to be done but because we are so limited in what we could do it was as much that could be done."

One of the biggest tasks for legislature was developing a plan that didn't interfere with existing federal immigration laws, Riesberg said. So the legislature created Senate bills 206 and 207, which make it a felony for the people who help illegal immigrants come into the state, either by trafficking or by smuggling them in exchange for barter or compensation.

If federal statutes limit Colorado Legislature, people like Aaron Sanchez of Greeley are questioning how effective these laws will be.

"My first reaction to this law was that it was a knee-jerk reaction," Sanchez, a former FBI agent, said. "What you're asking officers to do to is enable them to determine, when they're on the highway, who those illegal aliens are. It is the closest thing to racial profiling."

And while it's too early to say how the division will operate, Capt. Jon Barba of the state patrol said the 24-member division will be fully operational by July 1, 2007.

Barba, who was promoted to captain after taking the position as the unit's leader, will be officially sworn in July 12.

"We at the state patrol are very supportive of the legislative decision. I am very familiar with the issues and all of the bills passed," Barba said. "We are going to do the best we can with our resources to address the issues."

Within the year Barba, Sgt. D.J. Brown, Maj. Scott Hernandez and 10 troopers, yet to be announced, will work to decide how the unit will operate and address any community concerns, Barba said.

"We are going to start meeting immediately," Barba said. "We have a lot of operational issues that we have to work through."

The unit will also be working closely with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to be trained in handling immigration issues.

The enforcement office will have continuous oversight on the division and through a six-week training program to teach the unit how to combat immigration, said Carl Rusnok, director of communications for Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Central Region.

"We will routinely work very closely with all types of law enforcement agencies," Rusnok said. "It's all in the name of helping to keep the community safe."

Before the division creates a set of guidelines, Hernandez said, one of goals during the preliminary stages is researching the issues.

"I think that it's too early to know all the key things. We want to go through and identify those issues and work with ICE," Hernandez said. "My direction is that we do things within the intent of what our legislature has given us."

IMMIGRATION LAWS TAKING EFFECT

«Senate Bill 206, Human Smuggling: Targets people who profit from helping illegal immigrants enter, remain or travel through the U. S. or Colorado illegally. Effective July 1, 2006

«Senate Bill 207, Human Trafficking: Targets people who sell, exchange or barter with illegal immigrants for compensation. Effective July 1, 2006

«Senate Bill 225, Immigration Task Force: A special task force within the Colorado State Patrol to combat illegal immigration on state highways. Effective July 6, 2006

«Senate Bill 90, Prohibit Illegal Immigration Sanctuaries: Prohibits local governments from communicating or cooperating with federal officials with regard to immigration status of people within the state. Prohibits illegal immigration sanctuaries. Effective May 1, 2006

«Senate Bill 110, Prohibits Illegal Work/Resident Status: Sets a minimum $50,000 fine for forging employment documents falsely showing a person is eligible to work legally in the U. S. Effective May 30, 2006

«House Bill 1343, Employment of Illegal Immigrants for Public Contracts: Requires state contractors to prove they do not hire illegal immigrants and hire investigators within the Department of Labor for work site visits to enforce the law. Effective Aug. 7, 2006

«House Bill 1306, the Secure and Verifiable Identity Document Act: Requires the state to audit the Secure and Verifiable Identity Document Act to investigate better ways to ensure the security of identity documents, such as birth certificates. Effective Sept. 1, 2006

«House Joint Resolution 1023, Assembly's Endorsement of the Western Governors' Association Policy Resolution on the U.S. and Mexico Border Security and Illegal Immigration: A consensual agreement between the House and the Senate to endorse a comprehensive plan to address immigration on federal level sent to congress. The plan was in favor of a guest worker plan and opposed to expedited amnesty. Signed by the speaker of the House May 31, 2006

Source: Colorado General Assembly Website

[Soldier4Christ]

Reforming immigration policy
House GOP leaders plan a series of public hearings on immigration reform during the August recess. That will put off final House-Senate negotiations until the fall.

In the Senate

On May 25, senators passed legislation, 62-36, to give most illegal immigrants a chance to become U.S. citizens. Those who have lived in the U.S. for five years or more — about 7 million people — eventually would be granted citizenship if they remained employed, passed background checks, paid fines and back taxes, and enrolled in English classes. Among other provisions: a guest-worker program, and increased security — surveillance cameras, sensors and other monitoring equipment — along the long, porous border with Mexico.

How senators from S.C. voted

Lindsey Graham (R) — Yes

“Our borders are broken. We don’t have control over who comes into the country and how they get jobs. Today we made progress in addressing the immigration problems facing our nation.”

Jim DeMint (R) — No

“We will never solve the problem of illegal immigration by rewarding those who break our laws. We must stop illegal immigration by securing the border and creating a temporary worker program that does not reward illegal behavior with a clear path to citizenship and voting rights.”

In the House

The legislation, which the House passed 239-182 in mid-December, focuses on enforcement and punishment, including making it a federal crime to live in the United States illegally. Provisions also include a crackdown on employers who hire illegal immigrants and hundreds of miles of fences along the U.S.-Mexican border.

How congressmen from S.C. voted

Henry Brown (R) — Yes

Bob Inglis (R) — Yes

Joe Wilson (R) — Yes

Jim Clyburn (D) — No

John Spratt (D) — No

Gresham Barrett (R) — did not vote

[Soldier4Christ]

Group rallies to protest immigration, amnesty
More than 60 gather at Fort Myers City Hall


Illegal immigrants living in the United States, border control and proposed amnesty laws brought out more than 60 people to protest Saturday at Fort Myers City Hall.

The rally was organized by Southwest Florida-based Americans Standing Tall. The group was started in mid-April after a rally where about 75,000 people took to the streets of Fort Myers in support of granting amnesty to illegal immigrants who live and work in the United States.

In May, President Bush authorized the deployment of National Guard troops to supplement border patrol efforts while also reiterating support for an amnesty program that allows illegal immigrants living in the U.S. to become citizens and for a guest worker program.

Rally participants said there was already an amnesty program in 1986, and there is no need for another one.

"We're trying to get awareness out," said Bob June, 46, of Naples. "This is not a racial thing. We are not white supremacists. We're mainly concerned with protecting our borders first. You have to start somewhere to stop it. Everybody talks about it, but nobody takes action."

Many of the people at Saturday's anti-immigration rally carried American flags, cardboard signs and bumper stickers that expressed their opposition.

One sign read, "What part of illegal don't you understand?"

Glenice Reed, 59, of Punta Gorda, carried another that said "Deportation. No Amnesty."

"I think our borders should be respected," she said. "Our immigrants should come here legally and have background checks for criminal records, health checks, and they should follow our laws."

Reed said she used to live in Los Angeles and frequently saw fraudulent documentation being sold to illegal immigrants.

She said employers have no way of verifying whether documentation is fake and worry if they refuse to hire someone because of doubts, they will be accused of racism.

"I'm tired of people thumbing their noses at our borders," she said.

Janice Johnson, 68, of Estero, worries illegal immigrants will bankrupt the U.S. government.

"I can see what the future holds for us," she said.

"They are draining us dry financially through Social Security, the schools and the hospitals. We can't handle this and we shouldn't. Mexico should handle their own."

Throughout the rally, participants sang the "Star Spangled Banner" and recited the Pledge of Allegiance.

[Soldier4Christ]

IMMIGRATION FACTS


• During the 1990s, an average of more than 1.3 million immigrants — legal and illegal — settled in the United States each year. Between January 2000 and March 2002, 3.3 million additional immigrants arrived.


• The Immigration and Naturalization Service estimated in January 2000 there were seven million illegal immigrants living in the United States, a number that is growing by 500,000 a year.


• In 2003, the illegal-immigrant population was an estimated eight million. Included in this estimate are about 78,000 illegal immigrants from countries that are of special concern in the war on terror.
Source: Center for Immigration Studies.

[Soldier4Christ]

Mexican mom risks immigration hurdles for sick child
After months of separation, she's able to be with her son as he dies

LUBBOCK - A rosary lies across the corner of 8-year-old Luis Carranza's pillow, the cross placed closest to his soft, brown hair.

An oxygen mask covers his mouth and nose, and his breaths are short and rapid. A pillow supports his nearly motionless, frail body. Taped along the foot of his hospital bed are the letters "DNR," meaning do not resuscitate.

Every hour a different volunteer stays with him, stroking his face and talking softly to him, as part of the hospital's No One Dies Alone program.

For months, Luis has been comforted by strangers. His mother, Guadalupe Carranza, illegally secreted him into the country in hopes of medical salvation from cancer. But after she found helpful health care and social services in this West Texas town, she was deported to Mexico.

Carranza struggled to return to her son before it was too late, separated by hundreds of miles, a border and stricter U.S. immigration policies. She entrusted his care to doctors, nurses, social workers and attorneys, who in turn worked to find a legal way to unite mother and son.

Doctors in Luis' hometown of Juarez, Mexico, just across the border from El Paso, diagnosed him just months earlier with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The serious but treatable cancer attacks white blood cells, bone marrow, the spleen and occasionally the central nervous system of young children.

Luis' mother doubted whether the Mexican doctors would provide him the best treatment, and with good reason. Luis was disfigured as an infant when doctors botched a facial surgery; the reason for the surgery is unclear.

As Luis became more ill, Carranza decided to slip across the border to seek better medical care. She was turned away from a hospital in El Paso because she lacked medical insurance. Then someone told her that the university hospital in Lubbock might treat Luis, so she boarded a bus and made the 10-hour trip with her son.

Almost immediately, the youngster began chemotherapy and radiation. "This is what we do," said Dr. Anthony Cecalupo, Luis' pediatric oncologist. "The patient had leukemia. He needed to be treated."

For seven months, Guadalupe, 39, and Luis traveled by bus between the border and Lubbock for treatments, which he needed about every two weeks to improve his chances of survival. Hospital charity workers arranged for free bus tickets.

Sometimes the single mother brought her two other children, Lourdes, 6, and Tony, 10, and the family stayed at a Ronald McDonald House near the hospital. Other times, Luis' siblings would stay in El Paso, where their grandparents live.

As the months passed, Carranza missed a couple of appointments by a few days. Last September, she arrived at the hospital 10 days late. The tardiness prompted someone at the hospital to call Child Protective Services to report medical neglect. The state agency began an investigation.

In October, Judge Kevin Hart removed Luis, Lourdes and Tony from Carranza's custody and placed them in foster care but made the rare exception of allowing her to share custody.

Hart called it one of the toughest decisions he's ever made in his six years of handling CPS cases, but he said he thought keeping the children in Lubbock would ensure Luis got treatment and provide stability to his brother and sister.

"Essentially, she was homeless with three children," Hart said. "I had no doubts at all about her level of concern for the children's welfare."

Luis was separated from his brother and sister to live in a foster home for children with medical needs.

Carranza left Lubbock to arrange for Lourdes and Tony to stay with their grandparents in El Paso. About two weeks later, she failed to return for a court hearing. About that time, immigration authorities in El Paso discovered her and sent her back to Mexico, Hart said.

Luis had good days and bad days during his treatment, social worker Bliss Williams said. Sometimes she put Luis on her back and took him for piggyback rides to raise his spirits, or she would talk to him softly to soothe him.

Progress came slowly, but within months Luis' leukemia was in remission. He was "a happy child" and "in very good spirits," court documents show. Doctors were "very pleased" and remained "optimistic."

But the treatment that brought remission weakened his body so much that Luis began to suffer seizures in January. Chemotherapy and radiation ravaged his central nervous system, which resulted in "terminal and irreversible" brain damage, Dr. Melanie Oblender, one of Luis' doctors, wrote in court documents.

With Luis in a vegetative state — unable to walk, talk or feed himself — doctors insisted on a do-not-resuscitate order, said Neal Burt, an assistant district attorney who handles CPS cases in Lubbock. Cecalupo, Luis' pediatric oncologist, said in court records there was little chance for the boy's recovery.

Elizabeth J. McRae-Juarez, an attorney appointed to act on the boy's behalf, agreed that what was best for Luis was "to make sure he suffers as little as possible."

Desperate to be with her son, Carranza tried to sneak across the border but was caught and sent back to Mexico, Burt said.

Then in May, Guadalupe finally crossed the border legally.

A humanitarian visa allows her to stay for 60 days, but border officials agreed to let her stay beyond that so she can be with her son until he dies.