Immigration News

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Spain, Illegal Immigration Increasing

Spanish Police has intercepted three ships with more than 140 illegal immigrants including children coming from the African coasts in the last hours, confirmed Sunday official sources.

The last of the ships carrying 35 people, three of them children, was detected 17 miles away from Motril, Granada Sunday early morning.

According to one of the rescued persons, the ship's engine broke down and they were adrift for more than 48 hours.

Another vessel, carrying 72 illegal immigrants, five of them women and four children, all coming from Morocco, was also left at the mercy of the sea until the Maritime Rescue Team rescued the passengers.

Meanwhile, on Saturday evening the coastguard service rescued the very first undocumented people of that wave, more than 23 of which came from Sub-Saharan countries.

Despite government negotiations and measures to control illegal immigration, it seems impossible for the authorities to stop the spiral of immigrants using Spain as a way to enter the so-called-old Continent in search for a better economic future.

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U.S.'s El Salvador order an immigration loophole
More people are claiming to fall under clause that was meant to help refugees of war


An 18-year-old federal court order — originally intended to protect refugees from a civil war in El Salvador — has become a gaping hole in the Bush administration's effort to stop the flow of illegal immigrants across the border.

The order, known as the Orantes injunction, became a loophole when the administration ramped up a controversial policy to speed the deportation of illegal immigrants from countries other than Mexico, known as OTMs, by bypassing immigration courts.

The "expedited return" program, which took effect along all of the nation's borders and coastlines in January, is designed to end a practice known as "catch and release," in which illegal immigrants from countries other than Mexico are released after being issued notices to appear in immigration courts.

"We used to call it the notice to disappear," said Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez, whose border county has become a thoroughfare for illegal crossings.

Though notices to appear formerly were given to all apprehended illegal immigrants from Latin American countries other than Mexico, authorities now aim to reach a point where they are issued only to Salvadorans, because of the Orantes injunction. Others are detained.

As a result, Salvadorans — or people claiming to be Salvadoran — have risen to the top of the list of OTMs apprehended by immigration officials, according to figures from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Smugglers' hints
Border Patrol spokesman Todd Fraser acknowledged that smugglers are telling illegal immigrants to masquerade as Salvadorans to avoid deportation.

Authorities say 33,053 Salvadorans were apprehended nationwide during the first eight months of fiscal 2006, which began Oct. 1. That's more than one-third of the total of 83,484 other-than-Mexican illegal immigrants apprehended during that period.

Many Salvadorans surrender to immigration officials because they know they are likely to be released with a notice to appear, said CBP spokesman Xavier Rios.

"As word gets out that Salvadorans are not being subject to expedited removal, we have to go back and rely on the traditional (catch-and-release) removal process," Rios said.

He said immigration officials test claims of Salvadoran nationality with probing questions and by listening for non-Salvadoran accents.

The Bush administration is trying to plug the loophole by asking U.S. District Judge Margaret M. Morrow of Los Angeles to amend the Orantes injunction, which was imposed in 1988 by a federal judge in Los Angeles. The injunction was intended to prevent immigration officials from improperly discouraging Salvadorans who sought political asylum here because of the civil war in their homeland. It was tightened in 1990 after the court found violations by officials in South Texas.

The injunction requires, in part, that Salvadorans be advised of their right to a deportation hearing and an attorney, and to apply for political asylum. The administration argues that it is no longer needed because the civil war has ended.

But Karen Tumlin, spokeswoman for the National Immigration Law Center, which filed the Orantes lawsuit, said many Salvadorans now are fleeing violent gangs that are used as militias for political purposes.

Expedited removal
Linton Joaquin, lead attorney for the plaintiffs in the Orantes case, said the loophole exists only because the administration has chosen to exclude Salvadorans from the expedited removal program, he said.

Even with the injunction, Joaquin said, Salvadorans can be returned under expedited removal as long as they are notified of their right to make an asylum claim.

Expedited removal began as a pilot program in the Laredo and Tucson, Ariz., border areas in 2004, said Fraser, the Border Patrol spokesman. The administration enacted it to take advantage of a 1996 law allowing immigration officials to bypass immigration courts and speed the deportation process.

Authorities began phasing in expedited removal elsewhere last September. It was expanded in January this year.

In January, Fraser said, expedited removal took an average of 16 days, compared with 89 days for those removed without it.

Tumlin said immigration officials are still abusing immigrant rights under expedited removal. A study last year by the congressionally created U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom found "serious, but not insurmountable, problems with expedited removal" in the treatment of immigrants who fear persecution if they are returned to their home countries.

Expedited removal also strains overburdened detention facilities, a problem that requires the continued use of the catch-and-release policy, immigration officials said.

Although expedited removal is in effect nationwide, immigration officials are far from achieving their goal of eliminating catch and release. Of the 76,463 other-than-Mexican illegal immigrants detained during the first seven months of fiscal 2006, more than half were released with notices to appear, according to the CBP.

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 Texas border adviser: Register immigrants


AUSTIN — It’s impossible to budget for an expense if you don’t know the price.

That’s the concept Buddy Garcia — the Texas deputy secretary of state and Republican Gov. Rick Perry’s adviser on border issues — thinks is lost in the boisterous national debate over how to reform immigration policy.

First and foremost, everyone illegally here should be required to register with the government, he said. Every person would be fingerprinted, receive an identification number and be placed in a database accessible to all levels of government so leaders can approve budgets with an idea of how much money they must set aside for social services.

Garcia brought up his idea during a recent interview discussing border affairs.

“There isn’t enough attention, I think, on the idea that if you’re going to change anything, the emphasis needs to be on some form of verifiable ID,” Garcia said.

Registering alone would not give anyone legal status or put them on a track to legal status.

Garcia did not address whether the U.S. Border Patrol or Immigration and Naturalization Service would use the database for their purposes.

But he said an identification program would provide a foundation for other initiatives Congress might consider in the future, such as guest-worker programs, and it would help legislators at all levels accurately budget their social service programs.

While it is not clear if Perry supports the program Garcia suggests, Garcia does speak for the Perry administration on border issues.

There is no set timeline to implement a border identification card program in Texas at this time, Garcia said.

And he acknowledges many illegally here would not come forward to register.

But he thinks many will register if they are not forced to pay unreasonable fines and if they are threatened with tougher penalties for breaking the law if they haven’t registered after, say, two years.

In other words, registering should be a stick, not a carrot, he said.

Growing up in Brownsville, Garcia said he learned quickly that most people who illegally cross into the United States want to work, nothing more.

He doesn’t think seeking work makes it OK to break the law, though. He doesn’t like that once in the United States illegally, many engage in other illegal activities, like driving without a license or using false Social Security numbers to get benefits.

State and local governments in border states take the brunt of those practices, he said.

“I think there’s too much talk about how people are just coming for a job and (so) what’s the harm,” Garcia said. “That’s not the issue. The issue is once you’re here, you are probably taking social services and how do we pay those bills?

“We can’t begin to document those programs until we put (illegal immigrants) on a database,” he said.

Garcia doesn’t downplay the importance of securing the border. He said it must be sealed, but with the recognition that there have always been and will always be people who come north to work.

“I really do feel that it is a labor mobility issue more so than an immigration issue,” he said. “People are here now, and that is missed when we talk about sealing border.”

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Falling wages tied to immigrants

President Bush, addressing the nation on his immigration-overhaul plan last month, declared that granting temporary visas to immigrants would merely give them a chance at "jobs Americans are not doing."

A growing number of economists challenge the contention that Americans aren't willing to take on those low-end jobs; it's kitchen-table economics, not the sweat factor, that keeps them away.

These economists' studies indicate many Americans want those jobs -- they just can't afford to take them because of declining pay and benefits. And they say the influx of immigrants has helped drive down compensation in occupations such as the needle trades, landscaping and restaurant help.

"The idea that somehow you have a need for people to do jobs that Americans won't do is just insane," says George Borjas, an economist at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who has written extensively about immigration and wages. He says that as immigrants flow into an occupation, "the wage goes down, and you go do something else."

The issue has become central to the debate over immigration, a controversy that has divided the Republican Party and the nation.

Philip Harvey, a professor of law and economics at the Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, says that salaries for the lowest-wage workers in all occupations increased by 7.4 percent from 2001 to 2005, while pay for all jobs rose by 11.4 percent during the same period. Harvey's study used data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Recent Decades

The disparity is greater over recent decades. The bottom 10 percent of wage-earners is the only group that has seen a decline in real wages -- 2.4 percent -- since 1979, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington think-tank with ties to organized labor. The group's study was also based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Administration officials, who are advancing a plan to establish a guest-worker program for immigrants and a path to citizenship for undocumented aliens, say newcomers aren't elbowing aside American job-seekers. "We have got jobs that are available, that need to get done, that American citizens are not willing to do," Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said in a June 14 interview.

The precise effect of immigration on the U.S. economy is a source of debate among economists. Some say it isn't fair to blame immigration flows for wage shifts. The transition to a post-industrial information economy and the growing impact of globalization may be more critical factors, they say.

"Immigration has relatively little to do with the state of the American job market," says Bradford DeLong, professor of economics at the University of California at Berkeley. "Globalization has a bunch."

Exaggerated Threat

Pro-immigration business groups say that those on the other side of the debate exaggerate the threat posed by undocumented workers. Martin Regalia, chief economist at the Washington-based U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the nation's largest business lobby, says many of the nation's unemployed are seeking higher-end jobs than those that immigrants typically take.

In Regalia's view, heeding calls to send undocumented workers packing would create labor shortages. "The hyperbole that comes into this debate doesn't mesh well with the numbers," he says.

Immigrants form a larger segment of the work force in the U.S. than in some European countries. Foreign-born workers made up 14.7 percent of the U.S. civilian labor force in 2005, according to Census data. In the U.K. and Germany, the figures were 9.6 percent and 12.2 percent respectively in 2004, the last year for which they were available, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Continued Interest

There is evidence that Americans continue to be interested in low-skill jobs ranging from tailoring to hotel service to food preparation, some of the industries where immigrants are making their biggest inroads.

Steven Camarota, research director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington-based group that backs immigration controls, says Census data show U.S. natives still make up the majority of workers in most of these occupations.

For example, he said, indigenous workers account for 62 percent of all maids and housekeepers and 60 percent of dry-wall installers, based on 2003-2004 Census figures. "There's a high degree of native interest in being a maid or housekeeper," Camarota says. "If the wages were better, you certainly could attract more."

Loading Freight

James Lynch, a 45-year-old unemployed electrician from Fayetteville, North Carolina, says he's unloaded freight and held two other temporary jobs since he lost a good job at an electrical-contracting firm in Durham in 2004. None of those stints led to permanent work, a situation he blames on immigrants willing to toil for sub-par wages.

Lynch says he passed up the chance to apply for full-time status at his subsequent jobs because employers "wanted me to work for a lot less pay than I'm used to getting. They can go and get cheaper labor" from immigrant ranks.

Immigrants' wages are lower on average than those for the native-born, according to a study by the Urban Institute, a Washington research group. It found nearly half of immigrants earn less than 200 percent of the minimum wage as opposed to about one-third of native-born workers.

Still, some economists say, if immigrants are grabbing off so many jobs, why has the U.S. entered a period of sustained low unemployment? The national unemployment rate in May was only 4.6 percent.

Other experts say the rosy unemployment numbers mask the growing number of Americans who are not participating in the labor force. That number rose to 35.5 million in 2005 from 30.8 million in 2000, says Camarota, citing Census data.

Beyond the Fringe

Aside from low wages, the lack of fringe benefits for jobs in low-wage industries may be discouraging native-born applicants. The percentage of workers earning between $10,000 and $20,000 a year who were eligible for a company-sponsored health plan in 2002 was 56 percent, compared to 92.4 percent for those earning $50,000 or more, according to an analysis by the non- partisan Employee Benefit Research Institute.

In construction, one of the U.S. occupations where immigrants make up an increasing share of the workforce, 46 percent of workers have no employer-provided health plan, statistics compiled by the Laborers' International Union show.

For his part, Bush continues to assert that immigrant labor is vital to economic prosperity. "It makes sense to say, if someone is willing to do a job Americans aren't doing, here's a temporary way to come and work," he said in May 18 remarks in Yuma, Arizona.

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Religious leaders discuss migration

Understanding the issue is first step to an answer, they say

Religious leaders from the Salem area took a first step Friday toward educating the community about immigration.

A group of about a dozen clergy from various faiths came together during a press conference at First Congregational United Church of Christ.

The faith leaders issued a statement signed by 20 pastors outlining actions that they will take to address the emotionally charged issue.

"As people of faith, we feel called to express a message of hope and justice that leads to action," the statement read.

The group also highlighted concerns about what they say is an upheaval in the community about immigration.

"We should not let the debate degenerate into an issue of racial tension," Francisco López, a member of Queen of Peace Catholic Church, told a group of about 50 people who attended the meeting.

The leaders also detailed plans to send a diverse delegation to the Arizona border, Oaxaca, Mexico, and El Salvador.

"I think that's a waste of time," Davíd Loera told the clergymen and clergywomen.

"We should concentrate our efforts here because the negative attitudes are here," said Loera, a retired educator and a member of the Marion County Democrats.

López responded by saying, "We need to go investigate the root causes of migration; we need to know what the impact is of our government's policies on those nations."

The Rev. Gail McDougle, the pastor of First Congregational United Church of Christ, agreed.

"We need to educate ourselves," the reverend said. "Not many churches are even talking about issues this big.

"It's the churches' place to speak out on behalf of our sisters and brothers because many of these people aren't strangers anymore. They are our neighbors and friends."

Among the groups' plan is to help immigrants through the process of becoming U.S. citizens, to educate and advocate to elected officials regarding fair immigration laws and to open doors to all immigrants in faith communities.

"One of the things we've forgotten is that we are a nation of immigrants," McDougle said. "I think that's wrongheaded and part of the problem."

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Welfare director says immigrants aren't a burden on economy


Butte County, like many other areas in the United States, is home to a large immigrant population. And as the national debate over how to approach American immigration policy swells, Butte County remains a microcosmic theater where residents witness firsthand the tenuous conflict that is so often diluted by opinion, emotions and politics on both sides of the debate.

Advocates for and against immigration are concerned about issues regarding agriculture, social services and health care.

One of the main components of opposition for immigration is a fear that immigrants are a drain and a burden on the economy. But, Cathi Grams, welfare director and public guardian of Butte County, disagrees.

Financial assistance is limited in scope, Grams said. While undocumented individuals may receive health care coverage for emergency medical treatments ranging from breast cancer or pregnancies to a broken arm, they are not eligible for the temporary cash assistance programs.

Enloe Medical Center, a private nonprofit health care provider, offers health care services and payment plans for uninsured individuals, but they do not keep records on legal residency status for the individuals who use these services.

Christina Chavira, a public relations representative for the hospital, made it clear that Enloe is private, and when the hospital treats uninsured individuals who cannot pay, the cost is incurred by the hospital.

Ed McLaughlin, who sits on the board of directors of the Butte County Farm Bureau, has worked in the agricultural sector of Butte County for years, and his personal experiences have molded his thoughts on immigration.

"The immigrant workers pay their taxes and if they're not documented, they can't collect on the system they are paying into," McLaughlin said. "Immigrants are a benefit to our community."

Also, McLaughlin said the immigration debate too frequently focuses on illegal migrant field workers. The reality of the situation tells a much different story.

"You can't always pin everything to agriculture," he said. "Immigrants come to this country and work as plumbers, roofers, as electricians and in construction. Not just agriculture."

But misconceptions are sometimes given more attention than real experiences, McLaughlin said.

Butte County immigrants have displayed strong family ties in this community, he said. This type of close-knit family structure benefits everyone and represents what Butte County immigrants stand for.

"I think we could learn a thing or two from them," he said.

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Mexican Migrants in U.S. Head to Polls

 Thousands of Mexicans living in the United States traveled by plane, bus and car to Mexican border cities to vote in Sunday's hotly contested presidential election.

The Mexican government set up 86 polling places along the 2,000-mile border, mostly for migrants who missed out on the country's historic absentee ballot campaign.

 Across the border from San Diego in Tijuana, a sprawling city of more than 1 million people, out-of-town voters arrived Sunday by bus from Los Angeles and other California cities. Many said they made the trip because they received little information about how to request absentee ballots, lacked the correct voting card, or did not fill out their applications correctly.

Maria Salome Rodriguez, a 38-year-old farm worker, drove eight hours with her husband from Fresno, Calif., and waited for two hours to vote at a polling booth outside Tijuana's airport. She and her husband decided to make the trip to the border after their applications for absentee ballots were rejected because they wrote down the wrong address.

"We want to vote so Mexico can improve and offer jobs to people here, because even though we're far away, our heart is still with our homeland," said Rodriguez, who declined to name the candidate she voted for.

Lawmakers approved a law last year to allow the estimated 10 million Mexicans living in the United States to vote by mail for the first time. But the effort was thrown together to beat electoral deadlines, and only about 32,632 absentee ballots from 71 countries were mailed to the Federal Electoral Institute.

Of those, 479 did not meet requirements and were rejected, electoral officials said.

In addition to Tijuana's regular polling centers for residents, 20 special centers were set up across the city for migrants as well as active-duty soldiers, factory workers and others who have come to the area recently from the interior of the country.

The presidential election is the first since outgoing President Vicente Fox's stunning victory in 2000 ended 71 years of rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI.

The race was close between former Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party, and Felipe Calderon, a former energy secretary from Fox's conservative National Action Party. Running in third place is Roberto Madrazo, the candidate for the PRI.

Salome's husband, 49-year-old construction worker Pedro Hernandez, said he was voting for Calderon.

"I could be resting at home but voting for me is a moral responsibility," Hernandez said. "I'm happy to be part of this because we're living a new democracy, and _ who knows? _ maybe my vote can decide this election."

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Del Rio border influx drops
Immigrant jail policy, Guard presence are given credit for fewer arrests

DEL RIO - Nearly 5,000 immigrants were arrested in June 2005 trying to enter the United States illegally through this area. But this June, only about 2,000 people were nabbed after crossing the perilous Rio Grande into the stark and punishing brush country of southwest Texas.

Long overwhelmed by immigrants and smugglers, U.S. Border Patrol officials last week said traffic into the region has plummeted because of increased law enforcement, deployment of the National Guard and an experiment with expedited hearings to curtail the "catch-and-release" phenomenon.

"Everything together has just stopped the traffic," supervisory patrol agent Hilario Leal Jr. said.

As a direct result, smuggling is shifting as far away as Arizona, officials said. And in a meeting here last week with Gov. Rick Perry, several border county sheriffs said the drop in immigrant flow corresponds with significant reductions in major crimes.

The sheriffs, along with state and federal law enforcement officers, participated in a three-week crackdown on human and contraband smuggling in the Del Rio region, which includes a 210-mile stretch of the Rio Grande from here to Eagle Pass.

It's not known when or where along the border the next such enforcement push will take place, however, and it remains to be seen how long the dip in activity in Texas will last.

The blitz, which ended June 26, complemented stepped-up Border Patrol operations in this area but didn't involve the Texas National Guard troops who began arriving in mid-June.

Even so, the Guard's internationally publicized deployment apparently has discouraged illegal immigration into Texas, Leal said.

"The mention of the National Guard coming down, that's had a big deterrence on traffic," he said.

Stint in jail
Another significant factor has been "Operation Streamline II," which addresses the "catch-and-release" practice that mainly affects immigrants from nations other than Mexico. Rather than freeing arrested immigrants if they promised to reappear for hearings, federal courts here have been prosecuting immigrants for illegal entry and other offenses. Tagged with a criminal record, they're usually sent to their home countries after being jailed an average of 60 days.

When the operation started in December, judicial logjams kept some apprehended immigrants from being prosecuted, but officials said those have eased.

Now, "if you're caught anywhere in Del Rio sector, you're going to 'Streamline,' " Leal said. "The combination of Streamline and the increased presence of local and state law enforcement has almost brought everything to a grinding halt."

"The courts quadrupled their workload, but it's working fine now. The initial shock to the system was taken well. The ones that were caught in the initial stages of the operation are heading back. It's a major deal," Leal said. Under the program, about 3,400 immigrants from several countries have been repatriated so far, officials said.

Dangerous to cross
A sharp drop in June arrests also was recorded in the McAllen area, where a program to expedite removal of apprehended immigrants began last July. Officials there believe the program is discouraging entry, especially by non-Mexican immigrants.

The waters of the Rio Grande are another key factor in immigration patterns. Despite Texas' drought, the river has been running relatively deep lately, making it dangerous to cross. That, along with a heightened law enforcement, was reflected in daily arrest numbers. One day last week, arrests sank to 38 for the entire Del Rio sector.

"Some days it will spike to 90, but I haven't seen a day when it's been over 100, and it used to be we were catching hundreds and hundreds a day," Leal said.

The change has boosted morale of Border Patrol agents at a time when they're getting relief in the form of National Guard troops, Leal added. In the past two weeks, about three dozen guardsmen set up and assumed some Border Patrol support tasks, freeing patrol officers to return to the field.

"The Guard is a tremendous force multiplier because it lets us get out there," Leal said. "If you've got a guardsman watching a camera, that's an agent that can be out there. It doesn't seem like a lot, but before you know it, you've got an extra 10 guys per shift," he said.

The Guard's two-year mission to support the Border Patrol, as ordered by President Bush on May 15, has been unfolding gradually, with scores more troops expected in this area by late summer.

Unlike California, where Guard officials are straining to find sufficient troops to meet Pentagon goals and timetables, the Texas National Guard apparently has an adequate supply of volunteers making yearlong commitments to border duty. Lt. Col. Jose Figueroa, who commands Guard troops in the patrol's Del Rio sector, said the first soldiers to arrive are operating surveillance cameras and doing dispatching.

"We even have one of these guys taking care of the horses now at the stables," Figueroa said.

A better duty locale
No full Guard units were mobilized, so no mass movement of equipment was required for this deployment. Instead, after briefings at Camp Mabry in Austin, troops arrived under their own power, checked into motels and settled in for several weeks of duty before the possibility of leave.

Yet conditions here are rated nicer than those at the duty stations many of the guardsmen have endured in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"It beats standing in the sand with a tent. It's much better," Figueroa said.

Support roles only
Only two of the troops assigned here so far are from the area, the officer said. The vast majority left families and employers behind in cities across Texas.

"We all have jobs, but it's the sense of service that we have. It's the sense that somebody has to do it, and it's our call to duty," Figueroa said.

As more troops arrive, they'll be schooled in the Border Patrol's policies on use of force, participate in firearms training and bolster the patrol's ability to observe and report intruders along the river. But patrol and Guard officials insist the soldiers' roles will be support, not law enforcement.

"We are not authorized to apprehend anyone," Figueroa said.

"Actually, what we tell our guys is you should not touch an illegal alien. That's something these guys (Border Patrol) will do," he said.

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County warns ranchers on border fence

BISBEE — In response to a plan by the Minuteman Project to construct an Israeli-style border barrier on private land near Naco, the Cochise County Planning Department is advising area ranchers that any such project must comply with county zoning rules.

In a communiqu/ issued last week, the Minutemen announced they would begin constructing an Israeli-style security fence at an Arizona ranch in early July. The anti-illegal immigration group is currently overseeing the construction of a barbed-wire range fence on the border-front property of Jack and John Ladd in Palominas. Speaking at the May 27 groundbreaking for the Ladd’s fence, Minuteman leader Chris Simcox said his group was eyeing a property 4 1/2 miles east of Naco for its next effort.

Using that information, Cochise County Supervisor Paul Newman and Planning Director Judy Anderson drafted a letter to two local property owners asking for clarification.

“We have certain zoning regulations in place, and we need to apply them consistently and fairly to everybody,” Anderson said. “So we may need to make a determination about whether this fence actually meets our exemption for fences in rural areas.”

Her office was contacting the ranchers to gather details — such as the height, materials, and intended use of any potential Minuteman-built fence — before making any rulings, she said.

But the national executive director of the Minutemen, Huachuca City resident Al Garza, said the county’s efforts were little more than a scare tactic. He said the barrier-building program would move forward as planned.

“If the county government — and in particular, Paul Newman — think they are going to intimidate us, they are totally wrong,” he said.

“The bottom line is that we’re going to continue with the fence no matter what Paul Newman says. He’s not thinking about his constituents and he’s not thinking about border security — he’s thinking about Mexico and he’s thinking about illegal immigrants.”

Still, Garza said that if necessary, his group would petition the county for a permit to build the Israeli-style barrier — a design featuring two parallel 12- to 15-foot fences flanked by anti-vehicle ditches and 8 feet of concertina wire.

Attempts to reach Newman were unsuccessful.

The first of the county’s letters, addressed to Mesquite Ridge resident Dick Hodges and signed by Anderson, was sent Thursday afternoon.

“(I)t appears that the proposed fence will serve an agricultural purpose, similar to the fence constructed by the Minutemen on Jack Ladd’s ranch,” the letter reads. “Based on this information, pursuant to Arizona law, the fence is exempt from county zoning regulations.”

But should the fence be more extensive in nature, the letter continues, Hodges would need to contact the county to discuss possible permitting requirements.

Anderson said her office had spoken in person with Hodges’ son before sending the letter, and received assurances if a Minuteman fence were built at the family ranch, it would be of a typical farm variety. But Hodges told the Herald/Review that plans for the fence had changed since that discussion.

Even so, he thought any differences could be worked out.

“I’m not going to do anything against the county,” he said. “But at the same time, the county hasn’t done a lot for me, either.”

Anderson said she and Newman still were trying to identify the owner of the second property.

In April, Simcox announced the Minutemen would begin building an Israeli-style barrier on private land along the Arizona border in hopes of inspiring a similar effort by the federal government.

But the Ladds, later identified as the owners of the land, rejected the design of the barrier, saying they preferred a smaller, reinforced barbed-wire fence that would keep out Mexican cattle and stop drive-throughs from occurring. The Minutemen said they would change their plans to respect the Ladds’ wishes.

At a groundbreaking ceremony on Memorial Day weekend, a spokeswoman said an estimated 350 volunteers would construct 10 miles of the scaled-down range fence.

Two weeks later, however, the Minutemen acknowledged they had hired a contractor to finish the project. And while the group’s leaders said the move had been made to ensure quality control, some who had observed the effort suggested it was due to a lack of volunteers.

Critics have long asserted that the group inflates its membership numbers.

In the press release issued last week, the Minutemen said that after the next barrier is installed in Arizona, they will build additional fences in Texas, California and New Mexico. The release said more than 1,500 people had already volunteered to help.

The group also said it had hired two fencing companies to run the work sites and coordinate volunteer construction crews. Teams of four to 10 volunteers under the guidance of professional fence contractors would be able to install as much as three miles of fence in a week, the statement said.

The Minutemen had not yet determined the exact location of the next Arizona fence, Garza said Friday. But he confirmed the group was focusing on the area east of Naco.

[Soldier4Christ]

Schwarzenegger ripped as 'part of the problem'
Tom Tancredo attacks California governor for encouraging illegals, not securing border

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is "part of the problem" of illegal immigration into the United States.

That according to Rep. Tom Tancredo, a fellow Republican, who blasted Schwarzenegger's reluctance to secure the California-Mexico border with additional National Guard troops, despite such a request from President Bush.

Appearing on "The Big Story" on the Fox News Channel, the Colorado congressman and author of the just-released book "In Mortal Danger" was asked by host Julie Banderas, "What do you think about Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger not upholding the president's wishes?"

"I'm very disappointed in it, of course," responded Tancredo.

"Disappointed in the fact that you have a state where there's a lot of complaints, a lot of concerns, a lot of expenses that they are incurring as a result of massive numbers of illegal immigrants entering into them. In a way, if they won't help us solve the problem, then they're part of the problem, and I would say that Arnold Schwarzenegger is becoming part of the problem; because, frankly, when the state is offering a whole lot of incentives – in a way, social-service benefits and a number of other things that will entice people into the state – and then turns to the president and says, 'But I won't help you keep those borders secure,' well, then as I say, he's part of the problem."

The Golden State has already committed to sending 1,000 troops to the border, but rejected a White House request for 1,500 more to cover expected shortfalls in the numbers dispatched by Arizona and New Mexico.

Adam Mendelsohn, a spokesman for Schwarzenegger, pointed out California is leading all others in providing troops, and that shortfalls from elsewhere are not his state'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."

Tancredo also said the American public is clamoring for current immigration laws on the books to be enforced.

"It's what the people of this country want," he said. "They're asking their elected representatives and their senators to enforce the law, and all I want is for the Senate now to follow the House's lead in doing just that, and I want them to do so in a bipartisan fashion."

Since launching his book last week, Tancredo has appeared on Fox News' "Hannity & Colmes" and "Dayside," MSNBC's "The Situation with Tucker Carlson," CNN's Lou Dobbs and other major media.

On "Hannity & Colmes," Tancredo, who serves as chairman of the House Immigration Reform Caucus, came out swinging: "Mexico is aiding and abetting an invasion of this country," he said. "In fact, they are creating situations along that border, using their own military, to protect drug trafficking into the United States, pushing their own people into the United States for a variety of reasons. It is an invasion."

And on "Your World with Neil Cavuto," host Neil Cavuto even suggested Tancredo's strong track record on the immigration issue might propel him into the presidency: "Illegals coming into America are sure to be front and center in the next presidential election here. And Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo certainly knows it. He owns this issue. And straw polls show that, if he were to run for president, he just might well be president."

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Immigration agents seeing increasing assaults in western Arizona

SAN LUIS, Ariz. Immigrant smugglers are becoming more violent in their attempts to sneak their customers past this fortified stretch of border with Mexico.
Some Border Patrol trucks have metal grates to protect against rock-throwing smugglers, who are either frustrated with tighter security or hope to make agents back off.

The Border Patrol's Yuma sector, which includes San Luis, is on pace to exceed the 123 assaults on agents reported last fiscal year.

The business of immigrant smuggling has become more dangerous as the high profits of human trafficking prompt violent drug smugglers to get into the immigrant business.

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U.S. President George Bush is reportedly leaning more to a House bill on immigration reform that involves incremental steps rather than an all-at-once approach.

House hearings began Wednesday and will continue to travel throughout the country through the summer before a conference committee convenes to work out differences in House and Senate immigration bills.

So far, Bush had shown support for the Senate version, which calls for more physical border security, as well as a guest worker program that had provisions for eventual citizenship.

The House version is stricter, and calls for deportations and has no guest worker provision.

Now, The New York Times said Republicans believe Bush is leaning more to the stricter measure.

Candi Wolff, White House director of legislative affairs, told the Times Bush is looking at the idea that guest worker and citizenship programs would be triggered when specific border security goals had been met, a process that could take two years.

Bush has said it is impractical to deport as many as 12 million people living illegally in the country. Many of them have been in the country for decades and have U.S.-born children.

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Dueling hearings bring out immigration passions


SAN DIEGO - Congressional leaders took their incendiary debate over border security and immigration reform on the road Wednesday, hearing both sides of the issue from both sides of the country.

Outside a rural U.S. Border Patrol station near the Mexican border where a House subcommittee was holding its field hearing, hundreds of demonstrators rallied with American flags and signs reading "deport all illegals." A lesser number called for more compassionate immigration reform.

Inside, law enforcement officials pleaded for more money, technology and personnel to get a better handle on border security.

"It is out of control - we do not have control over the border," Rick Flores, sheriff of Webb County, Texas, said after describing a recent two-hour gun battle with drug runners near the border town of Laredo.

Calling his county was a "war zone" that was "ripe for a terrorist pipeline," Flores told the Congress members, "We need your help."

In Philadelphia, meanwhile, Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York told a separate field hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee that illegal immigrants are economically indispensable.

"Although they broke the law by illegally crossing our borders," he said, "our city's economy would be a shell of itself had they not, and it would collapse if they were deported," Bloomberg said. "The same holds true for the nation."

Wednesday's hearings are the first of several planned by Congress as it tries to hammer out a compromise on the complex and intertwined issues. On Friday, House members hold another session in Laredo.

The two chambers have crafted sharply different approaches.

The House has approved a bill that calls for tougher immigration enforcement, the construction of hundreds of miles of fencing along the border with Mexico, and no provisions for illegal immigrants already in the country.

The Senate has passed a bill that would include a "guest worker" program for illegal residents and provisions to make it easier for immigrants to become U.S. citizens.

President Bush favors the Senate plan, although he is under growing pressure by some leading Republicans to reconsider his opposition to the tougher House measure.

On Wednesday, Bush visited a Dunkin Donuts store in Alexandria, Va. to publicize his stance.

He said the store, owned and managed by legal immigrants from Iran and El Salvador, uses a voluntary government program called "Basic Pilot" to ensure it doesn't hire illegal immigrants.

While commending the owners for using the program, Bush reiterated his opposition to any mass deportations.

"We're not going to be able to deport people who've been here working hard and raising their families," he said.

Though congressional leaders have said they want a comprehensive immigration and border security bill soon, Wednesday's hearings illustrated how far apart the lawmakers still are.

Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., used the San Diego session to chastise the Bush administration and Republicans who back the House measure.

"Six years of total control in Washington, and an uncontrolled border," said Sherman. He called the hearing a Republican "dog and pony show" with "really ugly dogs and really mangy ponies."

In Philadelphia, Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., said proponents of the House measure should stop trying to "demonize the 12 million undocumented immigrants" already in the country, and indicated that his allies in the Senate aren't willing to accept a bill that focuses only on enforcement.

"We are strongly committed to pointing out that unfortunate mistake in the House legislation," Kennedy said.

Other officials defended the House's tough approach.

"As a former judge in Texas ... I believe in the word of the law, and the law is that it is illegal to come into the United States without permission," Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, said in San Diego. "That includes everybody."

Mayor Louis J. Barletta of Hazelton, Pa., told the Senate hearing, "We must dig deep into the city's accounts to pay for illegal immigrants, while illegal immigrants do not pay their fair share of taxes, either to the city, the county, the state or the country."

The House members were warned by police officials and others, however, that simple solutions might not address the complex problem.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca said that 26 percent of all inmates in his jails are illegal immigrants and that illegals are behind much of his county's notorious gang activity.

"The circumstances are severe in L.A. County," he said.

Yet Baca added that he also realizes the economic importance of illegal immigrant workers, and said the nation couldn't build enough jails to incarcerate all the illegal immigrants or their employers.

San Diego County Sheriff Bill Kolender testified that Congress needs to do more than build fences and deport illegal immigrants.

"This is never going to be solved unless we develop a (better) relationship with Mexico," he said, sparking a chorus of boos from many of the approximately 100 public attendees.

Some, like Santa Ana, Calif. resident Lupe Moreno, complained about crimes by illegal immigrants.

"Now we have so many illegals here that they think they have the right to break our laws," Moreno said, wearing a button with a photo of a police officer slain by an illegal immigrant.

Like many, Moreno has a unique perspective on immigration. Her father immigrated to California legally under a post-World War II government worker program and did everything from picking cotton to cutting timber. He later married a woman from Texas, she said.

Moreno, who in June lost a bid for the California Assembly running mainly on an anti-immigration platform, said illegal immigrants also are taking resources such as education and health care away from American citizens. She blamed Congress for many of the problems.

"Congress isn't doing its job," she said. But "thank God at least they're finally starting to talk about it."

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2 1/2 miles of Minuteman fencing completed, more planned

With 2 1/2 miles of border fencing along one Arizona ranch completed, the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps plans to build a stronger security fence several miles east.

Connie Hair, a spokeswoman for the group, which opposes illegal immigration, said Wednesday that construction of vehicle barriers will start soon on the first fence project, headed by contractor Peter Kunz.

An 800-foot section of the five-strand barbed wire fencing constructed on the ranch owned by Jack Ladd and his son, John, had to be restrung after vandals cut the wire strand-by-strand within about 4 inches of each support post, Hair said.

After construction began on Memorial Day weekend and continued for a few weeks, organizers decided to switch to a contractor to complete the job to maintain quality control and because of a shortage of volunteers.

The Ladds made it clear before the project started that they wanted a barbed wire fence built to keep Mexican livestock off their pastures, not a stronger, more impregnable fence to keep people off the land, even though they oppose illegal immigration.

"The sheriff's office told us that whoever cut it down came from our side of the border. There were no tracks coming from Mexico," Hair said.

"The people who cut it were professionals ... and were wearing heavy work boots. They cut it by hand, dismantled it by hand."

Cochise County Sheriff's officials did not return calls immediately seeking comment on their investigation.

Since the repair, local-area Minuteman members have been conducting round-the-clock patrols along the 2 1/2 miles of completed fence, Hair said.

The Ladds' ranch in all includes nearly 10 miles of the border with Mexico near Naco and Palominas, and plans for building similar fencing along the rest of it have been delayed.

But the Minutemen plan to start putting in vehicle barriers along the section already completed, Hair said.

That decision came after determining that the National Guard, which is reinforcing the dirt-and-gravel border road used by the Border Patrol, will not be extending vehicle barriers along the Naco border wall, she said.

Hair had no details on Israeli-style security fencing and trenches planned on another ranch farther east.

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How Eisenhower solved illegal border crossings from Mexico

WASHINGTON – George W. Bush isn't the first Republican president to face a full-blown immigration crisis on the US-Mexican border.

Fifty-three years ago, when newly elected Dwight Eisenhower moved into the White House, America's southern frontier was as porous as a spaghetti sieve. As many as 3 million illegal migrants had walked and waded northward over a period of several years for jobs in California, Arizona, Texas, and points beyond.

President Eisenhower cut off this illegal traffic. He did it quickly and decisively with only 1,075 United States Border Patrol agents - less than one-tenth of today's force. The operation is still highly praised among veterans of the Border Patrol.

Although there is little to no record of this operation in Ike's official papers, one piece of historic evidence indicates how he felt. In 1951, Ike wrote a letter to Sen. William Fulbright (D) of Arkansas. The senator had just proposed that a special commission be created by Congress to examine unethical conduct by government officials who accepted gifts and favors in exchange for special treatment of private individuals.

General Eisenhower, who was gearing up for his run for the presidency, said "Amen" to Senator Fulbright's proposal. He then quoted a report in The New York Times, highlighting one paragraph that said: "The rise in illegal border-crossing by Mexican 'wetbacks' to a current rate of more than 1,000,000 cases a year has been accompanied by a curious relaxation in ethical standards extending all the way from the farmer-exploiters of this contraband labor to the highest levels of the Federal Government."

Years later, the late Herbert Brownell Jr., Eisenhower's first attorney general, said in an interview with this writer that the president had a sense of urgency about illegal immigration when he took office.

America "was faced with a breakdown in law enforcement on a very large scale," Mr. Brownell said. "When I say large scale, I mean hundreds of thousands were coming in from Mexico [every year] without restraint."

Although an on-and-off guest-worker program for Mexicans was operating at the time, farmers and ranchers in the Southwest had become dependent on an additional low-cost, docile, illegal labor force of up to 3 million, mostly Mexican, laborers.

According to the Handbook of Texas Online, published by the University of Texas at Austin and the Texas State Historical Association, this illegal workforce had a severe impact on the wages of ordinary working Americans. The Handbook Online reports that a study by the President's Commission on Migratory Labor in Texas in 1950 found that cotton growers in the Rio Grande Valley, where most illegal aliens in Texas worked, paid wages that were "approximately half" the farm wages paid elsewhere in the state.

Profits from illegal labor led to the kind of corruption that apparently worried Eisenhower. Joseph White, a retired 21-year veteran of the Border Patrol, says that in the early 1950s, some senior US officials overseeing immigration enforcement "had friends among the ranchers," and agents "did not dare" arrest their illegal workers.

Walt Edwards, who joined the Border Patrol in 1951, tells a similar story. He says: "When we caught illegal aliens on farms and ranches, the farmer or rancher would often call and complain [to officials in El Paso]. And depending on how politically connected they were, there would be political intervention. That is how we got into this mess we are in now."

Bill Chambers, who worked for a combined 33 years for the Border Patrol and the then-called US Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), says politically powerful people are still fueling the flow of illegals.

During the 1950s, however, this "Good Old Boy" system changed under Eisenhower - if only for about 10 years.

In 1954, Ike appointed retired Gen. Joseph "Jumpin' Joe" Swing, a former West Point classmate and veteran of the 101st Airborne, as the new INS commissioner.

Influential politicians, including Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson (D) of Texas and Sen. Pat McCarran (D) of Nevada, favored open borders, and were dead set against strong border enforcement, Brownell said. But General Swing's close connections to the president shielded him - and the Border Patrol - from meddling by powerful political and corporate interests.

One of Swing's first decisive acts was to transfer certain entrenched immigration officials out of the border area to other regions of the country where their political connections with people such as Senator Johnson would have no effect.

Then on June 17, 1954, what was called "Operation Wetback" began. Because political resistance was lower in California and Arizona, the roundup of aliens began there. Some 750 agents swept northward through agricultural areas with a goal of 1,000 apprehensions a day. By the end of July, over 50,000 aliens were caught in the two states. Another 488,000, fearing arrest, had fled the country.

By mid-July, the crackdown extended northward into Utah, Nevada, and Idaho, and eastward to Texas.

By September, 80,000 had been taken into custody in Texas, and an estimated 500,000 to 700,000 illegals had left the Lone Star State voluntarily.

Unlike today, Mexicans caught in the roundup were not simply released at the border, where they could easily reenter the US. To discourage their return, Swing arranged for buses and trains to take many aliens deep within Mexico before being set free.

Tens of thousands more were put aboard two hired ships, the Emancipation and the Mercurio. The ships ferried the aliens from Port Isabel, Texas, to Vera Cruz, Mexico, more than 500 miles south.

The sea voyage was "a rough trip, and they did not like it," says Don Coppock, who worked his way up from Border Patrolman in 1941 to eventually head the Border Patrol from 1960 to 1973.

Mr. Coppock says he "cannot understand why [President] Bush let [today's] problem get away from him as it has. I guess it was his compassionate conservatism, and trying to please [Mexican President] Vincente Fox."

There are now said to be 12 million to 20 million illegal aliens in the US. Of the Mexicans who live here, an estimated 85 percent are here illegally.